Australia: home of massive marsupials, the Sydney Opera House, and of course half of all South Africans.
Apart from being SA's arch-enemy in the Tri Nations, Australia is also an important business partner, with an economy which can often be used to make predictions regarding trends in our own.
For this reason, many South African companies and individuals do business with Australia, and naturally in today's world, getting your data to a business partner is a non-negotiable, critical aspect of doing business.
Australia's time difference relative to South Africa (Sydney is nine hours ahead of SA) means that it is more difficult to make telephone calls and video conferences since our business days do not match.
This places an increased reliance on data connectivity since business can be conducted by e-mail at the times most convenient to both parties, and without both having to be present in the same conversation. In addition to e-mail, many SA companies now operate branches (or mines, or stores) in Australia, but with core systems based in SA. This makes secure and reliable connectivity a must.
IS's business is about delivering the connectivity discussed above. IS makes use of several undersea fibre systems to ensure clients are able to route internationally in the most effective manner possible.
While IS's connectivity to Hong Kong, and thereafter to Australia for the clients that require it, is not the bulk of the IS bandwidth (London and the US are the dominant routes), the SA - Hong Kong - Australia route is the most efficient and direct means of getting clients' data to and from South Africa. A bit like flying first class, really.
The undersea cables that connect the tip of Africa to the rest of the world allow converged communications providers, such as IS, to effectively plan their networks so clients can rely on IS for a "go anywhere" solution, which provides robust and reliable Internet access, network connectivity, and other network services.
And it's cheaper and faster (and less exhausting) than that long flight.
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Internet Solutions (IS) has transformed its business model and become a leading converged communications service provider in South Africa.
The business was founded on the principle of developing a robust infrastructure in order for corporates and other organisations to conduct e-business. Over the past 13 years IS has established itself as a leader in this space, attracting over 80% of South Africa's top businesses as clients.
From listed companies to NGOs, local and national government and smaller companies, IS is delivering solutions to meet the business needs of hundreds of customers, including the appointment by the State Information Technology Agency to provide the national and provincial governments with Internet services.
During its 13-year lifespan IS has evolved and grown its service offerings. Today, the company is the leading hosting service provider and security service provider in South Africa, as well as having significant market share in the virtual private network, mobile solutions, VOIS, African solutions and application service provider space.
Internet Solutions, with an Empowerdex BBB rating, has earned an impressive collection of accolades, including eight First National Bank "Most Admired" awards, two Financial Mail "Best Company to Work For" awards, a place in the Top Unlisted Company Awards, first place in the ISP category for ComputerWeek Strategist's Best of Breed IT Awards - 2004, and eighth in the Top ICT Companies, 2005.
The company partners with major players such as Cisco, Microsoft, Oracle, BT and AT&T, and in 2002 was certified as a Cisco managed security service provider, the first and only company outside of the US to be awarded this accolade.
Internet Solutions was recently awarded Microsoft gold certification in the hosting specialisation for hosted messaging and collaboration (Hosted Exchange and SharePoint) and managed hosting solutions - the first South African company to achieve this accreditation. For more information, visit www.is.co.za.
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