Softline Group company Ultra Network Solutions has announced what it claims is a South African first: the High Availability Network Server (HANS). Ultra says deployment of HANS can cut up to 60% of the costs of setting up and maintaining a network.
"Enterprises investing in networking infrastructure are not being made fully aware of the costs involved in maintaining and setting up a network," says West McMullin, MD at Ultra. "This is not being done deliberately, but network research and development costs are being kept out of the public eye."
McMullin says the majority of the financial outlay - 60% - of network development costs is spent on R&D, installation and maintenance, with only 40% being spent on the actual hardware itself.
"Added to this is the fact that most networks have a life of two years at most before they need to be upgraded, and then the costs of running a network rise exponentially," he says.
Ultra`s response was to develop and bring the HANS service to market. "In terms of the HANS service, a company buys only the network service, and not the hardware," McMullin continues. This entails Ultra`s installing a server which provides the full range of required network services, including Internet connectivity, e-mail, data storage, backups, on-demand data recovery, network server capability, security, data archival, management and usage reports.
The service package comes with a short-term trial period and guaranteed 98% uptime. In addition, Ultra commits to a three-hour recovery from total disaster, such as theft.
Cost savings are gained through the client`s not having to perform any of the R&D and not having to employ full-time, high-level IT personnel to maintain the system. Although the system is remotely managed and maintained, it is reinforced by a full on-site service callout. For a fixed fee, Ultra will ensure that previously agreed service levels will be met, no matter what needs to be done.
"On average, a HANS installation costs less than the salary of one full-time IT technician," McMullin says. "A company running its own network soon finds out that it has to continually spend time and financial resources in keeping the service running. What the HANS service does is cap the costs and allow for a fixed monthly IT budget."
Because the hardware is not bought, a client does not have to lay out large amounts of capital and deal with the subsequent depreciation in value and obsolescence of equipment.
"It also does away with all the hidden ancillary costs, such as support staff requirements, Internet service provision fees, backup costs and additional management report fees," McMullin says. "The server is onsite but the investment is in the network service, not the hardware."
The cost-efficiencies mean that in most cases return on investment is realised in months rather than years.
"We have invested heavily in finding the most stable and cost-effective way to provide these services, and part of the package is the value of this learning curve," concludes McMullin.
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