At an industry brand rollout, UUNET SA recently demonstrated its range and depth of new technologies and services as South Africa`s premier corporate Internet network service provider.
UUNET SA decided at the end of 1998, as e-business and corporate usage of the Internet grew in momentum, to refocus its Internet service provision business on the corporate networking arena.
Currently, UUNET SA serves the corporate networking needs of more than 500 companies, including CNA, Eskom, Govnet, Investec, M-Web, South African Airways, SA Breweries and Standard Bank of SA. UUNET also locally hosts a server for Digital Island, one the major global hosting companies.
Addressing guests at the event, UUNET SA sales director Justin Colyn said: "UUNET has a superior corporate pedigree in the network provision industry in this country and an exceptional infrastructure - both of which provide us with unrivalled scope for responsiveness to customer networking needs." In gearing up to meet the needs of its corporate customers, UUNET SA has introduced a suite of new technologies and services.
As a provider of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) - which give customers private, secure access to a shared or public network infrastructure - UUNET SA is the country`s only Cisco Powered Network (CPN). Certification by Cisco, the world`s preferred network equipment provider, automatically places UUNET SA among the top one percent of network service providers worldwide.
Also, UUNET SA is currently the only local network service provider with a Cisco ATM switched packet national backbone. Said Colyn: "This means that we have the hardware and infrastructural means to provide customers with precise guarantees as to the way in which their data traffic will move across our network and UUNET affiliated networks.
"As a result, we can give customers the option of prioritising selected elements of their data - giving them control over the way their data is handled, guaranteeing throughput and minimising delays."
UUNET SA`s bulk bandwidth acquisition strategy means that customer bandwidth access can be increased on demand. It also enables the service provider to offer a premium Committed Information Rate (CIR) service, ensuring that specific bandwidth is available to specific customers at all times.
In addition, UUNET SA`s new Virtual Private Dial-up Network (VPDN) service allows customers to give authorised remote workers dial-in access directly to their corporate network - boosting productivity for remote workers.
"We have packaged vast local and global experience, international reach and influence, world class, cutting edge hardware and systems, unmatched levels of redundancy and reliability, exceptional access to instantly scalable bandwidth and guaranteed quality of service into a single customer solution. That sort of package - backed by experienced, committed and qualified people - is unique in the highly fragmented local industry," said Colyn. He pointed out that UUNET SA`s local parent company, Datatec - South Africa`s fastest growing IT services company - owns a telecommunications licence in the USA. This allows UUNET to give customers a wide range of long-distance telecommunications options.
Through its global parent, MCI WorldCom - the world`s largest independent telecommunications enterprise - UUNET SA has access to world class telecommunications infrastructure spanning 40 countries and all continents.
And through MCI WorldCom subsidiary, UUNET Technologies, the SA company has access to more than a decade of experience in commercial Internet network provision.
UUNET SA also has a strategic alliance with telecommunications giant Global One, giving it point-to-point connectivity to 2 100 cities world-wide, ensuring speed, reliability and security of access for customers.
In addition, an international 34 Mbps satellite service has just been delivered to UUNET SA. This terminates in both Cape Town and Johannesburg, increasing the flexibility of the way in which UUNET SA delivers bandwidth to its customers. Said Colyn: "We want to deliver bandwidth where our customers want it. Ours is the first installation in South Africa where no changes to the satellite infrastructure are needed to change the destination of the bandwidth. This ensures a seamless and transparent upgrade path to meet the subsequent bandwidth requirements of our customers."
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