Web Africa leads vendor-neutral data move

Web Africa is the first traditional Internet service provider (ISP) to move into the vendor-neutral data centre, Teraco. The world-class hosting facility is the first of its kind in South Africa, and is expected to bring a host of benefits to the ISP.

Matthew Tagg, MD of Web Africa, says two elements are central to the benefits: the first is vendor neutrality, and the second is the fact that Teraco is in a class of its own in terms of data centre hosting in SA.

“Vendor-neutrality means that redundancy and reliability are greatly enhanced,” he says. “Because Teraco hosts a number of carriers, we are not limited to a single provider, should their network fail. This means guaranteed uptime and better performance for our customers.”

For Web Africa, it also means significant reductions in its support load, translating into business efficiencies for the company.

In addition, vendor-neutrality enables Web Africa to pick and choose the type of services it needs from different providers, for example. “You don't need to move to a whole new location in order to benefit from better pricing or service from a particular vendor - it is all under one roof and we therefore have greater flexibility,” he says.

According to Tagg, Teraco is a world-class data centre, offering the ISP improved facilities, including security, power redundancy, cooling systems, as well as the space to scale its operations effectively.

“Security is a primary focus,” he says. “There is comprehensive perimeter and building security, biometric verification, continuous camera surveillance and other stringent security measures to ensure that our data is well protected. Teraco also has built-in redundancy in the event of power outages, ensuring that our services are not affected.”

Because of its quality facilities, which include efficient cooling systems, Web Africa is able to benefit from higher server densities. This offers the ISP the opportunity to scale its business effectively, while minimising costs. The power and cooling efficiencies also help to lower its carbon footprint and offer a more eco-friendly solution.

“We are delighted to welcome Web Africa into the fold,” says Tim Parsonson, CEO of Teraco. “Web Africa is a leader in the hosting industry and is growing at a rapid rate. We look forward to supporting their growth.”

The ISP has over 30 000 subscribers and is known to be the second largest Web hosting company in South Africa. It is estimated to account for about 6% of Telkom's ADSL business, and its server growth rate is approximately 15% month-on-month.

“Moving to Teraco will enable us to growth and scale our business more effectively,” says Tagg. “We are delighted to be leading the charge to vendor-neutrality in the ISP space. Top-quality service has always been our core focus and we believe the move will increase our capability in this area. Teraco is a pioneer in the local market and is therefore an ideal partner for us.”