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ProLabs testbeds show commitment to quality control and industry adherence

The equipment complies to the highest standards and is tested to resist maximum temperature, vibration and humidity in order to keep communication lines operational.

Johannesburg, 12 Feb 2020
Marcel Fouché
Marcel Fouché

ProLabs, a global leader in optical networking infrastructure, is completely invested in the quality of its networking components. To this end, the company’s testbed investment demonstrates its dedication to ensuring that its network components work seamlessly and according to industry specifications.

This is according to Marcel Fouché, networking and storage general manager at value-added distributor Networks Unlimited Africa, which distributes ProLabs in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Fouché says: “As the world continues with its exponential creation and consumption of data, the demand for bandwidth continues to be a race between consumers’ appetites and providers’ best efforts to supply it. Quality testing is a key part of this provision.

“We only have to think of the recent breaks in the undersea cables, the South Atlantic 3/West Africa Submarine Cable (SAT3/WASC) and the West African Cable System (WACS), which are deployed in the Atlantic Ocean and connect South Africa and many other African countries to Europe, to understand how precarious our communications network can be. And this applies from the ‘macro’ level of a submarine fibre-optic cable to the micro-environment of switches.”

Fouché clarifies that a testbed is an environment created for testing equipment. 

“Testbeds accurately simulate the intended environment to make sure that a device will meet quality standards,” he says. “A proper testbed for a third-party original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and compatible optics supplier requires significant capital resources in order to commit to quality assurance. All ProLabs products are rigorously tested and coded to ensure the highest levels of performance as networks continue with their ongoing and rapid expansion.”

ProLabs has invested in its quality control as follows:

  • The organisation has over 350 switches in its laboratory (lab) facility; a comprehensive equipment inventory.
  • Each device is coded and tested in the intended application, and within the intended switch environment, to test speed, distance and power.
  • ProLabs Data Traveler System provides thorough documentation for every device as regards testing parameters and results.
  • ProLabs' reliability rating is 99.98%.
  • The lab facility is open to visitors on appointment.

Fouché concludes: “In an age when connectivity continues to expand to meet the ever-increasing appetite for bandwidth, providers are doing their best to maximise existing infrastructures, which currently includes connecting dissimilar networks. This is because old infrastructures still exist, requiring the need to integrate new infrastructures with ageing equipment. 

“In such a complex network environment, quality testing is of critical importance. Equipment must be compliant to the highest standards, and tested to resist such external factors as maximum temperature, vibration and humidity in order to keep communication lines seamlessly operational.”

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Networks Unlimited Africa

Networks Unlimited Africa is a value-added distributor, offering the best and latest solutions within the converged technology, data centre, networking, and security landscapes. The company distributes best-of-breed products, including Altaro, Attivo Networks, Carbon Black, Cofense, Fortinet, F5, Hitachi Vantara, Indegy, Mellanox Technologies, NETSCOUT, ProLabs, RSA, Rubrik, SevOne, Silver Peak, Tintri by DDN and Uplogix.

Our product portfolio provides cutting edge solutions from the network edge to the data centre, and addresses key areas such as cybersecurity in the IT/OT space, hybrid cloud, datacentre and infrastructure, networking and integration, SD-WAN solutions, network performance management and application performance management, application delivery networking and load balancing, DataOps management and data management, and backup and recovery solutions. Most of our solutions are highly regarded by Gartner and will be found on their respective magic quadrants.

Since its formation in 1994, Networks Unlimited Africa has continually adapted to today's progressively competitive and evolving marketplace, and has reaped the benefits by being a leading value-added distributor (VAD) within the Sub-Saharan Africa market.