Telecommunications specialist Jasco Networks has partnered with infrastructure services provider UCOMS to deliver an innovative new Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) solution through a joint venture known as the Secure Vault Services Centre (SVS-C).
The SVS-C, based in the secure environment of Teraco’s data centre in Isando, Johannesburg, offers specialised ICT solutions to small to medium business (SMB) and to Enterprises by aggregating a variety of cloud-based and hosted applications to securely deliver utility services to customers throughout Africa.

“Over the past few years, South Africa has benefitted from substantial investments in international and terrestrial optic fibre and wireless broadband infrastructures. These have paved the way for the delivery of new, secure and innovative customer-centric services.

“We recognised a need in the market for secure, services portfolio driven-solutions, and the SVS-C addresses this need. Customers can select services that meet their business needs, and we will configure a unique portfolio that has been tailored to meet these requirements.

“Customers subscribe to these services on a monthly basis, giving them the freedom to change and grow as the market and their business demands,” says Benjamin Mouton, MD of UCOMS.

Through the provisioning of aggregated carrier-neutral connectivity, access capacity and broadband transit to and from the Jasco/UCOMS platform within the Teraco secure environment, the SVS-C offers a full spectrum of services.

These include the secure hosting of servers, IP telephony, managed services and satellite earth station hosting, automated data backup and recovery, cloud brokerage as a service, security as a service and many other ICT utility services.

The SVS-C also provides customers with secure single sign on-access management, Intellectual Property (IP) protection, secure management of identity and individual privacy, and reduced risk though the effective use of Privilege Identity Management.

The SVS-C is a single point of entry to aggregated services built on a secure platform jointly developed by Jasco Networks and UCOMS Services. This platform is based on class-leading virtualisation technologies from VMware, operating on a best-of-breed server platform backed by high-speed and resilient solid state storage and switching technology.

Bringing together UCOMS’ expertise as a specialised services provider in Africa and Jasco’s extensive experience as provider of open access ICT and communication solutions, the SVS-C is a unique offering in the market.

“Our partnership with UCOMS combines, within the SVS-Centre, Jasco’s ability to deliver class-leading communication requirements with UCOMS’ market experience and insight into customer infrastructure solutions.

“Together we are able to deliver a wide range of tailor-made quality services that meet the growing demand by leading enterprises for a wide range of ICT services, securely and reliably, from a single infrastructure platform,” says Eckart Zollner, business development manager, Jasco.

With a wide range of solutions to choose from, or tailor-made, both Jasco and UCOMS customers will benefit from improved economies of scale, enhanced efficiencies and cost savings.

Delivered on a “pay-per-use” model, the SVS-C services remove the need for costly capital investment, instead enabling organisations to take advantage of new services for a fixed, predictable monthly fee from a single source and services provider.

The SVS-C also ensures the highest levels of security, addressing one of the biggest concerns around the cloud and making cloud services and applications a reality for a wide range of customers throughout Africa.

The SVS-C joint venture between Jasco and UCOMS became operational at the beginning of September 2013.