In its role as the first and only channel supplier of the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) NonStop solution locally, Datacentrix is cementing its dedication to this position by providing greater support to customers, as well as bolstering the South African non-stop community.
“The HPE NonStop solution provides users with a converged infrastructure on its own that includes hardware (servers, storage and network), and operating system, database, middleware and services, offering fault tolerant, always available, secure computing,” explains Piet Steenkamp, HPE NonStop pre-sales at Datacentrix.

“HPE NonStop is well established as an offering at an international level, but has a smaller user base in South Africa, one that is more focused on the financial services industry. Datacentrix is actively working on expanding and broadening this to other sectors that could benefit from this excellent technology.”

In line with this goal, Datacentrix recently handpicked 30 customers, including telecommunications, retail and manufacturing representatives, to attend an event at which international HPE NonStop experts discussed the solution’s availability, scalability and cost-effective advantages. In addition, BankservAfrica, Africa’s largest automated clearing house and a long-time HPE NonStop advocate, spoke on its dedication to building HPE NonStop capacity locally.

Says Steenkamp: “BankservAfrica took the opportunity at our event to inform attendees of its intention to offer a NonStop-as-a-Service solution to smaller local businesses. The organisation plans to use its state of the art datacentre, based in Selby, Johannesburg, to provide other businesses with the benefits of a public cloud in a protected private cloud environment – with the assistance of both HPE and Datacentrix.

“Our plan is to double the local HPE NonStop user base over the next three years, and we believe that this offering from BankservAfrica will be a massive catalyst in this development,” he adds.

With a long-term view of building a strong, skilled HPE NonStop community, Datacentrix has already appointed several interns, who are undergoing intensive HPE NonStop training. The interns will be based onsite at the premises of local customers, says Steenkamp, receiving both training and practical experience over the next year. “By establishing this practice, we are taking a strong step towards building a greater local HPE NonStop support structure in southern Africa and into Africa, while also helping to develop specialised skills locally.”