Global mining holding company Assore has successfully deployed VeloCloud SD-WAN technology across its wide-area network (WAN) environment with the assistance of Redvine Networks.
Assore is engaged in the mining, processing, and marketing of diverse ores, minerals, and metals. It has several mining operations across the country, and its head office in Illovo.
Previously, each site had its own legacy IT infrastructure. Assore adopted a centralised network environment This deployment required a single internet breakout point with all sites connecting internally. The company had to consolidate and decided on the VeloCloud SD-WAN solution.
“This strategic initiative, undertaken in collaboration with Redvine, marks a significant milestone in our journey towards optimising network performance and enhancing connectivity across all our operational locations, including our head office in Johannesburg,” says Marius Wentworth, IT operations manager at Assore.
The deployment of VeloCloud was planned and executed in partnership with Redvine to ensure minimal disruption to the mining group’s daily operations.
“Redvine’s expertise and support were instrumental in the seamless integration of the new technology across our sites. Their team demonstrated exceptional professionalism and technical acumen, guiding us through every step of the process from initial consultation to full implementation,” says Wentworth.
According to Mauritz Kloppers, head of enterprise architecture at Assore, the company initially appointed a different VeloCloud supplier who was unable to conduct the installation.
“We approached Redvine to architect and implement the SD-WAN according to best-practice. Redvine provided us with the support we needed to complete this mission-critical project. Thanks to their expertise, load balancing happens seamlessly on all our sites without any issues,” says Kloppers.
The VeloCloud SD-WAN solution has significantly improved network reliability thanks to automatic failover to provide the organisation with greater stability and reduced downtime. Its intelligent traffic steering has allowed Assore to make the most efficient use of its available bandwidth, especially important for the remote mining operations.
This has resulted in improved application performance and a better user experience. Furthermore, the centralised management console of VeloCloud provides the business with real-time visibility and control over its entire network, simplifying administration and troubleshooting.
Wentworth says that VeloCloud impacted the operations of Assore positively in other ways as well.
“Some of the key benefits we have experienced since Redvine’s implementation of VeloCloud include reduced latency to ensure our critical applications run more smoothly enhancing our productivity. There has also been significant cost savings due to the optimisation of our network infrastructure. Our network is now fully scalable to ensure it can meet all our future needs,” he says.