CipherWave gets cloud boost thanks to Nutanix

US-based Nutanix, a leader in hybrid multi-cloud computing, has announced that it has assisted South African ISP CipherWave with an upgrade to the infrastructure of CipherWave’s private cloud environment.

According to the announcement from Nutanix CipherWave selected the company on the merit of its product roadmap, view of the future of cloud computing, ease of extensibility to public cloud, and its ability to deliver a fully managed service offering that would support the ISP’s technical team.

CipherWave is a South African Tier 1 ISP offering connectivity, cloud, voice and security services, with a network footprint that connects to all major FNO and WNO networks with coverage across the country.

The company has core network POPs located at the CipherWave datacentre in Midrand, and the Teraco Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban data centres. CipherWave’s Tier 1 voice network has direct interconnects with all the major Tier 1 voice value-added service and mobile network operators.

CipherWave’s cloud offering is built inside its own Tier 2 data centre in Johannesburg, with dual dark fibre links to its disaster recovery site hosted in Teraco Isando, with direct interconnects into all major public clouds.

The company’s security services include email, firewalls, endpoint and server protection and its clients extend across all vertical industries, ranging from small businesses looking for a private cloud through to multi-branch multinationals needing to connect multiple sites, offices, and facilities.

“When we identify partners that are a good fit for our business, we always align to market-leading technologies and partners. It’s a methodology we apply right across our technology stack,” says Wayne D’sa, CEO at CipherWave.

“Nutanix offered a modern approach to infrastructure, the managed services we needed, and the assurance that they could emulate and even better the success of our existing cloud at an uncontested cost.”

According to CipherWave, the need to refresh the infrastructure supporting its private cloud was multifaceted; firstly, it wanted to modernise the environment for its own needs and answer the calls of its reseller partners for a private cloud or virtual datacentre environment they could self-manage and build solutions around to on-sell to their own customers.

It also says the company has seen a growing need amongst customers for DRaaS services, hybrid cloud solutions, offsite backups and data replication services, and interest in its IaaS offerings – all of which Nutanix said it could support.

“Nutanix just made sense,” adds D’sa. “They deliver on our partner’s need to have a cloud environment that supports a multi-cloud approach and directly interfaces with a private cloud like AWS or Azure and their SaaS products. It’s really a solution that integrates into any cloud, and it is one we can bolt our own services, for example, our extended security portfolio.”

Another major factor supporting CipherWave’s move was its ability to maintain the flexible cloud pricing it offers clients, as the Nutanix environment doesn’t add any additional complexity to these structures.

To date, CipherWave’s customers have migrated to the new environment without any disruption to their operations.

D’sa says the data migration has been so seamless for clients that it’s been a case of moving houses without realising your furniture is already in your new home.

“It has been an incredible journey we have walked with CipherWave. The company knows exactly what they are after in a partner and are always thinking about tomorrow – making the need for a scalable and reliable infrastructure a top priority. I am looking forward to the future this partnership will yield and the new markets that CipherWave is looking to grow its cloud into,” says Rowen Grierson, Sales Director Sub-Saharan Africa, Nutanix. IT News Africa