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Fixed Mobile Telecoms believes that no CIO deserves a sleepless night, which is why they’ve made it their purpose to offer clients the future of networking, today.
Leading workplace solutions company Adcorp is one of the clients who’ve chosen Fixed Mobile Telecoms’ fully managed, next generation networking solution for exactly this reason.
As a company that delivers resourcing, outsourcing, training and consulting services to a large range of customers across Southern Africa and Australia, Adcorp needed a fully managed, next generation networking solution, specifically to take the business into the future, with cloud migration, cyber security, mobility, and agility as primary business drivers.
Adcorp’s challenges
Adcorp’s legacy network, spanning more than 80 branches and including a combination of fibre, wireless and ADSL services, was no longer sufficient to support the company’s requirements as they transitioned services into the cloud.
Adcorp’s telephony was also delivered over numerous platforms including VoIP and traditional fixed line services which made it difficult to manage.
The disparate nature of the services also made cost management and invoicing to the various business units arduous.
Fixed Mobile Telecoms’ proposition and how it stood out from other solutions
To address this challenge, Fixed Mobile Telecoms proposed a fully managed, next generation networking solution that covered Adcorp’s future state network and voice requirements at competitive pricing.
“We were impressed with both the solution performance but notably with the service and engagement we received from the Fixed Mobile Telecoms team. As a result, we have found a reliable connectivity partner in them, and are confident that they will support us into the future,” said Pete Aling, Chief Information Officer at Adcorp.
While the proposition is not a typical overlay SD-WAN solution, it still offers a software-defined next generation network with ease of management, guaranteed performance, complete agility and excellent value for money.
Having a dedicated MPLS network at a typical broadband price-point also allowed Adcorp to increase bandwidth to most sites while offering direct site Internet breakout that is separate from MPLS and datacentre traffic to ensure performance. “This was key as most services going forward will be cloud based,” said Aling.
“The added security offerings as well as their hosted voice offering means we have a single vendor managing the Internet, Firewall, WAN and Voice performance end-to-end, which has greatly simplified operations management.”
The value in partnering with Fixed Mobile Telecoms
Further to this, in the past many of Adcorp’s smaller branches have less than 10 users and could not justify the cost of true MPLS over fibre or wireless; therefore, they had chosen to remain on ADSL lines. This led to poor performance as well as increased downtime as Telkom reduced support of the ADSL product.
The price point of Fixed Mobile’s offering allowed these branches to move to a 10Mbps fibre ports and reap the benefits of a business class service that could run a hosted voice solution.
Larger branches could afford redundant links and could upgrade their bandwidth without the linear increase in costs experienced on the traditional MPLS offering.
The bandwidth allocated to each service can be adjusted on the fly, which means that as services move from our datacentre to the cloud, they can be adjusted as required.
Migrating all branches to the same voice offering has many benefits such as centralised switchboards, free internal calls and reduced outbound call costs.
“The flexible nature of the Fixed Mobile Telecoms solution means that we can scale our network on demand as our business requirements increase, and their security solution includes endpoint protection that will allow users to work from anywhere and still have protection through the managed firewall,” said Aling.
The solution for network demands of the future
Fixed Mobile Telecoms’ solution that combines all the benefits you get out of SD-WAN integrated into the network at its core level speaks to the following 8 modern network demands:
SD-WAN at the core, not layered– As with any network that is orchestrated in the cloud, Fixed Mobile Telecoms offer SD-WAN, but differently. They offer it as part of the core of their next generation network, thus removing the cost and complexity that comes with overlay technology.
MPLS – MPLS is known to be costly and therefore became less attractive than broadband infrastructure, but Fixed Mobile Telecoms has taken the price premium out of MPLS. It remains a brilliant technology from both a service provider and end-user perspective, as it provides proven, secure performance and reliability for mission critical and real-time applications. Fixed Mobile provides MPLS-as-a-service inclusive of its unique multi-services bandwidth stack.
Cost and speed– “We address the need for high speed, cost-effective direct internet access that is available to every site on a corporate network,” said Eduard du Plessis, CEO at Fixed Mobile Telecoms. “We also provide it as a direct site-based Internet breakout, completely secured by Fixed Mobile’s Digital Fortress cloud security service, which is based on Palo Alto technology.”
Cloud migration– Fixed Mobile Telecoms enables cloud migration – whether the customer wishes to move their applications to the cloud entirely, or keep the application on site or in a datacentre like Teraco or any combination thereof. “We address all these types of needs directly,” said Du Plessis.
Orchestration– Companies today demand a certain level of control, and Fixed Mobile Telecoms offers this. Orchestration talks to the manageability of the network, and Fixed Mobile Telecoms offers 4 standard services which are always available to any office branch. These services are Internet, MPLS, Layer 2 and Voice. They further offer the capability to define how much of each is needed and can change these figures dynamically and on the fly. This makes networking a breeze.
Security– There are an increasing number of security breaches reported in modern networks, especially where applications are cloud based and where networks support IoT devices. Traditional thinking around network security was to protect the ingress point where it breaks out to the Internet. Today this ingress point is undefined and everywhere, with applications in the cloud, in a datacentre, or in a server room on your own premises, with users working remotely. “We deal with network security in the cloud and address this challenge directly, and far more effectively than physical platforms that used to be deployed,” said Du Plessis.
True workforce mobility– Assuming that all users don’t work from the office, true mobility speaks to the corporate network that requires not being confined to a certain building. True mobility is having the ability to communicate back to the corporate network, or to wherever else the applications are, seamlessly. Security and mobility are integrated, and Fixed Mobile’s Digital Fortress speaks directly to this challenge.
Agility– Everybody wants increased flexibility and the ability to scale up and down with ease.
Fixed Mobile Telecoms again addresses this requirement directly through its scalable software-defined model.
Fixed Mobile Telecoms believes that the 8 network requirements are the future of networking, which is why they chose to offer that future today.
“We are a big advocate of SD-WAN, but not overlaid technology – as it creates more challenges instead of solving them, and doesn’t truly solve the issue of speed, cost, and security.” said Du Plessis
“Our unique solution sets us apart from any other telecoms provider in the market and we believe and foresee that all networks will be delivered like this in the future.”
Click here to learn more about Fixed Mobile Telecoms’ network offerings.
This article was published in partnership with Fixed Mobile Telecoms.
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