{"id":30953,"date":"2019-12-16T11:51:37","date_gmt":"2019-12-16T11:51:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/?p=30953"},"modified":"2019-12-20T09:15:35","modified_gmt":"2019-12-20T09:15:35","slug":"dni-plans-for-future-ict-capacity-and-performance-needs-with-datacentrix","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/2019\/12\/16\/dni-plans-for-future-ict-capacity-and-performance-needs-with-datacentrix\/","title":{"rendered":"DNI plans for future ICT capacity and performance needs, with Datacentrix"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

DNI, an investment company in the telecommunications and distribution sectors, has had its Johannesburg-based server room revamped thanks to Datacentrix, meaning that current capacity and performance-related challenges have been overcome. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Borne from intellectual capital in 2006, DNI began as a procurement business offering cost reduction and supply chain optimisation solutions to large corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years\nlater, the company set off to specialise in distribution and retail for the\ntelecommunications industry and its investment strategy revolves around owning\nthe route to market and customer acquisition at the retail point of purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Currently DNI\u2019s\ncompetitive advantage rests in our national reach and retail footprint\nthroughout South Africa as well as building close connections with very\nbig partners such as Cell C, Telkom, Huawei and Edcon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, its\ninfrastructure needed an urgent upgrade due to it frequently freezing, meaning\nthat users could not access the network or storage. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only that,\nbut due to the DNI\u2019s recent growth, the company\u2019s ICT infrastructure needed to\nsupport more employees with a view to expand further in the future. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur most\nimportant requirements were availability, as well as added capacity to cater\nfor the speed at which DNI is expanding,\u201d said Christiaan Jacobs, Head of IT at\nDNI. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

DNI was seeking\nrecommendations on best-of-breed products that would be a good fit for its\nbusiness and infrastructure requirements, in addition to best practice advice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Running a fairly\nlean IT division, the company also wanted to build in a level of automation and\nArtificial Intelligence (AI) for improved, proactive infrastructure management.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em><\/strong>Based on these\nrequirements, Datacentrix rolled out a hyperconverged, software-defined\nsolution catering for DNI\u2019s requirements for self-management and optimisation,\u201d\nsaid Jacobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nsolution combines storage, network and computer equipment into one chassis,\nalong with built-in management software. This includes an all-flash\nstorage array, with Artificial Intelligence capabilities\nthat can not only monitor the underlying storage arrays, but also the adjacent\ndata centre technology. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition,\nDNI wanted to automate its directory service, for automatic user account\ncreation and de-provisioning (based on non-activity), to save on these\nrepetitive, time-consuming tasks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDatacentrix\u2019\nsubmission was accepted in March 2019, not solely based on cost effectiveness,\nbut also the organisation\u2019s skills and expertise, which were an important\ncheckpoint in this tender process,\u201d explained Jacobs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHaving\nestablished a relationship with Datacentrix in my previous role, I was also\naware of the team\u2019s reliability and execution abilities, and its commitment to\nunderstanding customer environments and specific requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI worked with Datacentrix to implement a major network and wireless rollout. My experience with Datacentrix \u2013 both then and now \u2013 has been that the organisation offers sound advice, has excellent expertise, and actually listens to clients\u2019 specific requirements. It is difficult to find this level of trust when it comes to meeting the deliverables.\u201d

Since the ICT company\u2019s appointment, Datacentrix has positioned itself as a trusted advisor to DNI, having successfully implemented the new environment, which includes servers, networking equipment, rack enclosures and connectivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn addition, Datacentrix rolled out a storage solution that not only caters for our growth over time, but makes provision for DNI\u2019s in-house development programme, which requires a great deal of space,\u201d added Jacobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur previous\nsystem just couldn\u2019t handle the related queries and loads, meaning that they\nhad to be run overnight. Today, these can be resolved in a matter of minutes,\nat any time of day.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 The new infrastructure also has a much smaller footprint, leaving physical space for expansion over time, and is fully redundant. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe now have in place the proactive management structure, and it was here that Datacentrix\u2019 certification levels were critical. I\u2019m pleased to advise that there has been no downtime since the rollout \u2013 even during migration, where our users were live on the system. It was a seamless process with no disruption at all; in fact, the only feedback from our staff was around the improved performance of the new infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These gains have been particularly prevalent within the new storage environment \u2013 with huge space savings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAccording to our virtual server, we are currently running at 30TB of data, but after deduplication and compression this has been scaled right down to 4.5TB,\u201d said Jacobs. \u201cOur speed has also doubled, which has meant that we\u2019re simply not seeing the noticeable usage spikes that we did previously. In the old environment, the kit was operating at maximum capacity, and heavy usage \u2013 such as the BI team running reports during the day \u2013 would slow down the entire production department.\u201d

The modularity of the new equipment has effectively future-proofed DNI\u2019s ICT environment for at least the next five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jacobs added:\n\u201cNow, we are able to expand blade by blade and chassis by chassis \u2013 up to six\ntimes our current capacity \u2013 as our requirements grow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWorking with Datacentrix has been an extremely positive experience, there has been no deadline unmet. Everything was delivered according to plan and on time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe\nDatacentrix team has been very hands-on and has effectively become an extension\nof our IT department.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDNI\nclients are not affected by any back-end technology changes, but feedback from\nstaff has been overwhelmingly positive. \nDNI\u2019s staff stated that the system performance was the best ever\nexperienced within the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDNI IT will continue to ensure that its users have the best in IT infrastructure, by partnering with Datacentrix and other strategic suppliers, in keeping up-to-date with the ever-changing IT environment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Datacentrix Account Manager Charl Ferreira said the company\u2019s specialist teams leverage the combined power of information and communications technologies to connect, transform, improve and future-proof business, supporting clients throughout their digital journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDatacentrix offers deep technical expertise across a mature offering, providing proven execution capability that is endorsed by the world\u2019s foremost technology partners,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith a strong\nAfrican footprint, the company is recognised for its agility, in-depth industry\nknowledge, ethical practices and strong overall performance.\u201d\n\n\u201cNow that DNI\u2019s new\nserver room is fully operational, and its capacity challenges addressed, the\norganisation will turn its attention to additional requirements to improve\nsystem stability. We\u2019re confident that DNI\u2019s new platform is sus\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DNI, an investment company in the telecommunications and distribution sectors, has had its Johannesburg-based server room revamped thanks to Datacentrix, meaning that current capacity and performance-related challenges have been overcome. Borne from intellectual capital in 2006, DNI began as a procurement business offering cost reduction and supply chain optimisation solutions to large corporations. Four years later, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":30954,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,338,46,19,9059,382,13,262],"tags":[496,386,826,6949,12053,12052,597,3196,12050,12051,381,745,453,420,747],"class_list":["post-30953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-studies","category-case-study-newsletter","category-data-centres","category-regional-news","category-south-africa","category-telecom","category-top-stories","category-used","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-automation","tag-cell-c","tag-charl-ferreira","tag-christiaan-jacobs","tag-datacentrix","tag-distribution","tag-dni","tag-edcon","tag-huawei","tag-johannesburg","tag-south-africa","tag-telecommunications","tag-telkom"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30953"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31105,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30953\/revisions\/31105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intelligentcio.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}