IS wins JINX hosting contract for seventh year running
Internet Solutions (IS) has announced that for the seventh year running it has been chosen by the Internet Service Providers Association of South Africa (ISPA) to host the Johannesburg Internet Exchange (JINX). In addition IS has also been chosen to host the revived Cape Town Internet Exchange (CINX).
An Internet Exchange, explains Greg Montjoie, Hosting Business Unit Manager at IS is for all intents and purposes a peering point between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) in a country or region.
“A peering point adds a vital level of redundancy into the local Internet and boosts the performance of local Internet usage by making for shorter routes between ISPs.
“In doing so, an Internet Exchange also affects valuable cost savings for all parties involved,” he explains.
“Because Internet Exchanges are of massive importance to the quality of a country’s Internet experience, we’re extremely proud to have been chosen for the seventh year running,” he adds.
Rob Hunter, Chair of the INX Working Group at ISPA in South Africa says that the contract to host an Internet Exchange such as JINX is awarded every three years and that IS has been the host for the past two terms. In fact IS first hosted JINX from 1996 to 1999. ISPA then chose to host the exchange themselves, but moved the contract back to IS again in 2002, and has continued to host with IS since then.“We haven’t experienced a failure since IS has been hosting JINX,” explains Hunter.
“This, compounded with the fact that as a non-profit organisation we’re compelled to act responsibly when it comes to our expenditure means we have to weigh up the benefits of one decision versus its cost implications,” Hunter says.
“With IS’ perfect record of service as Jinx’s host, there quite simply wasn’t any reason to even contemplate moving to another partner,” he adds.
That said however, Hunter says the most recent application from IS was still thoroughly vetted before the renewal of the contract was announced.
“We’re obviously extremely proud of becoming the JINX hosting partner for another three years,” Montjoie says “It speaks volumes about our ability to handle a mission critical hosting project such as this, not to mention the world class nature of the IS Johannesburg and Cape Town data centres.
“We’re committed to providing ISPA with the same excellent level of service we have up until now and trust that the hosting we provide will make it a little better for the South African Internet user community to communicate effectively with each other,” he concludes.
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TAMMY DU PREEZ
Communications Manager
Tel: 087 365 7768
Tel: +27 (11) 575 7768
Fax: +27 (11) 576 7768
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