Internet Solutions (IS) and application delivery infrastructure specialists, Smart Axess Solutions have launched a new hosted environment called Enterprise Application Delivery. The platform, developed using leading application delivery infrastructure from Citrix Systems, will enable the optimised delivery of applications through the cloud, from IS’ new, next generation Parklands data center. 

“Enterprise Application Delivery will allow IS to deliver optimised, highly available and secure on-demand access to hosted applications, desktops and database servers in a fault tolerant and redundant environment,” says Hayden Lamberti, Application Solutions Business Unit Manager at IS. “Delivering applications across the cloud will enable our clients to leverage their existing IT infrastructure by consolidating applications into a central data centre. This reduces infrastructure requirements and costs because through economies of scale we are able to provide companies with a greater IT infrastructure at a lower total cost of ownership.” 

The platform was developed by Smart Axess using the Citrix Delivery Centre™. “As a multinational certified Citrix Gold Partner we have used the latest Citrix technology to develop a virtualized platform that is both stable and secure,” says Alex Russell, Managing Director at Smart Axess. “Once we had developed the platform the new IS Parklands data centre offered the best environment and infrastructure to deploy it, ensuring users have secure, highly optimised, fault tolerant and accelerated access to on-demand applications, data and desktop operating systems through the cloud." 

“Citrix brings together the service delivery infrastructure building blocks that have been proven in the world’s largest clouds and enterprise data centres,” says Nick Keene, country manager of Citrix Systems Southern Africa. “This cloud computing service will ease the mind of local organisations that in the past may have feared losing direct control of their vital data and applications.” 

According to Lamberti, Enterprise Application Delivery also enables the delivery of applications and windows desktop operating systems to multiple users, irrespective of their location, device or connection, all through a single user interface. “Any existing connectivity infrastructure, including WANs will also be utilised more efficiently and effectively, offering customers a better return on their IT investments,” says Lamberti. “Additional benefits include centralised application and operating system support and deployment, with updates provisioned on-demand, without the need for lengthy, on-site single-user installs." 

These benefits also make Enterprise Application Delivery an ideal tool for Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to efficiently and cost effectively deliver their software to market. “Local ISVs are set to realise a major benefit from this partnership, as the cloud provides an opportunity to deliver applications on a software as a service (SaaS) basis. This will provide a quicker go-to-market strategy, especially as local players target international business,” concludes Russell. 

“Many clouds that offer services based on the Xen hypervisor have asked Citrix to help them offer a richer set of virtualised IT infrastructure services, as well as a more scalable infrastructure to deliver them to both enterprise and consumer users. This is a great example of how local partners have come together to offer South African users a complete cloud computing solution,” concludes Keene. 

To showcase and test this platform IS and Smart Axess are leveraging the Citrix Ready Program within the IS competency centre. This will give current and future ISV’s the opportunity to play with and get a feel for the new environment, as well as web-enable their service offerings, allowing them to deliver software over the web on a utility billing model. “We can also use this environment to web-enable and prepare the applications our clients are going to use for the hosted environment, ensuring they can be optimally delivered across the cloud,” continues Lamberti. “Having passed all competency tests applications can then be moved into the production environment, where we can on-board new clients. 

“Going to market with Enterprise Application Delivery demonstrates our belief in the power of business ready virtualised applications. This is the future of IT in the current market environment, where costs savings and efficiency have become vital to business success and survival,” concludes Lamberti. 

Clients hosted on the current legacy environment were ported to Enterprise Application Delivery at the end of April. 

TAMMY DU PREEZ Communications Manager   Tel: 087 365 7768   Tel: +27 (11) 575 7768   Fax: +27 (11) 576 7768​