CASE STUDY
which, although fast, was unreliable.
For example, the electricity supply in
South Africa is not guaranteed, which
can disrupt availability and if the air
conditioning that is necessary for
computing centres fails, it can take
weeks to get fixed. This was having a
pronounced impact on productivity.
“We used to have a file server, Exchange
server and project server all of which
were dependent on the stable supply of
electricity. As a result, we experienced
occasional downtime,” explains Elize
Neethling, Head of Group Information
Security and Technology, Tradebridge.
“Given the nature of our business is
connecting healthcare professionals,
that was unacceptable.”
Moreover, the company provides its own
solutions to doctors and hospitals via
the cloud, so it felt it should be setting
a good example in embracing cloud
platforms. This led it to migrate its
400 users in four offices to Microsoft®
www.intelligentcio.com
“We also have
virtual workshops
and can achieve in
an hour something
that might
previously have
taken weeks.”
SharePoint and Microsoft Office 365 on
Azure cloud. However, despite a smooth
transition, there were implications from
a performance perspective.
“With on-premises equipment, the
user experience was quick, however,
following the migration to the cloud, a
lag in performance appeared, and users
were confronted with a spinning blue
wheel,” adds Neethling. “Unsurprisingly
and understandably, they were quick to
complain: how is slower better?”
The company evaluated the market
and found that asking ISPs to solve
the problem would be prohibitively
expensive. Instead, it worked with local
partner, Datacentrix, to find a solution.
Datacentrix is an ICT solutions
provider and was already providing
Tradebridge with various hardware.
Together, they undertook a number
of PoCs and completed technical
evaluations. Tradebridge found that
Riverbed® SteelHead™ SaaS ticked all
the right boxes.
INTELLIGENTCIO
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