Johannesburg, 15 May 2012
The Illovo Sugar Group, Africa's largest sugar producer, has chosen Exinda's Next-Generation WAN Optimisation solution to replace its ageing Expand equipment.
The Illovo Sugar Group (Illovo) has extensive agricultural and manufacturing operations in six African countries. The group produces raw and refined sugar for local, regional, European Union (EU), United States (US) and world markets from sugar cane supplied by its own agricultural operations and independent outgrowers. High-value products, manufactured downstream of the sugar production process, are sold internationally into niche markets.
Moreover, about 89% of the group's electricity requirement is provided by its own installed electricity-generating capacity, fuelled by renewable resources.
“When our previous WAN optimisation provider, Expand Networks, was purchased by Riverbed, it became obvious that we needed to implement a new solution and find a new partner,” says Dave Schaller, chief information officer (CIO) at Illovo.
“Not only is WAN optimisation critical to our business, but so is having the right partnership with the right WAN solution provider. Exinda was a perfect fit because of its technical capabilities coupled with its ability to quickly understand the demands of our operational environment.”
Illovo's branches are all connected to the company's head office via a WAN and it needs to complete numerous transactions using various applications each day over limited bandwidth. Any delays in the transmission of data and application information will result in reduced productivity for Illovo's employees, with the associated negative impact on the company as a whole.
“Illovo examined a range of alternatives to Expand, but ultimately settled on Exinda,” says Alan Rehbock, sales director for sub-Saharan Africa at Exinda. “Not only was Exinda able to deliver the WAN optimisation functionality required, it also is able to tailor its solutions to Illovo's business processes and enhance staff productivity.”
Illovo looked at a number of options, including all the top WAN optimisation equipment providers in South Africa. “We particularly liked Exinda's approach of working closely with us to understand our business and organisational requirements,” explained Schaller. “Exinda was able to structure an affordable upgrade proposal that not only offered the same functionality, but presented us with the opportunity to step up to an improved solution.”
He adds: “Exinda unlocks potential that was not possible before, and was able to demonstrate that its solution can significantly improve the performance of our applications and immediately deliver significant benefits. It offered Layer 7 visibility, dynamic control, intelligent acceleration and edge caching, all within a single network appliance.”
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