Internet Solutions (IS) Ignite has launched a public cloud solution targeted at the South African SME market. Cloud Server is affordable and flexible enough for businesses in the SME market segment, and delivers enterprise-level reliability, scalability and uptime.
"IS has a big focus on cloud services," says Herman Jansen van Rensburg, general manager: IS Ignite. "We're offering both software as a service and platform as a service. Companies today do not want to invest in hardware, they need to be lean, and Cloud Server for SMEs brings that enterprise benefit to the SME market space."
Cloud Server has been priced specifically for the SME sector, and costs range from R80 to R350 per month, per virtual server. The service is offered on a month-to-month basis, so there is no long-term commitment. Support is offered 24x7, and users have a choice of Linux or Windows operating systems.
"The solution is hosted in IS' world-class data centres," says Jansen van Rensburg, "which means it's locally hosted and supported, and customers' connections to the cloud service are fast."
For smaller businesses, which typically acquire ICT infrastructure only when they absolutely have to, being able to scale up or down on a month-to-month basis represents a substantial cost and efficiency saving, he adds.
Cloud services offer the additional benefit of redundancy - a business' servers are not hosted in their offices and thus are not vulnerable to theft or damage in the event of a catastrophe. Hosting servers in the cloud also means they are accessible from wherever users are - via mobile, tablet, laptop or desktop - bringing mobility and its associated productivity benefits to the business.
Users can self-provide virtual compute or storage resources as they need them, meaning they are not reliant on either an IT department or support staff at the service provider. They can adjust their resources on the fly.
The platform is maintained and upgraded by IS. Additionally, sign up is instant and payment made via credit card, meaning no tedious forms to be filled out or credit checks to be done.
"SMEs need flexible, reliable compute and storage solutions that free them up to do what they do best - run the business. With the IS Ignite Cloud Server offering, that just became possible, available and affordable," Jansen van Rensburg concludes.
More information is available at www.isignite.co.za.
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