Protea Hotels chooses DrayTek

Issued by Global Research Partners for Draytek
Johannesburg, 13 Feb 2012

Network Platforms, the sub-Saharan distributor for DrayTek, today announced that one of its major resellers, eNetworks, had installed DrayTek routers at more than 80 hotels within Protea Hotels, Africa's largest and leading Hotel Group.

“A cost-effective communications network that is combined with high availability is vital in our business,” commented Bryan Mulliner of Protea Hotels. “The DrayTek routers offered us the relevant facilities that we needed, and specifically incorporated capabilities that we couldn't easily find elsewhere. Each hotel runs multiple VPNs across the national ADSL network, concentrated in geographically different data centres, plus the additional 'normal' ADSL traffic for browsing and e-mail.”

“Features such as Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) and VOIP, the granularity of configuration possibilities, the ability to provide customised firmware for large volumes, and TR069 remote configuration and management were just some of the key elements needed by Protea Hotels,” added Jaap Scholten of eNetworks. “In addition, the communication capability that existed between the manufacturer, the distributor and ourselves was also a major ingredient in the choice by Protea Hotels for this equipment.

“Another advantage of using DrayTek routers is that we can ship 'unconfigured' devices to various depots around the country for quick replacement in the event of a lighting strike or other catastrophic failure. Once the 'unconfigured' modem is connected to the ADSL network, it will find its TR069 server and download the correct configuration without the need for an on-site technician. We also use this for national configuration-change rollouts. To support Protea Hotels, we use the same equipment to provide secure access for remote support of the equipment behind the router by running our own national dynamic DNS equivalent to facilitate this.”

“The scenario above is not an uncommon one,” said Bradley Love, Managing Director of Network Platforms, “and eNetworks is renowned for its expertise in Internet access provision, security and e-mail systems.”

eNetworks, established in 1999, serves a niche market in the Internet service provision sector. The company has many years' of IT experience to offer and specialises in the areas of networking, security and Linux. These skills are available to its clients on a first-hand basis with no involvement of a call centre or voice-interactive system. It operates with the premise of being a solutions provider rather than a sales organisation.

For further information, please contact Bradley Love tel. 0861 112 129; fax 0865 034 826; e-mail brad@networkplatforms.co.za.

Draytek

DrayTek is a Taiwanese state-of-the-art firmware designer and quality hardware producer, is the reliable supplier of novel networking and telecommunications for the SOHO and SMB markets. At present, DrayTek's solutions, ranging from enterprise-level firewalls, mission-critical bandwidth management and comprehensive VPN facilities, triple play routers, to prospective IP PBX solutions, can meet the market trend and go above and beyond customers' expectations.

Network Platforms, established in 2003 and based in Johannesburg and Cape Town, is a network infrastructure management solutions and services company. It covers the entire process from the assessment of clients' needs, requirements and goals, through to the ongoing provisioning, maintenance and servicing of the resultant networks. This embraces the areas of LANs, WANs, VPNs, managed computer services, including security aspects, Internet connectivity, network systems integration, VOIP and IP PABXes.

Network Platforms is a level 4 contributor BBBEE company and includes AdvanceNet, Canon, Business Connexion, Ferrari South Africa, First Technology, Panasonic and Zensar Technologies among its partners and customers.

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