INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Cloud
Routed joins Teraco on
Africa Cloud Exchange
Disaster recovery solutions
specialist Routed has joined
the Africa Cloud Exchange
(ACX) to strengthen the
ecosystem and help in driving
businesses to the cloud.
Vendor-neutral data centre
provider Teraco, has welcomed
Routed, a cloud infrastructure
provider and VMware Cloud Verified
partner, as a local cloud provider to
join the African Cloud Exchange (ACX).
Created to improve enterprise hybrid
and multi-cloud performance through
direct interconnection, Teraco’s ACX
provides secure, direct, flexible network
connections to a wide range of local and
global cloud service providers.
As Africa’s first VMware Cloud Verified
partner, Routed now offers a VMWare
cloud platform for clients seeking access
to multiple cloud environments.
Andrew Cruise, Managing Director,
Routed, said the company is a provider of
Disaster Recovery As-a-Service (DRaaS)
within VMware’s vSphere 7 client
software and bringing the VMware cloud
platform to ACX is another key milestone.
“Multi-cloud strategies are growing
in adoption as they mitigate service
disruption and reduce vendor lock-in.
Routed as a member of ACX, strengthens
the ecosystem and will undoubtedly help
in driving businesses to the cloud, which
is one of the fastest-growing segments of
IT spend,” he said.
Andrew Owens, Manager,
Interconnection and Peering at Teraco,
said the premise of ACX is to assist in the
local drive towards the cloud, but in a secure
and correct way.
“While there was no time-pressure for
businesses to adopt a cloud methodology, it
is rapidly evolving and the cloud is becoming
a vital tool for any business wanting to
succeed. ACX is a technology-neutral and
growing ecosystem. We are excited to
welcome a local cloud provider such as
Routed and its VMware platform,” he said.
Owens said ACX was developed to fully
integrate with all cloud providers adopting a
modular, template-driven approach.
Andrew Cruise, Managing Director, Routed
“ACX will accommodate any cloud provider’s
API. Ultimately, we want to make it easy
for the providers and clients to sell their
products. By simply logging on to a portal,
ACX enables provisioning of network circuits
to any cloud provider, immediately reducing
the administrative headaches of getting
people connected.”
Dave Funnell, Senior Cloud Provider
Manager, VMware Sub-Saharan Africa, said
that in reality cloud is an operating model,
not just a destination.
“As such, it will often require a collaborative
solution and the inclusion of Routed in
the Africa Cloud Exchange is a great
example of collaboration in the cloud
market. The benefit to customers is the
availability of a fully verified VMware
Private Cloud, delivered from a secure
multi-tenanted platform with all the
benefits expected from a cloud
solution,” he said.
“Its location is also a major drawcard,
with direct network connectivity to the
public hyperscale clouds in the leading
data centre provider in Africa.”
Funnell explained that this will allow
customers to accelerate the adoption
of cloud services in the knowledge that
their applications will run predictably in a
robust, highly available environment with
the flexibility required for a successful
business to adapt and grow.
“Working with both Routed and Teraco
on this initiative has been a rewarding
experience. I look forward to engaging
with VMware customers of all sizes, as
they take advantage of the enterprisegrade
cloud services being brought to
market by Routed and Teraco,” he said. •
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