17 / 44
cinemas, such as at theMall of Africa. Delivering connectivity
to cinemas situated within shopping centres, in particular, can
be challenging due to the different rules and regulations that
the respective management teams might impose on suppliers.
In terms of support, it is crucial to manage everything from site
visits to centre management, especially when trenching to install
fibre. This is intrusive work, with various health and safety compli-
ance requirements. Landlords are wary, mall management must be
consulted when undergoing revamps, and sometimes extensions to
the buildings themselves are required.
For the existing sites, the WAN solution was designed with the
availability of the infrastructure already confirmed, ensuring effective
planning. The network is designed to offer redundancy and to have
few to no points of failure. To achieve this, there are two completely
separate networks deployed (primary and secondary). Each of these
networks use different ISPs and infrastructure to connect the cinemas
and head office to each other, and to the outside world.
The majority of cinemas now make use of fibre as primary con-
nectivity, withWireless or ADSL acting as the failover. In areas where
fibre is not available, the cinemas make use of Wireless (licensed)
as their primary connectivity, to ensure the best possible network
uptime and experience at predefined critical sites.
The benefits of this approach are that the cinemas now all have
uncapped internet, including international traffic, while the failover
ensures consistent uptime. The network is resilient, and is driven by
a fibre backend. The use of multiple internet breakout providers for
each network results in a 1:1 contention. With full-time, around the
clock monitoring, the networks are fully managed.
For the effective management of the firewall and router, all
devices are managed and connected to the Network Operations
Centre for early warning in the event of a connection being dropped.
The firewall and routers are Juniper and Mikrotik respectively and
were configured according to specifications before deployment.
The benefits of this approach include fully managed devices that
are reconfigured for deployment, constant monitoring and support,
and no in-house skills are required within the customer’s workforce.
The solution is proactive; informing the customer when-
ever there is an error on a line, confirming that the secondary
line became active and that connectivity was not lost. It is al-
ways important to offer customers continuous added value. Ad-
ditional enhanced services are available, by virtue of the WAN
CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION
solution, which include managed off-site back-
ups, full server hosting (physical or virtual),
hosted lync, hosted SharePoint, hosted
exchange, VOIP, and disaster recovery
and business continuity. An innovative
Data Centre offers guaranteed power
by drawing electricity directly from the
National Grid and a series of backup
measures - including two Uninter-
ruptible Power Supply (UPS) systems
and backup generators. This to ensure
continuity of service in the event of external
problems. The result is: resilient connectivity;
complete protection through climate control and Very
Early Smoke Detection Apparatus (VESDA); rigorous security via
CCTV monitoring, professional security staff, and access control;
and a Network Operations Centre which monitors all dc and network
activity and is manned by expert engineers.
The general Service Level Agreement (SLA) is considered a
‘Financially backed SLA’. In terms of the solution prepared for Ster
Kinekor, the fibre network adheres to a 99,5% uptime guarantee,
90% speed guarantee, a latency guarantee and a packet-loss guar-
antee. As such, and in the unlikely event that the customer suffers
any downtime, lack of network, or infrastructure unavailability, Ster
Kinekor shall receive a credit on their account.
Conclusion
Ster Kinekor believes it is in good hands. A major part of this
agreement is the fact that it can exit the agreement within 30 days
if the guaranteed service levels are not maintained. This is a huge
statement and goes to the confidence and support levels that the
company stands by.
Abbreviations/Acronyms
take note
Brad Fraser is the Chief Executive Officer at InfoProtect. He
seeks to achieve constant improvement through principles
that are universal, timeless and self-evident. He has been
instrumental in finding effective solutions to challenges in En-
terpriseMobility, Connectivity, Data Centre Hosting Services, IT
Security, Data Back-ups, Disaster Recovery and IT Outsourcing
in large enterprises. Enquiries: Email
brad@infoprotect.co.zaADSL – Asymmetric digital subscriber line
CCTV – Closed Circuit Television
DSL
– Digital Subscriber Line
ISP
– Internet Service Provider
IT
– Information Technology
MTN – Mobile Telephone Network
SLA
– Service Level Agreement
UPS
– Uninterruptible Power Supply
VESDA – Very Early Smoke Detection Apparatus
VOIP – Voice Over Internet Protocol
WAN – Wide Area Network
• Ster Kinekor was experiencing problems with its IT infra-
structure and technology.
• Fibre is a fast connectivity mediumwhich offers a point-to-
point synchronous connection.
• This approach suited Ster Kinekor which was seeking a
cost-effective solution.
15
February ‘17
Electricity+Control