The network upgrade from legacy MPLS to SD-WAN will enable faster, more efficient and secure connectivity between sites to enhance customer experiences
Johannesburg, South Africa, 7th November 2023 – CMC Networks, a global Tier 1 service provider, has been selected by SafetySA, a leading provider of Testing, Inspection, Certification (TIC) and Training solutions, to upgrade its network and thereby improve service delivery to its customer base. The migration from MPLS to a software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN) enables improved speed and security of SafetySA’s connectivity between its sites.
SafetySA specialises in providing TIC and Training solutions with a particular focus on food safety and workplace safety across a wide range of industry verticals, including mining, oil and gas, transport and logistics, agriculture, financial services, government, pharmaceutical, hospitality, construction, retail and more. Key customer facing brands include SafetyCloud, AssureCloud, NOSA, NQA and SAMTRAC. CMC Networks designed and implemented a hybrid network consisting of SD-WAN interconnected with SafetySA’s existing MPLS. This enables SafetySA to migrate its sites from MPLS to SD-WAN in a staged approach, without any risks of network disruption.
“For enterprises across Africa and beyond, network performance and efficiency are crucial for success. Businesses simply can’t afford to have rigid, legacy network infrastructure hindering their growth,” said Marisa Trisolino, CEO at CMC Networks. “By working with SafetySA, we’re helping to enable fast, secure and seamless safety service delivery to enterprises across a wide spectrum of industries in South Africa. We took our local market knowledge, experience and solutions, and packaged it all up into a comprehensive solution to meet SafetySA’s network requirements both now and into the future.”
CMC designed and implemented a fully meshed Juniper Session Smart Router (SSR) SD-WAN with high availability nodes in multiple SafetySA and NOSA training centres across South Africa. This was delivered using CMC’s dual IP Premier Direct Internet Access (DIA) service with the highest level of SLA. CMC Networks can control SafetySA’s underlay network connectivity via IP packet forwarding, ensuring the seamless provisioning of services across SafetySA’s network. A high availability node was deployed in one of CMC’s Johannesburg data centres to facilitate the interconnectivity with SafetySA’s existing MPLS network, with a cross-connect to enable a smooth network transition. CMC Networks is delivering a fully managed service with a full suite of features including a dedicated service manager, SLA reporting, trend analysis and extensive consulting.
“Workplace safety and food safety is incredibly important to our customers located across South Africa and beyond. To best support our customers in this regard, it is critical we have the tools, processes and expertise to deliver our solutions seamlessly,” said Pieter Erasmus, CEO at SafetySA. “Our existing network was unable to provide the flexibility or scalability we needed. CMC Networks has delivered a solution that can move with the speed of our business, with a team of network experts there to support us every step of the way.”
An additional virtual appliance was deployed in Microsoft Azure to connect the network to SafetySA’s workloads running in Azure South Africa North. CMC is leveraging Zero-Trust and Layer 3-4 security capabilities to ensure that only valid, secure traffic travels across SafetySA’s network. Generic Internet traffic is steered towards SafetySA’s Fortigate security stack in Azure, while trusted Internet traffic is configured to breakout from site locally. This ensures the best blend of security and application performance for SafetySA and its enterprise customers across verticals.
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About CMC Networks
CMC Networks is a global Tier 1 service provider that enables and accelerates the digital transformation in the most challenging markets in the world. Headquartered in South Africa and providing services for over 30 years, it combines network reach across six continents with innovation in AI, cloud, cybersecurity, EDGE, SDN, virtualisation, and a range of services to solve local enterprise challenges with world-class solutions.
CMC provides data communications to Carriers, Governments, Multinationals, and various non-profit organisations, operating in excess of 110 Service Locations providing a cost-effective, scalable and resilient network.
CMC Networks has the largest pan-African network servicing 51 out of 54 countries in Africa and 12 countries in the Middle East, plus regional hubs in key interconnect locations across Europe, UK, the Americas and Asia Pacific. CMC’s majority shareholders are The Carlyle Group, a global investment firm with $222 billion of assets under management across 365 investment vehicles.
About SafetySA
SafetySA is a leading provider of Testing, Inspection, Certification (TIC) and Training solutions to Africa, the Middle East and China focussed on food safety and workplace safety. Key customer facing brands include AssureCloud, SafetyCloud, NOSA, NQA, and SAMTRAC.
SafetySA’s testing footprint comprises five laboratories located across South Africa and one laboratory located in Zambia. These facilities deliver a comprehensive suite of microbiology and chemistry testing solutions including diagnostics, raw milk testing, water and waste water chemistry, food chemistry, carbon dioxide analysis, nutritional analysis, histamine and heavy metal detection, and biotoxin detection.
SafetySA’s training footprint includes 15 training colleges located across South Africa. These facilities support the delivery of 100+ health and safety related training courses and skills programs, which are also delivered on-site and online.
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