KSS together with Expand Networks has been awarded a three-year contract by the Department of Land Affairs for the supply, implementation and maintenance of a Wide Area Network (WAN) optimisation solution.
The contract, which was awarded in September 2008, encompasses Land Affairs’ 68 sites across the country and will effectively aim to accelerate the department’s bandwidth which in turn will optimise performance, delivery of information and access across the its networks.
“Land Affairs’ brief was clear, they wanted a solution which overcame the current bandwidth issues at their offices across the country, improving the speed and performance of their applications across wide area networks,” comments Chris Hutton, Regional Sales Manager at Expand.
As part of the tender process, KSS and Expand conducted a proof of concept (PoC) and it was found that the companies’ provided the best solution to address the Department of Land Affairs’ bandwidth issues.
Additionally, as Expand’s WAN Optimisation solution runs on a Linux-based platform, interoperability issues were no challenge. The solution includes Expand’s WAN Accelerators which mitigates latency, improves network response time and essentially lets the WAN behave like LAN.
“Our WAN optimisation solution proved to be an excellent fit with Land Affairs’ environment and applications residing on its network. The results clearly showed that by implementing the solution their bandwidth will be greatly accelerated and access to the network improved,” comments Zakes
Sikobi, account executive at KSS.
The WAN optimisation implementation is already underway and is expected to be completed by November 2008. Following implementation, KSS will be responsible for the maintenance (over a three-year period), with Expand providing vendor and warrantee support.
