Question 1

Are a firewall and backups included with FirstNet Private Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes, as part of the recommended baseline, each FirstNet Private Cloud setup starts with a virtual firewall and Veeam backups to immutable storage. So it is secure and can be restored by default.

What the baseline covers:
- Virtual firewall: Lite, or Enterprise, which adds unified threat management (UTM). Both control access and keep production, development and DMZ zones apart.
- Firewall support: an ongoing 8x5 support item for each firewall instance.
- Veeam backups: a backup job per virtual machine, written to immutable storage. Retention is typically 7, 14 or 30 days.
- Immutability: no one can change or delete a restore point until its retention period ends.

If you already have an approved alternative, you can leave out either one. FirstNet then writes down who is responsible for what, and your own security or recovery approach.

The solution design records your firewall rules, segmentation and backup retention. FirstNet builds them during provisioning. Optional extras include Server Management for OS patching. Another is Geographic DR to a second FirstNet data centre, with its own DR firewall. You can also add private peering to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud.

Question 2

Are we locked in if we use FirstNet Private Cloud?

Accepted Answer

No. With FirstNet Private Cloud you own your data, and an exit with secure deprovisioning and data handover is available under your contract.

Why lock-in risk is low:

- Data ownership: your data remains yours, and handover on exit is part of the contract scope
- Standard hypervisors: workloads run on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, widely used platforms rather than proprietary ones
- Hybrid connectivity: private peering to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud keeps other platforms within reach
- Building blocks: you consume vCPU, RAM and storage by tier, so you can scale down as well as up

Term length, notice periods, renewal mechanics and exit obligations are defined in your contracted terms and conditions, so review them when you sign. FirstNet designs its cloud architecture to deliver performance, compliance and resilience without locking customers into a single vendor or platform.

If future flexibility matters to you, raise it during solution design so the exit and data handover approach is clear from the start. The same principle applies to Microsoft licences bought through FirstNet: you keep ownership of your tenant data and can transfer partner of record to another CSP or to Microsoft directly.

Question 3

Can FirstNet Private Cloud connect privately to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Private Cloud supports private, secure peering with Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. This suits hybrid designs and gradual migrations.

Your connection options:
- Cloud peering: private links to AWS, Azure and Google Cloud that do not rely on the public internet.
- Site-to-site VPN: secure tunnels from your offices or data centres.
- Internet access: for workloads that face the internet, protected by the virtual firewall.
- Private and dedicated links: over FirstNet's carrier-neutral fibre network.

A typical use is to keep regulated systems in Private Cloud and use public cloud for burst or development workloads. Another is to move workloads step by step from one platform to another.

The sizing workshop works out how you connect and how you separate your systems. For example, some systems may face the internet while others stay private. Production and development may also need to be kept apart. Your connectivity scope also affects how long provisioning takes.

If your hybrid design includes Microsoft, FirstNet can also supply Azure through its Microsoft CSP agreement. It can design your Azure landing zone too. For hardware you keep, FirstNet colocation at Teraco sites offers cross-connects to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect.

Question 4

Can FirstNet back up Google Workspace?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Google Workspace Backup, powered by Druva, protects Gmail, Google Drive including Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts, as configured. It gives you an independent copy that you can search and restore when data is deleted or encrypted, without running any backup infrastructure.

Key points:

- Scope: Gmail, Drive and Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts, as configured
- Licensing: per protected user, rather than per gigabyte of storage
- Restores: search and restore individual items, files or whole users
- Operations: customer-run by default, with an optional FirstNet Managed Backup Service for monitoring, remediation, reporting and restore support
- Mixed estates: if you use both Google Workspace and Microsoft 365, the subscriptions can be combined for one approach across both

Google keeps the Workspace service running, but under the shared-responsibility model, recovering deleted or encrypted data is your responsibility. Google Vault is designed for retention and eDiscovery inside the platform rather than as an independent restore copy, so regulated organisations often use both.

Hosting regions for SaaS backup are confirmed during qualification, as availability varies by service. For data on laptops that is not in Drive, add FirstNet Endpoint Backup.

Question 5

Can FirstNet combine colocation, private cloud and backup in one solution?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet designs hybrid solutions in which you keep your own hardware in a FirstNet colocation rack, run other workloads in FirstNet Private Cloud, and protect both with Backup as a Service or Disaster Recovery as a Service, with FirstNet as the single accountable provider.

Common combinations include:

- Colocation for hardware you want to keep, with Private Cloud for general virtual servers
- Private Cloud with Veeam backups to immutable storage as the baseline, plus geographic DR to a second FirstNet data centre
- Production in one city and colocation or DR in another, so recovery is geographically separate
- Private Cloud peered privately to AWS, Azure or Google Cloud, or colocation cross-connected to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute
- Microsoft 365 and endpoint backup alongside server backup, covering data outside your servers

Colocated equipment in the Durban data centre can interconnect directly with FirstNet's private cloud and network, and support runs through the 24x7 Rapid Response service desk. You can start with one building block and add others as your needs grow, and FirstNet scopes the combined design, connectivity and recovery objectives in one solution design.

Question 6

Can FirstNet guarantee our RTO and RPO for backup and disaster recovery?

Accepted Answer

Not by default. FirstNet designs its backup and disaster recovery services to your recovery targets, but these depend on your workloads, bandwidth, change rate and dependencies, so firm RTO and RPO commitments apply only when they are explicitly contracted after scoping and testing.

The recovery time objective (RTO) is the maximum downtime you can accept. The recovery point objective (RPO) is the maximum data loss you can accept, measured back from the moment of failure. In FirstNet's design process:

- RPO drives backup or replication frequency and the bandwidth you need
- RTO drives reserved capacity sizing and the order in which systems start
- Application criticality sets the protection tier, for example gold, silver or bronze
- Dependencies such as DNS, Active Directory and third-party links affect when a service is truly usable

FirstNet runs DR readiness workshops to quantify risk, define RTO and RPO per system and plan failover tests. Scheduled testing then shows whether the targets are achievable in practice. If you need contractual commitments, raise them early so they can be validated through dependency mapping and testing before they are written into your agreement.

Question 7

Can FirstNet keep our backup data in South Africa?

Accepted Answer

For server and VM backups, yes: the Veeam Data Cloud Vault Non-Core catalogue used by FirstNet Backup as a Service includes South African regions, subject to availability. For Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and endpoint backup, FirstNet confirms hosting regions during qualification, because availability varies by service.

Where each type of backup can live:

- FirstNet Private Cloud backups: Veeam backups to immutable storage on the FirstNet platform, hosted in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town
- Backup as a Service: Foundation or Advanced vault editions, with a Non-Core region catalogue that extends to South Africa for residency or latency needs
- SaaS and endpoint backup: regions validated against your requirement before quoting, rather than assumed
- Disaster recovery replicas: held in a FirstNet data centre in South Africa

If you have an in-country-only requirement or work in a regulated industry, raise it at the start. FirstNet captures residency constraints early, documents the agreed hosting location and validates the exact options with specialists before committing.

Keeping backups in South Africa supports POPIA-aligned designs, but compliance remains shared: your data classification, retention settings and governance also shape the outcome.

Question 8

Can FirstNet migrate our servers into a South African data centre?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet migrates servers into FirstNet Private Cloud, which runs in FirstNet data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. FirstNet aligns the target hypervisor to your existing environment to simplify the migration.

How the move works:

- Discovery and sizing: your VM list, vCPU, RAM, storage tiers, connectivity, backup retention and RTO/RPO are captured
- Solution design: segmentation, firewall rules, backup retention and, where needed, a geographic DR runbook are documented
- Provisioning: your virtual data centre is built in the Hybr management portal and checked against the design
- Migration waves: workloads move in rehearsed, phased cutovers with rollback plans
- Handover: you move to 24x7 Rapid Response support with clear contacts and escalation paths

A discovery and sizing workshop comes before any migration timeline, and complex migrations get a dedicated technical workshop first. If you would rather keep your own hardware, FirstNet colocation in Durban or in Teraco facilities lets you move servers out of an ageing server room without re-architecting. Either way, your workloads stay in South Africa, with disaster recovery options in a second city.

Question 9

Can FirstNet migrate us from Google Workspace or on-premises Exchange to Microsoft 365?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet moves businesses from Google Workspace, on-premises Exchange or older Microsoft 365 tenants onto a current set of Microsoft 365 licences. The work covers identity, moving mail and data, a security baseline, and user adoption.

The typical steps:
- Tenant readiness review: FirstNet checks your licence mix, identity, MFA, conditional access, Defender, Purview and SharePoint permissions. You sign off the list of fixes.
- Identity design: including hybrid identity if you keep Active Directory on your own servers.
- Pilot group: tests identity, security settings and how it all works for users, typically over 3 to 6 weeks.
- Migration waves: mail and data move in planned groups.
- Final cutover and adoption support: users switch over, with help to use the new tools.

FirstNet is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP). So it can supply your Microsoft 365 licences on one agreement, billed in rand. It reviews licence sizing every 90 days and assigns licences by persona group.

Once you are on Microsoft 365, plan for a separate backup too. Microsoft keeps the service running, but getting back deleted or encrypted data is your job. FirstNet's Microsoft 365 backup, powered by Druva, covers Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online and Teams.

Question 10

Can FirstNet support a hybrid cloud approach that mixes private and public cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet designs hybrid architectures that keep sensitive or regulated systems in private cloud while using public cloud for burst capacity and innovation, with the environments connected privately.

How FirstNet builds hybrid environments:

- FirstNet Private Cloud, hosted in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, for dedicated, locally hosted workloads with predictable building-block costs
- Private peering from Private Cloud to AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, so traffic does not rely on the public internet
- Azure landing zones for hyperscale and platform-as-a-service workloads, designed before migration waves start
- Colocation for hardware you keep, with cross-connects to cloud on-ramps such as Azure ExpressRoute and AWS Direct Connect at Teraco sites
- Hybrid identity, connecting on-premises Active Directory to Microsoft Entra ID for single sign-on, MFA and conditional access

Hybrid is the most common architecture today, and many organisations use both Private Cloud and Azure. The right split depends on each workload's performance, compliance and cost profile, which FirstNet assesses during discovery. Hybrid designs also suit gradual migrations, where some systems move first and others stay on-premises until they are ready. As a Microsoft CSP, FirstNet can supply the Azure licensing on the same rand-billed agreement.

Question 11

Can FirstNet support multi-site disaster recovery across cities with colocation?

Accepted Answer

Yes. Multi-site designs are common with FirstNet colocation, for example the Durban data centre paired with a Teraco site in another metro. FirstNet designs around your RPO, RTO and connectivity, and can add Backup as a Service or DRaaS.

Typical multi-site patterns:

- Production in your own server room or at FirstNet Durban, with DR in a Teraco site in Johannesburg or Cape Town
- Production at a Teraco site, with DR at FirstNet Durban or in another Teraco metro
- Colocated hardware for production, with FirstNet DRaaS replicating virtual machines to reserved capacity in a FirstNet data centre
- Veeam-powered backup sending offsite copies to another location for data recovery

A second colocation site gives you a geographically separate recovery facility without owning a second data centre. FirstNet provides connectivity between sites, such as MPLS or SD-WAN links, and coordinates cross-connects at Teraco.

To design it, FirstNet needs your RPO and RTO targets, where primary workloads run today and how much data changes each day, because replication bandwidth must match your recovery point objective. Complex DR designs get early specialist input, and recovery targets remain design targets unless explicitly contracted.

Question 12

Can Microsoft CSP licences from FirstNet be used to host services for our own customers?

Accepted Answer

Not by default. Microsoft CSP licences bought through FirstNet are designed for your organisation's own use. If you plan to host services for third parties, talk to FirstNet first so it can review licensing eligibility before you buy.

Microsoft's licensing terms distinguish between software your own staff use and software you use to provide services to other organisations. Hosting for third parties is usually covered by separate service-provider licensing arrangements, so the right answer depends on what you are hosting and for whom.

When you raise it, FirstNet captures your current agreements, the workloads involved and who will use them, then confirms which licensing route fits. Getting this right up front avoids compliance problems at audit time.

Question 13

Can our users keep working during a FirstNet DRaaS failover?

Accepted Answer

Yes, when access is planned in advance. FirstNet designs access and routing so key functions stay online while recovery proceeds, with users and administrators reaching recovered systems in the FirstNet DR site through an agreed secure access model.

What makes this work:

- Reserved compute, memory and storage, so replicas can start without waiting for capacity
- Failover of single VMs or whole groups, in an agreed recovery order
- A network model for the DR site, using the same IP ranges or new ranges with address translation
- Secure access, such as a hosted firewall VDOM and VPN, scoped in your proposal
- Ready dependencies, including DNS and Active Directory

During a DR event you declare the incident, replicas are started in the DR site, users connect through the agreed access model, and systems run from DR while your primary site is restored. Failback then returns services to the primary site under change control.

Users can only work straight away if dependencies and secure access are ready and the failover order has been agreed and tested. That is why FirstNet captures these details during onboarding and validates them in DR tests.

Question 14

Can we burst from FirstNet Private Cloud into public cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet architects hybrid options that link your private estate to Azure or AWS for elastic capacity, so steady workloads run in FirstNet Private Cloud while burst or development workloads use public cloud.

How the connection works:

- Private peering: FirstNet Private Cloud supports private, secure peering with AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform, so traffic does not rely on the public internet
- Site connectivity: site-to-site VPN, internet access and private dedicated links over FirstNet's carrier-neutral fibre footprint
- Azure landing zones: designed by FirstNet before workloads move, with tagging and budget alerts from day one
- Licensing: Azure can be supplied through FirstNet's Microsoft CSP agreement on one rand invoice

Hybrid designs suit organisations that keep sensitive or regulated workloads private while scaling other workloads into public cloud when required, and they also support gradual migrations.

Private Cloud itself is a dedicated IaaS platform, not a public-cloud-style multi-region active/active service. Within it, capacity can be adjusted as demand changes, and site-level failover uses geographic DR to a second FirstNet data centre. FirstNet designs the connectivity and segmentation for hybrid workloads, such as internet-facing versus private-only, during the sizing workshop.

Question 15

Can we choose between VMware and Hyper-V on FirstNet Private Cloud?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Private Cloud runs on either VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, and you choose. Most organisations pick the hypervisor that matches their team's existing skills and the environment they are migrating from, which keeps the migration simpler.

What to weigh up:

- Existing estate: aligning with your current hypervisor reduces conversion work during migration
- Team skills: your administrators keep working with platforms they know
- Disaster recovery: FirstNet DRaaS replicates both VMware vSphere and Hyper-V virtual machines
- Backup: Veeam protects workloads on either hypervisor

Whichever you choose, the platform underneath is the same: Dell PowerEdge clusters, Infinidat tiered storage, high availability and live migration, managed through the Hybr portal. The recommended baseline of a virtual firewall and immutable Veeam backups applies to both.

Your preference is captured in the discovery and sizing workshop. It affects provisioning timelines, together with your connectivity scope (internet only, VPN or dedicated links, or hybrid cloud peering) and any firewall or segmentation complexity. Complex migrations with many dependencies or tight downtime windows get a dedicated technical workshop before timelines are committed.

Question 16

Can we keep our data in South Africa with FirstNet cloud services?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet Private Cloud runs in FirstNet data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, and all FirstNet colocation sites are in South Africa.

Your solution design confirms the exact hosting and disaster recovery (DR) sites. It also sets out any data residency wording. Where each service keeps your data:
- Private Cloud: virtual machines, storage and immutable backups in FirstNet's Durban, Johannesburg or Cape Town data centres.
- Colocation: your own hardware in FirstNet's Durban data centre, or in Teraco sites in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban.
- Disaster recovery: a second FirstNet data centre in a different city, so DR can stay local too.
- Offsite server backups: the Veeam Data Cloud Vault Non-Core catalogue includes South African regions, where available.
- Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace backup: hosting regions vary by service. FirstNet confirms them during qualification.

Keeping data in the country supports designs aligned with POPIA. But compliance is shared. Your settings, how you classify data and your governance also decide the outcome. If you need specific residency wording in your contract, FirstNet reviews it before it commits in writing.

Question 17

Can we leave FirstNet later if we buy Microsoft licences through its CSP agreement?

Accepted Answer

Yes. You keep ownership of your tenant data under Microsoft's terms, and FirstNet supports partner-of-record transfer to another CSP or to direct Microsoft purchasing. Cancellation rules follow the New Commerce Experience (NCE) term you selected.

What to know about leaving:

- Your data: tenant data stays yours under Microsoft's terms, whichever partner you use
- Partner of record: can be transferred to another CSP or to buying direct from Microsoft
- Monthly terms: cancellation is possible within the initial 7-day window
- Annual and three-year terms: commit you for the term, so plan changes around anniversaries
- Mixed terms: you can hold different terms on different licences for more flexibility

Choosing terms carefully up front is the best protection. Monthly terms suit pilots, contractors and seasonal staff, annual terms are the default for production, and three-year terms lock the unit price for stable estates.

FirstNet plans renewals 90 days ahead and reviews terms against actual usage, so you have a regular point to adjust, reduce or move licences. Managed services, where you have them, are scoped separately and follow their own contract terms. If you also use FirstNet Private Cloud, you own that data too, and an exit with secure deprovisioning and data handover is available under your contract.

Question 18

Can we move our Microsoft licences to FirstNet from another CSP?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet supports partner-of-record transitions from other Cloud Solution Providers and from direct Microsoft purchasing. A tenant readiness review is part of the transition, so any inherited security gaps are documented and prioritised.

How the move works:

- Discovery: FirstNet captures your current agreements, licence counts, renewal dates and next workload
- Tenant readiness review: identity, MFA, conditional access, Defender, Purview and SharePoint permissions are checked
- CSP transition: your existing tenant moves to FirstNet as partner of record
- Group-based licensing: licences are assigned by persona group, which prevents drift and simplifies audits

After the move, you receive one consolidated monthly invoice in rand, a right-sizing review every 90 days, and Azure consumption summaries and optimisation reviews if you use Azure. A customer success manager owns the relationship, with quarterly business reviews.

Timing matters under Microsoft's New Commerce Experience, because cancellation rules follow the term you originally selected. FirstNet confirms your term dates and renewal timing up front and plans renewals 90 days ahead. If your current CSP also provides managed services, FirstNet scopes any replacement managed service explicitly rather than assuming it.

Question 19

Can we pilot Microsoft 365 Copilot with FirstNet before rolling it out to everyone?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and starting with a pilot is the recommended approach. A FirstNet Copilot pilot usually involves a defined group of about 50 to 100 users over 6 to 8 weeks, with measurable adoption and value indicators, before you decide whether to scale.

How a pilot typically runs:

- Confirm licences: pilot users need Microsoft 365 E3, E5, Business Standard or Business Premium as a prerequisite
- Prepare data: clean up Purview labels and SharePoint permissions so Copilot only surfaces what people are allowed to see
- Choose the cohort: a defined group whose daily work in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook and Teams suits AI assistance
- Support adoption: training and change management so users get value quickly
- Measure and decide: review adoption and value indicators, then scale, adjust or stop

Copilot is a per-user add-on with an annual commitment by default, so a pilot cohort limits commitment while you learn. FirstNet supplies the licences through its Microsoft CSP agreement on one rand invoice, with readiness and adoption support alongside them.

No productivity return is promised up front: the pilot exists to show what Copilot delivers in your organisation. If prerequisites are missing, FirstNet addresses them first, usually through a tenant readiness review.

Question 20

Can we run high-density equipment in FirstNet colocation?

Accepted Answer

Yes, within limits. Power in FirstNet colocation scales per rack, but very dense designs may need to be spread across racks to stay within power and thermal limits, so FirstNet sizes it from your equipment list and power draw.

How power and cooling are allocated:

- Each full rack includes a base allocation of about 2.2 kVA on redundant A and B feeds
- Power is metered continuously and can be scaled in steps of about 1.1 kVA, typically up to about 3.3 kVA per rack
- Cabinets are 600 mm or 800 mm wide and take equipment up to about 1.2 m deep
- N+1 precision cooling with hot and cold aisle containment manages heat loads
- Dense workloads can be split across several racks to stay within per-rack limits

If you run high-density hardware, such as blade servers or GPU systems, share the equipment list with power draw and cooling requirements, and your target load per rack now and in 12 months. FirstNet's data centre team validates the design. Extremely dense requirements may need a bespoke approach, such as specialised power circuits, which can affect both cost and timing, so raising them early avoids surprises at installation.

Question 21

Can we use FirstNet Managed DR with our own Veeam licences?

Accepted Answer

No. FirstNet Managed DR can only be added when Veeam Backup & Replication is licensed and provided by FirstNet under the Veeam Cloud & Service Provider (VCSP) programme. If you use Veeam licences bought elsewhere, you can still take Platform-Only DRaaS and run replication and failover yourself.

Your options with existing Veeam licences:

- Platform-Only DRaaS: FirstNet provides reserved DR capacity, replication tenancy and platform support, and you operate it from your own Veeam console
- Backup as a Service Track 2: keep your licences and send offsite backup copies to a FirstNet repository, with an optional managed service
- Move to FirstNet VCSP licensing: Managed DR becomes available once an approved migration to FirstNet-provided licensing is confirmed

Under the VCSP model, FirstNet supplies Veeam licensing per protected workload as a monthly service rather than a perpetual purchase, and handles licensing administration and support entitlements. Where Veeam Data Platform Premium is in scope, it includes Veeam ONE for monitoring and reporting, which Managed DR uses to track replica health.

FirstNet does not sell standalone Veeam licences, so licensing always comes as part of a FirstNet backup or DR service.

Question 22

Do South African businesses need local cloud hosting, and does FirstNet provide it?

Accepted Answer

Often, yes. For latency, POPIA and industry compliance, and data sovereignty, hosting in South Africa is frequently essential, and FirstNet hosts its Private Cloud in its own data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town.

Local hosting helps in three main ways:

- Latency: applications used every day from South African offices respond better when servers are close to users.
- Compliance: keeping regulated data in the country supports data sovereignty designs aligned to POPIA and sector rules.
- Recovery: with three local data centres you can place disaster recovery in a different region without leaving South Africa.

For your own hardware, FirstNet offers colocation in its Durban data centre and in Teraco facilities in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. Where you also use Azure, AWS or Google Cloud, private peering connects those workloads to your locally hosted estate without relying on the public internet.

Local hosting does not make you compliant on its own: your configuration, data classification and governance still matter. FirstNet confirms the exact hosting and disaster recovery locations, and any residency wording, in your solution design.

Question 23

Do we need FirstNet laptop backup if we already use OneDrive or Google Drive?

Accepted Answer

Often, yes. Not all business data lives in OneDrive or Google Drive, and files kept only on a device can be lost if the device is lost, fails or is hit by local ransomware. FirstNet Endpoint Backup, powered by Druva, protects selected user and device data on Windows, macOS and Linux laptops and desktops.

Why sync is not the same as backup:

- Files saved outside synced folders are not copied to the cloud at all
- Ransomware can encrypt synced files, and the encrypted versions sync too
- A lost, stolen or failed laptop takes any unsynced work with it
- Sync keeps copies current, but it is not an independent copy you can restore from

Endpoint Backup is licensed per protected device, with no backup servers to run. It does not cover Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace application data, which needs its own backup subscription, so organisations often combine Endpoint Backup with Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace Backup.

Endpoint backup is most valuable in laptop-heavy organisations where business-critical data lives outside OneDrive or Drive. If nobody owns monitoring and restores, the optional FirstNet Managed Backup Service can run it for you, including restore support when a device is lost or fails.

Question 24

Do we need to run backup servers to protect Microsoft 365 with FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

No. FirstNet Cloud Backup Services, powered by Druva, are cloud-native, so there are no backup servers or storage for you to buy, install or maintain. You choose the workloads to protect, and the service keeps an independent copy you can restore from.

What you choose:

- Microsoft 365 Backup: Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Teams, Groups and Entra ID, per protected user
- Google Workspace Backup: Gmail, Drive including Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts, per protected user
- Endpoint Backup: selected data on Windows, macOS and Linux devices, per protected device
- Managed Backup Service: an optional add-on in which FirstNet handles implementation, monitoring, remediation, reporting and restore support

You can combine these in any mix under a single FirstNet contract. Because there is no infrastructure to run, the main operational question is who monitors jobs, fixes failures and handles restores, including after hours. If you do not have staff for that, the Managed Backup Service fills the gap.

For on-premises or hosted servers and virtual machines, FirstNet Backup as a Service uses Veeam instead: your environment runs Veeam Backup & Replication and sends encrypted copies to a FirstNet cloud vault.

Question 25

Does FirstNet DRaaS support physical servers?

Accepted Answer

Not through replication. FirstNet DRaaS replication is for VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V virtual machines. Physical servers are protected with FirstNet Backup as a Service instead, and in a disaster their backups can be restored into new virtual machines in the FirstNet DR environment.

How the recovery patterns differ:

- Virtual machines: replicated into reserved DR capacity and started as replicas during failover, which is the preferred DR architecture
- Physical servers: backed up with agents to the offsite vault, then restored into a new VM in the DR site when needed
- Physical-to-virtual and physical-to-physical replication: not supported

The recover-from-backup approach still makes physical workloads recoverable, but you should expect a longer recovery time than with VM-based replication, because each server has to be restored before it can run.

During discovery, FirstNet records which workloads are virtual and which are physical, so that recovery expectations for each are clear in your design. If a physical system is business-critical, raise it early so its recovery time objective can be set realistically and the right mix of Backup as a Service and DRaaS can be scoped.

Question 26

Does FirstNet offer isolated recovery for ransomware resilience?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet maintains offline or logically isolated backup copies, sometimes called air-gapped copies, to ensure a clean recovery path even in a worst-case attack.

How isolation fits into FirstNet's layered approach:

- Immutable backups: write-once copies that attackers cannot modify or delete during retention
- Isolated recovery points: copies kept apart from production for worst-case scenarios
- Offsite vault: Backup as a Service sends encrypted copies to a separate cloud vault over an encrypted TLS channel
- Isolated test environments: DR tests run in isolated recovery environments that do not affect live production
- Threat detection: backup anomaly alerts and malware scanning help catch problems early

The aim is to restore from a point you know is clean, contain the blast radius and bring systems back in a controlled order. Regular restore testing and documentation prove that the recovery path works before you need it.

FirstNet can run a resilience review to validate backup integrity, recovery times and threat detection coverage. Recovery objectives are defined by application tier during design, so the most critical systems get the strongest protection and the fastest recovery path.

Question 27

Does FirstNet only sell cloud platforms, or can it also help with Microsoft licensing?

Accepted Answer

Both. FirstNet is a Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) and Microsoft Solutions Partner, so Microsoft 365, Azure and Microsoft security add-ons can sit on one agreement next to your FirstNet Private Cloud, backup, disaster recovery and colocation services.

What the CSP agreement covers:

- Microsoft 365 Business and Enterprise plans, Azure, Dynamics 365 and Power Platform
- Defender, Purview and Entra security and compliance add-ons, and Copilot for Microsoft 365
- One consolidated monthly invoice in rand, with FirstNet handling the US dollar conversion
- A licence right-sizing review at onboarding and every 90 days
- A monthly Azure consumption summary and a quarterly optimisation review

Because one team owns both the licensing and the platform, FirstNet can also design and deliver the migrations that go with it, such as Microsoft 365 moves from Google Workspace or on-premises Exchange, Azure landing zones and Azure Virtual Desktop. Private Cloud can peer privately with Azure, so hybrid designs that mix local hosting and Microsoft cloud services are supported. Enterprise Agreements are not transacted, but FirstNet can advise you and help you move to CSP at renewal.

Question 28

Does FirstNet own the Teraco data centre facilities it uses for colocation?

Accepted Answer

No. Teraco runs its own data centres, and FirstNet holds colocation space inside them. FirstNet adds the service layer on top: racks, connectivity, access arranged with Teraco's on-site teams, and one support contact.

FirstNet's Teraco space is at Isando (Johannesburg), Cape Town (CT1 and CT2) and Riverhorse (Durban). Who does what at these sites:
- Teraco: runs the building, site power and cooling, base physical security and campus rules.
- FirstNet: commercials and contracts, rack allocation in its space and power distribution in your racks. It also handles connectivity design and provisioning, access requests, remote hands coordination and support.
- You: your own hardware, operating systems and apps, and your authorised access contacts.

The site FirstNet does own is its Durban data centre in Durban. FirstNet designs, owns and runs this purpose-built Tier III-standard site. It is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001.

Teraco sites suit clients who need Johannesburg or Cape Town, or dense carrier and cloud ecosystems. They also suit disaster recovery (DR) across more than one city. Teraco Isando also gives access to the NAPAfrica internet exchange and cloud on-ramps. At any site you choose, FirstNet stays your one accountable provider. You do not have to manage several vendors.

Question 29

Does buying Microsoft licences through FirstNet make us POPIA compliant?

Accepted Answer

No, buying Microsoft licences through FirstNet does not make you POPIA compliant on its own. Compliance depends on how you set up and run your tenant, and under POPIA your business remains the responsible party.

Licences such as Entra ID, Defender and Purview give you strong controls for identity, security and data governance. FirstNet can help design and deploy them. How the licences help you work in line with POPIA:
- Entra ID P1, P2 and Governance: identity, MFA, conditional access and access governance.
- Defender XDR: protection from threats across your Microsoft setup.
- Purview: data loss prevention, labelling and eDiscovery.
- Group-based licensing: a clear, auditable way to give the right controls to the right people.

The licences provide the tools. Compliance comes from setting them up for your data, policies and risks, then running them and keeping evidence over time. FirstNet's tenant readiness review checks identity, MFA, conditional access, Defender, Purview and SharePoint permissions. It produces a ranked list of fixes.

Microsoft publishes its data residency commitments for each service in its Trust Center. Your tenant readiness review notes where your data is stored. Rules for your sector may add more needs. If you need signed compliance or residency wording, FirstNet reviews it before committing to it in writing.

Question 30

Doesn't Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace already back up our data?

Accepted Answer

Not in the way most organisations assume. Microsoft and Google keep their platforms available, but under the shared-responsibility model, recovering deleted or encrypted data and keeping long-term retention is up to you. FirstNet Cloud Backup Services, powered by Druva, give you an independent copy, so recovery does not depend on the platform you are trying to recover.

Common situations where an independent backup helps:

- A user or administrator deletes important mail, files or a SharePoint site
- Ransomware encrypts files that then sync to OneDrive or Google Drive
- You need to recover data beyond the platform's retention settings
- You need to show auditors that data can be restored

FirstNet Microsoft 365 Backup covers Exchange Online, OneDrive, SharePoint Online, Teams, Groups and Microsoft Entra ID, as configured. FirstNet Google Workspace Backup covers Gmail, Drive including Shared Drives, Calendar and Contacts. Both are licensed per protected user, with no backup servers to run and no storage-cap planning.

Retention features inside the platform, such as Microsoft Purview or Google Vault, serve compliance and eDiscovery rather than independent restore, so many regulated organisations use both. An optional managed service adds FirstNet-run monitoring and restore support.

Question 31

How are FirstNet Private Cloud backups protected against ransomware?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet Private Cloud's recommended baseline uses Veeam backups to immutable storage, so recovery points cannot be changed or deleted until retention expires. Retention is sized to your needs, typically 7, 14 or 30 days.

Ransomware and malicious insiders often try to delete or encrypt backups before striking production. Immutable recovery points stay intact for the full retention period, so you keep a clean point to restore from.

Layers that protect Private Cloud workloads:

- Veeam backup jobs writing to immutable storage, included in the recommended baseline
- A virtual firewall, Lite or Enterprise with UTM, for segmentation and controlled access
- Encryption of data at rest and in transit
- Optional geographic DR to a second FirstNet data centre with a failover runbook
- Longer offsite retention, scoped separately, for example through FirstNet Backup as a Service

Backup retention and immutability are documented in your solution design. Many customers start with a shorter retention period and extend it as compliance or recoverability requirements tighten. If you need guaranteed restore times, those are scoped separately rather than assumed. Testing restores regularly confirms that recovery works before you need it.

Question 32

How are immutable backups different from normal backups at FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

Immutable backups are write-once copies that cannot be altered or deleted within the retention window, so attackers cannot encrypt or erase them. FirstNet uses immutable storage for Private Cloud backups and in its Backup as a Service vault to give you a clean recovery point after ransomware.

Ransomware often goes after backups first, because traditional backups can be tampered with or encrypted by attackers. If your backups survive intact, you still have a clean point to restore from.

How FirstNet applies immutability:

- Private Cloud: Veeam backups write to immutable storage as part of the recommended baseline, with retention typically 7, 14 or 30 days
- Backup as a Service: data lands in the Veeam Data Cloud Vault encrypted and can be set as immutable for the retention period
- Vault editions: both Foundation and Advanced support immutability
- Deletion protection: recovery points cannot be changed or deleted until retention expires, which also guards against accidental or malicious deletion

Immutability works best as one layer among several. FirstNet also uses encryption in transit and at rest, isolated recovery copies, backup anomaly alerts and regular restore testing. Choose the retention and immutability period during design, because it sets how far back you can recover.

Question 33

How can FirstNet cloud backup help us follow the 3-2-1 backup rule?

Accepted Answer

The 3-2-1 rule calls for an offsite copy of your backups. If you already run Veeam on-premises, you can add FirstNet's Cloud Connect repository and create a backup copy job that sends each nightly backup to a FirstNet cloud vault, giving you a geographically separate copy without new hardware or separate backup software.

In brief, the rule says to keep three copies of your data, on two different types of storage, with one copy offsite. FirstNet Backup as a Service provides that offsite copy.

How it works:

- Your local Veeam backups keep running as normal
- A backup copy job sends data over an encrypted TLS channel through Veeam Cloud Connect
- The copy lands in the Veeam Data Cloud Vault, encrypted and optionally immutable
- GFS retention can keep weekly, monthly and yearly restore points
- If a disaster affects both your primary site and your local backups, you restore from the cloud copy

You can keep your own Veeam licences (Track 2) or use FirstNet-supplied licensing (Track 1). For residency, choose a Non-Core vault region, which can include South Africa, subject to availability. If you also want FirstNet to run the offsite copies, add the managed service.

Question 34

How do we access our equipment in a FirstNet colocation data centre?

Accepted Answer

Access to FirstNet colocation is a security control. FirstNet registers your authorised contacts and sets up scheduled and emergency access: full racks and cages allow scheduled visits after identity checks, shared racks need escorted access, and remote hands can reduce the need to visit.

How access works:

- Authorised contacts: only pre-authorised people can enter, and access logs are kept for audit purposes
- Scheduled visits: customers with full racks or private cages arrange access for authorised staff, following identity verification and escort procedures
- Shared racks: a FirstNet engineer escorts and assists you, to protect other tenants' equipment
- Emergency access: 24x7 support facilitates out-of-hours access or troubleshooting
- Remote hands: on-site help with reboots, cable checks and visual inspections

All sites have 24x7 guarding, biometric access control and CCTV. At Teraco facilities, FirstNet coordinates access requests with Teraco's on-site teams and follows Teraco's campus security rules alongside its own processes, so you still deal with one support contact.

Unannounced walk-in access should not be assumed. Tell FirstNet during discovery how often your engineers expect to visit and who needs authorisation, so the right access model is set up from day one.

Question 35

How does FirstNet Private Cloud differ from running our own on-premises servers?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet Private Cloud delivers dedicated resources with cloud-like automation, elasticity and managed operations, without the hardware burden. Instead of buying, racking and refreshing servers, you consume virtual servers, memory, tiered storage and networking hosted in FirstNet data centres in South Africa.

The main differences from running your own servers:

- Hardware: FirstNet runs the Dell PowerEdge clusters, Infinidat storage and data centre, so you never buy or refresh equipment
- Cost model: capital expenditure cycles are replaced by predictable operating costs, consumed per vCPU, GB of RAM and GB of storage by tier
- Scaling: RAM is allocated in 1 GB increments and resources can be adjusted as demand changes
- Resilience: high availability restarts VMs on another host if hardware fails, and live migration moves running VMs without downtime
- Security and recovery: a virtual firewall and Veeam backups to immutable storage form the recommended baseline
- Management: you provision, control and monitor VMs and usage in the Hybr portal

You still choose your hypervisor, VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V, so existing skills carry over. By default FirstNet runs the platform and you manage the operating systems and applications; optional Server Management adds OS monitoring and patching in business hours or 24x7.

Question 36

How does FirstNet control cloud costs during and after a migration?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet controls cloud costs by right-sizing workloads, applying reserved or predictable capacity where it fits, and implementing cost governance tooling from day one of a migration.

What that looks like in practice:

- Tagging applied at the Azure landing zone, so spend can be tracked by workload, team or project
- Budget alerts at 50%, 80% and 100% of spend, set by default
- A monthly Azure consumption summary and a quarterly optimisation review
- Reservations or Savings Plans applied once usage is steady, typically 60 to 90 days in
- FirstNet Private Cloud consumed as building blocks: per vCPU, per GB of RAM and per GB of storage by tier

Cloud cost is driven by design choices, not just resource size. The main drivers are compute and memory allocation, storage performance tiers, connectivity and bandwidth, and your security and resilience requirements. FirstNet uses a consumption-based model, billed monthly in arrears, so you can scale without penalty and keep cost visible.

Savings depend on your workloads, so no fixed percentage can be promised. Microsoft licence right-sizing reviews at onboarding and every 90 days also keep licence spend matched to what your users actually need.

Question 37

How does FirstNet keep Azure costs under control after migration?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet applies tagging at the Azure landing zone, sets budget alerts at 50%, 80% and 100% by default, provides a monthly consumption summary and a quarterly optimisation review, and applies Reservations or Savings Plans once usage is steady, typically 60 to 90 days in.

This FinOps approach starts on day one of the migration rather than after the first surprise bill:

- Tagging: applied when the landing zone is built, so every resource can be traced to a workload, team or cost centre
- Budget alerts: early warnings at 50% and 80% of budget, and a final alert at 100%
- Monthly consumption summary: shows where Azure spend is going
- Quarterly optimisation review: identifies idle or oversized resources to right-size
- Reservations or Savings Plans: applied once your usage pattern is stable

The unit price of Azure is the same whether you buy directly from Microsoft or through a CSP, so the real lever is how well consumption is managed. Savings depend on your workloads, so no fixed percentage can be promised. Because FirstNet is a Microsoft CSP, Azure is billed on the same monthly rand invoice as your other Microsoft licences, with FirstNet handling the US dollar conversion.

Question 38

How does FirstNet minimise downtime during a cloud migration?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet keeps downtime low during a cloud migration with replication, staged cutovers, rollback plans and after-hours change windows. Your services stay online while workloads move.

How a FirstNet migration runs:
- Discovery: FirstNet lists your workloads, maps how they depend on each other and checks readiness, so the move starts from a clear baseline.
- Landing zone design: FirstNet builds secure private, public or hybrid target environments to suit your compliance and performance needs.
- Migration waves: each phased cutover is rehearsed in advance, clearly communicated and backed by a rollback option.
- App modernisation: where it adds value, apps are containerised, refactored or automated.
- After the move: ongoing monitoring, cost governance and continual tuning.

Before wider waves, FirstNet proves the pattern on a small first step that matches your most urgent workload. For example, an Azure landing zone plus a first non-production workload typically takes 4 to 8 weeks.

For FirstNet Private Cloud, a discovery and sizing workshop comes before any migration timeline. FirstNet matches the target hypervisor (VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V) to your current setup to simplify the move. Complex migrations get a dedicated technical workshop before FirstNet commits to timelines. These include moves with many dependencies, tight downtime windows or regulated workloads.

Question 39

How long are FirstNet Private Cloud backups kept?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet Private Cloud backup retention is sized to your requirement and is typically 7, 14 or 30 days. Backups are written to immutable storage, so recovery points cannot be altered or deleted until the retention period ends, which protects against ransomware and accidental or malicious deletion.

Choosing a retention period:

- 7 days: covers recent mistakes and failures with the smallest storage footprint
- 14 days: more time to notice problems, such as corruption discovered after a week
- 30 days: a longer window for incidents that go unnoticed for a while
- Longer or offsite retention: scoped separately, for example through FirstNet Backup as a Service with GFS retention

Many customers start with a shorter period and extend it as compliance or recoverability requirements tighten. Because backup storage is consumed per GB, longer retention increases the storage you use, so the trade-off between recovery window and cost is worth discussing in discovery.

Retention, immutability and any compliance-driven recoverability requirement are captured in the discovery and sizing workshop and documented in the solution design. If you need guaranteed restore times, those are scoped separately rather than assumed.

Question 40

How long does it take to move into FirstNet colocation?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet colocation projects usually take several weeks of planning, especially when new connectivity or equipment moves are involved. The exact timeline depends on your site, footprint, power needs and the links or cross-connects you need, and FirstNet confirms it during solution design.

The onboarding steps:

- Design: FirstNet confirms site, space, power, connectivity and access model from your equipment list
- Prepare: racks or cages are allocated, power circuits configured and network patching prepared
- Install and connect: FirstNet helps rack and cable your equipment while links and cross-connects are provisioned
- Test and hand over: A/B power failover, environmental monitors and network links are tested before handover to support

Lead times for cross-connects and access approvals, particularly at Teraco sites, depend on the site and the type of interconnect, so they are validated rather than assumed. The aim is to have circuits in place by the time hardware is installed, so testing can happen immediately.

If you have a fixed deadline, such as a lease ending, an audit or a peak season, share it early so FirstNet can check feasibility. If you are moving from another colocation provider or closing a data centre, migration or hardware relocation assistance can be scoped.

Question 41

How much power is included with a FirstNet colocation rack?

Accepted Answer

A full FirstNet colocation rack comes with a base power allocation of about 2.2 kVA, delivered over redundant A and B feeds. Power use is metered continuously, and if you consistently need more you can add capacity in increments of about 1.1 kVA, typically up to about 3.3 kVA per rack.

How power is protected at the Durban data centre:

- Redundant UPS systems and backup generators holding over 24 hours of full-load fuel
- Power and cooling designed with no single point of failure
- N+1 precision cooling with hot and cold aisle containment
- Around-the-clock monitoring by FirstNet's Rapid Response team

Very dense equipment may need to be spread across several racks to stay within per-rack power and cooling limits. If you run high-density hardware, such as blade servers or GPU systems, raise it early so FirstNet can discuss options such as multiple racks or specialised power circuits.

Your equipment list and power draw are checked before your space is allocated, and A/B power failover is tested before handover. Sharing your expected load now and in 12 months helps FirstNet allocate the right power from the start.

Question 42

How much rack space can we rent in FirstNet colocation?

Accepted Answer

You can rent as little as one rack unit in FirstNet colocation. Shared racks cater for 1 to 9U, quarter-rack (10 to 11U) and half-rack (about 20U) blocks suit moderate needs, and dedicated, lockable 42U full racks suit larger or more security-sensitive deployments.

The space options:

- Shared rack, per U: from 1U, with your equipment physically separated from other customers and access supervised
- Quarter or half rack: larger contiguous blocks in shared enclosures
- Dedicated full rack: a 42U locking cabinet for one customer, 600 mm or 800 mm wide, with standard power distribution and structured cabling support
- Multiple racks or a private cage: for larger installations

Your choice affects access. Full racks and cages allow scheduled visits by authorised staff after identity checks, while shared racks need escorted access.

When sizing, think about growth over the next 12 to 24 months as well as today. If a full rack is likely later, starting in a dedicated rack can make sense even if you only fill part of it now. Power is allocated per rack, so FirstNet sizes space and power together from your equipment list.

Question 43

How often does FirstNet recommend testing disaster recovery?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet recommends quarterly DR tests for critical systems and twice-yearly tests for others, with ad-hoc tests after major changes. On FirstNet Managed DR, quarterly test restores from replicas are included by default.

What a sensible testing programme looks like:

- Tier your applications so the most critical systems are tested most often
- Use quarterly test restores to prove that replicas and backups can be recovered
- Plan full failover tests, where systems run from the DR site, as separately scoped events with change control
- Retest after major changes, such as new servers, network changes or application upgrades
- Record outcomes and feed lessons learned back into the runbook and architecture

Tests run in isolated recovery environments, so live production is not affected. Each planned test needs agreed scope and success criteria, a test window, available application owners, ready dependencies such as DNS and Active Directory, and an agreed evidence format for auditors or management.

On Platform-Only DRaaS your team owns test planning and execution, while on Managed DR FirstNet runs the scheduled test restores and reports the results. Either way, regular testing is what turns a DR plan into a proven recovery capability.

Question 44

How often should we test backup restores, according to FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

At least quarterly is a good benchmark. FirstNet recommends regular restore tests to prove recoverability, and if you cannot show recent restore tests and audit evidence when asked, that is usually the sign to bring in FirstNet managed backup operations.

A backup job that reports success does not prove you can recover. Restore tests show that data is intact, that people know the process, and how long recovery actually takes.

A practical testing approach:

- Test the scenarios you worry about most: a single item, a full user, a full site or a bulk event
- Test at least quarterly, and again after major changes
- Record results as evidence for auditors and management
- Compare restore times with what the business expects, and adjust plans
- Assign a named owner, including for failures that happen after hours

FirstNet's Managed Backup Service adds monitoring, remediation, reporting and restore support for Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and endpoint backup. For servers, fully managed Backup as a Service includes periodic test restores, and Managed DR includes quarterly test restores from replicas by default. Typical Microsoft 365 restore times range from minutes for a single item to days for a bulk event.

Question 45

How quickly can FirstNet restore deleted Microsoft 365 data?

Accepted Answer

It depends on what you are restoring. With FirstNet Microsoft 365 Backup, a single email or file typically takes minutes, a full user's mailbox and OneDrive typically takes hours, and a full SharePoint site or Teams content can take hours to one or two days.

Typical restore bands:

- Single email or OneDrive file: minutes, driven by search time and Microsoft's responsiveness
- Full user (mailbox and OneDrive): hours, driven by data size and Microsoft throttling
- Full SharePoint site or Teams content: hours to one or two days, driven by site size, item and version count, and SharePoint throttling
- Bulk event across many users: days, managed through a prioritised runbook

These are typical ranges, not SLAs. Actual times depend on tenant size, item size, Microsoft throttling and connectivity, and on whether you restore to the original or an alternate location.

If restore time is a hard requirement, FirstNet confirms it with a short proof of concept before you commit. For bulk events such as a ransomware incident, planning the restore order in advance makes the biggest difference, which is where the optional Managed Backup Service and regular restore testing help.

Question 46

How resilient is FirstNet's Durban data centre?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet's Durban data centre is a purpose-built Tier III-standard facility designed, owned and operated by FirstNet, with power and cooling designed to have no single point of failure. It is certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001.

Resilience and security features:

- Redundant UPS with backup generators holding over 24 hours of full-load fuel
- N+1 precision cooling with hot and cold aisle containment
- White space kept around 22 °C ± 2 °C and 40 to 50% humidity
- 24x7 security, biometric access control, CCTV and fire suppression
- Diverse fibre paths from multiple carriers, with direct ties into FirstNet's core network
- Environmental monitoring around the clock by FirstNet's Rapid Response team

Each rack receives redundant A and B power feeds, A/B failover is tested before handover, and environmental sensors track temperature, humidity and leaks.

FirstNet Durban suits KwaZulu-Natal organisations moving out of server rooms, national customers that need a Durban-region DR site, and hybrid designs where colocated hardware connects directly to FirstNet's private cloud. Availability commitments are set out in your contracted SLA rather than as a blanket promise, so raise any contractual uptime requirement with FirstNet during discovery.

Question 47

Is Azure cheaper if we buy directly from Microsoft rather than through FirstNet?

Accepted Answer

No. The unit price for Azure is the same whether you buy directly from Microsoft or through a Cloud Solution Provider such as FirstNet. What changes your Azure bill is how well consumption is managed.

The levers that actually move Azure cost:

- Tagging: applied at the landing zone, so every resource can be traced to a workload or cost centre
- Budgets: alerts at 50%, 80% and 100% of spend, set by default
- Right-sizing: matching virtual machine and service sizes to real usage
- Reservations or Savings Plans: applied once your usage pattern is steady, usually 60 to 90 days in
- Regular review: a monthly consumption summary and a quarterly optimisation review from FirstNet

Savings depend on your workloads, so no fixed percentage can be promised. The value of buying through FirstNet is the discipline around consumption, plus one monthly rand invoice that consolidates Azure with your other Microsoft licences, with FirstNet absorbing the US dollar conversion.

Azure pay-as-you-go is billed on actual consumption. If you are planning a migration, FirstNet designs the landing zone with FinOps built in from day one, so optimisation is actionable rather than retrofitted after the first large bill.

Question 48

Is FirstNet DRaaS capacity reserved for us or shared on a best-effort basis?

Accepted Answer

It is reserved. FirstNet DRaaS sets aside virtual CPU, memory and replica storage for each protected workload in advance, rather than relying on capacity becoming available when a disaster happens.

Why reservation matters:

- Predictability: recovery is planned, even during events that affect several customers at once
- Sizing: capacity is matched to your VM count and the vCPU, RAM and disk of each protected server
- Isolation: Veeam Cloud Connect allocates compute, storage and network resources per tenant, keeping your data segregated from other customers
- Review: capacity is reviewed as workloads change and resized when servers are added or grow

This is the main difference between DRaaS and backup. Backup as a Service stores your data but reserves no compute, so restoring whole systems means finding somewhere to run them. DRaaS keeps that place ready.

Reserved capacity is sized during onboarding from your workload list and recovery targets. Where reporting is in scope, reserved capacity status is reported, typically monthly or quarterly, so you can see that it still covers the systems in scope. Best-effort public cloud DR is not part of this service.

Question 49

Is FirstNet ISO 27001 certified?

Accepted Answer

Yes. FirstNet's information security management system (ISMS) is certified to ISO 27001, and its quality management system (QMS) to ISO 9001. Its own Durban data centre is also certified to ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO 9001.

What this means, along with FirstNet's other credentials:
- ISO 27001: formal security governance, risk management, change control, monitoring and incident response, all under audit.
- ISO 9001: written processes for service delivery and continual improvement.
- ICASA licences for electronic communications services and networks (ECS and ECNS).
- BBBEE Level 1 contributor status.

The scope of each certificate matters. If you need a named certificate for a certain site or service, FirstNet confirms the scope for that site first. It does this before it commits anything in writing. At Teraco colocation sites, each campus has its own scope. So FirstNet confirms the evidence for the site you choose.

A certificate alone also does not make your workloads compliant. Compliance with POPIA and sector rules is shared. FirstNet's certified systems cover the platform. Your own settings, data classification and governance shape the final result.

Question 50

Is FirstNet Private Cloud compliant with POPIA?

Accepted Answer

FirstNet Private Cloud runs under ISO 27001 and ISO 9001 certified management systems and hosts workloads in South Africa. But POPIA compliance is shared, so your own settings, data classification and governance also shape the outcome.

What FirstNet provides:
- Local hosting in FirstNet data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. This helps keep your data in South Africa.
- ISO 27001 governance: security risk management, change control, monitoring and incident response, all under audit.
- Platform controls: role-based access control, MFA, encryption at rest and in transit, and central logging.
- A recommended baseline: a virtual firewall to split up your network, and Veeam backups that cannot be changed (immutable).

What stays with you: under POPIA, your business is the responsible party. You decide what personal information you process, how it is classified, who can access it and how long you keep it. Those choices, and how you set up your virtual machines and apps, decide whether your processing meets the Act.

Before it commits anything in writing, FirstNet reviews any specific compliance wording or residency clauses. The same goes for security questionnaires and certification evidence. Raise them early in discovery to keep your project on schedule.

Cloud questions & answers