Public cloud suits many workloads, but not all of them. Some organisations cannot place data in a public cloud suite for security, regulatory or cost reasons, and others simply want to know exactly where their systems run and who supports them. For them, FirstNet runs a private cloud hosted in South Africa.
Built on the platforms you already use
FirstNet’s private cloud runs on VMware vSphere or Microsoft Hyper-V. Because these are the same hypervisors most businesses already run on their own servers, existing virtual machines can move across without a large migration project or a rewrite of how applications work.
Self-service, with the network and security included
A hybrid cloud orchestration platform gives customers one place to manage their environment:
- Provision virtual machines and resources when they are needed
- Manage firewalling and enterprise networking for the environment
- See what the cloud is costing, including licence costs, as it happens
Firewall protection and immutable backups are part of the baseline, and FirstNet can connect the private cloud to Microsoft Azure, AWS and Google Cloud over private peering when a workload does belong in public cloud.
Hosted and supported in South Africa
Private cloud workloads run in FirstNet data centres in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town, so data stays in the country and disaster recovery can sit in a different region. The same team that runs the network, the security and the support desk runs the platform, so there is one partner accountable for the whole environment.
Why private cloud still matters
In a 2022 interview with Africa Outlook, FirstNet Managing Director Vaughan Gerson described the private cloud platform as “super-relevant” to many enterprise customers. That has not changed: businesses want cloud flexibility without giving up control of where their data lives.
Explore private cloud hosting and management, cloud migration, backup and disaster recovery and all cloud services.
Background: FirstNet Technology Services: Connectivity Comes First, Africa Outlook, 28 November 2022.