Case Study
Interloc Freight Services
BidAir Cargo (Pty) Ltd acquired Interloc Freight Services (Pty) Ltd on 1 November 2023 and Mr Hans Goosen, IT General Manager, was then tasked with the job of analysing the existing network from an overarching appropriateness perspective:
Based on the modern and up to date SD-WAN “Network as a Service” that BidAir Cargo currently deploys and the many benefits that BidAir is enjoying based on:
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State of the art Network Security
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Always On Availability (automatic failover to redundant and diverse links)
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Site to Data Centre Connectivity with dynamic switching and inherent Disaster Recovery capability
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Remote Access
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Meaningful Reporting and Alerting Events and built in diagnostic tools
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Auditing
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Cost Containment
A benchmark was used to rate the Interloc network:
The following deficiencies and risks existed:
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Stand alone per site networking normally associated with a home user deployment rather than a business level implementation. Varying level of security per site with no oversight capability.
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High risk when exposed to the public internet
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Router based with no decent firewalls
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Manual make good under failure
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High levels of downtime
It was decided to deploy a new and separate network for Interloc, using the same technology and service partner as BidAir and the entire network was “forklifted” within 2 weeks including the procurement of LTE/5G services for backup at all sites. Existing fibre connections were retained, but are now fully monitored and managed.
The existing BidAir Data Centre facilities are leveraged to contain costs and simplify the overall design while keeping the BidAir and Interloc networks logically completely isolated from each other.
Interloc now enjoys increased bandwidth, security, visibility, availability and control as well as Layer 7 visibility and control of applications, whilst remaining POPIA Compliant.
5th Mountain’s “SD-WAN as a Service” makes mergers and acquisitions easy to integrate and as usual 5th Mountain’s professional build and ongoing service is impressive and consistent.