Routed is Dedicated to Helping Africa’s Businesses Attain the Solid and Secure Cloud Infrastructure They Need to Prosper and Grow

Andrew Cruise, managing director of Routed, views the company’s support of enterprises throughout Africa as more than a technological endeavor.

“Routed empowers its partners and its customers to prosper and grow, grounded by solid and secure cloud infrastructure foundations,” says Cruise. “In much the same way, the baobob tree provides for people in Africa’s savannah regions – serving as the tree of life and giving them the materials they need for shelter, clothing, food, and water – all while providing the roots that serve as a strong foundation. We like to think of ourselves as the baobob of cloud infrastructure providers.”

The first provider in Africa to achieve the VMware Cloud Verified status, Routed offers an integrated cloud platform that addresses enterprises’ cloud, disaster recovery, and application development needs. In addition to serving customers in a wide array of industries, the company also provides ISPs and telecommunications companies with infrastructure they can white label, package, and offer as value-added services.

“We’ve taken the cloud IP we amassed and used it to develop solutions that make the cloud viable for even the smallest businesses,” adds Cruise. “On the other end of the spectrum are the self-service offerings our partners offer through the channel and in conjunction with their own products. Our typical end user is a medium to enterprise-level organization in South Africa that has an existing cloud strategy or is looking to migrate parts of their network into the cloud.”

Cruise notes that these organizations are IT savvy, aware of the benefits of the cloud, and want to maximize the returns associated with their cloud investment. In the channel, the company typically works with resellers and managed service providers that offer support for Routed’s VMware Cloud products and solutions.

VMware brings ‘significant strength’

“Working with VMware brings significant strength to our offerings,” he says. “The VMware Cloud Verified badge signals to customers that we offer a service running on top of the complete VMware Cloud Infrastructure stack. It demonstrates that they can attain access to the full set of VMware capabilities including integration and interoperability, cost optimization, and flexibility. Routed’s VMware Cloud is also an ideal platform into which enterprises can expand their on-premises VMware infrastructure, particularly when a ‘big bang’ approach with one ‘lift and shift’ deployment is not practical.”

Notably, Routed offers a number of connectivity options, including ones that address clients’ needs for both physical and software-defined environments and that enable seamless and secure connectivity between customers’ data centers and Routed’s private cloud. These options including private cross-connects and virtual cross-connects.

“Many of our customers no longer want to manage their legacy compute, storage, and networking infrastructure and are ready for the flexibility and agility of the cloud,” says Cruise. “Our VMware Cloud is the ideal cloud destination and the perfect platform for these customers’ business-critical applications.”

In addition to providing Routed’s Cloud Verified VMware Cloud, the company also offers a VMware-powered DRaaS.

Routed also offers a multi-cloud application development service as extensions to its VMware Cloud. Through the VMware Cloud Director user interface, customers can manage and deploy containers and deploy virtual applications as VMs or containers from the company’s curated catalog using VMware App Launchpad.

“Cloud computing provides a natural extension to service-oriented architecture and the Internet,” Cruise observes. “It leads to a complete paradigm shift in a number of areas such as software development, deployment, IT usage, and the software services industry. Among these areas, the impact on software development requires special attention as it plays a pivotal role in cloud assessment and migration. It is clear that the cloud surge will continue and Africa will continue to be a significant player within the global cloud. We look forward to being an active participant in the developing cloud sector across the continent.”

Learn more about Routed and its partnership with VMware here.