Computerworld

​Spotlight on software-defined enterprise as ViFX teams up with VMware NZ

“Over the past eight years, all the projects have led to this point...'
John Drayton - Country Manager, VMware New Zealand

John Drayton - Country Manager, VMware New Zealand

IT infrastructure and cloud specialists ViFX is partnering with VMware, in a collaboration focused on building a software-defined approach to business in New Zealand.

Designed to enable businesses to operate at greater speed while also cutting costs, the partnership aims to point local organisations into the direction of the Software Defined Data Centre (SDDC) - in a bid to keep up with ongoing industry disruption.

Across New Zealand, and indeed the world, technology has now advanced far enough to make any domain of IT infrastructure - compute, networking and storage - entirely serviceable with a layer of software.

It’s a thought shared by James Knapp, CTO and Cloud Architect, ViFX, who believes digital transformation can be better achieved by bringing the power and advantages of virtualisation to the entire IT infrastructure of a business.

“The result,” as Knapp explains, “is an environment that can deliver IT as a Service (ITaaS) quickly, consistently and reliably.”

But perhaps crucially, Knapp believes the move allows local businesses to “embrace the best of cloud-based models”, including hybrid cloud; often favoured by New Zealand organisations.

“Every conceivable industry is being confronted with customer-facing digitisation, as new technology arises and traditional barriers are broken down,” he adds.

However, Knapp believes IT innovation is hindered by complex IT environments and legacy systems, meaning that data centres “simply can’t keep up “with the changing demands of today’s business climate.

“Working closely with our customers, we know that it is increasingly important for businesses to deliver IT services rapidly, in an agile manner, and to be able to respond to customer demands quickly,” he explains.

“The role of the SDDC is to support businesses as they pivot, provide new services or change the construction of their services.”

In effect, the automation of the data centre ensures infrastructure capabilities are delivered consistently as designed, reducing risk and optimising resource use.

From the vendor perspective, John Drayton, Country Manager, VMware New Zealand believes that with a software-defined approach, businesses will essentially experience faster time to value for their applications.

“With the increased demand for flexible IT environments and the added need for reliable security, our work with ViFX is designed to enable the company to deliver fast, agile and secure solutions to the New Zealand market through VMware technology,” Drayton adds.

“Solutions such as VMware NSX offer businesses tools to compete in today’s dynamic and rapidly evolving market.

“We look forward to continuing to collaborate with ViFX to deliver a new architecture of IT to local organisations - one that delivers business benefits with high-value IT outcomes.”

The partnership follows a successful 2015 for both VMware and ViFX, who respectively picked up the Software Vendor of the Year and Large-market Partner of the Year awards at the 2015 Reseller News ICT Industry Awards in October last year.

“Over the past eight years, all the projects, the conversations and the transformations we have been fortunate enough to participate in, have led to this point,” adds Geoff Olliff, Co-Founder and Director, ViFX.

“At last we are able to see the hard work our clients have put in paying off with a solution that can truly enable them to be more agile and more competitive.

“We are pleased to welcome the Software-Defined Enterprise.”