MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay, December 15, 2015 – Zonamérica implemented a cloud-based Cisco® collaboration solution to provide services to the clients of this free zone situated in Montevideo. This innovation confirms Zonamérica's role as a technology leader in Uruguay providing to its customers solutions to improve the efficiency and productivity of their processes and jobs. This is the first project in Uruguay to deliver cloud-based services build on the Cisco Unified Computing System™ (Cisco UCS®). The solution built for Zonamérica provides computing, storage, memory and software via an auto-provisioning system to the 200 customers within the park. The datacenter in Jacksonville enables Zonamérica to provide the service to external customers across Uruguay and around the world.
The particularity of the benefits of this solution is that it provides an excellent service not only to Zonamérica's customers but also to those that are not within this business and technology park, who want a safe environment to process their data. This happens thanks to three Data Centers: two located in the park to provide service to the clients in this space and also the international ones, and one in Jacksonville, to provide service to the Uruguay companies. All of them will have access to a secure collaboration service that includes virtual desktop telephony, unified communications and Jabber® for mobile devices, as well as the setup of passwords, mail, virtual servers, firewall and Internet services.
At the start of the implementation, the virtual server solution became available, and once in operation launched the self-supply. Through this action, much of Zonamérica servers migrated to virtual. In parallel, virtual server solutions inside and outside the park are being sold. The next advancements were made with firewall, virtual desktops and PBX, the latter two assembled with each other. When speaking of virtual desktop, this solution is being offered including the machine, telephonic line, control firewall and mail services.
From the Cloud point of view, Zonamérica offers its park customers and those who are outside of it, operational efficiency, cost savings and more efficient obsolescence management with all the speed benefits that the centralized system provides under a safe environment; in turn, it is a source of income, customer wise.
Cisco and Zonamérica's relationship began 20 years ago with the implementation of switches and routers. Soon after, wireless was added; both indoor and outdoor, then came security, and in this last stage, cloud services. This latest solution was the leap that allowed them to resell their products beyond the park and be applied to small and large companies. This creates greater flexibility, and it is exactly what Zonamérica is aiming for. Logicalis has been the partner of choice to implement and support many of these solutions, becoming a strategic supplier for ZA.
Precisely, while continuing to grow from this new solution, the next step between Cisco and Zonamérica is the new Colombian project. A new free zone is being built, exclusive for services, where it will have a data center and telecommunications infrastructure.
The Internet of Everything (IoE) is being implemented too, since the park is a small city to integrate all services provided in the latter. Zonamérica distributes energy and water, recycles waste and has transportation services. The computerization of this entire framework using IoT technologies is being analyzed, such as connecting power meters, bus transportation and intelligent parking, along with monitoring and access control.
Supporting quotes:
- Jaime Miller, Zonamérica's General Manager.
"For Uruguay, Zonamérica has always been an icon in terms of technological innovation, and we wanted to continue in that line looking for new experiences. It keeps on positioning us as leaders in the search of innovation. Therefore, we seek a first-tier supplier as Cisco, to provide customers Cloud services without reservations. We have an unwavering commitment to quality with our customers. We always try to offer the best solution. Being in a free zone opens us to the world and leads us to always seek the best suppliers available globally because it does not bind us to tariff or tax barriers. Liability to the customer is crucial and we need a solution that would give us security. And we found it in Cisco, not only as a trademark or for its technical support, but their relationship with local partners - Logicalis, in this case - which can give us support and maintenance service. It puts us in a different category regarding Cloud".
- Gabriel Sakata, General Manager of Cisco in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay.
"Cisco is increasing its focus on Uruguay, accompanying its leadership in innovation development and business growth in the country. Zonamérica is a clear example of this process. Cisco has been announcing that the evolution of the Internet of Everything is been challenging CIOs to understand how with the evolution of ICTs our client's business models can evolve too. And Cisco is aiming to lead this transition and help the CIOs of our customers in this process".
- Federico Bisetti, Sales Manager for Cisco Paraguay and Uruguay.
"Having implemented several private clouds for companies, this is the first project of Public Cloud in Uruguay on Cisco servers, which has allowed Zonamérica to provide Cloud services not only within the park, but outside it and even internationally, given that it has customers in other countries in the region", notes Federico Bisetti, Sales Manager for Cisco Paraguay and Uruguay.
- Gabriel Szlaifsztein, IT manager of Zonamérica
“From the technical point of view, we chose Cisco because it was the alternative that best met and still meets all Zonamérica's needs and to its customers and disparate companies: from 3 to 3000 employees. Starting from financing to the robustness of the solution, alternatives and growth, Zonamérica is an organization that always wants to be on the cutting edge of innovation and the only one in Latin America that implemented this solution with the technology and the ‘One Stop Solution’ format. This led to several challenges, because between us and our business partners we had to spend time, not only to implement but to perfect the curve that leaves us in a privileged position compared to the rest, all because we have implemented Cisco's cloud services. Most important of all, we achieve a solution model that is replicable in our next new free zone: Cali, Colombia.
- Washington Rodriguez Cambre, engineer for Cisco Systems in Uruguay.
"This project is a clear example of what cloud services are and what integration is with the infrastructure already assembled. Zonamérica became a reference point, company and technology in Uruguay. It provides services nationally and internationally. The idea is to continue working with Zonamérica when it comes to innovation and technology and help it through the growth it is experiencing. We have to try to be innovative and in the forefront of technology".
- Sergio Vidal, Sales Manager of Logicalis
"For our company this project has been a major challenge, since it represented the first Cloud implementation (UCS Director) in the Latin American sphere. The experience was rewarding and successful, generating a unique local know-how to replicate these projects in the region. Zonamérica is a key strategic customer with whom we worked for about 17 years, and with whom we shared several large projects over time".
About Zonamérica
Zonamérica is the first private free zone in Uruguay, and also the main Business and Technology park in Latin America. With an existing operation in Montevideo (Uruguay) and a development phase in Cali (Colombia), Zonamérica is a place where infrastructure, legal framework and human resources get together to offer the "One Stop solution" concept. It has a modern business environment, providing a competitive advantage for companies to do business with the region and the world. It is a technology business park, located in Montevideo, has 92 acres, 28 buildings and 350 customers, employing 10,000 people. It is a small corporate town with a combination of offices and warehouses.
About Logicalis
Logicalis is a global supplier of integrated solutions and services for Information and Communication Technologies based on a broad expertise in communications and collaboration, data center services and cloud and managed services. The Logicalis Group is a division of Datatec Limited with presence in 60 countries; has more than 6,500 employees to meet the needs of about 25 thousand customers, with invoicings of over 6 billion. In Uruguay it's been operating for over 17 years, has 60 employees and is one of the leading IT companies in the country.
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