Pivot3 Simplifies Desktop Modernisation in South Africa with Serverless Computing Solutions

AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pivot3, a leading supplier of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) Serverless Storage Appliances, today announced that First Technology, one of South Africa’s leading single-source providers of IT products and services, is using its vSTAC VDI appliance to consolidate server and storage resources. The first test trial was successfully completed at Stellenbosch University’s new Ukwanda Rural Clinical School in Worcester, the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences.

“By eliminating the complexities, skill levels and costs normally associated with enterprise-class VDI installations, Pivot3 will enable us to better serve our customers and control our virtual environments.”

“We see a huge potential for this solution to address our IT infrastructure limitations when hosting large numbers of students during online assessments and exams,” said David Wiles, Stellenbosch University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences Computer Users Area Manager. “Until now, obtaining enterprise class VDI has only been within the scope of corporate IT, as it was too costly and complex for a university environment like ours.”

Ranked second by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, Stellenbosch University is recognised as one of the four top research universities in South Africa. Educational institutions around the globe are turning to VDI as a way to provide faculty and students with mobile desktops, as well as enable students to connect securely to hosted curricula and exams. Currently, VDI is simplifying the IT operations of universities by eliminating patching, provisioning and repair time by offering instantaneous delivery of custom classroom or laboratory applications for different fields of speciality.

"The Pivot3 vSTAC VDI appliance consolidates server and storage resources into a single hardware appliance, which makes it particularly well-suited to the South African market,” said Johan de Villiers, regional director of First Technology. “By eliminating the complexities, skill levels and costs normally associated with enterprise-class VDI installations, Pivot3 will enable us to better serve our customers and control our virtual environments.”

“We believe that there is significant pent up demand for a simple and affordable VMware-based VDI solution that can be easily deployed and scaled,” said Mike Holt, director of channels & strategic alliances at Pivot3. “First Technology is the ideal partner for us to work with in South Africa as they are one of the leading providers of IT products and services.”

Find the latest news and information about Pivot3 vSTAC™ VDI and P Cubed online:

Additional Pivot3 information for VMware resellers and partners can also be found on VMware Partner Central.

About Pivot3

Pivot3 was founded in 2003 on the idea that today's stack of virtual servers, shared storage and networks could be radically simplified and unified through software innovation in order to drive down complexity and cost while dramatically increasing scale-out performance. Today, Pivot3 has over 500 customers across the globe deploying Pivot3 vSTAC™ unified storage and compute appliances. Pivot3 products are deployed in the data protection, virtual desktop infrastructure, digital video surveillance and rich media markets and have seen particular success in the public sector, transportation, education and retail vertical segments. The company has won numerous awards and was most recently selected by the Wall Street Journal for the prestigious "2011 Next Big Thing" category. To learn more about Pivot3, visit www.pivot3.com.

About First Technology

First Technology is one of South Africa’s leading single-source providers of IT products and services. Using a broad range of skills and technologies, First Technology delivers IT products and services that support business-critical infrastructures and processes to businesses and organisations of all sizes and across every industry. The company is trusted by clients to find innovative solutions from hardware and software, to basic configuration and advanced design implementation, to even financing.