Zonamerica deploys Cloud solution

Zonam?rica implemented a cloud-based Cisco® collaboration solution to provide services to the clients of this free zone situated in Montevideo. This innovation confirms Zonam?rica'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 Zonam?rica provides computing, storage, memory and software via an auto-provisioning system to the 200 customers within the park. The datacenter in Jacksonville enables Zonam?rica 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 Zonam?rica'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 Zonam?rica 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, Zonam?rica 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 Zonam?rica'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 Zonam?rica 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 Zonam?rica 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. Zonam?rica 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.