The Western Cape’s Snowball Effect, is staking its claim on the market with the introduction of virtual machine hosting to bolster its already substantial portfolio of solutions.

According to the company’s CEO Eugene van der Merwe, the provision of ‘vanilla’ connectivity and hosting is no longer enough. “Deregulation is very good for the consumer. It enables more companies to enter the market and gives customers the option of shopping around to find the connectivity and hosting solutions which suit their needs,” he says. “It also compels ISPs to examine their value proposition and competitive differentiators to ensure that they meet the needs of clients effectively while providing a level of customer service previously absent from the market.”

In terms of virtual machine hosting, van der Merwe explains that the concept of virtualisation is an emerging field for the small to medium enterprise. “Big companies have long used virtualisation in their data centres to drive greater efficiency and optimal use of computing resources,” he says.

In effect, virtualisation is a software layer which removes the physical limitations of computing resources, pooling them ‘virtually’ and allowing for the allocation of the resource pool to the tasks which require it. By introducing virtualisation software into its data centre, Snowball Effect is providing its clients with the ability to access just as much computing power as they may need for various tasks.

“Our virtual machine hosting service offering is ideal for businesses which have ad-hoc computing requirements or for those running dedicated applications. Using the service, it is possible to allocate computing capacity to the task or application in an instant; where the client may have considered buying a complete physical machine, they can now access the computing power they need, as a service at a far reduced cost,” van der Merwe explains.

As the application grows, the Virtual Machine is scaled to meet changing needs.

He says the management software used by Snowball Effect allows for practically instant configuration and re-configuration to meet changing requirements. The client also pays only for the capacity which is actually required. “In effect, this service makes on demand computing a reality for the small to medium business.”

Backing up a virtual machine is also a simple procedure, providing the added comfort of sound data protection. “Backups are as easy as dumping an image of the virtual machine,” van der Merwe confirms.

“This service is another step in our determination to provide services to clients which enhance value, reduce cost and meet the increasingly sophisticated needs of a growing business,” he concludes.