ICT industry veteran Andile Ngcaba‘s inq., a Pan-African digital service provider, has teamed up with Nasdaq and Stockholm-listed Enea.
The Pan-African cloud-based digital service provider has selected Enea NFV Access as the
virtualization and management software for the inq. universal CPE platform.
inq. will initially provide enterprises with managed services for security, software-defined wide-area networks (SD-WAN), and application delivery controllers (ADC’s), while expanding the portfolio with additional managed services.
The inq. universal CPE platform will ensure that all these services are well-positioned in terms of cost and performance.
The uCPE architecture with Enea NFV Access gives inq. the flexibility to offer a choice of
virtual network functions and the possibility of adding functionality on-demand to uCPE devices already deployed. It is orchestrated centrally through the inq. Control platform, which provides a single management console for an entire network.
Furthermore, Enea NFV Access provides the inq. universal CPE with a compact and open virtualization layer including end-to-end management of the platform and the virtual network functions. It also enables full automation including zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) through the inq. Control platform.
“We see a growing demand for services that combine high performance with cost-efficiency.
Thanks to the flexibility of the uCPE approach, we can achieve both objectives. By rolling out on-demand NFV services, we have ensured our customers can future-proof their networks and be 5G ready,” says Pramod Venkatesh, Chief Technology Officer at inq. Group.
“We selected Enea as a solid technology partner who can help us deliver robust, dependable, and scalable solutions to our enterprise customers at attractive price points.”
The virtualization platforms provided by Enea constitute a software foundation for a wide
range of applications in the connected society. The portfolio includes the Enea NFV Access
product that is a virtualization platform for uCPE and the network edge. A number of partners and customers rely on the Enea NFV Access to provide software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) services for enterprises in different regions across the world.
“We are proud that inq. has selected our NFV Access product for their innovative networking and security services,” says Adrian Leufvén, Senior Vice President and Head of Business Unit Operating Systems at Enea.
“The interest for solutions to virtualize CPE platforms is growing exponentially, with technology and service innovators like inq. leading the way.”
Inq. company has points of contacts in 12 African cities, Johannesburg, Gaborone, Lusaka, Ndola, Blantyre, Lilongwe, Mzuzu, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Kanu and Abidjan.
It is formerly known as Synergy Communications.
inq.’s flagship investments included Internet Solutions Mozambique, Skyband Malawi and, most recently, Virtual Business Network Services in Botswana.
Domiciled in Mauritius, inq. is a subsidiary of the Convergence Partners Communications Infrastructure Fund, the fund dedicated solely to communications infrastructure and related services and technologies across subSaharan Africa.
Convergence Partners, which is owned by Ngcaba, is an investment management firm focused on the TMT sector in Africa.
For more read: Andile Ngcaba’s inq Wants to be Africa’s Number one AI Service Provider
