How to Reduce Cloud Costs by 60% and Latency by 100x: The Nairobi Servers Advantage

Uzapoint, an ERP-POS company, specializes in delivering innovative Point-of-Sale systems for small and medium-sized enterprises and media organizations in Africa.

Case Overview

Objective

Migrate IT infrastructure from another cloud provider to local servers located in Nairobi, reduce cloud costs and improve system performance by minimizing downtime and latency.

Solution

Results

Client Profile

Uzapoint Technologies is an ERP-POS company, focused on creating innovative POS systems designed for SMEs and media enterprises throughout Africa. Uzapoint has built a strong portfolio of over 50,000 satisfied clients across Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, and South Africa since its establishment in 2020.

The company offers comprehensive software and automation solutions that enable businesses to streamline operations. By implementing Uzapoint’s solutions, businesses can efficiently track sales, purchases and inventory, as well as facilitate smooth online payments. Uzapoint’s commitment to innovation and efficiency helps enhance the profitability of business organizations in East Africa and beyond, contributing to growth in the region’s vibrant market.

Uzapoint’s operations are powered by a resilient IT infrastructure that supports the backend systems of its digital products and services. Due to today’s fast-paced retail industry, it’s vital for Uzapoint to deliver reliable, scalable, and highly responsive services that can manage high traffic volumes and fast transactions, while maintaining low latency for its clientele. Maintaining low latency is especially mission-critical to ensure real-time transaction processing and uninterrupted service delivery for all types of clients.

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Why Uzapoint Chose Servercore

Before choosing Servercore as its technology partner, Uzapoint relied on a foreign cloud provider to host its IT systems. However, the service quality did not meet the company’s essential performance and scalability needs.

First, Uzapoint faced limitations in scaling its resources due to high IT infrastructure maintenance costs associated with the previous provider. Consequently, the company’s systems were overwhelmed and struggled to handle incoming traffic effectively.

Another significant issue was latency, as most of the virtual machines were hosted outside of Africa. The geographic distance led to slow processing and substantial delays in data retrieval and loading. As a result, it was challenging for Uzapoint to make its systems and products accessible to clients. Additionally, the company experienced frequent downtimes, which significantly impeded product and business development.

In light of these challenges, Uzapoint needed to find a new technology partner that offers localized solutions in Africa. Upon discovering Servercore and reviewing its cloud solutions and pricing policies, the Uzapoint team quickly decided to migrate to the provider’s cloud servers in Nairobi.

Main reasons for choosing Servercore:

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“Before migrating to Servercore, we faced significant challenges in scaling our resources due to high costs, which led to inefficiencies in handling incoming traffic and frequent downtimes. Since the migration, we have access to more cost-effective solutions, including tailored servers and managed databases, enabling us to effectively manage and scale our traffic. As a result, we haven’t experienced any technical issues in the past four months.”

Client’s Main Objectives

Migrate IT infrastructure to Nairobi-based servers

Uzapoint needed to seamlessly migrate its IT infrastructure from overseas cloud services to servers in Nairobi to be closer to end users and minimize latency. Additionally, the company needed to comply with local legislation (Kenya’s Data Protection Act of 2019) regarding the storage and processing of personal data in the country.

Reduce IT infrastructure maintenance costs

Uzapoint faced high costs with their previous provider, which hindered their ability to scale IT services effectively. It was essential for them to partner with a reliable technology provider that offered transparent and budget-friendly billing options.

Ensure stable operations, minimal downtime and latency

Because Uzapoint’s previous cloud provider was located outside Africa, the company’s systems often experienced high latency, resulting in significant delays in data retrieval and loading. Additionally, Uzapoint faced regular downtimes that negatively impacted product and business development. Therefore, it was crucial for the company to migrate its services to reliable local servers based in Nairobi, enabling uninterrupted service operation for the clients.

Solution

Uzapoint requirements

Servercore solution

Solution

Uzapoint requirements

Servercore solution

Migrate IT infrastructure to Nairobi-based servers

Reduce IT infrastructure maintenance costs

Ensure stable operations, minimal downtime and latency

Results

Uzapoint successfully migrated its service to localized cloud servers in Nairobi, achieving an impressive 99.98% uptime. This transition not only addressed the issue of periodic downtime but also reduced latency by 100 times due to the server’s proximity to end-users.

Servercore’s affordable cloud solutions allowed Uzapoint to reduce its IT infrastructure costs by 60%. The move also resolved the company’s scalability challenges and ensured efficient traffic handling even during peak hours.

Currently, Uzapoint has deployed four virtual machines on Servercore, utilizing over 180GB RAM, together with managed databases for its business project. The company also plans to scale its resource usage further by adopting Managed Kubernetes to support a gradual transition to a microservices architecture. Additionally, the company intends to implement load balancers to enhance efficiency and reliability further.

Looking ahead, Uzapoint aims for business growth and development by integrating Machine Learning (ML) models and AI-powered features into its products. The company plans to lease high-performance GPU servers from Servercore to support these developments.

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