kocho

Kocho Migrates from VMWare to Zadara to Future-Proof its Cloud Backup Infrastructure

Summary

Kocho, a leading managed service provider (MSP), faced rising costs and operational challenges following Broadcom’s acquisition of VMware. Seeking a more sustainable and agile solution, Kocho consulted with Zadara to address its cloud infrastructure needs. With a fully managed, scalable and cost-effective platform, Kocho is now positioned to better serve their customers, reduce complexity and align with their broader IT strategy.

Industry

ICT Services

Solutions

zCompute

Location

United Kingdom

Zadara liberates our team to focus on application work. We live in the house; Zadara provides the house.

The Challenge

Kocho was facing ageing infrastructure that needed addressing, at a time when the acquisition of VMware by Broadcom introduced significant disruptions:

  • Pricing Uncertainty: Broadcom’s pricing model required upfront commitments and lacked clarity, creating budgeting challenges.
  • Ageing Infrastructure: Kocho’s legacy hardware was reaching end-of-life, making capital investment unappealing.
  • Operational Burden: Maintaining VMware’s IaaS stack required deep expertise and ongoing patching, which increased risk and overhead.
  • Licensing and Upgrade Complexity: Broadcom’s new terms also required costly and ongoing licensing and upgrades.
  • Security Concerns: As a security-focused company, vulnerabilities in unmanaged infrastructure presented unacceptable risks.
  • Inflexibility in Scaling: Capacity planning under the previous model involved long lead times and guesswork.

Kocho needed a cost-effective, agile and managed alternative to support its evolving service model and strategic priorities.

The Solution

Addressing a need for agility and modular scalability, with data sovereignty and security at its core, Zadara’s zCompute offered a compelling path forward with multiple facets:

  • Fully Managed Environment: Reducing Kocho’s need to hire or train infrastructure experts, while improving uptime and reliability.
  • OPEX Model: With no capital expenditure required Kocho transitioned to an operating expense model, aligning with modern financial practices.
  • Scalable Consumption: zCompute’s consumption-based billing allows Kocho to scale resources up or down as needed – ideal for unpredictable workloads.
  • Rapid Deployment: Zadara enables rapid provisioning of infrastructure fabric, bypassing the engineering complexity of traditional builds.
  • Compact Footprint: The Zadara stack significantly reduces space requirements in Data Centres.
  • Data Sovereignty & Edge Capabilities: With operations in South Africa and financial-sector clients Kocho needed control over data residency. Zadara’s edge cloud architecture allows localised sovereign hosting.
  • Security Offloading: As a managed service Zadara handles patching and vulnerability management, aligning with Kocho’s security-first ethos.
  • Azure Alignment: Kocho is a Microsoft-first provider. With many of their clients Azure-focused, Zadara serves as a complementary, private cloud hosting solution.

“Zadara liberates our team to focus on application work. We live in the house; Zadara provides the house.”  Jacques Fourie, Global Operations Director, Kocho

Business Benefits & Future Outlook

Kocho’s migration to zCompute has already delivered:

  • Cost Savings: Avoided the sharp increase in VMware licensing and eliminated infrastructure capex.
  • Operational Efficiency: Freed technical teams from infrastructure maintenance and patching.
  • Speed & Agility: Infrastructure can now be spun up quickly to meet client needs.
  • Modular Growth: Kocho can grow incrementally without overcommitting or risking capacity misalignment.
  • Enhanced Market Offering: By offloading infrastructure complexity Kocho can focus on value-added services.
  • Data Sovereignty Assurance: Kocho can confidently meet client expectations for local data hosting, including confirming Asigra backups are stored in London.

 

Conclusion

Faced with increasing complexity and cost from VMware, Kocho took proactive steps to future-proof its cloud infrastructure. Zadara’s zCompute provided a managed, scalable and cost-effective alternative that aligns with Kocho’s service model and customer expectations. By partnering with Zadara, Kocho not only solved immediate operational and budgetary challenges, but also positioned itself for long-term agility and growth in a dynamic cloud services market.

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