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Celebrating 10 Years of Innovation and Excellence: The Journey of Datasur

Datasur News May 28, 2024

Ten years ago, Datasur was founded with a vision: to harness the power of technology and drive growth through innovation-driven digitalization for businesses in Suriname and the Caribbean. As we celebrate our 10-year anniversary, we reflect on a decade filled with remarkable achievements and transformative milestones that have defined our journey and that of Suriname.

Watch our 10 year anniversary documentary

From Humble Beginnings to Industry Leaders 

Our story began with a commitment to excellence and a passion for innovation. Around 2018, we took a groundbreaking step by hosting the first High Availability (HA) private cloud platform for a bank in Suriname. This pioneering initiative was more than just a technological advancement; it was a testament to our dedication to providing robust, reliable, and secure cloud services tailored to the unique needs of the financial sector. This project set the stage for many more innovations to come. 

Since 2015, our pursuit of excellence has been recognized through prestigious certifications and accreditations. Achieving the ISO 27001 certification was a significant milestone, ensuring our clients could trust us with their most critical data and operations. In 2022, we implemented the ISO 22301 certification, and for two consecutive years, we achieved zero non-conformities, underscoring our unwavering commitment to quality, security, and reliability in every service we offer. 

Empowering Diverse Industries 

One of the proudest aspects of our journey has been our ability to diversify and grow our business. Initially known as a traditional data center, we have evolved into a full-fledged digital transformation company. This strategic shift, outlined in our 2022-2026 plan, has significantly transformed our sales, revenue, brand image, operational effectiveness, and long-term strategy. 

We have supported businesses across various industries on their digitalization journeys. From building a website for the First Lady of Suriname to developing applications for the Ministry of Labour, Employment & Youth Affairs, our technical expertise and commitment to national initiatives have been a cornerstone of our growth. Notably, the ‘GPS Jeugd’ application has been instrumental in supporting youth policy in Suriname, highlighting our dedication to using technology to enhance social and governmental programs. 

Founding the Caribbean Datacenter Association

Our role in the region grew even more significant when we co-founded the Caribbean Datacenter Association alongside Blue Nap Americas. This organization, aimed at driving groundbreaking innovations in datacenter technologies, marked a new chapter in our story. It was about fostering collaboration and advancement in the digital infrastructure sector, bringing together like-minded innovators to push the boundaries of what’s possible. 

Embracing AI and Advanced Technologies

Innovation has always been at the heart of Datasur. This was further proven by our partnership with AethiQs to offer cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) solutions in Suriname and the Caribbean. This collaboration enabled us to provide advanced technological solutions that drive efficiency and innovation for our clients, aligning perfectly with our mantra: “We believe that every business deserves growth through innovation-driven digitalization!” 

Growing with Our Clients 

From a modest start with 30 clients, we have grown to serve over 3000 clients, a testament to the trust and confidence the business community has placed in us. This growth has been fueled by our team’s dedication, expertise, and unwavering commitment to our clients’ success. Our success is built on the foundation of a motivated and skilled team, with an average age of 29 years and more than 70% holding a Bachelor’s degree or higher. 

Availability and Learning from Our Mistakes

Over the past decade, we have maintained an impressive availability ratio for our data center services, with specific achievements of 99.98% uptime for DC SBO (Boma) and 99.93% uptime for DC HVL (Havenlaan). Our commitment to reliability is a testament to our continuous learning process; we learn from our challenges and grow stronger, ensuring that our partners receive the highest level of service quality. 

Focus on Reliability and Security 

Reliability has been a cornerstone of our operations. Our dedication is reflected in our strategic partnerships, adhering to the principle of “Think global, act regional, and serve local.” This approach has allowed us to forge strong relationships that enhance our service delivery.  

With our focus on reliability, we have maintained 100% uptime for our data center services, with specific achievements of 99.98% uptime for DC SBO and 99.93% uptime for DC HVL. Our commitment to reliability is further evidenced by our three consecutive years of ISO 27001 and ISO 22301 certification with zero non-conformities and our stellar Customer Review Score. Our reliability is also demonstrated by our innovative work in various sectors, including SuLegal, e-voting, and e-health. Most importantly, security remains a top priority. For five years, our SOC team has ensured zero hacks or unauthorized access incidents, and our SecAAS portfolio continues to protect our client’s critical data. 

Additionally, our focus on service management has earned us the prestigious Quality Management Award in 2023, further demonstrating our commitment to excellence. 

Impact on People and Community

Our commitment extends beyond business. We have transitioned to a 100% paperless environment since 2022, adopted a hybrid working model, and supported numerous students (100+) with their academic projects. Our contributions to local and regional associations reflect our commitment to the broader community. Our focus on performance management implementation and fostering a positive organizational culture has been pivotal in our growth. We actively engage in CSR initiatives and support student development, underscoring our dedication to social responsibility. 

Financial Growth and Future Prospects 

Our financial growth over the past decade has been substantial, reflecting our successful strategies and strong market presence. Our business results have transformed positively, moving from startup losses in the early years to robust profits in recent years. 

Looking Forward

As we look back on these amazing milestones, we are reminded of the hard work, dedication, and passion that have fueled our success. Each achievement is a chapter in our story, written by our incredible team and our loyal clients. We’ve accomplished so much together over the past ten years, and as we mark this anniversary, we are excited about what lies ahead focusing on enabling our stakeholders with sustained growth using the power of innovation and digital transformation in Suriname and abroad.  

Here’s to many more years of success and innovation together! 

Datasur

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Whitney de Rijp, MBA in Innovation and Technology.
Whitney de Rijp is a young driven Surinamese woman. She has been working at Datasur for over 6 years. Together with her top team, they ensure that customer data is stored securely all over the world which helps them focus on their core business.

Integrity, authenticity and just being herself is the mode for success as a Commercial Affairs Manager. Furthermore, she finds it very important to maximize effectiveness and of course lead by example. For both the internal and the external organization she is very transparent, which also fosters loyalty and engagement with the company goals.

Jurgen Schmeltz has as a Bachelor's degree in Information and Communication Technology and several IT certifications. His IT career started in Johannesburg, South Africa at IBM where he gained international experience for 5 years. When he came back to Suriname, he worked for two IT companies and also gained experience in VOIP, Backup Solutions and Microsoft Products.

At the moment Jurgen is a Cloud and Datacenter Infrastructure Specialist with many years of experience in the field of Microsoft Virtualization, Workplace Automation, Backup, Replication and Data Center Infrastructure. He currently holds the position of Operations Manager and is responsible for managing the Datacenter Operations such as Cloud and Network infrastructure.

Furthermore, he is also responsible for managing daily Facility Operations of the Datasur Datacenters and Project Lead for Cloud and Datacenter expansion projects. In his free time he’s a parttime lecturer at the two technical Universities in Suriname.

On behalf of Datasur Jurgen Schmeltz is also chairman of SUR-IX. The Suriname Internet Exchange Point which will be operational before the end of 2022

Sheetal Ganput works as the General Affairs Manager at Datasur. In this role she is part of the management team and reports to the CEO of Datasur.

She is a very self-driven, detail-oriented & hardworking young professional. She has helped to reorganize the company in the field of Office, HRM and Supply Chain Management.

Sheetal has her B.Sc. in Business Management and also completed her M.Sc. completed in Business Management with a specialization in Strategy, Entrepreneurship and Leadership. She is very progressive and is currently doing her Ph.D. study in Leadership & Management

Our CEO, Dr. Anvit Ramlakhan is a prolific strong inspiring inclusive young professional leader from Suriname, working in different fields to contribute for the betterment of humanity and the world. He is an experienced executive with a demonstrated history of working in the ICT industry for several years, with a widespread of skills in operations, quality, risk, project, business, strategy, product portfolio management (just to name a few). At Datasur Anvit oversees the total company performance on strategical level, with a strong focus on business growth, innovation, customer experience and financial profitability.

Furthermore, Anvit contributes to development of the Surinamese youth by lecturing and tutoring at four university study organizations in Suriname on undergraduate and postgraduate levels within study fields such as ICT, Electrical engineering, Organization management, Process management, Business intelligence, MBA, etc.

He has a strong professional background with a cum laude doctorate (Ph.D. in Management- Information and Technology) from the Akamai University in USA, Master of Science (M.Sc.) with merit in Information Systems from Anglia Ruskin University in London, UK and Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in Telecommunications from Anton de Kom University in Paramaribo, Suriname. He currently is finishing up his MBA in Strategic Management and Leadership at the London School of International Business, London, UK.

Anvit has several prolific leadership and business certifications, ongoing humanity service, extensive spiritual drive and a personal theme which is as follows: “Continuous progressive successful excellence”. He is part of volunteer organization HSS for 20+ years, through which character molding, collaboration and way of living for the youth is created and augmented.

In January 2022 he has been elected for two years as Chairman of the ICT Association in Suriname, in order to help strategize the sustainable digital economic development of Suriname. Furthermore he also has been elected as Chairman for the Suriname Business Youth Association in June 2021 for a period of two years, whereby development and support of young entrepreneurs and professionals is one of the main goals. Anvit is also part of the presidential working groups on areas of e-Government and wage council.