The Technology Circle

SA Susinesses out of Touch with Tech Challenges

2016-04-29T14:56:00.000+02:00

Most South African CIO’s and business leaders believe they are not at all prepared for the technological shifts taking place in the economy, with the result that their current business plans will have lost their relevance within only three years. In addition, many internal departments – notably marketing and even IT departments themselves – seem to be resisting the move from products to data-based services, according to research done by EMC, a world leader in cloud-based and converged data infrastructure.

Mr Jonas Bogoshi, Country Manager for EMC Southern Africa, said EMC wanted to explore the business challenges and opportunities facing IT in South Africa today.

“The research unveiled widely different and often incompatible views, underpinned by a lack of common ground and a common language. It shows that the greatest IT challenge South African businesses face today is the need to manage and extract value from ever greater volumes of data. “However, in the future the challenge will be the demands of real-time business on IT,” Bogoshi said.

The research targeted 2 700 business and IT professionals in equal numbers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, from the C-suite to frontline managers. Most (40%) have 250-499 employees and 68% are in the IT and tech space. This approach illuminated the same technology-related issues from different perspectives: Large and small; junior and senior; technology and business.

Strong concern about the future

Discussing the South African results of the research, Bogoshi says most businesses are increasingly concerned about their ability to manage and extract value, not from their current products, as much as from the data generated in the process of selling those products. In particular, there is a strong upward curve in executives' view that the impact of business unpredictability and associated demands for rapid scaling are their current greatest IT challenge.

“Most (73%) of respondents agree that no matter your business if you are online you are a tech company. But there seems to be a lot of insecurity in the sector, as almost 80% believes their current business models will be out of date in three years' time. “The reality is that their future competitors will be agile organisations that do not even exist yet.” More than 80% of respondents find it hard to predict how the business will evolve in the current fluid, rapidly evolving landscape. “The key point of concern is that the growth in the tech sector and the changing business environment will put excessive pressure on IT operations, damaging quality, customer satisfaction and brand reputation. The standard response to this fear that growth may accelerate IT complexity faster than companies can adapt is to outsource.

“In short, executives feel out of their depth as they are working against invisible competitors.”

The way IT departments are run is part of the problem

A point of concern for Bogoshi is that 48% of respondents see IT departments themselves as limiting innovation. Part of the reason may be that 66% of businesses still isolate IT departments, possibly because IT is seen as a behind-the-scenes function that has little to do with customer service. “To make matters worse, two-thirds of IT team members feel isolated within their teams. “So you have isolated people, working within isolated teams, resisting the seismic shifts happening in the economy – quite possible because they are not allowed to see the bigger picture within the company they work for.” Disconcertingly, 93% of executives still believe that their IT department meets the company's needs.

What if we get it wrong? - Executives feel inept

Most businesses surveyed reflected a mixed response to the perceived tech challenges. Only 42% have initiated processes to help IT departments work more closely with other parts of the business and to become more customer-focused. Also, 57% have started, or are planning to start training employees to implement converged or hyper-converged infrastructure. But when asked whether they personally feel they have the skills to understand what technology could do for their businesses, only 46% of executives agreed. A slightly larger percentage (49%) said they did not, but realised that they ought to.

In their journey towards becoming a digital, customer-focused business, 83% of respondents are not moving forward due to fear of damage to brand reputation, credibility and revenue if they get it wrong. Also, 61% of businesses do not feel ready for the data, operational and technological of offering a service and not just products – although 84% believe that scaleable and flexible IT will reduce risk by laying the foundation for growth and innovation.

Business needs technology in order to develop more value-added services and products and get them to market quicker, to meet rapidly-evolving customer demands for a seamless, connected experience. They need to do all this while cutting costs, reducing risk and complexity and improving efficiency.

“Respondents agree that you have to offer customers an experience to stay competitive, but realise that this cannot be met by their existing IT infrastructure, data processing capability and employee skills base.”

“Indeed, most decision-makers are afraid of getting it wrong when it comes to moving to a tech and data-focused approach to business,” concludes Bogoshi.

EMC AND VMWARE INTRODUCE HYPER-CONVERGED VCE VXRAIL APPLIANCE FAMILY

2016-02-17T15:12:00.000+02:00

EMC Corporation (NYSE: EMC) and VMware, Inc. (NYSE: VMW) today announced the new VCE®VxRail™ Appliance family, the only integrated and jointly engineered hyper-converged infrastructure appliances (HCIA) for VMware environments. The VxRail Appliance family brings together the best of EMC and VMware including EMC rich data services and leading systems management capabilities with VMware’s leading hyper-converged software that includes VMware vSphere®, vCenter Server® and VMware Virtual SAN™, the simple, powerful, efficient software defined storage natively integrated with vSphere – all in a single product family with one point of support. Hybrid storage or all-flash VxRail Appliances extend and simplify VMware customer environments and deliver key performance and capacity advantages in a simple, turnkey and easily scalable HCIA.

IT organizations tasked with supporting growing business demands for new applications and services with limited budgets and resources don’t want to waste time constantly evaluating and integrating hardware, software, and networking solutions, nor do they have time to learn new operational tools and processes. The new hyper-converged VCE VxRail Appliances extend the hallmark benefits of VCE converged infrastructure - increased agility, simplified operations and lower risk – to small businesses, medium-sized enterprises, and department or regional offices for virtualization and end-user computing use cases.

The jointly engineered VCE VxRail Appliances tightly integrate virtualization, compute, storage and data protection in one system with a single point of support. Organizations can start small, with a couple of virtual machines (VMs), and easily and non-disruptively scale to thousands of VMs with a predictable, “pay-as-you-grow” approach. VxRail Appliances are available in a broad set of configurations and scale points. Entry systems for small and medium businesses and remote offices start at a list price of $60,000 and options for performance intensive workloads have more than 76 TB of flash – over 2X more flash than any other hyper-converged appliance.

VxRail Appliances are fully loaded with integrated EMC mission-critical data services including replication, backup and cloud tiering at no additional charge. EMC RecoverPoint for Virtual Machines provides per-VM replication and automated disaster recovery for critical workloads. Virtual SAN active-active stretch clusters provide site level, zero data loss protection. Integrated vSphere Data Protection provides backup and recovery using existing tools and can optionally backup to Data Domain for centralized storage and management. VCE VxRail Manager

provides deep hardware awareness with up-to-the-minute holistic notifications about the state of applications, VMs, and appliance leveraging VMware Log Insight capturing events. VxRail Appliances leverage EMC cloud tiering to seamlessly extend to more than 20 public clouds such as VMware vCloud® Air™, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and very shortly Virtustream, to more securely expand storage capacity without limits, providing an additional 10TB of on-demand cloud storage per appliance.

EMC and VMware uniquely simplify the infrastructure lifecycle by eliminating constant evaluation cycles and testing with continuous integration of advancements in x86 technologies and implementation of the latest enhancements to VMware vSphere and VMware Virtual SAN delivering leading efficiency with data reduction technologies - deduplication, compression and erasure coding. The net result: IT organizations can focus more on innovation by creating an automated, dynamic infrastructure that adapts to their business demands.

Customers get a familiar experience with management through VMware vCenter Server. VxRail Appliances also seamlessly integrate with the broader VMware vSphere ecosystem, fully supporting existing management, automation, monitoring, and availability tools from VMware to dramatically simplify IT operations, while enabling lower costs. Additionally VxRail Appliances integrate with VMware’s cloud management platform and end-user computing solutions, including VMware vRealize® Operations™ and VMware Horizon® Air™.

As IT organizations standardize on converged infrastructure as the foundation for their next generation data centers, EMC is extending its leading converged infrastructure to smaller business and the enterprise edge with VxRail Appliances. EMC’s broad converged infrastructure portfolio helps customers deliver world-class cloud and mobile ready IT services to their business, including the only portfolio that can natively replicate between core data center infrastructure such as VCE’s Vblock, VxBlock and VxRack Systems, and edge solutions such as the VxRail Appliance for seamless, consistent operations. VCE Vision™ Intelligent Operations software includes VxRail appliances in a complete view of all VCE resources from the core data center to remote and distributed locations.

“The new VCE VxRail Appliance family puts IT organizations on a path to eliminating complexity and collapsing cost structures with hyper-converged infrastructure while leveraging their existing VMware investments. The VxRail Appliance completes our broad portfolio of Vblock, VxBlock and VxRack Systems to provide customers with a converged infrastructure that meets nearly every workload from the edge to the core regardless of size,” said Tom O’Reilly, VCE CTO EMEA, EMC - Converged Platforms.

“With the new VCE VxRail Appliances, powered by VMware hyper-converged software, IT organizations are empowered with a solution that is easy to use and can help them drive innovation as rapid as the business demands. Together, EMC and VMware have worked closely to enable our mutual customers to realize the value of a tightly integrated, hyper-converged solution,” said Yanbing Li, senior vice president and general manager, Storage and Availability Business Unit, VMware.

CUSTOMER QUOTES

“We had a flawless experience setting up the VxRail Appliance. With the tightness of the VMware and EMC integration, everything worked like clockwork. The simplicity of deploying and managing the VxRail Appliance enables us to free up our engineers to do what they do best, help our customers deploy IT and imaging solutions that impact patient care,” said Fred Sinclair, Product Manager, Technology Solutions, FUJIFILM Medical Systems U.S.A., Inc.

“I can already appreciate the cost and time-saving benefits we could gain by deploying a condensed, self-contained, standard 2U hyper-converged rack using best of breed storage and compute technology. For trackside, the savings in freight charges alone would be approximately $200,000 per season, and the simplified set-up of the VxRail means we could be up and running much quicker at every race, offering a significantly improved user experience,” said Antony Smith, IS Infrastructure Manager, Renault Sport Formula One Team.

“Software-defined models are changing the operating economics of the data center. VxRail will enable our customers to simplify IT operations and lower associated costs, while at the same time offering more flexibility to serve their rapidly changing business needs. As an all-in-one solution backed by a federation of industry leaders in software-defined converged infrastructure, our customers will appreciate the proven technology of EMC coupled with VMware software innovation and support from a leader in integrated infrastructure, VCE,” said Bob Olwig, Vice President of Business Strategy and Innovation, World Wide Technology, Inc.

ANALYST QUOTE:

"According to ESG’s research on hybrid cloud trends, 70% of IT respondents plan to invest in HCI over the next 24 months. Moreover, 85% of these same respondents indicated that they plan on leveraging their existing investments in private cloud software, like VMware vCenter Server and vCloud Director framework technology, to serve as the foundation for their hybrid cloud environment. As such, the new VMware and VCE VxRail Appliance could make for a very compelling offering to for those looking to implement a highly flexible and highly scalable hyper-converged infrastructure appliance, with private and hybrid cloud computing capabilities, while still leveraging the same VMware management tools that they have been using for years,” said Colm Keegan, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group.

AVAILABILITY

VxRail Appliances are sold by EMC, VCE and their channel partners, and are orderable today. All-flash VxRail Appliances with modern data reduction capabilities will be available in Q2 2016.

Interact with EMC and VMware Online:

Read EMC executive perspective on EMC Reflections Blog here
Read the EMC Pulse Blog here
Read the VMware Virtual Blocks Blog here
Check out the ESG video
Connect with EMC via Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn and SocialSphere
Connect with VMware on Twitter and Facebook

Consider all the variables when deciding on storage

2015-03-26T14:47:00.000+02:00

By Anamika Budree, Sales Manager, Branded Products at WD South Africa

For those in the market for storage for their home or Small and Medium Business (SMB), the discussion of the moment is deciding between local or cloud based storage. On both sides of the fence there are a wealth of options from several different brands but it's critical that decision makers get down to the core of how these solutions operate, their demands on other infrastructure, and how it will affect you or your staff as the end users.

As there is increasing adoption of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices within Europe, let’s consider this option in terms of local storage. Here, you have the flexibility of choosing how much capacity you want, how much performance and redundancy you need, and you can also have remote data access via a personal cloud feature that is offered by NAS devices such as the WD My Cloud EX4.

With a NAS it's easy to quickly transfer large amounts of data to the device via the local network, and when people are on the move; this data can be accessed via a desktop or mobile app thanks to the personal cloud feature. Generally speaking personal cloud services offered by NAS devices are free of cost and are platform independent, so you can access your data from your Windows or Mac laptop, iOS, Android or Windows Phone handhelds. As your NAS resides within your home or office, you have the added benefit of never losing control of your data.

Given that most NAS devices are power efficient and drives such as the SOHO NAS optimised WD Red are built for 24/7 efficient operation, you're not in for a shock in terms of monthly power consumption. And because your data is stored locally on the NAS, you won't be placing massive upload/download demands on your internet connection, which is also being relied on for web and e-mail service.

In terms of cost, if you purchase a My Cloud EX4 and four 3TB WD Red hard drives, you're looking at a one-time and upfront cost. Running this system in RAID 10 which means you get data striping (increased performance) and mirroring (data redundancy), you will have access to 6TB of usable capacity. You also have the flexibility to upgrade your device's storage capacity by simply purchasing larger capacity drives when needed or by adding a USB drive to the NAS device as a quick fix.

On the cloud side of things, the idea is you buy a specific amount of storage from the cloud storage provider and then upload your content to this central repository. Once this is done you can then access your data from different locations and devices. You can also expand how much storage you have but there may be restrictions imposed by the provider, so it's a good idea to look at their terms and conditions when you first sign up for the plan and, if possible, opt for a monthly versus annual payment plan, so you have more flexibility.

In terms of how cloud storage affects your existing infrastructure, consider this; since the storage point is remote, you have to upload all your data to the cloud from the get go. While it is a simple case of drag and drop, it can be a time consuming task depending on the speed of your Internet connection. Most home and business connections offer upload speeds that are a fraction of the download speed, and even if you consider a connection with a higher than average 10Mbit/sec upload speed, a 100MB file will take upwards of 40 seconds to transfer - the larger the file, the longer it will take to upload.

You also need to consider that making changes to data is essentially a re-download/re-upload job, and although this will likely be invisible to you, as the user, it will again be consuming bandwidth on your internet connection, which could slow down browsing and e-mail services. To be able to use cloud storage to the fullest, you need to invest in a high speed Internet connection and, depending on the volume of data that you work with, you may also be looking at opting for a service with no restrictions on how much data can be uploaded or downloaded. As continuously uploading and downloading data can bog down even the fastest internet connection, you may want to consider putting policies in place where large files are uploaded over night or after business hours.

Considering the aforementioned requirements and depending on which service provider you're with, maintaining a high speed connection and the cloud storage could be a very expensive proposition, even in the short term. It's for this reason that you should always consider all the variables and pay attention to the total cost of ownership before deciding on what's right for your home or SMB.

Energy solutions from newcomer carbonTRACK

2015-03-19T08:29:00.001+02:00

With our overburdened electricity grid and an energy crisis looming, a promising solution has been launched to the South African business and domestic market. Proudly South African company, carbonTRACK, offers a new intelligent energy management system that is enabling companies and households to adjust and regulate energy use on various appliances, improving efficiency, and reducing costs and carbon footprints.

Irvan Damon, MD of carbonTRACK, says energy consumption represents a large proportion of our carbon footprint, while also continually increasing costs with ongoing price hikes. “carbonTRACK offsets this with a system that includes an energy monitoring, control and savings device which is installed in a consumer’s home or business and connected to the distribution board. It monitors and controls heavy energy loads such as pool pumps, hot water geysers or air conditioning, or the entire incoming load of the house, all from the convenience of your phone, tablet or laptop. – .”

He adds that invariably consumers pay for energy use when they shouldn’t be. “Most energy is used for heating and cooling and to heat water. carbonTRACK monitors and controls energy use, enabling a saving of up to 30%. For instance, electricity intense hot water geysers are generally only required for a few hours in the morning, and almost never during the night, yet they continually reheat water that isn’t needed. By ensuring water is at temperature during times of use only, carbonTRACK can reduce electricity consumption substantially. The web user-interface allows you to set geyser temperatures and timer settings. Added to this, switching hot water geysers off during peak load events would have a marked effect on grid consumption, possibly limiting or even preventing load shedding blackouts.”

As of this year July, the City of Johannesburg will introduce residential time-of-use tariffs. Stand-by loads like modems, set-top boxes, washing machines and microwaves contribute up to 6% of our national grid-usage. “With carbonTRACK® you will conveniently be able to set your energy loads to draw power during off-peak times, from 10:00 to 18:00. With the launch of carbonTRACK®’s ZigBee wireless plug, stand-by devices can now be switched off at the appliance level via your phone, further reducing your energy spend. In addition, by switching off your appliances at the plug power level, you can avoid the damages appliances experience when connected back to the grid due to load-shedding and voltage spikes. Using your phone to interface with your ZigBee is a first for South Africa,” says Damon.

carbonTRACK technology can ‘see’ electricity use in a home or business, and uses clever hardware and software algorithms to switch devices as required to minimise their electricity consumption. A proprietary communications stack allows remote switching of devices in under three seconds, using robust telecommunications networks at an extremely small cost. The results are residential electricity savings of up to 30% or more; the ability for third parties – such as Eskom – to switch major loads during peak load events; and a total installed cost of around R4 900 per building.

carbonTRACK can also offer improved efficiency solutions for solar power usage and carbonTRACK can work with householders to help them get the most out of alternative power generation such as solar geysers and photovoltaic solar.

“Solar is a great start to electricity independence, but it is just the start,” explains Damon. “There is so much more that households and businesses can get out of their solar power if they use it well. carbonTRACK is designed to make standard solar smart. carbonTRACK users can see and understand when they are generating the most solar power and how to reduce the grid power they use. Ultimately, carbonTRACK provides the ability to make smarter, informed decisions on how to manage energy needs to reduce electricity bills and dependence on Eskom.”

He adds that carbonTRACK can show how much energy an alternative power source produces, uses and stores, and if the system’s performance drops, carbonTRACK will send an alert. carbonTRACK also optimises the operation of up to two geysers by constantly recalculating and measuring the solar thermal conversion, maximising geyser efficiency and ensuring that water is heated with the least amount of energy. carbonTRACK’s leak detection capabilities detect and control a leak when it occurs, reducing resultant damage from faulty or leaky geysers.

The carbonTRACK device and its management software were co-developed by the company’s Australian partner, which has more than 12 years’ experience in telemetry and software engineering, but manufacturing is 100% South African. carbonTRACK is a Proudly South African company, creating local jobs and economic empowerment for South Africans.

Says Proudly South African’s CEO, Adv. Leslie Sedibe, “carbonTRACK, a registered Proudly South African member company, provides a significant and necessary product to consumers during a time when electricity supply is closely monitored and consumers are urged to cut down on their usage. We are proud to have carbonTRACK on board with a product that empowers South Africans to easily monitor and manage their power usage during challenging times. This innovative solution can also be used to monitor solar generation and ultimately gives consumers the power to save money. This comes at a time when our government is urging all South Africans to work together to save electricity and help get the country out of its energy shortage challenge. President Jacob Zuma recently reiterated that while government will play its part, every single consumer can also contribute towards energy saving.”

The carbonTRACK products are now more accessible to consumers than ever before, thanks to the conclusion of an exclusive agreement with Builders for the distribution of carbonTRACK systems through its network of outlets. The launch is pegged for the first half of this year.

In a recent development, the Kutana Group has joined carbonTRACK as their black empowerment investors, and according to Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe, shareholder and CEO of Kutana Group, “Kutana is proud to partner with carbonTRACK, a cutting edge technology company focused on energy management. carbonTRACK has made a significant investment in South Africa, contributing to local manufacturing, creating local jobs and supporting local communities.

“Kutana Investments is geared towards delivering significant shareholder value through sound strategic investments, while contributing to and empowering the local economy. Our investment in carbonTRACK extends our portfolio to innovative energy management solutions which are not only locally manufactured and Proudly South African, but which will respond to South Africa's urgent need to conserve energy,” says Mokgosi-Mwantembe.

Last year, carbonTRACK’s device won the prestigious GAP ICT 2014 Innovation Hub Award for its remarkable potential for households and the greater electricity grid, to improve their energy efficiency, according to Lufuno Ramabulana, a specialist at the Innovation Hub’s Innovation Strategy Projects and manager of GAP ICT.

For further information on carbonTRACK go to www.carbonTRACK.co.za or follow on @carbontracksa.

Charger Station

2015-03-02T09:51:00.001+02:00

Have you seen this thing?

It was at the VIP section of the Joburg Golf tournament this weekend. Each green area has a variety of cables for you to charge your cellphone The red one has a phone charging in it and it is locked. The whole system is controlled via a touch screen in the middle.

It looks like such a simple but clever idea. I see advertising opportunities and also a great service if you are holding a long function.

Enhance your world, get the new maps

2015-01-29T08:47:00.000+02:00

TomTom today announces map updates around the globe, increasing coverage and improving features for all business customers. TomTom’s global map database now covers over 44 million kilometres and 4.2 billion people worldwide, and features full navigable coverage for 126 countries.

“TomTom’s global map footprint has expanded with the addition of more than half a million kilometres of road,” said Etienne Louw, General Manager of TomTom Africa. “These updates will support navigation, geocoding and other location-based services.”

Global map enhancements include:
· The launch of navigable, turn-by-turn maps for Albania and Senegal.

· Debut of Pedestrian Maps for Berlin, London, New York, San Francisco, and Toronto featuring pedestrian-specific geometry, such as footpaths, garden paths and forms of way that are not accessible by car.

· Introduction of Address Points to enable better geocoding and navigation in Andorra, Denmark, Hong Kong, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and Switzerland.

· The Addition of 10 million Address Points across Europe, bringing total regional coverage to 58 million.

· Extension of Voice Maps to 30 million names and over 40 million phonetic transcriptions, resulting in an improved spoken navigation experience.

For more information, visit www.tomtom.com.

carbonTRACK wins GAP ICT competition with energy saving device

2014-12-03T15:17:00.003+02:00

carbonTRACK’s energy monitoring, control and saving device has won the prestigious Gauteng Accelerator Programme (GAP) ICT 2014 Innovation Hub Award for its remarkable potential for households and the greater electricity grid to improve energy efficiency, according to Lufuno Ramabulana, a specialist at the Innovation Hub’s Innovation Strategy Projects and manager of GAP ICT.

Held in celebration of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2014 and the implementation of Gauteng’s Innovation Strategy to promote innovation, grow intellectual property and support the development of small enterprises within the biosciences, ICT, green economy and medical sectors, the GAP Innovation Competitions honour top innovators, researchers and entrepreneurs for exemplary work in the green and health technology sectors; the biosciences; and the information and communication technology (ICT) sectors.

The recipient of the ICT category award, carbonTRACK is a ‘proudly South African’ company manufacturing an intelligent SABS-approved energy device that enables consumers to reduce their power costs. Explains Irvan Damon, MD of carbonTRACK, “Energy consumption represents a large proportion of our carbon footprint and is characterised by continually increasing costs with ongoing price hikes. The carbonTRACK smart energy management device is installed in a consumer’s home or business and connected to the distribution board. It monitors and controls heavy energy loads such as the pool, geyser, or air conditioning, or the entire house, and can manage the energy consumption in that home, advising householders how to reduce their carbon footprint – by email, app push notifications, or the user interface.”

The ICT category of the GAP Innovation Hub competition aims to find innovations in the ICT sector that have strong business potential and prospects for broad social impact. More than a competition, it is designed as a development programme where shortlisted entrants attend workshops, are trained in developing appropriate business models for their products, are given design and development support, along with the opportunity to enter the global Smart Living Challenge.

“This year the GAP ICT competition attracted about 90 entries, of which we shortlisted 15 products,” says Ramabulana. “Once the 15 had been through the different development aspects of the competition, an external panel of judges representing national and international industry experts, entrepreneurs, investors and government selected the top four winners, which were announced at a gala banquet at the end of November.”

Ramabulana says carbonTRACK was a clear winner. “There was something special about the carbonTRACK team. They have a real passion for what they are doing. Anyone can use technology, but they have a strong entrepreneurial drive. They also showed great participation throughout the programme and were keen to learn and gain insight from others in the programme.” He says the carbonTRACK technology has tremendous potential to have an impact on energy consumption in the country.

Damon adds that the carbonTRACK device allows consumers to take advantage of direct savings by better monitoring their household energy usage. “This control marks the start of the ‘connected home’ and it opens up a wealth of connectivity-enabled possibilities.” A real marketing strength of carbonTRACK is the ability to tailor the alert messages – which are custom alerts and advisory content sent to a smart phone, tablet or desktop. carbonTRACK learns habits and can adjust appliance use, or send an alert, such as when a geyser is about to flood or fail. Householders or business owners can then adjust usage remotely using the user interface.

The benefits of the CarbonTRACK system to the insurance industry are also significant. Damon notes that 82% of hot water in South Africa is heated by standard electric geysers – and the insurance industry is responsible for the procurement and installation of more than 75% of replacements, which makes up almost 50% of all standard geysers sold in SA. About 70% of claims on household policy claims are geyser related, which means approximately 250 000 geyser incidents annually. The CarbonTRACK system can alert householders to possible geyser bursts and help to prevent the incidents from occurring, saving insurers in geyser replacement and resultant damage costs.

This year’s GAP Awards introduced a new level of innovation into the competition. The winners walked away with a total of R 2.8 million (cash and seed fund) and will be incubated and provided with other value added services to assist in the commercialisation of the technologies at The Innovation Hub for a year. carbonTRACK’s prizes for achieving top position in the GAP ICT competition include incubation services from the Innovation Hub’s Maxum Business Incubator and mLab, valued at R150 000, plus R200 000 seed funding and R60 000 cash. Says Damon, “This win is very exciting for the company; it means that we can further our technology advances like wireless Zigbee switching, contribute to local manufacturing and IP, improve our app offering, and market our products to our various channels.”

The prizes and support for the programmes were made possible by the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA), Pfizer, MSD, Emory University, Smart Living Challenges and TIH.

For further information on carbonTRACK go to www.carbonTRACK.co.za.

IBM Watson Ushers in a New Era of Data-Driven Discoveries

2014-08-28T06:25:00.004+02:00

Available now as a cloud service, IBM's Watson Discovery Advisor is designed to scale and accelerate discoveries by research teams. It reduces the time needed to test hypotheses and formulate conclusions that can advance their work -- from months to days and days to just hours -- bringing new levels of speed and precision to research and development.

Building on Watson's ability to understand nuances in natural language, Watson Discovery Advisor can understand the language of science, such as how chemical compounds interact, making it a uniquely powerful tool for researchers in life sciences and other industries.

Researchers and scientists from leading academic, pharmaceutical and other commercial research centers have begun deploying IBM's new Watson Discovery Advisor to rapidly analyze and test hypotheses using data in millions of scientific papers available in public databases. A new scientific research paper is published nearly every 30 seconds, which equals more than a million annually (Source: CiteSeerx). According to the National Institutes of Health, a typical researcher reads about 23 scientific papers per month, which translates to nearly 300 per year, making it humanly impossible to keep up with the ever-growing body of scientific material available.

In 2013, the top 1,000 research and development companies spent more than $600 billion annually on research alone (Source: Strategy&). Progress can be slow, taking an average of 10 to 15 years for a promising pharmaceutical treatment to progress from the initial research stage into practice (Source: Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America). Using Watson Discovery Advisor, researchers can uncover new relationships and recognize unexpected patterns among data that have the potential to significantly improve and accelerate the discovery process in research and science.

“We're entering an extraordinary age of data-driven discovery," said Mike Rhodin, senior vice president, IBM Watson Group. "Today's announcement is a natural extension of Watson's cognitive computing capability. We're empowering researchers with a powerful tool which will help increase the impact of investments organizations make in R&D, leading to significant breakthroughs."

Leading life sciences organizations are deploying Watson Discovery Advisor to advance discoveries in ongoing research projects, including Baylor College of Medicine, Johnson & Johnson and The New York Genome Center.

In a retrospective, peer reviewed study released this week by Baylor College of Medicineand IBM, scientists demonstrated a possible new path for generating scientific questions that may be helpful in the long term development of new, effective treatments for disease. In a matter of weeks, biologists and data scientists using the Baylor Knowledge Integration Toolkit (KnIT), based on Watson technology, accurately identified proteins that modify p53, an important protein related to many cancers, which can eventually lead to better efficacy of drugs and other treatments. A feat that would have taken researchers years to accomplish without Watson's cognitive capabilities, Watson analyzed 70,000 scientific articles on p53 to predict proteins that turn on or off p53's activity. This automated analysis led the Baylor cancer researchers to identify six potential proteins to target for new research. These results are notable, considering that over the last 30 years, scientists averaged one similar target protein discovery per year.

“On average, a scientist might read between one and five research papers on a good day,” said Dr. Olivier Lichtarge, the principal investigator and professor of molecular and human genetics, biochemistry and molecular biology at Baylor College of Medicine. “To put this in perspective with p53, there are over 70,000 papers published on this protein. Even if I’m reading five papers a day, it could take me nearly 38 years to completely understand all of the research already available today on this protein. Watson has demonstrated the potential to accelerate the rate and the quality of breakthrough discoveries. "

Johnson & Johnson is collaborating with the IBM Watson Discovery Advisor team to teach Watson to read and understand scientific papers that detail clinical trial outcomes used to develop and evaluate medications and other treatments. This collaboration hopes to accelerate comparative effectiveness studies of drugs, which help doctors match a drug with the right set of patients to maximize effectiveness and minimize side effects. Typically, comparative effectiveness studies are done manually, requiring three people to spend an average of 10 months (2.5 man-years) just to collect the data and prepare them for use before they are able to start analyzing, generating and validating a hypothesis. In this research study, the team hopes to teach Watson to quickly synthesize the information directly from the medical literature, allowing researchers to start asking questions about the data immediately to determine the effectiveness of a treatment compared to other medications, as well as its side effects.

IBM Watson will be supporting the analysis in New York Genome Center’s clinical study to advance genomic medicine. The clinical study will initially focus on clinical application of genomics to help oncologists deliver DNA-based treatment for glioblastoma, an aggressive form of brain cancer that kills more than 13,000 Americans each year. Despite tremendous discoveries into the genetic drivers of diseases like cancer over the past decade, big data makes it difficult to translate DNA data into life-saving treatments. Based on results from the clinical study, IBM Watson could soon help scale up the availability of personalized treatment options.

Industry Implications

Discovering something new is applicable to many domains such as medicine, law, finance, etc., that all require deep insight into a large body of information and protocols. Cognitive computing will allow human experts to interact with large bodies of data and research and the knowledge and insight of many other experts in their field. For example, Watson could be used to:

Accelerate a medical researcher's ability to develop life-saving treatments for diseases by synthesizing evidence and removing reliance on serendipity
Enhance a financial analyst's ability to provide proactive advice to clients
Improve a lawyer's merger and acquisition strategy with faster, more comprehensive due diligence and document analysis
Accelerate a government analyst's insight into security, intelligence, border protection and law enforcement and guidance, etc.
Create new food recipes. Chefs can use Watson to augment their creativity and expertise and help them discover recipes, learning about the language of cooking and food by reading recipes, statistical, molecular and food pairing theories, hedonic chemistry, as well as regional and cultural knowledge

IBM Watson Discovery Advisor has the potential to transform industries and professions that rely heavily on data, including law, pharmaceuticals, biotech, education, chemicals, metals, scientific research, engineering, and criminal investigations. For more information, visithttps://ibm.biz/watsondiscoveryadvisor.

IBM Power Systems serves as the infrastructure base of Watson, supporting the high volume of data needed to drive cognitive insights.

For more information on IBM Watson, please visit: www.ibmwatson.com

To join the social discussion about Watson, include the hashtag #ibmwatson. Follow Watson onFacebook and see Watson on YouTube and Flickr.

Inkjet versus laser – which is best and when is it best?

2014-08-25T14:50:00.001+02:00

By Heinrich Pretorius, Canon and OKI Product Specialist at DCC

Printers are common in both the workplace and home. Although many businesses are working towards a paperless environment with the increase in ‘green’ awareness, printers are still an essential office tool. A common question asked when purchasing a printer for the home or office is whether to purchase and inkjet or laser printer. Each printer is unique to various environments and have their own pro’s and con’s, however, the needs of the user will ultimately decide on the printer of choice – inkjet or laser.

Purchasing a printer for the home or office is no simple task and various considerations need to be taking into account before this purchase is made. The key question to ask oneself is whether a laser or inkjet printer suits your needs, and which device will benefit you in the long run. User can generally distinguish the main differences between inkjet and laser, however, it can be difficult to establish which one is right for you.

In the past, the Cost Per Page (CPP) with an inkjet printer far outweighed the CPP of a laser. According to Rechargermagazine.com, the “CPP can be determined by calculating the cost of a printer cartridge divided by its yield”. However, with the emergence of new and improved inkjet technology, one can increasingly see inkjet printers competing with, and sometimes beating, laser printers on this issue. Understanding the differences and target markets for each printer will offer users more insight as to which printer would suit their environment best.

Laser printers make use of toner cartridges that contain ink powder. Through an electro photographic printing process, laser beams scan the surface of photo-sensitive drums to form a latent image. The toner is then affixed to non-charged areas of the drums, developing the latent image and finally transferring to the sheet of paper. Inkjet, on the other hand, works by making use of heat. Simply put, an ultra-fine nozzle is connected to a reservoir of ink, with a small heating element at the front of the nozzle. When the printer is switched on, a bubble forms inside the nozzle and a tiny drop of ink is expelled at a high speed. The heating element is switched on and off in response to the data from the computer, which processes the image from the file.

Laser printers are designed for large office environments or departments requiring high print volumes. Initial investments in laser printers may be higher than inkjet printers, however, the CPP was far less when compared to inkjet printers, especially if the print volumes are high. On the other hand, inkjet technology traditionally lent itself to the smaller office, home office and consumers. This is mainly due to its small form factor, saving these environments space. Furthermore, the initial investment of inkjet is far lower than that of the laser, however, the liquid ink used in these printers are more costly than toner and cater for low print volumes. Therefore, the laser printer offered organisations with a lower Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) than that of the inkjet printer.

However, the emergence of new and improved inkjet printers, along with Multifunctional Printers (MFPs) are blurring these lines when choosing a printer. Due to new technology, inkjet printers are now providing a significantly lower CPP. This technology is further leading to the use of these printers within the larger office environment, and not solely for the home user and consumer. Furthermore, with the emergence of connectivity, inkjet printers are now also providing users with the ability to print from anywhere by making use of a smartphone, tablet or other mobile device. This is further changing the game within the printing arena.

In conclusion, there are a number of printers available on the market. Choosing between an inkjet or laser printer will depend on your needs. Inkjet printers are still ideal for the small office, home office or consumer market due to the small form factor and the ability to cater for low print volumes. Laser, on the other hand, still lends itself to larger organisations where large print volumes are required. However, with the latest technology in inkjet, these printers are entering the large print volume market, lowering the CPP and aligning with the CPP of lasers. It is essential to understand your printing requirements and budget before purchasing a printer for your organisation. Understanding these devices and what they offer will ensure the correct printer is selected for your daily printing needs.

Make sure your mobile devices can take life’s knocks in style

2014-08-14T09:04:00.000+02:00

by Heinrich Pretorius, Targus Product Specialist at DCC

The mobile workforce has firmly entrenched itself globally and locally, the variety of devices has grown, it has also become increasingly common for the same user to have multiple devices. Most commonly, these devices include a notebook and a tablet. While portability is the biggest advantage of these devices, this same feature can also be their downfall – portable devices are more likely to be dropped, bumped or otherwise damaged. Protecting this expensive equipment adequately is therefore essential, to ensure that mobile devices can take the knocks of an on-the-go lifestyle.

The rise of the mobile warrior has been fuelled by increasing portability of computing devices, including notebooks and tablets. With tablets, the screen is often the most vulnerable piece of hardware – to which anyone who has ever dropped one of these devices will attest. Cracked glass makes the entire device practically impossible to use, and tablets often cannot be repaired but must be replaced in their entirety, which is an expensive exercise. Notebooks, while they are slightly more robust, are also prone to damage from knocks and bumps, primarily with regard to the hard drive. Devices with Solid State Drives (SSDs) are less vulnerable, but the majority of notebooks still contain traditional spinning platter Hard Disk Drives (HDDs). If these are dropped or bumped excessively they can become corrupt or fail completely, causing data loss that can be detrimental. While smartphones too have evolved as part of this movement, the size of a phone makes it easier to put away safely in a pocket or a handbag. When it comes to protecting notebooks and tablets, however, specialised solutions are necessary.

Quality should be the overriding feature to look for in any physical protection for mobile devices, and in many instances the old adage ‘you get what you pay for’ rings true. Tablets and notebooks are expensive, so buying the cheapest case to protect them is counterintuitive and could cause problems further down the line. Quality can be judged by the look and feel of the materials, the zips, the handles, and any fixtures and fastenings, as well as the padding that holds devices in place. In addition, the warranty is a good indication of quality. A manufacturer that is willing to provide a lifetime warranty against defective workmanship is confident that they are offering the very best possible quality. After all, every time something is returned under warranty, it costs the manufacturer money and profit.

While quality is very important, in today’s world, choice is also critical – in terms of style, colour and functionality. For corporate users, a leather attaché case with pockets for business cards, documents, phones, tablets and notebooks might be the most appropriate option. For a student, photographer or someone in a less formal environment, a backpack would be better suited. There are even cases for ladies that resemble a designer handbag, allowing the fairer sex to carry their devices in style and sophistication without compromising on quality. Whatever the look of the case or cover, however, their ability to physically protect devices is essential – they need to be durable, water resistant and able to handle the rigours of continuous use.

Mobility is here to stay, and as the number of devices we carry increase and their value in our lives skyrocket, protecting our equipment is more important than ever. From students to corporate executives, men and women, fashionistas or the more traditionally inclined, there is something out there to suit everyone’s style. Just be sure that the quality lives up to the essential nature of the job – a lifetime warranty is the best guarantee that covers sleeves and cases, ensuring they will not let you down.

Choosing the right Microsoft Office product to suit your needs

2014-08-13T09:04:00.000+02:00

By Ruben Naicker, Microsoft Product Specialist at Drive Control Corporation

Microsoft Office is the most widely used productivity software packages in the world, and is available in several different versions for different users. For consumers, however, these different suites can cause confusion. Do you need Home and Student, Home and Business or the Professional edition? Or would Office 365 suit your needs better? Not having a clear understanding of the differences between these suites and what each of them offers can lead to an incorrect purchase. This creates unnecessary frustration and expense, as users may need to purchase additional products to get the solution they need. Choosing the correct Microsoft Office solution will ensure you get the appropriate solution for your needs, with the best combination of value for money and functionality.

How many users and devices do you need a solution for?

This is the first question users should answer before purchasing an Office software package, as the various solutions cater to different numbers of users and devices. Office Home and Student and Professional editions are single device licenses, meaning that each package can only be installed on a single computer. For multiple devices, one license will have to be purchased for each device. Office Home and Business edition offers a license for one user for one device. Office 365 Personal offers a single user license that is valid for two devices - one PC or Mac and one tablet, including iPad. For a single user with more than one device, this is the most cost effective solution. Office 365 Home is a household license valid for five PC or Mac devices as well as up to five tablets, while Office 365 University is aimed at students, valid for two devices, be it a combination of either PCs, Macs or tablets.

What applications do you need?

The different versions of Microsoft Office also come with different combinations of applications. Office Home and Student includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, but does not include Outlook. Users who require Outlook in addition to the core Microsoft applications will need to purchase Office Home and Business. Office Professional includes all of these applications as well as Publisher, which can be used to design and create newsletters and brochures, and Access, allowing users to create desktop databases. The different packages of Office 365 include all of the applications of Office Professional, with the exception of Publisher and Access, which are not available when Office 365 is installed on Apple devices. Personal and Home versions are aimed at home users, while University is only available for students.

What operating system am I running?

Microsoft Office Home and Student, Home and Business and Professional editions are only compatible with Windows 7 and Windows 8. If you are running a Mac device, you will need to purchase Office for Mac, which is available in Home and Student and Home and Business editions. Alternatively, Mac users can make use of Office 365 Home, which is compatible with up to five devices on both Windows and Mac Operating Systems (OS) plus up to five tablets, including iPad.

To sum it up

Microsoft Office Home and Student is best suited for users who want the basic Office suite on a single PC for the family. Home and Business is best suited for users who want the basic Office suite, plus Outlook. These products are also available in Office for Mac versions for Apple users. Microsoft Office Professional is for those who need the basic Office suite, Outlook, Access and Publisher giving the ability to create marketing material on a single PC.

Microsoft Office 365 for consumers is available as follows: Personal, Home and University. Office 365 Personal is available for a single user on one PC or Mac as well as one tablet. Office 365 Home is best for families that want all Office functionality on up to five PCs or Mac and five tablets, plus easy access on smartphones. Both are available with a one-year license, either as a single payment or a monthly fee. Office 365 University is best for students who want Office on up to two devices – PCs, Macs or tablets. It is available as a four-year subscription at a special discounted rate, either up front or per month. All of the consumer versions of Office 365 now also include 60 Skype world minutes per month, which enable users to call landlines in 48 countries. All Office 365 solutions also offer 1 Terabyte (TB) of OneDrive cloud storage, which can be accessed on all connected devices as well as Android smartphones and iPhones, so important documents and applications are not lost even if the physical device is damaged, lost or stolen.

Understanding your needs, and the features available on each version of Microsoft Office can help to alleviate the confusion around purchasing this vital software tool. By answering these three questions and matching your needs to the Office product best suited to your situation will ensure that users get exactly what they need without frustration or added expense.

The New Face of Computing

2014-06-20T12:07:00.002+02:00

Jimmy is a humanoid robot based on Intel Core i5 technology that walks, talks, makes hand gestures, uses social media channels and more. It is part of the 21st Century Robot Project that provides a forum for makers worldwide to collaborate and build affordable, personalized robots using open-source design files and available apps. Combined with the growing maker culture, technologies such as Intel Galileo, Intel Edison, 3-D printing and open-source app development are making it easier for individuals to create inventions such as Jimmy. It is feasible that within the next five years people may be able to build affordable custom robots based on Intel technology for less than $1,000.

Intel is committed to lowering the barriers to entry for all innovators - whether it's a child, the hobbyist or a professional designer- who have great ideas but not deep experience with technology. Intel Labs is bringing Jimmy to life in collaboration with publisher MAKE, University of Southern California*, Olin College for Engineering*, maker space The Artisans Asylum* and Trossen Robotics.

Jimmy helps encourage people to think differently about what a computational device could look like in the future and to spark the imagination of inventors of any age to reimagine the ways in which people can design, create, enjoy and use new digital technologies. Powered by Intel, these new computing models - like robotics - may become mainstream consumer electronic devices that could act as social companions, organizers, educators and more. Imagine a robot that acts as a caretaker to senior citizens to remind them to take their medicine or is used in the classroom to augment the teacher to provide more individualized attention to students.

High speed mobile Wi-Fi – The Huawei E5372 LTE from DCC

2014-06-09T16:21:00.000+02:00

Take advantage of LTE mobile broadband speeds and securely share your connection across a home, office or any other location with the Huawei E5372 LTE from distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC). This mobile Wi-Fi hotspot boots up in just five seconds, enabling users to wirelessly connect up to 11 devices at a time and share high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity with download speeds of up to 150 Megabits per second (Mbps).

“Many users in South Africa do not have access to ADSL or fibre, and therefore turn to mobile broadband for Internet access such as 3G and more recently, LTE. With the growing availability of LTE, this is becoming an even more viable option. The Huawei E5372 LTE is the perfect device for turning mobile broadband into a Wi-Fi network for sharing in a small office or with friends and family at home, and even for taking your hotspot with you wherever you go. Simply boot up, enter the password and connect. The device can also be connected via USB to a computer, and supports Vodacom, MTN and Cell C networks,” says Fayaaz Seedat, Huawei Consumer Product Specialist at DCC.

The E5372 features AC power as well as up to 10 hours of battery life on a full charge, making it ultra-portable for a wide range of applications. Two internal antenna interfaces enhance indoor Wi-Fi signal coverage, ideal for larger homes or offices. Unauthorised access is prevented by password protection to ensure security, and a MicroSD card slot enables you to store and share data through your Wi-Fi hotspot. The E5372 supports both Windows and Mac Operating Systems (OS), compatible with all versions of Windows from XP onward and with Mac OSX 10.5 and up.

The Huawei E5372 LTE will be available mid-June from resellers and leading retailers for a recommended retail price of R2 560.00 including VAT.

For more information, visit www.drivecon.net.

High performance NAS with personal cloud capability – WD’s My Cloud EX4 from DCC

2014-06-03T14:53:00.000+02:00

Get ahead of your data storage needs with up to 16 Terabytes (TB) of Network Attached Storage (NAS) as well as personal cloud functionality with WD’s new My Cloud EX4 from distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC). The My Cloud EX4 is a high-performance, four-bay NAS for your home or small office, built from the ground up with the quality and reliability users have come to expect from WD. It offers a robust all-metal enclosure, multiple Redundant Array of Independent Disks (RAID) volumes, easy drive installation and a full suite of applications (apps) for the power and flexibility to expand your NAS features. In addition, the My Cloud EX4 gives users their own personal cloud, allowing you to take advantage of the benefits cloud has to offer without any of the hassles or drawbacks.

“The My Cloud EX4 delivers centralised NAS storage for your home or office, allowing you to keep all of your content safe in one place. However, the real innovation is the personal cloud functionality, which means you can access this content remotely using a variety of devices, by using the WD My Cloud mobile and desktop applications, no matter where you are in the world. Your own cloud means you are in control of your data and where it is stored, and if you need more space, you can simply add capacity to the device – up to 16TBs in total and no need for monthly fees to a cloud provider,” says Ruben Naicker, WD Product Specialist at DCC.

The My Cloud EX4 offers a number of configuration options to suit any requirements. A diskless enclosure allows users to easily install and hot swap to add up to four compatible drives and add capacity as needed. The solution is also available pre-populated with WD Red hard drives, which are purpose-built for 24x7 NAS environments for enhanced performance and reliability. Features include dual network and power supply, 512 Megabytes (MB) memory and a 2.0 Gigahertz (GHz) processor for superior performance.

To deliver enhanced data management, the My Cloud EX4 supports multiple RAID configurations, including RAID 1, 5, 10, as well as spanning and JBOD modes. Data protection options include remote backup to another My Cloud EX4, integrated cloud backup or local LAN/WAN backup. The device includes WD SmartWare Pro for PC users and Apple Time Machine for Mac to ensure optimal data protection.

The solution is designed to be easy to use and easy to manage, with a powerful dashboard and LCD display for continuous monitoring of drives, management of users and utilisation of energy saving features. The My Cloud EX4 enables users to stream videos and photos to connected TVs, media players, gaming consoles and more, and an integrated file server, FTP server, backup server and P2P torrent download server provide advanced servicing options. In addition, email and mobile alerts keep you informed on the status of your My Cloud EX4 at all times.

“The My Cloud EX4 also gives users access to a number of award-winning desktop and mobile apps. WD’s app allows you to upload, access and share your documents from anywhere and transfer files from your public cloud service to the My Cloud EX4 directly from the mobile app. Other industry-leading apps include aMule, Icecast, Joomla! phpBB, phpMyAdmin and SqueezeCenter, which allow you to customise your NAS to meet your unique requirements,” says Naicker.

Expanding capacity is easy - simply attach a compatible USB hard drive directly to one of the two USB 3.0 expansion ports on the My Cloud EX4 and instantly expand your storage. Users can also save power consumption with integrated energy-saving features such as disk spin-down and scheduled power on/off. A full suite of advanced features include iSCSI target, full-featured FTP services, link aggregation and failover support, jumbo frame support, iPv6 ready, UPS support (USB and network), real time resource monitor, volume encryption with boot-up password, SNMP and virtual volumes.

“This product is a unique offering on the market, with a host of powerful yet easy to use features. By adding this enclosure to our portfolio we are enabling resellers to target both the SME market and prosumers with a comprehensive solution that provides capacity, redundancy and high performance NAS, critical in today’s data-driven world, along with a host of value-added features,” Naicker concludes.

The WD My Cloud EX4 is available immediately from selected resellers. For the latest list of compatible drives, visitwd.com/mycloudex4.

For more information visit www.drivecon.net.

DCC’s new UltiMate – affordable tablets for everyone

2014-05-14T06:20:00.001+02:00

Tablets are increasingly becoming part of our everyday lives, and are often used by every member of the family. However, the price point of many tablet devices has been a significant barrier to entry – until now. Distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) introduces the UltiMate – a range of performance tablets with all of the features you need, at a price that won’t break the bank. Available in both 7-inch and 10-inch models, the DCC UltiMate is the ‘ultimate’ in affordable tablet computing.

“Tablets are everywhere – there’s no getting away from how useful they are for performing everyday online tasks on the move, for socialising, and even for playing games. From parents who need portability and easy access to online content and social media, to children who require tablets for classes and schoolwork, the need is growing. However, many users are unable to afford a branded device. DCC’s UltiMate is the perfect affordable solution, with the right balance of excellent pricing, solid performance and a full array of features,” says Bruce Byrne, Visual Communications Specialist at DCC.

Featuring Android’s Jelly Bean Operating System (OS), the UltiMate gives users access to thousands of applications (apps) on the Google Play store, from games to online newspapers and magazines, as well as eLearning content and eBooks. A 1.3GHz Quad Core processor and 8 Gigabyte (GB) Random Access Memory (RAM) offer enough power and performance for some serious multitasking, while a USB port, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G with dual SIM slots offer a range of connectivity options.

The 1GB of on-board memory can be upgraded with up to 32GB MicroSD expandable storage for storing photos, movies, music and more, and an HDMI port enables the UltiMate to be connected to High Definition (HD) televisions and monitors for content sharing. HD IPS panel screens on both the 7-inch and 10-inch models offer crystal clear viewing. Built-in speakers and a headphone jack let you enjoy quality sound out loud or in private, perfect for gaming and content viewing at home or on the go. Topping off these impressive features, the UltiMate includes a 3 Megapixel front facing camera for video calling, and a 5 Megapixel rear camera for capturing memories on the move.

“This tablet has everything users need, and can even be used as a phone or a GPS thanks to the ability to install not one, but two SIM cards for voice and data bundles. It is a must have for schools and school children, as reference books can now often be downloaded and interactive learning is becoming increasingly popular. It is also ideal for Point Of Sale (POS) interactive advertising, promotions, sales staff and anyone else who wants the features of a tablet without the expensive price tag,” Byrne concludes.

DCC’s UltiMate tablets feature a one-year warranty. They will be available in March 2014 from resellers and leading retailers. The 7-inch model has a recommended retail price of R1 400.00 including VAT while the 10-inch model retails for a recommended price of R2 500.00 including VAT.

For more information, visit www.drivecon.net.

DCC announces Huawei’s Wingle - extending 3G coverage to additional users

2014-04-15T13:06:00.001+02:00

With the mobile workforce on the rise and individuals always requiring Internet connectivity, access is an essential in everyday life. The Huawei Wingle, available from distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC), addresses this requirement with a convenient 3G USB connectivity device that allows up to 10 additional users to make use of the 3G connection via WiFi.

“Everyone requires a combination of connectivity, mobility and Internet sharing. However, many devices such as USB dongles on the market today only offer connectivity for a single user. The Huawei Wingle allows users to easily share 3G Internet connectivity using only one USB connectivity device, making this ideal for people without ADSL or with budget constraints,” says Raul Del Fabbro, Enterprise Solutions Manager at DCC.

Catering for small businesses and even households that require shared Internet connectivity, the Huawei Wingle supports full 3G / HSDPA with transfer rates of up to 21 Megabytes per second (MB/s) for downlinks and uplink speeds of up to 5.76 MB/s. This ensures that users are able to work on the move without compromising fast connectivity speeds.

The Huawei Wingle is simple to use and requires one user to insert the USB device into their laptop or PC. This connection is then shared with up to 10 users – wirelessly. This is ideal for small businesses with two to ten personnel or families that don’t have ADSL. The Huawei Wingle allows these users to share connectivity easily and cost effectively without having to purchase additional USB dongles for each person.

The Huawei Wingle is automatically charged when plugged into a laptop or PC and can also be charged with the provided power adapter or by making us of a USB car charging kit. This allows users to plug the Huawei Wingle into a charging kit and make use of the 3G connectivity while sitting in a car. Supporting Windows, MAC and Linux Operating Systems (OS), the Wingle can be used on a variety of PCs and notebooks.

“The combination of a 3G USB that allows users to connect through WiFi is the ideal solution for shared connectivity across multiple devices,” concludes Del Fabbro.

The Huawei Wingle (Model Number: E8231) is available from DCC and selected retail outlets immediately for a Recommended Retail Price (RRP) of R900.00 inclusive of VAT.

For more information, visit www.drivecon.net

The Ultrabook – where laptop meets tablet and provides the best of both worlds

2014-03-24T09:28:00.001+02:00

By Farhad Alli, Dell Consumer Product Specialist at DCC

There can be no doubt that the emergence of the tablet changed the face of computing dramatically, offering unprecedented levels of portability, intuitive touch screen technology and the ability to complete certain tasks on the move with ease. However, the tablet, like its predecessor the netbook, is subject to some limitations, particularly the lack of processing power, which make these devices unsuitable as a complete replacement for the laptop. Enter the new generation of Ultrabooks, featuring all of the processing power of a notebook with touch capability and innovative screen technologies that converge two separate devices into one powerful, portable machine that does the job of both.

While tablets have gained popularity because of their size, portability, instant start-up and ability to work on the move, the physical size of the tablet is in itself a limitation. With such a small chassis, there is only so much processing power that can be included, and there is no room for a keyboard, which limits the functions that can be performed. For example, tablets are unable to handle large and complex spreadsheets, and the touch screen with no keyboard makes word processing challenging. As these two functions are common in daily office work, many mobile workers find it necessary to use multiple devices – a tablet and a notebook or laptop, in order to deliver the required functionality.

With the entrance of Windows 8, which is optimised for touch screen, the demand for this capability is on the increase. New generations of Ultrabooks effectively solve all of these challenges, with more processing power, Solid State Drives (SSD) to ensure fast boot-up, large storage capacity, touch screens, and the opportunity to add extra monitors and wireless keyboards and mouses in the office. This allows business users to purchase a single device that looks like a notebook, but that can easily transform into a tablet, giving users the option to use one device that meets all of their needs.

What has truly enabled this convergence is innovation in design and screen technologies. New generations of Ultrabooks have the ability to convert into tablet devices with touch screens on both devices. One method being used to achieve this is a flip hinge design on the lid, which enables users to flip the screen and fold it back over the keyboard to transition from notebook mode to tablet mode. Another innovation is the emergence of very powerful tablet devices that incorporate a removable docking keyboard, which effectively means that simply by plugging the tablet in to the keyboard dock, which incorporates a touch pad and extends battery life, users gain the advantages of a notebook. The tablet can then easily be removed for meetings and working on the move.

This new generation of Ultrabook combines the ability to access software suites such as Microsoft Office, which are critical to working productivity, with the ability to access a wide range of applications available for Windows 8. Like tablets, they start up almost instantly, but like a notebook, they offer enhanced storage capabilities, either through integrated Hard Disk Drives (HDD) or via the Cloud. The combination of a touch screen and a keyboard means that any task can be completed in the most efficient way possible, and improved processing power not only enables greater functionality, but enhanced ability to effectively multitask as well.

In a world where mobility is becoming key to productivity and competitive edge, both tablets and notebooks have a role to play. With the new generation of Ultrabooks however, the need to carry two separate devices is no more. Users can now get the best of both worlds and work effectively from anywhere, no matter what the task at hand.

WD VelociRaptor hard drive reaches new performance peak with 1TB model

2013-03-05T09:32:00.000+02:00

Western Digital has announced it is now shipping the new WD VelociRaptor 1 TB hard drive, the latest addition to its award-winning drive family, the largest capacity 10,000 RPM hard drive on the market today. Designed for high-performance PCs, Mac computers and professional workstations that require a balance of high performance and capacity, the WD VelociRaptor drive is a favorite among enthusiasts and creative professionals. The WD VelociRaptor will also come in capacities of 500 GB and 250 GB.

Leveraging enterprise-class mechanics to provide 24x7 durability under high-performance workloads, the new WD VelociRaptor 1 TB hard drive is geared for creative professionals who demand the ultimate SATA drive.

“Creative pros use write-intensive applications that manage large, dynamic files; for example, video editing and digital content creation and management, which ultimately put a strain on storage devices that utilise write-challenged NAND memory for performance enhancement. WD VelociRaptor’s outstanding read and write performance across the entire disk capacity make it a perfect match for the creative professional and enthusiast who want to optimise their tools, enhance productivity, and increase storage space at the same time”, says Barber Brinkman, Western Digital Sales Manager Benelux and South Africa.

“WD is committed to providing customers with the best performing and most reliable SATA hard drives and our WD VelociRaptor family of drives underscores that promise,” says Darwin Kauffman, vice president and general manager of WD’s enterprise storage. “With ever-increasing demand for greater capacity, the new 1 TB WD VelociRaptor drive delivers the ultimate combination of speed and storage for the power user.”

The WD VelociRaptor 2.5-inch hard drive comes in the IcePack enclosure, a 3.5-inch mounting frame with built-in heat sink - a factory customisation that fits the drive into a standard 3.5-inch system bay and keeps the powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop or workstation system.

Says Anamika Budree, Western Digital Country Manager – South Africa, “The local market is ready for the new and improved VelociRaptor with the increasing demand for power, performance and capacity. The value lies in the combination of a high performance and now high capacity drive which improves read/write speeds as well as the overall performance of the drive. We expect the market to grow further and will see more users adopting this high-performance drive, thanks to the adoption of more ‘standard’ desktop values.”

Features of the WD VelociRaptor hard drives include:

Super speed - SATA 6 Gb/s interface and 64 MB cache optimise the 10,000 RPM WD VelociRaptor.
Higher capacity - WD VelociRaptor SATA hard drives employ Advanced Format Technology to achieve capacities up to 1 TB.
Rock-solid reliability - Designed and manufactured to workstation standards to deliver stellar reliability in high workload environments.
Ultra-cool operation - Consumes less idle power and uses similar active power as the previous generation WD VelociRaptor while offering greater capacity and performance.
Rotary Acceleration Feed Forward (RAFF) - Optimises operation and performance when the drives are used in vibration-prone, multi-drive chassis.
NoTouch ramp load technology - The recording head never touches the disk media ensuring significantly less wear to the recording head and media as well as better drive protection when in transit.
Environmentally conscious - In addition to being RoHS-compliant, this generation of WD VelociRaptor is also a halogen-free design.

Price and Availability

The VelociRaptor will be available from resellers and select retail outlets.
The recommended retail pricing exclusive of V.A.T. is:

VelociRaptor 250GB – R 1 530,00
VelociRaptor 500GB - R 2 005,00
VelociRaptor 1TB – R 2 850,00

Kaspersky Internet Security, Special Ferrari Edition

2012-11-30T07:45:00.000+02:00

Do you know the difference between a virus and a worm? What is a Trojan and how did you get it? These are just a couple of questions that you are never going to have to worry about again. Kaspersky Labs has released the Special Ferrari Edition of their internet security software. As you would know from reading this blog, Kaspersky have signed a deal with the Ferrari Formula 1 team as well as Fernando Alonso. They have their branding on the nose of the F1 car and in return can use the Ferrari branding on their product. I am not sure if it is any faster or more agile around the corners of your mother board, but it is a cool looking box.

Installation of the product was simple and quick. On first installation, it asked me to uninstall any other anti-virus software I was running. I had been using the free version of Avast up until then and tried to uninstall that. If you have ever tried to uninstall an anti-virus programme, you will know that it is not the easiest thing to do. Kaspersky Labs had that solved and managed to uninstall it for me on the second trying.

Once installed, a quick re-boot and I was up and running. There was a rather large update that needed to be done but isn't that the same with all new software these days? The application runs quietly in the background and protects you from most, if not all, internet risks.

I have had the programme installed for a week and so far it claims to have scanned over 1 million files. Those are files that I use every day, not a full scan, which is also just a simple click away. It has Network Attack Blocker, Anti-Spam as well as an Application Control; whatever that is. It all seems to be doing its job.
From the website:

Kaspersky Internet Security Special Ferrari Edition has a range of unique technologies that provide increased protection for your family. Keep your PC or Netbook free from harm with:

Real-time proactive protection against viruses and other malware
Safe Surf and Kaspersky Web Toolbar for online security
Best-in-class personal firewall for keeping hackers at bay
Identity protection with Virtual Keyboard and anti-phishing
Unique Safe Run mode for suspicious apps & websites
Advanced Parental Control with flexible settings
Smart anti-spam and anti-banner protection
Computer tune-up for better performance and protection
Rescue CD to restore previously infected PCs
Prescheduled automatic scans and updates

When I was in New York and met Eugene Kaspersky, he made a point of reminding the journalists gathered there that most computer hacks, attacks etc. are because of human error. It's all very well having the best security software, but if someone picks up the phone and asks for your password and you give it to them, then how are you going to blame the security software? There are evil people out there.

I loved how he calls them "black hats" and "white hats". White Hats are folks that keep on hacking, attacking and trying to access networks, but they don't do any malicious damage. They report their findings on public forums and companies can take action to protect themselves further. Black Hats are the dangerous ones. They hack, destroy and break. Those are the people that you need to look our for.

For now, I am trusting Kaspersky and a good dose of Internet paranoia. I will let you know how it goes.

Fernando Alonso, Racing Driver: "Kaspersky Internet Security... Safeguar...

2012-11-26T11:22:00.001+02:00

Kaspersky Lab

2012-11-22T12:50:00.001+02:00

“The world I’m living in, which is the security world, is becoming more and more complicated,” Eugene Kaspersky ominously informed us. One would imagine: his Russia-based antivirus company, Kaspersky Labs, essentially announced the new age of cyberwar with the 2010 suggestion that Stuxnet must’ve been built with nation-state support. The target–Iran’s nuclear facilities–made it clear that the U.S. was likely involved (a detail cinched by The New York Times earlier this year).

Mr. Kaspersky was in New York for the launch of a new ad campaign with the somewhat corny title of “Driving Toward Better Online Security,” starring Formula One driver Fernando Alonso. (Both men were outfitted in the appropriate shade of Ferrari fire-engine red.)

In person, Mr. Kaspersky comes off as unexpectedly jolly for an antivirus kingpin. That Wired profile had us expecting more of a bear-wrestling Hemingway character. And while he did devote a fair bit of time to waxing poetic about off-the-grid vacations in Russia’s remote, volcano-heavy Kamchatka peninsula, Mr. Kaspersky also peppered his points with laugh lines and pulled goofy faces. Even while admitting that yes, he’s a paranoid man, he still flashes a Chesire Cat grin.

One exchange during the Q&A period offered a concise example of the tenor of the afternoon.

Reporter, after a good quarter hour listening to Mr. Kaspersky talk about cyber dangers: “You paint these very negative pictures.” Mr. Kaspersky: “I’m paranoid!” Reporter: “Is there a positive?” Mr. Kaspersky, relishing the exchange: “Yes. I’m optimistic. We will survive. I don’t know how, but we will survive.”

After a Formula One-heavy press conference with Mr. Alonso–the highlight of which was the correspondent from Playboy Russia asking what he liked about Russian girls–Mr. Kaspersky and we tech journalists adjourned for a Q&A about online security.

The Woolworth Building peeking out over his shoulder, he opened with a brief overview of the history of hacking. Teens wreaking havoc for the fun of it gave way to cybercriminals. Now, the actors are more sophisticated: ”There are criminals, there are hacktivists, maybegovernment-sponsored guys,” he said, adding, ”The worst is now there are instances of what I call cyberterrorism.” Examples would be the 2007 Estonian Internet blackout and the recent Aramco attack.

“What to do?” he asked rhetorically, before answering his own question with a Bond villain-like chuckle: “Pray.”

Presumably he’d also like you to download Kaspersky antivirus software.

Kaspersky’s role in unraveling Stuxnet also raises the question of whether national maneuverings on the cyberfrontier create a conflict of interest for not just Kaspersky, but American firms like McAfee.

For his part, Mr. Kaspersky loudly denies any official connection to the Russian government, especially the FSB. It’s not as though his company intends to find out governments are behind these viruses. “The reality is when we find the new malware in the network or somebody sends us a sample, sometimes we recognize maybe they’re not criminals. Maybe they’re states,” he admitted. “But we detect it anyway,” said, comparing Kaspersky Labs to a metal detector that pings regardless whether it’s a policeman or a gangster wearing the gun.

“It’s a new game and still there are no rules of this game, and what we are doing is trying to establish these rules,” he said. In the meantime, he added, “I do my best to stop cyberweapons.”

And while Mr. Kaspersky expects cyber-spying will always be with us, cyberweapons, he believes, have a limited future. He told us that he believes nation-states will eventually ban them in some sort of international treaty, similar to the restrictions around nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. They’re just too unpredictable. He said he’d met with officials at Russia’s department for cybersecurity and been told they shared his opposition.

Asked about whether any nations were more likely to develop cyberweapons than others, he merely repeated a little tidbit he’d already shared: “Russian software engineers are the best. Condoleezza Rice said that.”

“I think when the Russian government comes with their message that, let’s make cyberweapons forbidden, that’s a good idea to follow,” he added.

Duly noted.

Soarsoft extends offering with Metalogix’s inclusion of Syntergy’s SharePoint solutions

2012-04-19T09:58:00.001+02:00

Soarsoft Africa, a specialist in archive, migration, collaboration and messaging services, has extended its offering with Metalogix Software’s recent announcement of its purchase of Syntergy’s SharePoint solutions. Metalogix will integrate Syntergy’s SharePoint products into its portfolio of SharePoint Content Lifecycle Management solutions.

Syntergy features the market leading SharePoint replication solution, Replicator for SharePoint, which is a web-based solution used to synchronise and manage business intelligence in real-time across multiple SharePoint environments.

Says Chris Hathaway, Director at Soarsoft Africa: “The incorporation of Syntergy’s SharePoint solutions into the Metalogix stable is a very neat fit with the existing tools and will provide local businesses with the enhanced functionality that Syntergy’s solutions deliver, bolstering their SharePoint mobility and providing them with more choice in how they manage, move, store, archive and protect their SharePoint Content across networks.”

“By adding the leading SharePoint Replication solution to our Migration and Storage product lines, we are able to extend our range, reach and leadership in the SharePoint content mobility market segment. This investment in SharePoint technology and talent achieves another milestone in our strategy to provide our customers a better way to enhance the use and performance of their Microsoft SharePoint platform investment,” says Steven Murphy, CEO, Metalogix.

By utilising SharePoint replication, organisations with multiple SharePoint servers have uninterrupted access to content that enhances employee productivity and efficiency and improves company performance globally. Replicator for SharePoint provides for two-way data synchronisation by replicating content and settings back and forth between server farms, even if they are not identical.

“We believe that Metalogix will bring Syntergy’s breakthrough SharePoint technology to more clients,” says David Seaman, COO, Syntergy. “Replicator for SharePoint has become the leader in the SharePoint replication market and its ability to allow end users from around the world to work seamlessly on the same content will boost productivity for any organisation.”

Replicator for SharePoint is easy to install, transparent to end users and maintained through the SharePoint central administrator. The solution optimises SharePoint performance for growing SharePoint environments by preventing version control conflicts. Replicator for SharePoint allows administrators to create a highly available environment that is well-prepared for disaster recovery scenarios. Syntergy SharePoint solutions include Syntergy Connect for SharePoint, which provides the ability to visualise, monitor and manage the replicator-enabled SharePoint wide area farm environment.

DCC introduces Verbatim's PinStripe Black USB flash drive - the colour for business this season

2012-04-12T09:49:00.002+02:00

The uptake of mobility and the increasing requirement to share large files and information with colleagues and customers has created the need for smaller flash drives that feature higher storage capacities. Distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) has the answer with Verbatim’s newly launched PinStripe Black 64 gigabyte (GB) 2.0 USB flash drive in environmentally friendly packaging.

The drive features a stylish black pinstripe look, with a push-pull mechanism for retracting and protecting the USB. This USB 2.0 flash drive is also USB 3.0 compatible. This means you can use this flash drive with USB 2.0 or USB 3.0 host ports. Verbatim’s “More Green, Less Plastic” concept means the packaging is made of 90% less plastic, and is also tear resistant, so you know your choice is protecting the environment. Adding additional peace of mind is Verbatim’s two year warrantee on the flash drive.

Says Drika Wilkins, Verbatim Product Specialist at DCC: “Verbatim’s latest flash drive is small and discrete yet is able to store a significant amount of data, making it the ideal business tool for any meeting.”

The Verbatim PinStripe Black 64GB USB flash drive is available from selected resellers with an approximate recommended retail price: R 699.00 inclusive of V.A.T.

Slim, energy-efficient hard drive for Ultrabook devices

2012-04-12T09:46:00.002+02:00

Western Digital has announced it is shipping the WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm hard drive, the latest addition to its mobile hard drive family and the 2.5-inch drive with the lowest power consumption on the market today. Specified to a best-in-class 400Gs shock tolerance, the new single-platter WD Scorpio Blue small form factor hard drives are available in 500 GB and 320 GB capacities and the drives’ compatibility with industry-standard 9.5 mm slots make them ideal storage options for mainstream notebooks as well as slimmer notebook and Ultrabook devices that require a 7 mm drive height.

“Consumers want thin and light personal computers, but the limited storage capacity of SSD-based notebooks forces them to pick and choose what files to bring from their library,” says Matt Rutledge, vice president and general manager for WD client storage products. “With the release of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm mobile hard drives, WD is able to offer capacity, reliability and data-protection features combined with excellent power management all in a slim form factor perfect for thin and light notebooks.”

“These new drives enable users of Ultrabooks to upgrade their existing hard drives for additional capacity, without needing to replace their entire machine. They also provide a more eco efficient option with up to 20% energy savings. The Scorpio Blue drives ship standard with a two-year warranty for added peace of mind,” says Anamika Budree, WD Country Manager -WD South Africa.

Features of the new WD Scorpio Blue 7 mm hard drives include:
· Low power consumption - Advanced power management features and algorithms optimise the way the drive seeks data, which significantly improves power consumption.
· Shock Tolerance – WD’s ShockGuard technology, now increased to a best-in-market 400Gs shock specification, protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks.
· Cool and quiet - In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD’s exclusive WhisperDrive technology enables quiet performance.
· Reliable – WD’s SecurePark parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
· Compatibility Tested - WD performs tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in its FIT Lab and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give customers confidence that drives will work in specific systems.

“For the South African market, the availability of the WD Scorpio Blue increases the available WD range and gives users further options when selecting hard drives. It also offers local systems integrators greater opportunity to build, upgrade and repair Ultrabooks, a market which has historically been held back by limited component availability,” says Barber Brinkman, Western Digital Sales Manager Benelux and South Africa.

Price and Availability
The WD Scorpio Blue will be available from distributors Pinnacle Africa, Rectron and Drive Control Corporation from the last week of April 2012. The approximate retail price is R650,00 for 320GB and R800,00 for 500GB. Pricing is exclusive of V.A.T.

Outsourcing IT Management Mitigates Risk

2012-03-28T13:21:00.000+02:00

While every good organisation has an IT management strategy, it is not always possible for an SME to employ several people with the skills required to effectively manage the various elements of an organisation’s IT. An outsourced IT model will mitigate risk from a lack of skills, threat of staff turnover and budget restrictions.
Having a supervisor is all well and good when there is a problem with a PC, but such an employee seldom has the skills to assist in other areas of IT. This is the challenge for most SMEs – their view of IT is very operational, meaning there is little long term strategy in place.

In other words, an SME may spend quite a bit of money getting the basics in place, but they will seldom have considered all aspects of their IT strategy. The goal is to empower SME customers to make the right IT decisions.

There are numerous areas within IT that need to be considered; everything from servers, to desktops to connectivity needs to be taken into account. In addition, other areas of concern include the company’s expansions plans, potential hardware replacement costs, taking care of software licensing and so on.

The outsourced provider should assist clients to determine what their IT requirements are, how to plan their Opex or Capex spend, how to understand the difference between core requirements and business-specific needs and how to get operational again in the case of a disaster. It is an imperative to work together to ensure that their IT works as an investment rather than a liability and will assist the business moving forward, rather than costing it money.

In my experience a number of SMEs make the decision to do it themselves simply because they don’t have the information available to help them in making the right decisions. However, the benefits of outsourcing should be plain – moving from a Capex model to an Opex-driven one; access to a large base of skills and resources; and handing the management and strategy of your IT to an expert are among the key motivating factors in this regard.

As part of an outsource model, the service provider will offer a holistic view of the customer’s entire IT strategy. So for example, the provider should ensure that the customer has an effective disaster recovery (DR) plan in place, which is something the SME itself doesn’t always properly consider.

Using some basic mathematics can show just how beneficial an outsource model can be. For example, an SME that has a 60-user site that needs server and desktop maintenance, hiring an entry-level engineer (at around R12-15 000 per month) and a more senior engineer (at around R20 000 per month) would mean a business would be spending approximately R30-35 000 per month for a basic set of resources.

For that sort of investment with an outsource provider, an SME could have access to a network, servers, telephony and desktops as core services, as well as access to a call centre for first line support. In addition, their licensing management, backup and DR strategies would all be taken care of and backed up by service level agreements (SLAs). It would also mean no worries around staff turnover and skills upgrades. And with a large pool of resources to call on, they would have access to a greater number of skills than they could reasonably expect to employ.

Going on your own can easily lead to uncontained costs, whereas an outsource service provider is focused on saving you money while also providing you with business flexibility, ease of maintenance and simplified management.

Ultimately the goal must be to assist the SME to them make the right decisions, based on the right information supplied by the outsourced provider. The aim is to help the SME think about the things they would otherwise never know to ask.