MY BRO A D B A N D 201 7
Q3
DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE LEADERS FOR TOMORROW THE INTERNET OF THINGS WITH SQWIDNET
Gert Swart ODEK CEO
R 45 .0 0 i n c l va t
THE HUGE DEMAND FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN SOUTH AFRICA
ISSN 2519-7509
9
772519
750004
EDITORIAL Welcome to the 2017 Q3 edition of the MyBroadband Magazine, which is once again packed with insight into the technology sector and how it affects South African businesses. In this edition, we hear from two of South Africa’s leading tech companies, ODEK and SqwidNet, about their respective roles in the technology economy. We also look at the huge demand for software developers in the country and why companies are desperate to hire them, how eSports is exploding in SA thanks to backing from big corporates, and how big data can let businesses predict future trends. For tech and motoring fans, there’s insight into AR and VR in business, email security in today’s times, and what it’s like to drive a BMW i3 for a week. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoy another great edition of the MyBroadband Magazine.
KEVIN LANCASTER EDITOR
IN THIS ISSUE 11 IS ADSL HOLDING YOU BACK – SO WHY AREN’T YOU MOVING? 16 THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN SOUTH AFRICA 18 WIRELESS – NOT SO WIRELESS AFTER ALL
06 WHAT IF HIGH COSTS AND BATTERY LIFE WERE NO LONGER BARRIERS FOR IOT? 08 LOW COST, LOW POWER, AND MANY POSSIBILITIES 20 THE BMW i3 - PUTTING A SMILE ON A PETROLHEAD’S FACE 24 DEVELOPING THE TACTICAL EDGE WITH ENTERPRISE CONNECTIVITY 26 HOW THE BLOCKCHAIN IS REDEFINING STANDARD BUSINESS MODELS 13 DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE LEADERS FOR TOMORROW
28 THE SMART SPEAKERS COMPETING FOR A SPOT IN YOUR HOME
34 MYBROADBAND’S 2017 CLOUD, HOSTING, AND SECURITY CONFERENCE - A GREAT SUCCESS 36 DON’T BECOME A HOSTAGE AFTER OPENING AN EMAIL
52 TRAINING SOUTH AFRICA’S NEXT GENERATION OF DEVELOPERS 56 THE BUSINESS OF ESPORTS IN SOUTH AFRICA 58 BEST OF COMPUTEX 2017 64 OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESSES
38 CHATBOTS WILL HELP EMPLOYEES, NOT REPLACE THEM 41 THINK YOUR ANTIVIRUS IS KEEPING YOU SAFE? THINK AGAIN
66 NOKIA IS BACK, AND IT’S PACKING ANDROID FIREPOWER 70 INTERNET SOLUTIONS - PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE
44 AUGMENTED REALITY AND YOUR FUTURE OFFICE 46 MATRIX WAREHOUSE LAUNCHES MATRIX MAVERICK CHALLENGE 48 EMAIL IS STILL ALIVE AND LEAKY 50 DATA SCIENCE, BIG DATA, AND THE CLOUD
72 LET IT RAIN
PUBLISHER MyBroadband ADDRESS Office F01, Ashford House, Midstream Estate, Olifantsfontein, 1692 TEL +27 12 687 5159 WEB mybroadband.co.za EDITORIAL kevin@mybroadband.co.za ADVERTISING cara@mybroadband.co.za ISSN 2519-7509
Internet of Things – presented by SqwidNet
WHAT IF HIGH COSTS AND BATTERY LIFE WERE NO LONGER BARRIERS FOR IOT? By Vicky Sidler
As the rapid boom of IoT increases, everything around us is being given a voice. With the continued miniaturisation of sensors and technological advancements, we will witness an increasing flow of data, merging the physical world to the digital world, says Reshaad Sha, CEO of SqwidNet.
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n the true definition of the Internet of Things (IoT), there is already quite an established use in South Africa, and this is expected to accelerate at a tremendous rate. The South African IoT market is estimated to reach over $2 billion by 2020 and is set to revolutionise all sectors, stimulating industry growth and economic development. “We did research when we were doing the market sizing for South Africa, and we found multiple sources of big industry leaders talking about how many devices will be connected by 2020 according to Cisco, Gartner, and Business Insider,” Sha reveals. “Using the projections they have done, we modelled it down to a country level, and by 2021, South Africa is forecasted to have between 220 and 470 million connected devices.” IoT is changing the game in South Africa SqwidNet’s IoT network is designed for very large-scale
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adoption and feeds into a mechanism that allows for the connection of hundreds of millions of standalone devices. It is based on the SIGFOX standard, which enables a multitude of lowcost, low-power devices to monitor or respond to events in the environment and to exchange data with each other and with operators and users – all to make life easier, safer, more convenient and more streamlined. “Any object that needs to report on an event of some kind, such as a change in temperature, movement, pressure, and so forth, can send out an alarm trigger over our network,” says Sha. “It is very cheap to implement and integrate with other devices, as input costs are low and a wide range of chip manufacturers are making chips for the SIGFOX network, which helps to bring the price down.” Some examples of existing generic uses of IoT applications locally are when utility providers do automatic meter readings
and detect water leaks, which allows for more accurate accounts and the ability to detect abnormal usage. In logistics, IoT is also currently being used to report the tracking of assets, monitoring the temperature of cold goods and perishables, and tracking high-value goods. “There isn’t a big consumer focus on it for now, mostly because you want to start solving enterprise problems first before you go to the consumer,” Sha adds. “While consumers are measuring some things, like geysers and the chemical levels of their pools, you’ll often find that this still has a business focus. For example, insurance companies might use some of the sensor data from homes to better manage risk.” IoT is even being used in conservation, and the SIGFOX Foundation is using an IoTpowered scalable solution for rangers in a sub-Saharan African country to track and protect rhinos in a very different way. The devices that have been developed are small, GPS-based, and with an accelerometer that sends the rhinos’ positions a few times a day using the SIGFOX network. A monitoring platform
currently covers 50% of the population of South Africa, which is expected to grow to 85% before the end of the year. It is up to 10-times cheaper to operate SIGFOX-enabled devices on the SqwidNet network than to use other technologies. “The SqwidNet network is an ultra-narrow-band network, so the throughput is significantly smaller than other technologies,” explains Sha. “It has been specifically designed to transmit small amounts of data in a reliable way with a service-level agreement. Yet it is complimentary to other forms of connectivity.” SIGFOX-enabled devices are also low-power, with batteries that could potentially last for ten years and more – up to 300-times more efficient than a traditional cellular device. And, because the SqwidNet network is based on SIGFOX, it has built-in reliability and security features.
Reshaad Sha SqwidNet CEO
helps the conservationists to monitor the rhinos’ position and behaviour. Through this application, they can easily locate the rhinos' positions and send rangers to their area. SIGFOX is moving the world of IoT forward Historically, global scalability, cost, and energy consumption have been the three greatest barriers to mass IoT adoption. SIGFOX entered the global IoT market to break down these barriers. Rather than using existing technologies, SIGFOX has taken a unique approach. The company is rolling out the first global IoT network to listen to billions of objects broadcasting data, without the need to establish and maintain network connections. This game-changing shift, that
drastically reduces energy consumption and costs, will fuel mass-market IoT deployment and associated adoption. The SIGFOX network now spans across 32 countries and boasts a footprint in some of the largest economies on every continent, making it the world’s largest IoT network by far. The frequency on which the network operates enables small SIGFOX devices to communicate with the SqwidNet network from tens of kilometres away. “We are working very well with existing tower owners in South Africa, who allow us to co-locate at their sites, so we don’t need to build any new towers,” says Sha. “We also have a very large transmission network from DFA at our disposal. These are two critical ingredients that enable us to roll out quickly.” SqwidNet
Enabling tomorrow’s innovators today SqwidNet works closely with system integrators and service providers to assist in building viable IoT solutions for SA and the continent. “We are primarily the operator of the IoT network, but we are also working with other players to integrate the IoT concept in SA and the continent,” Sha adds. “We will also work with channel partners to take solutions to enterprises and consumers.” As such, SqwidNet is actively involved in “invigorating device makers, including established businesses as well as entrepreneurs and enthusiasts who want to solve problems,” Sha concludes. ■ For more information, visit SqwidNet.com
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Internet of Things – presented by SqwidNet
LOW COST, LOW POWER, AND MANY POSSIBILITIES By Vicky Sidler
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he SqwidNet IoT network is based on the SIGFOX standard, which is considered the world’s leading Internet of Things connectivity service and boasts coverage in, but not limited to, the USA, Europe, South Africa, and Australia. SqwidNet is the licensed SIGFOX operator in South Africa and is rolling out network coverage across the entire country. Leveraging the SIGFOX technology, SqwidNet offers users a network which delivers four key aspects: • • • •
Long-range connectivity. Low-cost usage. Low power draw from devices. Reliability and security.
The SqwidNet network enables devices to communicate with it from tens of kilometres away, while hardly drawing any energy from their batteries - which can last tens of years - and running at a very low cost. In South Africa, SqwidNet offers customers services from as little as R8 per device per year, and is set to have 85% population coverage within the next year.
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Security While long-range connectivity and low-cost usage are important qualities for businesses looking to take up IoT solutions, security is a must in our connected world. SqwidNet’s dedicated network, which comprises at least three base stations in each section of the coverage area, provides high security and reliability for customers. Each message on the network is sent in triplicate to ensure every device has a reliable and secure connection. The company states that there is no signalling or negotiation between a device and a receiving station, and the device decides when to send its messages. The network then detects, validates, and deduplicates the message, making it available on the SIGFOX cloud and user-selected third-party cloud platforms. Every message is signed with information specific to the device and a unique private key, which prevents spoofing or alteration. Encryption and scrambling of the data are also supported by SqwidNet.
This robust sequence means IoT vehicle trackers on the network, for example, cannot easily be jammed - as criminals can do on standard GPS tracking units using jamming devices available on the black market. The combination of security, accessibility, and low costs makes SqwidNet an excellent
IoT platform for small and large businesses which are looking for innovative solutions to challenges in their respective industries.
The possibilities of IoT The possibilities for businesses on the SqwidNet Internetof-Things network are nearly limitless, thanks to the
creating new applications for devices and software. An example which we can all relate to is tracking how much water or electricity we use at home in a month. The onerous method of checking physical readings on a meter somewhere on your property will be replaced by reading usage levels remotely, from
Finding a parking spot Another great example of IoT innovation is solving problems which frustrate consumers and businesses alike - such as finding parking in a busy shopping mall. With a connected smart parking meter, real-time occupancy data can be seen via smartphone apps and visual panels. This allows shoppers to find a free parking spot quickly and easily, which reduces vehicle emissions thanks to speedier parking, and allows businesses and property developers to see where and when parking is used. The solution further allows for the monitoring of vehicles, and will show if a vehicle has been parked in the same spot for several days, for example. From a business perspective, stock monitoring and management, pollutant monitoring, vehicle tracking, early warning systems for preventative maintenance, water quality monitoring, site monitoring, and security systems are all possible thanks to the SqwidNet network and its associated devices. Service-related solutions are also possible on SqwidNet, such as remote patient or healthcare data monitoring in the medical industry, along with solutions which can aid those in assisted living set-ups.
vast range of applications connected devices offer. The IoT ecosystem allows for innovative solutions in multiple industries, from a usage standpoint - like a farmer remotely monitoring his crops - to a developer
wherever you want at any time you like, via a smart water meter. The same can be done for electricity usage, and can further be expanded to tasks like monitoring the food in your kitchen or the consumable items in your home.
The connected devices which take advantage of the powerful IoT network are built to last multiple years, and their long-life batteries and low energy consumption mean they can be installed and left to do their job. â–
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ACCELERATED EFFICIENCY OUTSIDE
W NE Find your device at MORE THAN
70% FASTER PRODUCTIVITY than a 5-year-old PC1
functions. Any change to any of those factors may cause the results to vary. You should consult other information and performance tests to assist you in fully evaluating your contemplated purchases, including the performance of that product when combined with other products. For more complete information visit www.intel.com/benchmarks. 1
using real applications from independent software vendors such as Microsoft* and Adobe*. * Other names and brands may be claimed as the property of others. manufacturer or retailer or learn more at intel.com. © 2017 Intel Corporation. All rights reserved. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core, the Intel. Experience What’s Inside logo, Intel. Experience What’s Inside, and Intel Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
COLUMN
Presented by BitCo
IS ADSL HOLDING YOU BACK – SO WHY AREN’T YOU MOVING? Why you need to move from ADSL to Fibre optics and/ or Wireless connectivity.
I
nternet access isn’t just necessary for businesses to exist; it offers potentially unlimited opportunities for growth. Unfortunately, many businesses are using an obsolete, tired, old Internet connection medium.
to justify the move. And because Fibre optic lines are more resistant to interference and less likely to be affected by theft, uptime is almost a guarantee. Wireless cannot compete with Fibre optics, but its advantages are significant. For one, its independence from expensive cabled infrastructure means you can use it practically anywhere, and the cost to expand it to new areas is significantly less than wired networks. And adding new users to the network is a breeze compared to digging Fibre.
The long-standing development, and continued investment, in copper telephone lines has made ADSL the preferred Internet “Fibre optics is the connection choice new standard for for many. And for the A Wireless connection cabled Internet longest time, it was isn’t perfect; it’s provision” a great choice. The slower than its reason for ADSL’s Fibre counterparts fall is the same reason so many and, to an extent, less reliable. technologies can only be found That’s why many businesses in the records of history – choose Fibre as the backbone obsolescence. There are new for their operations, and technologies to take note of – complement that with wireless, namely, fibre optics and wireless. for expanded range, flexibility and agility as well as backup. Fibre optics is the new standard Both Fibre and Wireless offer for cabled Internet provision. advantages over ADSL that It’s able to offer unprecedented your business should take note bandwidth – 1Gbps plus as of, but ultimately, businesses opposed to DSL’s maximum of must understand their needs 40Mbps – as well as an upload and choose the best solution. rate that equals its download. That makes uploading large BitCo provides affordable, files, such as video or voice, a reliable, carrier-grade quality much quicker process, and using with exceptional service and cloud services easier. Fibre's the utmost convenience to speed can also be attributed to businesses nationwide. They a lower contention ratio, which are able to offer up to 1Gbps means fewer entities competing on a national scale thanks for the same bandwidth. to a 40Gbps distribution ring in Johannesburg, Cape Granted, it can initially be a more Town and KwaZulu-Natal. expensive investment than using BitCo offers both Wireless ADSL, but the gains far outweigh and Fibre. Only a handful of the costs. The advantages for providers in South Africa do. ■ productivity alone are enough
Fibre is not a luxury, it’s a necessity. Being connected is everything. So network with a tier-one Internet provider that will take your business to the next level of connectivity.
bitco.co.za
Gert Swart ODEK CEO
Thought Leadership
DEVELOPING INNOVATIVE LEADERS FOR TOMORROW By Vicky Sidler
With Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Bots, the contact centre of 2017 is rapidly becoming unrecognisable from the contact centre of the eighties, nineties, and 2000s. Yet, we are witnessing increasing innovation in the contact centre world, says Gert Swart, ODEK CEO.
T
he concept of the customer journey has fundamentally changed and with it, the rules of engagement. A new form of customer engagement has emerged and fundamental shifts are underway in how businesses are engaging with connected customers and prospects. Gartner recently said that “cloud computing is one of the most disruptive forces of IT spending since the early days of the digital age”. Cloud computing is not the only force affecting contact centres, however, with Artificial Intelligence, globalisation, Virtual Reality, digital media, and many other aspects playing a role as well. ODEK has been established as a company that aims to make a significant impact on the performance of customers and the customer experience of their customers, set up to break the mould in the South African market. The company aims to employ the best and brightest in the South African, and soon, the International market. “Our test of success will
be our ability to transform great lateral ideas into impressive execution for the benefit of our customers,” said Swart.
and since we entered the market, we’ve delivered various innovative solutions to our customers,” said Swart.
While ODEK makes extensive use of technology, it is a peoplecentred business with a complete focus on connecting people with people. “We were established in 2013 and quickly became known in the local market since we could understand our customers’ needs better and respond to them faster. Today, ODEK is not only a support partner but an innovation partner,” added Swart.
Among these are Activity Based Routing, which allows you to control your routing rules through your Workforce Management solution. This ensures your agents adhere to their schedule by only routing the tasks they are scheduled for and forcing them to go on their scheduled breaks. This is only integrated by a few companies in the world as it is still a foreign concept to many users.
ODEK brought a number of firsts to South Africa. Together with Genesys, ODEK was the first partner to successfully sell and install speech analytics within one of the top five banks in South Africa. ODEK was the first to implement and launch a true Genesys Cloud platform, with customers that include insurance companies, FMCGs, and financial institutions. “We pride ourselves on delivering custom and innovative solutions to our customers
"Cloud computing is one of the most disruptive forces in IT spending" Other innovations include Web Engagement, with additional security features that allow for transactional engagement, as well as Interaction Analytics that will give your business the ability to analyse every interaction to truly understand the conversations, improve the customer experience, and
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improve processes while meeting important business objectives, such as quality assurance, compliance management, and the bottom line. Implementing these and many other innovative solutions can present a customer with numerous advantages, such as superior customer services, enhanced customer satisfaction, lower average handle times, more efficient and productive agents, and more valuable customer interactions. Referring to his speech at the MyBroadband Cloud, Hosting and Security Conference this past May on "Cloud… the new cheese", Swart emphasised the ever-changing and fastgrowing trends of technology. “If we don’t move with what’s new, we will ultimately get left behind, and that is why innovation is our go-to solution. You cannot solve a problem of tomorrow with a solution from yesterday.” ■
Quick facts about ODEK • ODEK Customer Engagement was established originally in 2013 under a different name and only became ODEK in April 2016 • Gert Swart, CEO of ODEK Customer Engagement, has over 20 years of experience in the ICT sector • ODEK was first to launch live Speech Analytics with one of the top five banks in South Africa • First activity-based webchat installations in the world • First active Genesys Cloud partner in EMEA • ODEK won Genesys partner of the year in 2015 • ODEK recently launched their new website: www.odekce.co.za • ODEK can now be followed on LinkedIn at ODEK Customer Engagement, and Twitter at ODEK CE (@ODEK_CE)
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Careers
THE INCREASING DEMAND FOR SOFTWARE DEVELOPERS IN SOUTH AFRICA By Kevin Lancaster
The demand for developers in the country is currently high and
employees is not limited to developers only, however, as
shows no signs of weakening.
any skills gap combined with a high demand in the market can result in companies and recruiters actively pursuing candidates. Badenhorst said this is evident in CareerJunction’s job postings, which contain over 3,000 software developer positions every month.
S
oftware developers are often described as the most sought-after skilled employees in South Africa, with job portals like CareerJunction regularly punting software development as the most-wanted skill set. CareerJunction’s Communications Manager Odile Badenhorst said that the demand for developers remains very high, and there are no signs of it weakening in the near future.
Software is eating the world
Philip Joubert, co-founder of OfferZen - which specialises in matching developers with companies - said they have seen “The high demand for software big increases in developer salaries developers, and IT professionals of late, particularly at junior levels. in general, is not specific to “We’ve seen that salaries for South Africa. Looking at the UK, recent graduates in Cape Town Germany, and the USA, IT skills have increased significantly in and programming expertise are the last year,” said some of the most Joubert. “Historically, sought-after skill "The demand for the salary ranges sets in many developers will of South African employment developers have markets,” said grow significantly" varied wildly, mostly Badenhorst. The as a result of the high demand market being inefficient. It looks has led to higher salaries, and a like there is some correction higher risk of developers being happening right now as salaries poached by other companies, become more normalised.” with Badenhorst stating that salary offerings for software developers are extremely competitive. The poaching of
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A reason for the high demand, and increasing salaries, is
that “software is eating the world”, said Joubert. “Almost all companies will eventually become software companies. We are still in the early stages of this trend and I’m expecting demand for developers to still grow significantly for at least the next decade.”
“In South Africa, I think there are two aspects driving demand for developers. The first is that the startup ecosystem is maturing. Over the last few years, venture funding has picked up significantly and we’re seeing an influx of new startups hiring developers. The second is that large corporates are scrambling to grow their technology teams. Most corporates are realising that IT needs to be a core competency, rather than just a support function. The demand for software developers will grow massively in the coming years. The universities and colleges simply aren’t producing enough developers each year,” said Joubert.
market for a very short time and your hiring process needs to account for that. You need a fast, structured process.”
Joubert said for companies to ensure they can hire and retain the top talent, they need to change the way they operate. “The single most important change organisations can make to successfully hire top developers is improving their hiring processes. Top candidates are only on the
Keeping developers happy
“Top developers are also likely interviewing at multiple companies. If your hiring process requires too much time investment from the developer, they’ll simply drop out of your process and continue with their other options.” He said another important aspect for companies to consider was the learning opportunities they can provide their developers. “You need to show candidates that you have a smart team that’s working on interesting problems.”
“A lot of companies mess up the basic management of their teams which causes developers to leave. Simple things like regular one-onones can make a huge difference. Another mistake HR sometimes makes is not considering that many developers want to stay individual contributors. It’s important to give developers the option to advance in their career within your company while still remaining an individual contributor,” said Joubert. In terms of specific skill sets or languages, Joubert said there are significant shortages of local developers proficient in Ruby, Go, and Scala. “We’ve also seen that companies are struggling to find front-end developers. Front-end development has become a much more important aspect of software development in the past few years.” ■
Once a company has secured a developer, however, the job is not done. Developers are ultimately employees, and will be affected by issues which all employees face - this includes “quitting managers, not companies”.
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Mobile Networks
WIRELESS – NOT SO WIRELESS AFTER ALL By Juanita Clark, FTTH Council Africa CEO
I
t is expected that mobile and wireless traffic volumes will increase a thousand-fold over the next decade, which will be driven by the expected 50 billion connected devices linking to the cloud by 2020, all of which will need to access and share data, anywhere and anytime. 2020 is also the timeline that US carriers are giving themselves to launch their 5G networks. Mobile operators around the world are working tirelessly to ensure they are not left behind in the race. The promise of 5G, the term used to describe the next-generation of mobile networks beyond 4G LTE, includes faster Internet, greater mobile connectivity for businesses and individuals, and the true experience of always on, always available.
Juanita Clark FTTH Council Africa CEO
When the 5G networks are built, the carriers will have to use more antennas – many more – to get the same coverage as our current networks and these antennas will need to be connected with fibre for backhaul.
It promises to deliver speeds It is impossible to talk about of at least 10Gbps or higher 5G without considering the role and have a latency that is mere of fibre optic networks in its milliseconds. 5G is all about laying architecture. In fact, optics will an infrastructure be the star of for connected cars, the show. "It is impossible to self-driving cars, talk about 5G without and an omnipresent It is imperative considering the role of for policy “Internet of things.” fibre optic networks makers to in its architecture" Some of the prime understand that objectives or demands 5G networks that need to be addressed are support mobile users, however increased capacity, improved the network itself is not mobile. data rate, decreased latency, 5G will need fibre, and lots and better quality of service. To of it. If we are going to build meet these demands, drastic these networks that are going improvements need to be made to meet the anticipated growth in cellular network architecture. in data consumption by mobile
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devices, we have to start at the beginning, and that is to get the underlying infrastructure right. Remove red tape with way-leave systems, improve turnaround times for issuing of way-leave information, and make available street lights and other potential street furniture in more rural areas to ease deployment. 2020 seems an ambitious timeline, and if South Africa would like to deliver on the 5G vision it will require a concerted and coordinated effort between telecom operators, equipment and component manufacturers, and governments and regulators. ■ Join the annual FTTH Council Africa conference to talk more about the technical aspects of 5G and IoT – the next generation technologies that are shaping the world in which we live.
T O NE
FFR R EEEE T ICKET TIC M IT K ON E AA E DD T MI TOM CON ORRO TOMORROW F E R W I S IS NOW N O2017 ENC CONFERENCE E2 W Day 017 Mon 3t 5
Day h Month Yea Oct r
3-5
Year
2Oct 017 2017
Join industry leaders and news makers, at the biggest fibre optic focused conference in Africa. Presenting world class plenary sessions and technical workshops. This year’s theme ”Tomorrow is Now” will address the unlimited possibilities of the future of IoT, 5G and next generation technologies. FREE FOR MNO’s (Mobile Network Operators), FNO’s (Fixed Network Operators), Regulators, Government/Public Sector, HOA’s, Estate Managers and Property Developers and Managers. Register today www.ftthcouncilafrica-conference.com
Motoring
THE BMW i3 - PUTTING A SMILE ON A PETROLHEAD’S FACE By Kevin Lancaster
I
stared at the BMW i3. It stared back at me. It felt like meeting a girlfriend’s ex-boyfriend. It had done nothing wrong, and it is probably a great car to watch a game of rugby with, but I didn’t feel like being nice to it. And I was definitely not laughing at its jokes, regardless of how hilarious they were. The BMW i3 had done nothing wrong, it was just there representing something which
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I knew little about, but was programmed to dislike. I love petrol. I love the smell of petrol, I love the sound of a V8 taking off from a stop street, I love the sound of a twin-turbo V6 screaming down a road as it almost redlines before changing up. I love manual gearboxes, where a smooth shift is thanks to clutch-and-stick work that leaves you feeling like Senna driving through Monaco.
BMW knows how to do all of the above, and do it incredibly well. Its M cars have earned God-like status among those who respect cars and enjoy driving, and it is no secret the new M2 and M3 have been hailed as some of the best driver’s cars ever made.
"The i3 is rapid, and I am not talking powerfulhatchback quick, it is truly fast off the line"
Zero to fast Turning on the BMW i3 using its start button to the right of the steering wheel, there is no roar or rumble. The electrics turn on and the car is ready to go. You disengage the electronic handbrake and flick a switch to put the car into drive. There are no gears here - even automatic ones - thanks to the nature of electric engines, and this lets the car do something I never saw coming: deliver a flying kick to my adrenal glands as I took off.
I stared at the BMW i3, and it stared back at me. I felt guilty for the initial reaction. It was immature, but I couldn’t help it. Why are BMW making electric cars? Leave that to the hippies in Sweden - the engineers in Germany should rather spend their time tweaking the rear wings of track-ready sedans. These were the thoughts I had when I stepped into the i3 - thoughts which quickly disappeared when I put my foot on the accelerator pedal.
The i3 is rapid, and I am not talking powerful-hatchback quick, it is truly fast off the line. The 125kW electric motor puts out 250nm of torque - all of which is delivered to the wheels from the moment you take off. The result is - for the i3 94Ah REX model I had - 0-60km/h in 4 seconds, and 0-100km/h in 7.9 seconds. The zero to 60 segment is where the car delivers tingle-in-yourstomach speed, and I guarantee you now that if you get in one you will be impressed by how fast it takes off. Cruising at slow speeds and smashing your foot down is equally exhilarating, and the i3 gave me acceleration I have never experienced in a four-door hatchback.
The pace at which this car moves is even more impressive when you look at what it is. It has four doors - in a funky regular-suicide frontback combination - space for four adults, a big boot which easily holds a week’s worth of washing, and the necessities every modern car needs: air conditioning, electric windows, and safety features that let you drive faster than your skills should allow. The car is not only exceptional in a straight line, it also excites in the corners. The model I drove was fitted with 155/70 R19 tyres on the front and 175/60 R19 tyres on the rear, which provide stability without creating too much resistance for the electric engine. The result is a comfortable ride when you want to take it easy, and enough rubber on the road when you throw it into a corner at speed. I’ve never been one for good “all-rounders” when it comes to cars. If you want something that handles well, don’t complain when the ride is hard going over a speed bump, and if you want an engine that can be heard from 10km away, don’t complain when it is noisy while you are
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stuck in traffic. The i3 makes the fast stuff fun, while being silent and comfortable when you need it to, however, and this is a quality that impresses.
and I want to admit that. It is little rocket which is a lot of fun to drive, and I am embarrassed for thinking BMW would put its badge on a car that wouldn’t put a smile on a driver’s face.
Two-tone The i3 is made to stand out when it comes to its looks. If the large mags and futuristic body did not catch your eye, the two-tone colour scheme will. The black and white with blue accents is an attribute I liked from the start, a like which only grew stronger the more time I spent with the car. One of the aesthetic features which rubbed me the wrong way when I met the i3 were the kidney “grilles” on the bonnet. They do not let in air as they are decorative, which I thought was disrespectful to the motors which need fast-flowing oxygen to survive. After driving the car, however, I realised they were not put there mockingly, they pay homage to the BMWs which have come before the i3. I was wrong about the i3 when we met,
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There’s a lot of information that’s been left out of this review - like the range of the car, the size of the battery, does it have a camera for when you reverse (it does, and it works exceptionally well), but driving the car became more than an analysis of a “BMW i3”. Driving the car made me realise that even as a self-proclaimed
petrolhead, there’s so much electric cars can offer us. We just need to get in one and give it gas - or joules, in this case. ■
Enterprise Connectivity
DEVELOPING THE TACTICAL EDGE WITH ENTERPRISE CONNECTIVITY By Vicky Sidler
The success of today’s organisations depends highly on the delivery of the latest technology on reliable and secure enterprise connectivity, any place, anytime, says Darryn Trefz, Executive: Technology Expense Management at Adapt IT.
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s companies face increasing challenges, enterprise connectivity brings major opportunities for improving productivity and flexibility by sharing information. “Connectivity is important for any type of enterprise, whether to deliver to customers, lower operating costs, or increase productivity,” says Trefz. “We have moved beyond discussing unified communication, and we are now focusing on how the modern organisation is going to be connected.” Trefz explains that the shift towards enterprise connectivity is going to impact how organisations engage with customers and will enable them to deliver solutions without compromise. In this increasingly always-on, cloudbased, mobile-first digital world, enterprise connectivity is no longer merely desirable, but an expected necessity. “Organisations are relying on connectivity to engage with
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customers, employees and suppliers; as many rely on it to deliver their services,” Trefz adds. As such, connectivity is not only about internal collaboration, but is essential in remaining connected to their customers using best-suited technology. CIOs now need to consider multiple facets, not limited to merely software and hardware, but including cloud applications and infrastructure as well. As the Millennial generation starts entering upper management and even executive levels, they are expecting enterprises to deliver social networking tools, easyto-use applications, and mobile computing experiences on par with those available to consumers.
"CIOs now need to consider multiple facets that are not limited to software and hardware, but include cloud applications, as well as infrastructure"
“This may pose a challenge to the organisation, as the upcoming workforce places demands on the organisation that challenges the CIO’s future technology strategy,” Trefz says. “These are tech-savvy individuals who are looking for technology-based solutions, if their needs aren’t met, the organisation might end up with silos, with different departments deploying unintegrated project tools, cloud apps, social media platforms, and so forth.” Trefz warns that the demands for capacity not visible under a common strategy can end up costing double or triple what they should. As such, enterprise connectivity needs a more inclusive, future-proof strategy that can be executed harmoniously within budget. To address this need, Adapt IT offers a full solution stack as it relates to technology, communications, cloud services and infrastructure expense management. “We engage with C-level executives, managers, and technology vendors involved
in rolling out these strategies,” explains Trefz. “And we do this not just by considering how the organisation connects their customers and employees, but as well as how we align this through a technology platform.” Adapt IT provides the as-is landscape of the fragmented services used in an organisation, creating a centralised view of connectivity, communications, and services. In addition, the technology offered by Adapt IT assists with the business ownership of these services and
alignment of these services to the enterprise connectivity strategy. “We assist the company in delivering a true cost per user considering all technology, connectivity, and communication forms by providing the platform to associate ownership to services, spend, and budget,” Trefz adds. “We aim to maximise the effectiveness of the connectivity strategy, while managing the cost through the removal of dormant, misused, overcharged spend; achieving a saving of up to 40% for some clients.” ■
Darryn Trefz Executive: Technology Expense Management at Adapt IT
About Adapt IT Adapt IT provides a variety of specialised IT software solutions and services to Education, Energy, Financial Services, Hospitality and Manufacturing sector clients. Adapt IT has over 1200 employees and customers in 40 countries in Africa, Asia, Australasia, Europe, South America and North America, and its services and solutions span the complete software IT life cycle, from consulting and application design and development, through to delivery and support. Contact Adapt IT by emailing enquiries@adaptit.co.za or visiting adaptit.co.za
Cryptocurrency
HOW THE BLOCKCHAIN IS REDEFINING STANDARD BUSINESS MODELS By Jamie McKane power of the blockchain lies in its immutable, publiclysecure structure, which makes it ideal for use as a public record of important data which cannot be tampered with. Dingle said this security could
Simon Dingle Blockchain Expert
Due to the secure and democratic nature of blockchain technology, many businesses are exploring the use of decentralised structures.
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lobal interest in decentralisation and blockchain-based cryptocurrencies has increased dramatically in 2017, aided by the large increase in their value and potential investment returns. Cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, LiteCoin, and Ripple are based on decentralised blockchains which function as distributed public ledgers. These public ledgers record transactions and the order they occur, with each transaction signed by a private key held by a user. This makes it difficult to commit crimes prevalent in the electronic banking environment, such as fraud or theft.
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Each node interacting with the blockchain stores and synchronises a copy of the distributed ledger, meaning that if one node is taken out or manipulated, it will not be able to reach consensus with other nodes and will be ignored. As long as a single copy of the blockchain remains, user funds remain accessible and transactions can be processed. This secure and democratic digital environment has resulted in many businesses exploring the use of decentralised structures and blockchain technology for everything from employee interaction, to the creation of decentralised software.
Decentralisation and Security South African blockchain expert Simon Dingle said the
allow businesses to cheaply and securely store information on the blockchain. "The blockchain offers businesses powerful infrastructure that can be accessed for very low costs,” said Dingle. “Much as free databases like MySQL gave businesses a cheap way to powerfully store and index data, the blockchain gives us a way to powerfully transact, conduct contracts, store value, and record other information immutably." Another powerful aspect of blockchains and their cryptocurrencies are ICOs (Initial Coin Offerings), which are gaining popularity among crypto investors. "Right now, we are seeing a lot of activity in ICOs. This allows for the crowdfunding of ideas in an incredibly efficient and unhindered way. Now anyone can be a venture capitalist,” said Dingle. “We are about to see an explosion of new businesses with bold ideas that would otherwise have struggled to raise capital.” ICOs function similarly to crowdfunding campaigns on platforms like Kickstarter, although contributors usually hold a share in the startup and the mechanics of the funding
are transparent - due to being written on the blockchain. Many ICOs have been launched on the Ethereum blockchain in recent months, due to its support for smart contracts and the inclusion of a Turing-complete programming language. The Ethereum blockchain allows users to code autonomous applications which can function independently, as long as they have enough of the blockchain’s cryptocurrency - Ether - to run their code.
Structure and Applications Due to its smart contract integration and rising value, Ethereum has become popular among developers aiming to build applications on a blockchain. These decentralised applications, or DApps, are added to the blockchain as autonomous smart contracts and their source code is available to anyone with access to the blockchain. DApps are programmed using Solidity, a Turing-complete programming language created for use in Ethereum smart contracts. Various startups and businesses around the world have already started building applications on the Ethereum blockchain, including the Brave browser platform from Mozilla co-founder Brendan Eich. Dingle said mainstream adoption of smart contract technology by businesses is still relatively far away, but the concept of decentralised applications will continue to grow and evolve. “Mainstream adoption of the technology is still some way off, and there will be a lot of failure and consolidation along the way, but ultimately, I think this is an idea that's time is about to arrive.” Dingle said decentralised applications are already being
employed in the real world, with electric car charging applications in Europe using a decentralised smart contract built on the Ethereum blockchain. He said that due to the democratic nature of the blockchain, new types of business models are emerging which are not regulated by an authority or built on a platform aimed at generating profit. “If the Internet was centrally controlled by an entity, that entity would dictate what services were allowed on it, and would guide its development based on profitability,” said Dingle. “An Internet service that didn't offer a business case would then probably not be pursued. But because the Internet is decentralised we, as users, can decide what to use it for and this, ironically, has enabled businesses that otherwise wouldn't be imagined.” “The blockchain similarly offers a decentralised network of trust that isn't guided by profit incentives. Businesses can shape their use of the infrastructure however they need to without asking for permission or risking counteraction from a central authority.”
Transactions and Investment Dingle said that while blockchains could allow for the creation and evolution of many businesses, they will negatively affect established businesses. This applies to brokers and other agents of the current financial system, as cryptocurrencies do not require a third party to be processed, and are built to circumvent the need for a middleman.
of Things,” said Dingle. “Servers could pay for their hosting, network access points could autonomously pay for and meter bandwidth. The possibilities are endless. It will also destroy some businesses, particularly those that serve as middlemen in the current financial system. If you can invest directly in a company, you don't need brokers. If you can send anyone in the world money, you don't need remittance providers. When value can be stored securely by anyone because Bitcoin offers you something better than a Swiss bank account, then banks stop being providers of that service.” Bitcoin was for many years the clear leader in the world of cryptocurrencies, but has come up against a strong challenge from Ethereum in 2017. Ethereum saw a massive rise in value and popularity this year, and now competes head on against Bitcoin. When asked which blockchain he favoured, however, Dingle said he sees Bitcoin as the main decentralised blockchain. “Bitcoin has and will continue to have the biggest impact on the global market, unless the community that guides it fails to decisively address the scaling debate.” “I also think it isn't a zerosum game. Some blockchains will succeed in meeting niche markets, as Ripple is doing for interbank. Bitcoin might become the dominant chain for storing value, as a sort of digital gold standard, while Ethereum might simultaneously dominate for decentralised applications, and perhaps something like Dash will be the preferred chain for day-to-day transactions.” ■
“The blockchain will change the way that products compensate infrastructure providers and more efficiently create a network of value for the Internet
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Home Assistants
THE SMART SPEAKERS COMPETING FOR A SPOT IN YOUR HOME By Kevin Lancaster
Smart speakers are gaining in popularity, with Apple, Amazon, and Google competing for a place in homes around the world.
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mazon’s Prime Day Sale, which took place in July, is one of the biggest online shopping days in the world. The most popular purchase by users on the day was the Echo Dot, Amazon’s entrylevel smart home speaker.
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Amazon, Google, and most recently Apple all have a stake in the smart home speaker game, with the companies respectively punting their Echo, Home, and HomePod devices as a musthave for any modern household.
The devices feature many similarities, including the ability to connect to online services and take voice commands, which can be used for anything from changing a song playing on the device to ordering dinner for the family.
Go o gl e H ome The Google Home is powered by the Google Assistant, and features support for multiple user profiles. The smart speaker also features support for a multitude of services, including Chromecast, Nest, and Philips Hue. Google said the Home packs farfield voice recognition and natural language processing - ensuring users are always heard correctly - and a multi-room capability, allowing multiple Home speakers to be linked. Further features include asking for weather forecasts, travel times and ticket prices, and controlling what video content is streamed via compatible devices.
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Am a zo n Ec h o The Amazon Echo is the middle-ofthe-range smart speaker from Amazon, slotting in between the Echo Dot and the Echo Show (which features a 7-inch touchscreen display). The Echo integrates with many Amazon and third-party services, and is powered by the company’s Alexa assistant. Seven microphones and beam forming technology ensure users are heard from across any room - even if the speaker is playing music - and can detect which Echo is nearest to a user if more than one is present. Amazon’s Echo lets users order products, make and receive voice calls, and integrates with smart home devices such as lights, switches, and thermostats.
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A ppl e H omePod Apple’s HomePod is the new kid on the block, and there are high expectations for the smart speaker. The HomePod is powered by Apple’s Siri assistant, with the company stating that the speaker will deliver “the highest-fidelity sound” throughout a room - regardless of where it is placed. Apple has powered the HomePod with its A8 chip, which is paired with a high-excursion woofer, six-microphone array, and seven-tweeter array. The HomePod can detect where in a room it is placed, can sync with other HomePods in the same house, and is compatible with other AirPlay 2 speakers. Besides playing music, Apple said the speaker can integrate with smart home devices through the company's HomeKit platform.
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MyBroadband Events
MYBROADBAND’S 2017 CLOUD, HOSTING, AND SECURITY CONFERENCE A GREAT SUCCESS T
he MyBroadband 2017 Cloud, Hosting, and Security Conference took place at the Gallagher Convention Centre on 10 May, and was a huge success. The event attracted a record number of delegates, with 1,900 IT executives and decision makers attending, and provided a platform for IT executives and managers to interact and do business with South Africa’s top cloud, hosting, and security providers. Delegates were also treated to presentations from the top companies in the cloud, hosting, and security fields, with speakers from Amazon Web Services, BCX, SensePost, Dimension Data, Connection Telecom, SITA, Huawei, and many other leading organisations providing insight into the industry. One of the standout features of the conference was the exhibition area, where the country’s top ICT companies showed off their latest products and services, and offered special deals to delegates attending the event. The conference provided great networking opportunities for executives and ICT decision makers, thanks to the vast number of delegates in attendance. ■
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Threat Protection
DON’T BECOME A HOSTAGE AFTER OPENING AN EMAIL By Carien Pretorius
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he recent WannaCry ransomware attack which infected the systems of large corporates and national health organisations proves that many companies are not equipped to deal with cybersecurity threats. The attack relied on users opening disguised malicious emails, which then infected Windows systems which did not have the latest security patches installed. Once a user’s machine was infected with the WannaCry ransomware, its files were encrypted - preventing users from accessing their own data. To unlock the encrypted files, victims were told to pay a ransom in Bitcoin to a specific address. Due to the nature of cryptocurrencies, it is difficult to trace where the funds are sent - and there is no one to turn to if the payment is sent through, but the attackers refuse to help you access your data.
known and 487 unknown malware attachments, and 8,605 impersonation attacks were seen in the mail of 44,000 monitored users over a cumulative 287 days. “The data reinforces the concerning reality that the industry must work towards a higher standard of email security, as 90% of attacks start with email,” stated the report. One of the standout findings was a 400% increase in impersonation attacks, which involve social engineering.
Attacks getting worse Mimecast, a security solutions provider with offices in South Africa, recently released its Mimecast Email Security Risk Assessment, which showed that attacks continue to penetrate digital defence nets. The report stated that almost 9 million pieces of spam, 8,318 dangerous file types, 1,669
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Emails attempt to impersonate a trusted party such as a C-level executive, employee, or business partner - with this type of attack being “exploited at an alarming rate”. “It can be used to dupe recipients into initiating wiretransfers and sending back other sensitive data, leading to significant financial loss.”
Protect yourself Mimecast states that a critical step in defending yourself against ransomware is preventing its spread via email. The company fights attacks with a layered email protection offering, which brings security, continuity, and email archiving capabilities together in a single cloud solution. This prevents email-borne ransomware infections, eliminates data loss and outages, and reduces complexity. It also ensures constant, up-to-date protection thanks to its alway-on nature. Due to the constantly-evolving nature of ransomware and other cyberattacks - where it's security providers versus hackers and criminals - the latest protection is crucial to ensure there are no holes in a company’s online defences. ■
Chatbots
CHATBOTS WILL HELP EMPLOYEES, NOT REPLACE THEM By Adam Oxford Why conversational computing is taking hold in South Africa.
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otCon Africa is where professionals interested in artificial intelligence and conversational computing interfaces – commonly known as chatbots - gather. It was first held in Johannesburg last year,
and has grown into an event which sees developers and executives queuing up to learn from the likes of Facebook, BotPress, and local experts. A driver of this growth is the increased interest in chatbots, which are expected to grow into a billion-dollar global industry by 2024, according to analysts at Transparency Market Research. This may be a conservative estimate, however, with the likes of IBM, Microsoft, Google, and Apple continuing to invest in virtual assistants and cognitive computing. South Africans have also had a taste of their local potential thanks to ABSA, which started offering chatbot-based banking on Facebook and Twitter in 2016.
The future of chatbots The curator of BotCon, Belinda Lewis, works for one of South Africa’s specialists in the field, Feersum Engine. Her firm develops chatbots using a mix of its own technology and open source AI and language processing libraries, and supports platforms like Twitter, Facebook, SMS, and email. “The industry has moved forward in terms of technology and acceptance just in the last six months. Internationally, it’s hit the mainstream,” said Lewis. Chatbots have enormous potential for
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delivering services in a low-cost and efficient way, with Feersum Engine’s tech used in the public sector to power a Facebook bot which helps local mothers with pre and post-natal advice. Lewis said the most interest right now, however, is around selfservice applications for call centre enhancement. When deployed correctly, chatbots “decrease the volume of calls people have to deal with and increase value of time they are able to spend with customers”. The key difference between a chatbot and a simple Q&A - of the kind Google favours for customer self-service – is AI. Feersum Engine starts with a callcentre-style decision making tree, but the bot learns over time how to get customers to the answers they want as quickly as possible. Much of the current development is on the language processing engine and preparing it for what could be a killer app in South Africa: intelligent multi-lingual support.
Your plastic pal While chatbot advancements offer many benefits, we may not want our bots to get too clever, though. Evan Wheeler is the CTO for UNICEF, which has developed its own in-house bot U-Report. Just as physical robots and 3D representations of humans are infamous for the “uncanny valley” effect - the almost-human appearance that disconcerts the audience - so chatbots can be off-putting if they try too hard to be real. Wheeler’s advice is to design bots to be self-evidently artificial, and don’t try to convince users that they’re talking to humans. “Every relationship between the bot and a user is unique. Drop hints to allow people to discover how to use it the way they want to,” said Wheeler. The fear is that as AI and chatbots
get better, they’ll start to cost jobs. Gartner states that a third of all jobs globally will be automated by 2025. It doesn’t have to be that way, however, said Wheeler. “Remember that these are collaborative systems and they need to act as force multipliers for their users. A calculator won’t do great maths research, but it will do sums and not make errors. When it’s used by a person, great things are possible. It’s important to think about bots that way, they aren’t a replacement for a person, but a force multiplier to help them do better work.” Ryan Falkenberg, CEO of AI startup Clevva, agrees. Clevva’s platform brings machine learning bots to call centres, but they’re only visible to the agent, not the customer. Instead of replacing humans, good bot design frees them to do what they’re good at, said Falkenberg. “Clients don’t have to spend a lot of money training specialist teams who can only answer questions on one product. Instead, they can quickly train generalists who specialise in customer service, while the AI takes care of the product knowledge.” The results can be spectacular, he said. Not only are staff and customers happier, but the number of “first call resolutions” - the queries which were solved by the first agent a customer spoke to - rose from 20% to 98%. In other words, there’s no more being passed from pillar to post looking for someone who can help, because everyone can. South Africa is also uniquely positioned for entrepreneurs developing bot services, said Falkenberg. “Overseas, there’s an obsession with cognitive computing and total digitisation. What’s interesting in South Africa is applying those principles to an industrial economy which still requires the human touch.” ■
"Overseas, there’s an obsession with cognitive computing and total digitisation. What’s interesting in South Africa is applying those principles to an industrial economy which still requires the human touch.
Cybercrime
THINK YOUR ANTIVIRUS IS KEEPING YOU SAFE? THINK AGAIN By Vicky Sidler
your machine, however, so an antivirus won’t detect the threat. “What you need in this case is security software that includes detection and response, and multiple layers of advanced protection,” explains Nathoo. “Norton’s Phishing Protection, for example, protects you from visiting unsafe websites. And the Norton Site Safety indicator in the web browser lets you know if the website that you visit is safe.”
Sohini Nathoo Symantec Territory Lead, Norton Africa Viruses only account for 5% of cyber threats today, and antivirus software is no longer sufficient protection, says Sohini Nathoo, Symantec Territory Lead, Norton Africa.
Gladwel Soko Norton Product Manager at Axiz
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he threat landscape has changed, and hackers increasingly use novel methods and bugs in the software of computers to perform attacks. “A mere antivirus is no longer enough to protect you from most types of cybercrime that is on the rise today,” says Nathoo. Phishing is a good example of this. Phishing is essentially an online con game where hackers use spam, malicious websites, email messages, and instant messages to trick people into divulging sensitive information, such as bank and credit card accounts. They don’t load any viruses onto
Other areas of concern include downloading or torrenting files (many of which have hidden malware), social media scams (such as sharing videos to help sick children get cancer treatment or signing up for free products), and mobile app permissions (giving apps access to your device’s microphone, camera, contact list, etc). According to Nathoo, 8.9 million South Africans have been impacted by cybercrime since the beginning of 2016, with a total cost of R35 billion. “We tend to think that cybercrime is not happening here, and this makes us complacent.” Recently, the WannaCry ransomware attacks targeted and affected users in various countries across the globe by encrypting data files on infected computers and demanding
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users pay a $300 ransom in Bitcoin to decrypt their files. Many South African companies were affected as well. Over 22 million Symantec and Norton users were protected from attempted WannaCry attacks, however. This was due to real-time sharing of threat intelligence between endpoint and network systems, as well as machine learning technologies, which helped ensure endpoint customers were fully protected. Another new strain of ransomware similar to WannaCry, called Petya, appeared in multiple countries recently. Petya spread itself to large organisations across Europe using what is called the Eternal Blue exploit in Windows computers, but Norton customers were protected against the Petya attacks using this exploit. Norton has created a digital safety platform to protect users on every leg of their digital journey. “We live, work, and play in this connected world, and we want people to be safe when they are online, which is essentially from the time they wake up to the time they go to bed,” adds Nathoo. This includes Norton Wi-Fi Privacy to protect your data with a no-log virtual private network (VPN) that encrypts your personal information and doesn’t track or store your online activity or location. It also includes Norton Identity Protection, which safeguards your identity and online transactions. “And this also extends to the entire family, so Norton offers award-winning parental controls and monitoring to help your kids explore the web safely,” says Nathoo. Norton Family Premier has tools that help kids balance time spent online, makes the Web safer for kids to explore, and teaches habits that help protect kids from oversharing. Norton’s products can be purchased online from their website za.norton.com. However, for those nervous about submitting their credit card details online or simply prefer a tangible product, Norton distributes box products through Axiz. Axiz is South Africa’s leading IT infrastructure and software distributor, and has become the most valued channel for its vendors and customers, showing the passion and commitment necessary to maintain the highest levels of service and customer satisfaction. “At Axiz, we provide innovative and professional solutions to our reseller base, and as Norton is one of the world’s leading brands, they complement our range of products,” says Gladwel Soko, Norton Product Manager at Axiz. ■ For more information on becoming a reseller, visit www.axiz.com
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Axiz is South Africa’s leading IT infrastructure and software distributor and has become the most valued channel for its vendors and customers, showing the passion and commitment necessary to maintain the highest levels of service and customer satisfaction.
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Augmented Reality
AUGMENTED REALITY AND YOUR FUTURE OFFICE By Tamsin Oxford
AR, MR, and VR - abbreviations that are set to change the face of business and consumer engagement.
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ugmented Reality (AR), Merged Reality (MR), and Virtual Reality (VR) are the hottest properties of today’s tech trends. The IDC has not only predicted triple growth figures for these technologies, it has stated that AR headset shipments will hit 99.4 million by 2021. To add cyber fuel to the fire, Digi-Capital’s Augmented/Virtual Reality Report 2017 states that the market will be primarily driven by AR, not VR - the multi-billiondollar market will be ruled by the augmented, not the virtual. That said, there are significant
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challenges that need to be overcome before any of these solutions manage to achieve their potential. The first of these is the price tag: the headsets and the technology needed to manage and develop the AR, VR, and MR experiences don’t come cheap. “Not many consumers are going to drop $1,000 on a headset,” said Charles King, President and Principal Analyst at Pund-It. “At the moment, these platforms are very much a boutique business or a lifestyle product. I think that mobile companies have an opportunity to push much broader and more budgetfriendly applications of VR and AR which could take off more quickly. Certainly in emerging markets such as Africa, it will be
the mobile platforms that will be instrumental in carving out a space for the technology.” In fact, it is the lack of infrastructure and connectivity that will impact the uptake of VR in Africa, but won’t necessarily bring AR to a screaming halt. While more high-speed mobile networks would be a thing of wonder for the continent, they aren’t mandatory for the technology to work. “There are AR application opportunities that won’t require mobile connectivity or be impacted by the lack of infrastructure in some markets,” said Mattney Beck, Product Manager at Lenovo. “There are so many use cases there is no
need to reject the technology because of the infrastructure of a country. Instead, AR can be tailored to suit specific market requirements and capabilities.” While AR has been, until now, a nascent technology, its evolution is taking place at an impressive pace. Beck believes that the market will see usable, reliable, and functional solutions in the next 12-18 months. By “usable”, he means a challenge of AR and VR will finally been addressed – the size and weight of the headsets.
“The optics are improving, the form factors are becoming more lightweight and usable, and processors are getting smaller. This is going to bring the price tag down and improve the design,” said Beck. “The goal is to ultimately create a headset that looks like an ordinary pair of glasses that can sit on your face all day long, rather than look like a cyborg out of a sci-fi movie, like we do today.” The reason AR’s market potential paints a far prettier financial picture than VR is because the technology allows the user to engage with the real world. They
are engaging with the external world while manipulating their internal view. AR is a tool that can be used across multiple scenarios while allowing users to engage in the real world, in real time. Good examples are medical students who can now play around with the human heart in the augmented world, the mechanic who can guide an intern through repairing an engine from a remote location, and the business which can bank on the virtual employee and engaging the mind of the millennial.
AR headset, this doesn’t matter. You can have as many monitors as you want, and you can customise your workspace to suit your taste and style without horrifying your colleagues. You can put your glasses on anywhere and nobody knows what you’re working on.”
These capabilities are emulated by VR, and the potential of MR cannot be ignored - as it’s a blend of both worlds - but it is in AR that experts and researchers see the most growth potential. This lies in the applications of AR and the possibilities it presents, while not demanding high investments in hardware and specialised equipment.
“It’s really interesting to see how this technology is being used in the workplace, particularly for applications in training,” said King.
“The trend in commercial business is that office space is shrinking and employees are no longer tied to the office to work – they are in cafes, homes, cars, and anywhere they feel they are the most productive,” said Beck. “With an
The view from within the augmented reality office you create is private, but it also allows for collaboration with colleagues online and for voiceactivated engagement through tools such as Siri or Cortana. The potential is extraordinary.
It is likely that the extraordinary growth anticipated for this market will be driven by the technology giants, forming partnerships and building relationships that allow them to harness the potential of AR, VR, and MR without carrying the full burden of innovation and invention. Get ready, it’s nearly time to wear your office on your face. ■
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eSports
MATRIX WAREHOUSE LAUNCHES MATRIX MAVERICK CHALLENGE M
atrix Warehouse has partnered with Mettlestate to launch the Matrix Maverick Challenge - an amateur CS:GO tournament which will feature eight up-and-coming CounterStrike teams. The competition kicked off on 17 July 2017 and sees teams taking each other on in a round-robin-style for their share of R50,000 in prizes.
CS:GO tournament. “This Matrix Maverick Cup will be run on the same principles as we do our bigger tournaments, so these young gamers will get a taste of how things are run and done in the bigger tournaments, and to show them what is expected of them in the big leagues,” said Barry Louzada, co-founder of Mettlestate.
The purpose of the Matrix Maverick Challenge - which will run until mid-September - is to prepare young gamers for the bigger tournaments, to give them a proper foundation to build upon, and to create that sense of pride and belonging when they get to the bigger tournaments hosted within the industry.
In addition to landing a spot in the next Mettlestate CS:GO tournament, the winning team will also walk away with R50,000 in hardware vouchers from Matrix Warehouse, a full social and branding makeover for the team which includes logo redesigns if needed, and professional eSports shirts designed and printed for them. ■
Matrix Warehouse chose to work with Mettlestate because of its expertise in the gaming arena. Earlier this year, Mettlestate hosted the Samsung CS:GO Championship - which saw some of South Africa’s top CS teams competing for their share of a R1-million prize pool. That event went off incredibly well and was a great opportunity for the established teams to compete for a substantial prize. The Matrix Maverick Challenge will focus its time and prizes on the up-and-coming gamers. Currently, there is no one really catering for these teams. All of the current tournaments have all the top-tier teams playing in them already, and the chances
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of the smaller teams qualifying, let alone winning, becomes more and more difficult. The aim of this tournament to ultimately bring the smaller teams up to the same level as the more established and professional teams. Wesley Lowe, head of gaming at Matrix, affirms that getting involved with the local eSports scene has been on Matrix’s radar for a while, and this proved to be the right opportunity to jump in. “With the eSports scene seeing rapid growth in South Africa, Matrix Warehouse understands how imperative it is to be involved in the early stages, not only in engaging with well-established gamers, but also in the development of up-and-coming gamers and the youth who are interested to get into eSports. We are very excited about this tournament,” said Lowe. One of the prizes at the tournament is a wild card entry into the next Mettlestate
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With the eSports scene seeing rapid growth in South Africa, Matrix Warehouse understands how imperative it is to be involved in the early stages.
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Threat Protection
EMAIL IS STILL ALIVE AND LEAKY By Adam Oxford
While email leaks and data dumps can be in the public interest, they remind us that no one is immune to a data breach.
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mail leaks are never far from the headlines when they take place, particularly when it comes to large companies or organisations having private communications exposed. Recent examples of this include leaked emails allegedly linked to the Gupta family, the USA’s Democratic Party, Sony, and Yahoo clients. There is a long list of private and public bodies which have lost email data.
privileges because they run across multiple mailboxes. And because these often aren't monitored very effectively, passwords don't change, so they're great attacks if you can get in,” he said. “Or I’d run a social media attack on an IT administrator. Often they act as though security doesn't apply to them, they know the risks so they’re immune. What we find is that social engineering works very effectively against IT people.”
"Protecting your emails requires you to think like a hacker" “It used to be that there was safety in numbers. There were lots of organisations, but very few hackers with the skills to breach systems, but now, buying a cheap malware is like online shopping. And there’s so much information to tailor an attack. For example, I can see when your CEO is on
While email leaks and data dumps can be in the public interest, they remind us that no one is immune to a data breach, and raises an important question: can you guarantee that your emails are protected?
Protecting your email For businesses and individuals who deal with sensitive and private information on a daily basis, protecting your emails requires you to “think like a hacker”. “How would I attack an email server?” said Brian Pinnock of Mimecast. “There's probably about 20 ways that you can do it. I’d target a system account, like an old BlackBerry services account that hasn't been closed down. They often have elevated
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Pinnock has results to back up these claims, having recently run a penetration test for a major South African corporate. He found that a white hat hacker simply called the IT department pretending to be a new employee who had forgotten the login credentials for a particular web application. The support desk read out usernames and passwords over the phone.
holiday via Facebook, and send a mail that looks like it comes from them saying they need urgent information,” said Pinnock.
Save what you can Contemporary thinking in security circles is to focus on protecting data rather than working exclusively to keep intruders out. Email, which doesn’t support
universal encryption and generally traverses the Internet as plain text, is inherently hard to secure. There are ways to mitigate attacks, though. Pinnock recommends retaining a small amount of data the last 30 days-worth of messages, for example - on a live mail server. Anything older should be archived somewhere where it’s searchable, but encrypted. Mimecast’s solution is more extreme: it separates all mail into three parts – header, body and attachment – and stores them in separate linked archives. Each archive is useless without the other two and the correct encryption keys. David Jacobson, MD of mail provider Synaq, said they log every event on their servers, making it difficult to spot anomalies. “We know every event that happens, but that means we log billions of interactions a month. Spotting an anomaly is very hard.” This means it is possible that many companies have been successfully hacked but remain unaware, said Jacobson. Global surveys suggest it takes around 200 days for a corporate to detect a breach, if it gets detected at all. Layering security on email may be tough and costly, but despite its weaknesses, the tool isn’t going anywhere. “Email is still the most critical business communication worldwide. People may say email is dead, but it's still the number one communication tool,” said Jacobson. ■
"
It used to be that there was safety in numbers. There were lots of organisations, but very few hackers with the skills to breach systems, but now, buying a cheap malware is like online shopping.
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Big Data
DATA SCIENCE, BIG DATA, AND THE CLOUD By Alastair Otter
Data science: merging the world of computer science, machine learning, and statistics.
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lthough data science is gaining profile in enterprise, it is still relatively ill-defined, according to Jeff Fletcher, a sales engineer at Cloudera. Perhaps the best definition, he said, is that data science is the “ability for someone to take a dataset and apply a mathematical or scientific technique to that dataset to do something predictive”. While this sounds similar to Business Intelligence (BI), it’s not. A BI team is typically able to illustrate what has happened in the business, instead of what could happen, said Fletcher. “Say you sold a certain number of widgets last month. The BI team could count those and
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roughy predict future growth. You can kind of plot where things are going but it’s not particularly scientific,” he said.
the big data space where it becomes particularly powerful - with models being run against terabytes of data, he said.
Enter data science, which merges the world of computer science and machine learning with the world of statistics. Data scientists develop predictive models, often based on large datasets, to predict possible outcomes. In the private sector, these are most often focused on identifying new markets, reducing risk, or predicting employee and customer behaviours. “Lots of companies have had people that would build models, but the next generation of data science ratchets this up so we're able to use much more complex techniques," said Fletcher.
How big is big?
Although data science can be used on small datasets, it’s in
There is no hard definition of what constitutes big data, but entry-level big data typically starts around 40TB at Cloudera, said Fletcher. “Basically, if a problem can't be solved easily on one single machine and you need a different way of looking at it, then it’s big data.” Managing and processing this volume of data requires a specific set of tools, which is where service providers enter the scene. Cloudera bundles the open source Hadoop software with other core management and analysis tools, such as Apache Spark, and adds additional tools to improve
"The standard trope in the security, management, and industry is that a data scientist governance. This is released as is a better programmer than the CDH distribution which users a statistician and a better can download and install in their statistician than a programmer,” data centres. Alternatively, the he said. The other problem is a software can also be deployed to lack of experience. “You have a lot any of the major cloud providers of people that are either recent for additional processing power. graduates or have done an online “We provide a distribution that course and they are now labelled allows you to run 100 machines in as data scientists, but the true parallel and do data processing capability comes from experience across all of those machines. And and knowing then we provide the how accurate support capability "Although data a model is." on top of that,” science can be used said Fletcher. on small datasets, it’s Within the industry, there is Fletcher said size is in the big data space also a focus on just one aspect of where it becomes machine learning big data and what particularly powerful" and artificial they’ve seen is that intelligence. as companies grow, “The customers we are working their data science competencies with have all gone through the and the complexity of the models data engineering part of the they’re developing increase problem, which is how do you rapidly. As a result, many get these really large datasets enterprises are turning to the into Hadoop, and how do you cloud for additional processing get it so it's accessible to the rest power to supplement their own of the business. Now they want clusters. “Sometimes you want to to leverage this infrastructure run a model for a short time. You to do the other thing it can do, don't want to run it all the time. which is the machine learning If you have a cluster of 20 nodes and AI,” said Fletcher. and you build a slightly more complex model, and that model is mathematically more intensive than your cluster can handle and you need another 50 nodes to run it, but you only need those nodes for two weeks, then cloud makes absolute sense there." It’s these “transient” workloads that Fletcher said are growing quickly.
Limited skills One of the challenges for the industry at this point is that there are “actually very few people who can do data science and do it effectively,” said Fletcher. “Part of the problem is that a lot of the toolsets in data science require fairly good programming capabilities, especially with the likes of Python and R. Most BI tools abstracted a lot of that away from people.”
“A really big focus for the next three years - not just from standard Hadoop providers, but a lot of startups - is going to be on building machine learning models that can run at scale,” he said. Open source is also a key part of the big data world. “Almost the entirety of the Hadoop infrastructure is inside the Apache Software Foundation, so the rate of change is massive and it is driving innovation. The adoption of open source by big enterprises is no longer a discussion, because there is no closed source equivalent in the massively parallel computing implementation space. Open source is the defacto standard.” ■
"One of the challenges for the industry at this point is that there are actually very few people who can do data science and do it effectively.
Education
TRAINING SOUTH AFRICA’S NEXT GENERATION OF DEVELOPERS By Kevin Lancaster
WeThinkCode takes talented South Africans and gives them the chance to become top software developers.
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eThinkCode is one of the most innovative education initiatives in South Africa today, offering anyone between the age of 17 to 35 the chance to become a software developer. The programme, which is a two-year, fulltime course, addresses the high demand for developers in South Africa and eliminates many barriers to entry which prospective students face at traditional academic institutions. Not only is the course free to those who are accepted, there are no formal education requirements to apply. Students who enroll with WeThinkCode - which requires them to pass an online assessment and a four-week boot camp - also receive a monthly stipend from the organisation.
WeThinkCode is based on the Ecole 42 model from France, and comprises of a peer-to-peer learning system. The organisation currently has a campus in Johannesburg which hosts over 300 students, and there are plans to open another campus in Cape Town. WeThinkCode said it aims to accommodate 400 students at its Johannesburg campus in 2018, and 200 students at its facility in the Mother City. The organisation also recently completed its student accommodation facility in Johannesburg, which is walking distance from the campus.
Internships The value of the course not only lies in the fact that it is free and lowers the barrier to entry for those without a formal education. For every year a student takes part in the WeThinkCode course, they spend eight months at the campus and four months at an internship with a company. WeThinkCode said it puts a lot of effort into matching students with the right companies and has partnered with top organisations to place students in real-world working situations.
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This not only benefits the students by providing them with work experience, but brings fresh talent into local companies on a regular basis. Companies which WeThinkCode has partnered with includes BCX, Telkom, RMB, FNB, Derivco, Dimension Data, and Allan Gray. The organisation further encourages students to interact with one another and start their own initiatives - such as the Robotics Club and Audio-Visual Club which have been formed at the Johannesburg campus. The Robotics Club has a dedicated lab for students to work on their own projects - including remote-controlled automatons - while the Audio-Visual Club lets learners record music or make video presentations. â–
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In South Africa, many companies have recognised the popularity and associated value eSports has, with big names like Telkom pumping millions into the local gaming scene. Telkom has had strong ties to competitive gaming over the years, and reinforced its position with the recent launch of VS Gaming - a subsidiary which operates independently and is focused on growing eSports in the country. VS Gaming CEO Cambridge Mokanyane said the company was formed after Telkom decided to create a standalone unit which had the freedom and resources to address the growing eSports market. “Three years ago, the South African gaming industry was perceived to be worth R2.6 billion, and I believe this figure will increase to R3.6 billion by the end of 2018,” said Mokanyane. This figure comprises of games, hardware, retail, tournaments, prize money, and broadcasts. Cambridge Mokanyane VS Gaming CEO
eSports
THE BUSINESS OF ESPORTS IN SOUTH AFRICA By Kevin Lancaster
With local gaming tournaments giving away millions in prize money, the legitimacy of eSports is being cemented in South Africa.
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n 2014, ESPN president John Skipper said eSports was a “competition”, like chess, and
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not a real sport. “I’m interested in doing real sports,” he said at the time. Two years later, ESPN’s online editor was telling Time magazine how serious the company was about covering eSports and their commitment to quality coverage.
Mokanyane said they plan to grow VS Gaming’s reach in the gaming scene by expanding its online leagues and adding new competitive titles. The VS Masters competitions for Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive will continue to operate as normal and feature the top professional gamers in South Africa competing for a prize pool of R1 million, he said. The company also plans to host more competitive tournaments in South Africa, and will grow the size of gaming events by working with major players in the local eSports industry. This includes standalone tournaments and events held at large exhibitions like rAge.
Broadcasting eSports One of the new major players in the local eSports industry is Mettlestate, which is involved in content creation, production, and broadcasting.
Mettlestate co-founder Barry Louzada said the future of eSports in South Africa looks promising and is growing exponentially, which was demonstrated by its recent Counter-Strike: Global Offensive tournament. The competition saw Mettlestate partner with Samsung to host the country’s top CS:GO players and broadcast the event online - with R1 million in prize money on offer to competitors. “eSports is really on the rise in the country and it is great to be a part of it. If we want to see it reach new heights, more and more people need to get involved, that means the gamers themselves need to start supporting the streams and talking about it to everyone. The bigger this gets, the more opportunities there are for all gamers,” said Louzada. MultiChoice’s SuperSport group has also seen the potential of competitive gaming, and launched the GINX eSports channel on its platform in May. The GINX channel is broadcast on DStv Now and on DStv channel 240, and is available in HD. Gideon Khobane, the CEO of SuperSport, said the deal signalled its intention to embrace eSports going forward, while Michiel Bakker, the CEO of GINX
eSports TV, said South Africa has a “rapidly-growing eSports scene”. South African competitive gaming teams are equally confident of the potential for eSports growth in the country, with SA’s top team Bravado Gaming bullish on the prospects of the industry. Bravado Gaming CEO Andreas Hadjipaschali said the local gaming scene will continue to grow as the perception of “computer games” changes into a professional concept. “Events will increase their prize pools, private investment will become a worthy return on investment, and corporate investments will increase in regional budgets,” said Hadjipaschali. “All in all, we’re looking at a huge shift from a social hobby into a professional sport, and this is something that’s already happening.” Bravado Gaming currently has a staff compliment of over 20 people, including employees who work in management and represent the company commercially, and players and coaches making up Bravado’s professional CS:GO, Dota 2, and Call of Duty teams. ■
"eSports is really on
Andreas Hadjipaschali Bravado Gaming CEO
the rise in the country and it is great to be a part of it. If we want to see it reach new heights, more and more people need to get involved, that means the gamers themselves need to start supporting the streams and talking about it to everyone.
Gadgets
BEST OF COMPUTEX 2017 By Rudolph Muller
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omputex is one of the largest computer and technology trade shows in the world, which is held annually in Taipei, Taiwan. This year’s show took place from 30 May to 3 June, and featured 1,600 exhibitors and 5,010 booths. Computex 2017 focused on five themes: AI & Robotics, IoT Applications, Innovations & Startups, Business Solutions, and Gaming & VR. Here are the biggest technology products showcased at the event.
Asus ZenBook Flip S The Asus ZenBook Flip S is one of the world’s thinnest and lightest convertible laptops, with a 360°-flippable display which offers up to 4K resolutions and 178° wide-view technology. It is forged from a single block of metal, is 10.9mm thick, and weighs only 1.1kg - ensuring great portability. It features an Intel Core i7 processor, up to 16GB of 2,133MHz LPDDR3 RAM, and a 1TB PCIe Gen 3 SSD.
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Corsair Zeus Mouse Corsair’s Concept Zeus gaming mouse’s standout feature is wireless charging when used in conjunction with the Concept Zeus mousepad. The pad features an induction pad in the top-right corner, which users can place the mouse on to speed up charging. The induction pad also works with smartphones which support wireless charging, and an adapter can be used to charge devices without Qi charging support.
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Dell Inspiron 27 7000 The Dell Inspiron 27 7000 is an all-in-one PC which is VR-ready and features an InfinityEdge display which offers a 4K resolution. The machine sports an AMD Ryzen 7 1700 processor, 16GB DDR4 2,400MHz RAM, a 1TB HDD, and 256GB PCIe NVMe SSD.
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Intel Core i9 Intel’s Core i9 X-series is the company’s latest range of processors, which is its most scalable, accessible, and powerful desktop platform ever. Intel said its new processors offer the highest performance ever for advanced gaming, VR, and content creation. The topof-the-range Intel Core i9 Extreme Edition is the first consumer desktop CPU with 18 cores and 36 threads.
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HTC Vive WiGig HTC Vive and Intel have partnered to bring Intel’s WiGig wireless VR solution to the HTC Vive VR system. The WiGig technology, based on 802.11ad standard, works solely in the interference-free 60GHz band - enabling high throughput and low latency in both directions. This allows for excellent video quality with 7ms or lower latency in any environment, supporting multiple users sharing the same space.
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Open Source Software
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE IN SOUTH AFRICAN BUSINESSES By Alastair Otter
“Over the past few years, we’ve seen very strong adoption of open source across industries, but primarily in the banking sector and among the telcos. In the businesses we’re working with, we’re seeing a split of around 40% Linux and 60% Windows or other operating systems,” said van Staden.
Muggie van Staden Obsidian Systems Managing Director
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pen source software is more popular than ever with South African businesses, according to Muggie van Staden, MD at Obsidian Systems. Obsidian Systems was started 22 years ago, at a time when open source software was viewed with suspicion, even hostility, by an industry built around proprietary software and licensing fees. Two decades on, and van Staden states that almost all software vendors are using or offering some form of open source.
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“Even Microsoft has embraced open source software, which is a far cry from years ago when the company would barely talk to open source vendors such as Red Hat and SuSE,” he said. The big change is that open source is now seen as a better way of developing software. “In the early days of open source, it was viewed as more of an ideological decision than a practical one.” Today, most vendors and developers are viewing it as a methodology - a better way to develop software.
The rise of microservices and containers like Docker have been a major driver of interest in open source, said Stefan Lesicnik, MD of LSD Information Technology. “Businesses generally are moving away from old monolithic systems towards decoupled microservices and containers, and a significant number of these technologies are built using open source frameworks." Van Staden added that big data platforms such as Hadoop are also fuelling the growth of open source. “Businesses are also looking to become more innovative, and for most companies open source models provide the flexibility required for innovation,” said Lesicnik. As with other open source vendors, Lesicnik said LSD is seeing large open source adoption in the banking and telecoms space. “Most of the major banks are using open
source software. FNB, for example, has a significant open source footprint.” Usage is not limited to banks and telcos, however, and they’ve seen a growing open source adoption in mid-tier enterprises such as insurance companies.
Innovation and cost When open source initially appeared, much was made of the fact that it was “free”. Today “cost is not a major topic of conversation when discussing open source” said Lesicnik. “Of course, businesses are looking to contain costs, but this is not so much focused on the cost of the software. Rather, the focus is on the innovation open source offers and where businesses are looking to cut software costs, they most often look at the database space where major savings can be made.”
years and is now every bit equal with proprietary software, but I don’t expect to see a huge uptake of Linux desktops anytime soon,” said Lesicnik. “We’re seeing some deployments of Linux in very specific use cases. For example, large roll-outs of Linux-based PCs for bank tellers. But these are built for very specific tasks and not for general-purpose computing. Linux desktops are also an option for point of sale terminals and other custom-built desktops.” Van Staden added that as a growing number of users migrate to the cloud, the underlying desktop OS is less important than it was a few years ago.
Developing talent
Van Staden agreed that the fact open source software is free is not a major factor at this point. “That’s not to say that open source doesn’t produce savings. There are major savings to be made by reducing the support staff and overheads of maintaining open source software. Because Linux runs on everything from high-end mainframes to desktops, support costs are reduced because businesses don’t need as many support staff.”
Lesicnik said the interest in open source is also driven by younger engineers entering the sector. “Most young techies are drawn to open source because it is free or very affordable, as well as being a place for innovation and collaboration. They hone their skills in open source and when they enter business they take those skills with them. Most engineers don’t want to work on ageing technology, they want to work with the newest and most exciting technologies so open source is attractive to them.” In fact, Lesicnik said he knows of companies which use open source as a way to attract new engineering talent.
For many years, there was an expectation that Linux would take a major stake in the desktop OS market. Even the most ardent Linux fans have come to realise, however, that the era of Linux on the desktop is unlikely to happen. “Linux has matured enormously over the past few
We’re in exciting times, added van Staden. “The pace of change in the industry is getting faster by the day and so businesses need to be constantly innovating and being ready to change. The underlying methodology of open source makes that flexibility possible.” ■
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Businesses generally are moving away from old monolithic systems towards decoupled microservices and containers, and a significant number of these technologies are built using open source frameworks.
Smartphones
NOKIA IS BACK, AND IT’S PACKING ANDROID FIREPOWER By Kevin Lancaster
Nokia’s new smartphones - powered by “clean Android” - are now available in South Africa.
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okia’s new Androidpowered smartphones are in South Africa, with the Nokia 3, Nokia 5, and Nokia 6 launching in recent months. A strong selling point of the devices is HMD Global’s decision to sell the smartphones with “clean Android”. It said the new Nokias will come with a version of Android which is as close to Google’s version as possible. This will allow local users to receive regular security and operating system updates without the long delays other brands battle with in the country. The new Nokia phones will also all come with Android 7 as standard. HMD Global CEO Arto Nummela said South African users will receive new operating system and feature releases from Google for the duration of a two-year contract. The move by HMD Global to use Android was welcomed by the industry, especially considering Microsoft’s failure to capitalise on the brand name when it
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sold its Nokia Windows phones and the ubiquity of Android support from service providers. Microsoft’s journey with Nokia smartphones, and the use of Windows Phone as their operating system, resulted in the company writing off $7.6 billion in losses from its phone division in 2015.
"South African users will receive new operating system and feature releases from Google for the duration of a twoyear contract" Beauty and durability The Nokia 3, 5, and 6 are all made out of single blocks of solid aluminium, and HMD Global has promised the ultimate in “beauty and durability” for owners. The devices feature high-resolution screens, front and rear cameras, LTE support,
expandable storage through microSD card support, and price points which place them in the affordable mid-range segment. HMD Global said even at the low-end of the range - the Nokia 3 launched in South Africa at a recommended price of R2,000 - users can expect solid performance in a device which features excellent design and high-quality components. The higher-end Nokia 5 and 6 sport additional features like larger batteries - both 3,000mAh - and fingerprint readers. Nokia and HMD Global also recently announced that the smartphone maker had partnered with ZEISS to bring new imaging standards to the mobile phone industry. The partnership builds on previous work the companies have done together, and will see software, services, screen quality, and optic designs being enhanced.
No k i a 3 The Nokia 3 features a 5-inch 720x1,080 display, 8MP front and rear cameras, and 16GB of onboard storage. The device is powered by a quad-core MTK 6737 1.3GHz processor and 2GB of RAM, with support for LTE connectivity. This is all kept going by a 2,630mAh battery.
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No k i a 5 The Nokia 5 is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chip and 2GB of RAM. The device features a 5.2-inch 720x1,080 display, 13MP rear and 8MP front cameras, 16GB of storage, LTE support, and a 3,000mAh battery.
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No k i a 6 Packing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 430 chip, 3GB of RAM, and a 5.5-inch 1080p display, the Nokia 6 is the premium device in Nokia’s new range. It features a 3,000mAh battery, 16MP rear and 8MP front cameras, 32GB of storage, and LTE connectivity.
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Business Insight
INTERNET SOLUTIONS - PAST, PRESENT, AND FUTURE By Jan Vermeulen
Cawood, whose own business had just been acquired by Dimension Data, who persuaded him to stay and become the sales director for Internet Solutions. By then, Frankel had stepped aside and Angus MacRobert was CEO, and it was with him that Missaikos said he first discussed Internet Solutions offering consumer services.
Creativity from necessity
Saki Missaikos IS CEO
IS CEO Saki Missaikos has big plans for the company and its involvement in the future of connectivity.
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aki Missaikos has served as the CEO of Internet Solutions for five years, a successor in a long line of industry heavyweights stretching back to the company's co-founder David Frankel. He met Frankel and Ronnie Apteker at Wits, during a talk he gave to Master's students as part of
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his work with the FNB-owned telecommunications business FirstNet. After presenting on how the bank deployed a TCP/ IP-based network, they peppered him with questions. About a year later, they offered him a job to join their startup - Internet Solutions. Internet Solutions was founded in 1993 and acquired by Dimension Data in two tranches in the late 1990s. By 2002, Missaikos felt ready to move on. It was Allan
"When we looked at the consumer space, Gus and I decided that we can't really get into the space unless you control the last mile," said Missaikos. This means you either needed precious frequency spectrum suitable for technologies such as 3G or WiMAX, or you had to invest in your own copper network. Neither of these were an easy option, as laying copper was expensive and would be rendered obsolete by fibre, and 3G connectivity had limitations. "3G was never really relevant to us," said Missaikos. The physical limitations of the standard were too great. "Now, with LTEAdvanced, you've really got something that is comparable definitely to copper, and maybe with 5G it can get to where fibre is today." Because it had no real hope of building its own national network, Internet Solutions has always been carrier agnostic.
"People forget - 23 years ago it was not by design, it was by necessity," said Missaikos. However, a new technology, a standard the IEEE called 802.11 and which has been christened "Wi-Fi", was just beginning to get people's attention. Here was an opportunity for Internet Solutions to enter the last-mile space.
AlwaysOn and VAST In 2009, Internet Solutions acquired a 51% stake in Wi-Fi access company AlwaysOn. It increased its shareholding to 100% in 2014. Missaikos said in the beginning, Wi-Fi was the kind of technology only technologists could use. Setting up and connecting to hotspots was a technical challenge. Nowadays, anyone with a smartphone can do it. Through a joint venture with Naspers, Internet Solutions expanded its foray into Wi-Fi and launched VAST. The company erected Wi-Fi hotspots around the country, where it strived to maintain the separation between wholesale and retail. Missaikos said they wanted to build an open access, wholesale player that didn’t repeat the mistakes they saw happen in the mobile industry. Mobile network operators were putting up towers right next to one another, or duplicated fibre and other infrastructure which ran to the same tower. Their plan was to put up access points which everyone could participate in on a share basis. "We made all the concessions with property owners, which is the hardest thing to do," said Missaikos.
The future of Wi-Fi and 5G Besides providing a Wi-Fi access network, Missaikos said networks
like theirs will be an essential tool in allowing operators to realise the full potential of their 4G and future 5G networks. While he doesn't believe that Wi-Fi will replace licensed spectrum, technologies like LTE-U and License Assisted Access will be required to deliver speeds which can compete with those of fibre networks. Their access points will also soon be heterogenous, enabling them to provide LTE and Wi-Fi on the same device. This will enable a future of dynamic operator switching, said Missaikos.
"It's a tragedy that there are people who don't have access to the Internet" Instead of a SIM from one network, your phone will come with a SIM built-in that can switch between networks technology that companies, like Apple, have been working on. Whether making a call or browsing a website, through a carrier-agnostic network like the one Internet Solutions envisions, your phone will be able to automatically switch to the best, cheapest network. Another aspect of connectivity Missaikos is passionate about is Internet access as a human right. "It's a tragedy that there are people who don't have access to the Internet. Data should be free. You and I should not be paying for data." He said their goal is to ensure that everyone has access to connectivity. â–
"Instead of a SIM from one network, your phone will come with a SIM built-in that can switch between networks - technology that companies, like Apple, have been working on.
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LTE-Advanced
LET IT RAIN By Rudolph Muller
Fast data speeds, good prices, and hassle-free installation - this is how Rain will take on its broadband competitors.
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outh Africa’s latest mobile player, Rain, was launched in June - promising to shake up the South African market with high-speed connectivity at affordable prices. The company was formed by iBurst parent Wireless Business Solutions, which was acquired by Multisource in December 2015. The main investors in Rain are former FirstRand CEO Paul Harris, who serves as Rain chairman, and former FNB CEO Michael Jordaan. Rain is rolling out an LTE-Advanced network in South Africa using its spectrum assignments in the 1,800MHz and 2,600MHz bands, and had 750 live sites when it launched commercially. This number will grow to 2,000 by the end of 2017, with the aim of having 5,000 live sites by 2020.
The mobile operators are looking at all possibilities to serve the growing demand for data, and using Rain’s LTE-A network for roaming makes perfect sense. Apart from generating revenue through its roaming agreement with Vodacom, Rain has also partnered with Internet Solutions to sell Rain products through ISPs, and will launch its own data-centric mobile services towards the end of the year. This three-pronged approach gives Rain a far better chance of survival than simply competing against current mobile offerings in the market.
Bringing competition to the market Harris has promised that Rain will bring competition to the South African market, and based on the initial Rain LTE offerings through ISPs, it is a good start. MWEB and Webafrica have launched Rain LTE products which offer better value-formoney than many competing services, and this is only the start of the journey.
Many people questioned the ability of a fifth local mobile operator to make money, especially with the financial Jordaan told MyBroadband that Rain challenges Cell C and Telkom have faced plans to launch its data-centric mobile in recent years. However, Rain is not service when they have 2,000 LTE-A trying to beat the two dominant players – towers active nationwide. “Pricing Vodacom and MTN – at their own game. will only be revealed upon launch, but Instead, it has partnered with Vodacom to we intend to offer simplicity, where lease aspects of its sites and facilities, and customers pay for what they use allows Vodacom to benefit without bill shock or through a non-exclusive "Rain is making the bundles,” said Jordaan. roaming agreement.
most of its spectrum assets in a market which is seeing massive mobile data growth"
Rain is therefore making the most of its spectrum assets in a market which is seeing massive mobile data growth, and where the government’s poor performance means that mobile operators are starved of spectrum.
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Apart from taking on the mobile operators with data products, Rain is also positioning itself as an alternative to ADSL and fibre-to-the-home services. The company promises average download speeds of between 10Mbps and 50Mbps,
which compares favourably to most fixed broadband products in South Africa. The easy installation, where users only need a router and SIM, is another advantage over ADSL and fibre. Whether Rain’s products will prove to be a viable alternative to fixed broadband remains to be seen, but it is providing consumers and businesses with another option to get connected. Its biggest test will come as the network starts to carry more traffic. Many wireless operators have learned the hard way that network congestion is a big challenge when it comes to data products, and Rain will have to prove that its network can handle the growing data traffic as subscriber numbers increase. Rain is confident it will not face a bottleneck anytime soon, especially with new technologies like LTE-Advanced Pro and 5G on the horizon. These technologies promise far higher speeds and improved network capacity, and Rain said it is ready to upgrade its network to these technologies when they become available.
Michael Jordaan Rain Investor
Rain CEO Duncan Simpson-Craib said they are unlikely to launch uncapped services, as this puts a large strain on a wireless network. Many wireless operators have burnt their fingers with uncapped products, and this is a trap which Rain will not fall into. “We have to be careful with capacity, and how we manage it,” he said. ■
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The Internet of Things is here. SqwidNet is the SIGFOX network operator for South Africa. It provides an ecosystem for IoT innovation and the development and delivery of IoT solutions by enabling: • long-range, low-cost, and low-power devices and modules • low-cost connectivity. SIGFOX is a global IoT network deployed in over 30 countries across the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Australia. The SqwidNet network roll-out started in January 2017. National coverage is expected during 2018. For more information or to sign up as a SqwidNet partner, visit www.sqwidnet.com.