TechSmart SME Guide, Issue 1, 2011

TECHSMART MAGAZINE

SME GUIDE 2011 www.techsmart.co.za August 2011

The IT future: What SMEs must know

1st edition

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SME GUIDE 2011 www.techsmart.co.za August 2011 | 1st edition

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FROM THE EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK Find your answers here There seems to be such a lot happening in the world of tech, that even here in the TechSmart office, we find it very difficult to keep track. For companies, these fast-paced changes, the majority brought about by speedy broadband access, are extremely difficult to navigate. The problem is, of course, that a wrong decision now can severely influence business in future. For example, a question that rings in many companies’ boardroom is whether it’s wise to move to the cloud, or simply stick with legacy equipment?

This is the first edition of TechSmart’s SME Guide and we hope that in these pages you’ll be able to find answers to some of your big IT questions. We’ve covered issues relating to hardware, software and of course telecommunications, with leaders from Telkom, HP, Internet Solutions and Dimension Data piecing together a clear understanding of what the future might hold for SMEs. Hope you find what you are looking for inside, Mike Joubert (michael@techsmart.co.za)

Editor TechSmart & TechSmart.co.za Mike Joubert > 083-290-2889 michael@techsmart.co.za Business manager George Grobler george@smartpublishing.co.za Print media manager Suzanne Rall suzanne@smartpublishing.co.za Sales Manager Chantell Nell-Marais > 082-780-4696 chantell@smartpublishing.co.za Advertising (Agencies) Carmel Ann Singh > 079-515-8708 carmel@smartpublishing.co.za Designer Brett Wilson Accounts & subscriptions Ronel Keet > 012-362-2732 accounts@techsmart.co.za Distribution Renier van Vuuren > 073-166-1515 renier@smartpublishing.co.za

Copyright © 2011. All rights reserved. No material, text or photographs may be reproduced, copied or in any other way transmitted without the written consent of the publisher. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publisher or of the editor. We recognise all trademarks and logos as the sole property of their respective owners.

TechSmart shall not be liable for any errors or for any actions in reliance thereon. All prices were correct at time of going to print.

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CONTENTS

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7 Hardware 9 Interview: Manoj Bhoola, HP SA 11 HP’s “Just Right IT” portfolio for small businesses 12 Netshield SA company profile 13 New Lenovo X1 thin-and-light 15 ASUS Eee Pad Transformer 16 Win a UPS with Eaton

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17 Software 18 Interview: Bradley Bunch, Dimension Data 20 Dimension Data Partner Programme 23 Kaspersky: Africa is a growing cybercrime hub 24 Symantec launches Norton Mobile Security 25 ShadowProtect 4 Server/ Small business Server software 25 New VMware vSphere Storage Appliance

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28 Interview: Dr Brian Armstrong, Telkom 31 XDSL’s new future-proof data centre now open for business 32 Interview: Hillel Shrock, Internet Solutions 3

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HARDWARE Falling prices bring big-business tech within reach for SMEs

Thanks to the falling prices of computing hardware and the growing maturity of infrastructure-as-a-service (iaas) offerings, SMEs have access to powerful IT hardware to drive their businesses at an increasingly affordable cost. Lance Harris finds out more.

rends around the world point towards small businesses investing in servers and storage at an earlier point in their development than they used to in the past. One reason for this is the explosion in the amount of data they manage and their growing dependence on resource-hungry applications.

IDC research on 2011 SME IT spending indicates that where small businesses used to buy their first servers when they hit 50 employees, they are now doing so with as little as ten people on the payroll.

Luckily, buying the company’s first dedicated server and storage device to cater for the growth of a business is not the crippling expense it once was. With entry-level servers and storage subsystems available for under R10 000, one can start small and add to infrastructure as data and user base grows.

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First server The point at which it makes sense to put a first server in place will depend largely on the nature of the business. However, with servers becoming so affordable, many companies find it makes sense to use a server to share documents and printers between their employees. It is a more efficient way of working together than peer-to-peer networking. Most of the major vendors, including Apple, Fujitsu, HP, Lenovo, Dell, Mecer and Acer, offer a range of servers designed for the needs of smaller businesses. Options range from a compact and energy-efficient device not much different to a PC, through to a bigger unit that has multiple processors as well as redundant hard drives and power supplies.

Storage space is also rapidly becoming an issue for SMEs as the amount of data they need to store piles up. Depending on the business, one may need to be able to efficiently store all scanned paper documents, customer records, emails and even some big video files or images.

Given how important this data is to business, backing it up to compact discs and leaving it scattered across multiple PCs and notebooks isn’t good enough anymore. It is difficult to manage and share data in this environment and to ensure availability of back-up copies of everything that is important.

Increasingly, SMEs can now look towards low-cost storage area network (SAN) and network attached storage (NAS) solutions that have been designed specifically for smaller organisations.

The advantages of using these solutions may include better control over your data, automation of tasks such as back-ups, and better information security through features for example encryption.

Of course, much of the cost of running hardware infrastructure comes from the fact that you either need to pay a reseller to support and maintain it or have someone in your company with the skills to tend to your servers and storage. This is one of the main reasons that iaas is becoming a compelling proposition for smaller companies.

Iaas is still an emerging model, but is likely to become a popular option for SMEs within the next five years.

Infrastructure-as-a-service Iaas involves provisioning of hardware functions such as storage space and processing power as a cloud-based service. Some advantages of buying hardware services in this manner include lower costs because of sharing infrastructure hosted at a service provider’s data centre with other companies. In addition, companies can quickly access new processing power when needed for the Christmas rush or financial year-end, without buying new hardware that would not be needed on an average day. For this, companies pay each month for the capacity used.

Iaas is still an emerging model, but is likely to become a popular option for SMEs within the next five years. Cloud-based data back-up services such as Carbonite (www.carbonite.com), Mozy (www.mozy.com) and MWEB’s Store-It cloud storage service, are already gaining ground among SMEs. 7

INTERVIEW: MANOJ BHOOLA, ENTERPRISE SERVERS, STORAGE AND NETWORKING COUNTRY MANAGER, HP SOUTH AFRICA

TechSmart sat down to talk some serious business with Manoj Bhoola, Servers, Storage and Networking country manager at HP South Africa. He told us more about the impact of today’s “net generation” on tomorrow’s way of doing business.

We’ve come up with a strategy that we call Instant On, where the Server, Storage and the Networking are instantly available.

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TechSmart (TS): What are the requirements from the South African market that you do not necessarily see from the international side?

Manoj Bhoola (MB): One of the challenges that we see is around the pressure to reduce cost. Customers are looking at the IT environment to drop their budgets quite aggressively.

TS: And in the market in general?

MB: There are three trends. The first is around businesses changing their models. The second trend is the consumerisation of IT, where people believe that technology should be replaceable with the click of a mouse. If I am unhappy with my supplier, I should not be tied down and I should be able to change it easily. The third is around the workforce changing. In the past, the way to do business was to build a very methodical strategy and follow it. Today’s “net generation” are the people that have grown up with technology and they want instant gratification. So we need to make sure that our systems are geared for that new way of thinking amongst corporates.

This leads into what HP is actually doing to manage those new trends. We’ve come up with a strategy that we call Instant On, where the Server, Storage and the Networking are instantly available when you need it. This will also give an organisation the ability to swop and change easily.

An example of this is HP’s BladeSystem matrix product, where we have taken a blade chassis enclosure and with innovation like no other vendor included technologies of Servers, Storage and Networking as ONE unit working as a single solution. So now you have a very dynamic environment where, it works and performs as a single piece of technology. At month end when a payroll application needs to be done, you initiate the process and the Servers farm realises the impact of this routine and will virtualise more servers if required. Similarly Storage and Networking will optimise itself to provide a single efficient platform for the application. Once the process is complete, the virtual Servers, Storage and Network will return to its initial state. All this is done by very integrated management software. With this model, one can now implement a pay per use model.

The big question I get is, isn’t that cloud computing? And in a way, yes it is, it is a private cloud. The system will now virtualise three different technologies to manage one process. This process can be implemented to manage a single customer or many customers on a single piece of hardware. If you think about cloud computing, our Blade Matrix is ready for this new wave of computing.

TS: How does this relate to SMEs? MB: In South Africa there are SMEs that do not want to deal with the complexity of IT, so we are seeing more and more outsourcing opportunities, where the entire IT offering is run by a partner or a vendor. Two years ago HP acquired outsourcing giants EDS, as HP wanted to move into the cloud space where a data centre in every country is key. South Africa now has a twin data centre through this acquisition and are ready to deploy cloud services for our customers.

TS: Are all companies raring to go?

MB: As many companies are not sure if this route will save them IT costs, HP offers customers a cloud workshop where we investigate whether this computing technology will reduce their IT costs. Depending on the ROI, HP will then recommend moving to a Cloud Strategy or remain with their current Capex methodology of purchasing technology. We often see a huge cost reduction in moving to a cloud strategy.

About HP Stanford University classmates Bill Hewlettt and Dave Packard founded HP in 1939. The company’s first product, built in a Palo Alto garage, was an audio oscillator – an electronic test instrument used by sound engineers. One of HP’s first customers was Walt Disney Studios, which purchased eight oscillators to develop and test an innovative sound system for the movie Fantasia.

TS: What’s the second step?

MB: After the workshop and recommendations are done, the next step is to look at their business application and modernise them if required. Looking at all their applications will enhance their ROI and hence reduce IT costs further.

TS: Should SMEs look at virtualisation?

MB: Virtualisation is massive. Everyone is doing it. I suggest that every company that has a data centre investigate their strategy as we have seen companies rationalise their server farms and make a saving of between 20 to 30% of their server costs.

TS: What are the other cost saving elements SMEs can apply?

MB: Apart from virtualisation, they should start looking at making their data centres more efficient.

An easy way of doing this is to deploy a server, storage and networking technology from a single vendor. With this strategy price negotiations are easier. Ask questions about open systems hence reducing vendor lock-down.

TS: What’s happening in the printer market?

MB: A lot of companies are moving to the “Pay per Use” model where companies can realise huge cost savings. A large organisation in South Africa is currently saving up to 35% on their printing costs, and that includes paper, ink and maintenance. This is realised as they have a Managed Print Services contract where they pay for only the pages they print. We also launched ePrint which has really taken off in a big way. With this technology your printer connects to the net and you can download applications needed to print specific formats.

TS: Do you have a release date for the HP Slate WebOS tablet in SA? MB: It was released in the UK in July and South Africa normally lags behind by about six to twelve months. When we do launch them, you will be happy with the features and the wait will be worth-while. Palm phones will also be launching in this country very soon. One of the big plusses of those devices, is that it will be working very closely with our tablets. You literally put them together and you can sync them. The integration between them is going to be much better than anything you would have seen until now.

TS: Tell us more about the HP ProLiant MicroServer you recently launched.

MB: The feedback we got from the small business customer is that they needed a server to simplify things. Many tell us that they run their applications on powerful desktops or even notebooks. The challenge they have is that these desktops and notebooks are not designed for huge storage and network traffic. So we launched the HP ProLiant MicroServer, providing file and print sharing, and it’s also the ideal system for backups. It is also the only server in the market that can run off a solar panel.

What SMEs should look for when buying servers: 1. Look at which vendor has the highest percentage of market share. Because of its market share, HP can negotiate prices down with their suppliers, providing better costs per CPU. 2. Look at your partner/reseller and question their skill level. Make sure you go to a reputable reseller and look for HP certifications.

3. Look at the specs you are being given. Make sure you use the HP kit that has been tested and put together by HP. 4. Look at the power usage of the servers, keeping in mind the “green” side of technology.

5. Stay away from a pricing war, keeping in mind that a low margin might mean less support or service in the long run.

6. Beware of Grey Marketers. Ensure that the kit was procured via an authorised channel in South Africa and not sourced via grey routes. The Consumer Protection Act clearly states that the vendor does not have to provide services if the product was imported via a grey channel.

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HP’S “JUST RIGHT IT” PORTFOLIO FOR SMALL BUSINESSES Expanding new business opportunities for channel partners HP’s “Just Right IT” portfolio includes new server, printer and PC products designed and priced toa deliver affordability and value to small businesses.

he HP “Just Right IT” portfolio makes it easy for micro and small businesses to get the right IT capabilities required at just the right time and the right price so that they can focus on serving their customers better.

“With small to medium sized businesses still concerned and cautious about the economic situation they continue to focus on looking for new ways to simplify operations and grow their business, says Andrew McNiven, HP South Africa’s industry standard servers product manager.

“HP, with the help of its channel partners, offers an extended technology portfolio with realistic financing options that enable the SMB to manage data expansions, improve employee productivity and retain, as well as attract, clients.”

HP solutions increase productivity and simplify the management of business operations within micro and small businesses with increasing IT needs and constrained budgets.

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YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER

HP solutions increase productivity and simplify the management of business operations within micro and small businesses.

HP line-up Leading the line-up of Just Right IT offerings is the HP ProLiant MicroServer. This quiet, energyefficient server combines affordability, performance and data protection for business with up to ten employees. It assists in effectively centralising information and accessing files faster, enabling employees to share information with ease whilst ensuring the business and customer data is secure.

The HP Officejet Pro 8500A e-All-in-One series and HP Officejet 7500A Wide Format e-All-inOne include HP ePrint and print apps, allowing users to send print jobs from any mobile device and directly access content from the web without a PC. From a cost perspective the Officejet Pro 8500A delivers professional colour at up to 50% lower cost per page than lasers, while the Officejet 7500A offers the lowest cost per page in its class.

Data availability and protection is of paramount importance to any business. SMBs need to secure business data as well as maintain accessibility to information. HP data availability and protection solutions, such as the HP StorageWorks P2000 G3 Modular Smart Array (MSA), increases performance and storage flexibility. The HP Data Protector Express 5.0 Software is designed specifically for the general user with improved business continuity and a simplified user interface for managing backup and recovery.

Communications and connectivity is integral to your business and wireless. Voice and data networks can be complex and difficult to manage, but with HP’s voice-over-IP and wireless offerings, SMBs can connect up to 64 simultaneous mobile users to a network at significant speeds thanks to the HP V-M200 802.11n Access Point Series.

“The Just Right IT portfolio lets channel partners save their micro and small business customers time and money by meeting the full range of technology needs – from printers and PCs to servers and networking – with one trusted partner,” concludes Niven.

For more information on HP’s “Just Right IT” portfolio contact Andrew McNiven on 011-785-1000.

HP ProLiant MicroServer

HP Officejet Pro 8500A

HP V-M200 802.11n 11

NETSHIELD SOUTH AFRICA Tel: +27 (0) 86-111-4428 | Email: marien@netshieldsa.com | Web: www.netshieldsa.com

With a major thrust into Africa, backed by the shareholding of Comztek, a leading IT systems and communications distributor, the Netshield range has grown substantially.

Netshield (Pty) Ltd is an electronic engineering company that specialises in the research and development of products suitable for various markets. Established in 1994 as a small business developing customised products for the IT environment, the company has grown to a position where it is now proud to have a well-established product range.

Netshield’s initial focus was to develop, design and to provide “customised commercial products” which has now evolved into off-the-shelf solutions distributed throughout South Africa. These solutions consist of environmental management and monitoring equipment, specialised surge protection, renewable energy systems, media and protocol conversion and dedicated products for the mining sector.

Netshield has four main business divisions: • The R&D Division – specialised engineers responsible for the research and development of a product, including design, prototype and production.

• The Technical Division – responsible for the procurement of components and the manufacturing, testing and packaging of the finished product.

• The Marketing Division – responsible for establishing brand and product awareness.

• Monitoring and Facility Management Division.

The Netshield product range is divided into the following categories.

NVIROMON-1U environmental management

Surge protection and power management

1. Environmental management (NVIROMON-1U and associated products) These products are used to monitor and control the conditions inside, for example, a server or medicine room, detecting whether it is too cold, too hot, too wet or if there are any unwanted gasses or fire. It also identifies power outages and allows one to have complete control on who enters the room, when and for what reason.

With the NVIROMON you will be able to see and hear if anything is out of the ordinary, thanks to the option of a full security alarm system that can even capture images of people entering. Best of all, it will alert you via SMS or SNMP if you are not close by.

The NVIROMON works well with the Netshield Monitor One SNMP manager software that enables one to have a bird’s eye view on all the data rooms in the network, irrespective of which province or country they are located in. There are no licensing fees involved, only a once off purchase price. A demo version is available from the Netshield Website www.netshieldsa.com.

2. Surge protection and power management It’s a fact of life that PCs, computer related products, process control and communications equipment can be damaged by high-voltage surges and spikes. Although most often caused by lightning strikes, surges and spikes can also result from direct contact with power/lightning circuits, static build-up on cables and components, incorrectly wired systems and even electrostatic discharges from a person. The Netshield Lightning and Surge Protector range has been designed to provide superior protection for computer equipment, home entertainment systems or any other valuable electronic equipment in the home, SOHO or SME environment.

3. Media converters The Netshield media converter range consists of auto sensing 10/100/1000 Ethernet converters, either in table top or rack mountable varieties. Netshield can supply options of ST and SC connectors and whether the converter is needed in multimode or single mode, with distances varying from 550 m to 150 km. Chassis are available in 6-, 14- and 16-slot, multi-port converters are also on offer.

Media converters

4. Telco products This range consists of products such as: • bridges and routing devices (G703/E1 devices) • data communication products (V11/X21 converters, Async to sync, RS232/RS485) • modem eliminators • structured telecommunication products • multiplexers 5. Fibre patch leads and compatible interface modules This range of fibre patch leads, cables, SFP and GBic interface modules are compatible with Cisco, 3com and HP modules.

6. Renewable energy Netshield is dedicated to provide the design, supply, installation and management of renewable energy solutions, such as wind- and solar power, to generate electricity. In addition to offering renewable energy solutions, they also focus on being able to reduce the total amount of energy being consumed, thus providing a holistic view around energy use and generation.

Renewable energy solutions 12

7. Mining equipment Netshield has expertise in providing full and complete solutions to the mining industry, by designing and manufacturing a growing range of products for the mining industry. Solutions include: • mining safety and health monitoring equipment • mining process control • mining lighting • mining asset management

NEW LENOVO X1 THIN-AND-LIGHT Second generation Intel goodness in thin body launched in SA Fans of the ThinkPad range of notebooks will be excited by the launch of Lenovo’s new ThinkPad X1, seeing that it’s the thinnest notebook in the range, but still packed with performance. easuring 17 mm and weighing a very manageable1.72 kg, the X1might not be the most lightweight thin-and-light available.

That said it’s packed with protection goodness that the ThinkPad range has become known for, including an interior roll cage and a magnesium chassis. Notebook users who have ever suffered a cracked screen (and the repair bill that goes along with it), will be happy to learn about the appearance of Corning Gorilla Glass, usually found on smartphones such as the iPhone 4, that provides extra protection and durability for the 13" screen (1366 x 768, 350 NITS).

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RapidCharge technology recharges the battery two-and-a-half times faster than previous ThinkPad models.

2nd generation Intel inside While all this is nice and good, it’s the appearance of Intel’s second generation Core i processors takes the cake. No more ultralow voltage (ULV) processors that are commonly found in thin-and-light units, instead Lenovo stocked the X1 with the same processors found in regular sized notebooks, ranging from the Sandy Bridge Core i3 through to the extremely powerful Core i7.

Also included is Dolby Home Theatre v4, an HDMI port and Intel Wireless Display technology, so users can connect or stream 1080p wirelessly to a TV or projector.

Furthermore a number of port requirements are taken care off thanks to the inclusion of USB 3.0, eSATA, Mini-Display and an SD card reader.

Go quick with RapidCharge The X1 boots in 20 seconds thanks to the inclusion of a Solid State Drive in the package (sizes differ, with 128 GB most probably hitting the sweet-spot in terms of cost vs. size), while another useful feature is the X10’s ability to recharge 80% of the battery in just 30 minutes. Called RapidCharge, this technology recharges batteries two-and-a-half times faster than previous ThinkPad models.

Lenovo states battery life for the unit at 5.2 hours with a regular battery, and an excellent ten hours with the addition of the optional “slice” battery.

The Lenovo X1 should be available with an asking price starting at R9000 for the lower configurations.

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LAUNCHES THE

EEE PAD TRANSFORMER

An innovative tablet with an expandable keyboard dock Looking to delve into the world of tablet PCs but with the flexibility that Google’s Android operating system brings along?

Look no further than Asus’ Eee Pad Transformer. nalysis company, Gartner, predicted close to 70 million tablet PC to be sold in 2011.

Taiwanese company ASUS’ recently launched Eee Pad Transformer is fast becoming one of the bestselling Android tablets in this expanding market.

Featuring an expandable keyboard docking station and combined battery life of up to 16 hours, the Transformer is running Google’s designed-fortablets Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system.

Combining Honeycomb with ASUS’ intuitive Waveshare user interface and the most powerful hardware features available, makes the Transformer an exciting portable device, supporting both office work and social communication.

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Powerful mini-cinema entertainment on-the-go Powered by the award-winning NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor, the Transformer browses the web at blazing speeds, providing a snappier response time and better performance when multitasking. An IPS Panel, made from durable and scratch-resistant glass, is viewable at angles up to 178°, producing a crisper and more accurate colour range by up to 50% when compared to other tablets in the market. Built-in SRS Sound technology provides a dynamic 3D stereo audio experience, with maximum bass response and a wide sound field from the discrete speakers housed in the 12.98 mm thick frame that weighs only 680 g.

Both the 5MP rear- and 1.2MP front-facing cameras can shoot and record video, which can be played back in video on HDTVs via a mini HDMI output port, making it a true mobile entertainment device.

Transform from pad to notebook mode with keyboard docking station The Transformer sets itself apart from other tablets on the market by featuring an optional docking station. This provides access to a full QWERTY keyboard along with unique Android Function keys, turning the tablet Transformer into a full-fledged notebook. Preloaded on the Transformer is Polaris Office 3.0, a professional Mobile Office Solution which enables users to edit various types of office documents including documents (.doc), spreadsheets (.xls) and presentation (.ppt) files, making the Transformer very attractive for professional use. A touchpad, 3.5 mm audio jack, two USB ports as well as a built-in SD card reader for easy file sharing and storage expandability, makes the Transformer a versatile media hub. In addition, the ultra-convenient ASUS WebStorage with one year of unlimited storage space, provides worry-free cloud computing. The docking station also extends the Transformer’s 9.5 hours of battery life up to 16 hours, so users can use it all day for work and play.

Android 3.0 Honeycomb OS with ASUS Waveshare UI Google’s Android Honeycomb is a revolutionary operating system specially designed and optimised for tablets, and enables users a full web experience for on-the-go web browsing, communicating and casual computing. Supporting Adobe Flash 10.2 and the ever growing Android Market, entertainment is a finger swipe away. The convenient ASUS Launcher also allows users to easily launch software, manage content, access online services and connect devices with a few simple taps, while ASUS’ Waveshare Interface hosts a variety of unique applications such as MyNet, MyLibrary, MyCloud and more. MyNet easily streams digital media wirelessly within home network devices, so HD videos or music can be played on devices such as an HDTV or desktop PCs for an even better experience from the Transformer. MyLibrary consolidates downloaded books, magazines and newspapers in to one easy to browse profile while MyCloud is a total cloud solution, providing access to digital content such as music, videos and files from the cloud anywhere, anytime. Users can even use MyCloud to remotely access and control any PC or Mac system and access applications or files to extend the versatility of the Eee Pad Transformer experience.

The ASUS Eee Pad Transformer is available from ASUSTek South Africa on 011-783-5450.

For TechSmart’s full review visit http://bit.ly/asustransform

The award-winning NVIDIA Tegra 2 dualcore processor provides snappier response time and better performance when multi-tasking.

Quick Specs • • • • •

Android 3.0 Honeycomb 10.1" screen, 1280 x 800 resolution Nvidia 1 GHz dual-core Tegra 2, 1 GB RAM 680 g, 271 x 171 x 12.98 mm 16 GB / 32 GB 15

Win a UPS with Eaton and ensure a continuous power supply.

A UPS provides instantaneous protection from power interruptions and is the first line of defense against surges and power outages.

Although South Africa is currently experiencing fewer power cuts, companies should still ensure that they have a continuous power supply solution. By establishing an infrastructure that allows business continuation despite power cuts, power surges and blackouts as a result of lightning storms or base station malfunction, Eaton helps business owners minimise the negative effects on their operations. n uninterruptible power system (UPS) provides instantaneous protection from power interruptions and is the first line of defense against surges and power outages. By providing a continuous supply of power to all devices connected to the UPS, you are able to avoid malfunction, damage and downtime that can result from the inevitable power cuts and surges.

Power management company, Eaton, has a range of uninterruptible power supplies ideal for home and small-office-home-office (SOHO) use. It will keep your PC and equipment protected and powered up, at the very least, for long enough to save your work and shut down. If you have anything from one to three PCs in your home or office, Eaton’s Ellipse MAX 850 USB offers both cost-effective and reliable protection.

Ellipse MAX UPS units not only provide a battery backed up supply to keep equipment operating when there is a power cut, but also provide protection against damaging surges. Ellipse MAX UPS units also protect telephone broadband and Ethernet connections, ensuring your business can run at full capacity when disaster strikes. Above all, Eaton’s Ellipse Max 850 UPS is easy to use and maintain.

For more information about any Eaton UPS units, visit www.eaton.com, or call Eaton Electrical Group on 011-564-9300.

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Win a UPS for your business To win one of two Eaton Ellipse MAX 850 UPS units, email competition@techsmart.co.za with EATON in the subject line, and answer the following question: “What is the acronym UPS short for?” Please also include your name, company and designation. Competition closes 31 September 2011.

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SOFTWARE SMEs can benefit with a move to the cloud Cloud computing is likely to soon change the way that SMEs use and pay for software, if it hasn’t started to do so already. This approach to software usage is becoming an increasingly viable option for smaller businesses in South Africa as bandwidth costs continue to fall. Lance Harris investigates.

n cloud-based computing, users access business applications across the internet as an online service, rather than buying licences and installing software on their own servers and PCs. The concept is gaining traction as more and more SMEs look for ways to drive down their technology costs. A recent study conducted by Microsoft among SMEs in South Africa and 15 other countries, found that four out of every ten small businesses expect to be paying for at least one cloud service by 2014. In South Africa, 88% of those with more than 50 employees expect to be paying for nearly five cloud services within three years.

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For smaller businesses the potential benefits of cloud computing are numerous.

Cloud-based services There is a good chance that users already use some cloud-based services, even if that is not known by that terminology. For example, Google’s Gmail service manages email, while Google Docs can be used for collaborative document creation. Many companies also rely on Dropbox (dropbox.com) to back-up and synchronise files between different devices or to share them with a team. Some other examples of cloud-based software solutions that companies might be familiar with are the SalesForce customer relationship management solution (salesforce.com), the Basecamp project management tool (basecamphq.com), the Zoho business software suite (zoho.com) and the Backpack collaboration software (backpackit.com).

From accounting packages and messaging, through to contact management tools and billing software, a growing range of the tools used in day-to-day business are available as cloud solutions.

Competition is heating up as traditional software vendors such as Microsoft become more serious about taking their products to the cloud. Microsoft is receiving raving reviews for its cloud-based Office 365 set of apps, which include Microsoft Office, Microsoft SharePoint Online, Microsoft Exchange Online as well as Microsoft Lync Online. The product is not yet available in South Africa, leaving Zoho and Google Apps as the options for cloud-based productivity software for now.

Benefits for SMEs For smaller businesses the potential benefits of cloud computing are numerous. Working on the cloud may be cheaper than buying software licences and installing them on existing infrastructure, since there’s no need to worry about running and maintaining servers. That means companies can spend less money on hardware and IT labour each month. There’s also less stress about security patches or software updates since the service provider will take care of them.

In addition to the cost-savings, SMEs may enjoy better levels of uptime and security from cloud computing than they would from running their own applications. This because a service provider will have the human resources and technical infrastructure to run a far more reliable and secure service than possible with one IT guy and an IT budget of a few thousand rand a month.

With a dispersed or highly mobile team, cloud computing can make it easier to access and share information, since co-workers can simply access data or documents across the web using nearly any device with a web browser and any internet connection.

Another benefit is in the flexibility that cloud computing offers. With cloud-based solutions, one can easily add or remove users to the system as needs change. Configuration is usually quick and simple, with no need to worry about whether server or storage capacity is required to grow the business.

Drawbacks But cloud computing is not without its drawbacks. It involves trusting a third-party service provider to keep data safe and private. That means businesses need to ensure the cloud provider is a financially solid company with a sound infrastructure. Businesses should carefully check the service level agreement from any cloud provider to ensure that it guarantees the levels of uptime your company needs. Furthermore, bandwidth costs associated with moving a lot of data to the cloud each month can be high, while good connectivity is a must, since business depends on fast, always on internet.

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Unified communication introduces collaboration power tools that help smaller enterprises think big.

Unified communications and collaborations (UC&C) has emerged as a key business enablement trend. But what exactly is it and how is this technology, reserved until now for corporate juggernauts, starting to benefit the small to medium size enterprise? We speak to Bradley Bunch, general manager for Microsoft Solutions Dimension Data South Africa, about how UC&C is fitting itself to the needs of the SME.

What is all the fuss about?

There is little doubt that the technology landscape, and communication in particular has changed dramatically over the last five years. “There has been a tremendous push for technology to enable faster and richer engagements. But as more and more mechanisms are introduced to bring people together: instant messaging, email, visual communications and so on, the diversity also creates a more complex and confusing environment than ever before. In some cases all this ‘choice’ can actually be counter-productive,” says Bunch.

“UC&C has emerged as a means of effectively harnessing the potential of communications and channelling it more appropriately towards achieving critical business objectives, such as productivity, agility and competitiveness.”

How does it work?

About Dimension Data Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. www.dimensiondata.com 18

UC&C in simple terms is an evolving set of technologies that automates and unifies communications between people and devices to create a common context and experience. It enables an individual to send a message on one medium and receive the same communication on another medium. This may sound very straight forward, but the impact is significant. Take this scenario: You need a colleague’s input on some figures you require for an urgent proposal, you call his landline and he is not there. You call his cellphone and leave a voicemail. In desperation you send an email, repeating yet again your urgent need for assistance. And then you wait. And fire off a series of frustrated SMSs in the process. How much time have you wasted? And how will your colleague contact you when his meeting is concluded? Will he follow the same circuitous route as you just have, wasting more time and energy to respond to a relatively simple request?

Now what happens when 50, 100, or 500 people are doing this same thing, over and over again? UC&C optimises business processes and enhances human communications by reducing latency, managing flows, and eliminating device and media dependencies.

When operating in a UC environment, presence can determine your contact’s current status and the most effective means of contact. Your initial call is routed directly to your colleague’s mobile phone, where the voicemail message you have left can be accessed via e-mail or cellphone, where an SMS could alert him to your need even if in a meeting. It will use your presence information to facilitate a faster response – perhaps immediately through text chat or video call if you are immediately available. Or, if you have had to dash off to that next meeting, a non real-time message that can be accessed through a variety of media as soon as you are able.

Great value adds to any business UC&C tools have the potential to add considerable value to SMEs and their employees starting first of all with some really impressive business functionality. “Communication and collaboration are the lifeblood of any business, and the flow of information and ideas is what keeps the engine running.

Excellent presence, rich engagements across multiple channels and meaningful contact lists that allow deep referencing into existing databases for context are all things that add to enhanced collaboration and productivity. Better productivity equates to better and faster return on all invested resources,” explains Bunch.

From a people aspect, UC&C is helping organisations to create an attractive and desirable working environment, including the ability to migrate this work space to a completely remote location with little loss of functionality. In the South African context where imminent toll levies on main arterial routes, rocketing fuel costs and rising pressure on business to lower carbon footprints is a reality, enabling a workforce that can work from home is becoming very attractive.

“There is also a lot more emphasis on the importance of work-life balance and the quality of the working experience, UC&C and its ‘how ever, where ever’ availability offers employees the means to appropriately leverage the tools at their disposal to enhance their quality of life, spend less time away from home and generally be more constructive with their time,” says Bunch. “Not only will people be more productive and less fatigued, but it puts the company in the position where it can attract and retain the best quality skills based on the appeal of its working environments. This is something that a smaller business may use effectively as a draw card for talent.

From a cost benefit perspective, savings may seem negligible at first, but given the opportunity, UC&C tools will offer significant compound savings in terms of travel expenses, unnecessary or missed communications such as cellphone calls, as well as operational costs associated with running facilities for 100% of your staff complement 100% of the time.

On top of this is also the cost savings associated with improved productivity, as every extra billable hour created will eventually add up,” say Bunch.

UC&C has emerged as a means of effectively harnessing the potential of communications and channelling it more appropriately towards achieving critical business objectives.

Helping SMEs capitalise on global trends For the small to medium-size enterprise, who are inherently more agile and more flexible in its processes, UC&C can be a great business enabler as it aids organisations in embracing many of the key trends driving IT, and business today.

Bunch uses mobility as a prime example. “The modern workforce is no longer just a hive of officebound workers. A proliferation of mobile devices and huge advancement in connectivity has created a workforce that is fully functional where ever they happen to be. In a smaller business where multi-skilling is the name of the game and people tend to wear multiple ‘hats’ the need to be on point 24/7 and make every minute count becomes that much more crucial.”

Consumerisation of IT is another huge trend hitting business. “People want to bring their own preferred devices to the workplace and are more than willing to contribute financially to acquire the technology that they want to work with. Tablets and smartphones are both excellent examples,” says Bunch. “UC&C provides a valuable platform for integration, and since it is device agnostic, renders the end point irrelevant. Control meets convenience and everyone wins. This is a big plus for the small business as it means that in many cases, a portion of IT spend can be transferred to HR as part of the cost to employ.”

So, how do I apply this to my smaller business?

There is a perception that UC&C is a big price tag technology reserved for big business, but this is definitely no longer the case. “Microsoft has always made a point of working towards commoditising technology sets to make them more accessible and affordable. This is exactly the case with Microsoft Lync Server, Microsoft’s dedicated UC server which brings high-end functionality like video and instant messaging within reach of the mid-size business,” explains Bunch. “It’s also been designed for easy integration into popular, pre-existing Microsoft infrastructures, so it’s the ideal fit for those with an existing investment in the Microsoft Stack,” he adds.

“What’s more, UC&C is a technology that lends itself to a cloud-based delivery. Many of its management elements, which the smaller business may feel reluctant to take on because of a lack of skills or fear of the complexity involved can be outsources and deployed as a fully managed service. The smaller organisation gains the same positive impact, cost-effectively, with very little administrative headache.

“Let’s face it, South Africa has an entrepreneurial culture and today’s SME has the potential to be tomorrow’s business giant. For integrators such as ourselves, we are eager to assist this segment adopt any kind of technology that will enable them to achieve these ambitions for their organisation. UC&C, and Lync in particular is just the right kind of power tool that will help our smaller businesses think big,” concludes Bunch.

About Dimension Data Microsoft Solutions As a result of its powerful competencies in this space, Dimension Data Microsoft Solutions is currently Microsoft UC&C Partner of the Year.

With more than a decade’s worth of compound experience on a global scale in guiding customers through what has been an extremely dynamic landscape, the team is openly acknowledged as one of the premier business integrators and enablers in the world.

Locally, Dimension Data Microsoft Solutions have invested significantly in its Microsoft-based skills set with no less than three Microsoft Masters in the current team.

With all this experience at hand, Dimension Data is perfectly positioned to assist clients ‘lync’ into what is promising to be a ‘can’t-livewithout’ technology.

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Dimension Data Partner Programme

Dimension Data provides more information about how companies can become involved in its Partner Programme

As the ICT marketplace continues to evolve and mechanisms for service delivery differ from each country, companies cannot operate successfully in Africa without ensuring that the communities in which they do business benefit.

o ensure the success of the communities in which it operates, Dimension Data, through its Partner Programme, works closely with small businesses to deliver solutions and services.

The Dimension Data Partner Programme addresses the need for the ICT services company to meet the requirements of its local and global clients while providing world class multi-vendor solutions.

The Partner Programme enables small ICT businesses in the region to sell and support clients using Dimension Data services and solutions. Through these partnerships, Dimension Data is able to establish a strong network of support while empowering small businesses in the region.

Dimension Data partners are the company’s most trusted and qualified resellers in the IT business, authorised to consult, sell and support across all Dimension Data solution offerings.

Dimension Data Preferred Partners guarantee the delivery of the best possible level of business engagement to clients.

The Partner Programme enables Dimension Data to deliver its services and solutions in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region by working with the top ICT small businesses across the region. Certified and promoted by Dimension Data, every partner offers in-depth knowledge and experience, to ensure clients receive the best and most consistent service in the industry.

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Dimension Data draws on a wealth of local knowledge and global experience. The company ensures that partners are enabled to offer in-depth technology, industry and business expertise.

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Benefits of the Programme As the region’s largest ICT company, Dimension Data draws on a wealth of local knowledge and global experience. The company ensures that partners are enabled to offer in-depth technology, industry and business expertise, a firm understanding of what is required for success, coupled with proven ability and industry skills to help clients meet their business objectives − a solid foundation on which they can build success. Partner Programme members gain access to top of the range Dimension Data services and solutions to offer clients.

The Dimension Data Partner Programme has established a consolidated network of approved partners that can deliver multi-vendor capabilities in geographies where Dimension Data does not have a direct presence.

Dimension Data maintains a collaborative relationship with partners to ensure a better understanding of its business and an aligned delivery strategy. The company has developed a process where partners work with Dimension Data Supply Chain Services (SCS) to provide a seamless delivery of multi-vendor solutions across the MEA region.

The Dimension Data Partner Programme helps partners develop and deliver solutions through consistent and effective service delivery that extends across multiple geographies and technologies.

The solutions and services can be customised as per the client’s needs, as well as turnkey.

Furthermore, the partner will have access to a team of highly qualified sales and technical resources.

Partners also have access to training, which allows skills transfer to small businesses by involving these organisations through all phases of the project, including pre-sales, implementation and maintenance.

In addition, partners benefit from a range of in-house soft skill courses delivered through the Dimension Data University (DDU). The knowledge gained helps Dimension Data partners further improve their engagement with clients.

Partner Categories All Dimension Data Partners are categorised based on a number of factors including, among other things, competency, contribution, size, experience, and accreditation. Each partner is given a proper process and plan on how to move from one category to the next. The higher the partner is on a category level, the more rewards the partner will benefit from. The categories as based on international standards and are in line with industry best practice.

Who qualifies?

The Dimension Data Partner Programme is open to all small ICT businesses in the Middle East and Africa (MEA) region. Each organisation will be subjected to due diligence to ensure legitimacy and to conform to legislation of the country. If you meet the minimum criteria, you could become a Dimension Data Partner and share in some of our industry leading benefits within days.

Dimension Data offers a number of benefits to IT resellers who are on the Dimension Data Partner Programme. Dimension Data partners gain direct access to Dimension Data solutions and services, which uniquely positions them to provide the best possible experience to the client. Realtime support and the best service delivery ensures that small businesses have the best competitive deal for clients.

Partners work with Dimension Data and: • Be empowered to offer in-depth technology, industry and business expertise and skill − a solid foundation on which to build success.

• Access top-of-the-range Dimension Data services and solutions for your clients.

• Work with Dimension Data Supply Chain Services (SCS) to provide a seamless delivery of multivendor solutions.

• Develop and deliver solutions through consistent and effective service delivery that extends across multiple geographies and technologies.

• Gain access to training, skills transfer and required industry certifications.

• Access the Partner Portal for documentation, sales tools and required information.

• Get measured on your performance and progress through the Partner Scorecard.

How to become a partner Dimension Data has a consistent process for identifying, accessing and engaging suitable partners, which gives it the capability to deliver solutions to agreed service levels.

This process includes three phases: • On-boarding • Accreditation and Activation • Operation

What can we expect to see from the Partner Programme in future?

Dimension Data will be hosting the first Dimension Data Partner Summit event in 2012. This will provide a platform to recognise partners as well as establishing a partner network that promotes Dimension Data solution offerings to the broader market. Partners who attend will get invaluable advice on how to expand sales and marketing skills, as well as deepen their business and technical expertise and networks. The Summit will also encourage partners to exhibit and showcase their skills and capabilities to the market. It is the ideal opportunity to network with clients and peers, gain greater exposure to Dimension Data’s solutions and services, and learn more about Dimension Data’s operational processes like the PM process and delivery process.

Contact details Prospective partners must contact: McDonald Nheke General Manager: Partner Programme Tel: +27 (11) 575 3440 Mobile: +27 (83) 6771773 Fax: +27 (11) 576 3440 mcdonald.nheke@dimensiondata.com http://www.dimensiondata.com

About Dimension Data Founded in 1983, Dimension Data plc is an ICT services and solutions provider that uses its technology expertise, global service delivery capability, and entrepreneurial spirit to accelerate the business ambitions of its clients. Dimension Data is a member of the NTT Group. www.dimensiondata.com 21

AFRICA IS A GROWING CYBERCRIME HUB

By Costin Raiu, Chief Security Expert, EEMEA, Global Research & Analytics Team at Kaspersky Lab

ccording to the February 2011 figures from the RSA Anti-Fraud Command Centre, South Africa was, after America and Britain, the country experiencing the greatest volume of phishing attempts. In addition, according to the figures, over the past three years more than R1bn is estimated to have been lost in South Africa alone owing to cyber crime – a startling statistic!

With this in mind, it can be said that Africa is fast becoming a hot cybercrime destination resulting in the need for businesses operating within the continent to be cautious and take the necessary measures for effective network security.

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If we consider the rapid landing of the undersea cables and as a result, data is becoming more of a commodity, an increasing number of Africans are now able to access the internet at anytime and anywhere.

More Africans now have internet If we consider the rapid landing of the undersea cables and as a result, data is becoming more of a commodity, an increasing number of Africans are now able to access the internet at anytime and anywhere. According to World Wide Worx, by 2013* there will be a forecasted 10 million internet users in South Africa, which not only highlights potential growth in an unsaturated market, but certainly the potential for further cybercriminal activity in just this country – never mind the rest of the African continent.

Emails are often the main form of this activity, through spam, and if we consider the stats, African companies should be warned. According to statistics**, in the first half of 2011, 14 893 cyber security incidents had been reported, of which 3 477 where related to fraud. Of these figures, 1 280 were phishing attacks that targeted banks in East and Southern Africa.

What’s more, according to Kaspersky Lab research, in Africa, Egypt accounts for 31% of victims affected by malware. Algeria sits at 12%, Morocco at 9% and South Africa at 7%.

And if spam and phishing attacks aren’t enough – social engineering is on the rise, with many corporates allowing employees to use such sites on their business network.

Social networking Globally we have already seen numerous natural disasters occur in 2011 – all of which serve as an ideal platform for cybercriminals to exploit internet users at work or at home, and social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are only making this task much easier. Despite the tragedies associated with natural disasters and the deaths of high profile people, hackers thrive on these types of events for cybercriminal activity for their own financial gain. Adding to this is the growth in usage of mobile devices, which also poses a potential security risk. Having access to the internet and emails on the go is certainly very convenient for the everyday workman, but also for the smart cybercriminal.

The fact is that there is no such thing as an ethical cybercriminal, as they are constantly looking for more sophisticated ways to hack into corporate networks and entice internet users into giving up their personal information and this is evident in the number of attacks that are occurring every day.

As a result, this year and going forward, businesses and the consumer will be faced with the widespread use of a new class of spyware programs, the aim of which can be defined quite simply as: steal everything! They will gather any information that they can about users, right down to the colour of their hair and eyes, and will examine every document stored on infected computers.

Espionage Furthermore, industrial and state espionage will become more pervasive, with less emphasis on precision attacks. Cybercriminals will start targeting a much broader range of organisations, no longer concentrating solely on online banks and electronic payment systems. The principal aim of many new virus writers, and their clients, will be the acquisition of someone or something’s complete profile, rather than making a quick buck by stealing credit card details or distributing spam.

It is possible that we will only see the beginnings of these kinds of attacks in Africa, with their full force only being felt in the years to come. However, it is already clear that the arrival of more internet, and subsequently this new generation of cybercriminals, means that those tasked with counteracting such cyber threats will need to raise their game considerably.

*World Wide Worx Research Group, IT Leaders Summit in Johannesburg 2010 **Cyber crime in Africa, May 2011, http://contadorwanarua.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/cybercrime-inafrica/

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SYMANTEC LAUNCHES NORTON MOBILE SECURITY An overview of the new Norton Mobile Security for Android

Norton Mobile Security for Android Anytime, anywhere protection that guards your mobile device and keeps your personal information private. ou can now protect your mobile device and the information on it with Norton Mobile Security.

If your mobile device is lost, stolen, or its SIM card removed, you can remotely disable your mobile device to prevent thieves from using it or accessing your private information. You can even remotely delete all of your personal information so cybercriminals can’t use it to steal your identity or money.

“We’ve taken the approach to developing a post-PC era Norton that includes introducing new mobile products, expanding our current products with mobile apps and combining our technology with mainstream consumer brands to protect more people in more places. The market reception has been highly positive and in the coming year we’ll continue creating partnerships and technologies that will bring a trusted name in PC security to mobile and Wi-Fi users all over the world,” comments Con Mallon, director of Mobile Product Management, Symantec Corporation.

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Say goodbye to cybercriminals and viruses

Norton Mobile Security detects and eliminates mobile threats before they can infect your phone.

Norton Mobile Security lets you remotely disable your phone, erase all of your personal information, and instantly locate your phone, all with a simple text message.

If your phone is lost or stolen, you can locate it fast and not worry about cybercriminals running up your bill or using your private information to steal your identity or hard earned money. It even automatically locks your phone if its SIM card is removed, so if thieves try to use it with another SIM card they’re out of luck.

Tired of being harassed by unwanted calls and texts? Norton Mobile Security helps protect your privacy - and your sanity - by letting you block calls and texts from specific phone numbers.

“As Android devices become increasingly popular, there is a greater chance they could be targeted by cybercriminals or more commonly, lost or stolen,” says Mallon. “We are delighted to now offer customers the ability to secure their smart phones or tablets from physical and online crime with the powerful protection of Norton security.”

When it comes to viruses and other threats, your phone is just as vulnerable to attack as your computer. Norton Mobile Security detects and eliminates mobile threats before they can infect your phone. It automatically scans all the files and app updates that you download. And it even gives you the option of automatically scanning SD (Secure Digital) memory cards for threats when you plug them into your phone. Weekly updates help ensure you have the most up-to-date protection. And it only updates when you’re in your home service area, so you won’t have to pay outrageous roaming charges.

Easy to install Norton Mobile Security is a breeze to use. It installs with a few simple clicks. And we include a step-by-step tutorial that shows you how to use all of the features.

Contact information. Calendars. Text messages. Email. Usernames. Passwords. Your life is on your phone. Keep both safe with Norton Mobile Security.

Norton Mobile Security is available at select retailers and the approximate recommended retail price is R399.

Symantec’s Norton products protect consumers from cybercrime with technologies like antivirus, anti-spyware and phishing protection - while also being light on system resources. The company also provides services such as online backup, PC tuneup, and family online safety. Like Norton on Facebook at www.facebook.com/norton and follow @NortonOnline on Twitter.

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With Norton Mobile Security, you can: • Prevent strangers from using your phone in case of loss or theft • Protect your privacy and the personal information on your phone • Detect and eliminate mobile threats before they infect your device Operating system: Android: 2.x or later Device requirements: Android 2.0 with 1.8 MB of storage

SHADOWPROTECT 4 SERVER / SMALL BUSINESS SERVER Fast and reliable disaster recovery, data protection and system migration for Windows servers.

The heart attack that goes along with your servers crashing is over, thanks to some innovative new software that minimise your recovery time objective. ccording to Cornel van der Westhuizen, new products development manager at IP Dimension, distributors of ShadowProtect in South Africa, almost 90% of SMBs and Enterprise organisations in South Africa still make use of Windows NT based backup procedures or through products available on the shelves in IT retail stores. “The problem is not in how the backups are performed, but how long it takes to restore from those backups in case of hardware or software failure,” said Van der Westhuizen. “Organisations seem to forget that performing a full system backup only leaves you with a copy of the data; you still need to integrate the data after reinstalling the operating system in the event of hardware or software failures and this is where the most time is lost”.

ShadowProtect Server and ShadowProtect Small Business Server provide fast and reliable disaster recovery, data protection and system migration to get servers online as quickly as possible.

ShadowProtect Server includes bare metal recovery to the same system, dissimilar hardware or to and from virtual environments. The software also helps in protecting a company’s entire server environment, including the operating system, applications like Microsoft Exchange and SQL, and data. It gives IT staff the tools needed to centrally manage point-in-time backup images and restore them in a matter of minutes.

The easy-to-use management console allows you to simultaneously push install ShadowProtect to all your Windows servers from a central location and view the backup status of all protected Windows servers in an organisation. In addition, ShadowProtect Server provides you with VirtualBoot technology — for failover to a virtual server — as well as a virtual converter to convert ShadowProtect backup images into virtual machines. ShadowProtect ImageManager allows you to consolidate point-in-time backup images on a daily, weekly and monthly basis for simplified management.

Automatic verification and re-verification tools ensure your backups are in a known good state when server recovery is necessary.

ShadowProtect licenses and support is now locally available from IP Dimension, an IT services company based in Centurion, Pretoria. For more information, prices or demonstrations, contact Cornel van der Westhuizen on 012-665-4123, email him on cornel@ipdimension.net, or visit www.ipdimension.net.

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ShadowProtect Server includes bare metal recovery to the same system, dissimilar hardware or to and from virtual environments.

NEW VMWARE VSPHERE STORAGE APPLIANCE New solutions for a new cloud-based era, simplifies IT for SMEs. The term “virtualisation” is being heard quite a lot these days, and one of the big players in the field is of course VMware, a leader in virtualisation and cloud infrastructure.

Mware’s new vSphere Storage Appliance software brings the business continuity and automated resource management capabilities of VMware vSphere to small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) – without the cost and complexity of shared storage.

According to an October 2010 Gartner survey of midmarket companies, by 2012, slightly more than 75% of SMEs expect to have server virtualisation in wide use – with disaster recovery representing the largest areas of IT investment for SMEs over the next two years.

The new VMware vSphere Storage Appliance will transform server internal storage into shared pools of storage, removing the shared storage hardware requirement and enabling more SMEs to take full advantage of the unique business continuity and automation capabilities of VMware vSphere, including High Availability, vMotion, and Distributed Resource Scheduler.

In the last two years alone, VMware has tripled the number of customers in the SME segment by introducing solutions and services aimed specifically at this market. These include:

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• VMware vSphere Kits for SMEs: VMware vSphere Essentials and Essentials Plus Kits enable small offices to consolidate workloads, improve availability, and centrally manage their environments, with a low investment.

• VMware Go: VMware Go is a free, web-based IT management service delivering simplified asset tracking, inventory and security services for SMEs. VMware GO also guides users of any expertise level through the installation and configuration of VMware vSphere Hypervisor.

• VMware Go Pro: VMware Go Pro is a comprehensive cloud service that enables SMEs to consolidate, manage, control and secure their physical and virtual IT infrastructures. Available today by subscription, • VMware vSphere Hypervisor: VMware vSphere Hypervisor is the easiest way to get started with virtualisation—and it’s free. Based on VMware ESXi, the hypervisor architecture that sets the industry standard for reliability, performance and ecosystem support, VMware vSphere Hypervisor allows customers to consolidate applications onto fewer servers and start saving money.

For more information on any of these products, contact VMware South Africa on 011-513-4800.

By 2012, slightly more than 75% of SMEs expect to have server virtualisation in wide use.

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COMMUNICATIONS Competition causes telecoms prices to tumble A lot can happen in a year, and it seems not more so than when it comes to broadband pricing. Lance Harris looks at the reasons behind this very convenient drop in internet costs.

ierce competition among South Africa’s cellular networks has helped to dramatically drive down the prices of mobile broadband services during the course of the year. In the process, mobile broadband has become an attractive and affordable alternative, or addition, to ADSL connectivity for many small businesses for the first time.

With price competition heating up between the country’s four major cellular networks, you can now buy mobile data for as little as two cents per megabyte on the cheapest special from Telkom’s 8ta. 8ta’s broadband package offers 10 GB of data per month for R199 on a two-year contract – far cheaper than renting an ADSL line with the same amount of bandwidth.

The catch is that the cheap rate applies only in areas where 8ta has its own towers. But in-bundle data rates of less than 20 cents per megabyte are now available from all four operators. To put that in perspective, mobile networks were charging as much as R50 per megabyte for internet connectivity in 2005.

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With price competition heating up between the country’s four major cellular networks, you can now buy mobile data for as little as two cents per megabyte.

Reasons for price drop Changes to South Africa’s telecoms laws and investments in new network infrastructure are the main reasons that prices of mobile data are suddenly plummeting. These market changes have allowed growth-hungry Cell C and 8ta to challenge the dominant Vodacom and MTN with lower prices.

New telecoms regulations introduced a few years back cleared the way for cellular operators and other companies to build new network links between South African cities.

Previously, they had to lease this infrastructure through Telkom or Broadband Infraco. This has enabled cellular operators to bring their costs down and pass the savings along to their subscribers.

In addition, cellular operators have also benefitted from the commercial launch of new undersea cable systems that link South Africa to the rest of the world. The prices of international bandwidth have fallen through the floor since Seacom in particular launched. Telkom used to control the bulk of South Africa’s international bandwidth through its stranglehold on the Sat-3/Safe cable system.

ADSL remains the same The mobile broadband price war follows a sharp decline in ADSL prices last year that saw MWEB unleash the country’s first truly affordable uncapped offerings on the market. Again, it was largely thanks to Seacom that internet service providers such as MWEB and Afrihost were able to slash prices so dramatically.

The cost of ADSL bandwidth has dropped from R70 per gigabyte five years ago to R30 or even R15 on some specials. As a small business, you can now choose from a range of ‘capped’ and ’uncapped’ ADSL offerings that answer to a range of business needs and budgets. Since the ADSL price war of 2010, ADSL pricing has stagnated. Bandwidth costs may fall again as new undersea cable systems such as the West Africa Cable System go live. However, a disproportionate part of the cost of ADSL now lies in the access fee (the line rental) and this not likely to change soon.

Local loop unbundling The reason for this is that Telkom still controls the last-kilometre infrastructure – the copper cable that links your business or home to the telephone exchange. Telkom still forces you to pay an analogue voice line rental fee if you want to have an ADSL line, whether you want the voice service or not.

Rolling out last-kilometer copper and fibre is expensive, meaning that Telkom will most likely control this part of the fixed-line infrastructure for the foreseeable future. Icasa, the regulator of the South African telecoms industry, hopes to tackle this problem through a regulatory intervention known as local loop unbundling (LLU).

The regulator hopes to draw up LLU regulations by the end of the year, though most in the industry are sceptical that it will meet this deadline. LLU would give competitors direct access to Telkom’s last-kilometre network and bring competition to this vital part of the telecom infrastructure. However, LLU is a complex process and many service providers question whether it comes too late to make a difference for telecoms users and Telkom’s competitors. High-speed wireless solutions such as HSPA+ and long-term evolution (LTE – which MTN is already piloting) are more likely to intensify last-kilometre competition to Telkom in the months to come.

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INTERVIEW: DR BRIAN ARMSTRONG, SENIOR MANAGING EXECUTIVE: ENTERPRISE MARKETS, TELKOM

TechSmart talked to Dr Brian Armstrong, Telkom’s senior managing executive, Enterprise Markets, to find out more about what companies can expect from SA’s telecom giant.

There is no question that the future of voice is IP. 28

TechSmart (TS): Tell us more about the offerings Telkom has available for SMEs? Brian Armstrong (BA): We have four main portfolios of products. Our traditional voice portfolio, our data portfolio, our IT services portfolio and our mobile portfolio. Obviously voice is still a fundamental requirement of all businesses, including small businesses. In fact, that is where we have the greatest penetration, with 400 000 small business customers.

On the data side there are a few areas. For a small business ADSL is a core product and we think there is a lot of growth still to be had in the ADSL space. What is interesting is that only about half of our voice customers actually have an ADSL line. However, this will grow as people become more and more dependent on being connected and having an online presence. We also launched our VPN Light offer which uses an ADSL connection to create a private network. We are seeing quite a lot of appetite for that, so that is an important product for the future.

Our third is our cloud portfolio. This is our IT services where we offer small and medium business the “office in a box” solution. Here we bundle computing, support and services together with connectivity, internet service providing and voice communications.

However, more interesting for the future is cloud. This allows small business to get applications and software, and indeed computer power or storage, as a service. So instead of having to buy a server, you can actually buy a virtual server and pay for it on a pay-as-you-go per virtual machine basis. This means you don’t have to own the hardware and you don’t have to keep it current or upgrade it. That comes with benefits, for instance, all the automatic back-up and data management are effectively provided as part of the service – no more hard drive crashes and no more data lost.

The third portfolio also includes software as a service. Certain applications like payroll, even your financial system and email, can be provided on a pay-per-use basis. You don’t need a big investment for an upfront licence fee and you aren’t hassled with the fact that the software you are using is three versions out of date from the current one. We see these as particularly attractive to small and medium businesses and the large end of the market as well.

The final portfolio is mobile. As you know we launched 8ta, our consumer mobile product last year. In the second half of the year we will be launching our business mobile product, and that will have product features which should be very attractive to small businesses.

TS: Where are you seeing the SME market heading in South Africa?

BA: The SME market has not traditionally been adoption leaders in IT, but they have become more pragmatic. They are focused on “how do I serve customers now in a very direct way”. In terms of ICT they are three to four years behind the corporate market, not in terms of modernisation, but in terms of practical employment. But because of that there will be a continued infusion of ICT into the small and medium business sector.

TS: Voice over IP (VoIP) started off with lots of hype, but received a lukewarm reception. Now we hear people starting to talk about VoIP again.

BA: There is no question that the future of voice is IP. The only question is how long it will take to get there, the reasons why people want to move to VoIP are cost and productivity. Our research shows that for 70% of all businesses the demand for IP is cost-based. But the reality is the traditional voice call, be it mobile or landline, is still convenient, relatively cheap and of high quality.

There is not really a big cost benefit in moving over to IP-based services, and this has been one of the things that have slowed things down. In the area of unified communications we are starting to see some of the productivity benefits that can come with VoIP. As these productivity benefits become more tangible, I think we will see more adoption of VoIP.

The dominant force driving unified communications in the short run is going to be the equipment vendors and system integrators.

TS: Where do you think unified communications is heading, specifically relating to SMEs? BA: At the moment unified communications refers more to a fixed environment where you have a number of features. My view is that we are still in the very early stages of adoption there because the benefits aren’t a habit yet and they need to be made easier. But some of our current packages offering these features are starting to become more popular with medium businesses, and they are slowly becoming dependent on these sorts of features. Long term you will have one number, fixed or mobile, intelligent routing, that you will find whoever you want, from wherever you are, in the cheapest cost highest quality root, and you will have an integrated messaging environment and conferencing and collaboration will be considered de facto.

TS: What is the time frame on that?

BA: Some of this stuff is already available, but for proper fixed line conversion we are talking two years. The dominant force driving unified communications in the short run is going to be the equipment vendors and system integrators. In the medium to long term it will be driven by service providers, and the transition will happen when service providers can truly make it a completely commoditised product.

TS: How has the market reacted to software as a service?

BA: It is early days yet, particularly in small and medium business.

What is interesting is that corporates have been doing what I call private cloud for some time already, and they are starting to do virtual cloud quite a lot now.

According to analysts it is the number one issue for big CIO’s around the world.

What is interesting is there is a variant of cloud which we refer to as “Over the Top” and that is the Googles of the world. There is quite a lot of early uptake of Google-like services the likes of Gmail, Google storage and their competitors. And we are certainly seeing the appetite. What we as Telkom will be able to offer different to that, is a slightly more tailored service to South African small and medium businesses. Which would give some degree of comfort to where the data actually is, and the security around that data. But it should not be considered in isolation. It is about having the connectivity as well to enable the cloud service. It is about having the connectivity and the appropriate on-site IT support because that is where you still need someone on the premises.

About Telkom TS: What about security concerns?

BA: Our view is that if the biggest banks can do cloud storage, then small businesses can too. It is something we take very seriously, bearing in mind the amount of sensitive customer information Telkom holds in any case. We’ve got four million customers and their bank details, so it is something we take very seriously. We haven’t yet been breached and we certainly intend to stay that way.

Telkom is Africa’s largest integrated communications company, providing integrated communications solutions to an entire range of customers. Telkom’s passion is to become world-class.

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XDSL‘S FUTURE-PROOF DATA CENTRE NOW OPEN FOR BUSINESS Data centre ready for fibre optic networks

In this day and age of cloud computing and dependency on instant, always-on communication, a company’s choice of data centre does not only influence its current business, but also how its future might unfold. Data solutions provider, XDSL, has recently completed a future-proof data centre, providing best-inclass hosting strategies. ocated in Samrand, XDSL’s data centre is equipped with some of the best IT equipment currently available, ensuring both high quality hosting and next generation compatibility. “We wanted to provide clients with not only the latest but also the best technology currently available,” says Martin van Dyk, director of XDSL. “For this reason the centre was fitted from the start with top-of-the-range equipment, which means there is no legacy to maintain and upgrade on a constant basis,” he continued. The fact that high-speed fibre optic networks are setting a new connectivity standard also played an important role in choice of equipment, with this data centre ready for a bandwidth intensive future.

L

Xsigo is widely regarded as an innovation leader in Server I/O, with their Xsigo Director server technology allowing XDSL to virtualise the I/O to the server hardware doing the hosting.

Xsigo onboard A good example of this, is XDSL’s use of Xsigo Systems’ equipment. Xsigo is widely regarded as an innovation leader in Server I/O, with their Xsigo Director server technology allowing XDSL to virtualise the I/O to the server hardware doing the hosting. Shaun Jones, technical manager for NetXcom, distributors of Xsigo in South Africa, explains it as follows: “Network and Storage resources are configured as ‘Resource clouds’ in the Xsigo management. These ‘clouds’ can be linked to virtual NIC’s (vNic) and virtual HBA’s (vHBA) which can be presented to any of the host servers cabled into Xsigo.”

Apart from cost savings for XDSL clients, another major benefit is almost instantaneous server creation. A new Windows server can be deployed in mere minutes instead of the usual days, while Linux and Windows can be provisioned with the press of a button. Customers can also sleep soundly, since every part of the Xsigo system is redundant, while bottlenecks are a thing of the past, since XDSL is able to connect two 20 Gbps InifinBand channels to each host server.

Xsigo is also used by a number of big clients, such as the Star Alliance airlines group, VMware, New England Biolabs and Avaya.

Trust Connection Telecom is one of the businesses that makes use of XDSL’s data centre, with MD of the company, David Meintjes, very satisfied. “The data centre is professionally run, very responsive when it comes to assistance and well serviced with fibre,” Meintjies believes. XDSL is also part of the ConvergeNet group of companies, providing the data centre with a solid foundation and shared expertise.

Future-proof solution Van Dyk says it best when he concludes: “Thanks to the implementation of the Xsigo directors and XMS management systems, XDSL has future proofed our business and leapfrogged competitors with our technology.” For forward-thinking companies looking to future proof their IT services, XDSL’s Samrand data centre is now open for business. For further information contact XDSL on 086-100-9375 or visit www.xdsl.co.za.

About XDSL XDSL is a Pretoria-based Internet Service Provider, and has been in the industry since the time that broadband first became available in South Africa. The company specialises in connectivity solutions, Voice over IP, hosting and managed services such as firewalls, VPNs and mail spooling.

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INTERVIEW: HILLEL SHROCK, CHIEF MARKETING OFFICER, INTERNET SOLUTIONS

Unified communications, broadband capacity and the cloud – TechSmart talked to Hillel Shrock, chief marketing officer at Internet Solutions, to find out more about SMEs’ place in a connected future.

TechSmart (TS): How does IS view the current market and how do you see the future specifically relating to SMEs? Hillel Shrock (HS): One of the big shifts in the market is the sheer volume and critical richness of information that is reshaping how SMEs use internet based services and what these enable. From an organisational perspective, organisations of all shapes and sizes are really rethinking how they use information, collaborate and share information across online communities.

At an infrastructure level, there is an absolute demand for bandwidth, storage, online content, processing and memory capacity. From the clients’ business perspective, they want to be in a position where content is instantaneously available and completely searchable. Rich media, including video, is increasingly a requirement. SMEs do have different requirements in terms of the services and the management thereof, and for this reason we have evolved to deliver a different portfolio of services for this particular client segment.

We are scaling our investments in data centres, last mile connectivity and bandwidth capacity, on a scale that far exceeds any historical growth.

About Internet Solutions Internet Solutions (IS) prides itself on having stayed at the forefront of the telecommunications market since its inception in South Africa, in 1993. This has afforded the company the opportunity to spearhead communications innovation and pioneering within this ever changing, highly competitive environment. Today IS is a provider of internet protocol-based Connectivity, Communications, Cloud and Carrier Services in the African market and for African clients into the global market. IS provides services to large public and private sector organisations, medium sized organisations and smaller organisations and consumers through its value channel program.

Using this toolbox of solutions IS tailor-makes and packages services that simplify technology for its clients, ensuring the company continuously enables and evolves communications.

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TS: What about the cloud?

HS: The cloud for us is not a new thing; we’ve built this business on the concept of sharing infrastructure and outsourcing through our data sectors. Cloud is a major trend, with more and more information technology services being delivered via this model. It’s literally transforming the way in which businesses consume information and is really at the heart of many strategies in businesses. I think that applies very clearly to SMEs. Obviously there will be different types of businesses that use different applications, but as a general concept, businesses are looking to consume services through a shared cloud model, and there will be an adoption curve for that.

TS: But how soon?

HS: There are so many varied views and forecasts of the adoption curve, but there is no doubt that cloud services are being adopted in pockets quite rapidly. With the growth in applications available, and bandwidth, barriers to SMEs utilising cloud services are diminishing. To meet market demand, we are scaling our investments in data centres, last mile connectivity and bandwidth capacity, on a scale that far exceeds any historical growth.

TS: Tell us more about your broadband capacity.

HS: We’ve made substantial investments in undersea cables and we are a consortium shareholder in a project called FibreCo, where we will be rolling out fibre capacity nationally. All of these elements will come together to answer that question of “how do we get our users more and more capacity as content, online collaboration and commerce expand?” Our view is that this market segment has been stifled in terms of the capacity that has been available because of the costs. But we are playing our role in changing that.

TS: Is unified communications something that you are involved in?

HS: Absolutely. We have four business units – Cloud, Connectivity and Carrier, with the fourth unit called Communications. A key strategy for that unit is unified communications as a service. My sense is that in the SME market, hosted unified communications can provide a meaningful value proposition to SMEs. Although a full package of services will be developed over time, we already provide a number of the core components of these services, such as outsourced email, messaging, and telephony. We aim to improve productivity through a consistent experience, regardless of the channel or device being used.

TS: What adoption time frame are we looking at?

HS: We always think adoption will happen a lot quicker than it actually does. I would say over the next two to three years, and a little longer to become mainstream. It’s interesting that, in the past, big corporations led the adoption of new trends. But now it has been turned on its head and in some areas it’s actually the consumers and SMEs that are leading adoption.

Connect directly with the customers who will beneďŹ t most from your business services.

Book now for the 2012 TechSmart SME Guide (May 2012).

Contact Carmel Singh Cell: 079-515-8708 Email: carmel@smartpublishing.co.za Chantell Nell-Marais Cell: 082-780-4696 Email: chantell@smartpublishing.co.za Suzanne Rall Tel: 012-362-2732 Email: suzanne@smartpublishing.co.za

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