STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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Serious about performance, passionate about value First issue 2018 STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE.
First issue 2018
Infocentrix is an official newsletter
for the Datacentrix Group, its
Contents
partners and customers.
Datacentrix is a complete ICT
systems integrator, providing solutions Datacentrix takes top honours at 2017 HPE partner awards 3
and services across the full information
value chain. The company’s value-driven Datacentrix takes steps to building local HPE NonStop capacity 4
approach and proven execution
capability reinforce its position The IDC sees exceptional data centre performance boost with Datacentrix 5
as one of the top ICT players in
the market. Datacentrix achieves level one B-BBEE status 6
Datacentrix and clients win four Pan-African OpenText awards 7
Datacentrix marketing
Elzette du Preez
edupreez@datacentrix.co.za HPE unveils industry’s first SaaS-based multi-cloud management solution
for on-premises and public clouds 9
Editing and design
SMart Strategic Marketing eNetworks overcomes fibre red tape for fast, simple high-speed
santa@smart-sm.co.za connectivity 11
monique@smart-sm.co.za
Datacentrix clinches Huawei energy partner of the year award 12
Datacentrix unveils fast, highly secure Backup-as-a-Service offering 13
Datacentrix tackles ‘smart farming’ with local agri sector 14
Ready or not, technology brings the changes for African agricultural sector 15
So you’re finally on the journey to implementing Hyper-Converged
Infrastructure... Now what? 17
Datacentrix takes on hacktivism and other vulnerabilities with new SOC
services 19
Disruptive tech set to catapult African businesses ahead 21
MediaCloud satisfies customers’ need for speed with hyper-converged
infrastructure from Datacentrix 23
Multichoice Media Technology significantly improves media archiving and
retrieval with high-speed solution from Datacentrix 25
Connect with Veritas and discover 360 Data Management 27
Product names featured in this
newsletter are trade names or Datacentrix takes the honour of hosting annual Barloworld Tech Day 29
registered trademarks of the
respective companies. Digitalisation: The unavoidable key to unlocking future opportunities 31
Datacentrix offers industry leading performance efficiencies to Adcock
Ingram 33
We would like to thank our
technology partners for their
support and input into this issue: Man vs machine in the investment world ‒ the rise of the algorithmic
model and its implications 35
Dell EMC
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Datacentrix attains quality, environmental and health & safety
Lenovo certifications 37
Veritas
1 INFOCENTRIX
CEO MESSAGE
Welcome
By Ahmed Mahomed, CEO
This issue of Infocentrix speaks to some of the recent activities that support the business
in its mission to be the chosen ICT partner to corporate and public sector organisations.
Technology partnerships: Datacentrix is focused on technologies. We review some of our specialised areas of
representing leading technology partners with excellence expertise, such as how hacktivism and other vulnerabilities
and at the highest levels of certification. The company has are being overcome with new security services from the
achieved the following partner recognitions recently: “Overall Datacentrix Security Operations Centre. Companies across
HPE Partner of the Year” for 2017 for the second consecutive industries are looking to “disruptive technologies” to be more
year; four of the six OpenText Digiruption Indaba awards for connected and innovative. In a separate article we review
2017; and “Huawei Energy Partner of the Year” award. specifically how emerging technologies, like the Internet of
Datacentrix is also the sole distributor of HPE NonStop in Things (IoT), are enabling resources conservation, more
Africa and is taking steps towards building a greater local efficient operations, higher productivity and, in the case of
HPE NonStop support structure and local skills pool. agriculture, increased yield. Moving to Enterprise Information
Management, the 4th Industrial Revolution is delivering vast
Execution excellence: Datacentrix' execution excellence is untapped data sources that require new disciplines in terms
central to its business strategy. We take a look as some of process and governance. Furthermore, eNeworks,
customer successes, including: the Industrial Development Datacentrix wholly-owned company, Internet Service
Corporation (IDC), which has seen more than 400 percent Provider (ISP) and network specialist, is helping customers
performance improvement within its SAP environment to circumnavigate the lengthy waiting period around fibre
following the deployment of data centre infrastructure; installations, providing an interim, instant-access option.
MediaCloud, who is meeting the demanding needs of the Lastly, we look at how automated systems are being used, in
film, television and media industries after opting for hyper- place of humans, in asset management to select and sell
converged infrastructure; and Multichoice who has stocks.
significantly improved its media archiving and retrieval with a
high-speed solution from Datacentrix. Customer relationships: Datacentrix focuses on building
strong, long-term relationships with its customers, helping to
Empowerment and industry standards: Datacentrix has understand their business challenges and technology
demonstrated its commitment to empowerment and environments more intimately. We review the discussion that
industry standards, having garnered certification as a Level Datacentrix held at its first Agri Indaba, which focused on
One Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) how technology is transforming farming and food
Contributor. The company has also achieved ISO 9001:2015 production. Datacentrix also recently hosted an annual 'Tech
(Quality Management System), 14001:2015 (Environmental Conference' held by the IT department of long-term client,
Management System), and OHSAS 18001:2007 Barloworld Automotive, with the aim to keep its IT fraternity
(Occupational Health and Safety Management System) up to date with the latest technology trends and offerings.
certifications.
In closing, I would like to thank our participating partners,
Technology and innovation: Datacentrix supports its Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Lenovo, and Veritas for
customers' growth and success, enabled by leading their support and involvement in Infocentrix.
INFOCENTRIX 2
PARTNER AWARD
Datacentrix takes top honours
at 2017 HPE partner awards
Datacentrix has once again been rewarded for its our team, as well as the close collaboration between the two
dedication and consistency, proudly taking the title of companies,” states Ahmed Mahomed, Datacentrix CEO.
“Overall Partner of the Year” for 2017 for the second
consecutive year at the annual Hewlett Packard Enterprise “This recognition follows on from Datacentrix winning
(HPE) Partner Awards celebration. HPE's prestigious 'MEMA Top Territory Business Partner of
the year Award 2017', for our outstanding performance and
The company was also named as top “Server Partner 2017” accomplishments that raised the standard for business
and “Services Partner 2017”, as well as winning the “Platinum excellence and customer satisfaction. Congratulations go to
Partner 2017” category. all those whose hard work has contributed to these titles –
we are extremely proud of these achievements,” Ahmed
Datacentrix' Merwe Erasmus, a technical services delivery adds.
and solution design specialist, was singled out for an HPE
Partner Ready Individual Award: “Best Award 2017”, in Says HPE country manager: channel and territory sales,
addition to the recognition that he has received over the past Leon Erasmus: "Datacentrix' persistently high standard of
several years. performance is apparent in the number, and type of awards
received by the organisation over the past few years.
“Our achievement of HPE's top local partner award draws Datacentrix has a very clear understanding of HPE's
attention to Datacentrix' contribution to the organisation's offering from start to finish, and has been instrumental in
success locally, underlining the tenacity and consistency of our local growth.”
Petro Plotz, HPE partner business manager; Ahmed Mahomed, Datacentrix CEO; Ammar Lababidy, MEMA
channel and territory director: HPE; Tony de Sousa, Enterprise business unit manager and Leon Erasmus, HPE
country manager: channel and territory sales
3 INFOCENTRIX
PARTNER EVENT
Datacentrix takes steps to building
local HPE NonStop capacity
In its role as the first – and only – channel supplier of the
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) NonStop solution locally,
Datacentrix is cementing its dedication to this position by
providing greater support to customers, as well as
bolstering the South African NonStop community.
“The HPE NonStop solution provides users with a converged
infrastructure on its own that includes hardware (servers,
storage and network), and operating system, database,
middleware and services, offering fault tolerant, always
available, secure computing,” explains Piet Steenkamp, HPE
NonStop pre-sales at Datacentrix.
“HPE NonStop is well established as an offering at an Piet Steenkamp, HPE NonStop pre-sales at Datacentrix
international level, but has a smaller user base in South
Africa, one that is more focused on the financial services
industry. Datacentrix is actively working on expanding and
broadening this to other sectors that could benefit from this
excellent technology.”
“
In line with this goal, Datacentrix recently handpicked 30
customers, including telecommunications, retail and
manufacturing representatives, to attend an event at which
international HPE NonStop experts discussed the solution's By establishing this practice,
availability, scalability and cost-effective advantages. In
addition, BankservAfrica, Africa's largest automated
we are taking a strong step
clearing house and a long-time HPE NonStop advocate, towards building a greater local
spoke on its dedication to building HPE NonStop capacity
locally. HPE NonStop support
Says Steenkamp: “BankservAfrica took the opportunity at structure in southern African
our event to inform attendees of its intention to offer a
NonStop-as-a-Service solution to smaller local businesses.
and into Africa, while also
The organisation plans to use its state of the art data centre,
based in Selby, Johannesburg, to provide other businesses
helping to develop specialised
with the benefits of a public cloud in a protected private skills locally.
cloud environment – with the assistance of both HPE and
Datacentrix.
“Our plan is to double the local HPE NonStop user base over training. The interns will be based onsite at the premises of
the next three years, and we believe that this offering from local customers, says Steenkamp, receiving both training and
BankservAfrica will be a massive catalyst in this practical experience over the next year.
development,” he adds.
“By establishing this practice, we are taking a strong step
With a long-term view of building a strong, skilled HPE towards building a greater local HPE NonStop support
NonStop community, Datacentrix has already appointed structure in southern Africa and into Africa, while also helping
several interns, who are undergoing intensive HPE NonStop to develop specialised skills locally.”
INFOCENTRIX 4
CUSTOMER SUCCESS
The IDC sees exceptional
data centre performance boost
with Datacentrix
The Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) has seen According to Gert Prinsloo, infrastructure manager at the
more than 400 percent performance improvement within its IDC, the company had 'sweated' its data centre
SAP environment, as well as a marked boost in agility, infrastructure assets for around a year longer than
following the deployment of new data centre infrastructure originally planned, so the out-dated equipment was ready
by Datacentrix. for replacement. “In addition to this, the IDC had a pressing
business requirement for better performance and agility.
Established in 1940, the IDC is a national development
finance institution, owned by the South African government “From a BYOD perspective, staff needed access to our data
under the supervision of the Economic Development from anywhere, at any time, and via multiple devices per
Department, set up to promote economic growth and user, a task that the older equipment was simply not up to.
industrial development. The organisation provides finance Essentially we needed to invest in future-ready
for industrial development projects, plays a catalytic role in infrastructure,” he explains.
promoting partnerships across industries within and outside
South Africa's borders, and promotes regional economic Gert maintains that the solution put forward by Datacentrix
growth. in response to the IDC's tender was a “hand-in-glove fit” for
the organisation. “And while Datacentrix may have had the
advantage of understanding the IDC's environment due to
a long-standing relationship, it was the value-added
services that they included that were most appealing to us.
“The Datacentrix proposal entailed so much more than just
putting down servers and storage – it was a full blown
solution,” Gert continues. “It incorporated the assurance
that other peripherals would be integrated with the new
infrastructure, looked at whether our networking setup
would cope moving forward, addressed the speed of
connectivity, and delved into how this would all benefit the
end user.
“This kind of partnership approach and strong working
relationship is so much more than checking off points
covered in a tender document,” he adds.
The new equipment was deployed several months ago, to
high praise from the IDC's end users. “As a fairly
conservative company, the IDC is not easily pleased,” Gert
states.
“However, feedback from our end users since the project
was completed in March last year has been phenomenal.
The SAP team in particular has been very complimentary,
saying that the speed of the SAP database is the fastest it
Gert Prinsloo, infrastructure manager at the IDC has ever been.
with Stefan Venter, pre-sales specialist at Datacentrix
“We have seen between a 400 and 500 percent increase in
performance within the SAP environment specifically – a
5 INFOCENTRIX
EMPOWERMENT
Datacentrix
“ This was one of the most
successful technology projects
ever undertaken by the IDC.
There was no downtime and
our end users were not
affected at all; everything just
achieves
level one
B-BBEE status
Datacentrix has achieved certification as a 52.13
ran as it should. Given the percent black-owned Level One Broad-Based Black
Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Contributor, with
nature and size of this 135 percent procurement recognition.
deployment, it was a real coup Completed in alignment with the amended ICT Codes
that it ran so painlessly. gazetted in November 2016, the certification was
awarded through EmpowerLogic, a SANAS accredited
B-BBEE verification agency.
Datacentrix is also classified as a designated supplier,
which will allow anyone purchasing from the company
job very well done. When your end users see such a notable to gain additional B-BBEE points on their scorecard. The
performance increase, it is a huge achievement.” organisation has both a 52.13 percent black ownership
as well as a 42.67 percent black woman ownership.
The IDC has also seen a significant improvement in agility, as
the company is now able to deploy workloads to three or four Says Datacentrix CEO, Ahmed Mahomed: “Datacentrix
different places almost instantaneously, something that it is pleased that the strategies put in place over a number
could not do previously. It is also able to failover almost of years have enabled it to reach a Level One status. As
instantly to its DR site and is looking at pushing production, part of our commitment to ongoing transformation, we
back up and DR to the cloud, an inconceivable step prior to will continue to foster an environment that will deliver
the implementation of the new data centre infrastructure. substantively on empowerment objectives, including
skills, socio-economic and enterprise development.”
“This was one of the most successful technology projects
ever undertaken by the IDC. There was no downtime and our
end users were not affected at all; everything just ran as it
should. Given the nature and size of this deployment, it was a
real coup that it ran so painlessly.”
B-BBEE 135%
In addition to refreshing equipment, Datacentrix is also Level One B-BBEE
assisting the IDC to repurpose its older hardware – which the
ICT company explained might be ageing but is not obsolete contributor recognition
as yet. “We felt that the idea of repurposing the older
equipment to be used for back up and DR purposes was a
very clever proposition from Datacentrix,” Gert says.
“It is Datacentrix' mandate to deliver tangible business value
to our customers,” explains Stefan Venter, pre-sales specialist 43,80% 33,25%
at Datacentrix. “As a long-standing service provider to the
IDC, it was critical that we provided a data centre
Black voting Black woman
infrastructure solution that would help the organisation rights voting rights
future-proof its infrastructure, and we are pleased to see that
it is delivering real business benefits.”
INFOCENTRIX 6
PARTNER AWARD
Datacentrix and clients win four
Pan-African OpenText awards
Datacentrix and three of its flagship clients netted four of the explains Lenore Kerrigan, country sales director: Africa at
six OpenText Digiruption Indaba awards for 2017. OpenText.
This impressive haul confirms Datacentrix' unparalleled Secondly, 'Customer of the Year' Award went to Engen,
depth of understanding, not only of OpenText's Enterprise which contracted Datacentrix to implement a Contract
Information Management (EIM) tools, but also in integrating Management Solution using SAP OpenText extended ECM.
OpenText into SAP-based enterprise software. The Engen and Datacentrix teams were able to digitise
contracts, eliminate many manual, paper-based processes,
One of the awards (Go-Live Project of the Year) represents a reduce risk and provide better visibility into the Engen
true world-first. Awarded to Datacentrix client MediClinic, the contract management process.
healthcare provider successfully integrated OpenText
Extended ECM and SAP SuccessFactors. Thirdly, the 'Customer Ambassador of the Year' Award was
handed to Yasir Ahmed, chief director for transport
“The solution helped to transform human capital regulation at the Western Cape Department of Transport
management of MediClinic's over 16,000 staff members, and and Public Works, based on the success the department has
consolidate record keeping into a single, trusted database,” had over many years with Datacentrix and its EIM solution.
From left: Detlev Legler, vice president sales EMEA emerging markets at OpenText;
OpenText, Wayne Keys, business development manager at Datacentrix; and
Lenore Kerrigan, country sales director: Africa at OpenText
7 INFOCENTRIX
“Datacentrix has shown tremendous commitment in embracing the
OpenText solutions and embarking on extremely challenging
implementations, delivering innovative solutions that have helped
to solve complex business problems for our customers.
Datacentrix' head of operations: EIM for the Western Cape,
Mike Johnson, comments that “the Western Cape
Department of Transport and Public Works has been a
In giving the award, Lenore notes that “Datacentrix has
shown tremendous commitment in embracing the OpenText
solutions and embarking on extremely challenging
leading light in enhancing information management in the implementations, delivering innovative solutions that have
province. This momentum is now spilling over into other helped to solve complex business problems for our
local and provincial structures in the Western Cape.” customers.”
He explains that the Western Cape Government recently Mike says success stems from the team's intimate
extended its EIM agreement, to span multiple departments, knowledge of OpenText's technology set, matched with a
covering over 20,000 end-users in total, and touching the thorough understanding of the client's' business.
lives of millions of South Africans.
“We're able to effectively combine the technology, the
And finally, Datacentrix itself was named the winner of the professional services, the international expertise and the
'SAP Solution Enhancement of the Year' Award – for its work local support, to create a compelling array of EIM services to
in transforming business operations within Engen and our clients,” he adds.
MediClinic.
Delivering expertise and flexibility along
the digital journey
Digital journey Integration and
roadmap & strategy optimisation services
Solution implementation Digital managed
and hosting services
Contact Nigel Hysom, business unit manager,
enterprise information management, Western Cape
nhysom@datacentrix.co.za
INFOCENTRIX 8
PARTNER
Backup as a Servce
HPE unveils industry’s first
SaaS-based multi-cloud management
solution for on-premises and
public clouds
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) introduced HPE difficult to set up and manage, and don’t span public clouds
OneSphere, the industry’s first multi-cloud management and on-premises. These factors hinder IT organisations’
solution that provides a unified experience across public ability to make informed decisions, impacting digital
clouds, on-premises private clouds and software-defined transformation initiatives and operational agility.
infrastructure. Through its software-as-a-service (SaaS)
portal, HPE OneSphere provides customers access to a pool HPE OneSphere’s multi-cloud strategy – enabling the
of IT resources that spans the public cloud services they solution to be used with any public cloud provider – is
subscribe to, as well as their on-premises environments. HPE designed to dramatically simplify operations. The solution
OneSphere is designed for IT operations, developers, and works across virtual machines, containerised workloads,
business executives seeking to build clouds, deploy and bare metal applications, so internal stakeholders can
applications, and gain insights faster. compose hybrid clouds capable of supporting both
traditional and cloud-native applications. Delivered as a
Enterprises today are challenged to quickly capitalise on a service, HPE OneSphere provides users with a single point
relentless volume of information from applications to more to access all their applications and data from anywhere.
effectively compete. These new applications are created Through it, users can build private clouds and connect
differently – virtualised, containerised, built as microservices public cloud resources, resulting in a virtual resource pool.
– and can straddle clouds and sites, creating complexity.
With its unified experience, HPE OneSphere streamlines
Managing multi-cloud environments today is complicated. DevOps and provides deep insights across an enterprise’s
Organisations may have multiple points of management, public and on-premises environments to accelerate cycle
preventing an aggregate accounting of resource utilisation times, improve productivity, and generate cost savings –
and costs. Traditional cloud management platforms are increasing the speed of digital transformation.
9 INFOCENTRIX“ With its unified experience, HPE OneSphere streamlines DevOps
and provides deep insights across an enterprise’s public and
on-premises environments to accelerate cycle times, improve
productivity, and generate cost savings ‒ increasing the
speed of digital transformation.
“Our customers need a radically new approach – one that’s In addition, the HPE OneSphere pay-for-use subscription
designed for the new hybrid IT reality,” states Ric Lewis, licensing model complements the HPE Flexible Capacity pay-
senior vice president and general manager, Software- for-use consumption model for customers’ on-premises
Defined and Cloud Group at HPE. “With HPE OneSphere, infrastructure. HPE makes it simple and affordable for
we’re abstracting away the complexity of managing multi- customers to start with a single DevOps project or manage
cloud environments and applications so our customers can across a multi-cloud, multi-site enterprise.
focus on what’s important – accelerating digital
transformation and driving business outcomes.” A solution to accelerate digital transformation
Through HPE Pointnext, HPE simplifies customers’ end-to- HPE OneSphere is ideal for businesses that want to capitalise
end digital transformation, including helping them build on digital disruption and enable a broad range of new
their strategy, implement multi-cloud environments and customer experiences. Key benefits include:
simplify costs through consumption models. With the
recent acquisition of CTP, which specialises in cloud Improved speed and simplicity – To respond to developers
consulting services, HPE brings expertise in migrating, faster, IT admins can build clouds and deploy virtual
developing, and managing cloud applications and machines, containers, and bare metal in minutes. As projects
infrastructures across public and private clouds. grow, HPE OneSphere enables rapid dynamic provisioning
across public cloud and on-premises environments.
Accelerated application delivery – With unique multi-tenant
workspaces called Projects, HPE streamlines and speeds
application development and deployment with environments
Key HPE OneSphere features include: where developers can self-service provision and access
catalogs containing templates, cloud-native tools, services
and applications.
· Multi-cloud architecture, supporting different
combinations of public clouds, as well as on-
Greater cost efficiency – HPE OneSphere provides a single
premises environments
view of usage and aggregate costs across all public cloud and
· Unified experience across clouds, sites,
on-premises deployments, so CIOs can control and optimise
orchestration tools, platforms-as-a-service (PaaS)
resources and spending. This solution also has the unique
and containers, minimising the need for
ability to provide “showback” costs by cloud, site, line of
specialised skills
business, application or subscriber, and enable real-time self-
· Built-in role-based collaboration Project
service cost reporting to designated users.
workspaces designed for IT operations, business
users and consumers of IT, such as developers,
data scientists and researchers
· Software-defined and API-driven virtual resource
pool
· Subscription consumption model
For additional product information visit:
www.hpe.com/onesphere
INFOCENTRIX 10TECHNOLOGY
eNetworks overcomes fibre red
tape for fast, simple high-speed
connectivity
“
Datacentrix group company, eNeworks, an Internet Service
Provider (ISP) and network specialist, is helping clients to
circumnavigate the lengthy waiting period around fibre
installations, providing an interim, instant-access option.
We recently undertook a
According to Jaap Scholten, eNetworks COO, landlord and
municipal approvals can be huge barriers in the installation rollout for a client that
of high-speed fibre installations. “Rollouts can take between
three and 12 months; a long, frustrating wait for clients to be
included 50 branches around
up and running. the country, including more
“Datacentrix is now offering businesses a fast, cost-effective outlying areas, which was
solution, using locally manufactured dual LTE routers that
can be working within four hours – a timeframe that includes wrapped up within a month.
site inspection and installation.”
Jaap explains that not only does this solution provide quick, Another fantastic benefit offered by this solution is the fact
painless connectivity, it is also highly redundant. “These that it is not restricted to metros. “The dual LTE routers
routers provide dual connection to two different providers, can be installed wherever there is an LTE signal,” Jaap
meaning that there is an automatic failover should one explains. “In fact, we recently undertook a rollout for a
connection stop working. client that included 50 branches around the country,
including more outlying areas, which was wrapped up
“Additionally, a significant factor for buildings like hospitals, within one month.”
where there are many restrictions, there is no need for
drilling when installing the routers, bypassing the need for For businesses looking at improving enterprise mobility,
site approvals.” the LTE devices are also IoT-enabled.
11 INFOCENTRIXPARTNER AWARD
Datacentrix clinches Huawei
energy partner of the year award
Datacentrix has been honoured with the 'Huawei Energy In order to reach the 5-star ranking, Datacentrix had to certify
Partner of the Year' award. Datacentrix, which attained its for 3, 4 and 5-star level requirements.”
certification as Huawei Gold Partner, has also earned its
status as a Certified Service Partner with a specialisation in Brian Lendrum, Datacentrix' business unit manager – Huawei
network energy, covering the full range of Huawei's network Advanced Infrastructure, Commercial, says, “Datacentrix' 5-
energy solutions. star certification played a major role in the granting of this
award from Huawei. The fact that we now have six trained and
This certification, where Datacentrix has qualified at 5-star certified UPS engineers within our services team was also an
level, played a significant role in the company being important element.”
awarded the title of Huawei Energy Partner of the Year.
Linda adds, “Datacentrix beat out eight other local network
Linda Razzino, channel service manager, Huawei Enterprise energy specialists to take the title of Energy Partner of the Year
Business Group, says: “Huawei provides a full range of based on its standing as an Huawei Gold Partner for Sales, as
network energy solutions. This includes telecom energy, well as for its Network Energy field certifications.”
data centre energy, BMP&CP (board mounted power,
customised power), inverters and uninterrupted power Brian concludes, “Datacentrix is extremely pleased and proud
supplies (UPSes). to further our long-standing relationship with Huawei
Enterprise through this acknowledgement. The award, together
Rating levels are based on the types of certification, where with our gold level partnership status, is the latest landmark in
3-star is entry level and 5-star denotes high level expertise. our joint striving towards satisfied, connected clients.”
Mike McGee, business unit manager, workspace solutions at Datacentrix, Alex Du Min, MD for the Huawei
Enterprise business group in southern Africa, Brian Lendrum, business unit manager, Huawei advanced
infrastructure, Technology at Datacentrix and Corne Young, account executive, Huawei Enterprise
INFOCENTRIX 12TECHNOLOGY
Datacentrix unveils fast, highly
secure Backup-as-a-Service offering
Datacentrix has launched a new Backup and Disaster This allows customers to eliminate legacy backup
Recovery-as-a-Service (DRaaS) offering, providing solutions forever,” says Marius.
affordable off-site cloud backups with the highest level of
data protection and redundancy. This innovative offering is “More importantly, it provides local companies of all sizes
aimed at assisting local organisations with the management with the latest in data backup and protection technology,
of unprecendented volumes of data, while safeguarding it without taking away the control of their most important
from malicious attacks. asset, their data.”
Marius Redelinghuys, solution architect at Datacentrix Dedicated front-end firewalls allow customers to connect
explains that the new Datacentrix solution operates on the securely and directly to the data centres via their own line
3-2-1-0 premise – three copies of data stored in two different or the Internet using a protected login. Data is fully
media repositories, with one off-site backup copy and zero encrypted at each stage in the process, from the
waiting time to restart operations. processing point at the customer to the backend, including
tape.
“What is key here, is that businesses could potentially have
six copies of their data; they are able to backup locally onsite “All customer data remains within South Africa’s borders,
while Datacentrix replicates the data to its cloud systems, and offers flexible, usage-based payment options.” Adds
with the option of additional replication to a 'deep storage' Marius.
vault at Datacentrix (capable of five, seven and 10 year
retrieval), as well as to traditional tape.”
“
With the ability to start backing up offsite in less than two
minutes, both the cloud BaaS and hosted BaaS options are
highly available, flexible, allow for end-to-end data
encryption and disaster recovery, and provide secure offsite
backups. More importantly, it provides
“The new offering utilises the company's Midrand and
local companies of all sizes
Samrand data centres, featuring redundant data links with the latest in data backup
between the two facilities with sub millisecond latencies. “
and protection technology,
“Datacentrix' network is connected using dual path fibre
cables with wireless failover as backup, between our two
without taking away the
data centres. The system is equally divided between them, control of their most
delivering backup, recovery and replication availability for all
workloads, as well as physical and cloud-based resources. important asset, their data.
Back up your data to the cloud
3 copies
of data 2 di erent
media repositories 1 back up
o site
Visit: http://backup.datacentrix.co.za Free 30 day trial
13 INFOCENTRIXCUSTOMER EVENT
Datacentrix tackles ‘smart farming’
with local agri sector
Datacentrix held its first highly successful Agri Indaba at organisations that fully reap the benefits of modernisation.
Zebula Golf Estate in Limpopo, discussing the many ways The Indaba provided a platform to illustrate Datacentrix'
that emerging technologies, like the Internet of Things (IoT), expertise in applying technology to transform business
are transforming farming and food production. processes, deliver business outcomes and drive a better
customer experience.”
Datacentrix and sponsors, which included Cisco, IBM, ITR
Technology, Mimecast, NetApp and Matus, took a hand- The Indaba's roundtable format encouraged delegate
selected group of C-level attendees from the local engagement and covered topics such as advanced IT
agricultural sector on an exclusive virtual journey. analytics, SD-WAN as an enabler for connectivity and
security.
The two-day Indaba looked at how the concepts of 'smart
farming' and 'precision agriculture' are optimising farm An interactive panel debate tackled some real-world
sustainability and profitability through the use of machine- questions around the challenges that the industry, and
to-machine (M2M) technology such as sensors, drones, specifically the attending delegate companies are facing, such
satellites and global positioning systems (GPS). as rural connectivity issues, and how these can be overcome
into the future.
Topics under discussion included 'Smart Agriculture
through Integrated IoT' by Dr. Harry Teifel, business “As an attendee, I found Datacentrix' Agri Indaba to be a
consultant at Disruptas, and 'A peek into the future of highly valuable experience,” says Alf White, group executive:
technology that can disrupt farming as we know it today' by Information Technology at Senwes, one of South Africa's
Datacentrix chief digital strategist, Rudie Raath. leading agricultural companies.
“Emerging technologies are changing the way industries “Locally there is a fair amount of uncertainty within the sector
work,” comments Josua Taljaard, commercial business unit when it comes to technology; there are just so many options
manager at Datacentrix and event owner. available. The event provided the opportunity for agri
representatives to explore the changing market with the
“As a leading technology partner, Datacentrix offers the assistance of Datacentrix as a trusted advisor, identify any
skills and expertise to guide agribusiness along the shortfalls within their own roadmap, and also gain the
transition to becoming mobile, connected and data-enabled opinions of peers within the marketplace.”
INFOCENTRIX 14TREND
Ready or not, technology brings
the changes for African agricultural
sector
By Josua Taljaard, commercial business unit manager at techniques. The next generation will probably never even
Datacentrix travel on a gravel road, choosing instead to farm virtually,
an option that is actually available to them today.
Emerging technologies, like the Internet of Things (IoT), are
changing the way entire industries work, enabling better Consider that around 10 years ago, the mobile phone had
resources conservation, more efficient operations, and become an agricultural tool empowering farmers with early
higher productivity levels and, in the case of agriculture, access to information about weather that helped them plan
increased yield. planting and harvesting more effectively. Introduce a
concept like IoT and its very real benefits to the agricultural
Smart farming isn't a new emerging tech conversation and, conversation, and we can clearly see the immense
on a global level, we have reached a point where the actual opportunities that will benefit even small-scale farmers.
benefits of technology deployments in farming are being
seen. According to the Internet of Food and Farm 2020
(IoF2020), a project established to explore the potential of
From farmers in Myanmar (formerly Burma) who are tripling IoT technologies for the European food and farming
rice harvests from using data that uncovered how carefully industry, “with the help of IoT technologies, higher yields
sowing rice seeds reaps a greater harvest than casually and better quality produce are within reach. Pesticide and
scattering them, to Kenyan small holdings owners who have fertiliser use will drop and overall efficiency optimised. IoT
learnt how to best use and store grey water for use during technologies also enable better traceability of food, leading
the drought seasons – the digital disruptor in farming is to increased food safety.”
already here.
And how this translates for South Africa, and indeed
In fact, Forrester tells us that today's young generation of farmers on the greater African continent, is technology
farmers will be the last to use traditional farming companies making good use of the data available right now
15 INFOCENTRIX(through existing technology implementations) and applying
it to enhance farming operations productivity while
maximising yield.
Connectivity is key to this transformational journey, with
smart, connected devices at the heart of this process. Josua Taljaard, commercial business unit manager
Connectivity will not just enable the delivery of IoT, it will also at Datacentrix
allow for greater collaboration between all players within the
agricultural supply chain – from the producer right through
to government and the public.
The data collection, real-time insight and process
automation capabilities of IoT have already been proven
“
across a number of industries. The agricultural sector itself
is seeing increased production with more accurate planting,
watering and harvesting. In water challenged areas,
technology empowers conservation by alerting through
weather prediction and soil moisture sensors that enable Connectivity will not just enable
watering only when and where necessary.
the delivery of IoT, it will also
Today, from his desk, a farmer can check and fix solar
powered pumps remotely, optimise irrigation based on soil
allow for greater collaboration
and plant needs, use artificial intelligence to calculate the between all players within the
best fertiliser, and even use location tracking to improve
livestock monitoring and management. agricultural supply chain – from
The impact of technology on industry is real, and as a the producer right through to
company, Datacentrix believes that South African agriculture
is ready to embark on this journey, capitalising on these
government and the public.
means to deliver competitive advantage and business value.
This step is what will ensure that our farmers truly thrive in
an increasingly challenging environment.
INFOCENTRIX 16PARTNER
So you’re finally on the journey to
implementing Hyper-Converged
Infrastructure... Now what?
By Alan Browning,Hyper Converged Solutions, lead solutions leader HCI META
The journey to a software-defined data centre starts now. I believe that too many sales people are doing an injustice
Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI) is becoming more to the way they are selling and expecting organisations to
main stream. HCI is a subset of the complete software- adopt HCI, these include, but are not limited to:
defined data centre; with the major advantage of targeting
low hanging fruit within data centres. It does this by allowing 1. HCI is being sold as a rip and replace. This must
optimised operation and availability by allowing turnkey change as it should be sold as a transitional
appliances to be operational in a short span of time, while technology.
not requiring advanced technical skills that most customers
do not have access to. 2. HCI is being sold as the answer to every IT
challenge. It is important to remember HCI is not a
However, as great as any technology is, mind the speed single product, but a reference architecture. The
bumps and ensure that they don't trip you up on your beauty of HCI is that HCI has an offering for every
pursuit of implementing a software-defined data centre wallet size and suits most enterprise applications.
(SDDC). Understand the customer requirements before
leading with a particular product.
An overview of the current HCI landscape
For the past number of years, speaking to enterprise 3. HCI is being sold as a SAN replacement product.
customers about implementing HCI has been likened to This is a misnomer and a brief history lesson will
pushing water uphill. That mindset is changing as serve us well. No technology is perfect and
understanding increases and perceptions change. I have sometimes, despite the best intentions, the new
often said that the biggest resistance to change is people. technology can cause unexpected problems in the
data centre. Think back to the phenomena of virtual
However when a technology fundamentally changes machine (VM) sprawl in the heyday of virtualisation, it
business process, simplifies infrastructure and gives IT the was not uncommon for companies to go from 50
ability to become a profit centre, the adoption of the physical servers to 75-100 VMs purely based on the
technology happens despite the “neighsayers”. As a point of fact that it was “so easy” to deploy VMs. Without
reference, think back to the resistance when we as IT proper governance in place, it took organisations
professionals moved from the adoption of physical servers longer to realise their return on investment and total
to virtual servers, and presently; virtual machines are the cost of ownership due to increased license costs and
norm for 90% of x86 deployments globally. the complexities of managing a larger VM estate.
17 INFOCENTRIX“Don't allow SDS to become the
new “pushing water uphill”
technology. Embrace it and
remember that once the
compute is software defined
and the storage is software
defined, to wrap a layer of
software-defined networking
around the solution is a Alan Browning,
Hyper Converged Solutions
relatively simple task. lead solutions leader HCI META
Why selling HCI as a SAN replacement introduces need to be positioned to address the storage requirement of
increased costs the SDDC.
I feel that this is such an important thought that to do it
justice, it deserves its own heading. One of the unexpected SDS is also a reference architecture with various solutions at
problems that this sales technique introduces is similar to different price points, be it SDS solutions that provide, file
the problem of what virtual machine sprawl introduced. and block storage, object storage, or offerings that allow
customers to virtualise all existing storage regardless of the
The challenge is that most organisations have a plethora vendor into a condensed SDS offering.
of storage in their environment so positioning HCI as a
SAN replacement means that you need having to propose Closing thought
so many additional nodes to take care of the storage that Don't allow SDS to become the new “pushing water uphill”
one ends up with more compute and memory, which technology. Embrace it and remember that once the
becomes unused. This drives up licensing costs, data compute is software defined and the storage is software
centre floor space requirements, and of course the price. defined, to wrap a layer of software-defined networking
This is one of the arguments that is often faced in the field around the solution is a relatively simple task.
that “HCI is a great technology, but it is crazy expensive”.
The age old adage of “picking the right tool for the right job”
So what is the solution? becomes more important than ever. And the most important
While there is no doubt that HCI addresses most of the process before suggesting any “tool” to our clients is to
complexities that organisations wrestle with on a daily understand what the “job” is? Get this right; and 2018 could
basis, it is not a perfect solution in addressing large be the year that the SDDC becomes a reality.
organisations’ storage challenges. The answer is quite
simple, the drive to a truly SDDC consists of moving all
traditional building blocks namely compute, storage and
networking into a software defined state.
.
HCI takes care of the compute requirements and software
defined storage (SDS) should now be positioned as a
complimentary technology when a HCI solution is
proposed. This drives down the number of nodes that
INFOCENTRIX 18TREND
Datacentrix takes on hacktivism
and other vulnerabilities with new
SOC services
The past two years have seen a veritable explosion of new into mobile phones, smart TVs, and Microsoft, Mac and
cybersecurity vulnerabilities, including a steep increase in Linux operating systems.
hacktivism, which Wikipedia describes as “the subversive
use of computers and computer networks to promote a A Wired.com article from August 2017 stated that:
political agenda or a social change. With roots in hacker “Yesterday's WikiLeaks dump reiterated something we
culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to the already knew: our devices are fundamentally unsafe. No
free speech, human rights or freedom of information matter what kind of encryption we use, no matter which
movements.” secure messaging apps we take care to run, no matter how
careful we are to sign up for two-factor authentication, the
Hacktivism came to a head in 2016 around the US elections, CIA can infiltrate our operating systems, take control of our
with numerous reported malicious cyber assaults being cameras and microphones, and bend our phones to their
carried out against candidates (including Donald Trump, will. The same can be said of smart TVs, which could be
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders), political parties and made to surreptitiously record our living-room
governmental IT networks. conversations, and internet-connected cars, which could
potentially be commandeered and even crashed.”
Continuing into 2017, we saw WikiLeaks publish thousands of
documents claiming the exposure of hacking secrets of the This year, a mere few weeks ago, a number of global
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which included the technology companies began to roll out patches
agency's (and presumably other hackers') abilities to break addressing design flaws in processors that were named
19 INFOCENTRIX“
'Meltdown' and 'Spectre'. The chip vulnerabilities leave
devices such as desktops, laptops and smartphones
exposed to unauthorised access and information theft, as
well as cloud and virtual environments.
We have created the Datacentrix
“Looking at the course of events over the past two years
alone, it is clear that organisations across the globe are Cyber Threat Intelligence
grappling with a very real, ever growing data security issue
– whether it be held on premise or within the cloud,” states
offering, which will allow local
Wayne Olsen, security business unit manager at firms to monitor malware,
Datacentrix. “Businesses are under immense pressure to
protect increasing volumes of data, prevent a myriad of phishing and hacking attacks,
attacks, and do it all faster and more effectively than ever
before.” identify when information has
In order to support local companies looking to boost
been stolen, as well as check for
cybersecurity measures, Datacentrix is launching two new
services within its industry-leading Security Operations
malicious mobile attacks. We've
Centre (SOC). increasingly found that
“Firstly, we have created the Datacentrix Cyber Threat applications are being launched
Intelligence offering, which will allow local firms to monitor
malware, phishing and hacking attacks, identify when using an organisation's name,
information has been stolen, as well as check for malicious
mobile attacks. We've increasingly found that applications
without its knowledge or
are being launched using an organisation's name, without permission.
its knowledge or permission.
“A recent example of this was a fake version of the
WhatsApp app that was downloaded a million times from
the Google Play Store before it was discovered to be
fraudulent. The Cyber Threat Intelligence offering will help
to protect against all of these vulnerabilities, as well as
other brand abuse, such as bogus social media accounts
created using companies' names.”
The new service allows Datacentrix to find existing and
potential attackers – even on the dark web – minute by
minute in real time, and “take them down”, Olsen explains.
“Secondly, Datacentrix is also introducing a Contextualised
Vulnerability Management service, which will identify
potential weak spots within a business' network topology,
and put them at the top of the risk and vulnerability list,”
says Olsen. “This allows organisations to then remediate
any problem areas.
“As a trusted security solution provider, it is Datacentrix'
intention to monitor and defend customer ICT
environments in real time against any potential security
threats, but to do this in such a way that our clients are also
able to reduce costs and leverage existing technology for
improved insight. We believe that the new services added
to our SOC offering will be a game-changer in the local
market,” he concludes. Wayne Olsen, security business
unit manager at Datacentrix
INFOCENTRIX 20TREND
Disruptive tech set to
catapult African businesses ahead
“Disruptive technology” is a phrase that has gained “In line with this, we're seeing the local introduction of the
massive airtime in the media, as more and more companies low-cost IoT network, a technology that is particularly
across industries look at how to use technology to do disruptive to our local telco sector. These cost-effective,
business in a more connected and innovative way. CIOs low-power wireless networks utilise batteries that can last
should take heed of three major disruptive technology forces a number of years, connecting IoT devices to the cloud,
over the next two years or so, notes Rudie Raath, chief digital and helping Africa to unlock the potential of IoT.”
strategist at Datacentrix.
Rudie maintains that cloud infrastructure automation
“There's no doubt that the Internet of Things (IoT) is gaining tools will also have a serious impact on the African
huge impetus across Africa, and is set to play a significant technology landscape.
role in building the continent's digital future, across sectors
ranging from agriculture, road infrastructure and transport, “By implementing a solution for hybrid cloud automation,
to healthcare, utilities and more. businesses will be able to do away with traditional 'bricks
and mortar' technology infrastructure, and leverage a
Local businesses, regardless of industry, are seeing the need combination of private and public cloud and on-premises
to harness the power of IoT to remain competitive, through solutions – essentially consuming cloud as a service.
improved business models and services and enhanced
customer experiences. This has placed the focus firmly on This approach completely disrupts the conventional IT
investing in IoT-related technologies now for the future.” shop model, and enables companies of any size to
consume cloud technology in a more cost-effective, easy
According to Forrester Research, 82 percent of companies to manage manner, essentially accelerating the
will rollout some form of IoT application this year alone, modernisation of many traditional industries.
giving them access to increasing volumes of data that will
help them to predict market trends and needs. “And this “Even now, tech giant Microsoft is in the process of
data will grow exponentially as more and more IoT-enabled building two new Azure data centres in South Africa, a
devices are being used, highlighting the dire need for an serious investment in reliable cloud infrastructure for the
evolved infrastructure,” Rudie explains. continent in its entirety.”
21 INFOCENTRIX“By implementing a solution for
hybrid cloud automation,
businesses will be able to do
away with traditional 'bricks and
mortar' technology
infrastructure, and leverage a
combination of private and
public cloud and on-premises
solutions – essentially
consuming cloud as a service.
Rudie Raath,
chief digital
strategist at
Datacentrix
Finally, states Rudie, the personalisation of data to “In addition, one of our 'big four' banking groups is planning
consumers is seeing not only a new business approach, but to reduce the number of physical branches it has, driving
a disruption of human behaviour itself. “We're already seeing more customers to use its app instead of visiting their local
a major change in the way that consumers receive bank. This is enabling the organisation to reach and service
information, with personalisation built into direct customers much faster than before.
communication,” he explains.
“Technology is becoming intertwined into all aspects of our
“For instance, one of South Africa's largest financial services everyday lives. It should be viewed not only as a disruptor, but
and healthcare groups has changed the way that customers' also an integrator, something that will catapult Africa and the
health benefits are managed based on their app usage, continent's population forward when it comes to new
including wearable, sensory data. economy transformation,” Rudie concludes.
Software-defined networking
· Improve service levels
· Reduce costs
· Increase redundancy
· Boost agility
· Decrease operational complexity
Choose Datacentrix to change the way you
collaborate and consume cloud-based services.
INFOCENTRIX 22CUSTOMER SUCCESS
MediaCloud satisfies customers’
need for speed with hyper-converged
infrastructure from Datacentrix
MediaCloud, a niche market internet, telecommunication MediaCloud wanted to virtualise certain elements of its
and cloud services provider, has opted to go the hyper- hosted environment, enabling it, for example, to spin up a
converged route with Datacentrix, allowing the company to virtual machine (VM) for a specific client within a very
meet the demanding needs of the film, television and short space of time, without any bandwidth contention
media industries. ratios, connectivity or latency challenges.
According to Cecil Barry, founder and MD of MediaCloud, “We need to be able to deliver content backwards and
today's fast-paced production environment has brought forwards between the production company and
with it the ever-increasing need for secure, reliable and broadcaster, as well as to open up huge files, move media
high-speed connectivity solutions to allow media-rich around, process it, render it, mix audio files, perform
content creators and distributors alike to send, receive and colour grading and so on, on a file that is essentially
distribute content without any delays. kilometres away. Fundamentally this requires a lot of
bandwidth,” continues Cecil.
Over the past decade, he explains, the industry has
migrated from tape-based analogue systems to a digital “And obviously, no-one wants their media to be vulnerable
environment, shooting on solid-state media, which is then to theft or piracy, so the challenge for us was to be able to
ingested within disk-based systems that are typically create silos that are secure, protected and possibly
stored on site or in data centres. encrypted. When it comes to looking after a client's
assets, it was really important that we would be able to
“Bottlenecks within this process can become both provide a level of security that ensures their assets are
expensive and time-consuming, and in many cases, within a safe environment. Redundancy and reliability
standard internet connections just aren't quick or robust were also critical.”
enough to send large files in a timely manner.
Faced with these challenges, MediaCloud, has built a high-
“As a company that services hundreds of clients at the speed managed fibre optic network, specifically designed
same time, who all want access to terabytes if not to meet the rigours of today's current and future, new
petabytes of storage, MediaCloud moves, processes and media, print, high definition and digital cinema workflows.
stores large volumes of data at a time on a daily basis. We
have a love/hate relationship with technology; it's costly, “Our investment in this cloud-based infrastructure means
so the notion of virtualising all this technology and not that MediaCloud is now able to provision services rapidly
having to house physical hardware could be perceived as and scale our internal infrastructure into bite-sized
one that is almost 'romantic' to us,” notes Cecil. chunks. This means that we do not over-capitalise on the
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