STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018

Page created by Ruby Bell
 
CONTINUE READING
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
Serious about performance, passionate about value

First issue
2018

STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE.
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
“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
STRONG. CONSISTENT. DEPENDABLE - First issue 2018
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    10
TECHNOLOGY

     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   INFOCENTRIX
PARTNER 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      12
TECHNOLOGY

     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   INFOCENTRIX
CUSTOMER 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     14
TREND

     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   16
PARTNER

     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    18
TREND

     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   20
TREND

      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    22
CUSTOMER 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

23   INFOCENTRIX
You can also read