Computer Reseller News Oct 08

October 2008

www.crn.co.za

Inside 

Workgroup unleashes new products p10>> 

Symantec’s partner university p22>> 

The distribution space takes strain

Storage needs under the spotlight p30>>

>>p18

PUBLISHER’S: NOTE

My Swan Song A

s the once popular US R & B quartet Boyz II Men sang some years back, “We’ve come to the end of the road,” and as I write this my last publisher’s note for CRN, it is indeed with deep sadness that I bid farewell to the magazine and Systems Publishers as a group. Although my departure has saddened me and surprised many in the local IT channel, I am delighted at the fact that I am leaving the publication in the more-than capable hands of Kaunda Chama, who is taking over from me on 1 November 2008 as editor of CRN. Over the next few months there are going to be quite a few changes in CRN print and online as the entire editorial team tries to adapt the print and electronic publication to suit the ever-changing channel and IT marketplace. These initiatives to align the print and online product will be undertaken to ensure that you continue to get the relevant and quality news, analysis and feature articles that you are looking for. During my nine-year tenure at Systems Publishers, five of which were on CRN, I had the opportunity to work with a number of outspoken and vociferous readers and newsmakers in the local channel. These forthright and vocal readers and newsmakers made it known to me in no uncertain terms what their thoughts were on a wide range of issues be it what we reported in our magazine or some industry research we commissioned. I salute them for the support they gave me and, most importantly, to CRN for without their criticism the magazine wouldn’t have been the preferred channel title in SA. Although there were other CRN readers who tended to hide behind the anonymity of a PO Box or email address, your input in the magazine was equally invaluable. So, in my swan song, I am urging you to let the entire editorial team know what you would like it to cover be it at vendor, distributor or solution provider level. This can only be achieved if you let Kaunda and his entire editorial entourage know what you like and don’t like featured in your magazine. In the 13 years of publishing in SA, CRN has provided vital strategic business and technology insights for solution providers in the IT supply chain and we cannot accomplish this mammoth task without your priceless input. I urge you to render Kaunda and the editorial team he will be managing the same support you have given me since 2003 when I took over the reins from my mate and industry colleague Ben Kelly. Goodbye and may the journey ahead be peaceful and successful.

Manda Banda – publisher

Contents News & Analysis 4 – What’s News 6 – Comings and goings 10 – Hi Five 12 – Demand Generator takes a look at why Land Systems opted for Infor’s solution

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16 – Outsourcing: A workable solution in skills-scarce CRN Contacts: Publisher: Manda Banda [email protected]

environments 18 – Cover story: The ICT space takes strain as the Rand plummets. By Kaunda Chama 21 – Intel launches software partner. By Dudu Shaba

Online editor: Kaunda Chama

19 – Symantec launches partner university. By Dudu Shaba

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[email protected]

Features

Journalists:

30 – Storage: Storage was once a peripheral, a mere

Portia Shaba [email protected]

feature of the server. Those days are gone where you found information stored in a single server. Currently, the desire to

Dominic Khuzwayo [email protected]

store quantities of new data is generating demand for storage. By Dudu Shaba

Brand executive: Hellen Murahwa [email protected] Sub-editor: Jenny Bastomsky [email protected] Designer: Spencer van Graan [email protected]

35 – Unifies Communications: By 2010, there will be 10 devices connected to networks for each person using the network and in 15 to 20 years the network must accommodate a trillion devices, most of them wireless. By Dudu Shaba 38 – Virtualisation technologies are currently being adopted by companies in their data centres to simplify administration, improve resource utilisation and reduce operating

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costs. By Kaunda Chama Database and subscriptions: Daisy Mulenga [email protected]

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Product and technology 46 – Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 works

copyright notice CRN Southern Africa is published monthly by Systems Publishers (Pty) Ltd. The copyright of all material in this publication is reserved by the proprietors, except where expressly stated. The publisher, however, will consider reasonable requests for the use of material by others on condition that the source and author of the report are clearly attributed. Due to the nature of the newspaper print process, Systems Publishers cannot be held responsible for colour variations in printed advertising. Printed by Ultra Litho. CRN Southern Africa is a licensee of CMP Media LLC.

Private Bag X12, Rivonia, 2128 Tel: (011) 234 7008 Fax: (011) 234 7025 Registered with the Audit Bureau of Circulation

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47 – Iomega’s ScreenPlay TV Link score high

Parting shots 48 – Snapshot: Anamika Budree, Drive Control Corporation 48 – Dilbert

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

Scans in this publication have been reproduced on the EPSON PERFECTiON 2450 photo

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WHAT’S

NEWS

COMINGS Fortuin, new HP boss

&

HP has appointed Oliver Fortuin MD to replace Thoko Mokgosi-Mwantembe. Fortuin has been GM of the Technology Solutions Group at HP SA since April 2007. Previously, he was responsible for HP’s services and outsourcing business in SA. Fortuin will also continue to lead the Technology Solutions Group and will report to Oliver Fortuin Ken Willett, VP and MD of HP Middle East, Mediterranean, Africa (MEMA). “I am extremely pleased that Fortuin has accepted this position. He has demonstrated strong leadership and sound execution. With an excellent knowledge of the local ICT market and his exceptional passion for customers, this is a great opportunity for HP in SA,” says Ken Willett vice-president and MD of HP Middle East, Mediterranean, Africa (MEMA).

New DCC storage software manager Drive Control Corporation (DCC) has announced Anamika Budree as new storage software manager. Budree, previously a DCC product specialist, will be responsible for managing the

Comztek rewards resellers Comztek has expanded its partner programme with the introduction of PlusPoints for Microsoft Licensing purchases. Resellers will earn five PlusPoints for every R100 spent on qualifying Microsoft Licensing products purchased from Comztek. The offer is only available from Comztek and is open to its resellers in SA, Swaziland and Lesotho, who are also Microsoft Registered Partners. David Caygill, Comztek business unit director says: “We chose PlusPoints as a rewards system because we believe this is one of the most innovative and inclusive partner reward systems that exist.”

New blades from HP HP has announced the launch of a virtualisation blade server, BL495c G5. The BL495c is the ideal platform for virtualised environments that require significant memory, data storage and network connections to optimise server performance. Rory Green, product manager, industry standard servers HP SA says: “Customers looking to maximise the

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

Rory Green

GOINGS

Anamika Budree

storage software team. She will also run internal training which includes identifying skills shortages, product marketing, sales and meeting vendor objectives. Additionally, Budree will focus on strengthening and maintaining DCC’s customer-base which includes customer certification and gaining new business for the storage software range.

DCC appoints Van Zijl Jacques van Zijl has been appointed the new overland storage product manager at DCC. Van Zijl will be responsible for providing hardware storage solution support to resellers which includes stock management and pricing as well as the necessary knowledge and expertise for larger enterprise deals. The Solutions division’s Jacques van Zijl range encompasses tier 1-3 products which allow the distributor to provide comprehensive software and hardware solutions to SMEs.

performance of their virtualised infrastructure have the answer with the BL495c. It was architected and optimised specifically for virtual machines.” “With its memory, storage and I/O capabilities, the BL495c is unmatched in the industry and redefines blade servers for virtualisation,” says Green.

Microsoft goes blue Microsoft recently unveiled one of the world’s most advanced tracking technologies, Microsoft BlueTrack Technology. BlueTrack will debut in two new top-of-the-line mouses, the Microsoft Explorer Mouse and Microsoft Explorer Mini Mouse. Mark De Pue, platforms engineering manager, Microsoft and co-inventor of BlueTrack Technology says, “BlueTrack Technology excels in areas where optical and David Bohn laser technologies are falling short. David Bohn, senior engineering architect, Microsoft and BlueTrack Technology co-inventor says: “With BlueTrack Technology you can rest easier about where your mouse will or won’t track – it works just about everywhere.”

WHAT’S

AMD announces new virtualisation solutions AMD has announced the availability of robust new virtualisation solutions powered by a combination of technologies from AMD and Microsoft. According to Imi Mosaheb, country manager, AMD, SA, this new deployment model uses AMD Opteron processors with AMD Virtualisation techImi Mosaheb nology together with Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V. Mosaheb adds that mid-market companies in particular, which have traditionally been slower to implement virtualisation can take advantage of the combined AMD and Microsoft product offering to help reduce cost, complexity and energy consumption.

NEWS

Tarsus Bolsters HP Tarsus Technologies, a value-added distributor, has increased its focus on pre-sales competency within the HP server and storage range. According to Greg Pothitos, general manager, HP ESS group, Tarsus, the company’s two specialists, Gunter Kampmann and Sergio Maffia, have a very technical background and are highly qualified in the HP certification ranks. Pathitos says, “When they’re not in the techniGreg Pothitos cal demo centre showing resellers and customers around the blade server and storage solutions, they’re out with resellers at customers’ premises either assisting with a presentation or helping with hardware configuration.”

Acer brings P5260i to SA Acer SA has announced the local availability of the Acer P5260i, a new professional DLP video-projector designed to offer cable-free projection in a range of environments. The projector offers native XGA (1024 x 768) resolution, 2700 ANSI Lumens brightness and a 2000:1 contrast ratio, ensuring a clear and crisp picture even from a long distance. John Geypen The Acer P5260i supports 1080p high-definition video projection, allowing users to view videos on large screens. John Geypen, business development manager, Acer SA says, “The Acer P5260i offers convenient cable-free projecting, superb ergonomics, ease of use and great performance at an affordable price.

ProScan introduces laser scanning

Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 is here

FrontRange releases DeviceWall 5.0

Microsoft launched the latest generation of its business software, Microsoft Dynamics AX 2009 in SA last month. According to the company, the new software is set to signal a new chapter in enterprise resource planning (ERP) user productivity by providing an easy-to-use interface and information tailored to specific roles within a company. Jumana Jumana Helal Helal, who heads the Dynamics business at Microsoft SA, says AX 2009 aims to help businesses thrive in a competitive global marketplace by controlling costs, managing risk and increasing employee productivity.

Citrix unleashes XenApp 5 Citrix Systems, one of the global leaders in application delivery infrastructure, has announced the release of Citrix XenApp 5. The XenApp 5 is set to dramatically improve the end-user experience and lower application management costs by more than 25 per cent over previous versions. XenApp 5, which runs on the Microsoft Windows Server platform, leverages all the enhancements in Windows Server 2008 and fully supports Windows Server 2003. This enables existing Windows Server 2003 customers to deploy Windows Server 2008 into their existing XenApp environments in any mix.

ProScan Distribution, a member of the ProScan Group, has introduced the Datalogic QuickScan L bar-code laser scanner. The scanner is an affordable entry-level solution. According to Andrew Fosbrook, group MD, ProScan, this scanner is lightweight and small with an ergonomic form factor, which provides the user with ease of scanning during daily operations. He says it is suitable for retail and office applications. “The QuickScan L reader has been designed for durability in the workplace.”

Andrew Fosbrook

FrontRange Solutions has announced the availability of DeviceWall 5.0. Kevin J Smith, vice president Products, FrontRange says, “We are starting to see more and more companies introducing Windows Vista onto their corporate networks. “As such, it is important that they are able to apply the same security policies created for the rest of the estate to any new PCs that are purchased. By introducing support for Windows Vista with DeviceWall 5.0, FrontRange is ensuring that investments made in security continue to pay dividends as more Vista PCs are added to the network,” says Smith.

Cisco invests R215 million Cisco has announced that it has invested R215 million in its Innovation Hub Technology Centre. The centre, which will be based at the Innovation Hub in Pretoria, will become the home of ICT initiatives, including an Innovation Lab, a global Talent Acquisition Programme, the Cisco Netversity, an Entrepreneur Institute and a Software Steve Midgley Development Programme. Steve Midgley, MD, Cisco SA, says the centre is aimed at fostering and developing skills, intellectual property, entrepreneurship and solution development capabilities in the local ICT sector.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008 •

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ANALYSIS: DISTRIBUTION

MOVES

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Axis appoints new disti Axis Communications, one of the global leaders in the network video market, has appointed Sentronics as its distribution partner in SA. Sentronics will join Axiz and ADI International to make up Axis’ local distribution chain. Roy Alves, country manager of Axis Communications says: “The decision to work with Sentronics is based on its vast knowledge and experience in the video surveillance space.” Bernard Senekal, managing director, Sentronics adds, “We are delighted at the prospect of working with Axis as its distribution partner in SA.”

Faritec buys Ubusha Technologies Faritec has acquired Ubusha Technologies for R26 million. According to Faritec, by bringing Ubusha into the Faritec stable the company has effectively leapfrogged its entry into the specialised identity and access management arena. Logan Hill, business unit manager, Security and Availability Solutions, Faritec, says the acquisition will bolster Faritec’s security offering and create one of the most comprehensive client reference lists in the provisioning of identity and access management solutions in the South African market.

Government tender for Pinnacle Micro ICT distribution house Pinnacle Micro won part of the government’s SITA RFT153 tender for the supply of 12 Supermicro server products over six categories. Francois Lottering, Supermicro product manager says: “Till now the Supermicro servers were not available for government contracts as our initial range was primarily aimed at the small business market, so this contract win is a breakthrough for us.” “We are focusing aggressively on government business and believe this contract will be the first of many,” adds Lottering.

Sony, Pinnacle Micro divorced Sony Storage and Pinnacle Micro recently parted ways. Shane Hutchinson, product manager, Pinnacle Micro Storage says that after five years of association, the two companies felt they have differing opinions on technologies and decided to call it quits. “Needless to say, we have great respect for the company’s brand and its products,” he says. Meanwhile, Dave Kruger, country manager, Sony Storage Media says, “Pinnacle Micro has changed its strategies and we do not align ourselves with its new strategies. We felt that it was not best for either of us to continue our relationship.”

Red Man clinches iBurst deal Red Man Technologies has signed a R6 million deal with iBurst. The deal entails implementing strategic integrated business and operations support solutions on which iBurst will manage its rapid growth in the broadband converged communications market. Cobus McQuirk, iBurst’s head of Information Technology says it was a strategic decision to base the platform on Softline Enterprise’s suite of Sage software and commission Red Man Technologies.

IBM accredits Faritec IBM has awarded Faritec accreditation to sell and implement IBM DataPower Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) appliances. Malcolm Hart, architecture and technical strategy manager, Faritec’s Integrated Business Solutions division, says: “This solution is ideal for any company considering SOA as well as those that have embarked on an SOA jour-

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

ney. IBM DataPower takes the computationally expensive processing of XML messages and offloads it onto a more cost-effective platform.” Faritec has implemented IBM DataPower at two of SA’s Big Four banks, and is in discussions with a number of large corporations in the financial services, telecommunications and public sectors.

SAS, Tata join skills SAS, one of the leaders in business intelligence (BI) and analytics, recently partnered with Tata Consultancy Services. Tata, an IT services, business solutions and outsourcing firm, together with SAS is set to deliver complete and innovative technology solutions to customers. Dr Santosh Mohanty, global head, Technology Excellence, Tata Consulting Services (TCS) says, SAS and TCS is a powerful combination for fulfilling the promise of business analytics and helping global companies to succeed.”

HP agrees to outsource HP has signed a five-year technology infrastructure outsourcing agreement with Syngenta, a world-leading agribusiness. The financial details of the agreement were not disclosed but under the terms of the agreement, HP will use its Adaptive Infrastructure as a service solution. This will see HP transform Syngenta’s current infrastructure-based services into subscription services aligned to Syngenta’s business processes. Martin Walker, global chief information officer, Syngenta says, “We chose HP Adaptive Infrastructure as a service so we can achieve faster infrastructure and application modernisation with reduced risk and cost.”

New Acer disti Acer SA has appointed TVR Computers as the distributor of its new Acer Aspire Predator. Graham Braum, country manager, Acer SA says, “As a company with a long history in the PC gaming market, TVR Computers is an ideal business partner for the distribution of the Acer Predator range. “TVR’s inventory and ordering processes are designed to keep pace with this fast-moving market. The company is also geared to help gamers upgrade components in their rigs as and when they want to,” Braum says.

Sun Microsystems partners with NIIT Sun Microsystems has partnered with Asia’s technology training provider NIIT. The partnership is aimed at supporting the development of talent in Africa. This initiative is part of Sun’s commitment to improving and expanding grass-roots IT skills in Africa. Ottmar Kugelmann, chief learning officer of Sun Learning Services for Southern and Eastern EMEA, says, “NIIT and Sun run such programmes very successfully in several locations around the world. We are proud to announce that programmes are now being rolled out in Africa.”

Galdon Data takes Abnoba Galdon Data has acquired Abnoba’s operational business for an undisclosed amount. Abnoba is a local business process automation company and Microsoft Certified Partner. Galdon Data, MD Garry Ackerman says the two companies will provide a solid platform for future growth. “Abnoba has always been competent in the sales and customer relationship arena while Galdon Data has primarily focused on services.” According to Ackerman, Galdon Data has always relied on business relationships but it is very difficult to maintain these relationships and that is now strengthened.

HIGH FIVE: WORKGROUP SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Workgroup unleashes new products Expanding the channel BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

I

n this month’s High Five, we look at Workgroup, a value-added IT distributor which recently released a new range of Nuance products. CRN spoke to Gladwell Soko, product manager, Workgroup, about the new products and its relationship with Nuance. CRN: When did Workgroup partner with Nuance? GS: The distribution agreement between Workgroup and Nuance was sealed on 1 July 2008. CRN: How will the partnership with Nuance benefit Workgroup? GS: We have been given the responsibility to look after SA and 16 African countries. It’s a big challenge that we have gladly accepted. This means we will be expanding the market footprint of Nuance in Africa as a software manufacturer and Workgroup as a distributor. This will translate into added revenue for Workgroup. CRN: How will these products benefit your customers? GS: Dragon Naturally Speaking 10 With Dragon Naturally Speaking customers will be able to dictate directly into Microsoft Word and Outlook, as well as most other Microsoft Office applications running on Microsoft Windows XP, Windows 2000 and Windows Vista. Dragon also supports popular programs such as Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Mozilla and Firefox. You can even control menus and dialog boxes in these applications. Users will be able to navigate the desktop by voice: launch or switch applications, save or print documents and more three times faster than most people type. All with up to 99 per cent accuracy.

“At the moment, we are only bringing in the full retail boxes and version upgrades for Dragon Naturally Speaking 10.” – Gladwell Soko, product manager, Workgroup.

OmniPage 16 OmniPage is an optical character recognition (OCR) software. With OmniPage 16 customers will be able to turn paper forms into electronic PDF forms and then collect the data. They will be able to batch process forms in either PDF or printed on paper, and create a data file that can be opened in spreadsheets and database programs. It makes distribution of electronic forms easy.

PaperPort 11 Millions of people – including office workers, lawyers, doctors, insurance and real estate agents rely on PaperPort to save time and money transforming paper documents into searchable digital documents. PaperPort enables Microsoft Windows to visually manage paper and PDF plus over 150 document and photo formats.

PDF Converter 5 There are three different versions in the PDF Family. PDF Create 5, PDF Converter 5 Standard and PDF Converter 5 Professional. With PDF Create, users will be able to Create PDF files practically from all of their Microsoft Windows applications.

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

CRN: How will you distribute the products? GS: Workgroup has an existing channel of retailers nationwide that sell directly to consumers. The Nuance range of products is retailing through Incredible Connection, Makro, Dion, Dion Wired, Game and other online stores. We also have specialised value-added resellers that are targeting corporate clients. Besides these retailers and valueadded resellers, we have branches in Port Elizabeth, Durban, Cape Town, Bloemfontein, East London, Nelspruit, Mocambique, Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. CRN: What are you planning for the future? GS: We are in discussions with Nuance for us to tap into the licensing area of the Nuance range of products. At the moment, we are only bringing in the full retail boxes and version upgrades for Dragon Naturally Speaking 10. We are also going to be bringing in the education versions to cater for the educational community which will find these products a blessing.We should be ready to launch the licensing portal on our website by November 2008 timeframe and the educational phase around the same time.

DEMAND

GENERATOR: INFOR

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Infor

offers Land System OMC solutions Taking productivity to the next level. BY DOMINIC KHUZWAYO

I

nfor software recently proved why it says “we make software business better,” when Land Systems OMC, a BAE Systems company selected Infor’s software. Land Systems OMC, also a manufacturer of mine-protected and armoured vehicles, selected Infor Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) LN and Infor Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) 8 to improve product design and production efficiency. Additionally, Infor was also chosen for its deep understanding of the manufacturing and defence industries and its ability to meet Land Systems OMC’s specific needs for an integrated solution that encompassed conceptualisation, design, development, manufacture, production, re-manufacture and global in-service support. Gert Pretorius, Engineering and Business Improvements Director, Land Systems OMC,

John O’Donnell, Infor, Africa

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says that another key factor in the selection was that Infor’s people showed a depth of knowledge and experience. “Our operations are complex due to the development of new models and custom projects in the same production environment as our existing product range.” “We must control many engineering and configuration changes while maintaining stringent levels of reporting to satisfy requirements for progress payments from our international customers. These factors place huge demands on our systems for accurate production planning, which requires integration between the shop floor and back office,” explains Pretorius. According to Infor, these solutions will help to provide more accurate product configuration, reducing the costly need to retrofit products and resulting in better service and faster delivery times for customers. ERP is a single, integrated planning system which meets the needs of a company’s finance, customer service, distribution and manufacturing functions. PLM allows designers to work collaboratively to ensure they use the right data and versions of documents to ensure they get designs right the first time. “The fact that the solution is integrated means it will help to provide more accurate product configuration information which will reduce the costly need to retrofit products, resulting in better service and faster delivery times for BAE’s customers,” says John O’Donnell channel manager, Infor, Africa. “BAE will benefit from having an end-toend process to embrace new product conceptualization, design, development, manufacture, production, re-manufacture and global support,” adds O’Donnell. In addition, Softworx an EOH company and distributor of Infor in Sub-Saharan Africa, will provide the professional services

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

consulting and implementation for the project. Jane Thomson, MD, Softworx says the Infor solutions BAE will be adopting were selected in a rigorous evaluation process that included other leading industry ERP solutions. “The selection by BAE underscores the suitability of the Infor solutions for this industry. The tight integration between the PLM and ERP solutions will ensure a quicker, easier and more cost-effective implementation with a faster return on investment,” says Thomson. “BAE is a great example of this where Softworx is providing the implementation support for the customer.” When CRN asked what makes Infor solutions unique or strong from competitors, O’Donnell says, it is not just the software solutions it is the people that support them. “While we do develop products from the ground up, we have built our enterprise software portfolio by acquiring most of our solutions (35 acquisitions since 2002). We choose products that: have rich, built-in functionality for specific industries or business processes; are proven in their field and were built by domain experts that understand our customers’ specific requirements. We then make these proven solutions even better through investment in development, support, and adding services globally.” “This rich heritage and underlying domain expertise enables our customers to select proven solutions that can run their entire business, division or department from one global partner. Many of our solutions can be used stand-alone or fully integrated with Infor or Non-Infor solutions,” concludes O’Donnell. Do you any demand generator stories to share with us please e-mail Dominic at [email protected]

ANALYSIS: OUSOURCING SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Outsourcing: making good business sense in a skills-scarce environment BY CRN

T

STAFF REPORTER

here is a shortage of information communication technology skills in the South African market. That is a fact. And it’s affecting the

“Although government and corporates are all too aware of this challenge, their efforts are not creating a big enough ‘funnel’ to support the demand for more ICT skills in the local market. However, the real issue lies in the ever-diminishing ‘strength’ or ‘quality’ of ICT qualifications.” – Craig Moir, RDB Consulting

Craig Moir, RDB Consulting

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

optimal running of ICT departments and thwarting ICT projects. Under-qualified professionals and ICT engineers are further hindering the efforts of business and government to close the yawning skills gap, creating a resource pool of watered-down skills that aren’t geared for ‘real-life’ ICT crises and challenges. For many organisations the answer to this increasingly complex problem is to outsource their ICT functions and projects to a trusted partner. Businesses are faced with staff and skills challenges that include high staff churn, poaching and demands for exorbitant remuneration packages. In addition, a primary reason for the distinct lack of high-level ICT and consulting skills in SA is the ‘mass exodus’ of skilled individuals to other continents. This is according to Craig Moir, technical director at RDB Consulting, a company that offers professional database and operating system support, consulting, project management, solutions architecture and more. He says: “Although government and corporates are all too aware of this challenge, their efforts are not creating a big enough ‘funnel’ to support the demand for more ICT skills in the local market. However, the real issue lies in the ever-diminishing ‘strength’ or ‘quality’ of ICT qualifications. “An increasing number of crash courses promise highly qualified ICT professionals and engineers. This has been spurred by the fact that sectors of ICT specialisation continue to fragment, forcing resources to focus their skills development on specific areas. This is not an appealing proposition for a graduate who wishes to carve a career in the ICT industry. “Ten years ago, the qualification available for someone that, for instance, wished to become a programmer included identifying whether the person had the aptitudes required for the job and, of course, intense study of methodologies – all within a struc-

ANALYSIS: OUSOURCING SOLUTION

tured approach. This is lacking in the certification curricula available today.” A typical example is training provided by Van Zyl & Pritchard, one of SA’s leading training organisations. It offered, and still does, one of the most highly regarded qualifications for programmers. Armed with this qualification, individuals are never without work for long. However, today there is an increased demand for business-related degrees. These have more appeal to a keen and ambitious student force. ICT is now one of the least ‘professional’ industries. Vendors jostle for a leading position in the market along with short-term solution certification and training providers. This has led to a host of quick-fix crash courses that provide a superficial level of competence that cannot be compared to a formal degree coupled with experience. And current software developments are fuelling this phenomenon. Adds Trevor Bezuidenhout, principal consultant at RDB Consulting, “The emergence of ICT solutions or applications built using many diverse programming languages initially created complexity. However, software development today relies on a certain amount of ‘intelligence’ in the form of wizards that automatically complete a task or function that would previously have required manual skills. So, in essence, software is replacing the need for resources that understand the ‘nuts and bolts’ of technology.” One would think that this is a positive development but, on scrutiny, these intelligent applications do not offer problem solving. Snags and hitches remain that, at worst, lead to the complete failure of the application. A typical product of these ‘crash courses’ includes programmers that are good front-end Java specialists but have no backend skills. Formal qualifications that incorporate the technical foundations of ICT have thus become ever more important. A thorough knowledge and understanding of ICT at grass-roots level is required. This has given rise to the ICT industry becoming one of the least professional industries. Says Bezuidenhout: “Take, for example, the formal studies and the qualification process required in the medical, engineering, accounting and legal professions. Many years are spent behind books and in front of

PROVIDERS

lecturers to gain a solid theoretical foundation that covers all – not some – aspects of the job. An internship is then required in order for these students to ‘marry’ their theoretical knowledge with practical skills, resulting in ‘rounded’ resources that are qualified and proficient in their field.”

“Co-sourcing is not the panacea to the global skills shortage. There is a dire need for a longer-term approach that raises the bar with regards to ICT certifications and qualifications. This will assist in developing industry standards and encourage students to pursue careers in technology.” In comparison, a candidate wanting to enter the ICT field can obtain an informal qualification in 10 working days, complete two exams and go on to climb the corporate ladder commanding a salary on a par with individuals that have studied for the greater part of seven years. It is no wonder that the ICT skills pool is not being properly addressed. This has given rise to the business case for companies to outsource or co-source their ICT projects to a professional team of experts.

The outsource advantage “An outsourced team offers the benefits of cost-containment through lower costs to company and defined deliverables that are supported by service and operation-level agreements,” explains Moir. “In addition, companies using these resources do not have to concern themselves with retention strategies and staff churn.” The co-sourcing model is fast gaining popularity as it addresses the problem of an under-developed ICT skills pool in the short term. A co-sourced service is pivotal to skills transfer, providing ‘on-the-job’ training and experience which bolsters the level of ICT skills within the organisation. Moir concludes: “Co-sourcing is not the panacea to the global skills shortage. There is a dire need for a longer-term approach that raises the bar with regards to ICT certifications and qualifications. This will assist in developing industry standards and encourage students to pursue careers in technology.”

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COVER

STORY: MONEY

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

As the Rand plummets The distribution space takes strain. BY KAUNDA CHAMA

T

he last couple of months have seen world markets experience some of the toughest times in decades – and it has affected each and every business sector. CRN recently spoke to some of our key industry people to find out what the effect has been locally and what we can expect in the future. The distribution sector imports the majority of products and components that are supplied to resellers, and as a result of the recent free-fall of the Rand value against major currencies many problems have occurred with orders placed at local distribution houses. Mark Lu, CEO of local distribution house Rectron, admits that the state of the world’s

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CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

economy has brought a painful period for companies conducting business based on imports. He notes the speed of the plummeting Rand is also quite alarming. “The major disadvantage for local companies is that the currency depreciated by about 40% almost overnight, and to make things worse the depreciation was mainly taking place after South African trading hours and while US markets were busy trading,” he says. Lu exclaims that a result of the global financial crisis over the past month saw the Rand devalue against major currencies by about 50c and 70c continually over a period of three days. However Lu is confident that full economic

COVER SOLUTION

recovery should be on track by the end of the first quarter of 2009 and the local economy should gain strength by then. Lu adds that the pace at which world currencies fall and recover is typical of financial markets in crisis, as currencies fall victim to over reaction and high emotions. “In my opinion, this is not a train smash and things will definitely start to normalise by early next year,” he notes. “In 2001 the Rand went as high as R13.50 to the US Dollar but the currency still recovered fairly well. The country’s economy is in better shape now than it was then, even though the American economy was in better shape then, but I believe that over pessimism is unnecessary,” he explains. Lu’s advice is for companies to continue with business as usual and continue to view their business on a daily basis. With the current state of the world economy, distributors are faced with the challenge of holding their prices as long as they can, which is not healthy for profit margins. “Businesses with the best strategies are those that will manage to hold their prices for the longest. A 40% increase is way too much to ask the reseller or the end user to manage at any one time, but it has to be done one way or another,” he comments. However, resellers and end users continue to speculate and expect better days, while distributors continue to bear the brunt. “To attempt to counter this, Rectron has cut down on the amount it imports and has implemented a number of other precautions, as we have accepted that recovery will depend on how long the global economic crisis will last,” Lu adds. Lu says that because of stringent foreign exchange policies in South Africa, the country still remains some what of a ‘safe haven’. In addition the overall effect of the crisis will not have a major effect on hardware distributors, he says, as the price of hardware has steadily decreased over the past five to 10 years. Comztek’s Financial Director Andries Coetzee is in agreement with Lu and comments that recent activities on the world markets have brought many challenges not only to the distribution space, but for all businesses in the country, which are now more familiar with the effects of changing exchange rates.

STORY: MONEY

PROVIDERS

“Many businesses have been trading for a long time without paying close attention to the exchange rate, but recent events have highlighted the impact its change has on import and export business,” he says.

“The major disadvantage for local companies is that the currency depreciated by about 40% almost overnight, and to make things worse the depreciation was mainly taking place after South African trading hours and while US markets were busy trading.” – Mark Lu, Rectron

Coetzee explains that the recent jump in the exchange rates between the Rand and all major currencies has had a delay effect on project business. For example, many businesses are currently very cautious and are still going about their day-to-day business. “Although the flow has slowed down, the business tap still continues to drip. At the end of the day once an order is placed the liability is in the hands of the distributor or the reseller and the volatility of the currency’s value may initiate the delay of many large projects,” he says. Coetzee states that it is too early to determine what the full impact has been on Conztek’s business, but admits that there has been notable impact on the technology distributor’s revenues. “The reality is that the Rand will become stronger but at the same time the exchange rate issue stays with us for quite a while. We need to quell the high emotion that surrounds the whole crisis,” he says. Coetzee reveals that his company has been forced to make certain adjustments to the lifespan of an order. It has declined from seven days to 24 hours because the economic crisis has created a volatile trading environment for local companies. Companies such as Comztek and Rectron have noted that their sales heads are continually adjusting quotes to keep up with the pace of change. “The big issue here is not if the situation will ever improve, it’s a matter of when it will

Mark Lu, Rectron

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008 •

19

COVER

STORY: MONEY

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

improve and how long it will take. The truth is that the US economy has such an impact on the world that when it sneezes, we all catch colds. There is no need for doom and gloom, things will improve in time,” Coetzee says. Industry expert Arthur Goldstuck comments that import and export companies will face the biggest challenge during this period. Importers have to pay between 30% and 50% more for products in the past moth even though the actual price of the products has not changed.

“Realistically, the Rand may come below the R10 to the US Dollar in the short term, but the real question is how low below that mark will it go? The last time it took up to two years for the currency to make a reasonable recovery” – Arthur Goldstuck He foresees the current situation may have the ‘Siltek’ effect, where many businesses that depend on imports will go out of business, as the end user customers cannot easily cope with pricing increases that they experience. “With past experience as a gauge I can confidently say that we can expect to see a few players in the ICT industry go out of business,” comments Goldstuck. With the current state of affairs, exports are looking very cheap but the counter effect is that demand for products is declining due to the global credit crunch. “However, companies with compelling value propositions could see their businesses still boom even with the tough times ahead. It would be an overstatement to say that a large distributor may go under because companies that have true value in the solutions they sell, not just box movers, will survive,” explains Goldstuck. Interestingly, he says that companies have even moved beyond looking at the value for money aspect because customers are willing to pay more for solutions that ‘really work’. At the moment customers look beyond the products and price. Added value and the quality of service are becoming more and more important, especially with large projects.

20 •

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

“Realistically, the Rand may come below the R10 to the US Dollar in the short term, but the real question is how low below that mark will it go? The last time it took up to two years for the currency to make a reasonable recovery,” Goldstuck notes. He predicts that things should start looking better around April next year. Meanwhile, a recent BBC report by Jonah Fisher says that as the South African economy has grown steadily for the past decade, there is little temptation for SA banks to invest in the US sub-prime market. This suggests that the South African economy is largely insulated against much of the world’s financial turmoil. “Over the past couple of years it is clear that South African investors were likely to get better returns here than in the overseas market,” says Goolam Ballim, Chief Economist from Standard Bank, and quoted in the article. “So consequently, our financial system has stayed stable and secure.” It is no secret that the Rand is a volatile currency and, in recent weeks, slumped to its lowest levels since 2001 against the US Dollar. The BBC report claimed that when financial crises take place it is often emerging markets such as South Africa that feel the pinch as foreign investors shift their money to safer havens. The reality is that for ordinary South Africans the impact of the financial crisis is likely to be higher inflation and unemployment. While encouraging exports, a weaker Rand means that all imports into South Africa cost more. With the Government committed to targeting inflation this could also mean another rise in interest rates from a current benchmark level of 12%. For the many South Africans with loans or credit this is bad news. In addition, steep falls in commodity prices may also mean redundancies at South Africa’s mines as global demand falls and production becomes uneconomic. Unemployment rates of over 25% could be set to rise again. “With commodities like platinum down over 60 percent, many projects may be put on ice,” says Chris Hart of Investment Solutions. “As that happens we’ll see economic growth take a real hit.”

ANALYSIS: INTEL SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Intel launches software partner program The first of its kind in SA open to independent software vendors and companies. BY DUDU SHABA

I

ntel Corporation has launched the Intel Software Partner Program in SA. The programme is open to independent software vendors and any software company developing commercial applications for Intel platforms and technologies. Wolfgang Petersen, SSG director, Europe, Middle East and Africa says that the main factor behind launching the worldwide programme is to provide software companies with the business, technical and sales marketing benefits to help them optimise their software applications on Intel-based systems, and then go and sell. “The other driving factor is that SA has high growth in IT, and in the number of trained and educated software developers as well as an IT economy that sets the benchmark for the entire region. The Intel Software Partner Program is a venue for collaboration between the hardware and software communities that results in innovative solutions,” he says. Devan Naidoo, country manager, Intel

platforms is encouraged to become a member of the Software Partner Program. Once the companies have joined, he explains that there are many ways in which they can participate, including: CEOs can plan and strategise with access to industry and market trends and previews of Intel technologies and roadmaps. Technology and engineering managers will find tools and resources to enable the applications and can participate in the developer communities to seek answers to technical and programming questions, share best known methods and gain valuable programming insights from peers. Marketing staff have tools, resources and opportunities to reach new customers. Naidoo adds that partners can make the most of their membership by creating a project plan to align their product development work for a specific Intel platform technology, such as multi-core, mobility, virtualisation, ultra mobile and manageability.

“Partners can make the most of their membership by creating a project plan to align their product development work for a specific Intel platform technology, such as multi-core, mobility, virtualisation, ultra mobile and manageability. – Devan Naidoo, Intel Corporation SA says that the partner programme is unique in that it offers benefits such as Intel roadmaps, industry research that to date is not offered by competitors, rebates on purchased systems, a wide array of technical tools, and a calibre of sales and marketing resources that are not matched elsewhere, free of charge to members. According to Naidoo, any ISV developing software based on Intel technologies and

Peterson says that Intel has so far registered more than 14 000 software partners worldwide and nearly 50 have joined from SA since the launch of the programme. “We believe that the programme has relevance for the majority of software companies. So, if you consider that SA has over 1 000 software companies today, we would like to see the majority enrolled and taking advantage of the programme’s

Devan Naidoo, Intel benefits,” he comments. Peterson goes on to say Intel has no planned activities for resellers as yet; however, it promotes its software partners in a Solutions Catalogue. “It is a great place for SMB resellers to find applications that are optimised for Intel systems, thus providing a better software and hardware experience for their customers,” he says. According to Peterson, 2009 will see a major focus on visual computing and new variations of mobility, specifically mobile Internet devices. “Members can expect a wealth of opportunity in both of these areas by working alongside Intel. Additionally, members can look forward to participation in the Intel Business Exchange, which is an online channel designed to sell software to channel organisations and SMB customers,” he concludes.

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008 •

21

ANALYSIS: SYMANTEC SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

Symantec

launches University for Partners

Empowering partners to build more complete Symantec solutions. BY DUDU SHABA

T

he knowledge level of Symantec partners will improve as they now have access to live classroom training, hands-on labs, ondemand eLearning and expert mentoring through the Symantec University for Partners that was launched this month. The Symantec University for Partners is a newly expanded training and enablement programme designed to offer partners a broad portfolio of resources and accreditations.

The programme will be released globally and is available to all members of the Symantec Partner Program,” he says. Smissen adds that partners will benefit from expanded training and broadened enablement solutions, which include more intelligence-focused tools, resources and collaborative platforms. Symantec’s training includes product and role-based curriculum designed to improve

“We will continue to build out our courses and accreditation for Symantec products. We will also add more peer-to-peer communication through Partner Technical Forums with more languages for countries to access this great resource.” – Mark Smissen, Symantec Mark Smissen, Symantec Mark Smissen, commercial manager, Africa, Symantec, says that the university has been created for all Symantec partners as a centre of learning and excellence. “Symantec University for Partners provides resources to increase knowledge of Symantec’s broad range of products and solutions to reduce the sales cycle and help partners to build solutions for their customers more effectively.

partners’ knowledge of Symantec products and their ability to sell, service and support them, directly benefiting their customers. He says that partners will also be able to collaborate in live peer-to-peer discussions with fellow sales engineers, solutions architects and professional service consultants using the Symantec Partner Technical Forum. He adds that Symantec technical tools and documen-

tation will provide partners with the intelligence to help design and deploy Symantec solutions more effectively, provide customer support and generally increase their value to customers with improved service offerings. “No certifications are offered, only accreditations, role based accreditations specifically. The Symantec University offers focused > p24

ANALYSIS: SYMANTEC SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

product- and role-based >> p22 training,” says Smissen. To those partners who do not have

Smissen says the forum is an expert community which includes Symantec personnel, partner sales engineers, solutions architects

“Interested partners need to be members of the Symantec Partner Program, and have access to PartnerNet from where the Symantec University can be accessed. Overall, partners will benefit from broader and deeper training to increase the sales cycle as well as find cross-selling opportunities.” – Mark Smissen, Symantec physical access to the university, the university is also e-learning based, making it readily available on a 24-hour basis. “As such, this requires partners to have access to PartnerNet and be members of the Symantec Partner Program,” he explains. Symantec has also announced the Symantec Technical Forum, which was launched in South America in April this year, is now also available to local Symantec partners.

and professional service consultants who will be involved in the following activities:  Finding answers to pre-sales technical questions  Share best practices  Deliver more robust Symantec solutions to customers  Establish partners as experts  Learn about solution opportunities and vertical applications

Access real-world business scenarios “Interested partners need to be members of the Symantec Partner Program, and have access to PartnerNet from where the Symantec University can be accessed. Overall, partners will benefit from broader and deeper training to increase the sales cycle as well as find cross-selling opportunities,” says Smissen. With Symantec University for Partners, Smissen says the company will help partners to create comprehensive solutions to help their customers secure and manage their information. “The programme provides a clear learning and training path to improve partner productivity and enable them to better serve their customers. We plan to take feedback from our partners and make improvements as needed to ensure we’re consistently improving the partner experience. We’ll continue to build out our courses and accreditation for Symantec products. We’ll also add more peer-topeer communication through Partner Technical Forums with more languages for countries to access this great resource,” Smissen concludes. 

Distributor Guide 2008 Company name

Telephone

Address

Branches

Accsys (Pty) Ltd

011-7198000

PO Box 1166, Gallo Manor, 2052

Gauteng, Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban

www.accsys.co.za

ASBIS Africa (Pty) Ltd

011 848 7000

134 Lechwe Street, Midrand, Corporate Park South, Randjespark X74

Midrand

www.asbis.co.za

Yes

International Business Gateway Park, Corner New and 6th Roads, Midrand, 1635, South Africa

Western Cape, Kwazulu Natal, Eastern Cape, Free State and Associated companies in Botswana, Namibia & Zambia

www.axiz.com

Axiz distributes a wide range of IT products and offers a comprehensive suite of services to support these products to give our Reseller Partners the best possible support. Fault reports and returns with hardware and software. FTP support. Telephonic support. Vendor links support on Axiz pricelist. Returns policy. Warranties.

Axiz (Pty) Ltd (Head Office)

+27 (0)11 237 7000

Tech support

Acer’s range of notebooks, LCD and CRT monitors, desktops and projectors, Aerocool chassis, ASUS’ range of motherboards and optical products, Axis – professional network video solutions (security), Axiz branded flash memory cards – SD cards; miniSD and microSD Transflash cards; MMCmobile and CF cards, Axiz branded notebook locks, Axiz branded carry cases, Axiz desktop, Belkin range of accessories, Duxbury range of networking, Genius’ range of peripherals, HP’s range of notebooks, handhelds, PCs, servers, networking and storage products, Hynix Semicondutors, HTC’s handhelds, Intel’s range of microprocessors, motherboards, servers and networking equipment, Kingston’s memory for servers, PCs, notebooks, printers and electronic devices, Lexmark’s range of inkjet, laser, multi function printers and dot matrix printers and consumables, LG’s monitor and optical products, Matrox range of graphics cards, MGE Office Protection Systems’ UPS power solutions, Micromark Lighting and Security range, Microsoft’s DSP operating systems, application, software products, keyboards and mice, Microsoft consumer productivity experience products (keyboards & mouses, web cameras and games for windows, Microsoft software for personal and business computing, Olympus XD cards, Samsung hard disk drives, monitors, optical drives and solid state disks, Seagate hard disk drives, Sony USB storage devices (memory stick), Storage devices, Targus’ range of notebook carry cases and accessories, XFX range of graphics products

full backup service, warranties, spare parts, and technical training

Duxbury 011 351 9800 Networking

Block 2, Riveria Office Park, 66 Oxford Road, Riveria, 2193

www.duxbury.co.za

Support at all stages of the sales and implementation process. Pre- and – post technical support plus ongoing telephonic technical support

Edutain 011 450 4168 Distribution

AMR Office Park, Bedfordview Building 2, Concorde East Road, Bedfordview

ESQUIRE TECHNOLOGIES

71 Landmark Avenue, Esquire Lifestyle Park, Kosmosdal, Ext.1, Samrand, JHB, South Africa

0861 70 00 00

Headoffice Midrand: JHB, Durban, Cape Town, PE, Nelspruit

Yes

Specialist distributor

www.big5.co.za

JHB & CTN

Specialist distributor PeopleWare Payroll, HR, Time & Attendance, Access Control

46 Monte Carlo Crescent, Durban and Kyalami Business Park, Cape Town Kyalami, JHB

Big 5 Distribution

086100big5

Website

www.edutain.co.za

www.esquire.co.za

Data Networking, Wireless, Mobility and Convergence Technologies

Over the phone and carry in (Pre- and Educational and Post sales) video editing software Telephonic, web-based, online

A wide range of computer hardware, accessories, peripherals and digital lifestyle products

Vendor agencies

Product availibility

Certification / Training

Partner programmes

Dealer Financing

Accredited Payroll Administrator Certificate & Diploma, product training, industry seminars & workshops

Intel, IBM, Sybase, SAP Bus One

No No

Business training and certification via the Ledibogo Partner Programme: The Axiz Ledibogo Business Partner Programme provides Axiz Reseller Partners with an opportunity to participate in a broad-based business development programme, as well as a range of modular, specialised courses that address individual needs. World-class, competency-based material has been selected to provide partners with additional skills to build their businesses resulting in increased opportunity and growth for all parties. The Ledibogo Business Development Programme provides an opportunity for small to medium sized companies to participate in a carefully selected range of modules which address the basic needs of a business. Businesses are required to commit owners and/or senior employees over a period of 6-8 months in order to particiate in the programme. The Ledibogo Skills Development Programme offers a range of individual training courses ranging from interpersonal skills to management training. These courses are available to individuals within Axiz Business Partner organisations. All courses delivered through the Ledibogo Businees Partner Programme are Services SETA accredited and NQF aligned; and are financially subsidised by Axiz.

Financing is available subject to Resellers meeting the criteria of the Axiz credit policy.

AMD, INTEL, CANYON, PRESTIGIO, SEAGATE, HITACHI, QLOGIC, ECS, KINGSTON, KINGMAX, INNOVISION, EVERKI, TRIPP-LITE, MICROSOFT, BROTHER, QUANTUM, PROMISE Acer, Aerocool, Asus, Axis, Belkin, Duxbury, Genius, HP, Hynix, HTC, Intel, Kingston, Lexmark, LG, Matrox, MGE, Micromark, Microsoft, Olympus, Samsung, Seagate, Sony, Targus, XFX

E.g. off the shelf availability. Immediate availability of all high run rate inventory items, lead times of between 2 and 10 days depending on the product.

Axiz is to complete its ISO certification by extending its ISO9001:2000 to the entire organisation as well as adding ISO14001 environmental and ISO18001 operational health and safety certifications. Specific product and technical training delivered to Resellers by Product Marketing team.

TallyGenicom, Citizen, Godex, Fujitsu, Sangoma, Metrobility, Junghanns, Lantronix, Cyclades

Ex-Stock

Product training - technical and sales

Bridgewave, Colubris Networks, Enterasys Networks, Duxbury modems & routers (incl 3G, Edge and HSDPA), HP Procurve, Mitel, Netgear & Proxim

Off the shelf

Duxbury Networking offers a full range of ITA accredited generic networking training courses, as well as product specific training including Colubris, Enterasys and Proxim certification courses.

Magix, Cyberlink, Pinnacle, Macroworks, Edupro, Eurotalk, Shoolworks, Nasou

Excellent

Offer training and workshops

Benq, Sony, Kworld, Kingmax, Yes Manhattan, Intellinet, Jetway, Iris, Point of view, Zykon, Hercules, Thrustmaster, Seiko Precision, Altec Lansing, Shiro, Chronos, Apollo, Unique, Hitachi, Tahua technology, AC Unico -CCTV Camera

Internal and external training for Esquire's reseller network

Terms offered to those resellers whom qualify otherwise COD accounts available The Duxbury Networking Partner Programme (DuxBux), Colubris Authorised Partner Programme, Enterasys Partner Programme, HP Partner Programme, Netgear Powershift Partner Programme and the Proxim Partner Programme

Terms offered (Terms and Conditions apply)

Standard payment terms

Distributor Guide 2008 Company name Ingram Micro South Africa

Telephone "Jhb: 011 553 2600 CT: 021 527 3970 Dbn: 031 533 9700"

Address 32 Milky Way Avenue, Linbro Business Park, Frankenwald; Gauteng

Branches Johannesburg; Cape Town; Durban

Tech support

Specialist distributor

www.ingrammicro.co.za

Pre- and post-sales support

Distributor of components and other technology products to VARs, system builders and integrators, and manufacturers throughout sub-Saharan Africa

Pre-sales support: Enterprise OSS 011 801 5995. Production support (Open Source provided by vendors: Software) http://www.linuxwarehouse.co.za/support

Website

The Linux +27 11 801 5965 Warehouse

Cnr Bosbok and Kelly Johannesburg Roads, Randpark Ridge ext 58, Johannesburg, 2154, South Africa

www.linuxwarehouse.co.za

Phoenix Software

5 Wessel Road, Rivonia, Johannesburg, Johannesburg, 2128 Cape Town

www.phoenixsoftware.co.za Pre- and post- tech support. [email protected]

JHB: 0861 PHOENIX, 0861 7463649, +27 11 803 5437; CTN: +27 21 487 4640

Best of breed software incl. retail box, OEM, volume licensed, client/server and ESD.

Tarsus 011 531 1000 Technologies

Technology Park, Maree JHB www.tarsus.co.za Street, Bramley Park 021 527 3900, Cape Town 031 267 8660, Durban 041 365 425, Port Elizabeth +264 61 222413, Namibia +267 3939581, Botswana +230211919 0, Mauritius

Pre- and post-sales support

Value-add distributor of leading hardware brands to the Southern African IT reseller channel

Comstor

(011) 233 3333

No 6 Cambridge Commercial Park, 22 Witkoppen, Paulshof, south Africa

JHB & CTN Durban

www.comstor.co.za

Yes

Convergence, full spectrum of ICT

Westcon

(011) 233 3333

No 6 Cambridge Commercial Park, 22 Witkoppen, Paulshof, south Africa

JHB & CTN Durban

www.westcon.co.za

Yes

Convergence, full spectrum of ICT

Scantec

(011) 233 3333

No 6 Cambridge Commercial Park, 22 Witkoppen, Paulshof, south Africa

JHB & CTN Durban

www.scantec.co.za

Yes

PoS, Auto ID, RFID etc

Vendor agencies

Product availibility

Certification / Training

Partner programmes

AMD, Asus, Seagate, Microsoft, Intel, LG Electronics, 3Com, Iomega, Kingston, Imation, Samsung, Sony, Targus, HP Tape Drives, Promise, PC Peripherals

Ex Stock

Red Hat, JBoss, MySQL, Scalix

48 hours from placing of order

Provided by vendor training partners

Ability Office, Adobe, Aspyr Media, BluBox, BulkSMS, Corel, Cosmi Corporation, Cyber Acoustics, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Exspect, Feral Interactive, Individual Software, InterVideo, Iolo, ISL Light, Lavasoft AdAware, Macware, Nero, Nova, O & O Software, Onspeed, Paragon Software, Parallels, PC Tools, Pinnacle Systems, Prosoft, Punch Software, Reallusion Roxio, S-A-D GmbH, Smith Micro, Sony Creative Software, Steganos, SummitSoft, Transparent Language, Ulead, Webroot, WinZip, X-oom

Immediate for stocked items. Collection from Johannesburg or nationwide delivery. Lead time varies for licensed and special order items according to vendor policy.

Training & product information available

APC, Acer, Cisco, HP, IBM, Lenovo, LG, OKI, Samsung, TallyGenicom, Targus and Wyse Technology

Ex-stock

Vendor training and Channel Business College (www.channelcollege.co.za)

The Tarsus Partner Programme which encompasses the PartneRewards Loyalty Programme, Channel Business College, Tarsus' BEE Programme, Channel Capital, The Tarsus Foundation, pre- and post-sales support and logistics

Credit terms and accounts are offered to all resellers. Finance offered through Channel Capital

Cisco and Linksys.

Mainly run rate products and also have access to the Westcon group's (international) warehouses

Westcon Academy with Torque IT offers Cisco Certification and Westcon Academy offers Linksys sales and product training

One Voice, One Defence and Cisco and Linksys programmes

Yes-Westcon Finance

"Avaya, Juniper, Nortel, 3Com, Checkpoint, Quintum , Vasco, Safeboot, Extreme, Patchlink, StoneVoice, Citrix, Nokia, SpectraLink, PowerDsine, APC, Symantec and VMware."

"Westcon Academy offers sales and/or technical certifiaction for 3Com, Juniper, Avaya, Symantec and Vmware."

Westcon Academy with Torque IT offers Cisco Certification and Westcon Academy offers Linksys sales and product training

Convergence Point and Vendor programmes

Yes-Westcon Finance

"Motorola, Zebra, Magtek, Honeywell, Toshiba and Honeywell Batteries."

Mainly run rate products and also have access to the Westcon group's (international) warehouses

"Westcon Academy offers Zmotorola and Zebra sales certification."

Vendor programmes

Yes-Westcon Finance

Iomega Ioclub, Seagate Partner Program; Microsoft Partner Program; Intel Channel Partner Program

Provided by vendors: Red Hat (various Business Partner levels); JBoss Certified Systems Integrator; MySQL Gold Partner

Dealer Financing Standard payment terms

Available on successful application and credit request

COD (EFT/Cheque). Terms on application.

STORAGE

FEATURE

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

The need to store large amounts of data Customers want more capacity, scalability, security and improved value.

S

BY DUDU SHABA torage was once a peripheral, a mere feature of the server. Those days are gone where you found information stored in a single server. Currently, the desire to store quantities of new data is generating demand for storage. Also, the nature of the storage environment has changed radically, it is now

characterised by unprecedented growth in the volume of data to be managed. In addition to that, the growing value of data to the enterprise and storage networking has become obvious. Rather than acquire a solution that consists of a portfolio of solutions that focus on storage and management alone, Anamika Budree, manager, Storage Software Products, Drive Control Corporation believes that businesses must look for a fully integrated solution that uses a single storage engine, has a unified administration console and an adaptable security subsystem that can provide a flexible framework to deal with the issues that pervade the management of corporate data. According to Manfred Gramlich, storage lead, Sun Microsystems. South Africa, the storage market continues to grow and present new challenges as customers demand more capacity, scalability and security from storage solutions, while simultaneously demanding improved value. Sun Microsystems believes that an open approach to development will help to rapidly tackle the challenges facing storage, especially the lack of applications in the space,” he says.

Drivers Gartner has identified the following characteristics of the storage services market that will contribute to the growth rates presented in the forecasts below. 

Manfred Gramlich, Sun South Africa

30 •

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

Through 2011 worldwide external controller-based storage revenue growth will be 6.5 per cent. Network-attached storage and unified storage growth will be 15 per cent. Content-addressed storage will grow at a 15.5 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) during the

STORAGE

FEATURE

SOLUTION

PROVIDERS

same period. Storage resource management software growth will be nearly 8.6 per cent during the same period, with hierarchical storage management and archiving growth at more than 30 per cent.

“The storage market continues to grow and be presented with new challenges as customers demand more capacity, scalability and security from storage solutions while simultaneously demanding improved value.” – Manfred Gramlich, Sun South Africa.







Terabytes of storage shipped will grow 58 per cent year over year through 2011 (see “Forecast: External ControllerBased Disk Storage, Worldwide, 20072011”). Cost-reduced fibre channel host bus adapters and fabric switches will enable small and midsize businesses (SMBs) to deploy external controller-based disk storage attached to an Internet Small Computer System Interface-based storage area network infrastructure more broadly. Managing heterogeneous storage continues to add complexity to data centres. The lack of software management tools is driving opportunities for storage professionals’ services.

“The market is seeing a strong drive towards disk-based storage solutions. The reason is this type of storage solution is free from dependency on hardware components making it less likely to crash or fail.” – Adrian Hollier, Comztek.





32 •

CRN SOUTHERN AFRICA • OCTOBER 2008

Information life- cycle management and data classification will continue to be major storage initiatives over the duration of this forecast. Concerns about government regulations, customer or partner requirements will continue to drive demand for storage





professionals’ services, such as storage and security assessments, process and personnel assessments, infrastructure review, and design and compliance readiness. The requirement to comply with government regulations or industry standards also has an indirect effect, as storage managers tie projects that have had difficulty getting approval to “compliance” to get more ready access to funding. Power consumption and environmental concerns are major drivers in services related to data centres.

What’s new? According to Adrian Hollier, channel manager, Comztek, the market is seeing a strong drive towards disk-based storage solutions. The reason, he says is this type of storage solution is not dependant on hardware components making it less likely to crash or fail. Another trend in the storage market, he adds, is the proliferation of non-proprietary storage solutions. “End-users are constantly looking for the most cost-effective and easily manageable products when implementing any new solution and it is no different with the storage solution they choose. Nonproprietary storage equipment is much cheaper than proprietary equipment. It is also easier to integrate non-proprietary solutions into existing IT infrastructures. Users are increasingly becoming aware of this and requesting non-proprietary storage solutions,” he comments. Hollier goes on to say that Internet-based virtual storage is still a relatively new phenomenon in SA. “With Internet-based storage, data is stored on a virtual hard-drive on the Internet instead of physical equipment. Even though the technology is progressive and useful, it has not really taken off, especially in SA. There is speculation, however, that with cheaper, uncapped broadband destined to hit our shores in the near future, Internetbased storage will become more appealing to a lot more businesses and individuals,” he comments. Manfred Gramlich, storage lead, Sun Microsystems South Africa, believes that OpenSolaris is proving a highly effective storage platform.

STORAGE SOLUTION

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“It has new and updated storage features with other storage technologies such as Storage Archive Manager, Honeycomb fixed content management, Availability Suite, iSCSI and more,” he says. He adds that OpenSolaris is now being embedded in storage appliances or used on hybrid server and storage devices to manage very large collections of data. “Given the nature of open source development and the transparency it brings, developers are able to access code and quickly address problems, make changes or implement new features. By making Sun’s technology available to the open source community, technologies are improved to the benefit of all and the ability of OpenSolaris to manage very large data stores effectively is testament to this,” he comments.

Compliance issues Hollier says that regulatory and compliance issues have not really had any meaningful impact on the storage requirements of businesses in SA. According to him, storage requirements in this country are still driven by what individual organisations perceive to be important instead of what the law prescribes. “This mind-set might change as more businesses face stiffer penalties for non-compliance, but until then, individual business people will continue to decide what’s important to them with regard to storage,” he says. According to Gill, as organisations globally move towards better corporate governance practices, they are forced to consider many things with regard to storage such as confidentiality, integrity and availability. “These are the cornerstones of any forensic audit when looking at data storage. Confidentiality is usually managed at an application level, as is integrity of data but availability is a great place for any storage vendor to add significant value to their customers’ business practices,” he says. Jim Holland, Axiz product manager, HP ESG, says that worldwide talk about data storage compliance and corporate governance regulations has overwhelmed organisations of all sizes and has made them more accountable for the data they collect and store. Another consideration in the scramble to comply is how to do so in an environmentally friendly manner. “It’s not just the major regulations, such as

Adrian Hollier, Comztek.

“These are the cornerstones of any forensic audit when looking at data storage. Confidentiality is usually managed at an application level, as is integrity of data but availability is a great place for any storage vendor to add significant value to their customers’ business practices.” the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (SOX); there are thousands of regulations that affect data storage, backup and protection across a range of industries. In spite of the many regulations, there are no mandates or guidelines that dictate implementation. I believe that the key to many compliance issues is to define a policy based on business and legal concerns, and then to implement that policy in the IT department. Without the policies, the storage people are in a vacuum. It’s not their call to

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determine the legality of data storage,” says Holland.

Cost Holland says that one way in which IT departments have been increasing control over their costs and infrastructure is through centralisation and standardisation.

“The market is seeing a strong drive towards disk-based storage solutions. The reason is this type of storage solution is free from dependency on hardware components making it less likely to crash or fail.” – Adrian Hollier, Comztek. He comments that centralised storage architecture is a viable solution to increasing capacity efficiently with minimal disruption to production systems. Holland says that although server consolidation using virtualisation has been prevalent over the past couple of years, merging of scattered directaccess storage into a unified infrastructure has been a quieter trend. “Originally enabled by dedicated, highperformance storage area networks (SANs), centralised storage has evolved to include Ethernet-based network-attached storage (NAS) servers and tiered storage, incorporating lower-cost, near-line arrays and archival backup devices, all lumped under the file area network (FAN). I advise small businesses considering a move to centralised storage to first examine the concepts, technologies and tools underlying storage consolidation and the business rationale, benefits and potential problems associated with centralisation,” he comments. Budree believes that storage costs, capital and operational, are ever-increasing. He says that this is due to the increasing growth and diversity of data. Further exacerbating this, he says is the additional requirement to retain data, largely driven by compliance. “This is forcing IT managers to create strategies that decrease storage expenditure. To do this, IT managers need to understand what makes up the total cost of ownership of the storage infrastructure yet this creates a challenge of sorts. The actual storage hardware is in most cases the easy component to calculate, but

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when it comes to the softer costs such as administration and litigation penalties, it becomes trickier. In addition to cost savings, there are also other issues that need to be considered, creating a requirement for intelligent storage solutions,” he says. Rather than acquiring a solution that consists of a portfolio of solutions that focus on storage and management alone, Budree suggests that businesses look for a fully integrated solution that will save costs and uses a single storage engine, has a unified administration console and an adaptable security subsystem that can provide a flexible framework to deal with the issues surrounding the management of corporate data. When selecting a solution, Budree suggests that users should look out for key features that include:  A unified storage system for email messages, content management or collaboration systems.  A single point of administration for all archiving targets which reduces management costs.  A flexible rules engine to customise data retention rules according to business needs.  An integrated Active Directory security/authentication system ensuring better security and access control.  Minimising the impact on production systems by not applying application logic on the file server and only requiring a retrieval agent.  Advanced monitoring and reporting enabling quick, high-level insights into the status of the storage management system.  Data compression and single-instance storage technologies to control the growth of storage costs. Technologies such as file versioning and pruning to keep file numbers to a minimum.

The Future Holland says that it is important to bear in mind that as the world becomes greener so will the data centre. “Everyone is trying to reduce power consumption in the data centre, which has its benefits on both the bottom line and the planet. Companies will be looking to minimise their footprint, which will probably lead to the continued increase in technologies like virtualisation. Businesses will also look for applications that streamline operations for greater efficiency”.

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United Communications

a tool for growth Better communication means improved performance. BY DUDU SHABA

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y 2010, there will be 10 devices connected to the network for every person using the network. In 15-20 years-time the network will need to accommodate a trillion devices, most of them wireless. About 2, 8-billion mobile phones are already in use with another 1, 6-million being added every day. This is according to Mike Zafirovski, Nortel CEO and President. He states that most organizations are faced with challenges of doing things faster and secondly on streamlining the unstoppable move to more mobile and remote working. Zafirovski says that the two trends are inextricably linked, and the glue that is increasingly binding them is a set of technologies that comes under the umbrella of unified communications. He defines unified communications as a combination of telephony, customer relationship and supply chain management, and personal productivity tools such as a diary, email and instant messaging. “Much of the early impetus for unified communications has come from the traditional workplace. Instead of running separate voice systems and data networks, companies are combining the two on a single network so that voice calls are carried digitally and can be handled more intelligently,” he explains.

The Connected Republic Reshaad Ahmed, Senior Manager, Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group believes that technology is now leading to profound and positive societal change, a society where citizens collaborate freely and overcome the limitations of monolithic bureaucracy and top-down government. Ahmed compares unified communications to the concept of the Connected Republic.

Reshaad Ahmed, Cisco “According to a white paper published by Cisco’s Internet Business Solutions Group (IBSG), the vendor’s global strategic consulting arm, the possibilities of the Connected Republic go beyond e-government’s original goal of improved service delivery and could even herald an age of democratic renewal where people, not bureaucracies, call the shots. The Connected Republic 2.0 shows how network technology is already persuading governments and their departments to become more responsive, flexible and accountable. The technology that brought us Wikipedia and Skype can also provide citizen empowerment,” he says. In his view, the Connected Republic is a

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model that invites citizens and the public sector to change the way people think about technology, society and government. He says that it replaces a rigid, top-down, unidirectional model of communication between the centres of power and the public with a multitude of two-way conversations. “In the same way that the highly interactive Web 2.0 model is replacing broadcast media as the paradigm of choice, a new generation of technologically savvy citizens is refusing to be passive, isolated consumers of media. Instead, they are active participants. The Connected Republic seems full of promise. The network will take centre stage to become the platform for productivity and social inclusion,” he says. Hubert Wentzel, Divisional Director, EOH Consulting, says companies today need better tools to help their people meet the demands of the always on, always connected nature of business. He says that improved communications is part and parcel of this rapid globalisation. Bandwidth in its basic form is a commodity which is still expensive in SA, Wentzel says. “ISPs and consumers alike are seeking the value-added services of network monitoring, management, e-mail hosting, spam filtering and URL filtering etc, out of their contracts. And, as it is a commodity service, the consumer can easily move from one ISP to the next, hence the ISPs all desperately trying to tie consumers in to value-added services.” Wentzel says converged communications is a hot topic in boardrooms today. Not only does the advent of more converged suppliers make switching and changing a reality, but factors like ever-increasing energy costs make unified telecommunications that much more attractive.

Benefits Zafirovski believes that a converged network provides the backbone for a range of business benefits that are enabled by unified communications. He states that the principal ones already in everyday use are: 

Unified messaging -People working at a normal desktop computer can have a single inbox of all their email, voicemail and fax messages. This allows them to gain more control of their incoming mes-

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sages and priorities them properly. Messages can also be forwarded easily to co-workers.  Direct dialing and personal voice mailAn intelligent phone system offers features such as the ability to set up conference calls using a handset, a computerized phone directory and quick dialing by clicking on the screen.  Integrating customer data with voice communications – This allows customer records to appear automatically when a call is made or taken. Zafirovski believes that much time is wasted trying to juggle various communications types, but with a unified inbox it is possible to click on the name of the email sender and reply with an Instant Message, voice or video call instead of replying by email, with your PC or notebook connected to the telephony system. He says that this is the first step in reaching someone in which the system will ascertain which medium is best to contact someone, be it email, instant messaging, cellphone or landline, amongst others. “Unified messaging also has an important role in tackling the modern scourge of interruptions and information overload. Filters can be set to prioritise emails from certain people, or allow only voice calls to be taken from a certain group.

able asset to people who work away from the office. “For home workers, one ambitious goal is to establish exactly the same communications access as they would in the office,” he remarks. Another factor, he says, is that smaller organisations are starting to deploy these systems partly because it is not necessary to integrate all communications. “One option is to give employees access to their office unified messaging system and other workplace software via secure connections, and to keep voice communications separate on a conventional telephone line or mobile phone,” he comments.

Presence According to Zafirovski, one of the most exciting aspects of Unified Communications is known as ‘presence’. With this, he refers to the status of another person in an organization or group of contacts, and shows if they are available and, if so, by what means they can be contacted. “It is an everyday function for people who use instant messaging, who in the contact list are online and who can be contacted in real time,” he explains. He says that more sophisticated presence in unified communications can show the

“Better communication means improved personal and organisational performance. By combining all modes of communication into a single interface, unified communications delivers unmatched convenience and the assurance that the message is delivered, whether it is a voice call, an email, a fax, or a video exchange” – Werner van der Merwe, nVisionIT. Calls can be set to route to another staff member. People working to deadlines often need to allow some incoming communications and not others. Putting tools in place to help this can eliminate unnecessary distractions, especially for managers looking for some productive time in the day,” he says. In addition to that, Zafirovski says that Unified Communications is proving a valu-

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devices people are using, whether the person is at their desktop, if they have their mobile phone turned on, and if they are free or busy in a meeting. Those with GPS equipment can even show where people are physically located. He states that there are numerous applications for presence, but ultimately, it means reaching the right people at once rather than by trial and error which is one of the major bottlenecks in many businesses.

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Voice Ready Partner Programme As it ushers in its unified communications solutions centred around Exchange 2007 and Office Communication Server, Microsoft is steadily building capacity within its partner base to deliver on what is, for the vendor, a new dimension, voice. Among the first South African solution providers to complete the company’s Voice Ready Partner Technology Adoption Programme, multiple Microsoft Gold Partner nVisionIT has invested in what it believes is a new wave for improved business performance. “Better communication means improved personal and organisational performance,” says Werner van der Merwe, head of nVisionIT’s infrastructure services team. “By combining all modes of communication into a single interface, unified communications delivers unmatched convenience and the assurance that the message is delivered, whether it is a voice call, an email, a fax, or a video exchange,” he says. The Voice Ready Partner Programme, says van der Merwe is a competence assessment and training programme which was conducted recently with Microsoft. “Adding voice to the communications mix is something relatively new in the Microsoft world, so getting the appropriate knowledge and experience to deliver solutions which encompass this mode of communication is obviously important,” he notes. “Voice is also a service which must be delivered with the highest levels of reliability and performance.” With its unified communications solution encompassing several technology elements including Exchange 2007, Office Communications Server, Outlook 2007 and Office Communicator 2007, van der Merwe says the programme covered configuration and implementation of these elements to ensure optimal usage of all the features of the solution. As one of only a few companies in South Africa with this certification to date, he believes the opportunity for unified communications solutions in the enterprise is growing. “The traditional PBX has reached the limits of its capability, while the cost for such devices remains very high. The drive today is towards integrated communications capabilities which not only deliver a lower cost of deployment

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and ownership, but also substantially improved convenience,” he says. “Noting that nVisionIT itself is using Microsoft Unified Communications solution, he says the company has entirely dispensed with a PABX. “Using this solution in our own company has demonstrated the full experience of the benefits. We are federated with Microsoft South Africa and some key clients and make all communications with these organizations using Office Communicator, that includes phone calls, video calls, and instant messaging, using only a data connection,” he says.

“The Connected Republic 2.0 shows how network technology is already persuading governments and their departments to become more responsive, flexible and accountable. The technology that brought us Wikipedia and Skype can also provide citizen empowerment” – Reshaad Ahmed, Senior Manager, Cisco.

According to Zafirovski, we are still in the early adopter phase of unified communications. He states that a survey of IT decision makers at UK businesses conducted by the SAS Group, found that just 14 per cent of firms are currently using a unified communications system of some sort. Nonetheless, 42 per cent of respondents said they are now planning or considering a deployment. The survey also found that 94 per cent of the firms surveyed now employ mobile workers, compared with 69 per cent in 2007. The number companies employing home workers are also increasing, rising from 55 per cent of companies in 2001 to 77 per cent during the same period. In SA, although unified communications is just emerging, the adoption rate is increasing due to the perceived maturity of the technology, and the need for more communications technology tools to be more easily available. For future, this is an indication that more businesses will adopt unified communications, especially 2010 being one of the most influential factors.

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The Virtulisation business case Simplifies processes and generates revenues. BY KAUNDA CHAMA

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irtualisation technologies are currently being adopted by companies in their data centres to simplify administration, improve resource utilisation and reduce operating costs. A good number of solution providers are also turning to server virtualisation, one of the fastest growing segments in the IT market, as an excellent revenue generator.

“In virtual set-ups it’s easy to create a standby for all the business servers, and if set-up correctly, virtual environments are much easier and quicker to recover when disaster strikes. Managing security in virtual environments is also simplified thanks to the single fail-over point.” – Herman van Heerden, Starship Systems

Herman van Heerden, Starship Systems

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Virtualisation has produced benefits on the data centre side, and now companies demand that resellers assist and apply the same technology to their desktop computers. In fact this concept has led to the development of the VMWare Virtual Desktop Infrastructure. While virtualisation is the next big thing, solution providers must look beyond the offering from VMware, Citrix and Microsoft. There are other vendors emerging on the scene and they include: Endeavors Technologies, Leostream, MiniFrame, Pano Logic, Parallels, Virtual Iron and Vkernel. Ulrich Weigel, EMEA Director of Security Management Practice at NetIQ, says that primary advantages of virtualisation include cost savings and increased hardware resource utilisation, therefore moving over to virtualisation is an easy choice. However there are potential drawbacks

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and management issues and in some cases organisations simply apply the same best practices they have defined for physical machines. In other cases virtualisation raises new issues.

Management challenges Weigel continues that the benefits of virtualisation and the ways in which it helps to simplify IT operations come at the cost of various management-related challenges. Some issues that must be addressed when supporting a virtualised infrastructure are:

*Virtual machine sprawl 

Organisations starting to support virtualisation technology very quickly find themselves supporting large numbers of virtual machines throughout the environment. As end-users and systems administrators can quickly and easily create new virtual machines, IT teams often find themselves supporting hundreds of new operating systems (OS). The difficult task is keeping track of these virtual machines and ensuring that they meet IT standards.

*Heterogeneous environments 

The main benefit of using virtual machines is the ability to deploy many types of OS platforms and environments. Although this can help to support legacy workloads, it forces IT departments to support a much broader variety of systems. IT teams need the tools and expertise to ensure that all their guest OSs are properly secured and configured.

*Lack of IT management 

The process of deploying new physical machines involves purchasing hardware and physically deploying the systems into

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a production data centre. This ensures that IT experts are involved in production deployments. However new virtual machines can be created and deployed within a matter of minutes but often new virtual machines are deployed without IT oversight. This results in a proliferation of systems that might not meet IT security policies and management best practices.

Migrating to a virtual environment According to Weigel effective deployment is crucial to successful virtualisation management. He cites one approach is to move existing workloads into a virtual machine, a process commonly referred to as a physicalto-virtual (P2V) conversion. Another option is to create new virtual machines into which applications and services are installed. Regardless of which approach they choose, organisations must keep several management issues in mind.

Ulrich Weigel, NetIQ

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These include:

*Capacity planning To meet business and technical requirements IT departments must first determine their current and future infrastructure needs, such as how many applications can be supported given the current hardware configuration and take into account the need for planning for future purchases. Each service or application will have unique hardware resource requirements therefore performance characteristics must also be considered. Even in small environments this information may be difficult to manage manually.

*Determining optimal virtual machine placement When deploying virtual machines organisations must be able to identify which host systems are the most appropriate. When system resources are under-utilised they will leave potential capacity untapped. However systems which are over-utilised results in performance or availability problems. So the goal is to combine workloads based on ‘compatible’ resource requirements, for example a CPU-intensive workload should be combined with one that primarily requires disk or network resources. Traditionally virtual computing environments were relatively immune to data breaches, spam, viruses and other Internet threats, but it isn’t likely to remain that way. Says Weigel: “Cyber criminals continually evolve their methods of attack and it seems that every attempt we try and protect our networks and data merely encourages hackers to new and greater heights.” Currently virtualisation is fairly new but the host operating systems used in virtual networks are up-to-the-minute and more secure than the operating systems working in most businesses. “For example the LINUX kernel and VMWare combination we use in our deployments are very secure. The Windows Server 2008 operating system from Microsoft is also brand new and has fewer known vulnerabilities than its predecessors,” says Herman van Heerden, Managing Director at Starship Systems, a technology company specialising in the provision, implementation, maintenance and support of virtualisation technologies to small, medium and

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large businesses in South Africa. He says from a security point of view one of the main advantages of virtualisation is that industry-standard virtual machine tools ‘sandbox’ the guests systems, ensuring that if one system is compromised then it does not influence the others. “Virtual business server’s operating systems are also independent of the host server’s operating system. This means that you can run a very secure, resilient operating system on your host machine without worrying too much about the vulnerabilities of your business servers. “In virtual set-ups it’s easy to create a standby for all the business servers, and if set-up correctly, virtual environments are much easier and quicker to recover when disaster strikes. Managing security in virtual environments is also simplified thanks to the single fail-over point,” says van Heerden. However he reveals that the single failover point in standard virtual set-ups can also have a negative effect from a security standpoint. Van Heerden says: “As with physical infrastructures, there are security risks and challenges associated with virtual environments. But if it is set-up correctly with the necessary security precautions in place, they are no less secure than physical infrastructures.” Steve Buck, Edgetec MD agrees that virtualisation is developing into big business. “Everywhere you look in the industry the report card is good – virtualisation works and it will be one of the top technology drivers in the future.” He says that it is becoming a top priority because of the specific pressures CIOs and their IT departments currently face. “In fact it’s amazing that virtualisation did not emerge sooner,” he notes. According to Buck most people today associate virtualisation with VMWare but virtualisation has been around for almost half a century. It was in use internally at IBM in the ‘60s and has been commercially available from IBM since 1972. Quite simply virtualisation helps to consolidate many individual small servers onto one larger server, easing management and using system resources more efficiently, and allowing them to be prioritised and allocated to workloads as and when required. In essence, virtualisation can restore con-

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Oliver Fortuin, HP

“But there are software tools that let organisations reap the benefits of virtualisation without increasing the cost or complexity of infrastructure management.” – Oliver Fortuin, HP SA trol back to IT management. While users have welcomed the easy and relatively free availability of commodity servers, which have proliferated like mushrooms in most large organisations, this situation has brought chaos to IT. In a decentralised world it is difficult to bring about order and control and plan for any return on investment and sweat assets, so the total cost of ownership is reduced. Little wonder then that CIOs around the world are embracing virtualisation with enthusiasm, making it one of their top priorities. According to Oliver Fortuin, MD of HP SA, virtualisation is like a see-saw- as hardware costs are reduced, administrative costs rise; as workloads and computer resources

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become more efficient, the overarching infrastructure becomes more complex. He says that if organisations don’t embrace the administrative complexity that

All resellers out there should grab this opportunity as this is potentially bigger than anything the ICT industry has seen in a long time. The bonus is that it is not just hype it actually delivers true value to customers for a change. virtualisation brings, they may never realise the cost savings, performance gains or efficiencies that these technologies deliver. “But there are software tools that let organisations reap the benefits of virtualisation without increasing the cost or complexity of infrastructure management,” he says.

The Balancing Act A recent IDC white paper sponsored by HP, reports: “Virtualisation is having a profoundly positive impact on the ability of IT organisations to respond to business demands; the agility that the infrastructure provides for faster deployment of IT services. However the management of both physical and virtual infrastructures is an important area of investment to ensure availability, problem identification and resolution, and an IT service perspective.” Like other IT innovations, virtualisation brings its own patchwork of specialty management and configuration tools. This leads to an explosion of new and disconnected management tools that create silos within silos. IDC believes that IT organisations must be better prepared for and invest in management for the growing problem of VM sprawl that spans server, storage, desktop and application environments. The IDC white paper further states: “As virtualisation adoption continues to grow, IT executives must place a strategic emphasis on management to accelerate and extend the benefits of virtualisation over the long term.” Fortuin says that to realise the full potential of virtualisation technologies, organisations must overcome the lack of infrastructure visibility, incongruent tools and higher management costs they often introduce, which means administering virtual and physical resources uniformly.

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“Solutions include Business Service Management (BSM), IT Service Management (ITSM), Business Service Automation (BSA) and Quality Management (QM). These enable IT teams to allocate technology spending and resources based on business priorities; automate key processes across IT strategy, applications and operations; and measure technology effectiveness and efficiency from a business perspective,” he explains. Fortuin insists that in reality a seamless solution enables IT to transform virtualisation from a tool into business technology without increasing the cost or complexity of infrastructure management. Meanwhile HP’s recent research reveals that while 86 percent of technology decision makers have implemented virtualisation projects, the vast majority of respondents expect to virtualise just 25 percent of their technology environments by 2010. While many of those surveyed anticipate reaching 75 percent virtualisation of their total environments, only one third of technology implementers recognise virtualisation as a valuable business tool. While two thirds relegate virtualisation to the role of technology enabler. “Virtualisation is a powerful step in transforming IT,” says Fortuin. “To do it right means successfully managing and automating mixed physical and virtual environments. HP delivers the industry’s broadest portfolio for virtualised environments, covering applications and operations management, infrastructure and client architectures.” He notes that HP’s approach to virtualisation is focused on removing the technology inhibitors that reduce virtualisation’s impact on the business. It highlights how applications and business services can perform well regardless of where and how they are hosted, networked or managed. On the desktop side, Citrix Systems recently announced a solution designed to provide highly scalable secure access to virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) environments. The latest version of the company’s popular solution now includes integration with Citrix XenDesktop, which allows an organisation to deliver virtual desktops securely to thousands of end users based on their unique identity, location and security status. Unlike traditional virtual private network

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(VPN) and network access control (NAC) solutions, which control access solely to the network, the solution provides intelligent access directly to approved applications and desktops through its SmartAccess technology. This is an increasingly important requirement as data centre resources are more virtualised and physically separated from end users. Citrix believes that by providing highly scalable secure access for virtual desktops, it makes it easier for IT organisations to realise the enormous benefits of security and cost reduction from centralising applications and desktops in data centres. It then delivers virtually to end users in any location. “The new release of Citrix Access Gateway for XenDesktop solves a thorny issue that enterprises face today. Enterprise customers may now restrict the access and use of desktops and approved applications from a central location, without network reconfiguration or end client software changes,” says Nick Keene, Country Manager of Citrix Southern Africa. “By integrating scalable secure access with the Citrix XenDesktop product line, we have simplified the control of critical data centre resources without compromising security,” he says. The new Citrix solution does this by introducing the following key features: 1. Gateway’s SmartAccess technology allows IT departments to provide access to specific applications and data based on the user’s identity, location and results of an end point analysis of the client device. Extending this capability to virtual desktops makes it easier for corporations to move to a delivered desktop model without compromising security or end user experience. 2. Adding a highly scalable Access Gateway appliance in front of virtual desktops in the data centre dramatically enhances an organisation’s ability to deliver XenDesktop securely to thousands of XenDesktop users, regardless of how far away they are from corporate headquarters. 3. New Access Gateway configuration wizards simplify and accelerate deployment in a virtual desktop environment by automating several commonly performed

XenDesktop configuration tasks. In addition, new standalone MSI packaging for Windows simplify and automate client installation by enabling administrative deployments through available standard software deployment tools. At the end of the day resellers should also look out for associated technologies starting up around virtualisation like Platespin and Visioncore. These companies provide a number of additional services on top of the virtual stack and provide massive value to end users who want to migrate to a virtual environment, require robust DR management

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Nick Keene, Citrix SA

“By integrating scalable secure access with the Citrix XenDesktop product line, we have simplified the control of critical data centre resources without compromising security.” – Nick Keene, Citrix SA and are looking for performance management of their virtual infrastructure down to a rough level. It is an exciting time, revolutionary in a way. All resellers out there should grab this opportunity as this is potentially bigger than anything the ICT industry has seen in a long time. The bonus is that it is not just hype it actually delivers true value to customers for a change.

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End

to end BI: How long is a piece of string? Manages costs and increase employee productivity. BY CRN

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ying for a bigger slice of the business intelligence (BI) pie, the main contenders in the market are diversifying their offerings to bridge the gaps in their portfolios and provide holistic, end-to-end BI solutions that can be marketed to a wider customer base. “But defining an end-to-end BI solution is like defining the length of a piece of string,” says Paul Morgan, managing director of ASYST Intelligence, a focused provider of BI and data management solutions to medium and large enterprises in SA. “It all depends which vendor you talk to. A solution dubbed as end-to-end by one vendor might be entirely different to the end-toend offering of another and, on closer inspection, neither could meet the end-to-end BI needs of a particular business.” Generally speaking, BI comprises a broad spectrum of applications and technologies for gathering, storing, analysing and disseminating information to facilitate better, more informed business decision-making. That’s why vendors offering capabilities across this broad spectrum can easily lay claim to providing an end-to-end or holistic solution. But Morgan says companies looking for an end-to-end solution should not be blindsided by an impressive catalogue of tools or products that broadly cover all aspects of BI. “End-to-end does not necessarily mean the same thing to every business. While one business’s definition of end-to-end may be a set of lower-end BI tools that can be deployed across all of its divisions, from sales and supply chain to finance. Another company’s definition of end-to-end BI might be a set of tools that deliver normal reporting, data quality and dashboard capabilities right through to more sophisticated and advanced analytical capabilities. “How a company defines its end-to-end BI

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requirements can depend on its level of BI maturity. In the early days, end-to-end may have referred to a solution that addressed the length and breadth of its BI requirements but as it becomes more ‘BI mature’ its end-toend requirements become more sophisticated and deeper. That’s when end-to-end refers to the depth of capabilities its BI solution, or set of solutions, offers. “When looking for an end-to-end BI solution, companies must have a clear picture of what their immediate BI requirements are and what they are expected to be five years down the line. This will ensure that, at the end of the day, they have an end-to-end solution that meets both the length and depth of their BI requirements,” says Morgan. This he says is important even for a busi-

Paul Morgan, ASYST Intelligence other BI tools to meet the full scope of their requirements later on,” says Morgan.

“There are certain issues and problems that can only be addressed with niche solutions. In these instances it is essential that companies select a solution that not only meets the depth of their BI needs now but is also flexible enough to be integrated with other BI tools to meet the full scope of their requirements later on.” – Paul Morgan, ASYST Intelligence ness which, for the moment, has very specific and sophisticated BI requirements but, may want to extend BI beyond analysts and dataminers to users lower down the hierarchy and across all departments later on. “There are certain issues and problems that can only be addressed with niche solutions. In these instances it is essential that companies select a solution that not only meets the depth of their BI needs now but is also flexible enough to be integrated with

He concludes: “Companies must be careful to evaluate BI solutions according to their ability to meet their specific needs rather than the ability of the vendor to provide a bouquet of broad BI capabilities. A long list of impressive features does not necessarily mean that the solution can deliver on a company’s BI goals. “Like the lengths of pieces of string, endto-end BI solutions can vary quite dramatically. It’s about deciding from the outset how long your piece of string needs to be.”

Highly Recommended

Reviews by: Kaunda Chama

Dragon voice recognition software Naturally speaking.

Dragon NaturallySpeaking is arguably the best voice recognition software available today. First introduced in 1994, it competes with any of IBM’s solutions and expertly converts speech to text. In this age, when many of us boast a typing speed of up to 90 words a minute, nothing beats software that magically turns dictation into text. Dragon NaturallySpeaking software takes no more than five minutes to install all 205 megs. In addition, the software comes with a digital Dictaphone and head set complete with a built in microphone that plugs directly into a PC. Impressively once installation is complete, the software package offers a scan of your documents to learn a little more about your writing habits. It also has the capability to scan your email. The software requires the user to read text aloud so it can analise their voice and learn speech patterns, which takes about 15 minutes. As an initial test users must verbalise punctuation and insert short pauses to separate phrases or sentences. This can be done at normal talking speeds and one just needs to enunciate words more carefully than usual. This software does not just recognise words, but also speech

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patterns and context. It recognises words and speech patterns in a “standard English” accent and to get the best results we recomend that one puts in more time practicing with the package. The software can also compensate for background interference to some extent by readjusting audio levels, but it is not recomended to try recording in noisy places. NaturallySpeaking gives the user control over their PC when it comes to controlling mouse movement, menu navigation and access to advanced scripts and macro creation. But there are some things that are easier to do manually. Such as moving the cursor to a different part of a text, capitalising words or changing the format and presentation of text after it’s been typed. Even though the software allows for editing like this to be done verbally, it does work out easier to simply click the mouse a couple of times. At the end of the day most users will be pleased with Dragon NaturallySpeaking solution even if they have tried competitor solutions from the likes of IBM. I recommend this solution to people who take dictation or do lots of typing. It can also be used effectively by the disabled or by people that have difficulty typing such as carpel-tunnel sufferers. Or simply fast thinkers may also benefit – those who think faster than they type.

Reviews by: Kaunda Chama

Highly Recommended

Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link A hard drive’s best friend. If a few years ago people found it hard to visualise a hard drive that connects directly to a television and has playback functionality. It first launched the ScreenPlay hard drives and now Iomega has once again surpassed itself. The ScreenPlay TV Link now allows users to turn any harddrive into a ScreenPlay. This small gadget is no bigger than a packet of cigarettes and is compatible with most popular audio, video and image formats. It is easy to setup and comes with a standard ScreenPlay remote control. The ScreenPlay TV Link also offers an easy way to watch digital video files without the need for a PC to link the TV and hard drive. Unlike many solutions on the market that need some networking expertise for set up to pull digital content from networked hard drives, this is indeed a simpler answer; it connects to any open composite, component or HDMI (High Definition Multimedia Interface) input on a television. The concept of TV on demand means that devices such as the Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link will become increasingly relevant in the future. For those that do not have the luxury of HDMI the ScreenPlay TV Link package comes with composite or component breakout cables, as well as a SCART adapter and other power adapters.

The most impressive thing about this device is that it keeps within the ScreenPlay tradition – being extremely simple to set up and users need only one of the breakout cables to connect the device to a television set and get started. Even with its positive traits, one of the things that bothered me most is that users can find themselves in a tangle with all the various wires protruding from the box and also that such a small box needs a power supply; but I guess the vendor has a good reason for making it this way. However it does come with an easy to use IR remote control. The remote handset is extremely responsive and controls every aspect of the device. It is quite slim and has a practical layout that allows it to fit comfortably in a users’ hand. The ScreenPlay TV Link supports almost any USB hard drive or flash drive on the market. It also manages, through its USB port, to provide power for most of the bus-powered drives and there is no need for two separate power supplies. Switching between devices is equally seamless as it is a plug and play device where users can take out one drive and swap it for another. Once another USB source is attached to the TV Link, filenames and folders on the drive will display on the main screen for the user. The ScreenPlay TV Link supports a wide range of audio file types including MP3, AC3, WAV, WMA and OGG and the audio playback screen displays a standard time code. For video files there is support for MPEG-1-, MPEG-2-, AVI-, VOB- (DVD), MPEG-4-, DivX-, and XviD-encoded movie files. VOB support is offered so that homemade DVD are able to play complete with menus. Essentially the ScreenPlay TV Link should satisfy any desire for on demand multimedia content without the need to connect a TV to a computer.

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DILBERT

www.dilbert.com

by Scott Adams

S n a pshot Company: Drive Control Corporation Position: Manager: Storage Software Best personal achivement: Work in progress – family Management style: I have a very hands-on management style, I believe in role and job responsibility.

Anamika Budree

Most admired company: Google Most admired executives: Trevor Manuel and his ability to understand that long-term benefits can only be obtained through short-term sacrifices. Best IT product: Garmin Most pressing local business issues: Inflation targeting…is it working? Key to success: Communication and mutual respect are the key ingredients for success. Favourite car: BMW MX Your car: Toyota Yaris Favourite authors: Deepak Chopra Where do you live: West Rand Birthplace: Durban Hobbies/sports: Crosswords and outdoor activities Favourite periodicals: Financial Mail Pet hates: Dishonesty and failure to take responsibility

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