The document is the 10th issue of the Intelligent CIO Africa publication. It includes the following sections:
- The cover page highlights articles on intelligent cabling, data centers, cloud platforms, and the evolving role of the CIO.
- An article explains how DarkMatter provides cybersecurity solutions for the banking and financial industry in Africa.
- The table of contents provides an overview of the various articles in the publication, which cover topics like BYOD, data centers, cabling, mobile technology, and case studies.
IT Based Creative Industry--Women EmpowermentSri Safitri
This presentation was presented at the International Workshop on Woman Empowerment in IT on 23 - 28 March 2009 in collaboration with Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republik of Indonesia.
This year Indonesia stated the year of Creative Industry. It discuss opportunity in Creative Industry that has saved Indonesia from crisis. This industry supposedly more appropriate for women. However lack of understanding on IT has defferred Indonesian women from mastering this industry.
Digital platforms and services stimulate economic growth and development. Countries are looking to the “internet economy” to provide new market opportunities and help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as promoting economic growth and sustainable industralisation, a process often relying on an increase in online access rates and smartphone penetration.
For more details, please visit: https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/technology-innovation/digital-platforms-and-services-development-opportunity-asean?utm_source=OrganicSocial&utm_medium=Slideshare&utm_campaign=Amundi&utm_content=Slideshare_whitepaper
Cognizant is an American multinational corporation that provides IT services, including digital, technology, consulting, and operations services. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.
How do you plan your product strategies? How do you know what skill sets you want to build or how to leverage several of the emerging technology trends? This presentation covers some trends and a few tools to track trends. It is based on a talk I gave at TiE Chennai recently.
Was honored to present at the SIG Sourcing Interest Group Conference In Toronto, yesterday a bit of some thought leadership on Trends for Outsourcing in a Digiital World. Was a great peer to peer event. Thanks for Goodman's for hosting and SIG for moderating.
Gcr featured in Bisinfotech Magazine, August 2018GCR India
GCR featured in Bisinfotech Magazine August 2018. Amod Phadke, Director Sales and Marketing, GCR shared his views on Cloud- The New Job destination for Young India.
IT Based Creative Industry--Women EmpowermentSri Safitri
This presentation was presented at the International Workshop on Woman Empowerment in IT on 23 - 28 March 2009 in collaboration with Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republik of Indonesia.
This year Indonesia stated the year of Creative Industry. It discuss opportunity in Creative Industry that has saved Indonesia from crisis. This industry supposedly more appropriate for women. However lack of understanding on IT has defferred Indonesian women from mastering this industry.
Digital platforms and services stimulate economic growth and development. Countries are looking to the “internet economy” to provide new market opportunities and help achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) such as promoting economic growth and sustainable industralisation, a process often relying on an increase in online access rates and smartphone penetration.
For more details, please visit: https://eiuperspectives.economist.com/technology-innovation/digital-platforms-and-services-development-opportunity-asean?utm_source=OrganicSocial&utm_medium=Slideshare&utm_campaign=Amundi&utm_content=Slideshare_whitepaper
Cognizant is an American multinational corporation that provides IT services, including digital, technology, consulting, and operations services. It is headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, United States.
How do you plan your product strategies? How do you know what skill sets you want to build or how to leverage several of the emerging technology trends? This presentation covers some trends and a few tools to track trends. It is based on a talk I gave at TiE Chennai recently.
Was honored to present at the SIG Sourcing Interest Group Conference In Toronto, yesterday a bit of some thought leadership on Trends for Outsourcing in a Digiital World. Was a great peer to peer event. Thanks for Goodman's for hosting and SIG for moderating.
Gcr featured in Bisinfotech Magazine, August 2018GCR India
GCR featured in Bisinfotech Magazine August 2018. Amod Phadke, Director Sales and Marketing, GCR shared his views on Cloud- The New Job destination for Young India.
From the changing landscape of ICT infrastructure to tackling tricky supply chain issues, we explore every corner of the IT industry in issue 002 of the Probrand Group magazine: http://www.probrand.co.uk/imag/issue02/index.html
Lean Innovation in Insurance with Cognizant Digital FoundryVMware Tanzu
SpringOne Platform 2016
Speakers: Rag Ramanathan; Senior Director, Cognizant & Satish Venkatesan; Senior Director, Cognizant
Insurers are increasingly leveraging digital technologies to bring in significant changes to their business and operating models. Many strategic programs are currently underway within life, P&C and retirement service providers to embrace customer centricity, API-based distribution channels, loss control through real-time digital data and a lean operating model.
Join Cognizant’s session to learn how we bring together our industry expertise in Insurance and our Lean/Agile techniques, powered by vast experience with Spring and PCF, to innovate with our clients and create business value.
The first part of the session will cover Cognizant cloud-native digital business solutions and platforms (drone, IoT, innovation prototyping platforms etc.) that supports the business and next-gen IT transformations within insurers. Spring Framework, Cloud Foundry and container based technologies serves as architectural building blocks and delivery platforms.
While developing new applications using modern frameworks like Spring and Spring Boot already reduce the time to value for businesses, additional software components and tools further accelerate the time. The second part of this session will cover such tools as developer Blueprints, Microservices, and a single Portal for enabling these on multiple PaaS environments. These additional tools and software help our development teams accelerate value creation for clients by focusing on the business application rather than infrastructure and frameworks setup.
Demystifying the "myth" behind Venture Capital Firms
1. Where the money came from
2. Understanding VC's business model
3. What startups need to know before they're pitching to VCs
Trailblazing Companies to Watch 2019, USA special edition of The Enterprise World, August issue features the stories of Companies that have innovative ideas from USA region tune in and explore.
NTT DATA Open Innovation Contest 10.0 for startups and scaleupsTom Winstanley
NTT DATA runs a global open innovation contest annually as part of programmes to identify partners to develop new value adding services with and to scale services and go-to-market more rapidly. This 10.0 edition of the event is taking place in 16 cities globally, including in London and Edinburgh in December 2019. Find out more at http://uk.nttdata.com/openinnovationcontest
In partnership with IDG, our 2022 Insight Intelligent Technology™ Report examines how companies are making progress on long-term IT strategies to meet the changing, post-pandemic expectations of their businesses, their employees, and the market more broadly.
Presentation of the Canopy enhanced alliance, Canopy's Cloud Vision and an example service - Canopy Mobility - at the Viennese VMware Forum in May 2013
How to Deal With Disruptor (from Telco prespectives)Saiful Hidayat
This article contains informations about, how we are (Telcos) can be survive and become the winner in this business competition ?, especially with the presence of the OTT (over the top) which directly or indirectly started to becomes major competitor for Telcos, because this OTT aiming the Same Customer Target and operated with a very lean operation model and their Business Model much different from Our (Telcos) traditional business model. For this reason Telecommunications companies need to provide the best customer experience through the core capabilities that are currently owned and implemented in coherent way to provide the Biosphere. “Think Ecosystem and Act Coherent”
Hoof is an innovative financial services company now seeking investment for a highly scalable application and API platform aimed at growing SMEs. Every small merchant wants to grow. We exist to make that path easier.
Atos - Trusted Partner for your Digital Journey Paris, Bezons
At Atos, through digital transformation we strive to create the firm of tomorrow. We believe that bringing together people, technology and business is the way forward.
Every day, we power progress for our clients and partners. It is our unique approach as business technologists that makes this possible.
Executing the UAE AI Strategy: Opportunities and ChallengesSaeed Al Dhaheri
this presentation was conducted at the American University of The Emirates. It gives an overview about AI and present some use cases. Also presents the UAE AI strategy and what the government has done to activate and execute the strategy. It also highlights some examples of how UAE public sector organizations are transforming their services using AI.
Data Is The New Oil: How Shell Has Become A Data-Driven And AI-Enabled Business Bernard Marr
Today, every organization must become a more data-driven business. While most understand that this is important, they might not know how to do it. Here we share insights and learning from energy-giant Shell on how to prioritize data-driven operations.
Who is driving innovation in your business? Probrand Group
Probrand Group magazine provides credible articles written by leading tech journalists around driving innovation and transformation, mobility, supply chain and procurement, security, cloud and infrastructure.
From the changing landscape of ICT infrastructure to tackling tricky supply chain issues, we explore every corner of the IT industry in issue 002 of the Probrand Group magazine: http://www.probrand.co.uk/imag/issue02/index.html
Lean Innovation in Insurance with Cognizant Digital FoundryVMware Tanzu
SpringOne Platform 2016
Speakers: Rag Ramanathan; Senior Director, Cognizant & Satish Venkatesan; Senior Director, Cognizant
Insurers are increasingly leveraging digital technologies to bring in significant changes to their business and operating models. Many strategic programs are currently underway within life, P&C and retirement service providers to embrace customer centricity, API-based distribution channels, loss control through real-time digital data and a lean operating model.
Join Cognizant’s session to learn how we bring together our industry expertise in Insurance and our Lean/Agile techniques, powered by vast experience with Spring and PCF, to innovate with our clients and create business value.
The first part of the session will cover Cognizant cloud-native digital business solutions and platforms (drone, IoT, innovation prototyping platforms etc.) that supports the business and next-gen IT transformations within insurers. Spring Framework, Cloud Foundry and container based technologies serves as architectural building blocks and delivery platforms.
While developing new applications using modern frameworks like Spring and Spring Boot already reduce the time to value for businesses, additional software components and tools further accelerate the time. The second part of this session will cover such tools as developer Blueprints, Microservices, and a single Portal for enabling these on multiple PaaS environments. These additional tools and software help our development teams accelerate value creation for clients by focusing on the business application rather than infrastructure and frameworks setup.
Demystifying the "myth" behind Venture Capital Firms
1. Where the money came from
2. Understanding VC's business model
3. What startups need to know before they're pitching to VCs
Trailblazing Companies to Watch 2019, USA special edition of The Enterprise World, August issue features the stories of Companies that have innovative ideas from USA region tune in and explore.
NTT DATA Open Innovation Contest 10.0 for startups and scaleupsTom Winstanley
NTT DATA runs a global open innovation contest annually as part of programmes to identify partners to develop new value adding services with and to scale services and go-to-market more rapidly. This 10.0 edition of the event is taking place in 16 cities globally, including in London and Edinburgh in December 2019. Find out more at http://uk.nttdata.com/openinnovationcontest
In partnership with IDG, our 2022 Insight Intelligent Technology™ Report examines how companies are making progress on long-term IT strategies to meet the changing, post-pandemic expectations of their businesses, their employees, and the market more broadly.
Presentation of the Canopy enhanced alliance, Canopy's Cloud Vision and an example service - Canopy Mobility - at the Viennese VMware Forum in May 2013
How to Deal With Disruptor (from Telco prespectives)Saiful Hidayat
This article contains informations about, how we are (Telcos) can be survive and become the winner in this business competition ?, especially with the presence of the OTT (over the top) which directly or indirectly started to becomes major competitor for Telcos, because this OTT aiming the Same Customer Target and operated with a very lean operation model and their Business Model much different from Our (Telcos) traditional business model. For this reason Telecommunications companies need to provide the best customer experience through the core capabilities that are currently owned and implemented in coherent way to provide the Biosphere. “Think Ecosystem and Act Coherent”
Hoof is an innovative financial services company now seeking investment for a highly scalable application and API platform aimed at growing SMEs. Every small merchant wants to grow. We exist to make that path easier.
Atos - Trusted Partner for your Digital Journey Paris, Bezons
At Atos, through digital transformation we strive to create the firm of tomorrow. We believe that bringing together people, technology and business is the way forward.
Every day, we power progress for our clients and partners. It is our unique approach as business technologists that makes this possible.
Executing the UAE AI Strategy: Opportunities and ChallengesSaeed Al Dhaheri
this presentation was conducted at the American University of The Emirates. It gives an overview about AI and present some use cases. Also presents the UAE AI strategy and what the government has done to activate and execute the strategy. It also highlights some examples of how UAE public sector organizations are transforming their services using AI.
Data Is The New Oil: How Shell Has Become A Data-Driven And AI-Enabled Business Bernard Marr
Today, every organization must become a more data-driven business. While most understand that this is important, they might not know how to do it. Here we share insights and learning from energy-giant Shell on how to prioritize data-driven operations.
Who is driving innovation in your business? Probrand Group
Probrand Group magazine provides credible articles written by leading tech journalists around driving innovation and transformation, mobility, supply chain and procurement, security, cloud and infrastructure.
Hafsah Hashim - Adoption of digital technologies for SMEs: React, Reflect and...OECD CFE
20-21 February 2018, Mexico City: Workshop on building business linkages that books SME productivity.
http://www.oecd.org/cfe/smes/workshop-on-building-business-linkages-that-boost-SME-productivity.htm
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from the August Edition:
•Veeam tightens leadership in Cloud Data Management Market
•Atlantis, The Palm selects Dell Technologies to reinvent and modernize its IT Environment
•Barracuda accelerates growth in email protection
•Lufthansa Technik embarks on digital transformation with PTC
•New Avaya Research reveals challenges for AI adoption in the UAE
•MicroStrategy 2019 Update 2 expands the reach of HyperIntelligence
•Microsoft announces investments to broaden opportunities for partners
•Sonicwall 2019 mid-year report shows worldwide malware decrease of 20%
•A quarter of people in EMEA prefer Cybersecurity managed by AI
•Micro Focus introduces new Robotic Process Automation Product
•Talend delivers Pay-as-You-Go On-Ramp to accelerate Integration Projects
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from the March Edition:
• Redington Reveals New Global Look
• Oracle demonstrates advances in autonomous cloud
• Enabling partners - Sunil Zarekar, Regional Sales Manager - West Africa, Redington Gulf - Value Division
• Huawei unveils new solutions at Mobile World Congress 2018
• Redington Value onboards cybersecurity vendor PhishRod
• Dell EMC expands converged infrastructure portfolio
• SonicWall unveils new capture cloud engine
• Nokia unveils new services to cater to the digital era
• Fortinet announced FortiOS 6.0
• Red Hat unveils decision management offering
Following from the theme of the 16th annual IAD Summit, this report provides tips and roadmaps to how you can access, engage and retain your stakeholders
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from June Edition :
•Hewlett Packard Enterprise Expands HPE GreenLake
•Alibaba Cloud and Redington Boost MEA Technology
Ecosystem
•Cisco Announces New Service Enhancement For XDR And
SASE
•Dell Technologies Announces Planned VMware Spin-Off
•Microsoft-EIU Study Reveals Digital Preparedness Helped
Firms Adapt to COVID-19
•Huawei Releases CloudCampus 3.0 for Fully Wireless Networks
•Forcepoint Acquires Remote Browser Isolation Innovator
Cyberinc
•New Avaya OneCloud CCaaS Features to Enhance Customer
Experiences
•Citrix Research Uncovers New Approach to Security
•Fortinet Unveils New FortiEDR Capabilities
•Mimecast: 61% of Firms were Infected with Ransomware in 2020
•Palo Alto Networks Introduces Complete Zero Trust Network Security
•Software AG Delivers New webMethods Upgrades
•Veeam Accelerates Data Protection Strategies at VeeamON 2021
•Talend: Over a Third of Business Leaders Don’t Use Data for Critical Decisions
Value Journal, a monthly news journal from Redington Value Distribution, intends to update the channel on the latest vendor news and Redington Value’s Channel Initiatives.
Key stories from the November Edition:
•Commercial Bank of Dubai adopts the Microsoft Cloud to accelerate digitization
•The next frontier of value
•Abu Dhabi Municipality chooses Aruba for digital workplace transformation project
•Nutanix announces new IT automation for private clouds
•Fortinet ranked high by Gartner for SDWAN equipment market share by revenue
•Okta launches Okta SecurityInsights to protect global workforces
•Automation Anywhere launches AI-Powered RPA-as-a-Service platform
•New Mimecast report finds staggering increase in BEC Attacks
•Huawei stresses on key pillars for digital economy in the region
•DU chooses Oracle to accelerate uptake of UAE FEDNet programme
•VMware ranked 1st in cloud systems, service management
B2B payments are rapidly changing. Find out the 5 key questions you need to be asking yourself to be sure you are mastering B2B payments today. Learn more at www.BlueSnap.com.
Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit and TemplatesAurelien Domont, MBA
This Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit was created by ex-McKinsey, Deloitte and BCG Management Consultants, after more than 5,000 hours of work. It is considered the world's best & most comprehensive Digital Transformation and IT Strategy Toolkit. It includes all the Frameworks, Best Practices & Templates required to successfully undertake the Digital Transformation of your organization and define a robust IT Strategy.
Editable Toolkit to help you reuse our content: 700 Powerpoint slides | 35 Excel sheets | 84 minutes of Video training
This PowerPoint presentation is only a small preview of our Toolkits. For more details, visit www.domontconsulting.com
Company Valuation webinar series - Tuesday, 4 June 2024FelixPerez547899
This session provided an update as to the latest valuation data in the UK and then delved into a discussion on the upcoming election and the impacts on valuation. We finished, as always with a Q&A
Implicitly or explicitly all competing businesses employ a strategy to select a mix
of marketing resources. Formulating such competitive strategies fundamentally
involves recognizing relationships between elements of the marketing mix (e.g.,
price and product quality), as well as assessing competitive and market conditions
(i.e., industry structure in the language of economics).
Personal Brand Statement:
As an Army veteran dedicated to lifelong learning, I bring a disciplined, strategic mindset to my pursuits. I am constantly expanding my knowledge to innovate and lead effectively. My journey is driven by a commitment to excellence, and to make a meaningful impact in the world.
VAT Registration Outlined In UAE: Benefits and Requirementsuae taxgpt
Vat Registration is a legal obligation for businesses meeting the threshold requirement, helping companies avoid fines and ramifications. Contact now!
https://viralsocialtrends.com/vat-registration-outlined-in-uae/
Building Your Employer Brand with Social MediaLuanWise
Presented at The Global HR Summit, 6th June 2024
In this keynote, Luan Wise will provide invaluable insights to elevate your employer brand on social media platforms including LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter) and TikTok. You'll learn how compelling content can authentically showcase your company culture, values, and employee experiences to support your talent acquisition and retention objectives. Additionally, you'll understand the power of employee advocacy to amplify reach and engagement – helping to position your organization as an employer of choice in today's competitive talent landscape.
1. MARKET
ANALYTI
PUBLICATION
ISSUE 10 // www.intelligentcio.com
Intelligent
Cabling Partner
Intelligent
Manufacturing Partner
Intelligent
Education Partner
Intelligent
Security Partner
Providing Unparalleled Technology Intelligence
AFRICA
PROJECT LATEST | INTELLIGENT CABLING | INTELLIGENT DATA CENTRES
TRANSFORMINGCOLLABORATION
ANDPERFORMANCEWITHNEW
CLOUDPLATFORM
Elize Neethling, Tradebridge’s Head of Group Information Security and Technology,
explains how Riverbed’s SteelHead SaaS platform boosted the company’s
productivity, enhanced user experience and enabled maximum availability.
ChangingroleoftheCIO
How the CIO is evolving with the digital workplace
PoPiasabusinessdifferentiator
Extracting even greater value from your business data
BYODisredefiningbusiness
Embracing the benefits of the mobile workforce
2. The banking & financial services industry
has a host of sensitive data, large
volumes of transactions and increasingly
hyper-connected, complex networks. A
highly attractive target for cyber
criminals looking for high-value targets.
At DarkMatter, our elite team of
international cyber security specialists
develop, manage and deploy end-to-end
solutions to fortify the global banking
and financial services industry against
cyber threats.
We safeguard your most valuable digital
assets, your reputation and customers’
trust.
Take your first step towards genius:
contactus@darkmatter.ae
MONEY MOVES
QUICKLY IN
FINANCIAL CIRCLES.
SO DOES CYBER CRIME.
3. 3www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
CONTENTS
ISSUE 10
BYOD:bringyourowndevice,or
bringyourowndisaster?
Intelligent Data Centres Intelligent Mobile TechnologyIntelligent Cabling
38
42
46 51 61
Cisco’s Intersight platform brings data
centre management to the cloud
Euphoria’s new solution makes it
possible to become a digital nomad
Enablingcountrydevelopment
throughtechnologyinTanzania
CommScope:noone-size-fits-all
approachtoenterprisecabling
Siemon launches ultra-high-density
plug and play fibre system
65
Tradebridgetransformsapproach
tocollaboration
32
6. NEWS
6 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
RedCloud and KongaPay partner to bring
Banking as a Platform to Nigeria
RedCloud Technologies, the world’s first open banking
platform, has announced a partnership with Nigeria’s
KongaPay; the payment system which aims to facilitate
the initiation and completion of transactions in a seamless
manner that allows unbanked customers to pay online.
Through the Banking as a Platform model, a first for Nigeria,
KongaPay will use RedCloud technology to enable the banks
to offer innovative digital financial services via its rapidly
growing merchant network, with merchants benefiting from
increased footfall and resulting bottom-line revenues.
Justin Floyd, CEO at RedCloud comments: “We believe
Nigeria will realise its considerable untapped potential from
this new kind of technology platform as it enables banks,
retailer and agents to work together to deliver financial
services at scale. Konga is a company we have admired for
some time and who have a proven record in e-commerce.
We are delighted to partner with them to offer a new
technology model: one platform connecting all stakeholders
in the financial ecosystem.”
Speaking about the partnership Olayemi Jinadu, VP, Payment
Products and Digital Goods, Konga Online Shopping Ltd, said
“KongaPay payment solution’s partnership with RedCloud
attests to our drive to make Nigerians and Africans at large
experience the best of service at their convenience. This
means we constantly evolve to be more relevant to customers
and society. KongaPay is designed to be fast, reliable, secure,
flexible and above all provides a best-in-class financial solution
to Nigerians and Africa.”
MDXi targets enterprise customers with
new ‘Take a Break’ campaign
West Africa’s premier data centre
solutions provider, MDXi (a MainOne
company), has launched an advertising
campaign aimed at reinforcing the
company’s position as the data centre
provider of choice for enterprises in
the region. Tagged ‘Take a Break’,
the campaign will increase awareness
of the MDXi brand as the
most interconnected and
reliable West African data
centre company and urges
C-level executives across
the region to take a break
from the rigors of managing
in-house IT and outsource
their IT infrastructure needs
to MDXi.
The campaign, which
began in October in Nigeria
and Ghana, builds on the
company’s expansion efforts
across Nigeria and West Africa. The
campaign is expected to spotlight the
company’s data centre initiatives not
only in Nigeria, but across West Africa
– including its Accra facility, a new data
centre in Sagamu, Ogun State Nigeria,
and planned development in Abidjan,
Cote D’Ivoire.
“Unknown to local enterprises that
outsource their data centre needs
off-shore, MDXi is home to numerous
large multinationals that West Africans
interact with daily online as we have
raised the bar to provide world-class
ICT and data centre solutions, at par
with similar facilities in Europe, Asia
and America,” says
MDXi General Manager,
Gbenga Adegbiji.
MainOne’s MDXI
has put Nigeria on
the global map with
its premier tier III
Lekki data centre, the
only data centre in
West Africa that is
authorised to process
and store payment card
information with its PCI
DSS certification.
7. NEWS
7www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
Oracle NetSuite expands business
operations in South Africa
Oracle NetSuite has announced the expansion of business
operations in South Africa. With the support of Oracle’s global
resources behind it, NetSuite has added a dedicated sales
team and new leadership; new solution provider partners to
strengthen its existing partner ecosystem; and new customers
such as Jasco and ElectroMechanica on NetSuite OneWorld.
This expansion is in response to the increasing demand for
cloud ERP in the region from fast growing, innovative and
emerging international businesses.
“South Africa and the region as a whole, represent the next
great opportunity for NetSuite,” said Mark Woodhams,
Oracle NetSuite Vice President EMEA. “This announcement is
further proof that, with the global resources of Oracle behind
us, we can now scale rapidly and better serve the needs of
the region.”
“The South African market is uniquely positioned for this
expanded investment in the region,” said Khaled Ismail,
Vice President, Oracle Digital Application Business, ECEMEA.
“Companies here are realising the value, flexibility and
scalability of the cloud and are beginning to understand
that their ageing, legacy on-premise systems are no longer
meeting their needs in this digital age.”
As part of its expansion strategy, in addition to its existing
partner in the region, BlueBridge One, NetSuite added four
new implementation partners operating in South Africa,
including Business Connexion, EOH Mthombo, Dimension
Data, and XZQ Services.
SA’s Belgium Campus ITversity joins
Infor Education Alliance Programme
Earlier this month, Eyewitness News
reported that the latest South African
jobs statistics continue to reflect an
appallingly high unemployment rate.
For this reason, Belgian entrepreneurs,
Jan Rombouts and Enrico Jacobs
established the Belgium Campus in
1999. The Campus strives to alleviate
the educational and unemployment
challenges in South Africa, specifically
by aiding candidates in meeting the
critical skills needs in the information and
communications technology (ICT) sector.
With a focus on continuous
improvement, and in recognition of the
dire need to integrate technology and
innovation into education, the Campus
has joined the Infor Education Alliance
Programme (EAP). The Infor EAP delivers
next-generation tools for future leaders,
and works with local universities across
Mark Stewart, Director of the Infor
EAP, EMEA
the EMEA region. Participants in the
programme get access to specialised
software packages, training materials,
and customised learning experiences,
using groundbreaking technology that is
already transforming work for more than
90,000 organisations worldwide.
The Director of the Infor EAP, EMEA,
Mark Stewart concludes; “We are very
excited to work with the university
to support their students with career
opportunities at Infor and with
its master partner in this region,
Softworx. It’s great to be partnering
with this leading institution in South
Africa. Belgium Campus has a unique
approach and focus in developing top
talent to serve the IT industry. This
alliance adds to this, allowing students
to take their knowledge of technology
and apply this to a growing demand for
digital skills in business.”
8. NEWS
8 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
MEA enterprise infrastructure hardware
market continues to decline
The MEA enterprise
infrastructure hardware
market, which includes
servers and external storage,
suffered a year-on-year
decline of 8% in the first
half on 2017 to total $1.1
billion, according to the latest
Quarterly Server and Disk
Storage Systems Tracker from
IDC. The global technology
research and consulting firm
blames the ongoing oil crisis,
regional unrest, currency
fluctuations, and political instability
in certain parts of the region for the
decline in enterprise spending.
“We are witnessing a shift in purchasing
patterns as organisations are
increasingly looking to consolidate their
server purchases and optimise their
installed base rather than boost their
server capacity through new additions,”
says Victoria Mendes, a Senior Research
Analyst for Enterprise Infrastructure at
IDC MEA. “We are also seeing a shift
towards higher-end servers when new
purchases are made.”
Despite suffering a YoY decline in value
of 4% in H1 2017, the MEA storage
market saw a huge
uptake of flash drives
during this period. The
value of the flash space
was up 21% YoY in H1
2017 versus a decline
of 37% over the same
period for hard disk drives
(HDDs). While there is a
general shift underway
from traditional HDDs to
flash drives (both all-flash
and hybrid flash), the
huge decline of HDDs
was caused by a shortage of memory
chips, which is negatively impacting
shipments globally.
Looking ahead, IDC expects the
enterprise infrastructure hardware
market to grow 3% in the second half
of 2017 when compared with the
corresponding period of 2016.
Ecobank launches mVisa across 33
African countries
Ecobank has partnered with Visa to launch Ecobank Scan+Pay
with mVisa solutions to their consumers.
The strategic tie-up signals interoperability on a cross-border
level – and potentially huge gains – as it affords consumers
with the ability to use their mobile phone to directly access
the funds in their bank accounts to pay person-to-merchant
(P2M) or person-to-person (P2P).
Ecobank Scan+Pay with mVisa delivers instant, secure cashless
payment for goods and services by allowing customers to
scan a QR code on a smartphone or enter a unique merchant
identifying code into either a feature phone or smartphone.
The payment goes straight from the consumer’s bank
account into the merchant’s account and provides real-time
notification to both parties. This serves to accelerate digital
commerce and combat some of the challenges merchants
have faced using traditional point of sale systems, including
the cost of installation coupled with the requirement of
electricity and Internet connectivity.
Ecobank mVisa solutions also enable customers to send
money instantly to any Visa cardholder worldwide. This is
a major innovation that serves the need of Africans in the
diaspora by enabling them to simply link their Visa card to the
Ecobank unified mobile app to send money home to another
Visa cardholder quickly and securely.
The partnership demonstrates both Ecobank and Visa’s
continued commitment to provide financial services to the
banked and unbanked in Africa by leveraging digital platforms
to offer convenient and affordable payment mechanisms.
9. NEWS
9www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
Orange Business and Microsoft to boost
industrial performance with IoT
Orange Business Services and Microsoft are collaborating
to deliver large-scale, end-to-end IoT solutions that boost
the digital processes of companies in the manufacturing
sector. Enterprises can use the Orange modular IoT
solution, Datavenue, strengthened by Microsoft Azure IoT
Suite, to transition to Industry 4.0 and optimise the entire
manufacturing value chain.
Through this collaboration, companies can take advantage of
the combined expertise of Orange and Microsoft regarding
data protection, as well as device and data management. This
includes the opportunity to leverage Orange Business Services’
many IoT connectivity options, in particular LoRa. Use cases
range from supply chain and smart inventory management to
digital operations, such as predictive maintenance, employee
safety and facility and equipment management.
“This partnership between Orange and Microsoft is an
important step in our growth strategy targeting the IoT and
data analytics B2B market. By adding Azure IoT solutions
to our Datavenue portfolio, we provide our customers with
powerful software with the assurance that it will seamlessly
integrate with Microsoft’s business applications, an industry
standard. This partnership is a remarkable opportunity for us
not just to expand our business, but also to contribute more
actively to the development of the IoT market around the
world,” said Beatrice Felder, Executive Vice President, Customer
Experience, IoT and Analytics, Orange Business Services.
T-Systems SA announces considerable
investment in Microsoft Azure
T-Systems South Africa
announced at their InTouch 2017
event that they will be partnering
with Microsoft to offer Azure
services to enterprise customers
across the South African market.
T-Systems is already a global
partner of Microsoft and, with
this new step, will be focusing
on complementing their existing
solutions with Microsoft Azure
cloud services to create additional
value for customers.
Rajan Padayachee, Head of
Solutions, Projects and Portfolio
at T-Systems South Africa says,
“Shortly after we announced
our intention to bring our Open
Telekom Cloud (OTC) to South
Africa, Microsoft announced that
they will be offering Azure from
local data centres in South Africa.
Considering our strong partnership
with them, coupled with the substantial
investments that many of our customers
have already made in Microsoft services,
T-Systems made the decision to
invest in Microsoft’s local Azure cloud,
with the intention to maximise our
customers’ investments and build on
our partnership with Microsoft.”
Zoaib Hoosen, Managing Director
of Microsoft South Africa supports
T-Systems’ investment, stating,
“T-Systems South Africa has been a
longstanding partner of Microsoft for
many years. We view this agreement as
a reaffirmation of both our global and
local partnership, and we give credit to
the value that T-Systems’ brings, with
both their extensive cloud experience
and their existing partnerships with
other entrenched business critical
solution vendors.”
Rajan Padayachee, Head of Solutions,
Projects and Portfolio, T-Systems
South Africa
10. NEWS
10 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
Vodacom’s IoT division passes three
million connections milestone
Vodacom continues to lead in
the Internet of Things (IoT), now
connecting more than three million
‘things’ in South Africa and averaging
55,000 new connections per month.
Deon Liebenberg, Managing Executive
for Vodacom IoT says “Vodacom is
pioneering the next wave of connected
things in South Africa. It’s worth noting
that it took us eight years to get to two
million connections and it took us only
one year to get to three million. The
rate of IoT adoption is picking up speed
locally and with the commercial roll-out
of NarrowBand-IoT, this is only going to
accelerate even faster. The Internet of
Things is no longer hype – it’s real and
it’s becoming more and more a part of
our daily lives.”
In February this year, Vodafone
announced that it had become the first
global IoT mobile provider to exceed
50 million connections, demonstrating
growth of around one million new
connections a month, with particularly
strong performance in the automotive,
healthcare and utilities sectors. Vodacom
opened a Narrowband Internet of
Things (NB-IoT) laboratory at its
Vodacom World campus in June to
commercialise machine-to-machine
and IoT systems using Narrowband low
power. Vodacom announced in 2016
that it had started its NB-IoT network
build and it continues to invest in the
expansion of its IoT offering, a key
strategic growth area.
XON and NEC Africa to launch Africa’s
physical and cyber defence centre
XON and NEC Africa will launch their joint
Cyber Defence Operation Centre (CDOC)
on 6 November. The centre will be the
only such facility from a single service
provider in Africa that offers end-to-end
physical and cyber defence services,
with all the underlying IT infrastructure
necessary for a turnkey solution.
The key difference between this and
other similar operations is the bridged
physical and cybersecurity services
combined into a single service focused
on safety and security for organisations
ranging from state entities to individual
commercial operations.
XON and NEC Africa’s centre will provide
world-class service in Africa, from Africa,
and also integrates the dependable
solutions and services of XON’s
enterprise-class systems integration
business for the complete solution.
“Our customers get the full range of
services and solutions from creating
data centres to field infrastructure and
services, even including alternative
energy, and the networks that connect
everything,” says Bertus Marais, GM
of Public Safety and Security at XON.
“The CDOC unites the worlds of
physical and cybersecurity and includes
analytics and biometrics systems. The
individual services are too numerous
to mention but range from access and
perimeter control and surveillance
to fingerprinting, iris recognition, to
big data analytics to provide facial
recognition at scale, crowd behaviour
monitoring and control, and then
the increasingly crucial cybersecurity
technologies and services.
“Our primary goal in these solutions
and services is to ensure the safety of
people,” concludes Marais.
Bertus Marais, GM of Public Safety and
Security, XON
12. NEWS
12 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
SITA is providing its world-class
passenger and baggage processing
technology as well as its airport
management solutions to Ghana’s
new Terminal 3 at Kotoka International
Airport in Accra, helping cement the
airport’s position as a vital regional hub.
Ghana’s largest airport is expanding its
capacity to meet significant growth in
international passenger traffic, increasing
the airport’s capacity to five million
passengers a year. The country’s aviation
industry has witnessed significant
growth over the past decade due to the
discovery of petroleum and gas reserves,
sustained domestic demand and the
growth of the tourism sector.
SITA, the global air transport IT provider,
has worked closely with both MAPA,
the construction company building
the new terminal, and Ghana Airports
Hurricane Electric expands global
network to East Africa Data Centre
Hurricane Electric, the world’s leading IPv6-native Internet
backbone, has announced that it has added a new point of
presence (PoP) in Nairobi at the East Africa Data Centre. This
is Hurricane Electric’s first PoP in Kenya and third in Africa.
The East Africa Data Centre is one of the most connected
facilities in the region and boasts long distance fibre routes
to Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia and
Somalia. Covering 2,000m2
across four floors, the carrier-
neutral data centre offers N+1 cooling and power for its
tenants as well as parallel UPS systems and N+1 diesel
generators to maintain uptime.
With the launch of Hurricane Electric’s newest PoP, customers
of the East Africa Data Centre and others in the area now
have a variety of new connectivity options as well as the
ability to improve fault tolerance, load balancing, congestion
management and transit of next-generation IPv6 traffic.
The Nairobi PoP also provides access to Hurricane Electric’s
extensive IPv4 and IPv6 network through 100GE (100
Gigabit Ethernet), 10GE (10 Gigabit Ethernet) and GigE (1
Gigabit Ethernet) ports and as a result, both new and existing
customers will be able to experience increased throughput,
reduced latency and improved reliability.
Mike Leber, President, Hurricane Electric said, “Because the
region is so well connected, Nairobi has proven itself to be
an important technological hub for Kenya and beyond. Our
newest site will allow customers of East Africa Data Centre
to tap into the bandwidth and reach of Hurricane Electric’s
rich global network and we are grateful for the opportunity to
support them.”
SITA tech to drive expansion at Ghana’s
new international terminal
Company Limited (GACL), the airport
operator, to ensure that the new terminal
has the most up to date technology
to support the country’s modern
airport infrastructure. SITA already
provides technology for terminals 1
and 2 at Kotoka International Airport
and will ensure that its world-class
technology is fully integrated with the
existing terminals from day one. SITA is
deploying its latest passenger processing
technology including common use check
in desks and self-service check in kiosks,
allowing the airport to maximise its
capacity by enabling airlines to cost-
effectively share the same infrastructure.
The airport will also make use of SITA’s
state of the art Baggage Management
technology that will assist airlines in
tracking bags every step of the way.
On the operational side, SITA’s Airport
Management Solution will simplify
Image taken from the Terminal 3 SOD
cutting at Kotoka International Airport
planning and operational control,
and facilitate collaborative decision-
making, data management and analysis
in Terminal 3 and across the entire
airport. It will also support revenue
management with its billing and
reporting functionality. n
13. 13www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
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Download White Paper here
C
loud computing has become so
omnipresent that organizations are
adopting it at almost every layer of
their business. While these cloud investments
deliver immeasurable benefits, they’ve also had
unintended side effects, creating complexity
and introducing risk.
This cloud sprawl is a major IT pain
point. With cloud services sourced from
multiple vendors, security is inconsistent,
user experience is variable, and access is
fragmented. But there is a long-term solution:
a unified, secure digital workspace.
It’s a Multi-Cloud World
Organizations see innumerable benefits of
working in the cloud.
In 2016, Gartner estimates that in the third
quarter, 20% to 25% of business users were
provisioned, in whole or in part, with office
system capabilities from the cloud. By 2018, we
PRESENTED BY
MANAGING CLOUD SPRAWL IN THE
AGE OF CLOUD SERVICES
expect that percentage to double. By 2021, it
will grow to at least 70%.
As companies recognize the benefits of cloud
services, it’s resulted in a “multi-cloud” business
world, with IT departments adopting multiple
cloud service providers for a variety of needs.
• Attractive TCO and OpEx Financials Lower with
cloud services than traditional non-cloud IT.
• Elasticity Scale to needs without
added overhead.
• Continuity and Line-of-Business Access Data
backup, redundancy, high availability, security,
and convenient worldwide access.
• Agility Resources accessed and released into
the cloud.
• Simplicity Low administration overhead, ease
of use, and effective installation.
• Self-Service Provision storage outside of an
external cloud service provider.
• Consumerized User Experience BYOD (bring
your own device) and consumer
applications welcome. n
LATEST INTELLIGENCE
15. 15www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
LATEST INTELLIGENCE
How Citrix meets customers anywhere along the
journey to the cloud
The adoption of cloud services poses dilemmas for companies
at every stage of their journey. At the outset, all-or-nothing
solutions can force IT to commit prematurely to a single
vendor, roadmap or timeframe. As more cloud services enter
the environment, complexity rises for users and IT alike, as
users confront a fragmented experience, and IT struggles to
secure, monitor and manage it all.
Whatever your cloud strategy or desired level of adoption, a
few requirements are already clear: the flexibility to adopt the
cloud services you want, when you want; the freedom to use
any combination of on-premises and cloud resources from
any vendor; and simple ways to activate, secure, manage
and optimize diverse cloud services so that your entire cloud
journey delivers the best results for your users and your
business. Citrix helps companies address the issues around
cloud services adoption at every stage of their journey.
• A unique hybrid approach allows complete flexibility for
customers to blend both onpremises and cloud services in
alignment with their requirements and priorities to deliver a
unified workspace.
• Integrated tools for operations, migration, onboarding and
monitoring enable customers to increase and extend the
reach and value of their cloud strategy over time.
• Integrated analytics give administrators deep insight into
usage, security, performance and user experience.
While each company’s journey to the cloud will follow a
unique path, Citrix helps ensure complete flexibility, freedom
and simplicity at each step along the way. n
CLOUD WORKSPACE SERVICES:
ADOPTION MADE SIMPLE
Download White Papers free from http://www.intelligentcio.com/africa/white-papers/
16. Gartner survey
confirms the
changing role
of the CIO
Gartner’s latest
survey gathered
data from a record
number of CIO
respondents and
reveals the ways in
which the role of the
CIO is evolving with
the digital business.
TRENDING
16 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
17. D
igitalisation and technological
innovation are changing the
nature of the job of the CIO.
Leaders are rapidly scaling their digital
businesses, making the remainder of
this year and 2018 a defining moment
for CIOs who don’t want to be left
behind. Gartner’s annual global survey
of CIOs showed that the CIO role is
transitioning from delivery executive to
business executive; from controlling cost
and engineering processes, to driving
revenue and exploiting data.
Gartner analysts presented the survey
findings during Gartner Symposium/
ITxpo. The Gartner 2018 CIO Agenda
Survey gathered data from a record
number of 3,160 CIO respondents in
98 countries and all major industries,
representing approximately $13 trillion
in revenue/public sector budgets and
$277 billion in IT spending. For the
purposes of the survey, respondents
were categorised as top, typical and
trailing performers in digitalisation.
The survey results show that 95% of
CIOs expect their jobs to change or be
remixed due to digitalisation. While
world-class IT delivery management is
a given, it will take up less and less of
the CIO’s time. Respondents believe
that the two biggest transformations
in the CIO role will be becoming a
change leader, followed by assuming
increased and broader responsibilities
and capabilities. Inevitably, the
job of CIO will extend beyond the
traditional delivery roles to other areas
of the business, such as innovation
management and talent development.
“The CIO’s role must grow and develop
as digital business spreads, and disruptive
technologies, including intelligent
machines and advanced analytics, reach
the masses,” said Andy Rowsell-Jones,
Vice President and Distinguished Analyst
at Gartner. “While delivery is still a part of
the job, much greater emphasis is being
placed on attaining a far broader set of
business objectives.”
Respond to trends
The survey showed that a majority
of CIOs say that technology trends,
specifically cybersecurity and artificial
intelligence (AI), will significantly
change how they do their jobs in the
near future. Cybersecurity continues to
threaten the global landscape in 2018,
and 95% of CIOs surveyed said they
expect cybersecurity threats to increase
and impact their organisation.
“In response to these concerns, the
survey found that digital security ranks
high on the CIO agenda as 35% of
respondents said they have already
invested and deployed some aspect
of digital security, and 36% are in the
process of planning to implement some
form of digital security,” said Rowsell-
Jones. “CIOs are also increasingly
adopting AI in their organisations.
Predominantly, AI is being used initially
either to boost the customer experience
or to fight fraud.”
CIOs surveyed rank AI, followed by
digital security and the Internet of
Things (IoT), as the most problematic
technologies to implement. Survey
respondents agree that the most
common pain point is the fact that
these technologies, particularly AI,
demand new skills, some of which can
be hard to find.
“There is a general notion with AI that
there will be job losses,” said Santhosh
Rao, Principal Research Analyst at
Gartner, “Whilst this will be the case
across some industries, in the long run AI
is going to be good because it’s going
to create new business models which
will in turn create new jobs. As these new
technologies emerge you will see the
existing task force reskilling themselves.”
The survey found that growth is the
No. 1 CIO priority for 2018, as reported
by 26% of CIOs. The use of digitised
products and services is expected to
drive new forms of revenue, business
value and engagement of customers
and citizens. The challenge for CIOs is
how to grow it to deliver economies of
scope and scale.
Rao believes CEOs are now seriously
banking on the CIO to look at digital
transformation as a new source of
revenue generation, “The technologies
that would enable this particular
transformation is what their investment is
going to be on. The CIOs are now looking
to invest primarily in five key areas: BI
analytics, cloud services, IoT, mobility
“In this new world,CIO success
is not based on what they
build,but the services that
they integrate.”
Andy Rowsell-Jones, Vice President
and Distinguished Analyst, Gartner
TRENDING
17www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
18. and cybersecurity. Investing in these give
technologies enables you to create new
business models, new delivery models
and new revenue opportunities.”
“CIOs are on the road from digital
experimentation to digital scaling,” said
Rowsell-Jones. “However, a wall exists
between those early digital experiments
and pilots, and those that have achieved
digital scale. Perhaps the biggest brick
in that wall is organisational culture.
CIOs need to identify the cultural
behaviours that currently exist and what
the future state vision is. In doing so,
they must recognise existing cultural
strengths and position cultural change
as ‘the next chapter,’ rather than a
massive overhaul, to respect employees’
contributions and invite them to come
along on the journey.”
Define the role –
focus attention beyond IT
At least 84% of top CIOs surveyed
have responsibility for areas of the
business outside traditional IT. The
most common are innovation and
transformation. When asked about
their success criteria, top CIOs report
they are already close to the ideal split
where more focus of their performance
metrics is on business outcomes rather
than IT delivery. Based on the top
CIOs’ responses, the ideal balance is
56% of metrics related to business
outcomes, such as revenue growth,
business margins and influencing
business strategy, and 44% related to
IT delivery.
The survey found that CIOs are spending
more time on the business executive
elements of their jobs compared with
three years ago. In fact, CIOs from top
performing organisations are spending
up to four days more on executive
leadership. The more mature an
enterprise’s digital business is, the more
likely the CIO will report to the CEO.
Rao believes that shadow IT is also
going to increasingly change the job
role of the CIO, “A lot of IT-related work
is being independently carried out by
the business unit, without the CIO being
aware. This means the modern CIO has
to act as a service broker. They have to
ensure control, how do put back that
control to the CIO? Work with the BUs
and understand what they need and
get into an enterprise agreement with
the vendors. Let the BUs understand
the service broker will help you design,
maintain and manage that environment.”
In a change from previous surveys,
respondents were asked to name the
top differentiating technologies (in
previous years they were asked about
investment levels). Business intelligence
(BI) and analytics still retain the top
spot on the list, with top performers
most likely to consider them strategic.
“This new focus represents an
opportunity for the CIO to become more
deeply involved in this differentiating
technology,” said Rowsell-Jones. “Data
and insight drive the creation, delivery
and life cycle of digital products and
services. Flow of information in the
context of user interactions leads to
better engagement and value creation
for all parties. Analytics connect the CIO
and the IT organisation to far-flung
parts of the organisation where they
can cultivate new relationships.”
Implement the new role
79% of CIOs report that digital business
is making their IT organisations more
‘change ready’, which suggests that
now is a good time to implement
change to the IT organisations, and, in
turn, should make the transition to the
new job of the CIO easier.
The first part of the new job of the CIO
is to build the required bench strength
to scale the enterprise’s digital business
through support for the digital ecosystem.
This means hiring new resources to put
in place the right digital team structures.
Some CIOs favour a separate digital team
while others make digitalisation part
of the day job of IT and the enterprise.
However, 71% of the top performers
have a separate digital team to help them
scale their digitalisation efforts.
Rao predicts that the following new job
roles will emerge in response to digital
transformation; Chief Digital Officer,
Algorithm Designers, API Product
Managers and Digital Risk Managers.
“Right now, CIOs have their plate full,
they have to play dual roles – that of
both the CIO and the Chief Digital
Officer. This is not sustainable. The CIO
needs to appoint someone from within
or outside the business to fulfil these
new skill sets,” said Rao.
“The effects of digitalisation are
profound. The impact on the job of
CIO and on the IT organisation itself
should not be underestimated,” said
Rowsell-Jones. “In this new world, CIO
success is not based on what they build,
but the services that they integrate.
The IT organisation will move from
manufacturer to buyer, and the CIO
will become an expert orchestrator of
services. The real finding though is that
this is happening now, today. CIOs must
start scaling their digital business and
changing their own jobs with it now.” n
Santhosh Rao, Principal Research
Analyst, Gartner
“Leaders are
rapidly scaling
their digital
businesses,making
the remainder of
this year and 2018
a defining moment
for CIOs who don’t
want to be left
behind.”
18 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
TRENDING
19.
20. 20 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
TANZANIA
Rural areas across Tanzania are now ready for electricity. Through the Rural Electrification
Densification Programme 303 villages close to an existing line will be connected; some of these
villages have been under the line for more than 20 years waiting to be connected to electricity.
Implementation is now ongoing, and the embassy visited some of the villages under the
programme in the Mbeya and Songwe regions on 5 and 6 October. Progress is good, and the
potential number of connections is four times what the programme was designed for. The
embassy considers that a great success.
LATEST REGIONAL
PROJECT UPDATE
20 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
TANZANIA
PROJECT LATEST
BENIN
The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the West African Power Pool (WAPP) have
initiated plans to build a second 330 kilovolt (kV) transmission line to boost electricity supply to
the Republic of Benin by 2021.
The Interim Managing Director of TCN and Chairman, WAPP, Usman Gur Mohammed, said
the transmission section of Nigeria’s power sector was also targeting to attain 20,000
megawatts transmission capacity within the next three years. He said: “The second 330kV
Ikeja West transmission line to Sakete in Benin Republic is necessary as the first could soon be
constrained by the demand for more power from the Nigerian grid increase.”
According to him, the TCN has also embarked on a nationwide installation of transmission
transformers with three installed in Lagos last week, two scheduled for the north and another
three scheduled for the Port Harcourt region shortly.
BENIN
21. 21www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
21INTELLIGENTCIOwww.intelligentcio.com
PROJECT LATEST
KENYA
Liquid Telecom Kenya has announced a 10-year partnership with Kenya Electricity
Transmission Company Limited (KETRACO) to operate KETRACO’s Optical Ground Wire
fibre cable and expand the Internet network across East Africa.
The partnership will begin by upgrading fibre connections to Kenyan areas already
connected to the national grid with high voltage lines of 132kV and above. It will then
extend fibre connections to remote areas of Kenya and neighbouring countries such as
Ethiopia, South Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Eastern Congo and Burundi.
More countries in East Africa are now moving to leverage their power transmission
infrastructure to carry Internet data on the earthing cable already used to transmit power
regulation data.
UGANDA
Building Energy has announced the inauguration of the Tororo Solar Plant, its
first photovoltaic system in Uganda. With a capacity of 10 MWp, this plant
is among the largest in Eastern Africa. The beginning of operations has been
celebrated at the ribbon cutting ceremony in Tororo, in the presence of Matteo
Brambilla, MD Africa and Middle East at Building Energy, and Attilio Pacifici, EU
Ambassador and Head of the EU Delegation to Uganda.
The Tororo solar plant will generate around 16 GWh of energy annually,
catering to the energy needs of more than 35,838 people. In addition, the plant
will foster clean industrial development in the town of Tororo and at the same
time save atmospheric emissions of more than 7,200 tonnes of CO2 per year.
Community development initiatives are also underway.
UGANDA
KENYA
22. 22 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
COMMENT
W
e now find ourselves steeped
in the fourth Industrial
Revolution – an era that
could potentially see every one of us,
and every piece of machinery we use,
seamlessly networked together. Every
aspect of our lives, from our classroom
experiences to our daily commute, is
being digitised as we move inexorably
towards the smart city paradigm.
But unlike the jetpacks and flying cars
we looked forward to in the 1980s,
smart cities are not only more viable,
but are taking shape around us as you
read this.
Wireless
wayfinding:
roadmap for the
aspiring smart city
The smart city awaits; Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice
President at InfiNet Wireless discusses the importance
of laying the correct foundations that enable smart
cities to revolutionise everyday life.
The way forward
So, what is the blueprint for the smart
society? What constitutes best practice?
And how can we ensure the foundations
are sound enough to support value-
adding solutions that revolutionise
everyday life?
The first thing to recognise is that legacy
cable infrastructures can only take the
smart city pioneer so far. Many of the
unique selling points of smart cities
involve the necessary feature of mobility.
Traffic optimisation, automated public
safety and remote health monitoring are
just three examples where key elements
of the ecosystem (such as vehicles, CCTV
cameras, people, etc.) can be anywhere,
with data made available to/from them
in real time. Hard-wired solutions severely
hamper the delivery of such solutions.
In addition, these cabled solutions
are extraordinarily disruptive in their
deployment, requiring significant
undertakings from the perspectives of
both civil engineering and the public
purse. Both factors also amount to
considerable lifespans for cabling
projects, thereby dampening the
momentum of smart city initiatives.
23. 23www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
COMMENT
The report also states that smartphone
adoption reached 28% in 2016, which
is expected to increase to 50% by 2020.
Figures like these call out for diligence
when selecting wireless platforms
built for the future, as many smart
city solutions involve continuous data
feedback to/from citizens, as well
as municipal authorities. Certainly,
significant capacity is required to serve
the rising numbers of connected citizens
and their associated mobile devices.
Always-on reliability is a standard
assumption among solutions providers
and government innovators. And
flexibility in configuration is also a must,
so that policy-makers and enterprises
can respond quickly to unexpected shifts
in citizens’ behaviour.
An effective smart infrastructure also
needs to enable split-second decision
making, in the order of 3ms or lower
for most known applications today.
Adopting a 3G platform with latencies
in excess of 100ms, clearly will not meet
the stringent requirements of anything
‘smart’. And 4G networks only reach 50
or 60ms in latency. Even 5G, projected
to deliver response times of between
1 and 5ms, will be delivered as a series
of shared networks, used by millions of
consumers and businesses, coming with
all the known bottlenecks at different
times of the day.
Quality of service
A suitable, quality of service, mobile
Internet solution needs to be IP-
based, provide guaranteed delivery
of each and every packet and be
capable of connecting seamlessly to
any data source and any current or
future sensors. Consider the CCTV-
based public safety system mentioned
earlier. Real-time image-processing is
computationally expensive. Low latency,
reliability of data transfer and fast
processing capabilities come together
to deliver features such as instant facial
recognition, automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR) and a host of other
crowd-based analytics services that
ultimately translate into safer and more
secure environments.
The above examples also illustrate the
need for any smart infrastructure to
mitigate interference and radio noise,
especially as the number of wireless
networks will undoubtedly increase
within the fledgling smart city as more
services are rolled out. Failure to do so
will lead to a degradation in accuracy
and reliability of the data transfers.
The more interference there is, the less
desirable the results from real time
analytics engines.
Stay the course
Our journey towards the smart cities
of tomorrow must be less of a sprint
and more of a methodical march.
Healthcare, education, security and
public safety all await the innovators.
Their solutions – if built on the back of a
robust, flexible, responsive and reliable
wireless platform – will usher in that
new smart city age for which we have
all been waiting. n
Kamal Mokrani, Global Vice President,
InfiNet Wireless
Wireless presents itself as an obvious
candidate for any government intent
on crafting its own smart city. But
care must be taken when selecting
the platform on which all future smart
solutions will be built. Choose the wrong
one and visionary advances could
quickly grind to a halt.
Mobile matters
According to GSMA Intelligence’s
Mobile Economy 2017 report, mobile
Internet subscriber penetration in sub-
Saharan Africa reached 44% in 2016
and is projected to top 50% by 2020.
“Every aspect of
our lives,from
our classroom
experiences to our
daily commute,is
being digitised.”
“Our journey
towards the smart
cities of tomorrow
must be less of a
sprint and more of a
methodical march.”
24. 24 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
COMMENT
T
he world is changing at rapid
speeds as new regulations come
into play, customer expectations
change and global competition grows.
To keep up, African organisations are
under pressure to modernise ageing
legacy systems as well as to automate
manual business processes.
That begins with implementing a new-
age business management system,
which can in turn provide a solid
foundation on top of solutions such as
3D printing, advanced robotics, artificial
intelligence (AI) and the Internet of
Things which can be deployed. The real
challenge that most organisations will
face as they roll-out these technologies
lies in reskilling the workforce and
bringing about cultural change.
Let’s start by considering the business
management solution – a more
agile and future-ready evolution of
enterprise resource planning (ERP)
software. Where traditional ERP was
slow and disruptive to implement,
slow to deliver return on investment
and inflexible, today’s solutions are
powerful, adaptable and quick to pay for
themselves. Today, you can get a cloud-
based business management solution
up-and-running in a matter of months.
Sweeping away silos
However, the success of the
implementation lies in how successfully
the enterprise prepares its workforce
to use the new system. Implementing
Managing digital
culture shock as you
implement the next
wave of technology
The CIO, HR director and other members of
the C-suite must work closely together to
seize the opportunities the next wave of digital
technologies has to offer, explains Keith Fenner,
VP, Sage Enterprise Africa and Middle East.
an integrated business management
platform will erase many of the
technology and data silos in the
business, allowing it to coordinate
processes across divisions and
departments in an integrated way.
But if the people don’t use the solution
as they should, the organisation will
not gain the full benefits of integration
of processes and systems across the
enterprise, a single view of corporate
data, and better process discipline. To
get it right, the business needs to not
only train people in how to use the
system, but also help them understand
their role in the overall business process.
Automating processes will also change
many job descriptions and require
workers to learn new skills. In some
cases, process workers will see their roles
change as paperwork is digitised. In
others, workers will need to leverage data
from the system to make operational
decisions. That’s why end users should
be involved in the implementation, and
why adoption marketing and change
management are key.
Digital revolution is
just beginning
Looking to the future, it is important
for the CIO, the HR director and other
members of the C-suite to work closely
together to seize the opportunities the
next wave of digital technologies offer to
serve the workforce and the business. As
much as digital technology has already
changed the world, we are just in the
early stages of the digital revolution.
Connected devices and sensors,
cloud computing, advanced robotics,
intelligent software, and a range
of other technologies will enable
companies to automate more and
more of the tasks humans have done
on factory floors, in financial call
centres and even in hospitality and
retail. Against this backdrop, where
many traditional job roles will change
or disappear, managing digital culture
shock will be essential to success.
Humans and machines
working together
For example, how do we manage a
workforce comprised of a pool of full-
time employees, a growing contingent
of freelancers, contractors and on-
demand labour services, and smart
machines and AI? In this world, many old
hierarchies and job descriptions no longer
exist – what does that mean for the
customer experience and the employee
experience? How do we reskill a process
worker for a world where they’ll need to
be entrepreneurial and creative?
These are challenging questions, but we
are living in a time of exciting possibilities
for organisations and their workforces.
It is up to each enterprise to take
advantage of the opportunities the next
wave of digital technologies present, and
to use the newest tools and solutions to
maximise the potential of its people. n
Keith Fenner, Vice President, Sage
Enterprise Africa and Middle East
27. 27www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
EDITOR'S NOTE
EDITOR’S
NOTE
MARKETING | EVENTS | PUBLISHING
ANALYTICS | PR | DESIGN | ARABISATION
PUBLICATION
ISSUE 10 // www.intelligentcio.com
Intelligent
Cabling Partner
Intelligent
Manufacturing Partner
Intelligent
Education Partner
Intelligent
Security Partner
Providing Unparalleled Technology Intelligence
AFRICA
PROJECT LATEST | INTELLIGENT CABLING | INTELLIGENT DATA CENTRES
TRANSFORMINGCOLLABORATION
ANDPERFORMANCEWITHNEW
CLOUDPLATFORM
Elize Neethling, Tradebridge’s Head of Group Information Security and Technology,
explains how Riverbed’s SteelHead SaaS platform boosted the company’s
productivity, enhanced user experience and enabled maximum availability.
ChangingroleoftheCIO
How the CIO is evolving with the digital workplace
PoPiasabusinessdifferentiator
Extracting even greater value from your business data
BYODisredefiningbusiness
Embracing the benefits of the mobile workforce
W
elcome to Issue 10 of
Intelligent CIO Africa.
When South Africa’s
Tradebridge was struggling with
decreased user experience and
productivity, technical evaluations
identified Riverbed’s SteelHead SaaS
as the ideal solution. For this month’s
cover story, Tradebridge’s Head of
Group Information Security and
Technology, Elize Neethling, explains
how adopting the new cloud platform
has transformed the organisation.
Digitalisation is a global whirlwind that
is leaving nothing in its path untouched,
and this includes job roles. In a recent
study conducted by Gartner, the ways
in which the digital business is changing
the role of the CIO were identified. The
research offered an interesting insight
into which technology trends CIOs find
the most challenging to implement,
which they predict as most affecting
their job roles in the near future and the
increasing responsibilities CIOs now have
outside of IT. The results of the research
can be found in this month’s ‘Trending’
section along with some additional
insight from two Gartner analysts.
At this year’s GITEX, the two ‘hot topics’
of focus were digital transformation and
smart cities, both of which rely on the
appropriate infrastructure to achieve
a successful implementation. In this
month’s ‘Comment’ section, Infinet’s
Kamal Mokrani focuses on the smart
cities of tomorrow and how laying the
correct foundations now for a highly-
digitised world will enable the smart city
age that we’ve all been waiting for.
The focus on digital transformation
extends beyond GITEX to a recent
BT survey which revealed that whilst
digital transformation is high on CEO’s
agenda, 86% of CEOs are struggling to
deliver the ideal infrastructure on which
their digital programmes rely. With
this in mind, for this month’s ‘Editor’s
Question’ we ask industry experts
about the current barriers to digital
transformation in Africa and how CIOs
can overcome these.
Whilst technology is enabling many
efficiencies across the world, in countries
such as Tanzania, it is enabling access
to life-changing services such as rural
healthcare. In this month’s ‘Country
Focus’ we explore the ways in which
technology is enhancing the daily lives
of Tanzanians, from access to banking
to preparing the country’s youth for the
digital future with live coding workshops.
To round off this issue, we ‘Get to Know’
Marko Salic, the CEO of South Africa’s
Argility. He tells us about his natural
transition into the IT industry and why
IoT and AI are at the top of the list for
this year’s technology trends.
I hope you enjoy the read. As ever, if
you would like to contribute to future
editions please contact me at:
emily@lynchpinmedia.co.uk.
Editor
28. 28 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
TALKING BUSINESS
W
hen Tim Berners-Lee
declared data to be the
“new raw material of the
21st century” back in 2011, he was
perfectly describing the direction many
economies were heading in – from
industry to insights and intelligence.
But in the six years since, data has defied
the economic principles that many
commodities adhere to: unlike other
raw materials, the more plentiful the
data the more valuable it becomes. It is
coveted like precious metals and valued
accordingly for its power to drive the
insights that help transform businesses.
The data a company owns can help it
to cut costs, open up new markets and
identify new business; it can make the
difference between taking the lead
or seeing rivals overtake it. As such,
data has a value that shouldn’t just
Data
governance
regulations
are an
opportunity
rather than
a challenge
for SA
organisations
Data protection
regulation is likely to
continue evolving,
and a clear view of
how data moves
across the business
will be critical to
staying on top of
change, explains
Dragan Petkovic,
Security Product
Leader ECEMEA at
Oracle South Africa.
be acknowledged, but recorded and
accounted for. Data-rich businesses are
being acquired not for what they do, but
for what they know, while exchanges
trading in data have become profitable
businesses in their own right, in the
same way as exchanges that trade in
metals, currencies and more.
Just as a business’s finances are
carefully recorded, detailed, audited and
regulated, the recognition of data is
reaching a similar point of maturity. The
financial good governance of a business
is inextricably linked to its value, and the
same can be said of data governance.
Now, the uses of data have reached
such a level of value to businesses that
it is becoming subject to more stringent
standards and controls to safeguard
its value and availability, which also
ensures its responsible usage.
29. 29www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
TALKING BUSINESS
“The uses of data
have reached such
a level of value to
businesses that it
is becoming subject
to more stringent
standards and
controls to
safeguard its value
and availability.”
“Companies
mustfurther
takemeasures
toidentify
risks,maintain
safeguards
againstsuchrisks,
andensurethat
thesesafeguards
arecontinually
updatedinresponse
tonewrisks.”
Personal data: responsibility lies
with the business
In South Africa, the Protection of
Personal Information Act (PoPI)
enshrines the constitutional right to
privacy by safeguarding personal
information through regulating the way
in which it is processed, and providing
individuals with recourse should their
personal information not be processed
in accordance with the regulation.
Section 19 of the Act, which deals
with security safeguards, states that
organisations must take appropriate
measures to protect personal information
against unlawful access or processing,
as well as loss, damage, or unauthorised
destruction. Companies must further
take measures to identify risks, maintain
safeguards against such risks, and ensure
that these safeguards are continually
updated in response to new risks.
Businesses are further responsible
for keeping their security and data
protection up to date and to make sure
anybody who handles data on their
behalf – whether internal employees or
external suppliers – does the same.
Data-driven opportunities
for growth
The crafting of such regulation in
South Africa – and across many
countries around the world – are in
response to a growing digital economy,
where personal data is moving faster,
further and more freely than ever.
Furthermore, rapid advancements
in artificial intelligence and machine
learning are giving businesses the
ability to automate processes across
the organisation and extract even
greater value from the data that they
have. This is made possible through the
maturation of cloud computing at the
infrastructure, platform and software
level, giving businesses the ability to
extract, collate and analyse data at
incredible volumes and speed – even
from across previously disparate systems
– and fully explore the potential and
value of their data.
Companies should view PoPI as an
opportunity to better align their
organisations; data protection regulation
is likely to continue evolving, and a clear
view of how data moves across the
business will be critical to staying on top
of change. While it may be enough for
companies to merely comply with the
regulations, taking a long-term view
can help them work more efficiently
and differentiate themselves in a highly
competitive market. n
Dragan Petkovic, Security Product
Leader ECEMEA, Oracle South Africa
30. 30 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
TALKING BUSINESS
P
ure Storage, the market’s leading
independent all-flash data
platform vendor for the cloud era,
has announced the results of Evolution
2017, a groundbreaking independent
global research survey that explores
the ways businesses in the Middle
East and Africa (MEA) and across the
globe are balancing infrastructure and
applications, today and beyond.
The global research, which included
a survey of 500 IT decision makers
in the MEA region, finds that 73% of
businesses in the region are committed
to being information-based companies,
and as such are embracing digital
transformation. The key factors driving
adoption of digital solutions in the
region include new business models
(52%), need for faster innovation
(47%), customer demand (47%),
competition (43%), new customer
acquisition (43%) and cost saving
initiatives (42%).
It’s clear that businesses in the region
are facing digital transformation head-
on, as 77% see more demand in the
business for real time analytics and
interactive simulations than a year
ago and digital solutions are typically
driving almost half of revenue (47% on
average) for MEA organisations today.
But despite this growth, technical
complexity (53%) and reliance on IT to
deliver strategy (41%) have prevented
businesses in the MEA region from
truly becoming digital. Public, private
and hybrid cloud, SaaS and traditional
on-premises all have momentum, but
73% of MEA businesses
committed to being
‘information-based’, but
face workload dilemma
A recent survey by Pure Storage reveals
what is holding Middle East and African
businesses back from truly becoming digital.
businesses still lack confidence in where
to place specific workloads:
• On average, businesses in the
MEA region are running 48% of
applications with traditional on-
premises IT – higher than both public
cloud (23%) or private cloud (24%).
• Security (57%), availability (52%)
and performance (47%) are cited
as key drivers for continued use of
traditional on-premises and, as such,
39% of businesses expect their on-
premises usage to grow over the next
18–24 months.
• Although security continues to be
cited as the main concern with public
cloud (38%), 69% of businesses say
they will increase their public cloud
usage in the next 18–24 months.
In parallel, private cloud (57%) and
SaaS (56%) usage are also expected
to grow in the same time frame.
• Interestingly, 76% of businesses in
the MEA region think that cloud and
on-premises should complement one
another rather than compete.
“Evolution 2017 shows that businesses
in the Middle East and Africa are
making significant steps towards
digital transformation, but the report
also reveals some key barriers to
progress. Cloud confusion seems
evident in workload fragmentation
and cloud repatriation. As data
volumes continue to grow and unlock
greater opportunities, managing and
harnessing data with a future-proofed
approach is essential for organisations
in the region,” said James Petter, Vice
President, EMEA at Pure Storage.
“Pure’s vision is to help customers
put their data to work, by delivering
an end-to-end data platform, built
for the cloud era, that provides the
effortless and scalable block, file and
object storage services necessary to run
classic applications, test/dev, big data
analytics, and modern webscale apps
– all with the speed and efficiency of
flash,” concluded James.
As businesses in the MEA region
accelerate in to the ‘cloud era’, Pure
Storage is committed to helping
them gauge where they are in terms
of balancing infrastructure and
applications in their business and
providing guidance on how they can
future-proof their storage infrastructure
to capitalise on opportunities offered by
the cloud. n
“Technical
complexity and
reliance on IT to
deliver strategy
have prevented
businesses in the
MEA region from
truly becoming
digital.”
James Petter, Vice President, EMEA,
Pure Storage
32. BYOD: bring your
own device, or
bring your own
disaster?
Organisations are both reaping the benefits and
suffering the pain points of the mobile workforce.
By implementing the right policies now, businesses
can enable a steady transition to the hyper-
connected future.
T
he concept of BYOD (bring your
own device) is simultaneously
an opportunity and challenge
for CIOs and IT staff. In economies
such as South Africa where companies
don’t necessarily have the money
to standardise on top-tier hardware,
enabling employees to rely on their own
devices saves fortunes on investment,
that’s according to Brian Timperley,
Managing Director and co-founder at
Turrito Networks. He points out that
with BYOD, businesses can ensure their
staff’s connectivity and availability, on
often high-quality devices, without any
capex requirements.
Whilst the initial appeal of BYOD was
pushing the device and connectivity
costs to employees, the flexibility and
choice that BYOD offers has become a
key enabler for improving productivity
and efficiency in the workplace.
Devices can be customised with apps
and productivity tools to improve
employee performance, but BYOD can
also help to achieve overall business
goals, as Ian Jansen van Rensburg,
Senior Manager: Systems Engineering
at VMware Southern Africa says, “Could
your salesforce use their mobile devices
in the field to engage prospects and
customers? Does your organisation’s
global reach make it vital for employees
to receive emails around the clock? Are
your employees interested in teleworking
or alternative work schedules? A BYOD
programme can help streamline business
processes, drive sales and improve
customer engagement.”
CYOD vs BYOD vs COPE
There is a lot of debate surrounding how
mobile devices are functioning in the
enterprise and the best approach for
ensuring you reap the optimal benefits
of this shift. CIOs are currently choosing
from the following approaches: BYOD,
COPE (corporate owned, personally
enabled) and a middle-ground between
the two, CYOD (choose your own device).
BYOD allows employees to use their
personal devices at work. “This might
prove optimal for some companies as it
reduces the responsibility that’s placed on
the business surrounding procurement,
device upgrades and overall support.
Based on the growing consumerisation
of mobility in the workplace, this has
become the most popular option,” says
Jansen Van Rensburg.
COPE devices allow employees in the
field to use one device for both business
and personal use, but the ability of
the IT department to see information
stored within the device can introduce
problems with breach of privacy.
CYOD allows employers to compile a
list of approved devices for employees
to choose from; the employee owns
the device (either paid for personally
or subsidised by the company) but
companies still maintain some control
by eliminating the variability of the
devices that are introduced to the
organisation. This culture-centric
approach provides employees with
an element of choice and freedom
whilst allowing organisations to pre-
FEATURE: BYOD
32 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
34. FEATURE: BYOD
34 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
configure devices with all the necessary
applications for employee productivity
and the protection of sensitive data.
Morey Haber, Vice President of
Technology at BeyondTrust, claims that
the decision of which programme to
use seems to be vertical-based: “For
example, government organisations
are leaning more towards CYOD
since the assets can be controlled
much tighter than BYOD. Non-
regulated verticals with manageable
‘crown jewels’ lean towards BYOD
since mobile devices are used for
communication and not necessarily
access to sensitive information.”
Jansen van Rensburg believes often a
combination of all three allows for the
most efficient management of mobile
environments. He says mobility is not
a one-size-fits-all concept and cost,
security, and work functionalities can
vary drastically between organisations.
BYOD policy
An essential but often overlooked part
of enabling BYOD in your organisation
is the accompanying implementation
of a BYOD policy, as Haber points
out, “If BYOD devices are allowed to
connect without any policies, controls or
restrictions, the outcome will absolutely
be quantifiable as a security threat”.
The requirements of a policy will vary
based on the industry, geographical
and organisational needs but Haber
recommends the following as a base of
any effective BYOD policy:
• Details on acceptable and
inappropriate applications
• No jailbroken or rooted devices
• Geolocation enabled
• Authentication hardening by
password or biometrics (which should
be periodically rotated)
• Sandboxing of sensitive applications
• The ability to remote wipe the device
in case of theft
Jansen van Rensburg points out that a
BYOD policy should also clearly disclose
what the IT department will be able to
see and manage on personal devices, so
there is no fear of personal data being
compromised or exposed.
Whilst a thorough policy is necessary,
Shiraaz Singh, Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions Specialist at Aptronics
warns that “Too much security has the
potential to affect employees’ user
experience, so much so that they may
resort to shadow IT, using unauthorised
apps and unsecured software to get
their work done at all.” BYOD is driven
by the flexibility it offers staff; if this
flexibility is overridden by excessive
regulation and monitoring it may
well lose its appeal to employees
altogether. It’s about finding the
balance, and again, this will vary
between organisations and the type of
programme implemented (BYOD, COPE
or CYOD).
Security in the age of BYOD
Despite all the benefits that BYOD can
bring an organisation surrounding
employee productivity, satisfaction and
mobility, it brings with it cybersecurity
“The mobile
revolution
has redefined
business. It is hard
now to imagine not
being equipped
with at least one or
two mobile devices
as essential
working tools.”
Elma du Plessis, Channel Manager
at Securicom
Brian Timperley, Managing Director and
co-founder, Turrito Networks
Ian Jansen van Rensburg, Senior
Manager: Systems Engineering,
VMware Southern Africa
35. FEATURE: BYOD
35www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
“In the era of BYOD,
merging the needs
of the enterprise
with the demands
of its users is a
delicate balance.”
challenges that lead CIOs to often refer
to it as ‘bring your own disaster’.
As Timperley explains, “You can build
huge walls protecting your network
from outside threats but when someone
brings a threat in, the results can be
catastrophic. The challenges are never
ending; there are disparate devices with
disparate operating systems, all doing
updates and changing constantly. When
one vulnerability is fixed another will
probably open up in the near future.”
So, what do organisations need to
do to reap the benefits of the mobile
workforce whilst ensuring company data
and networks are protected?
Singh recommends micro-
segmentation as a modern weapon
against the vulnerabilities that
mobility presents. “In the era of BYOD,
merging the needs of the enterprise
with the demands of its users is a
delicate balance. Using workspace
technology on mobile devices makes
it much easier. Installable apps
are used to create ‘containers’ on
employee’s personal devices so that
organisations can provide a secure
and controllable environment for
them to work on. Unlike intrusive
mobile device management solutions
that take control of the entire device,
containerisation is uniquely suited
to BYOD environments because it
segregates and protects company data
without interfering with personal data
on the same device.
“This gives IT admins the ability to
aggregate all devices, applications
and services and deliver them in an
encrypted, policy-aligned container
within personal devices. IT and policy
management extend only to the
container’s contents, which reside in
complete isolation from the rest of
the device. If a device is lost, stolen or
compromised, IT can wipe company-
specific applications and data without
disturbing personal assets.”
Timperley also advises companies not
to overlook the highly-effective and
easy to implement security solution of
Morey Haber, Vice President of
Technology, BeyondTrust
encryption. When devices containing
corporate information are taken outside
of the workplace there is an increased
risk of the device being lost or stolen. If
the data is encrypted then the hugely
detrimental occurrence of emails,
contacts, notes etc ending up in the
wrong hands is mitigated.
It’s equally as important to ensure
corporate data remains within the
company once an employee leaves the
organisation, particularly a disgruntled
one. This is another instance where
the ability to remote wipe a device
becomes imperative to an organisation.
Elma du Plessis, Channel Manager
at Securicom suggests a mobility
management solution as the best way
to enforce compliance and ensure that
any sensitive data can be removed
from the device when an employee
leaves the company.
Future of BYOD
A mobile workforce is an unavoidable
future, as Jansen van Rensburg says, “The
mobile revolution has redefined business.
It is hard now to imagine not being
equipped with at least one or two mobile
devices as essential working tools.”
To prepare for this hyper-connected
future, IT departments must ensure
their network architecture can handle
the increase in Wi-Fi traffic and that
their existing device management
platform can scale to accommodate
management of employee devices.
As well as technological requirements,
those working within the IT department
will also be expected to have a more
in-depth knowledge of and ability to
manage and troubleshoot a variety of
different devices.
Securicom’s du Plessis believes that
mobility and continued adoption of
the cloud will fuel the growth of BYOD
in the next 12 months. Whilst it’s
easy to assume that the increase in
mobility will always be mirrored in the
workplace, Timperley warns that the
increase of targeted hacking, phishing
and cyberthreats will lead to a stricter
BYOD landscape and potentially even
a reduction in BYOD if companies are
unable to manage this. n
Shiraaz Singh, Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions Specialist, Aptronics
36. FEATURE:FEATURE: BYOD
1. Assign roles to users and devices: With users carrying
multiple devices, it’s smart to standardise on user roles
across the organisation, and then assign device roles too.
A smartphone issued by IT for a specific purpose may
require more access privileges than a personal device. User
and device roles also let you differentiate privileges by
device type for the same user. An IT administrator would
be allowed to change switch and controller configurations
with a laptop assigned a corporate role. But, that same
person would not be able to access sensitive networking
equipment using a tablet assigned a BYOD role.
2. Use profiling to create device categories: Accurately
profiled devices should be a cornerstone of your plan when
rolling out a secure BYOD initiative. As BYOD permeates
throughout your environment, not all users will be diligent
about downloading the latest versions of the operating
system. You’ll want to capture context that allows you to
see who is running what versions on iOS, Android, Chrome
and other operating systems. As new releases become
available, this data will give you the visibility to help
identify why authentications may be failing, the types of
devices that are experiencing issues, and more.
3. Use context within policies: It’s important to leverage
multiple sources of context to manage access. Data
can consist of user role, device profiling, location, and
once a certificate is issued to a specific user’s device, the
assumption is that it’s a BYOD. By enabling the use of
known data you can stop users from coming up with ways
to bypass policies. The use of device categories should
also be explored. All BYOD endpoints connecting over a
VPN can be treated differently compared to when they are
connected in the office.
4. Manage mobile app use: Enterprises need to define and
enforce policies that dictate who can access specific types
of data from which devices, with the ability to differentiate
between smartphones, tablets, laptops or IoT devices. To
be effective, enforcement must extend across MDM/EMM,
a policy management platform, and firewalls.
The continued rise of BYOD is inevitable,
and few corporate leaders will pass up the
productivity gains of a mobile workforce
that pays for their own devices. But it is easy
to lose track of long-term goals if you don’t
have a solid plan. These eight ideas are just
some of the things that should be considered
when preparing for BYOD.
5. Automate and simplify: Automation is essential for both
initial onboarding and to take action on non-compliant
devices (for example, quarantining them until they are
compliant). MDM/EMM solutions should share device
posture with a NAC solution to ensure that devices meet
compliance before being given access. By automating the
discovery and onboarding of non-compliant devices, you
can reduce costs and improve your security posture.
6. Go with certificates – they’re more secure than
passwords: Users will connect to guest networks more
frequently, leaving passwords exposed to theft, which
makes certificates a cornerstone of a secure mobile device
deployment. As the use of active directory and an internal
PKI for BYOD is not a best practice, an independent
Certificate Authority (CA) built to support personal devices
is preferred. A policy management solution that includes
the ability to distribute and update, as well as revoke
certificates should be explored.
7. Make everyone happy – simplify SSIDS: Multiple SSIDs
complicate life for IT and users alike. With effective policy
management enforcement in place, BYOD and corporate-
owned devices can connect to common SSIDs. Reducing
the options for users makes it easier for IT to maintain
SSIDs across multiple locations. Consolidation of SSIDs
can also improve Wi-Fi performance. The key to improving
your security posture revolves around your ability to
leverage roles, location and policy enforcement to ensure
that devices receive the access that IT expects, even
when using common SSIDs. When personal devices are
connected to a common 802.1X network, IT can provide
Internet access only if desired.
8. Consider next-generation multi-factor authentication
(MFA): These days, enterprise data access is often
initiated from smartphones and tablets. As these devices
are easily shared, many IT professionals are turning to new
forms of MFA to ensure that the user of a device is really
the person requesting access. Now when a user connects
to a network or opens an application, IT can require a
secondary challenge that is as simple as picking up your
smartphone and scanning your fingerprint, for example. n
Manish Bhardwaj, Aruba’s Senior Marketing Manager
for Middle East and Turkey
Eight ways to boost
network security
amidst BYOD
36 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
38. 38 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
COUNTRY FOCUS: TANZANIA
Enabling country
development
through technology
in Tanzania
With a population of almost 52 million people, Tanzania
is the 13th largest country in Africa but still one of the
poorest in the world. In this feature we explore the ways
in which technological developments are improving
quality of life for Tanzanians.
I
n August 2017, Tanzania announced
the launch of the world’s largest
drone delivery service to provide
emergency on-demand access to
critical and life-saving medicines.
Beginning in the first quarter of 2018,
the Tanzanian government will begin
using US automation company Zipline’s
HEALTHCARE
Tanzania announces
world’s largest national
drone delivery network
partnering with zipline
39. 39www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
COUNTRY FOCUS: TANZANIA
drones to make up to 2,000 life-saving deliveries per day to
over one thousand health facilities, serving 10 million people
across the country. Dr Mpoki Ulisubisya, Permanent Secretary
of the Tanzania Ministry of Health, said, “Our vision is to have
a healthy society with improved social wellbeing that will
contribute effectively to personal and national development;
working with Zipline will help make that vision a reality.”
“We strive to ensure that all 5,640 public health facilities have
all the essential medicines, medical supplies and laboratory
reagents they need, wherever they are – even in the most hard
to reach areas” said Laurean Bwanakunu, Director General
of Tanzania’s Medical Stores Department. “But that mission
can be a challenge during emergencies, times of unexpected
demand, bad weather, or for small but critical orders. Using
drones for just-in-time deliveries will allow us to provide health
facilities with complete access to vital medical products no
matter the circumstance.”
Throughout both the developed and developing world, access
to life-saving and critical health products is hampered by
what is known as the last-mile problem: the inability to deliver
needed medicine from a city to rural or remote locations due
to lack of adequate transportation, communication or supply
chain infrastructure.
Countries across East Africa are leading the world in developing
cutting edge solutions to the last-mile problem by pioneering
on-demand drone delivery of life-saving medicine. Tanzania
will make on-demand drone delivery of blood transfusion
supplies, emergency vaccines, HIV medications, anti-malarials
and critical medical supplies like sutures and IV tubes. Working
in conjunction with the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and
the country’s Medical Stores Department (MSD), Zipline will
establish four distribution centres across the country.
The first distribution centre, located in Dodoma, the country’s
capital, will begin its first flights in the first quarter of 2018.
Three additional distribution centres, two in the north-western
corner of Tanzania near Mwanza and Lake Victoria, and one
in the Southern Highlands near Mbeya will follow, working in
close collaboration with civil and military aviation authorities.
Each of the four distribution centres will be equipped with up
to 30 drones and can make up to 500 on-demand delivery
flights a day. The drones can carry 1.5 kilos of cargo, cruising
at 110 kilometres an hour, and have a round trip range of
160 kilometres. Health workers place delivery orders by text
message and receive their package within 30 minutes on
average. Zipine’s drones take off and land at the distribution
centre only, requiring no additional infrastructure at the clinics
it serves.
Zipline’s commercial partnerships with Rwanda and Tanzania are
expected to save thousands of lives over the next several years.
Zipline drone makes a delivery
BANKING AND FINANCE
A
ccording to the 2014–2016
Tanzania National Financial
Inclusion Framework, the level of
formal financial access in the rural areas
of Tanzania is 8.5%, compared to 23%
in the urban areas. The totally excluded
rural population is 60%, compared to
45% in urban areas.
The ninth edition of the Tanzania
Economic Update highlighted the
country’s extraordinary progress in
bringing financial services to 62% of its
population today, compared to 11%
in 2006, making it a regional leader in
the use of digital financial services and
putting it on a solid footing to achieve
Universal Financial Access by 2020.
Hundreds of thousands of low-income
people have gained access to financial
products including credit, savings and
money transfers through leveraging
technology to bring financial services
closer to the unbanked.
Despite these significant
developments, full financial sector
FINCA accelerating financial inclusion
through fintech innovation in Tanzania
Issa Ngwegwe, Managing Director,
FINCA Tanzania
41. 41www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
COUNTRY FOCUS: TANZANIA
L
aunched in 2001, the National Health Insurance Fund
(NHIF) is Tanzania’s largest health insurance scheme
and is compulsory for public sector workers. NHIF’s scope
of coverage has been widened since 2009 to include private
sector workers and cover a range of heath-related services,
with employers giving 3% of a contribution and employees
also paying 3%.
As the scope of NHIF has grown, so has the organisation’s
reliance upon information technology (IT) to facilitate its
administration and support services. As part of its upgrade
programme, NHIF decided to configure a new data centre at
its headquarters in Dar es Salaam. Bakari Yahaya Mhamali,
NHIF’s Data Centre Manager, explains, “We wanted a facility
that could provide us with cutting edge performance in the
short-term but also cope with our projected expansion plans.
To configure the best possible solution, I contacted Emerging
Communications Limited (E-COM)”.
Also based in Dar es Salaam, E-COM has gained an enviable
reputation as one of the leading IT companies in Tanzania.
It provides highly qualitative and cost-effective services
to a wide variety of clients and has a diverse range of
accreditations and approvals from some of the world’s
leading technology vendors. Saidi Buhero, E-COM’s Managing
Director, states, “We have a team of qualified, motivated
and experienced personnel that can configure exceptional
data centre solutions. As a Siemon Certified Installer, after
discussing the various options with Bakari, I had no hesitation
in recommending a solution that made extensive use of the
company’s products.”
Buhero’s strategy centres around deploying six Siemon
VersaPOD® cabinets that meet the high-density requirements
of the modern data centre. VersaPOD leverages the vertical
space between bayed cabinets for patching and cable
management, freeing critical horizontal space for active
equipment and providing superior density in minimum floor
space. In a standard server rack configuration, 48 port patch
panels required for patching to each server each occupy 2U
worth of horizontal space. With VersaPOD cabinets, these
patch panels can be mounted in the vertical patching area.
For added security, the cabinet doors of the VersaPOD can
also be locked to prevent access to the server connections but
Siemon prescribes the perfect network
infrastructure for the National Health
Insurance Fund’s new data centre
Tanzania’s National Health Insurance Fund
decided to construct a new data centre at its
headquarters in Dar es Salaam and specified
state-of-the-art network infrastructure
technology from Siemon throughout.
still allow access to the patching zones. Based on comparison
studies, Siemon claims that VersaPOD cabinets can reduce the
number of cabinets required in a typical data centre by 20%.
With a total of 92 copper connections, the NHIF data
centre also requires Category 6A cabling that exceeds
current standards. Siemon’s Z-MAX® 6A F/UTP solution
was considered the most suitable option by combining
superb performance and unparalleled usability with security
and robust noise immunity. It also helped speed up the
installation. Iyer Sivakumar, Siemon’s Sales Manager
for Africa, says, “Due its innovative design, Z-MAX 6A
offers significantly reduced installation times when used
in conjunction with our Z-MAX Termination Tool. This
combination means outlets can be terminated in as little as
60 seconds, which helps reduce labour time and costs.”
Complementing Z-MAX is Siemon’s XGLO® multimode
high density plug and play optical fibre cable, incorporating
modules, reel and connect panels. XGLO utilises laser-
optimised fibre for superior transmission performance for up
to 10 Gigabit Ethernet applications and exceeds all ANSI/TIA/
EIA and ISO/IEC insertion loss and return loss requirements.
As with Z-MAX, installation time is also saved thanks to the
use of Siemon’s fibre mechanical splice termination tool and
connectivity system.
The new data centre has been a huge success and NHIF’s
Bakari Yahaya Mhamali is confident that the network
infrastructure solution configured by E-COM will ensure an
unrivalled level of future proofing. He concludes, “The Siemon
technology we have offers best in class performance and will
help us continue to develop NHIF for the benefit of as many
people as possible across Tanzania.” n
Six Siemon VersaPOD® cabinets were deployed to meet the
NHIF data centre requirements
CASE STUDY
42. 42 INTELLIGENTCIO www.intelligentcio.com
CommScope: no one-
size-fits-all approach
to enterprise cabling
ICIO Africa caught up with CommScope’s Dave
Hughes at GITEX this year to discuss the key
considerations for those looking to install cabling
infrastructure and how CommScope are enabling
customers the flexibility and ease to scale to adapt
with today’s changing environment.
As cabling
dictates how fast
a network can
operate, is there
a standard those
installing cabling
infrastructure
should look for in
terms of speed?
I’ll look at this from
three angles. Firstly,
the application
standards
which focus on
the emerging
technologies;
what’s next, what potential speeds
do we need for the future and how do
we design for that at a hardware and
application level? Secondly there are
the bodies such as the TIA and ISO
infrastructure/cabling standards, which
look at aspects such as tolerance for
the connectivity at the physical layer –
specific losses and lengths permitted,
application architectures, etc., which are
correlated to the specific application
standards. The third is concerned
with installation enablement, which
is more focused on best practices, but
again is associated with the TIA/ISO
infrastructure standards. I think the
latter – the training and enablement
FEATURE: CABLING STANDARDS
Q
A
aspect – is as important as the
cabling standards themselves. Cabling
standards give you the ‘This is what you
should do’, the best practice elements.
Organisations such as BICSI and CNET
really look at ‘How you should do
this’, the installation methods from an
installers’ perspective.
From a manufacturers’ point of
view, at CommScope we have our
own guidelines surrounding how
to install and design the systems.
So, it’s multifaceted. But from an
infrastructure perspective it’s about
aligning installation practices to meet
TIA/ISO etc, standards, to ensure
43. 43www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO
optimum performance and longevity
of the system.
At CommScope we place great
emphasis on that installation element.
We have what we call the ‘CommScope
Infrastructure Academy’ through which
we train and develop our partners as
a part of our installation and warranty
programme. We consider this important
because with cabling, you tend to only
do this once, especially when you’re
looking at the building element and
you’re starting to pull up ceilings,
floors, etc. – it’s very difficult then to
start to retrofit this kind of installation.
Doing it once, making sure the test
methodologies are in there, making sure
the installation practices are followed
from a manufacturer’s level and
industry level, that meet the standards,
is fundamental. It’s the bridge between
what the installer does and what the
standards say and in the middle then is
that enabling piece which makes sure
the installation is done correctly.
How can those
looking to install
new cabling
infrastructure
ensure their
cabling meets
future standards?
FEATURE: CABLING STANDARDS
Q
A
If we take the
data centre as a
prime example, it
is now seen as a
strategic asset for
an organisation as
they seek to bring
in new technologies to change the way
they do business. Therefore, the design
must be agile and flexible to adapt
and change as these technologies are
introduced. IoT, big data, mobility and
digital streaming are some areas that
are driving the proliferation of data
and its growing exponentially. This is
changing the architecture of the data
centre to cope with latency sensitive
“The ability
to cope with
change quickly
and cost-
effectively
is critical for
business.”