Enterprise IT
Nutanix Labs Helps Local Computer Science Honours Students Clinch BSG Award
Image sourced from Glassdoor Nutanix, a leader in software for private, hybrid and multicloud computing, recently assisted two Computer Science honours students from the University of Cape Town (UCT) in South Africa, with the provision of the infrastructure needed to support the completion of their final honours practical. The students, Brooke Stewart and Christina Spanellis, were given access to an Ubuntu Virtual machine with 3 8 Intel Xeon Gold 6254 CPUs @ 3.10GHz. and 32GB RAM from Nutanix Labs on which to run their project titled “Evolving Robot Bodies and Brains – a Computer Science Honours project investigating the impact of a complexity cost and environmental complexity on artificially evolved robots”. Based on the results of their findings and the calibre of their final assig...
Over 80% of Businesses Expect to Work Remotely, According to Research
One year after the global remote work revolution, the shift to work from home (WFH) and work from anywhere (WFA) is already resulting in profound effects on businesses’ digital transformation as well as data security concerns. According to Lenovo’s new Future of Work and Digital Transformation study, a vast majority of businesses (83%) expect to work remote at least half the time, whereas 60% of employees not only agree but are happy to do so. Most employees (83%) want a hybrid work model post-COVID, which businesses say are more than happy to accommodate because they know it’s a way to drive employee engagement and attract new talent. Enabling remote work has meant a change in digital adoption, with increased usage of personal devices for work; wider adoption of collaboration cloud and so...
South African Businesses Adopted Hybrid Cloud at An Increasing Rate In 2020
Image sourced from Glassdoor Nutanix, a leader in private cloud, hybrid, and multicloud computing, has released the local data from its third global Enterprise Cloud Index survey, showing how South African companies compare with the rest of the globe regarding their hybrid cloud adoption in 2020. South African organisations are still transitioning to a hybrid cloud infrastructure, and for most organisations, these transitions do not happen overnight. Legacy applications may justify keeping older infrastructure for a time or require re-platforming skills that organisations may not have access to. According to the report, 50% of South Africa organisations run either private cloud-only or a non-integrated mix of private, public, and traditional infrastructure models. Key Findings includ...
Unpacking the Economic Impact of COVID 19 on SMBs in South Africa
One in two small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in South Africa has yet to see revenues recover to pre-pandemic levels, according to the latest edition of Facebook’s Global State of Small Business Report. 50% of operational South African SMBs on Facebook reported that their sales in February were lower than the equivalent month last year. Some 74% reported that they were operational or engaging in any revenue-generating activities, while 8% of operational SMBs on Facebook expected challenges related to cash flow and 20% expected challenges related to demand or a lack of customers in the next few months. Continuing trends observed throughout the pandemic: Women-owned South African businesses have been hit especially hard. Some 71% of women-led SMBs (vs. 77% of men-led SMBs) on Facebook ...
Are BaaS Solutions the Answer to Spike in Ransomware Attacks?
With an ever-growing number of people working from home, primarily due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, cybersecurity attacks are on the rise, meaning that dealing with security risks is an ongoing journey for enterprises. IDC predicts that by 2023, 60% of data will be generated at the edge by people working from home and from devices outside of the corporate firewall. While at the same time, many corporate cloud services are already being rendered from locations outside the data centre. This has given rise to ransomware attacks as many employees who are working remotely have their firewalls and access points configured to allow remote access. This has also seen an increase in ransomware attacks against Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications. While SaaS applications are generally secure...
Dell to ‘Spin-Off’ Shares in VMware
Image sourced from TechCrunch Dell has revealed its plan to spin off its 81% stake in VMware in an attempt to reduce its debt. According to TechCrunch, the way that the deal works is that “Dell plans to offer VMware shareholders a special dividend of between $11.5 and $12 billion. As Dell owns approximately 81% of those shares that would work out to somewhere between $9.3 and $9.7 billion coming into Dell’s coffers when the deal closes later this year”. Dell CEO, Michael Dell says that by spinning off VMware, “we expect to drive additional growth opportunities for Dell Technologies as well as VMware, and unlock significant value for stakeholders. Both companies will remain important partners, with a differentiated advantage in how we bring solutions to customers”. This is a move long ...
Torn Between Cloud and On-Premise File Sharing? Here’s a Solution for SMBs that Won’t Break the Bank
Graph I. Many SMBs having a hard time deciding between SaaS and on-premise solutions such as traditional File Server and Network Attached Storage The need for digital transformation has never been clearer as companies of all sizes now face an immediate challenge of employees working remotely. The year 2020 has changed the way we work, we had no other options but to move from offline to online. It can be hard to find great IT products that allow you to have a smooth and seamless shift, and to safely: store, share, and collaborate on files from anywhere. Furthermore, we commonly see many SMBs having a hard time deciding between SaaS and on-premise solutions such as traditional File Server and Network Attached Storage (NAS). I am glad to let you know that we have collected and digested many c...
Your Data has Left the Building: Don’t Let it Take You on a Bumpy Ride
“Ladies and gentlemen: Michael Jackson has left the stadium.” These are the dramatic words spoken just after Michael Jackson, one of the most famous performers and entertainers in history, flew off the stage at the end of his 1992 – 1993 ‘Dangerous’ tour. It was one of the smoothest and most awe-inspiring endings to a stadium performance the world had ever seen – and Jackson did it for concert after concert during that spectacular global tour. However, as was later revealed, the truth is that Michael Jackson didn’t actually fly out of any stadiums via a jetpack – it was a professional stuntman in his place. So, it wasn’t really correct to think that the King of Pop had left the building. But it surely is correct, nearly 30 years later, to know that your data has certainly left the bu...
Are You Prepared to Prevent Data Loss?
Losing valuable data is one of the worst things that can happen to anyone – digitally, at least. Imagine losing critical data that you need to deliver a time-sensitive project with a deadline looming, like a school assignment – or documents needed when you’re applying for a grant, or even a freelance job you’ve taken on. The team at ESET, global leaders in cybersecurity, dissect the various aspects of not having a backup when experiencing data loss, and what to do in case that happens to you. What are the impacts of data loss? The impact of data loss may vary depending on what kind of data is lost, and when during your process it happens. And of course, the amount of time spent trying to recover it or trying to recreate it. Had you regularly backed up all the important data during yo...
Scaling New Heights: Scalefusion MDM Launches Infinity Partner Program
Driving global sales and amplifying revenue by exploring uncharted territories is always a great business idea, especially when driven by strategic partnerships. Scalefusion, a leading Mobile device management solution by ProMobi Technologies Pvt. Ltd. recently launched the Scalefusion Infinity Partner Program on the same lines. The partnership program is designed for OEMs, Managed Service Providers (MSPs), Resellers, Distributors, System Integrators & Technology Solution providers across the globe, helping them leverage the market-leading MDM capabilities of Scalefusion. What comes as the first-ever rollout of a formal partner program by Scalefusion, the program is crafted to empower the Scalefusion partners across diverse industry spectrum and geographies to tap into new revenu...
Rubrik for Microsoft 365 Delivers Faster, Simpler Recoveries at Scale
Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM Division at Networks Unlimited Africa It’s well known that Microsoft 365 – formerly known as Microsoft Office 365 – is one of the most widely used solutions for email, collaboration and document storage in large enterprises. At the same time, Microsoft doesn’t provide its own backup and restore offering, but instead encourages third-party vendors to provide their own solutions. Cloud data management company Rubrik places a focus on speed and simplicity of management in its backup and restore solution for Microsoft 365. Rubrik offers a policy-based SLA enforcement, and uses Microsoft Azure as the storage location for backups. Risna Steenkamp, General Manager: ESM Division at Networks Unlimited Africa, which distributes Rubrik throughout Afri...
6 Ways to Improve Your POPIA Readiness
When it comes to POPIA compliance readiness, only 30% of South African organisations believe they are well-prepared – according to the KnowBe4 online data protection survey. To make sure your company is ready, Anna Collard, SVP Content Strategy and Evangelist KnowBe4 Africa, has shared six things that you can do: 1. Education and Awareness Should be a Top Priority “Education and awareness should be a top priority for organisations as we approach the POPIA deadline,” she says. “This is critical at every level of the business, from top management down to every person who works at the organisation. Everyone has to be aware of their responsibilities with regards to handling personal information and their roles when it comes to the safeguarding of personal information.” People unfortunatel...
