TechCentral Podcast
Interviews with leaders in South Africa's ICT industry.
19
JUL
e4's Carla de Abreu on doing document management right [promoted]
In the second of a series of interviews with e4, TechCentral is joined by the company's business development manager, Carla de Abreu, for a discussion on modern document management.
Document management software is an increasingly critical part of any business in the digital era. Instead of rows of filing cabinets, document management systems create an electronic archive that any permissioned user can access and edit.
In an era of digital transformation, document management software helps organise companies' digital documents and digitise existing paper records with ease.
In the podcast, De Abreu unpacks, among other things, what South African legislation says about electronic documents and document signing; the process and capabilities around authentication of documents; and the verification of documents and what is involved.
She also takes listeners through the various products that e4 offers in the document management space: Docfusion, Prosign, Autoverifiy and Stordoc.
If you are in any way involved in document management, or looking to automate more of your document management processes - and which company isn't? - then you won't want to miss this important discussion.
Document management software is an increasingly critical part of any business in the digital era. Instead of rows of filing cabinets, document management systems create an electronic archive that any permissioned user can access and edit.
In an era of digital transformation, document management software helps organise companies' digital documents and digitise existing paper records with ease.
In the podcast, De Abreu unpacks, among other things, what South African legislation says about electronic documents and document signing; the process and capabilities around authentication of documents; and the verification of documents and what is involved.
She also takes listeners through the various products that e4 offers in the document management space: Docfusion, Prosign, Autoverifiy and Stordoc.
If you are in any way involved in document management, or looking to automate more of your document management processes - and which company isn't? - then you won't want to miss this important discussion.
01
JUL
Duarte da Silva on the pioneering days of South African IT
Businessman, entrepreneur, deal maker and advisor Duarte da Silva joins Duncan McLeod on the TechCentral podcast for a wide-ranging discussion about South Africa's IT industry, with a specific focus on Dimension Data.
Da Silva recently posted a heartfelt tribute on LinkedIn to Jeremy Ord, Dimension Data's co-founder, who resigned last month as executive chairman after 34 years. The post has since gone somewhat viral.
In the podcast, Da Silva talks about his days as a director and analyst at Merrill Lynch, where he covered Dimension Data and companies such as Persetel (headed at the time by Roux Marnitz), Q Data (the late Piet den Boer) and Altron (Bill Venter).
Da Silva recalls some of the colourful characters at the time and how they helped shape South Africa's early IT industry - and why the country, curiously, was the only one in the world where Japan's Hitachi has a bigger share in mainframes than IBM. (Hint: It had to do with sanction and Marnitz's love of aviation.)
He also talks about his first encounter with Ord, how Dimension Data attracted and cultivated top leaders - including Richard Came, David Frankel, Alon Apteker, Malcolm Rutherford and many others - who went on to great business success - and recounts a tale about a greulling, three-week investor road show in the US.
The conversation then turns to the dot-com bust of 2000, how a US acquisition at the peak of the dot-com bubble severely hobbled Dimension Data and how the shifting sands of the IT sector - and a greater appreciation for technology among business leaders - led to tough years for the group.
Da Silva, who now serves as chairman of Huge Group, also touches on Huge's pursuit of Adapt IT, why he's enjoying being back in the IT sector and what he plans to do in the coming years.
Don't miss this riveting discussion!
Da Silva recently posted a heartfelt tribute on LinkedIn to Jeremy Ord, Dimension Data's co-founder, who resigned last month as executive chairman after 34 years. The post has since gone somewhat viral.
In the podcast, Da Silva talks about his days as a director and analyst at Merrill Lynch, where he covered Dimension Data and companies such as Persetel (headed at the time by Roux Marnitz), Q Data (the late Piet den Boer) and Altron (Bill Venter).
Da Silva recalls some of the colourful characters at the time and how they helped shape South Africa's early IT industry - and why the country, curiously, was the only one in the world where Japan's Hitachi has a bigger share in mainframes than IBM. (Hint: It had to do with sanction and Marnitz's love of aviation.)
He also talks about his first encounter with Ord, how Dimension Data attracted and cultivated top leaders - including Richard Came, David Frankel, Alon Apteker, Malcolm Rutherford and many others - who went on to great business success - and recounts a tale about a greulling, three-week investor road show in the US.
The conversation then turns to the dot-com bust of 2000, how a US acquisition at the peak of the dot-com bubble severely hobbled Dimension Data and how the shifting sands of the IT sector - and a greater appreciation for technology among business leaders - led to tough years for the group.
Da Silva, who now serves as chairman of Huge Group, also touches on Huge's pursuit of Adapt IT, why he's enjoying being back in the IT sector and what he plans to do in the coming years.
Don't miss this riveting discussion!
22
JUN
Interview: The modern threat landscape - identify, isolate, respond [promoted]
In today’s episode, TechCentral is joined by Praven Pillay, MD of Maxtec, and Andrew Parker, chief technology officer of Teknov8, to talk about the modern threat landscape.
Pillay has 25 years’ IT experience under the belt and is well known in the South African technology market for managing a tight team. Parker is a South African now based in London who spends his time between consulting, architecting and commenting on IT solutions.
Between them, they have many years of cybersecurity knowledge, and both have dived headlong into Acronis Cyber Protect. This lively discussion led to both thought leadership and a product exploration with a security focus.
Parker is quick to point out that “the crooks know as much about you as you allow them to”, meaning our online lives are happy hunting grounds for hackers and other criminals.
The sheer volume of threat management required today means that intuitive views of the network are simply not good enough, and the ever-changing environments require a higher level of enterprise protection.
This, hand in hand with constant training of staff to be aware of and alert to potential threats, is the first step in good management. But, as Parker points out, defence is 99.9% effective, leaving a 0.1% vulnerability where a break can occur -- and that’s what companies need to be ready for.
“It is not if, but when, the bad guys get through your firewall. The success is determined by how quickly you identify, isolate and respond to the threat,” said Pillay.
Listen to this podcast to hear how Acronis Cyber Protect can take the worry out of waging war against cybercriminals, what free giveaway Maxtec is offering to customers, and an exciting announcement!
Don’t miss this power-packed episode.
Pillay has 25 years’ IT experience under the belt and is well known in the South African technology market for managing a tight team. Parker is a South African now based in London who spends his time between consulting, architecting and commenting on IT solutions.
Between them, they have many years of cybersecurity knowledge, and both have dived headlong into Acronis Cyber Protect. This lively discussion led to both thought leadership and a product exploration with a security focus.
Parker is quick to point out that “the crooks know as much about you as you allow them to”, meaning our online lives are happy hunting grounds for hackers and other criminals.
The sheer volume of threat management required today means that intuitive views of the network are simply not good enough, and the ever-changing environments require a higher level of enterprise protection.
This, hand in hand with constant training of staff to be aware of and alert to potential threats, is the first step in good management. But, as Parker points out, defence is 99.9% effective, leaving a 0.1% vulnerability where a break can occur -- and that’s what companies need to be ready for.
“It is not if, but when, the bad guys get through your firewall. The success is determined by how quickly you identify, isolate and respond to the threat,” said Pillay.
Listen to this podcast to hear how Acronis Cyber Protect can take the worry out of waging war against cybercriminals, what free giveaway Maxtec is offering to customers, and an exciting announcement!
Don’t miss this power-packed episode.
18
JUN
First Technology's Gerhard Olivier on why your company needs Aruba [promoted]
Gerhard Olivier’s passion for technology shines through. As manager of consulting services at First Technology, he’s well positioned to talk on both the technology challenges and solutions to solve them.
First Technology has a long history with Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ Aruba Networks, and Olivier is passionate about the company’s offerings.
He speaks of Aruba’s Aruba Central tools as being like the monitoring heart of an organisation from which legs of work can operate in an environment of “Zero Trust”. Oliver says Aruba’s ClearPass network access control solution provides visibility into and intelligence to both managed and unmanaged networks, which allows for control up to the edge.
In the podcast, Olivier explores deployment realities and commercial options as well as some of the pitfalls that clients face when they’re not using a central management solution. “You are only as good as your last restore,” he says.
Don’t miss the discussion!
First Technology has a long history with Hewlett Packard Enterprises’ Aruba Networks, and Olivier is passionate about the company’s offerings.
He speaks of Aruba’s Aruba Central tools as being like the monitoring heart of an organisation from which legs of work can operate in an environment of “Zero Trust”. Oliver says Aruba’s ClearPass network access control solution provides visibility into and intelligence to both managed and unmanaged networks, which allows for control up to the edge.
In the podcast, Olivier explores deployment realities and commercial options as well as some of the pitfalls that clients face when they’re not using a central management solution. “You are only as good as your last restore,” he says.
Don’t miss the discussion!
10
JUN
Kicking off your Kubernetes [promoted]
Containerisation has moved on from something that was spoken about at geek conventions to mainstream development. Gartner has predicted that 85% of global businesses will be running containers in production by 2022, up from 35% in 2019.
It has become clear that organisations that want to remain agile and future-proof their applications have made their decision: to containerise. This means that the focus has shifted to the actual Kubernetes orchestration.
In this TechCentral roundtable discussion, experts came together to discuss how to navigate the journey to empowering an organisation with cloud-native technologies and enabling it to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments, such as public, private and hybrid clouds.
For more, please visit techcentral.co.za.
* This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned
It has become clear that organisations that want to remain agile and future-proof their applications have made their decision: to containerise. This means that the focus has shifted to the actual Kubernetes orchestration.
In this TechCentral roundtable discussion, experts came together to discuss how to navigate the journey to empowering an organisation with cloud-native technologies and enabling it to build and run scalable applications in modern, dynamic environments, such as public, private and hybrid clouds.
For more, please visit techcentral.co.za.
* This promoted content was paid for by the party concerned
27
MAY
Inside the fast-changing world of CCTV, with Vumacam and Ava Security
Personal security is a topic of interest for all South Africans. In this podcast, a panel of guests from Ava Security and Vumacam explore the convergence of video, predictive analytics and human interaction to fight crime.
Gavin Hill, CIO of Vumacam, explains that large-scale CCTV deployments are complex IT challenges that involve connectivity, bandwidth and storage.
Vumacam CEO Ricky Croock said this overarching web of information forms a glue that can connect private sector security companies and public policing to catch criminals.
Ava Security co-founder and head of engineering Sam Lancia touches on advancements in artificial intelligence and how these can extend the reach of a security operator from a centralised point. With more than 120 000 hours of video being produced every day by Vumacam, human reviews simply cannot keep pace. Traditional analytics needs to be enhanced by modern technology, Lancia said.
With the continuously falling price of storage, better connectivity and massive strides in AI, the predictive security space is an area to watch with interest.
Enjoy the discussion!
Gavin Hill, CIO of Vumacam, explains that large-scale CCTV deployments are complex IT challenges that involve connectivity, bandwidth and storage.
Vumacam CEO Ricky Croock said this overarching web of information forms a glue that can connect private sector security companies and public policing to catch criminals.
Ava Security co-founder and head of engineering Sam Lancia touches on advancements in artificial intelligence and how these can extend the reach of a security operator from a centralised point. With more than 120 000 hours of video being produced every day by Vumacam, human reviews simply cannot keep pace. Traditional analytics needs to be enhanced by modern technology, Lancia said.
With the continuously falling price of storage, better connectivity and massive strides in AI, the predictive security space is an area to watch with interest.
Enjoy the discussion!
25
MAY
NBConsult's Nicolas Blank on the fast-changing world of IT backup
The TechCentral podcast often focuses on large enterprises. Today, though, we’re doing a deep dive into the world of small and medium enterprise solutions.
Nicolas Blank, CEO of NBConsult, has a long history of providing customer-focused solutions across Africa, the UK and Hong Kong.
His mantra is to focus on simple solutions that work. “We innovate to enable our clients in practical ways,” he said.
This led to NBCube, a recent addition to NBConsult’s portfolio that offers SMEs an affordable backup solution with the features that most people would expect to get only at the enterprise level. “If you don’t want to be eating pizza at 3am while trying to restore critical data, speak to us.”
From order to operation, NBCube is enabled in hours, giving peace of mind to customers who have better things to do than worry about losing data.
This podcast dives into the world of data backup and what it means for South African businesses. “A backup is only a backup if it can be restored.”
Enjoy the discussion!
Nicolas Blank, CEO of NBConsult, has a long history of providing customer-focused solutions across Africa, the UK and Hong Kong.
His mantra is to focus on simple solutions that work. “We innovate to enable our clients in practical ways,” he said.
This led to NBCube, a recent addition to NBConsult’s portfolio that offers SMEs an affordable backup solution with the features that most people would expect to get only at the enterprise level. “If you don’t want to be eating pizza at 3am while trying to restore critical data, speak to us.”
From order to operation, NBCube is enabled in hours, giving peace of mind to customers who have better things to do than worry about losing data.
This podcast dives into the world of data backup and what it means for South African businesses. “A backup is only a backup if it can be restored.”
Enjoy the discussion!
25
MAY
Calvin Collett unpacks Supersonic's Air Fibre - here's how it works
In this episode of the podcast, TechCentral speaks to Calvin Collett, MD at MTN-owned Internet service provider Supersonic, about its new Air Fibre uncapped broadband product launched this month.
Collett unpacks what Air Fibre is exactly -- it uses unlicensed frequency bands to deliver guaranteed download speeds of up to 100Mbit/s -- and where Supersonic is planning to roll out the technology and why.
Where does it fit into the market, especially next to fibre and 5G technologies? What is the size of the potential market? What about signal interference? And symmetry in the speeds? And does it need line of site to a tower?
Collett answers all these questions and more in the podcast. Don't miss the discussion!
Collett unpacks what Air Fibre is exactly -- it uses unlicensed frequency bands to deliver guaranteed download speeds of up to 100Mbit/s -- and where Supersonic is planning to roll out the technology and why.
Where does it fit into the market, especially next to fibre and 5G technologies? What is the size of the potential market? What about signal interference? And symmetry in the speeds? And does it need line of site to a tower?
Collett answers all these questions and more in the podcast. Don't miss the discussion!
20
MAY
Vox ICE: A technology solution for caring for the elderly
Rudi Potgieter, executive head of Guardian Eye at Vox, joins the podcast to talk about Vox ICE, a product which is saving lives through an innovative, low- cost technology solution.
The current global economic environment is pulling young workers away from their homes and leaving the elderly behind. Vox ICE is a solution to ensure they are not alone.
Vox ICE, or “in case of emergency”, takes care of your loved ones without being present, with the ultimate home care monitoring system, Potgieter explains in the podcast.
The solution comprises non-intrusive sensors and specialised algorithms to detect any abnormal behaviour for relatively healthy seniors living on their own.
The algorithm detects the person’s day-to-day behaviour over a period of time, establish their routine, and detect any abnormalities.
Potgieter explains how the ICE solution works – it requires little user setup, maintenance or management. It is built to service “born before computers” customers, giving their loved ones comfort that they are being looked after.
The current global economic environment is pulling young workers away from their homes and leaving the elderly behind. Vox ICE is a solution to ensure they are not alone.
Vox ICE, or “in case of emergency”, takes care of your loved ones without being present, with the ultimate home care monitoring system, Potgieter explains in the podcast.
The solution comprises non-intrusive sensors and specialised algorithms to detect any abnormal behaviour for relatively healthy seniors living on their own.
The algorithm detects the person’s day-to-day behaviour over a period of time, establish their routine, and detect any abnormalities.
Potgieter explains how the ICE solution works – it requires little user setup, maintenance or management. It is built to service “born before computers” customers, giving their loved ones comfort that they are being looked after.
19
MAY
Interview: Amazon Web Services, and how it got its start in South Africa
Amazon Web Services already has a team of 7 000 people in South Africa, most of them based in Cape Town, but the US cloud computing giant is not done hiring as it ramps up investment in the country.
That’s according to Clive Charlton, head of solution architecture for AWS in sub-Saharan Africa, who explains in the podcast why South Africa – and Cape Town specifically – were so attractive to the Seattle-headquartered leader in hyperscale cloud services originally and why it remains so.
In the podcast, Charlton talks about how Amazon built the elastic computing cloud, or EC2, in Cape Town and how this platform went on to become the underpinnings of what AWS is today.
He also explains why Amazon is moving into a new campus in Cape Town – the data centres won’t be coming along – and whether it has plans to establish offices and data centre infrastructure elsewhere in the country.
Don’t miss the discussion!
That’s according to Clive Charlton, head of solution architecture for AWS in sub-Saharan Africa, who explains in the podcast why South Africa – and Cape Town specifically – were so attractive to the Seattle-headquartered leader in hyperscale cloud services originally and why it remains so.
In the podcast, Charlton talks about how Amazon built the elastic computing cloud, or EC2, in Cape Town and how this platform went on to become the underpinnings of what AWS is today.
He also explains why Amazon is moving into a new campus in Cape Town – the data centres won’t be coming along – and whether it has plans to establish offices and data centre infrastructure elsewhere in the country.
Don’t miss the discussion!
06
MAY
Interview: The real cost of data protection [promoted]
Lee Williams, Veritas product manager at Axiz, joins TechCentral podcast host Daniel Robus to share insights into the ever-changing world of backup and recovery in the cloud.
Williams plays an important role as the link between Veritas, partners and customers, which affords her a good vantage to see what’s working and what’s not.
She says that the most important advice to customers is for them to “ask many questions of their partners, vendors and suppliers”, as there are often solutions available that simply are not used and could solve many issues if people know about them.
Williams makes reference to a local partner and their ability to turn around a failed audit through a quick deployment of the Veritas solution. When asked if ransomware is a real threat, Williams said, “I know of a company that has been held to ransom twice in the past year.”
With Veritas driving the focus on NetBackup SaaS Protection, the future looks exciting in the world of backup and recovery.
Enjoy the discussion!
Williams plays an important role as the link between Veritas, partners and customers, which affords her a good vantage to see what’s working and what’s not.
She says that the most important advice to customers is for them to “ask many questions of their partners, vendors and suppliers”, as there are often solutions available that simply are not used and could solve many issues if people know about them.
Williams makes reference to a local partner and their ability to turn around a failed audit through a quick deployment of the Veritas solution. When asked if ransomware is a real threat, Williams said, “I know of a company that has been held to ransom twice in the past year.”
With Veritas driving the focus on NetBackup SaaS Protection, the future looks exciting in the world of backup and recovery.
Enjoy the discussion!
28
APR
South Africa's draft data and cloud policy: Experts unpack what it means
On 1 April, the department of communications & digital technologies quietly published a draft national data and cloud policy that has potentially far-reaching implications for the private sector, state-owned enterprises and the public sector broadly.
Among other objectives, the draft policy document - which could lead to legislative amendments or even a new act of parliament - seeks to promote South Africa's data sovereignty and security as well as enhance investment opportunities, create jobs and enhance skills development.
But it also raises concerns, among them that the policy-making process will eventually create additional regulatory burdens for the private sector while concentrating government cloud business in the public sector to the detriment of private cloud and data service providers.
The draft policy document also raises a number of questions around black economic empowerment.
Bowmans partners Heather Irvine (who specialists in competition law) and Livia Dyer (ICT policy) join the TechCentral podcast to unpack the importance of the draft policy document, where their concerns with it lie, and what it means for South African companies.
Questions that Irvine and Dyer answer include:
* Do we really need additional legislation, or even amended legislation, to cater for data centres and cloud services?
* Does the Cybercrimes Bill not already deal with some of the issues raised by the department of communications?
* If the policy is implemented as it stands, will it reduce competition and harm or exclude private sector players?
* Will the draft policy create additional red tape for companies and will it actually help with investment in this space?
Don't miss the discussion!
Among other objectives, the draft policy document - which could lead to legislative amendments or even a new act of parliament - seeks to promote South Africa's data sovereignty and security as well as enhance investment opportunities, create jobs and enhance skills development.
But it also raises concerns, among them that the policy-making process will eventually create additional regulatory burdens for the private sector while concentrating government cloud business in the public sector to the detriment of private cloud and data service providers.
The draft policy document also raises a number of questions around black economic empowerment.
Bowmans partners Heather Irvine (who specialists in competition law) and Livia Dyer (ICT policy) join the TechCentral podcast to unpack the importance of the draft policy document, where their concerns with it lie, and what it means for South African companies.
Questions that Irvine and Dyer answer include:
* Do we really need additional legislation, or even amended legislation, to cater for data centres and cloud services?
* Does the Cybercrimes Bill not already deal with some of the issues raised by the department of communications?
* If the policy is implemented as it stands, will it reduce competition and harm or exclude private sector players?
* Will the draft policy create additional red tape for companies and will it actually help with investment in this space?
Don't miss the discussion!
