net.work september 2008

the way business is movingSeptember 2008

Infrastructure_communIcatIons_enterprIse IntellIgence_rIsk management_storage_mobIlIty_product update

Pervasive management Monitoring Managed networks

FeatUres://govtech showcase_a real Move to oPen soUrce/the voiP PUzzle_what does it Mean?/isUMMit 2008_the drive to oPen everything inside:

10Pervasive ManageMent

The network has become the

most important component of the

technology stack and needs to be

monitored and managed along

with everything connected to it.

14the voiP Puzzle

Voice over IP is entering the value

park for business, while traditional

mobile operators are faced with

what it means for them.

17the battle of the

business Phones

The search for the ultimate

business phone is on.

18govtech showcases

Open source, open standards

and the drive towards

e-government were, as usual the

main topics discussed at SITA’s

annual GovTech conference held

in Durban last month.

RegulaRs03 ed’s coluMn

04 news

50 Product uPdates

sections22 infrastructure

24 coMMunications

28 enterPrise intelligence

32 risK ManageMent

38 storage

40 Mobility

Trends42 The drive To

open everyThing

This year’s iSummit in Japan.

44 sTaying on course

The guide to identifying,

managing and reducing

complexity.

46 The currenT sTaTe of

peneTraTion in africa

Is there more potential than the

region is given credit for?

49 Lessons from

The fuTure

Knowing what the next big

thing is doesn’t matter nearly as

much as being in a position to

rapidly adapt to the changes in

the environment it will ring in.

contents septembeR 2008 - the launch issue

Cover Story: Pervasive Management page

page page page

10

42 18 50

Welcome to the first issue of (net dot work), the culmination of our ambitions in the IT media space, and a magazine which we believe will redefine the communication of technology and its application in business. It traces its heritage way back to SA lAN Times (1980s), Secure IT, eStrategy, computer Business Review and Network Times (1990s), but is itself a magazine of its time. A magazine infused with the spirit of a changing world.

reflects the changing nature of business in the 21st century. No longer do we depend on technologies tucked away safely in our corporate cocoons; today we are directly exposed to a host of technologies and opportunities, courtesy of the global network.

Today, ‘work’ is what you do wherever you happen to be. It’s not a place we go to in the morning. The infrastructure available to small companies and enterprises alike means we are at work when we have access to everything we need, whether we are at our desks or in a coffee shop on a different continent. Universal access is virtually a given.

is about the way business is moving.From the custom font on the new cover masthead, to the news in photos; from the exciting new design and layout, to the coverage of open source innovation in the local and global open source community; from enterprise Architecture to Web 2.0 social media; from strategic insight to operational reality; epitomises the changes confronting us – it’s the way business is moving.

Network and systems management, VoIP, GovTech 2008In this issue of , we focus on a number issues, including infrastructure management, VoIP and convergence, and IcT in Government.

The network has become the most important component of the technology stack. It goes down and everyone goes home. It needs to be monitored and managed along with everything connected to it, so net.work investigated.

VoIP is cool and funky. It’s also pricey to convert

an existing analogue system to IP and to get users to adapt to the new system. net.work investigates which companies have what technologies to make the migration easier, including what hybrid or bridging technologies are available to smooth the conversion process.

And finally, the recent GovTech 2008 conference focused on the issues of collaboration, innovation and delivery. Is SITA delivering on these critical issues as the South African government focuses on citizen-centric service delivery? was at GovTech 2008 and reports back on SITA’s progress and the advances SITA has made in integrating IcT into government’s service delivery goals.

- the way business is moving.

Sincerely,Darren SmithManaging Editor

PS: All feedback, brickbats and praise, would be welcomed.Contact me directly on [email protected].

www.netdotwork.co.za 03

Next moNth >>And next month we’ll report back on the first WordCamp South Africa, and include an interview with Matt Mul-lenweg. He claims to be a kid born and raised in Houston, Texas, who writes code, prose, and music. We know him as the founding developer of WordPress, the blogging software that runs thousands of sites around the world. We’ll have Matt’s views on WordPress, the web, jazz, life, and photography. You might just learn something you can use at work.

Managing Editor_Darren Smith [email protected]

Editorial dEpartMEnt

Editor_Leigh Yorke-Smith [email protected]

Contributing Editor_Andrew Seldon [email protected]

Consulting Editor_Paul Booth

sub-Editor_Zamani Mbatha

Contributors Brett Haggard, Simon Dingle, Paul BoothGary Lawrence, Jonathan Gosier, Douglas Weinrich, Mark Taylor, Bruce Schneier, Lewis Taljaard

salEs dEpartMEnt

salEs dirECtor_Jane van der Spuy

salEs ExECutivEs Shirley McGeer [email protected] Tehini [email protected] Karam [email protected]

CirCulation ManagEr_Carmen Sedlacek [email protected]

subsCriptions_Justin [email protected]

dEsign & layout

dEsign_Infiltrate MediaproduCtion_Technique DesignrEpro & printing_Intrepid Printersphotography_ Whitecliffs Photography

publishEr Technews Publishingwww.technews.co.zareg no. 2005/034598/071st Floor stabilitas Chambers265 Kent avenue, randburg, 2194po box 385, pinegowrie, 2123tel: +27 (0)11 886 3640Fax: +27 (011) 787 8052url: www.netdotwork.co.za

ContaCtslEttErs to thE [email protected][email protected]_1562-952X

Copyright © 2008 by technews publishing. all rights reserved. no part of this publication may be reproduced, adapted, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. opinion expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the editors, publisher, or advertisers.

ed’s column

NEWS

3Com3Com has appointed Derek Wiggill as its Regional Sales Director for Africa, based in Johannesburg.

4G TEChNoloGy4G Technology have announced their appointment as Sole Distributor of Anritsu products on the African Continent. Anritsu products include wireless, optical, microwave/RF, and digital instruments, as well as Operations Support Systems and solutions for use during R&D, manufacturing, installation, and maintenance. Anritsu also provides microwave/RF components, optical devices, and high-speed electrical devices for communication products and systems.

RivERbEd aNd oPNET PaRTNER ovER WaNS JohaNNESbuRGOPNET Technologies and Riverbed Technology have announced their intention to deliver capabilities for real-time monitoring and troubleshooting of wide area network (WAN) applications accelerated by Riverbed.

The combination of Riverbed Steelhead appliances and OPNET’s ACE solutions for application performance management will provide customers with a complete offering for enhanced visibility into applications accelerated by Riverbed. It will allow customers to more effectively optimise network performance by identifying problem areas for applications, measuring end-to-end application delivery, and enhancing troubleshooting and problem resolution. The two companies are also engaging in joint sales and marketing efforts.

OPNET chairman and CEO Marc Cohen says, “Our respective customers have chosen solutions from OPNET and Riverbed because they want to invest in best-in-class technologies for network and application performance”. Cohen adds, “Our collaboration promises to deliver even greater benefits for our customers.”

Country manager: South Africa, Riverbed, Christo Briedenhann says, “This partnership will help Riverbed better meet the needs of its customers by providing enhanced visibility and management of applications over the WAN”. Briedenhann adds that they are looking forward to their ongoing work with OPNET to provide customers with solutions that meet their ever-changing needs.

PiCTuRE ThiSNews in pictures, brought to you by Technews.co.za

abSa aPPoiNTS NEW GRouP CioAbsa Group has announced that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialist Len De Villiers has become its CIO for Group Technology. De Villiers, whose ICT career spans 30 years, joins Absa after a 15-year stint at Nedbank.

During the IDF opening keynote, Craig Barrett challenges the developer community to collaborate and use their technology expertise to promote social and economic growth worldwide. The INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge will award four $100 000 prizes next April to the most innovative ideas for applying technology to meet unmet needs related to education, health care, economic development and the environment.

Yahoo! and Intel have previewed plans for the Widget Channel, a television (TV) application framework optimised for TV and related consumer electronics (CE) devices that use the Intel Architecture. The Widget Channel will allow consumers to enjoy rich Internet applications designed for the TV while watching their favourite TV programmes.

04 September 2008_

SabS ExPoThe South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) will host the SABS Expo, earmarked for 29-31 October this year.

The objective of the SABS Expo is to promote the benefits of certification and by so doing to highlight the products and services of SABS clients to local and international manufacturers, producers, traders, investors and to the general public that will be in attendance.

SABS CEO, Martin Kuscus, said that he hopes the SABS’ clients will fully embrace the SABS Expo as it is meant to promote their SABS certified products and services and consequently promote business growth.

www.sabs-expo.co.za

moToRola To aCquiRE aiRdEfENSE Motorola has announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire a wireless security provider AirDefense.

President of Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business Kathy Paladino says, “As wireless security remains a leading concern for enterprises, we are excited to announce this transaction with AirDefense, which enables Motorola to deliver a common platform solution for greater indoor and outdoor protection to wireless LAN networks in support of our all-wireless enterprise vision”.

President and chief executive officer of AirDefense Mike Potts says, “AirDefense complements Motorola’s Enterprise business and Motorola is the ideal partner to help us take our wireless LAN security products and services to the next level”. Potts adds, “We look forward to working with Motorola’s talented professionals and utilising the strengths of a global industry leader to achieve even greater success”.

Upon completion of the transaction, AirDefense will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola and will be integrated into Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility business. Motorola intends to maintain AirDefense’s Alpharetta, Georgia headquarters, which will be an integral component of Motorola’s WLAN operations. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory and other customary conditions, is expected to close in the next few months.

amabubESi Amabubesi Capital, the investment arm of Amabubesi, has announced that it intends to build a large ICT company similar to BCX, Dimension Data and GijimaAST under the Amabubesi Capital Technologies (ACT) banner. According to ACT’s CEO, Angus Young, R600m has initially been earmarked for this initiative.

bluE labEl TElEComSBlue Label Telecoms (BLT) has established a joint venture with Nadhari S A de C V, a Mexican company that has expertise in the strategic and operational development of products and services in the emerging markets of Latin America.

CElComCelcom has acquired Vodashop Hatfield, a franchised Vodacom retail outlet, but disposed of Vodashop Rivonia. Both these deals form part of a re-structuring by the Celcom group that sees one of its subsidiaries, V Cellular Stores, now owning 16 outlets in the Gauteng region

“The US is the only industria-lised nation without a national policy to promote uni-versal, high-speed Internet access - and it shows.” (The median download speed in Japan is 63 Mbps, 30 times faster than the US.)CWA President LArry Cohen

Intel has named its new line of next-generation processors for desktops. It said the new family of chips using its microarchitecture codenamed Nehalem will be formally branded “Intel Core i7 processor”.

During the IDF opening keynote, Craig Barrett challenges the developer community to collaborate and use their technology expertise to promote social and economic growth worldwide. The INSPIRE•EMPOWER Challenge will award four $100,000 prizes next April to the most innovative ideas for applying technology to meet unmet needs related to education, health care, economic development and the environment.

Say What?


mTN buSiNESS + SiTa = mobiGovMTN Business and SITA (State Information Technology Agency) have joined hands to assist in the implementation of the South African Government’s ICT policy, across all its departments and agencies.

MTN Business and SITA have pioneered a model that has enabled a direct and first-tier connection for SITA to MTN’s GSM network. This partnership created an opportunity to develop a secure public sector mobile platform, MOBiGOV, to ensure mobility for government employees.

General Manager: Sales of MTN Business, James Rutherfoord says, “SITA is mandated to assist government to be more productive in the ICT arena. The MOBiGOV product provides SITA with an effective tool to deliver on its mandate. It is a solution that enables all government officials to be connected to their offices, 24/7, while they are on the go”.

SITA’s Chief Strategic Services Moses Mtimunye says, “The partnership with MTN Business builds on this and makes business sense. The huge penetration of mobile devices within this country has paved the way for the access of government services anywhere and at anytime. This partnership brings in the elements of collaboration and an integrated approach to service delivery”.

mTNMTN Network Solutions (NS) has been awarded the ISP tender with value of R166-million over a three-year period from the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA). This is to assist the agency in ensuring an efficient deployment of its service delivery commitments.

CEO of MTN NS, Mike Brierley, says, “This is a significant contract and the single largest tender that MTN NS has been awarded to date. The delivery timeline on the project is tight with a six-month rollout, which offers some challenges to us. But, at the same time, it is a very exciting and rewarding contract for MTN NS, to assist SASSA in its significant role of the provision of social grants and pensions to some 12-million people throughout the country. It is by far the largest Government contract we have been awarded to date”.

NEWSBrought to you by Technews.co.za

CElTEl (ZaiN)Kuwait-based Zain has announced that it is re-branding its entire African operations (14 countries immediately and Ghana later in 2008 when its mobile operations start) from Celtel to Zain, thus bringing together a common branding across the Middle East and Africa.

dimENSioN daTaDimension Data has proposed a $276m acquisition for the remaining shares (44,9%) in Singapore-listed Datacraft Asia that it doesn’t already own. The deal will be funded by the issuing of new shares and orchestrated through a scheme of arrangement under Singapore law. On closure of the transaction Datacraft Asia is expected to be de-listed from the Singapore Stock Exchange. As the deal makes economic sense, it is surprising the deal hasn’t been done earlier.

fRoNTRaNGE SoluTioNSFrontRange Solutions (FRS) has appointed Nick Perkins as its South Africa Sales Director and will be responsible for all aspects of its local operations. FRS has recently bolstered its operations with the acquisitions of UK-based Centennial Software and Germany-based Enteo Software.

“You are all running accidental

architectures. It’s time to start running planned architectures.”GArtner AnALyst Andy Kyte, GArtner symPosium/itxPo AfriCA 2008

Say What?

SiTa’S CEo RESiGNSSITA has announced the resignation of its CEO, Llewellyn Jones, following alleged political interference from several quarters including the government’s CIO, who is also the deputy chairman of the SITA board. Jones has been replaced by SITA’s chief of business operations, Femke Pienaar, on an acting basis until a permanent replacement is found.

06 September 2008_

NEWSBrought to you by Technews.co.za

aCCTECh SySTEmS TakES ToP miCRoSofT PaRTNER aWaRdSAccTech Systems, Gold certified Microsoft Partner with nine Microsoft competencies, and the Softline Accpac business partner of the year scooped 2 awards at the annual Microsoft Partner Programme awards ceremony. AccTech walked away as the coveted Microsoft Partner of the year in the Independent Software Vendor (ISV)/Software Solutions Partner and Microsoft Office Deployment Partner categories. AccTech was nominated as a finalist in 10 categories; more nominations than any other partner. In July AccTech also received an International Finalist award for Microsoft Enterprise Project Management at the Microsoft World Partner conference in Houston USA.

AccTech was selected for Microsoft’s top honor

because of their demonstrated leadership in developing and delivering enterprise-class business solutions based on the Microsoft platform. To be recognized as a finalist the partner must achieve a score of more than 70% as evaluated by a Microsoft panel.

Managing Director of AccTech Systems Tertius Zitzke says, “We are delighted with the recognition AccTech has received locally and abroad.”In the Information Worker space, AccTech walked away as the Office Deployment partner of the year. Director of Strategic Technology solutions at AccTech Systems Aldo van Tonder says, “This award cements our status as the top deployment partner and recognizes the innovation we’ve demonstrated in our industry,” says van Tonder.

EmCEMC SA has bought a stake in Enterprise Content Management Solutions (ECMS), a subsidiary of Waymark Infotech, in a BEE deal described as a first for the South Central and East African region of EMC SA.

iNGRam miCRoIngram Micro SA has appointed Hansie Fourie as its new CEO, taking over from Peter Ibbotson who initially bedded down this joint venture with MB Technologies. Fourie is an ICT veteran and was previously CFO at Drive Control.

lExmaRkMark Hiller has returned to SA to take over the reins of Lexmark SA from Branislav Zivkovic, who is returning to Lexmark’s HO in Lexington USA. Hiller was previously Managing Director of Venture Computer and orchestrated the sell-out to Lexmark and the subsequent establishment of Lexmark SA.

miCRoSofTMicrosoft SA has witnessed a number of resignations in the last few weeks, including the local Managing Director, Pfungwa Serima, who has moved to SAP Africa. Serima was the first black Managing Director for Microsoft SA.

NiTElNITEL has announced the appointment of Kevin Caruso as its Managing Director and CEO. Caruso has had over 20 years experience at AT&T and is expected to prepare NITEL for its sale to new owners. One of the consortia likely to be involved in bidding for NITEL is one promoted by a number of ex-MTN Nigeria top executives

qualCommQualcomm, a developer of advanced wireless technologies and data solutions has announced the appointments of James Munn as Qualcomm’s VP for business development in sub-Saharan Africa and Jay Srage as Qualcomm’s VP for business development in the Middle East and North Africa.

Hot on the heels of the Viacom court case that is due to force Google to release its log files for YouTube usage is the news that its plan to introduce Street View in the UK is likely to be referred to the Information Commissioner be-cause the photographs used within Street View also contain images of passers-by. As Street View is a commercial proposition, the feeling is that this breaks the UK Data Protection Act.

Google’s troubles are only the tip of the iceberg. The court ruling in the US that said that Google has to release the IP addresses of You-Tube users in order to verify if copy-right material has been viewed and by whom is certainly a step further than was expected.

Ensuring that copyright material is not available would have been the ex-pected decision, which could also have been extended to revealing the IP address of the person uploading the material, but to demand the identity (in a loose sense of the word) of everyone who has viewed the material opens up a whole can of worms, not least of which is the idea that those individuals’ privacy rights might themselves be impacted by the decision.

In order for a “crime” to have been commit-ted, mens rea (criminal intent) has to exist, and that would mean that everyone viewing material on YouTube would need to know that they were watching copyright material, which is a bold as-

sumption on the part of the ruling court. If the mens rea does not exist (people were

simply viewing available material under the assumption that it was legal to do so as it was posted on a freely available commercial site), then demanding their details must surely be an

infringement of their civil liberties.The whole issue goes far

beyond Google, YouTube, and other applications. It

cuts to the heart of what data is available about individuals and whether or not that data is really safe and for what purpose it can

be used. Losing data disks in transit or leaving files on trains could soon

be seen as a minor inconve-nience for the individual, compared with what might soon happen. If commercial organizations can legally

gain access to user behaviour that most users would think is

protected, then what use might be made of that information?

Not that Viacom is expected to use the infor-mation provided by the courts for any other pur-pose than to protect its legal and moral rights, but that data itself will need to be protected. What happens if the log files get lost in transit?

It might appear a bit simplistic to use Orwell’s 1984 as an indicator of what may be to come, yet the analogy is almost impossible to ignore. If nothing is secret, if nothing is safe, then nothing is impossible.

aNalySTWaTCh: GooGlE daTa iSSuES

08 September 2008_

aNGlo baSE mETalS iNTRoduCES quadREmAnglo Base Metals has launched its full e-Procurement with Quadrem.

Head of Supply Chain for Anglo Base Metals Hennie Smit says, “Quadrem has played a key role in enabling our supplier community to align with our e-Business Strategy. This is essential to optimising the way in which we do business with our suppliers.” Smit adds, “Quadrem’s unique offering provides robust and world-class service and technology solutions coupled with intensive support to our suppliers.”

National contracts manager for Bearing Man, Lynette Rehse, says, “Bearing Man has been involved with Quadrem since 2002 and welcomes the opportunity to be involved with Anglo in this process. In our experience this process goes a long way in eliminating potential miscommunications and reinforces Anglo and Bearing Man’s vision of being faster, better and more efficient in service and delivery.”

3Com aNd lEfaTShE aNNouNCE ExCluSivE PaRTNERShiP 3Com has launched a new channel to take to market its high-end H3C networking technology, and has appointed black-owned Lefatshe Technologies as its exclusive H3C Advanced Solutions Partner in South Africa.

Regional sales director for 3Com in EMEA Chris Huggett says, “3Com, through H3C, has a world-leading offering in the arena of IP networking infrastructure with IP security, IP communication and IP storage”. Huggett adds, “Lefatshe’s experience in network management, security, operations control and consultancy, and its strength in the public sector, makes it an ideal partner for 3Com’s H3C offering.

CEO of Lefatshe Technologies, Noedine Isaacs-Mpulo, says, “Our partnership with 3Com to deliver H3C’s quality IP networking infrastructure to South Africa’s public and corporate sectors will challenge the status quo, offering the market an alternative networking solution at an extremely competitive price point.

biodaTa SECuRES RiGhTS To diSTRibuTE ibm iSS PRoduCTSBiodata, has been awarded the rights to distribute the full range of IBM Internet Security Systems (ISS) products. Biodata is currently the only distributor of ISS products in the region, and will deliver the full scope of ISS security solutions in South Africa, Namibia, Swaziland and Lesotho.

MD of Biodata Christian Runte states, “As a specialised security distributor with a wide array of solutions in our stable, we feel that IBM ISS range truly complements our current offerings, providing the missing component in our portfolio, which will now include intrusion prevention solutions.”

Runte adds, “We have already made a considerable investment in this relationship. Our own team is already certified on the entire ISS range, and the existing resellers we have taken on are currently being recertified to ensure they are abreast of all of the latest offerings from ISS.”

uCS UCS has announced the acquisition of the business of Computer Software Consultants (CSC) by wholly owned subsidiary Destiny Electronic Commerce (Destiny).

John Bright, CEO of UCS Group, says that the CSC transaction represents the foundation of a value added services division and the commencement of a specific focus on servicing a portion of the financial services sector to complement and assist in diversifying its current software, solutions and services offerings to the retail and government sector.

RECTRoNRectron, part of the Mustek Group, has been appointed as the exclusive distributor in Africa for TomTom, the latter having been dumped by Core a few weeks ago.

SahaRa ComPuTERSSahara has announced a restructuring that will fold three of its regional distribution companies (Cape Town, Durban and Port Elizabeth) into Annex Distribution, which will remain as Sahara’s master distributor. In addition, Sahara in conjunction with Mozambique’s Institute of Information and Communications Technologies, has announced that it is setting up a computer assembly plant in Maputo

SaPSAP Africa has announced the appointment of Pfungwa Serima as its new Managing Director, replacing Claas Kuehnemann, who has moved to another position in Europe.

TElimaTRixTeliMatrix has announced the acquisition of the Safe Drive International Group of companies, an organisation focused on land transport safety solutions.

“A ‘borderlessstate’ will prevailwithin the ICTindustry by 2015,and organisations(and governments) will increasinglysource their ICT from aroundthe globe without regard to the ‘coun-try of origin’ or ‘headquarters’of the vendor sup-plying the solution.”GArtner emerGinG trends symPosium/itxPo 2008

Say What?

iCT CoNfERENCE foR moZambiquEThe Mozambique ICT Exhibition has been initiated by the Mozambique’s Ministry of Science & Technology to provide an educational platform for all government ministries, departments and organisations, as well as all major private sector enterprises and SMEs. They will meet together over two days to share knowledge, learn from local and international experts and network with each other in both the conference and the exhibition.

The event will be held over 15-16 October at the country’s international-class conference venue, Centro Internacional de Conferencia Joaquim Chissano. Lead sponsor of the event is Cisco, with TDM as a co-sponsor and MICTI as a Supporting Organisation. www.aitecafrica.com


Apple’s iPhone 3G. When is it really coming? And how does $199.00 translate into (the speculated) R7,000?

Pervasive management

feature

PervasiveManagement

Pervasive management

The neTwork has become The mosT imporTanT componenT of The Technology sTack. iT goes down and everyone goes home. iT needs To be moniTored and managed along wiTh everyThing connecTed To iT.

First there was the computer. Then came the network. Now everything from telephone handsets to GPS systems are connected. How does

one securely manage this all, especially given the heterogeneity of the technology involved? Your network probably consists of a number of disparate devices that have TCP/IP compatibility in common, but little else. Is it possible to manage the whole or must focus be placed on the parts?

“You are all running accidental architectures,” states Gartner analyst Andy Kyte, speaking at his company’s annual Symposium in 2008 and referring to the mash-up of technology that currently represents most organisation’s networks.

“It’s time to start running planned architectures,” he says. But until those planned architectures are a reality,


PervasiveManagement

>b

y simo

n d

ing

le

feature

network management means dealing with a cluster of disparate systems for most. One must also take the growing skills shortage into consideration and look at how technology can be used to make the task of management simpler.

“Everyone will be doing more work in the next five years than they did in the last five,” says Kite. “But with less skills. So we need to look at service orientated architecture and business process management and how these can be used to our advantage and in light of a shrinking skills’ pool.”

Automation is key. Everyone’s time is at a premium and management needs to be intuitive, quick and easy. The solution involves good planning, controlling access to the network and banking on standards that allow for third party devices to be cohesively managed from a central point. And of course, security must be maintained.

Border controlAn integral part of modern network management is in controlling access to the network. This wasn’t as much of a problem when computers were sizeable, immobile devices and nothing else had network support. But now business networks are accessed by laptops, mobile phones, PDAs and the likes of voice over IP handsets. Everything is hitting the IP network and presenting new challenges in terms of network access control (NAC) and management.

12 September 2008_

“AutomAtion is key. everyone’s time is At A premium And mAnAgement needs to be intuitive, quick And eAsy. the solution involves good plAnning, controlling Access to the network And bAnking on stAndArds thAt Allow For third pArty devices to be cohesively mAnAged From A centrAl point.’

“Most access control solutions do a certain amount of post-remediation assessment,” says Andy Robb, CTO of Duxbury Networks. “Many NAC solutions out there require that a client is loaded onto end-user systems in order to work effectively, but this isn’t always possible and isn’t the best way of tackling the problem.”

“On a voice over IP handset, for example, installing a client will usually be impossible,” he continues. “Devices like handsets are usually rather simple devices and vendors do not make it possible to load third-party client software for them.”

But Robb says that the real threat isn’t even the device itself, but in the vulnerability it creates within the network. This is because these devices are easy to spoof.

“To someone who knows what they’re doing it’s really easy to spoof a device on the network,” says Robb. “It’s as simple as acquiring a device’s MAC address, cloning it, and immediately gaining all the network access afforded the authenticated device. Most network access control systems would be oblivious to the intrusion.”

In fact, many organisations wouldn’t even bother with placing limits on simple devices as they are hard locked on to specific network ports. Spoofing them could lead to comprehensive network access.

“So to ensure that access control systems are doing their jobs effectively it is necessary to have some form of post-authentication behavioural analysis,” explains Robb. “This entails monitoring a device’s activity on the network and attempting to detect any particular activities that would be deemed untoward. This brings us one step closer to detecting devices such as our spoofed VoIP handset, mentioned above.”

He says that once a device is validated on the network it is then necessary to ensure that it only receives access to the services it needs. For example, a VoIP handset should never need access to the enterprise’s file server. While the handset itself would probably not be able to even attempt to access such a server, a laptop spoofing the handset’s address certainly would.

“This becomes tricky when the likes of VoIP handsets that have LCD monitors built in to them, for example, and are equipped with the likes of web browsers,” says Robb. “This enables access to http ports over the corporate network. But sensitive systems should still only be opened up to the relevant devices and users that require them. This

Networks are often grown

organically with components

added as required. While it may

be impossible for many businesses

to plan this expansion to ensure

single-vendor or related device use,

standards are a key way to ensure

that management remains effective.

Knowledge of standards is key in

identifying them in vendor offerings.

By relying on standards centralised

management that stretches from end-

to-end in the network is possible, even

in a heterogeneous environment.

is another example of why proactive monitoring is a must.”

Network access control should be holistic and architecturally integral to the network, with all bases covered in terms of access control, monitoring, detection and prevention. Part of managing devices is knowing what they are and accurately provisioning them with network access.

KeeP it oPen Standards are an important element in network management. While computing devices may be disparate and from a number of different vendors, if they adhere to standards they can be easily managed using tools that leverage these standards.

The fact that all of these devices are connected in the first place is thanks to the common support they have for IP protocol. If they also support open standards that can be used by management tools then it really doesn’t matter who made them.

“It is important that core network infrastructure has effective management built-in and that it is able to manage third-party devices from this central point,” says Gavin Zackey, regional sales director of 3Com South Africa. “This is why compliance to standards is important and why 3Com has committed itself to supplying standards-compliant networking products that are both able to manage and be managed by third party devices that also comply to standards.”

He says that network devices can also be embedded with open source software, adding the advantage of them being customisable in meeting specific business needs.

“At 3Com we talk about Open Services Networking,” explains Zackey. “And this enables differentiators for customers who are able to develop their own network environments according to their specific demands, and open standards allow for effective management of the entire environment.”

Safe and fast exchange of data Legrand’s voice, data and image (VDI) cablingoffers the simplest solution to all networkingintallations.Enhanced by DLP trunking and Mosaic switchesand sockets, this system is flexible, easy to routeand modular, meeting any future needs.

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[oPinion]

feature

Voice oVer iP is entering the Value Park for business, while traditional mobile oPerators are faced with what it means for them.

Convergence is bringing everything onto the IP stack. First in line for the move was voice, and ever since the debate has been whether or not voice over IP (VoIP) offers any real

value for business, especially SMEs with their lower economies of scale. Now the debate has expanded to include mobile. Your cellphone is fast becoming the centre of your world and the players with stakes in the pie it represents are grappling for slice size. VoIP is a notable conundrum on a platform built on offering voice communication via other channels.

In the business arena VoIP is often perceived to offer cost savings. This is only really true for businesses that have sufficiently high call volumes. Especially in South Africa where bandwidth is unusually expensive. But VoIP does have other advantages, such as quick and easy user provisioning and flexibility. For small to medium sized businesses that are looking to derive value from the technology, however, there are more things to consider than just cost.

fatter pipes, pleaseMany small to medium sized businesses in South Africa correctly identify ADSL as the most cost efficient connectivity option. The more expensive leased line offerings are out of their league and wireless simply doesn’t cut the cheese in terms of latency and contention. But the fastest local connection available for ADSL is only four megabits per second, at time of writing.

“And while one might have four megabits of downstream bandwidth, upstream is considerably less and this is a key understanding when discussing the use of VoIP over ADSL networks,” says Wayne de Nobrega, CEO of Technology Concepts.

He explains that one of the challenges facing the use of VoIP on ADSL connectivity stems from the structure of data packets used by VoIP protocols.

“This is largely dependant on the codec used for VoIP, but one generally ends up with an initial voice packet of about 22 bytes in size,” he explains. “This is then transmitted over your local area network and must be padded up to 64 bytes in order to do so. The padded packet is then sent to the ADSL router and is subsequently transmitted into the ADSL ATM network. In this environment all packets must

the V ip puzzle

> by Simon Dingle

14 September 2008_

“The releaSe of fring aDD-onS iS DeSigneD To bring The riCheST uSer experienCe poSSible anD puT all of The fringSTer’S CommuniCaTion anD mobile inTerneT neeDS inTo one plaCe.”


Illus

tratio

n by D

om H

ilton

feature

be 53 bytes in size, and so the 64 byte voice packet is split into two 53 byte packets and further padding takes place.”

The effect of this is that the initial 22 byte voice packet ends up being transmitted as 106 bytes in total.

“Using a better codec with higher compression rates makes no difference either, as the packet will always be padded up when transferred,” states de Nobrega. “At the end of the day 64 kilobits per second will be required for a decent sounding VoIP conversation, irrespective of the codec employed. And if one considers that only 384 kilobits per second of upstream bandwidth is available on the top ADSL offering from Telkom, this means that a maximum of four or five conversations can take place using VoIP on ADSL at any given time. Less if one is using the Internet for other things at the same time too, such as email and web browsing, which is inevitable. This is simply not good enough for companies with more than a handful of employees.”

The answer, according to de Nobrega, is for SME businesses to make use of tailored offerings, such as Technology Concept’s truly bonded ADSL offering that combines up to five ADSL lines, along with quality of service (QoS) for VoIP built directly into a custom-developed router.

On the streetsVoIP on mobile phones is already a reality, both at a consumer level with free services and applications such as Skype and Fring, and at a business level with many enterprise offerings in the space. For the network providers this is a tricky situation, however, as their core business is built on voice. Fortunately for them this is changing as data connectivity becomes big business, especially in a South African context

where the likes of Vodacom and MTN have taken advantage of the terrestrial bandwidth situation to become major providers of bandwidth themselves.

It seems inevitable that eventually GSM will fall away and cellular networks will focus on IP technology for everything, as is already the case in Japan where most networks make exclusive use of 3G. For now, however, being a GSM provider and allowing VoIP on your data network seems to raise a conflict of interests.

Avi Shechter, co-founder and CEO of Israeli start-up Fring has already built a business aimed at the new mobile paradigm. Fring makes VoIP possible on just about any mobile phone with data connectivity, along with IM services, all via its own protocol or other services such as Skype, Google Talk and MSN Messenger. It also has support for SIP, even on handsets that don’t.

The company is turning Fring into so much more than just a VoIP and IM client, however, and has recently released the Fring API, allowing developers to create their own plugins and channels for the platform. The future of mobile applications?

“The release of Fring Add-ons represents a natural and exciting step in the evolution of our product,” says Schechter. “It’s designed to bring the richest user experience possible and put all of the Fringster’s communication and mobile internet needs into one place.”

While the office may still be a puzzling place in terms of VoIP, this will change as bandwidth continues to grow cheaper and fatter. On the mobile front, however, benefitting from VoIP is pretty simple. But the future of both is clear; IP convergence is gearing up to deal a death-blow to conventional voice frameworks, both mobile and otherwise.

technology Concepts CeO, Wayne de nobrega.

16 September 2008_


Why is Voip such a hot trend today?VoIP is one of the most important mission-critical applications being deployed on networks today, and moving to IP telephony is a key decision point in the evolution of a company’s network. Independent of either the evolutionary or revolutionary approach to migration, trends indicate that companies will convert their entire voice network to be VolP based, while demanding equal characteristics of the traditional telephony, such as availability and voice quality.

What technologies are aiding the momentum?Power over Ethernet (PoE), greatly contributes to making VoIP deployments both simple and highly available. PoE allows you to power IP-connected devices such as IP phones and Wireless LAN access points, over the existing LAN cabling infrastructure. This allows not only a very convenient and cost-effective powering of the phones (no local desk DC power needed), but also a simple, centralised power protection of the whole installation directly from the switch/wiring closet.

What advantages does Voip have over traditional telephony networks?• Reductionincarriercircuitcharges(truewhenVoiceoverIPis

carried over the Internet).• Enhancedapplications.• Integratedmessaging.• Voice-enabledwebsites.• Desktopvideoconferencing.• Integratedmanagementsystemsandstrategies.• Increasedflexibility,reductioninoverallcomplexity,eliminationof

circuit redundancy.

What are people expecting from Voip?Availability is the key expectation. Consider the promise of running telephony over data networks, where you can greatly benefit from new applications, such as unified messaging together with significant cost-savings in personnel and equipment using a single voice-data network.

Before Power over Ethernet, companies couldn’t commit their mission-critical voice systems to run on the data networks – losing data during a power outage is one thing, but losing data and voice during an outage is something else entirely. By supplying power over the same cable as the data network, these systems can now deliver the kind of reliability expected from a business class phone system.

A common goal is to consistently achieve 99,999% availability with 5,3 minutes of downtime per year or less. As a long-term supplier for high availability telephony installations, MGE Office Protection Systems understands that high availability and reliability are absolute requirements also for IP telephony solutions. By connecting a UPS to a Power over Ethernet Mid-span in the communication room, the entire IP telephony network is becoming more reliable and ensures continuous operation during a power outage.”

What else in happening in the networks space?Together with VoIP, wireless LANs are one of the fastest growing segments in the networks market. Wireless LAN access points are low-power devices that are also connected to the edge closet switches and require low DC power. For such an application, Power over Ethernet technology is of great benefit, because it dramatically simplifies the cabling problem (get rid of the low power DC power cable to each access point). This is why Power over Ethernet is one of the most demanded features for access points products and most suppliers already support this standard. In many cases, wireless LANs are also mission-critical and can benefit from the centralised protection against power losses, provided by a UPS located at the switch closet level.

VoIP Convergence

Christelle larkins, area Manager (south africa), MGe Office protection systems.

Q&a

tackling a Linux demonstration in this way definitely left the majority of the attendees convinced that it is a capable alternative to Microsoft Windows.

Open sOurce and Open standardsThe debate that took place shortly after Kahn’s demonstration in concert with the Minister of Public Service and Administration, Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi’s talk on the opening day, highlighted that open standards adoption is every bit as important, if not more important as the use of open source software.

An unlikely candidate to talk on open source and open standards, Microsoft Platform Strategy Manager, Paulo Ferreira opined that open standards should take precedence to open source when it comes to choosing IT solutions in both the public and private sector.

Citing open standards’ ability to act as a catalyst for collaboration, innovation and better value for money, Ferreira said that Microsoft was in the process of forming local councils to drive open standards-based collaboration and debate.

Far more surprising however was the fact that Ferreira said that while the company is undoubtedly a little more focused on open standards, it has in the past two years become far more active in the open source space.

Of the 170 000 projects hosted on Sourceforge, he reported that 52% are cross platform, that 14% are specifically written for Windows

SITA led the charge with a confirmation that it had successfully built a distribution of Linux capable of unseating the incumbent Microsoft Windows and Office environment in its ecosystem. Ever since parliament’s approval of government’s free and open source software

(FOSS) policy on the 28th of February last year, the market has been waiting with bated breath to see the first proof points of this policy in practise.

While scattered accounts of open source adoption had been reported since the policy was approved, SITA’s announcement that its move to open source was underway – with its Linux desktop ready for prime time and its back-end systems migration due to kick off at the beginning of next year – was, in many ways, the evidence the market needed that things were in fact moving in an open direction.

The agency used GovTech as a platform to demonstrate just how capable its choice of client-side open source solutions is.

Interestingly, SITA CIO, Eghshaan Kahn took a layman’s approach to showcase the Ubuntu Linux desktop that SITA will be rolling out.

Kahn’s demonstration of Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) dealt with the more basic elements of the operating system, like its drag and drop GUI, the ability to multitask and network; not to mention support productivity suites, send e-mail and do other very basic tasks.

With change management considered to be one of the biggest challenges government will have to face on this road to open source,

18 September 2008_

Open sOurce, Open standards and the drive tOwards e-gOvernment were, as usual the main tOpics discussed at sita’s annual gOvtech cOnference held in durban last mOnth. fOr a change hOwever, the departments delivering updates On the prOgress they had made with regards tO their initiatives and mOre specifically, thOse that centred On Open sOurce adOptiOn had tangible results tO repOrt.

feature

> by brett haggard

a real move to open Source

Govtech showcases

and Williams surfacing at the same time as Jones’ resignation, it would seem that this event was the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back.

Suspicions have arisen as to Williams’ reasons for intervening in the awarding of the tender, but as yet, these suspicions haven’t pointed to her as the one in the wrong. That said, the Department of Public Service and Administration has subsequently launched an investigation into the exact circumstances leading to this brouhaha.

Instead of being a witch-hunt, Ramona Baijnath, spokeswoman for the Public Service and Administration Minister has said that the investigation that has been launched, would focus on the initial adjudication of the tender and suspicion that inappropriate criteria was used to award the tender to GijimaAST – the first player on the list.

Baijnath said that SITA had changed the criteria for evaluating the bid and that the government CIO’s office brought this to the attention of Treasury and the Auditor-General.

This is said to have been the reason Williams instructed Jones to award the tender to Praxis instead of GijimaAST.

an ensuinG bun-fiGht While little news on the débâcle has surfaced since then, other than the fact that Femke Pienaar has been appointed as interim CEO – the results of the department of public service and administration’s probe will undoubtedly be interesting.

Having witnessed the effect of the positive results so many departments were able to report from the event, it will be sad to see SITA’s ability to deliver on its mandate with perfectly sound behaviour being called into question once again.

Popular opinion in the market is that this will do nothing but destroy any faith the public sector (and the market in general) has managed to build-up in SITA as an effective vehicle for Government IT procurement and steering.

The fallout from the Department of Public Service and Administration’s probe will undoubtedly be huge – we can only hope that it doesn’t undo all of the good things GovTech was able to highlight.

and that 30% are written with the .Net framework.“We are proving to be a good platform for open

source software,” he added.

embrace, extend and extinGuishFor many attending the conference however, Ferreira’s comments held questionable validity.

Criticising Microsoft’s embrace, extend and extinguish strategy, SITA’s CTO, Daniel Mashao, said government cannot count on Microsoft’s recent support of standards, such as the Open Document Format (ODF) being around for any length of time and that this is one of the reasons open source software must be used.

While Ferreira countered this comment by saying that Microsoft has even gone so far as appointing people to the OASIS committee that steers the ODF standard and that the company both supports open standards and believes that open source software is a first-class citizen, he also said that his company believes that both open source and proprietary software will continue to evolve and coexist over the coming years.

“We want to be collaborative, participative in driving innovation and solving the skills issues in our market. And we believe that both open source and proprietary software have a part to play in this equation,” he added.

This was a line from Microsoft, but it must be said, one that was rather predictable – the company’s software becomes less and less applicable as open source continues to make more inroads into government.

The only way it can continue to be a part of government’s IT strategy is for its solutions to be seen as complementary to open source.

Whether in fact, this turns out to be a reality is something only time will tell.

nOt withOut setbacksThe progress the public sector has made in moving forward with open source was however marred by the news that Llewellyn Jones who had been appointed to the post of CEO less than a year previously had tendered his resignation the week prior to GovTech.

Jones delivered his keynote at the opening of the conference to an audience who hadn’t yet gotten wind of his resignation. Not minutes after his talk had been delivered however, the news began filtering through the ranks and drove the atmosphere of the event into disarray.

The reason behind Jones’ resignation was however far more worrying than the mere fact that he elected to resign so soon after his appointment.

In reports that surfaced in the days that followed GovTech, Jones alleged that Government CIO, Michelle Williams had interfered with the awarding of a tender process by ordering Jones to give business to the number four bidder on the list, namely Praxis computing.

With news of previous altercations between Jones


Apart from the regular updates on where government’s IT strategies are going and where it’s managing to deliver on those strategies, the most important news was SITA committing to a real move towards open source and open standards. Unfortunately, however, the background noise resulting from Llewellyn Jones’ resignation as SITA CEO left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths and soured the event somewhat. It must be asked whether SITA is ever going to bed down and be capable of keeping leadership for any acceptable length of time. Is the concept of SITA flawed or are the controls around it just not up to scratch?We reserve judgement for now.

[OpiniOn]

“geraldine FraSer-moloketi’S talk on the opening day, highlighted that open StandardS adoption iS every bit aS important, iF not more important aS the uSe oF open Source SoFtware.”

VSVSSITA CIO, Eghshaan Kahn

Microsoft Platform Strategy Manager, Paulo Ferreira

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the dns Vulnerability, By Bruce Schneier PAGe34

By Brett Haggard

infrastructure

Making Virtualisation ViableAnd while it’s true that virtualisation does all of these things, few organisations have been brave enough to ‘virtualise’ their most critical line of business systems.

“That’s because up until a couple of months ago those companies would have had to be comfortable with housing their most mission-critical applications on off-the-shelf commodity hardware, not the kind that’s designed to stay operational no matter what,” says Dick Sharod, country manager for Stratus Technologies in South Africa.

With his company’s recent announcement of its full support of VMWare – a firm favourite with most CIOs looking to consolidate their server investments today –

all of that has changed. “Stratus has immediately

made virtualisation a viable option for customers’ most mission-critical applications,” Sharod opines.

Virtually continuously available“Today companies, regardless of vertical can put our continuous availability infrastructure into a datacentre environment and through VMWare, run more than one application and its operating system securely and fault tolerantly next to another.

“It’s a big step for us and a massive leap forwards in terms of what customers can do with our technology,” he says.

Immediately, Sharod says that his company’s value proposition to its traditional customer base,

Finding practical and effective solutions to help cut costs, reduce power consumption and deliver world-class data centre facilities.

Ask Any compAny thAt’s been dAbbling in the virtuAlisAtion spAce About the benefits And you’re likely to heAr terms like hArdwAre consolidAtion, more efficient resource utilisAtion And reduced complexity come up A lot.

OP

22 September 2008_

namely large telcos, financial institutions and other large enterprises, has been bolstered.

“Generally our customers buy Stratus because they have applications that quite simply can’t experience downtime,” he explains, “and because our servers are configured to cope with the maximum load that application is likely to place on the hardware and still not go down, there are times when their resources might be underutilised.

“With virtualisation in the picture, that need not be the case,” he says. “At those quiet times, customers can transition workloads they would normally have run on commodity hardware to the Stratus servers, thus guaranteeing those

applications are safe from downtime while running on the Stratus infrastructure.

“And the really smart customers will use this functionality to unlock even more competitive advantage,” he says. “By simply reorganising their business models slightly, organisations can ensure that they have continuous availability for their most mission-critical applications, at the most mission- critical times of the month.

“It extends the ‘making better use of your existing hardware’ concept brought to the table by virtualisation in a completely different realm,” he says.

Sharod says that organisations with medium-sized server fleets can now also begin considering the benefits offered by its continuous availability infrastructure.

“Virtualisation allows companies to move from a multiple server environment to a single server environment,” he says, “and by using our technology in combination with VMWare’s suite of solutions, these companies can build less complex environments with less servers in them while at the same time taking advantage of continuous uptime.

“Where they before would maybe not have been capable of justifying the spend on a Stratus box, with virtualisation in the picture it’s a far more viable avenue.

“We believe our new value proposition holds excellent value in anyone’s books,” he concludes.

Virtualising all of your business critical applications on a single platform is very much like placing all of your eggs in one basket. We’re not saying you shouldn’t do it though – you should just make sure that your basket comes with a safety-net.

[opinion]

communications

The company already has customers using very big fibre-links to get their connectivity – and because the backbone has been designed with convergence in mind, it would seem like his company has one major benefit to offer, that Telkom doesn’t.

Mattielo says that there are definite benefits a partner can bring to the table if they are offering voice and data carriage over a single set of converged infrastructure.

Through exposing voice and data connectivity as a ‘soft service’ that he says that Neotel’s model ensures companies become oblivious as to how the underlying technology enables their services to work.

A customer seeking a voice line, simply requests one – and similarly, a customer seeking a data line does the same.

Aggressive pricingBecause both of these services are offered over a single converged set of infrastructure, Neotel is however able to be more aggressive in its pricing.

Importantly, Mattielo says the converged nature of the infrastructure Neotel is rolling out allows it to customise services to clients’ exact needs.

The infrastructure can for example, be reconfigured according to the customer’s changing needs at specific times of day, week or month.

He says, this allows customers the flexibility to gain access to more ‘data capacity’ at certain times (for example when large data transfers, like backups and offsite replication procedures are being carried out) and similarly, gain access to more ‘voice capacity’ as and when the need arises.

The fact that Neotel’s

infrastructure is being built on a fibre-optic backbone adds a great deal of credence to this statement – the ability to offer a converged communications solution that’s capable of delivering high-quality voice over a data network depends greatly on the volume of bandwidth available.

“Many Voice over IP solutions players have attempted to offer services with low quality codes and insufficient bandwidth,” he says, “and this only results in a low quality, unreliable service.

“With the best codecs and more than enough bandwidth however, our converged communications infrastructure offers clear, reliable voice services, in addition to sound data services,” he says.

Fibre infrastructureWhile Neotel isn’t the only telco rolling fibre into the market at the moment, Mattielo says it is the only one that’s laying fibre infrastructure to the curb.

“Just because most of South Africa’s roads are being dug up to lay fibre, it doesn’t mean that end-customers are going to gain access to fibre infrastructure at the curb,” he explains.

That’s because most of the fibre that’s being laid today will be used for backhaul and interconnect purposes. It is predominantly designed to cater for mobile telcos’ and ISPs’ need for increased throughput between their switching stations or points of presence.

Neotel’s high-speed infrastructure however, extends directly into corporate and

enterprise companies’ back yards. The company already has large customers making use of its fibre infrastructure.

“To be quite honest, we weren’t expecting our metro Ethernet service to be greeted with as much enthusiasm as it was.”

The company already has large customers on its books consuming massive volumes of bandwidth.

The service starts at 100Mbps and extends all the way up to 4Gbps, which Mattielo says some customers are quite happy to pay for.

“And we believe that we can offer as much bandwidth as our customers can foreseeably need.

“Unless a network has been architected with the intention of extending it to the curb, it will at some stage, run out of capacity,” he opines.

“When we designed this network, we intended for fibre to be extended to the curb – we are confident that we have enough fibre in our architecture, that we will never run out of capacity,” he says.

Learning about best practices for traditional communications services, how to evaluate and select outsourcing alternatives, and leading the transition to VoIP.

neotel offerings beginning to roll

Telecomms deregulaTion has been a long Time coming and wiTh neoTel adverTs beginning To pop up on Television, ouTdoors and in The press, many are wondering how ready The company is To deliver services. sTeffano maTTielo, execuTive head of The enTerprise group aT neoTel says ‘very ready’. By Brett Haggard

24 September 2008_

“Just because most of south africa’s roads are being dug up to lay fibre, it doesn’t mean that end-customers are going to gain access to fibre infrastructure at the curb.”

OP

It’s really about time we had some tangible alternatives to Telkom’s connectivity in South Africa. And with a fibre-backbone powering the Neotel infrastructure, things look very promising. Will Neotel be capable of giving Telkom – who’s well known for playing dirty and throwing its weight around – a good run for its money however? We really hope so.

[opinion]

The most recent company to slash its broadband prices to create a retail offer is Benin’s ISP OTI Telecom. It is the latest francophone country to introduce this kind of offer but undoubtedly others will follow. However, the challenge remains the high cost of international bandwidth on SAT3 for most countries on the cable. Russell Southwood looks at what’s happening to broadband prices in the sub-region.

Benin’s leading ISP OTI Telecom surprised the market last week by lowering its broadband prices for retail customers to FCFA 25 000 (US$57,95) a month without tax. Equivalent prices for 512 Kbps are FCFA80 000 (US$185,43) and for 1 024 Kbps FCFA200 000 (US$463,58).

But according to Blaise Adetonah-Donhouede, the DG of OTI Telecom, the price that would really crack open the retail market would be more like somewhere between FCFA9 000-12 000 (US$20,86-27,81). At this level, for example parents who are paying for their children to do research in a cyber-café on a per hour basis will begin to see the financial advantage.

Corporate usersThe fall in retail prices has been matched by new offers for professional and corporate users: a 512 Kbps connection without tax for FCFA100 000 (US$231,79) and a 1 024 Kbps connection without tax for FCFA220 000 (US$509,93). Cyber-cafés also

benefit but with a slightly higher price on the lower capacity connection: 512 Kbps for FCFA130 000 (US$301,25) and 1 024 Kbps for FCFA220 000 (US$509,93). However, the cyber-cafés get a free ADSL modem-router, a maintenance pack, a guaranteed maximum 12-hour call-out, personalised technical support and two IP addresses with 512 Kbps connection and four with the 1 024 Kbps connection.

“Slice-and-dice” pricing in SABy comparison with DSL broadband offers in South Africa, what you see is what you get in Benin. An equivalent residential 512 Kbps connection from Telkom South Africa costs US$129,51 a month which at first sight seems cheaper than OTI Telecom’s price. But OTI Telecom imposes no restrictions on download amounts. But in South Africa there are potentially

three additional amounts that will be added to the bill at the end of the month. Firstly, the access charges paid for a 512 Kbps connection add a further US$43,17. Secondly, the connection is “shaped” which means that it’s impossible to use VoIP so you can pay an additional US$22,33 for an unshaped connection. Thirdly, in order to have unlimited downloads you pay an extra US$64,01. All of which gives a whole new meaning to “slice-and-dice” pricing.

But Adetonah-Donhouede of OTI Telecom says that such a pricing structure just wouldn’t work in Benin because his customers would spend a great deal of time contesting the detail of their bills if they had multiple payment options. It’s already reached the situation where customers ask for money off if the connection is down for more than 24 hours!

A comparison with prices in the West African sub-region put OTI Telecom and Benin in a good position. In Senegal for example Orange offers a 512 Kbps ADSL connection for FCFA19 900 (US$46,12) without tax a month. In Côte d’Ivoire Aviso offers the same connection on a similar basis FCFA40 000 (US$92,71). In price terms, these are both at the low end of the range for Burkina Faso’s Onatel which offers a 512 Kbps residential connection for FCFA40 000 (US$138,84).

In Togo and Ghana, residential connections are still limited to 256 Kbps. Togo Telecom’s

“Helim” residential connection for this capacity costs FCFA70 000 (US$162,25) and Ghana Telecom’s “Broadband4U” connection costs US$92,30.

Competition and connectivityThe impetus for lower broadband prices is driven by two key factors: the level of competition in the market and the price of international connectivity. The exception to the first driver has been Orange in Senegal which has been the continent’s only defacto monopoly that acts in a price-progressive way. However, it will face competition this autumn from Sudatel-owned Expresso.

OTI Telecom has 15 POPs and a very high level of access to Benin Telecom’s network which has enabled it to secure 60% of the 2 000 DSL subscribers in the country. But it secured this position when Benin Telecom was cash-strapped and in chaos at the end of the last Government.

The second pressure preventing lower broadband prices in West Africa is the continuing high cost of wholesale SAT3 connectivity. This varies between US1 300-15 000 per mbps per month depending on the country involved. The lower the prices, the higher the volumes sold and the greater the pressure on the existing SAT3 cable. And Nigeria, which should be the sub-region’s largest market is to some large extent still “choked off” by the continuing chaos (both financial and maintenance) at Nitel.

[opinion]By Q2, 2009, Seacom and TEAMS will be offering wholesale connectivity on the east coast between US$500-1 000. The Glo One cable may start operating Q3, 2009 and will undoubtedly offer cheaper prices to a number of countries and two other pipeline projects are in the wings. Once they are in place, there can be few further excuses for not offering significantly cheaper consumer broadband price at or below the price point Adetonah-Donhouede of OTI Telecom suggests.

www.balancingact-africa.com

26 September 2008_

tumbling prices

OP

communicationsLearning about best practices for traditional communications services, how to evaluate and select outsourcing alternatives, and leading the transition to VoIP.

wesT african consumer broadband prices conTinue To Tumble as operaTors Try To find The price poinT ThaT will aTTracT a wider public beyond The relaTively small numbers of corporaTe cusTomers. Source: Balancing Act


chromed classThe Nokia E71 is everything you want from a personal assistant. It’s smart and sexy. With cool finishes available in ‘white steel’ or ‘grey steel’ the device is both rugged and stylish. And small. Very small. Unlike its bulkier predecessor in the form of the E61, the E71 will slip effortlessly into your pocket and yet sports a full qwerty keyboard that deserves a reward for its design. The keys are tiny, and yet have been

ergonomically raised and masterfully moulded so that typing is accurate. After a day of use I was hammering out e-mails on the E71 at a blistering pace.

On the topic of e-mail, this is one department where the E-series shines. The E71 ships with stored settings for a number of major e-mail providers, such as Gmail. Simply input your username and password and get mailing – no server setup required. The phone also has a dedicated, pre-loaded Microsoft Exchange mail client and sports an e-mail key so you can get to your mail at the touch

the ‘i’ phoneWith a multitude of rabid followers globally the iPhone has come from nowhere to be the most coveted piece of technology ever devised. Its first incarnation catapulted Apple into the mobile phone arena and now iPhone 2.0 is upon us, with improved business support.

On the keyboard front the iPhone has a patented on-screen approach that takes some getting used to. Once you have it down

though, typing text messages and e-mails happens effortlessly. The e-mail client on the iPhone is a scaled down version of

Apple’s Mail.app and is hands-down the best e-mail client available on a mobile device. It feels like a full-fledged desktop client and you don’t have to make sacrifices when on the road in terms of viewing e-mail. Apple has also improved the iPhone’s support for Exchange in 2.0 and users are able to configure just about any mail service fairly simply, with the exception of Blackberry that requires some third-party glue to get going. Mail on the iPhone is now push

The search for the ultimate business phone is on. Blackberry diversifying its devices with improved application support and more of the features that have become commonplace from other smartphone vendors, but missing in the RIM playground. Apple’s 3G iPhone has improved business features and now officially supports third-party applications. And then there’s the come-back kid; Nokia has a compelling range of feature-rich business phones in its E-series.

The two devices that most recently hit the scene (and our desks for review) are the super slick Nokia E71 and the iPhone 2.0. But which is the better phone for business? It goes without saying that the iPhone is an unrivalled media powerhouse – it’s an iPod too, after all. But media aside, which phone will better help you to get the job done?

battle phonesof the business

the

Continued on page 29

UD

enterprise intelligence

TradiTionally data-mining and business intelligence tools were reserved for business executives that wanted to gain insight into their business processes, highlight weak points in their operations and find the way towards better returns.

But all of that is changing – IT professionals and developers are beginning to use BI as an input to their applications and in doing so, are cutting down on the complexity associated with automating a business process.

Apart from speeding up development times, this practice is also building an artificial intelligence of sorts into applications – it’s something that has BI guru, Rafal Lukawiecki from Project Botticelli extremely excited.

Using BI results as an inputSpeaking at Microsoft’s Tech-Ed conference in Durban last month, Lukawiecki explained that this new technique, called ‘predictive programming’ allows for an application to dispense with a great deal of the complex logic it would normally require to make a decision and instead, replace it with a couple of lines of code that calls a BI or data-mining query.

The first benefit is faster transaction processing, since the code is lighter and less

onerous to run. The second, is however, where it gets really interesting.

“So, let’s say for example you have an application that operates a sales website, and ships goods to people’s addresses,” he says.

“One day, you notice that items shipped to a specific country or region are not getting to their destination intact and immediately, you decide to act on it,” Lukawiecki continues.

“Generally, what you would do is resort to data mining and business intelligence techniques to analyse your business process and find out where things are going wrong and why, while you at the same time manually configure the

application to no longer ship items to that country.

“This is no longer necessary though – with predictive programming, the application will take care of this automatically.

Predictive programming“Instead, of manually halting shipping to the ‘problem address’ what you’re able to do today, is allow the application to make its own call to a business intelligence or data mining tool, and request a probability of that business process failing.

“If the probability is too high, the application doesn’t dispatch the order and instead either uses a different, more reliable shipping mechanism, or invokes a manual process, such

The best of BPM, CRM, ERP, e-commerce, business intelligence, project management, application management, and portal software.

“The impressive biT is, you as The developer have inadverTenTly creaTed a negaTive feedback loop, which becomes parT of ThaT daTa mined or analysed on The business’s overall efficiency.”

Business intelligence is more of a hot Button than ever… But not for the reasons you might think.

TL

28 September 2008_

By Brett Haggard

Bi for the Masses

as forwarding the details of the transaction to a supervisor who can deal with it,” he says.

That’s not the cool part however.

Artificial intelligence“The impressive bit is, you as the developer have inadvertently created a negative feedback loop, which becomes part of that data mined or analysed on the business’s overall efficiency.”

And since Lukawiecki says this is a dynamic process, as your application makes these decisions, the model that the data mining is performed on, automatically changes.

“The result of each transaction continues to become part of the data from which the executives’ high-level reports are gleaned from. The shipping application has however gained the ability to adapt to changing conditions as it needs to.”

This is important, since the issue that exists in shipping to a particular country could be a temporary one, impacted on by some form of external factor.

By using this technique, the moment that external factor is removed, the application will begin once again shipping to that country,” he says.

“It gets us pretty darn close to building artificial intelligence into business applications,” he concludes.

The use BI as an input into applications is no panacea to your business development. Yes, it will speed up development times, and build an artificial intelligence of sorts into your applications, maybe even cut down on the complexity associated with automating a business process. But the key is to really understand your business processes first. And to determine what you want to automate. And that can be the million dollar question.

[opinion]

too, as opposed to pull in the first version of the device’s operating system.

The iPhone SDK has been available for a short period of time and already a plethora of applications has been added to the App Store for download. The iPhone shines in this department with applications for just about anything you can think of. Companies are also able to develop and control the roll-out of their own applications with a version of the App Store that Apple is releasing for intranets.

The new 3G version of the iPhone offers a GPS chip that supports Google maps and the usual WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity are included. No HSDPA, however.

But owning an official and legitimate iPhone means dealing with Vodacom in South Africa – the only network to provide the device locally.

of a button. It really doesn’t matter what form your email comes in, the E71 has it covered – except for Blackberry support, which isn’t included out of the box. You’ll have to rely on a third party download for that.

Attachments are also handled competently on the E71 with Nokia’s Quickoffice application that allows for viewing and editing of Microsoft Office documents.

Nokia has overhauled the diary in its S60 version 3.1 platform based on Symbian 9.2. The diary is more visually intuitive and also has a dedicated button for instant access. And, of course, the E71 will sync with your Outlook or Mac with a small iSync pluging download.

Connectivity is covered on all fronts in the E71 with full HSDPA 3G connectivity, WiFi, Bluetooth, Infrared and a GPS chip that combines with Nokia Maps to bring personal navigation to the E71 with free maps of the world.

Another feature in the E71 is designed specifically for business meetings; when the phone rings you can tap your finger on the screen, or simply turn it over and it will shut up.

And if you must have media, the E71 does this too with a 3.2 megapixel camera, support for a variety of music and video codecs, and memory card slot allowing for expansion of up to eight gigabytes.

[opinion]Choosing between the iPhone and E71 is like being asked if you would rather date Selma Hayek or Penelope Cruz (with apologies to the ladies). Both phones are smart choices from a business perspective – but the iPhone does have the advantage of being an iPod too, so for travellers the convergence might be a big pull factor. If you don’t need that level of media support however, then the E71 is smaller and its keyboard is arguably superior. My advice: test before you buy, if you can. Otherwise you might have to flip a coin.

the ‘i’ phone

chroMed class

Continued from page 27

The best of BPM, CRM, ERP, e-commerce, business intelligence, project management, application management, and portal software.

to succeed in international competition, financial services providers must make their processes more flexiBle while gearing them towards evolving market situations. with active process management, ideally in comBination with a service-oriented architecture, financial institutions can automate, monitor and optimise their workflows.By Fred Brady, Sales Director (Africa), Software AG.

TL consumers can apply for a loan directly from electronics retailers when they want to buy something. Consumers must provide personal details along with the amount of the desired loan, and the bank must decide relatively quickly whether and under what terms it wants to grant the loan.

This means that the financial institution must find a very easy and cost-effective—that is, automated—way to process customer data and to handle these commercial transactions within the bank. So, more and more financial services providers are using process-automation tools (business process management or BPM); both as a solution to redesign their core processes and as a way to continuously optimise their processes. In the above example, greater efficiency is achieved because the information needed to make these decisions is now submitted electronically, loan applications are no longer processed manually, and bank employees can view loan applications electronically (which was previously very unusual).

30 September 2008_

Financial services providers are feeling more and more pressure to operate quickly, efficiently, and profitably—all at the same time. Competition from direct banks accessed via the Internet or other distribution channels forces financial institutions to ensure that their business processes are lean and efficient. This allows them to increase their profitability and offer their customers innovative products with attractive terms.

Banks must react to the challenges facing them, for example the fact that

innovation with BpM

enterprise intelligence

A new way of thinkingBPM requires more than just the underlying technology; it also demands a new way of thinking and a new view of the business processes needed for close collaboration between professional users, business analysts, and IT departments. When introducing such an approach, it is advisable to begin with a new, innovative, and forward-looking process flow that promises a competitive advantage, like the consumer lending process described here.

Ideally, only those core processes that require reorganisation or optimisation should be automated with BPM, in order to achieve additional advantages. To ascertain this, however, each process must first be made measurable. Performance-management tools can determine the processing time for a credit screening or a loan application. It is imperative to think about this in advance for processes selected for automation, so that the processes can be focused on future needs.

Service-oriented architectures (SOA) can be helpful here, because they allow services

to accelerate decision-making, for example information can come from an external rating agency rather than from a lower-cost, but slower, internal rating system. Because services feature reusable technical application components, they greatly help process automation. These components are merged into workflows via the BPM system in accordance with each department’s needs.

In an ideal worldIn an ideal world, a BPM system consists of a set of interdependent solutions that map business processes at a departmental level and allow collaboration between departments, business analysts and the IT department. Thus, processes can be modelled and visualised enabling new individual process steps, specified with the necessary business logic on the basis of set rules.

They are then executed in a data-flow environment. It is advisable to select a solution that supports the simulation of processes before they go live, which makes it possible to test different scenarios and check the amount of time and resources needed for the processes.

But BPM can do much, much more. It follows the entire life cycle of a process, which is beneficial because competitive advantages arise only if the focus is not just on one-time automation of processes, but also on continually updating them.

With the help of business activity monitoring (BAM) tools, business users can monitor and analyse a process’s performance to make any necessary corrections to the process that will add lasting value. For example, resource planning can be improved when BAM helps determine when loan applications tend to pile up.

[opinion]Service-oriented architectures and BPM complement each other to provide truly flexible corporate IT: the SOA forms the technological basis for BPM, and BPM delivers the technological framework for implementing services.

risk management

Following this logic, IT would only be 100 percent secure if people had nothing to do with it, but, as we all know, IT, especially in the form of desktops, is an essential part of the productive working processes.

When it comes down to it, the security issue is just as contradictory as we are. Security is a fundamental human need, but it is people themselves who pose the greatest threat to security, especially when it comes to IT. To err is human, as they say, and it is therefore only natural that we are fooled by social engineering tricks such as e-mails which profess their love to us, or are careless with our jackets when a USB stick with sensitive data is in the pocket.

Lock it all down, or a sense of responsibility?So what can be done to reduce this human security threat? A

complete block on human use of all IT resources would be the simplest solution – and this is not as counter-productive as it sounds, it would seem. Some companies have actually taken this strategy on board to some extent. For example, several businesses have taken the trouble to fit the USB ports on their computers and laptops with USB locks, in order to prevent employees inputting or taking away information using that particular user interface. But is this a good solution? Evidently not, as allowing employees access to their USB port can improve their productivity. The thinking behind these measures – if you don’t use it, you can’t break it – is invitingly simple, but misguided, and certainly does not take human needs into account.

The opposite approach also has its flaws, however. A business certainly would not get very far if it relied solely on the personal sense of responsibility of its employees and did not put any controls in place at all. It is naïve to believe that every employee will show the initiative to install patches or update anti-virus programmes and, equally, that confidential company data will not be leaked if there are no controls on access. Reliance on this “sense of responsibility” would most probably result in chaos.

Automated IT solutionsSo what can we do? Perhaps the time has come to revive the wise old adage that technology was created for the benefit of humanity, not the other way round. Human needs should lie at the centre of the debate; IT is, after all, merely a work tool. And having established that, we can move on to another time-honored concept: Each of us is different, has different tasks and

needs different tools.Would it not be more

economical as well as more secure to equip each employee with the set of tools, i.e. IT resources, data pools, storage capacity, applications and USB ports, that he or she needs to work with maximum efficiency? But this customising of individual workplaces would demand considerable effort and expenditure. In view of the shortage of personnel and the increasing complexity of business IT systems, there is not a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for such ventures. This is where automated IT solutions can help.

Patch management ensures that all the programmes and applications employees use on their desktops are always fully updated and therefore as secure as it is possible for them to be. Automatic access and endpoint security management guarantee that the company’s network is always secure – no matter when, where or what resources are being accessed, and by whom. Furthermore, asset management solutions enable IT departments – without having to search or ask – to get a quick overview of all IT resources and their use, of licence expiry dates and of IT contracts and budgets, thus saving time and money and sparing the nerves of IT technicians whilst improving the company’s performance.

Identifying, mitigating and resolving threats as they become more sophisticated and cause more damage to businesses than ever before.

it security solutions for your desktop

OP

The number one ThreaT To IT sysTem securITy has been IdenTIfIed and, unforTunaTely, IT’s us. securITy breaches can usually be Traced back To an employee who has opened a vIrus-InfecTed e-maIl or been robbed of a lapTop, usb sTIck or Ipod conTaInIng ImporTanT confIdenTIal busIness daTa. By Lewis Taljaard

Lewis Taljaard, Identity and Security Management Specialist, Novell SA

[opinion]In this case, the saying “what’s good for a business is good for its employees” couldn’t be truer. No one need worry about security and administration questions unless they want to and everyone can complete their work in the way that is best for them. IT is there simply for our benefit – just as it should be.

32 September 2008_

the bad guys exploit those vulnerabilities is expensive, inefficient and incomplete. We need to design security into our systems right from the beginning. We need assurance. We need security engineers involved in system design. This process won’t prevent every vulnerability, but it’s much more secure – and cheaper – than the patch treadmill we’re all on now.

A particular mindsetWhat a security engineer brings to the problem is a particular mindset. He thinks about systems from a security perspective. It’s not that he discovers all possible attacks before the bad guys do; it’s more that he anticipates potential types of attacks, and defends against them even if he doesn’t know their details. I see this all the time in good cryptographic designs. It’s over-engineering based on intuition, but if the security engineer has good intuition, it generally works.

Kaminsky’s vulnerability is a perfect example of this. Years ago, cryptographer Daniel J. Bernstein looked at DNS security and decided that Source Port Randomisation was a smart design choice. That’s exactly the work-around being rolled out now following Kaminsky’s discovery. Bernstein didn’t discover Kaminsky’s attack; instead, he saw a general class of attacks and realised that this enhancement could protect against them. Consequently, the DNS program he wrote in 2000, djbdns, doesn’t need to be patched; it’s already immune to Kaminsky’s attack.

risk managementIdentifying, mitigating and resolving threats as they become more sophisticated and cause more damage to businesses than ever before.

The details of the vulnerability aren’t important, but basically it’s a form of DNS cache poisoning. The DNS system is what translates domain names people understand, like www.schneier.com, to IP addresses computers understand: 204.11.246.1. There is a whole family of vulnerabilities where the DNS system on your computer is fooled into thinking that the IP address for www.badsite.com is really the IP address for www.goodsite.com – there’s no way for you to tell the difference - and that allows the criminals at www.badsite.com to trick you into doing all sorts of things, like giving up your bank account details. Kaminsky discovered a particularly nasty variant of this cache-poisoning attack.

Here’s the way the timeline was supposed to work: Kaminsky discovered the vulnerability about six months ago, and quietly worked with vendors to patch it. (There’s a fairly straightforward fix, although

the implementation nuances are complicated.) Of course, this meant describing the vulnerability to them; why would companies like Microsoft and Cisco believe him otherwise? On July 8, he held a press conference to announce the vulnerability – but not the details – and reveal that a patch was available from a long list of vendors. We would all have a month to patch, and Kaminsky would release details of the vulnerability at the Black Hat conference early next month.

The details leakedOf course, the details leaked. How isn’t important; it could have leaked a zillion different ways. Too many people knew about it for it to remain secret. Others who knew the general idea were too smart not to speculate on the details. I’m kind of amazed the details remained secret for this long; undoubtedly it had leaked into the underground community before the public leak two days ago. So now everyone who back-burnered

the problem is rushing to patch, while the hacker community is racing to produce working exploits.

What’s the moral here? It’s easy to condemn Kaminsky: If he had shut up about the problem, we wouldn’t be in this mess. But that’s just wrong. Kaminsky found the vulnerability by accident. There’s no reason to believe he was the first one to find it, and it’s ridiculous to believe he would be the last. Don’t shoot the messenger. The problem is with the DNS protocol; it’s insecure.

The real lesson is that the patch treadmill doesn’t work, and it hasn’t for years. This cycle of finding security holes and rushing to patch them before

34 September 2008_

the dns VulnerabilityOP

[opinion]That’s what a good design looks like. It’s not just secure against known attacks; it’s also secure against unknown attacks. We need more of this, not just on the Internet but in voting machines, ID cards, transportation payment cards ... everywhere. Stop assuming that systems are secure unless demonstrated insecure; start assuming that systems are insecure unless designed securely.

despITe The besT efforTs of The securITy communITy, The deTaIls of a crITIcal InTerneT vulnerabIlITy dIscovered by dan kamInsky abouT sIx monThs ago have leaked. hackers are racIng To produce exploIT code, and neTwork operaTors who haven’T already paTched The hole are scramblIng To caTch up. The whole mess Is a good IllusTraTIon of The problems wITh researchIng and dIsclosIng flaws lIke ThIs.By Bruce Schneier, Chief Security Technology Officer of BT.

DespiTe the massive failures and negative sentiment the ERP market has experienced over the past decade, this sector of the IT market continues to be a hot button with companies looking to improve the order in their business operations and a more streamlined set of business processes.

And it’s not as if ERP is becoming any safer a bet.

In fact, Dr James Robertson, CEO of James A Robertson & Associates says that the harsh reality is that ERP projects’ failure to meet business expectations is at epidemic levels.

“But don’t take my word for it,” he says. “A presentation delivered last year by Rossouw von Solms from the Centre for information security studies and the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University cited numerous examples of ERP failure.”

Sobering realitiesVon Solms’ presentation was sobering – it reported that executives at FoxMeyer Drugs had contended that the failure of its ERP system helped drive the company into bankruptcy in 1996; and that after spending seven years and close to half a billion dollars implementing a mainframe ERP system, Dow Chemicals stopped and started over with a client-server version.

Furthermore, Robertson says, the presentation reported that Nike had to write off $400 million

against its supply chain management system and Kmart, $195 million against its supply chain hardware and software.

But, Robertson says these failures have more to do with a lack of executive sponsorship, a lack of understanding of what the system is designed to deliver and lack of communication of realistic goals between the implementation partner and the customer.

The engineer’s perspective“In many ways, the IT industry should be taking a leaf out of the traditional engineering market in terms of how projects are designed and implemented,” he says.

Robertson says there’s a fundamental difference in how engineers approach projects and how IT companies approach projects.

“While they’re designing and building very different things, there are certain values that should hold true. Like for example the fact that engineers don’t design bridges to stand up – they design them to not fall down.

“It’s the difference between designing a project to succeed or designing it not to fail,” he says.

Keeping an eye on failure factorsIt’s a subtle difference, but Robertson says it’s an important one.

“The key is to look at the failure factors rather than the sucess factors.

“With a good view on what could make an ERP solution fail, rather than focusing on what would classify it as a sucess, I would venture that fewer ERP projects would result in catastrophic losses,” he concludes.

designing erp not to fail

OP

erp faIlures can be crIpplIng To any busIness. professor of engIneerIng, James roberTson, reckons a dIfferenT perspecTIve Is needed – one where elImInaTIng faIlure, raTher Than focusIng on success Is needed.By Brett Haggard

“EnginEErs don’t dEsign bridgEs to stand up – thEy dEsign thEm to not fall down. it’s thE diffErEncE bEtwEEn dEsigning a projEct to sucEEd or dEsigning it not to fail.”

Designing IT solutions ‘not to fail’ rather than aiming for them to be successful might just be what the doctor ordered. While they might not deliver the same level of value as solutions that are a huge success, at least companies won’t bleed to death when their IT systems don’t deliver what was promised. In tough times like these, the market could do with a little more conservative an approach.

[opinion]

risk managementIdentifying, mitigating and resolving threats as they become more sophisticated and cause more damage to businesses than ever before.

36 September 2008_

here’s the story. Every Oyster card has a radio-frequency identification chip that communicates with readers mounted on the ticket barrier. That chip, the “Mifare Classic” chip, is used in hundreds of other transport systems as well -- Boston, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Amsterdam, Taipei, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro -- and as an access pass in thousands of companies, schools, hospitals, and government buildings around Britain and the rest of the world.

Kindergarten cryptographyThe security of Mifare Classic is terrible. This is not an exaggeration; it’s kindergarten cryptography. Anyone with any security experience would be embarrassed to put his name to the design. NXP attempted to deal with this embarrassment by keeping the design secret.

The group that broke Mifare Classic is from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They demonstrated the attack by riding the Underground for free, and by breaking into a building. Their two papers (one is already online) will be published at two conferences this autumn.

The second paper is the one that NXP sued over. They called disclosure of the attack “irresponsible,” warned that it will cause “immense damages,” and claimed that it “will jeopardize the security of assets protected with systems incorporating the Mifare IC.” The Dutch court would have none of it: “Damage to NXP is not the result of the publication of the article but of the production and sale of a chip that appears

to have shortcomings.”Exactly right. More generally,

the notion that secrecy supports security is inherently flawed. Whenever you see an organization claiming that design secrecy is necessary for security -- in ID cards, in voting machines, in airport security -- it invariably means that its security is lousy and it has no choice but to hide it. Any competent cryptographer would have designed Mifare’s security with an open and public design.

Secrecy is fragileSecrecy is fragile. Mifare’s security was based on the belief that no one would discover how it worked; that’s why NXP had to muzzle the Dutch researchers. But that’s just wrong. Reverse-engineering isn’t hard. Other researchers had already exposed Mifare’s lousy security. A Chinese company even sells a compatible chip. Is there any doubt that the bad guys already know about this, or will soon enough?

Publication of this attack might be expensive for NXP and its customers, but it’s good for security overall. Companies will only design security as good as their customers know to ask for. NXP’s security was so bad because customers didn’t know how to evaluate security: either they don’t know what questions to ask, or didn’t know enough to distrust the marketing answers they were given. This court ruling encourages companies to build security properly rather than relying on shoddy design and secrecy, and discourages them from promising security based on their ability to threaten researchers.

It’s unclear how this break will affect Transport for London. Cloning takes only a few seconds, and the thief only has to brush up against someone carrying a legitimate Oyster card. But it requires an RFID reader and a small piece of software which, while feasible for a techie, are too complicated for the average fare dodger. The police are likely to quickly arrest anyone who tries to sell cloned cards on any scale. TfL promises to turn off any cloned cards within 24 hours, but that will hurt the innocent victim who had his card cloned more than the thief.

The vulnerability is far more serious to the companies that use Mifare Classic as an access pass. It would be very interesting to know how NXP presented the system’s security to them.

hacking mifare transport cardsOP

london’s oysTer card has been cracked, and The fInal deTaIls wIll become publIc In ocTober. nxp semIconducTors, The phIlIps spIn-off ThaT makes The sysTem, losT a courT baTTle To prevenT The researchers from publIshIng. people mIghT be able To use ThIs InformaTIon To rIde for free, buT The sky won’T be fallIng. and The publIcaTIon of ThIs serIous vulnerabIlITy acTually makes us all safer In The long run.By Bruce Schneier

NeWS:http://tinyurl.com/6zby6chttp://tinyurl.com/64svrchttp://tinyurl.com/5brcxrhttp://tinyurl.com/6cc2ou

DuTch courT rulINg:http://tinyurl.com/5a5e3h

oTher reSearch oN MIfare:http://tinyurl.com/6n42p4http://tinyurl.com/66ptjy

here’s the story. Every Oyster card has a radio-frequency identification chip that communicates with readers mounted on the ticket barrier. That chip, the “Mifare Classic” chip, is used in hundreds of other transport systems as well -- Boston, Los Angeles, Brisbane, Amsterdam, Taipei, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro -- and as an access pass in thousands of companies, schools, hospitals, and government buildings around Britain and the rest of the world.

Kindergarten cryptographyThe security of Mifare Classic is terrible. This is not an exaggeration; it’s kindergarten cryptography. Anyone with any security experience would be embarrassed to put his name to the design. NXP attempted to deal with this embarrassment by keeping the design secret.

The group that broke Mifare Classic is from Radboud University Nijmegen in the Netherlands. They demonstrated the attack by riding the Underground for free, and by breaking into a building. Their two papers (one is already online) will be published at two conferences this autumn.

The second paper is the one that NXP sued over. They called disclosure of the attack “irresponsible,” warned that it will cause “immense damages,” and claimed that it “will jeopardize the security of assets protected with systems incorporating the Mifare IC.” The Dutch court would have none of it: “Damage to NXP is not the result of the publication of the article but of the production and sale of a chip that appears

to have shortcomings.”Exactly right. More generally,

the notion that secrecy supports security is inherently flawed. Whenever you see an organization claiming that design secrecy is necessary for security -- in ID cards, in voting machines, in airport security -- it invariably means that its security is lousy and it has no choice but to hide it. Any competent cryptographer would have designed Mifare’s security with an open and public design.

Secrecy is fragileSecrecy is fragile. Mifare’s security was based on the belief that no one would discover how it worked; that’s why NXP had to muzzle the Dutch researchers. But that’s just wrong. Reverse-engineering isn’t hard. Other researchers had already exposed Mifare’s lousy security. A Chinese company even sells a compatible chip. Is there any doubt that the bad guys already know about this, or will soon enough?

Publication of this attack might be expensive for NXP and its customers, but it’s good for security overall. Companies will only design security as good as their customers know to ask for. NXP’s security was so bad because customers didn’t know how to evaluate security: either they don’t know what questions to ask, or didn’t know enough to distrust the marketing answers they were given. This court ruling encourages companies to build security properly rather than relying on shoddy design and secrecy, and discourages them from promising security based on their ability to threaten researchers.

It’s unclear how this break will affect Transport for London. Cloning takes only a few seconds, and the thief only has to brush up against someone carrying a legitimate Oyster card. But it requires an RFID reader and a small piece of software which, while feasible for a techie, are too complicated for the average fare dodger. The police are likely to quickly arrest anyone who tries to sell cloned cards on any scale. TfL promises to turn off any cloned cards within 24 hours, but that will hurt the innocent victim who had his card cloned more than the thief.

The vulnerability is far more serious to the companies that use Mifare Classic as an access pass. It would be very interesting to know how NXP presented the system’s security to them.

While these attacks only pertain to the Mifare classic chip, it makes me suspicious of the entire product line. NXP sells a more secure chip and has another on the way, but given the number of basic cryptography mistakes NXP made with Mifare classic, one has to wonder whether the “more secure” versions will be sufficiently so.

[opinion]

on the 9th of September 2008 the Center for Internet Security unveiled its new CIS Security Metrics Service to develop, publish, and maintain new software security benchmarks, baselines, and analysis tools for a wide variety of applications to ensure best practices.

The ultimate goal of the CIS benchmarking program is to help the US improve its defenses against domestic and international cybercrimes and other online threats. If everyone - from government agencies to businesses to user communities - patches common vulnerabilities and protects against known attack methodologies, a significant portion of system intrusion and data loss will be eliminated.

CIS is a not-for-profit consortium of more than 170 security professionals, organisations, and agencies from around the world whose primary mission is to prevent businesses and government agencies from becoming victims of cybercrimes due to inadequate IT security.

To date, CIS has developed and published security benchmarks for Solaris, HP-UX, Windows NT, Windows 2000, Linux, and Cisco router IOS. These benchmarks are compilations of security best practices from various federal agencies, such as the National Security Agency, Department of Defense, and the Defense Information Systems Agency; as well as private-sector security organizations, such as SANS.

cis to unVeil security metrics serVice

storage

This is a phenomena fuelled by numerous factors including the use of e-mail as the primary source of business communications and the mandatory regulations/legislation associated with data protection and retrieval, part of the broader governance scenarios now essential and becoming prevalent within all businesses to a lesser or greater extent.

HP has been quick to recognise these trends and has responded accordingly with its new data deduplication initiatives that offer the ability to store more on a given amount of storage and replicate data using lower bandwidth links at a significantly reduced cost. This is one of the most important storage enhancement announcements in recent years and promises to shape

future data protection and disaster recovery solutions.

Results provided by HP suggest that data deduplication technology can increase disk utilisation by up to 50% in delivering these scalable solutions that also reduce storage costs and protect business critical data. However, this deduplication is a cumulative process thus, it could take some time to yield impressive ratios and shouldn’t be viewed as an immediate panacea for immediately buying less storage.

In recognising the different needs of the enterprise customer to those of mid-size organisations, HP has now offered two complementary deduplication technologies to meet those two very different markets.

Learning how key storage and storage network technologies work together to drive your business. Clarifying how to use storage protocols and technologies.

HP accelerates deduPlicationUD

One Of the mOst rapidly grOwing areas Of the it industry is that Of stOrage, where grOwth rates well in excess Of 50% cOmpOund per annum are nOt uncOmmOn. By Paul Booth

Paul Booth follows worldwide and local IT industry trends. He is the founder and a shareholder of Global Research Partners.

AccelerAted deduplicAtion

Object-level differencing has been provided for the high-end enterprise customer who requires:

The fastest possible backup performance,

The fastest restores,

The most scalable solution possible in terms of performance and capacity,

Multi-node low-bandwidth replication,

High deduplication ratios, and,

A wide range of replication models.

dynAmic deduplicAtion

Whereas dynamic deduplication (i.e. hash-based chunking) has been provided for the mid size enterprise and remote office customers who require:

A lower cost device through smaller RAM footprint and optimised disk usage,

A fully integrated deduplication appliance with lights-out operation,

A backup application and data type independence for maximum flexibility, and,

A wide range of replication models.

“Results pRovided by Hp suggest tHat data deduplication tecHnology can incRease disk utilisation by up to 50% ...”

The above capability and functionality has been incorporated into HP StorageWorks Virtual Library Systems for the enterprise customer and into HP Storageworks D2D Backup Systems for the SMB market.

38 September 2008_

“New research from JohNsoN coNtrols examiNes the

workplace of 2030.”

By Douglas Weinrich of Johnson Controls

The report finds that working environments will continually adapt, leveraging technological advances and using renewable energy sources, as well as allowing for more remote working. The research explores the driving forces of change on the global workplace within key areas such as demography, economy, governance, environment, society and technology.

One of the most likely outcomes is that the employee of 2030 will be increasingly restricted by time constraints in a workplace that incorporates space for social interaction, is a place of equality and offers employees a greater choice of when, where and how to work. However, the outlook is not entirely positive and business could be facing some tough, worldwide challenges.

Three future scenariosThe report, produced in collaboration with Professor John Ratcliffe, Chairman of The

Futures Academy at the Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland, explores three feasible scenarios for the workplace of 2030. These scenarios were created using the Futures Methodology, which has been used extensively to understand tomorrow’s business mind by considering issues, trends and challenges. The first scenario, ‘Jazz’, describes a competitive global village where the workplace is a network; ‘Wise Counsels’ depicts a secure, responsible workplace with a focus on work/life balance and the workplace as a community; and the third scenario ‘Dantesque’ is a fragmented world that values profit over employees and views the workplace as a fortress.

Both Jazz and Dantesque predict that global conditions will mean a turbulent time for businesses and their employees, with a dominating focus on profits rather than people and an increasingly complex marketplace that is vulnerable to illicit activities. In these

mobilityWireless, driving both technology and strategy, is the future of IT and should be at the strategic heart of your organisation’s IT plans.

40 September 2008_

The office as we know iT is going To be Transformed over The nexT 20 years according To a new reporT published by Johnson conTrols global workplace soluTions. The workplace fuTures reporT examines how and why The global workplace is To change by 2030, helping indusTry gain a clear undersTanding of The forces driving workplace change.

scenarios the world will see increased poverty, isolation, the need for heightened workplace security, environmental problems and mass economic instability.

Entrepreneurs and contingent workers replace multi-nationals, who fall out of favour due to their business approach, which results in environmental degradation and social neglect. The most probable future, of course, is likely to be a combination of events and conditions from all three scenarios.

Jazzy, Dantesque combinationsDouglas Weinrich, South African regional executive at Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions agrees. “South Africa is ‘plugged’ into the global economy which makes this research relevant to the local market.

However, as South Africa generally follows international trends rather than leading them, there is a time lapse in which these trends ‘filter’ down to our market. This combination of scenarios is definitely a possibility for the South

[opinion]In Professor John Ratcliffe’s opinion (Joint author of the report, with colleague Ruth Saurin, and Chairman of The Futures Academy), “In the uncertain world of today and tomorrow, one major risk to business is being caught out by inevitable surprises. To avoid this, a new mindset reinforced by fresh ways of thinking about the future is needed by all those involved in constructing, occupying and managing the workplace. This report will enable the industry to face the challenges and grasp the opportunities that lie ahead over the next few decades. Businesses that can embrace these foreseeable changes will have a competitive advantage.”

RS

network, Community or Fortress?

doesn’t become a bottleneck after last-mile connectivity and international bandwidth problems are addressed. It is also concerning that the current investment is almost exclusively focused on the major metropolitan areas.”

Taylor points out that better telecom-munications infrastructure in smaller towns and cities could play an invaluable part in developing the economies of some of the country’s poorer areas. Businesses would also benefit because they would be able to set up contact centres and other facilities that depend on technology in areas where rental and labour costs are lower.

“Cellular data services can be expected to show dramatic growth in the years to come. MTN and Vodacom already have more data card users than Telkom has ADSL users, and cellular data services are available in many parts of the country that are underserviced by Telkom,” says Taylor.

Taking strainHowever, the network infrastructure of the cellular operators is starting to take strain. All networks will need to make substantial investments in capacity at their cellular sites and in backhaul connectivity to keep up with demand, especially as they try to capture a larger share of the data market.

Says Taylor, “Once the right infrastructure is in place, the opportunities for large and small businesses will be immense. For example, they could deploy new applications such as virtual call centres. Companies could create shared infrastructures in glasshouse environments that allow for hosted call centres or PABXs. Telephone calls could be routed from these environments to an employee (a contact centre agent, for example) working from home.

“Broadband technologies – wireless, mobile and ADSL – are all becoming more accessible to the mass-market and prices compare favourably to dial-up for even light Internet users,” says Taylor. “Users can expect to continue to see broadband services become cheaper and faster over the next few years, if operators make the necessary investments.”

The mobile data market can be expected to continue its growth as the network operators introduce newer and faster technologies such as High-Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA), the next evolution from HSDPA, and eventually, Super 3G, which will provide download speeds of up to 100Mb.


ThaT’s according to Mark Taylor, managing director at independent telecommunications service provider, Nashua Mobile. He says that rising fuel prices and growing traffic are forcing many South African workers and businesses to seriously consider mobile and remote work as a way of controlling costs and saving time.

However, the country’s telecommunications infrastructure is still not ready for the pressure of coping with a vast number of people, working from home and on the road, across wireless and fixed-line links instead of sitting in an office working on a local area network.

Says Taylor, “The major operators are all in investment mode, as the trenches operators have dug up across Johannesburg to lay down cable testifies. The new investments they are currently making in fibre-optic cable in metropolitan areas and in undersea cables should translate into faster connectivity and more abundant bandwidth within the next three years.”

Last mile bottlenecks“However, fixed-line operators will need to address exchange infrastructure to ensure that this part of the telecommunications network

obstaCles in the way oF true mobilitysouTh african neTwork operaTors need To make subsTanTial invesTmenTs in local exchange infrasTrucTure before a world of Truly ubiquiTous mobile connecTiviTy becomes a realiTy.By Mark Taylor, managing director at independent telecommunications

African market with perhaps an emphasis on the Jazz and Dantesque combinations.

“The fact that South Africa has a significant proportion of unskilled labour and a high demand for cheap labour – drivers in industries such as mining and farming – positions the ‘Dantesque’ framework as a high probability for South Africa’s future. However, we also form part of a global competitive village with social networking gaining rapid popularity, making the ‘Jazz’ scenario a likely future too. Our economy is experiencing a dire lack of skills which makes the ‘Wise Counsels’ framework a challenge. Yet it is a scenario that we should aspire to – one we could make a reality through greater application of effort with regards to skills development in corporate and Government sectors.”

Preparing for the futureBy understanding these three scenarios, those responsible for providing working environments can prepare for the challenges that the future could hold. Among others they will need to take into consideration employee response to change, supporting globally fragmented clients, adaptation of internal communications and aligning migration patterns with the changing market and the workplace.

Dr Marie Puybaraud, Director of Global WorkPlace Innovation at Johnson Controls Global WorkPlace Solutions, comments: “Workplace change and innovation are critical to the future of organisations in a dynamic, economy-driven and knowledge-based society. Managing change is a vital dimension underpinning the successful transition to new work styles, patterns and locations.”

[opinion]

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42 September 2008_

The drive To open everyThingEvery year representatives of open movements from around the world gather to share their experiences, consolidate their efforts and discuss the state of play. This year they converged on Japan.

By Simon dingle

iCommons is an entity that was incubated by Creative Commons and aims to bring together and consolidate movements in openness around the world. It represents a network of people, projects and organisations in technology, education, business and art that are all pushing for a more open way of doing what they do and driving change into the world they do it in. iCommons has recently gained independence from Creative Commons and come into its own as an NGO. The organisation hosts an annual conference, called the ‘iSummit’ for open thinkers and movers, that is now in its third year. The first event took place in São Paulo, Brazil before moving on to Dubrovnik, Croatia and then Sapporo, Japan in 2008. The iSummit is very much a focal point of what iCommons does.

Having been at two of the three iSummits I am often asked to explain the concept of openness and the commons to people. What is open education? What is Creative Commons? How can business possibly be… “open”?

Unusually commonThe sea of questions surrounding openness and its integration faces not just outsiders, but members of these open movements too. However, in the world of the commons much progress has

been made and as with any idea that’s time has come, the move to openness continues to steamroll ahead.

A common misconception with openness movements is that they are trying to replace existing systems. While this is true in many instances, I get the impression that the focus is more on providing alternatives. Consider Creative Commons for example. The organisation is working to provide a flexible layer of rights provisioning that fills the gap between conventional copyright and the public domain. It is not necessarily trying to replace conventional copyright, merely to present another option. Whether or not this means the end of conventional copyright remains to be seen – but that is not the intention.

The same can be said for open source software. Proprietary software has a place in the world, albeit a small one, and open source is providing an alternative. Of course, more militant supporters of the movement will tell you otherwise – but every revolution needs its rabid foot soldiers.

As a network for these movements, the vision of iCommons is ultimately to “develop a united global commons front” and investigate what this means and how it is expressed.

Open for BusinessThe open business track at this year’s iSummit was of particular interest. In education and art, for example, it is easy to articulate the value of openness. But in business things aren’t as immediately obvious.

That is, until one considers industries that have always been open. Interestingly, this is true of the fashion world where little to no copyright is enforced outside of branding.

Johanna Blakley is the deputy director of the Norman

“What is open education? What is creative commons? hoW can business possibly be… “open”?”

Founder of creative commons and open government activist lawrence lessig addresses isummit attendees.

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Lear Center, a think tank that studies the convergence of entertainment, commerce and society. She has published research entitled: ‘Ready to Share: Fashion & the ownership of creativity’, that explores the fashion industry’s enthusiastic embrace of sampling, appropriation and borrowed inspiration.

“I think most people don’t realise that it is perfectly legal to copy another fashion designer’s designs,” says Blakley. “In the United States anyone can make an exact replica of a Prada skirt, a Calvin Klein slip dress or an Armani suit with very little chance that a lawyer will come knocking on your door. The only thing you can’t do is pass that replica off as an actual Prada, Calvin Klein or Armani. That is trademark infringement and so you’ll be sued within an inch of your life. Consequently, fashion designers, unlike musicians or filmmakers, can sample from a vast treasure chest of previous design as they make their new creations. They can copy a sleeve shape from a vintage 1960s dress, incorporate it into a Vivienne Westwood-ish neo Victorian punk frock et voila! A new look, a new idea, and a new something for someone to buy… and to potentially knock-off.”

Has the fashion industry suffered from this paradigm? Quite the opposite. Blakley points out that apparel sales in the USA reached 192 billion dollars in 2003. Compare this to the combined revenues of film, video and DVD at 60 billion dollars and you get an idea of how big fashion is.

Pretty seriousThe business of education is another area where open movements are driving change and offering alternatives. Open principles offer powerful answers to some of the questions that face the world of learning, especially in Africa.

Educational resources are scarce in rural and previously disadvantaged South Africa. They’re expensive, and the global textbook industry is controlled by a handful of publishing companies that hold tight to their copyrights. Getting textbooks updated, translated and into the hands of learners is tedious, onerous and expensive.

The Shuttleworth Foundation is one organisation committed to tackling the challenges head on. It incubates projects such

as Siyavula, that aims to make open educational resources readily available via an online platform that allows educators to collaborate in the development of resources that are curriculum aligned and freely available to adapt, translate, download and cheaply print.

The foundation has also spearheaded the formulation of the ‘Cape Town Declaration’, along with the Open Society Institute, that positions open education and has been signed and adopted by international thought leaders around the globe.

The Shuttleworth Foundation’s intellectual copyright fellow, Andrew Rens, played an

instrumental role in the open education track at the iSummit and a large focus was placed on the Cape Town Declaration and how open education can be furthered going forward.

“We are on the cusp of a global revolution in teaching and learning,” reads the declaration. “Educators worldwide are developing a vast pool of educational resources on the Internet, open and free for all to use. These educators are creating a world where each and every person on earth can access and contribute to the sum of all human knowledge. They are also planting the seeds of a new pedagogy where educators and learners create, shape and evolve knowledge together, deepening their skills and understanding as they go.”

Unsurprisingly, Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales is one of the deceleration’s most vocal supporters and was a keynote speaker at the event, even though he was not able to make it to Japan, instead linking up with the conference over the Internet.

“This has probably been the most successful summit we’ve had to date,” says Heather Ford, director of iCommons. “In the past we’ve seen the developed world articulating their commons most vocally, whereas now we are seeing more of the developing world defining their own local commons and collectively working with movements in other countries to conceptualise a global commons. The developing world can not merely be a passive recipient of open content, for example, but needs to involve itself more in the development of content and in embracing open principles to its own advantage. There needs to be a lot more diversity and collaboration and the movement needs to be democratised.”


[opinion]The iSummit involved everything from the brewing and consumption of Free Beer (www.freebeer.org) to collaboratively creating a giant drawing covering an entire exhibition floor, a virtual summit running simultaneously in Second Life, and visiting open and shared physical spaces in Japan. Much of the conference goings on have been captured at www.icommonssummit.org and with so much energy being focused on open movements one wonders what the coming year will bring.

“consider industries that have alWays been open ... such as the Fashion World Where little to no copyright is enForced outside oF branding.”

means “Photos Licensed under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/”

Photo by Fred Benenson

Paul Booth is ...

Staying on courSe: The guide to identifying, managing and reducing complexity

the author Robert Levine once said that in life, the only certainty is uncertainty. That is particularly relevant in today’s market, where a shadow of uncertainty has been cast across the globe.

Various regulatory and legislative demands have elevated risk management, compliance and security solutions to business-critical status. Faced with a myriad of risks and uncertainties, the IT manager has had to become familiar with a new lexicon – and the management of a new set of complexities.

In this month’s column, we look at the role of technology in managing risk through the protection of an organisation’s assets, compliance and service continuity.

While regulations have made governance top-of-mind, they are not the only factor driving the need for improved risk management. Increased dependence on technology has resulted in increased operational risk – and the need to manage that risk.

What is driving this? There are a number of factors. First, there is a growing realisation of the interdependencies among the various risk areas within a business; such as applications, operations and security. Second, we have seen a worldwide move to regulations governing corporate behaviour in the financial and privacy arenas and the acceptance of frameworks such as COBIT for documenting controls. Lastly, risk has evolved beyond corporate financial risk to enterprise-wide operational risk.

Developing a risk management strategy Enterprise risk management needs to be tackled as a business issue, not just as an information security concern. Technology professionals need to focus on three areas when they develop a strategy for managing risk:• Protectionofassets:Thisincludescontrollingwhohasaccessto

your organisation’s corporate assets, systems and information; ensuring that security goals are mapped to business objectives and very importantly, to view corporate information as an asset.

• Compliance:Aspectstoconsiderhereincludesecuritycompliance, software licence compliance, proper disposal of equipment and ensuring that information is within compliance guidelines as it pertains to the business, such as SOX and Basel II.

[opinion]The challenging economic environment sets the scene for next month’s column, where we look at the bottom line – how to do more with less, as well as insights and best practices to deliver greater value for your organisation.

• Servicecontinuity:Identifybusinessunits’datacontinuityrequirements, know who or what is impacted by a service or performance problem and ensure that disaster recovery plans can meet business needs. Simply put, the aforementioned approach helps organisations

to manage risk by controlling access, protecting information and assets and managing operational integrity and continuity.

Technology considerations Adisconnectedviewofriskmanagementnolongerworks.Organisations need to manage risk across the business in a manner that demonstrates tangible business value. It requires an understanding of all potential risks even after controls are put in place and monitoring and managing their impact.

Businesses therefore need to define the IT requirements in business terms and focus on continuously delivering core services, decreasing the costs associated with downtime of critical business processes, create a sustainable compliance programme through the automation of internal information security controls and reducing the risk of a major security event that can destroy corporate reputation and brand value.

In this month’s column, Gary Lawrence, country manager of CA, looks at the management of risk in an increasingly uncertain world

44 September 2008_

By gary Lawrence

TL

By Jonathan Gosier

Currently Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada are among the countries leading in both the median speeds being offered to domestic users and the sheer numbers of those connected. But where does this leave Africa?

How Africa comparesIt’s no secret that most African nations have no shot at making it anywhere near the top five on that list any time soon. There simply is a lack of the infrastructure required to truly see the numbers grow. And these are no small hurdles. Reliable electricity still only reaches 5% of the continent’s population. Consider also the fact that there aren’t enough gateways to the undersea cables that connect continents to the Internet period. Thus, much of the African continent still connects via satellite which is slow and much harder (and more expensive) to scale.

One of the biggest developments in expanding access to information and communication technologies (ICT) in Africa involves communications infrastructure. The lack of basic infrastructure is historical in the region with the percentage of fixed telephone lines being the lowest worldwide with an

average of 4 main lines for 100 people. This in turn constrains the deployment of broadband access via ADSL, which is the main method of fixed broadband access in most countries across the world. Annual mobile growth rates of over 48 per cent over the last five years further lend to Africa being dubbed “the least wired region in the world”. Despite the overall low level of broadband penetration, double and triple-play services similar to other regions are beginning to emerge. Current data and trends suggest that Africa has immense potential to improve its infrastructure deployment and telecommunications usage.

However, despite the hurdles, according to a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) in 2007 Africa ranked 4th in regional broadband penetration behind North America, Western Europe and Central and Eastern Europe. The study sampled six continents in total (with Antarctica being the obvious exception) so coming in 4th ain’t too shabby considering the size of the African continent and the study places Africa leading Latin America and the Asia Pacific regions.

1 percent penetration is 99 percent opportunity for growthDr. Hamadoun Toure (head of the International Telecommunication Union) was quoted in a 2007 BBC interview as saying, “The good news is that Africa has had the highest growth in mobile use globally – twice the global average over the past three years. For the first time economic indicators are positive from Africa.”

If only a fraction of that momentum can be translated to Internet penetration (and as mobile penetration continues to skyrocket it’s inevitable) then things could turn around for industry here indeed. Toure also notes that he feels that the key to progress in ICT in Africa doesn’t lie in developmental aid but rather in true engagement with the private sector, “Africa has to create the opportunities; Africa doesn’t need charity. We need to make sure we have a good environment that will attract private sector investment.”

46 September 2008_

The CurrenT STaTe of PeneTraTion in afriCa

The above quote from the BBC News Archive made me do some hard research into the current state of broadband penetration in Africa. Is the situation as bleak as it is often described or is there more potential than the region is given credit for? It turns out there’s some validity to both arguments.

“Fewer than 4 out of 100 Africans currently use the Internet, and broadband penetration is below 1 percent.”

The Internet café skews allThe other big hurdle to measuring the true number of African Internet users is that due to the fact that most connections are incredibly expensive in comparison to the average median income, most people don’t subscribe to anything, let alone connect from home. They save up money and pay to connect from Internet cafés or to travel to a place where use is free like school or the Library. This means that although use among residents may be low, it’s not as low as some might suspect.

An excerpt from “Telecommunication/ICT Markets and Trends In Africa” (2007) …

Less than three percent of the world’s Internet subscribers, or 10,7 million, were located in Africa in 2006. Taking the population of Africa into consideration, this means that 1,3 percent of the inhabitants were subscribers to an Internet service provider. For Africa, as for other world regions, an Internet subscription is often used by different members of the household, by clients of a cyber café, by visitors at a library. Therefore it is estimated that the number of effective Internet users in Africa is considerable higher at 4,8 users per 100 persons.

But plenty of other problems persist in other areas…The African broadband operators typically serve

telecommunication services to limited numbers of wealthier inhabitants with extraordinary high prices for bandwidth and voice. As already observed in the mobile boom on the continent, voice and data prices are coming down, while volumes continue to increase. Not only companies, but also governments are very keen on getting fast broadband access to make use of applications like e-commerce or e-government. The availability of reliable broadband access is crucial for investors because it allows the companies to take part in the global division of labour (e.g. outsourcing) and enables governments to take informed and transparent decisions.

Nevertheless, 16 countries in Africa still rely on a single 10 Mbps international Internet connection (or less). In at least 25 African countries, broadband was available in 2006. South Africa alone had 881,5 Mbps of international Internet bandwidth in 2006. This statistic alone illustrates the digital divide within Africa. African countries all together had a total of 28 177 Mbps bandwidth available in 2006, while, for instance, Asia accounted for 809 951 Mbps of the world’s 5 504 127 Mbps bandwidth. In comparison, Norway alone had 43 019 Mbps bandwidth in the same year, almost one and a half times more bandwidth than all of Africa. Europe accounted for 3 060 002 Mbps, the Americas for 1 360 991 and Oceania for 245 052 Mbps respectively.

Regarding broadband subscribers, Africa had 1.1 million broadband customers in 2006, compared with 280 million subscribers worldwide. This means that one tenth of all African Internet subscribers had signed up for a broadband access. Again, also in broadband subscriptions, the gap between the African regions is tremendous. 75,5 percent of the broadband subscribers or 808 900 subscribers were located in the four northern African countries in 2006, namely Algeria, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia. Since most of these subscribers are concentrated in that region, Sub-Saharan Africa had a much lower broadband penetration of 0,12 per 100 inhabitants.

“Less than three percent of the worLd’s Internet subscrIbers, or 10,7 mILLIon, were Located In afrIca In 2006. takIng the popuLatIon of afrIca Into consIderatIon, thIs means that 1,3 percent of the InhabItants were subscrIbers to an Internet servIce provIder.”


Key faCTS aBouT afriCa• 280milliontotaltelephonesubscribers,ofwhichsome

260million(over85%)aremobilecellularsubscribers,representingthecontinentwiththehighestratioofmobiletototaltelephonesubscribersofanyregionintheworld.

• It’stheregionwiththehighestmobilecellulargrowthrate.Growthoverthepast5yearsaveragesalmost65%yearonyear.

• Accountsfor14%oftheworld’spopulation,butforonlyaround7%ofallfixedandmobilesubscribersworldwide.

• Hassome50millionInternetusers,foranInternetpenetrationofjust5%.Europe’sInternetpenetrationis8timeshigher.

• hasabroadbandpenetrationofmorethan1%inonlyafewcountries.BroadbandpenetrationinOECDcountriesexceeds18%.

• Africaisthesecondmostpopulatedregionintheworldwith963millioninhabitants.Thelowfixed,mobileandbroadbandpenetrationratesrepresentrealdigitalopportunityinAfrica,bothforthosealreadyintheregion,andthosethathavenotyetsecuredafoothold.

Source: ITU World Telecommunication/ICT Indicators, 2007

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48 September 2008_

AlternAtive power solutions

If you haven’t done an emergency energy power audIt yet, perhaps you should make It a prIorIty.

Fact: your power could go literally at any time. The question you should be asking yourself, while the lights are still on, is which of your systems are mission-critical. Which equipment is the lifeblood of your company – a means of connecting with the outside world and actually doing your business?

With UPSs (Uninterruptible Power Supplies) and generators currently filling most of Eskom’s supply gap, potential buyers need to do their homework before choosing their alternative power solution. The starting point is knowing your specific requirements:

What applications have to be able to run when the power is out? What must your equipment still be able to do despite there being

no electricity? You also need to look at the amount of back-up time you

require. In the case of a SME it’s very possible that after doing this type of audit, you’ll discover you just need a UPS – not a UPS and a generator.

things to consider when buying a uPs:• TheloadyourUPScansupportisdirectlyproportionaltotheamountofback-up

timeyourequireandthenumberofdevicesyouloadontoit.Bepracticalwhendecidingwhatisreallyessentialinyourhomeandbusiness.

• Thelongertheback-uptimeonyourUPS,thelongeritwilltakeyoutorechargeitsbatteries.InsteadofgettingonelargeUPS,itmightthusbemorepracticaltosplityourloadontotwosmallerones.

• TakethelifespanofyourUPS’sbatteriesintoconsideration.RememberthattheaverageUPSisdoingalotmoreworkthanitusedto.Thedischargecyclesitusedtodeliveroverfouryears,it’snowdoinginlessthantwo.Budgetaccordingly.

• ThinkcarefullyaboutthesizeoftheUPSyourequire.Whilemostofthesmallerofferingsare“plugandplay”devices,thehigher-endmodels(after4kPVA)willneedtobehardwiredintoyoursystem.Thismeansyou’llneedtogetanelectricianinvolved.Inthiscase,itmightonceagainpayyoutorathersplityourloadoveranumberofsmallerdevices.

• AUPS’smainfunctionisnotsurgeprotectionbutratherback-uppower.Whilethisisafeature,itisrecommendedthatanadditionalsurgeprotectiondeviceisconnectedtoprotectbothyourUPSanddevicesduetothecurrentexcessivesurgescausedbytheload-shedding.

GetyouralternativepowersolutionsortednowandentertowinoneoftwoEllipseASRUPSsfromMGEOfficeProtectionSystemsvaluedatR4500.Visitwww.mgeops.comformoreinformationonalternativepowersolutions.

TheEllipseASRrangeprovidesabatterybacked-upsupplytokeepyourequipmentoperatingwhenthereisapowercut.Italsoprovideseffectiveprotectionagainstdamagingsurges–foryourcomputerequipment,telephone,broadbandandEthernet.

Simplyanswerthefollowingquestion andsendyouranswertonet.work ([email protected]):

WhatisthemainfunctionofaUPS?

Include your full name, company and contact details, and ‘net.work competition - Alternative power solutions’ in the subject line. Send your entries to [email protected].

ComPeTiTion


Speaking at GovTech last month, Thomas Jankovich, Innovation Strategy Leader at Deloitte Consulting said that the vast majority of companies he comes across are striving for 20/20 vision into the future, but instead, all they’re able to count on is 20/20 hindsight.

And instead of trying to distil what the future looks like from that hindsight however, he said that companies should be learning how flexibility and adaptability is the key to surviving that future.

Jankovich added that besides the fact that looking forward and making assumptions is futile, the chances are that those assumptions will be wrong.

Assumptions made, failures gainedTake the example of man going to the moon in the ‘60s.

“Since the human race had never been to the moon before, Nasa was shooting in the dark,” he said.

“While it had planned for what the journey might hold and had done what it thought was all of the complex mathematics required to get to the moon and back, the mathematics it had done were based on assumptions… and were wrong.

“The only way Nasa managed to get its astronauts to the moon and back, was for it to resort to mid-course correction. And this,” he said, “is what businesses will have to do in order to ride out the changes over the coming years.”

Nobody could have predicted that new generation players, commonly known as the Generation X-ers, would change the rules completely and start companies like Napster and Skype – barely legal businesses, without conventional bricks and mortar operations that had built their value proposition on breaking the rules.

And numerous examples of companies that lost their way due to assumptions exist in the technology space.

Eat yourselfJankovich said that Sony and Philips were the two companies that rode the portable music wave in a big way, with their brands of compact, portable cassette and CD players occupying the largest market share in this space.

Ironically, they ended being the only two companies that missed the digital music boat.

“They assumed that digital music in the form of MP3s would encourage the piracy of music. While they were right on the money, their resistance of this change resulted in them

[oPinion]Andwhatliesbeyondthisisanyone’sguess–it’snotwisetopredict.Jankovichsaidallbusinessescandoisbeopentonewthingsandbewellpositionedtochange.Itisafterall,theonlyconstant.

relinquishing their dominance in portable music,” he said.It would have been better for them to eat themselves than to be

eaten by the new competitors that sprung up around this shift – if they had embraced the digital music revolution, chances are they would have carried on being dominant.

Technology is driving change“In the ‘70s, the world had one television set per 25 people and one telephone per 18 people. There were also very few consumer appliances in use.

“By contrast, today there are thousands of television channels available in the world, many consumer appliances in each home a telephone for every 2,5 people,” he said.

“The safe assumption would be for this to continue. Ironically though, the exact opposite is true.

“Ubiquitous broadband access means that the future will likely consist of no television sets, since users will pull what content they need from the Internet; and no consumer appliances, since it’s becoming cheaper for people to buy food prepared by others or have their laundry done by others,” he said.

Conversations are a thing of the past. There are 200 million SMS messages being sent each day on the popular MXit service, 11 million users online at any one point in time logged into on Skype and 100 million videos being uploaded each day to YouTube.

LeSSonS from The fuTureThe world as we know it is going through a dramatic set of changes. And while most companies are struggling to figure out what the next big thing is, few have realised that knowing what the next big thing is doesn’t matter nearly as much as being in a position to rapidly adapt to the changes in environment it will ring in.

“the vast majorIty of companIes are strIvIng for 20/20 vIsIon Into the future, but Instead, aLL they’re abLe to count on Is 20/20 hIndsIght.”

By Brett haggard

product updateProduct updates on desktops, laptops, accessories, gadgets, software and more. A byte of fresh technology.

50 September 2008_

re-defining the perception of smartphones

The HTC Touch Diamond signals a giant leap forward in combining hi-tech prowess with intuitive usability and exhilarating design. Featuring a sharp 2,8-inch touch screen housed within a stunning formation of brushed metal and flawless faceted edges, the HTC Touch Diamond is as beautiful to behold as it is to use.

With HTC’s vibrant touch-responsive user interface, TouchFLO 3D, and ultra-fast HSDPA Internet connectivity, it offers a rich online experience to rival a notebook computer, allowing you to interact with Google, YouTube, and Wikipedia as freely as you would with a broadband connection. A 3,2 megapixel auto-focus camera will help you capture the perfect moment in style and with a massive 4GB of internal storage you can keep all the files you need. The integrated ultra-sensitive GPS will help you find your destination as quickly and efficiently as a dedicated satellite navigation unit.

Style and substance in a phone are no longer mutually exclusive.

WindoWs Vista certified Lcd projector

NeC Display Solutions has introduced its Windows Vista certified LCD projector with WXGA resolution with MPEG-2 USB video playback onto the market. The NEC NP901W mobile has a brightness of 2 000

ANSI lumens, it also offers a contrast ratio of 400:1 and has a total weight of 3,7 kg.

Contact: Astragraphix, FaxMail: 0866 522 560, [email protected], www.astragraphix.co.za

SpeCTrum Multimedia has launched the Buffalo LinkStation Mini. The device performs via Gigabit Ethernet connection and has two 500GB 2,5 inch drives.

The unit includes a built-in DLNA-Certified media server by TwonkyVision, which enables playback of multimedia files through any DLNA compatible media player. The Direct Copy function enables multimedia files to be transferred directly onto the device from a digital camera, camcorder, USB flash drive or USB storage.

Contact: Spectrum Multimedia, Tel:+27 (0)11 807 0707, www.buffalotech.com

NeC Display Solutions has launched its NEC MultiSync EA the second model of its NEC MultiSync EA series. The NEC MultiSync EA261WM has been equipped with an active USB hub, and is available in black as well as in white with a silver bezel.

Contact: Astragraphix, FaxMail: 0866 522 560, [email protected], www.astragraphix.co.za

nec dispLay soLutions 26” Widescreen Lcd

The EA261WM

NEC’s NP901W portable desktop projector

2,5” duaL driVe nas soLution

phoeNix Software has announced the availability of two products from Ability Software namely Ability Office Home and Ability Office Business. Ability Office Home includes two licences for personal commercial use, and includes free email and Web support. Ability Office Business offers seven fully featured applications in one compatible office suite, specifically designed for the needs of businesses everywhere. Files can be loaded from and saved to MS Office® *.doc, *.xls, *.ppt and *.mdb files, Adobe® PhotoShop *.psd files, plus all other mainstream graphical formats.

Contact: Phoenix Software, www.phoenixsoftware.co.za

imaTioN has launched its smallest USB flash drive, the Imation Atom Flash Drive. It comes with password protection, partitioning software, and Windows Vista ReadyBoost compatibility. The drive is available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB and 8GB capacities.

Imation country manager Peter Welsh says, “Just as the atom refers to the smallest molecular particle, the Atom Flash Drive refers to the smallest portable storage device in our extensive portfolio.

Contact: Imation, www.imation.com/flash


mobiTrak has released the Magro3 GPS powered by HandyMAP G10. The 3,5” TFT touch-screen comes with a 320x240 QVGA resolution. The unit runs Microsoft Windows CE 5.0.

PDAShop.co.za regional manager Kun-cheng Tu says, “No GPS vendor in the world can guarantee 100 percent data accuracy and the most up-to-date information in all the areas by the time it is available to the market. Worldwide, it is only HandyMAP that provides free map updates twice a year for

the software product-lifetime. HandyMAP also ensures that consumers living in remote areas receive up-to-date data free of charge”.

This version of HandyMAP includes a host of road networks, places and points of interest, with more than 69 350 POIs and 700 000km Southern Africa routable coverage. HandyMAP software offers the most up-to-date digital map database from Business Connexion – the supplier of Navteq Onboard.

Contact: Maction Technologies, [email protected]

magro3 With handymap g10

Magro3 with HandyMAP G10

abiLity office home & business

epSoN has launched the Stylus Pro 11880, which is the company’s first 64” large format printer. The Epson Stylus Pro 11880 includes the latest MicroPiezo Thin Film Piezo (TFP) printhead, which delivers superior printing performance, optimised for pigment-based ink technology. The eight-colour ink set used in the Epson Stylus Pro 11880 features a new formulation of Epson’s UltraChrome K3 with Vivid Magenta, widening the colour gamut for even more accurate and realistic colour matching. The Stylus Pro 11880 is designed to be productive, with each cartridge containing a high capacity of 700 ml.

Integrated Gigabit Ethernet delivers fast processing speeds over a network, while the Epson Super Halftone technology further improves image tone and definition – making photographs more realistic. The combination of features and ink set make the Stylus Pro 11880 one of the most advanced digital large format printers on the market.

Contact: eProfile, Tel: +27 (0)11 602-0800, www.eprofile.co.za

epson Launches 64” Large format printer

smaLLest usb fLash driVe

paCkard Bell, the third largest vendor of consumer desktops in Western Europe, has launched the first small-footprint Packard Bell iMax desktop PC to offer full-size power and expandability. All drives are set up in the front of the chassis giving quick and easy access but with a discrete and elegant stylish design.

The Packard Bell iMax has a sleek glossy black chassis which features brushed metal honeycomb side panels and soft curves. It is 60% smaller than a standard desktop chassis, yet provides quiet airflow cooling and tool-less expandability. It is powered by an Intel Core 2 Quad processor and 4GB of memory. It has a 750GB hard drive and is available with a Blu-Ray combo drive. Peripheral connectivity is made easy with six USB 2.0 connectors, one Firewire connector and a 15-in-1 card reader. Two of the USB ports and the card reader are front-mounted for easy access.

Multimedia performance is driven by NVIDIA GeForce 8600 graphics with Microsoft DirectX 10 and High Definition 7.1 surround sound with a SPDIF connector. An optional DVBT TV tuner with

remote control and optional HDMI output are also available.

In terms of expandability, it has two memory slots, and two available PCI-Express slots (16X and 1X) and one PCI slot.

Networking is provided by a built-in 10/100 LAN port and wireless networking can be added by plugging in an optional Packard Bell Wi-Pen Wi-Fi adapter. For clutter-free usage, the Packard Bell iMax comes standard with a wireless keyboard and mouse and can be associated with a 22-inch Packard Bell Maestro flat-panel display. The Packard Bell iMax is preloaded with Windows Vista Premium and a full range of software from top-name vendors.Contact: www.packardbell.com

The DVG-2001S converts any existing analog telephone into an IP phone. Also by plugging in a FAX machine, the DVG-2001S will enable users to send and receive fax the same way as a traditional analog telephone line.

The DVG-2001S supports the SIP protocol, which is widely deployed by VoIP providers on the market. It also supports the most popular audio CODECs to ensure compatibility and voice quality.

Contact: D-Link Africa, Tel: +27 (0)12 665-2165, www.d-link.co.za

For those seeking a smartphone that makes a bold statement, Research In Motion’s (RIM) BlackBerry Bold smartphone is the real deal. Crafted from premium materials, inside and out, that radiate elegance with a dramatic presence, the BlackBerry Bold is designed to give business professionals and power users unprecedented functionality and performance. It is the first BlackBerry smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and comes with integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. From its lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leather-like backplate, to its stunning display, sophisticated user interface and newly designed full-QWERTY keyboard, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.

“The new BlackBerry Bold represents a tremendous step forward in business-grade smartphones and lives up to its name with incredible speed, power and functionality, all wrapped in a beautiful and confident design,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO, Research In Motion.

product updateProduct updates on desktops, laptops, accessories, gadgets, software and more. A byte of fresh technology.

The Enterprise Mobility business of Motorola has announced the latest member of its outdoor access point product family, the Haz-location (Haz-Loc) for

Hazardous Environment Duty.Customers can deploy the AP-5181

APs without extra cabling by utilising Motorola’s mesh and

it extends the IT network outdoors in hard-to-

wire environments.Vice president and general

manager of Enterprise

WLAN, Motorola Enterprise Mobility

business, Sujai Hajela says, “Wireless is the preferred networking choice in many of these harsh environments not only because of its mobility and lower cost benefits, but also for the simple fact that some of these settings have restrictions or special conduit requirements for laying Ethernet cables”.

The Motorola AP-5181 is Haz-Loc certified Class1Div2 (C1D2) and ATEX Zone 2 compliant. C1D2 is required for hazardous operation in North America and ATEX Zone 2 is required within the European Union.

The AP-5181 provides security with support for Wi-Fi protected access (WPA) and WPA2. It enables its wireless intrusion protection system (WIPS) to monitor, detect, protect and help prevent intrusions to the wireless network.

Contact: Motorola Enterprise Mobility business, [email protected]

neW WLan mesh-enabLed access point

Motorola’s AP-5181 access point for hazardous locations.

the bLackberry boLd smartphone

d-Link’s dVg-2001s Voip phone adapter

packard beLL unVeiLs desktop pc With big poWer

NeTwork Platforms has launched the Draytek Vigor 110 ADSL Ethernet modem for ISPs worldwide, a modem for firewalls and load balancers.

MD of Network Platforms Bradley Love says “By providing a PPPoE to PPPoA bridge, the connected device -- firewall,

router or PC -- can log into the Internet or Internet Service Provider (ISP) directly and one has full control over the ADSL connection. This makes the DrayTek Vigor 110 a unique product.”

Contact: Network Platforms, [email protected]

Draytek Vigor 110 ADSL Ethernet modem

WD VelociRaptor 300 GB SATA hard drive

draytek Vigor 110 adsL ethernet modem

a NexT-geNeraTioN 10 000 RPM, 2,5-inch, 300 GB SATA hard drive, the WD VelociRaptor is 35 percent faster and twice the capacity of the previous performance king.

Distributor Drive Control Corporation (DCC) is now delivering Western Digital’s latest high performance hard drive in its Raptor series – the VelociRaptor. This next-generation hard drive is designed with an enterprise-class foundation but modified specifically for PC and Mac enthusiasts, and professional workstations.

The 2,5-inch WD VelociRaptor drive is enclosed in the IcePack, a 3,5-inch mounting frame with a built-in heatsink – a customisation that fits the drive into a standard 3,5-inch system bay and keeps this powerful drive extra cool when installed in a high-performance desktop chassis.

Contact: Drive Control Corporation, Tel: 011-2018927, [email protected]

the WorLd’s fastest hard driVe

54 September 2008_

HigH ambient temperatures have been blamed for the mishaps – but no one is absolutely sure of the real reason. Previously, teams super cooled their fuel, but this practice has been banned. Was it a factor?

Refuelling problems are always viewed in a serious light because of the propensity for fire when things go wrong. Luckily, the amount of fuel spilled in all cases in Hungary was small, less than half a litre – but even this amount can set off a substantial blaze.

Probably, with the refuelling problems on his mind, Red Bull driver David Coulthard has called for the banning of refuelling. He says it will spice up the action. But will it make racing safer?

Back in the day – before 1994 – F1 cars started races with the fuel allocation for the entre race on board. Mid-race refuelling was banned then.

Coulthard maintains that in this era there was a much bigger role for the driver in terms of managing the tyres and brakes which would need to be conserved when the car was ‘fat’ with fuel.

Because the car’s weight would change so much during the course of the race – as the very heavy fuel load burned off – there were always fluctuations in performance and handling characteristics, which in turn created more overtaking opportunities and added interest.

It was up to the driver to decide to either run the race non-stop if the tyres were up to it, or stop once or maybe twice for new rubber. The results of the races were generally in doubt until the very end.

It’s an argument that has two sides. Those of us who remember Niki Lauda’s flaming accident at the Nurburgring in 1976 - which nearly killed him and left him scarred for life – or Clay Reggazzoni’s crash at Kyalami in 1973 when he was lucky to be rescued by Mike Hailwood, realise what can happen when an F1 car crashes with a full load of fuel on board.

We can accept that modern F1 fuel cells are stronger and better armoured than those of the 1970s – but there will always be a danger.

Coulthard says that today, in dry racing conditions, we very rarely see anyone win from further back than the second row of the grid, because race pace largely mirrors qualifying pace.

This is not surprising, he says, because qualifying and race conditions – in terms of the weight of the car, the state of the tyres, fuel load and other criteria - are so similar.

Spice up the show by adding more variables, he says. Perhaps no one has told David, but modern F1 cars are not built to

take a big enough load of fuel to last an entire Grand Prix. Even the cars with the largest tanks would be hard pressed to go more than 75% of the distance on one tank full.

So best we maintain the status quo and look for other ways to introduce ‘spice’. I’m putting my money on the new 2009 ‘aero’ regulations to achieve Coulthard’s objectives. I can’t wait to see the new-generation of F1 cars, without the fussy add-ons and winglets they currently wear.

The changes will slash millions of euros off the R&D budgets, cut back on the round-the-clock running of wind tunnels and put the focus back where it should be – on the driver.

Most importantly, next year F1 cars will be back to running on genuine slick tyres – not the current ‘groves’ – for the first time in over a decade. This will give the drivers more grip to exploit under braking and in the corners which, without so much downforce, will place more emphasis on driving skill.

I believe the new rules will shake up the field and give the smoothest drivers – Jarno Trulli, Jenson Button, Robert Kubica, Nico Rosberg and even Kimi Raikkonen - a chance to shine against their opposition, including their respective team mates.

They will also give ‘lateral thinkers’ in the teams – men like Ross Brawn at Honda and Pat Simmonds at Renault – an opportunity to demonstrate the value of carefully thought-out race strategies without the artificial handicap of a poor aero package.

BAN REFUELLING TO SPICE UP THE SHOW?

AdvERTORIALGraham Duxbury is the CEO of Duxbury Networking, Formula 1 commentator, South African champion and Daytona Speedway USA Hall of Fame inductee.

At the recent hungAriAn grAnd Prix, FormulA one teAms were bAFFled by A sPAte oF reFuelling rig Problems during the rAce. toro rosso, williAms, hondA And toyotA exPerienced Fuel leAkAges during mid-rAce reFuelling stoPs. All oF them, excePt toyotA, suFFered worrying FlAsh Fires.By Graham Duxbury, Formula One in Focus

net.work september 2008

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