The Future of Cloud in South Africa

Posted on 25 April 2022 by Sean Rose

Spoiler alert: it’s multi-faceted and customisable. It’s also the key to digital transformation and a comprehensive business strategy.

Digitalisation allows businesses to speed up normal day-to-day operations for maximum efficiency. Physical documents are saved and categorised in databases. Invoices are sent and received via email. At any time. From anywhere. In seconds!

Unlike digitalisation – doing the same, but faster – digital transformation gives us all new ways of working. It opens up a world of endless possibilities – one free of, ‘That’s just how we’ve always done it’ thinking. Digitalisation offers the kind of agility and adaptability needed in a world where anything can (and does) happen.

Digitalisation allowed Netflix to pivot from supplying weekly mail-order DVDs in the US to streaming movies and series globally, 24/7. Digital transformation gave the streaming giant the ability to produce the critically-acclaimed original content we know and love today. They did it by leveraging the masses of data and insight Netflix subscribers provide with their viewing habits and preferences.

Here’s the good news: digital transformation is possible for every company, in every industry.

And it all begins – and never ends – with the cloud.

Why Cloud is Here to Stay

Every company needs to access their data safely and securely, from anywhere. It’s a harsh lesson most businesses learnt over the last two years. Honestly, given our erratic power-supply issues, a cloud migration strategy is always going to be a good idea here.

On-site servers are expensive to buy, maintain and update. South African companies also need to factor in the costs of generators to keep them running when load shedding strikes. That’s before you consider the current eye-watering cost of petrol. Not to mention what it’s going to cost in a few years…

To have any kind of future, businesses need to be able to connect at all times. Customers and employees thrive in environments where information is easily accessible and always at hand.

Hosting all, or at least some, of your data in the cloud means you’ll always have access to it, in real time. Because all of the above – the server upgrades, maintenance, and constant power-supply – is already taken care of for you by experts in the field.

So, now you know why you need the cloud. Let’s unpack the importance of having a cloud strategy.

Sadly, there’s no cookie-cutter solution when it comes to cloud integration. Each company is unique, with their own sets of challenges and business goals. Choosing who to partner with to guide you on your cloud journey is what makes all the difference.

Where Cloud is Going Next

Migrating to the cloud to optimise day-to-day operations is just scratching the surface. Why not use this opportunity to leverage your data and gain new ways of working too?

Better still, what about customising your cloud strategy to suit your business needs? Or getting the most from your strategy by partnering with multiple cloud vendors? It’s called multi-cloud. And it means you can have it all – safe, secure hosting and insightful data analytics from the best in the business. But with a single partner to guide and manage the process.

That’s the beauty of Vox Cloud. As a South African cloud solutions provider, Vox is passionate about tailoring a cloud journey to suit each company, regardless of size. Enabling them to reach their business goals both now and in the future.

Not only can our Cloud team guide you on your journey to the cloud, but we also offer the choice of multi-region ISO-compliant data centres along with hybrid and multi-cloud strategies. Vox leverages the latest cloud innovations without losing sight of your unique business needs.

It all comes back to a deep understanding that a human touch is what makes these tech-driven solutions infinitely better.

With Email, it Pays to Go Paid

Posted on 24 March 2022 by Guin Davies

When it comes to choosing between a paid vs free email service, first ask yourself why you wouldn’t put a price on privacy.

It’s been said before, but it’s worth saying again: where would we be without email? It gives us the ability to send detailed messages and communicate with anyone. Anywhere in the world. In seconds.

In fact, it’s almost impossible to remember a time before email. And that might be part of the problem. We’re so conditioned to having email as a necessary part of our lives, when presented with the option of a free email service, we don’t even question it. If there’s one thing we’re learning in the age of information, there’s no such thing as ‘free’ when it comes to signing up for a service.

Privacy is Worth Paying For

When it first launched in 2004, Gmail caused a sensation. It offered users the opportunity to create and access their own email accounts, from anywhere. For free! Once smartphones entered the picture, this kind of email accessibility became invaluable. It gave us all more freedom away from our desks. And desktops.

Where Gmail led, other free email services, like Yahoo and Hotmail, followed. But, 18 years later, Gmail still reigns supreme with a staggering 1.5 billion active users globally.

That’s a lot of valuable data to mine and sell back to advertisers. Which was Gmail’s business model until 2017. If you download and install any free third party plugins, they’re also given access to scan your email data for targeted advertising too.

When you pay for an email service, one of the most important things you’re paying for is your privacy.

With Vox Webmail, accessing your email safely and securely from any platform without having your mail scanned by bots can cost as little as R10.50 per month. You can’t even buy a decent cup of coffee for that. What? It’s true. Don’t even talk to us about petrol.

You Are Your Email

The right impression is everything. This is especially true when it comes to business. Not only does a paid email service give you greater control over your data, it also allows for crucial customisation.

Sending email from your business domain strengthens the integrity of your brand. It signals a higher level of professionalism than sending emails from a generic free service does. It also saves your emails from landing in the spam folder. A branded email address allows your customers to feel comfortable not only receiving information but sending personal information back to you as well. A value exchange is automatically created between your company and the customers it serves. That’s something infinitely more valuable than the perceived costs a free email service can save.

If you’re a small business looking to scale, a paid email service should be at the top of your list of priorities. Vox Cloud Mail makes the journey to paid email even easier. Offering a secure, enterprise-class email solution with unlimited email addresses and only billing for the storage used.

Paid Email Offers Added Value

If enhanced privacy, brand awareness and security with paid email weren’t enough, choosing to partner with the right service provider can also give you access to value adds.

Like email branding. At last count, it was estimated the average person received about 121 emails per day. It’s a great way to get your voice heard, but you’ll also need to cut through the clutter. This is where something as like Vox Email Branding – which automatically transforms a standard email signature into a mini branded campaign – will help you stand out.

If you need a service that allows you to access years’ worth of email history for reporting purposes, or you’re just the cautious type, Vox Email Archiving will help you sleep soundly at night. The locally-hosted cloud service allows you to save, search and retrieve 10 years’ worth of email quickly and easily, keeping your email data integrity fully intact. Not to mention compliant with the South African Email Communication Regulation. Yes, that’s a thing. It exists.

With email, just like everything in life, you get what you pay for. But with Vox, it won’t break the bank or your inbox.

Why Cyber Security Still Matters in 2022:

Posted on 28 February 2022 by Suhail Dinat

Fun fact: in 2019, many experts on international diseases warned the world that a global pandemic was on the horizon and that we were significantly unprepared. Not many listened (in fairness, it was a strange time – so who would?) and, well, two years later, we know how that played out…

Many kids who are forced to study History often wonder why. The past is over, they say, so what benefit is it to go back in time learning about it? Well, those who aren’t wise enough to learn from past mistakes are destined to repeat them and, sadly, it looks like we’re on the verge of making a similar error – only this time with a completely different yet equally dangerous pandemic.

Yup, the industry leaders are warning us about Cyber Security, and failure to listen is surely failure to learn from not too long ago.

It’s astounding to look around and realise how the world has completely transformed into an interconnected, largely digital universe (or Metaverse, if things continue to progress at this rate). So much so, in fact, that experts are even discussing amending Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs to now include Wi-Fi. The PC and Smartphone (to many, at least) easily rank besides food, sleep, oxygen, and water as vital components of human survival. The pandemic certainly accelerated this process, with everything from transactions to dating to workspaces embracing the digital revolution – but in the process, this left us vulnerable, as many of us became so caught up by progression, we negated to ensure adequate protection or remotely consider a failsafe.

Today, sadly, anything connected to the Internet is compromisable, targetable, and, sadly, exploitable by a wide array of predators.

It seems like every day we see another Cyber Hacking scandal – from Sony Pictures to the Irish Healthcare System, to Virgin Active and even world leaders. The raw Data, in fact, is startling, as 36 BILLION private records were breached and reported (making them a fraction of the total number) in the first half of 2020 alone.

For the last two years, the response to every cough or new variant has been drastic, including lockdowns, vaccine rollouts, amendments to constitutional processes and the implementation of a worldwide, unified State of Disaster. In contrast, the response to this perpetual spate of Cyber Crimes has been minimal – and barely a whimper in comparison to the more physical, ‘real-world’ threats which we deemed higher priority. Even when the US Government itself was prone to digital attacks, its response was nowhere near as severe as its approach to Covid-19.

The world effectively constructed an entire digital universe yet negated to install even the most basic security gate.

By interconnecting our entire way of being, we’ve opened ourselves up to previously unforeseen (and often unfathomable) means of vulnerability. Seemingly overnight, crucial governmental secrets are at the mercy of non-allied countries. It’s entirely possible for Russia to impact an election on US shores, for hackers in Israel to compromise the South African President’s cellphone, for any one of a million countries to suddenly have their resources attacked, infiltrated, and exploited. Such is the risk we faced when running head-first into a new, digital remote world without adequate protection – and this has the potential to have lasting, ground shaking repercussions not just to you and me, but the entire political landscape of the world as we know it.

Sure, the Average Joe has a lot to fear if their browser history is compromised, their Identity Stolen or their assets suddenly wiped completely. But what happens when more advanced, more sinister hackers start infiltrating platforms meant to be impenetrable? We’ve seen it happen in healthcare systems, credit bureaus and even entire branches of Government – so why is it that Cyber Threats and Security is not taken as seriously as an admittedly dangerous disease, which, as we’ve seen, we’ve still managed to overcome relatively quickly?

It’s a Brave New World, but also a frightening one if you step back and consider the bigger picture. Every workplace, every child, almost every individual on the planet has heaps of confidential Data and resources at their disposal, at both a corporate and personal level. Without the adequate protection, all of it is at risk, all of it can be stolen and, most importantly, all of it can be used for nefarious means.

All things considered, Cyber Security isn’t just fear mongering, or the digital equivalent of building a bomb shelter in anticipation of WW3. On the contrary, it’s merely an indication that as society’s digital needs have progressed, so too has its understanding that important information needs significant protection, and those with the foresight to understand that prevention is better than cure will, ultimately, be those who were glad they did so in the long run.

We, as individuals, have a responsibility and a duty to place as much emphasis on Cyber Security (and education around it) as humanly possible. Just type the term into Google for a full understanding of all the ways you’re unknowingly compromised, or how many organisations are brought to their knees daily because they failed to do the same. We need to not just talk about, but accept, the reality that everything connected to the Internet (which is, in itself, pretty much everything) is up for grabs – meaning protection is not just an option, but a necessity.

The world has a Cyber Security problem, that much is clear. The only question is whether we’ll be willing to gear up with the correct solutions or be cursing ourselves for doing so long after it’s too late.

Let’s put the Premium in your WordPress Hosting

Posted on 27 January 20221 August 2024 by Suhail Dinat

The general sentiment seems to be that if you want to make something sound high-end, you can either give it Woolworths’s water or stick the word “Premium” around it.

Case in point: you get regular Ster-Kinekor, and then you get Ster-Kinekor Premier. You get the PSL (with Benny McCarthy’s waistline), and then you get the Barclay’s Premier League (with Cristiano Ronaldo’s jawline). You get Eskom, and then you get, well, darkness (sorry Houghton, we’re in this together).

We’ve come to learn that, like an awesome new weave or posh accent at Saint, give it a few hours and something that seems fancy at first doesn’t always hold up well. Except, of course, when it comes to Premium WordPress Hosting – which has all of the high-end and none of the needing a tender to afford it.

What is Premium WordPress Hosting? Well, it’s like Airbnb for websites, except the homes are in Camps Bay and there’s no brown stains on any of your surfaces.

Look, there’s only so much we can say about generic website hosting. Everyone from Jeff Bezos to all the creators responsible for Incognito Mode (we see you) know what it’s about. Like building a house without owning a plot of land (a joke that probably holds up better outside of SA), you can’t have a website without a domain or some form of hosting.

Back in the day, Shared Web Hosting was sufficient much like flared jeans were acceptable in the late 90’s. However, as time has progressed, so too have the needs of modern business (and, in turn, their hosting solutions).

Enter Premium WordPress Hosting: which is basically the spinach to your website’s Popeye. Not only does it take your site to the next level, but it offers a rock-solid, secure and scalable platform. Your business and website have enough moving parts (especially if you’re one of those Incognito Mode pages we spoke about earlier) without you needing to sweat the small stuff. PWH offers a reliable, locally hosted WordPress Hosting service without the headache of managing a server – leaving you free to focus on your content.

Okay, we’re with you – but why should my business even consider this? My website works fine?

Sadly, there was a time when City Power also worked fine – but if you’re seeking longevity (and no angry Twitter base), just “fine” isn’t enough (trust us on this one). Here are some of the reasons you should consider PWH with Vox:

We’re hosted on the Vox Carrier Cloud Network (at the Edge of the Internet).

Relax, flat-earthers, the Internet isn’t another 2D object you can theorise falling off. Rather, ‘Edge’ Computing is a modern take on Datacentre and Cloud computing Architectures. Basically, it takes your real-time applications and analyses them more efficiently.

This means that instead of running your website with a Chico engine, you’ll instead be running full throttle with a V12 strong enough to make Vin Diesel stop talking about family.

Did someone say, “Free Vulnerability Scan”?

We included that purely because ‘free’ anything usually brings in traffic (which is why you saw so many free Yellow, Green and Black T-shirts recently. Wink wink). Jokes aside, Vulnerability Scans allow for Proactive Risk Monitoring (which is some technicians way of saying we check for weaknesses before a hacker gets there). Rather than let your site be stolen, our PWH services make sure there’s nowhere for hackers to break into. And no, we can’t offer the same service to your physical premises.

Get your Backup against the Wall

Unlike your Google Search History, your Website Data is something you want to keep. We conduct ongoing Backups to ensure that your site can’t be lost, or, in the event of a worst-case scenario, your information isn’t stolen by some guy in an Anonymous mask who thinks he’s Mr Robot.

Locally Hosted is Lekker

Look, we have our share of problems like any other country, but sometimes local is just better (have you ever eaten Australian Biltong? No wonder they choke at the RWC). Our locally hosted services actually offer a 99.9% Uptime Guarantee – come rain, hail, looting or load shedding, your site will be able to run regardless of how many Guptas it takes to ruin a power station.

Honestly, this sounds like a high-end product for the Takealot’s of the world. Why my SME?

That statement, like a speech before election time, couldn’t be less factually correct. Our packages start from R249.00pm and cater for everyone from start-ups to WordPress enthusiasts (yes, those are a thing). Whether you have a booming E-commerce site or just need a landing page to justify your marketing budget to your line manager, the competitive advantage of PWH places you head and shoulders above your competition. It’s like steroids for your website, except instead of smashing your keyboard out of pure rage, the only thing you’ll be smashing is web traffic and conversions.

So, there you have it. Dedicated infrastructure, lightning-fast speeds, backed by Vox, Secure and reliable – if only it had its own political party. Your website is the face of your business but, if not done right, could also be another body part instead.

A slow, unattractive website will have a seriously negative impact on your business – so take your brand experience and online presence to the next level and let Premium WordPress Hosting send your humble website to private school.

Is your PBX a Team(s) Player?

Posted on 26 January 2022 by Suhail Dinat

Now this is a story all about how the modern workspace got flip-turned upside down, and we’d like to take a minute just sitting right there to tell you how 3CX and Microsoft Teams can work as a pair.

Truth be told, we’ve covered PBX in immense detail here. By now, we’re all well versed in what it is, how it works, and how your boss can use it to make sure you aren’t slacking on the clock. We all assumed that come the end of 2021 we’d be returning to some form of normality, with home and hybrid workspaces slowly being phased-out. What we didn’t factor in was that the day South Africa decided to be efficient at something, it picked “finding new strains”, which means flexi-work environments are seemingly here to stay for the foreseeable future.

(Seriously, couldn’t those scientists be communicating via Zoom or Yeastar instead? That way, their discoveries could either be intercepted or leaked to Kim Jong Un).

It seems like everything today is going hybrid. From cars which hog the fast lane (with smug owners to match), to workspaces and those Ligers being held captive by Joe Exotic, single-purpose items are yesterday’s news. Likewise, why limit your business to a single form of communication when today’s solutions have become so vast, so efficient and so all-encompassing that even the licensing department has multiple channels? (Not that theirs ever work, but anyway…).

Admittedly, we agree that at surface value, a PBX is as interesting as a deposition by Helen Zille (and less entertaining than one of those DA ads promising to get things done). Like a Nokia 3310 (which could withstand an earthquake and we’re pretty sure was made from pure iron), the first telephone systems were created solely for their call functionality. However, as human behaviour evolved, so too did PBX systems as a whole (we’re not Nokia after all) – systems adapted, grew and became more integrated with the unique needs and requirements of the people who used them. Similarly, the decision to utilise a PBX as a whole has evolved from the concept of a grudge purchase to one of necessity.

Today, the end product boasts a wealth of features which are rich in functionality and benefits, meaning they’re an integral part of many successful businesses. That being said, we’ve come to learn that with a modern, mobile and adaptable workforce, sometimes versatile solutions which combine two or more functional elements are not just pivotal, but essential.

This goes a long way towards explaining why more and more business are opting for Hybrid software models, particularly with regards to the amalgamation of their Microsoft Teams and 3CX PBX systems. We won’t lie, Teams is AWESOME. So awesome, we’d 100% vote if they ran for mayor last November. However, the licensing and upkeep can prove costly, which is why an increased number of businesses are choosing to split their workers between a Teams system and a PBX system (usually in an 80:20 / 70:30 ratio) so as to maximise their resources, enabling the correct functionality while also saving costs.

By opting for a balance between the two, you equip your users with the right applications and tools to thrive.

Better yet, Teams and 3CX can communicate with one another (rather than function as separate entities the way Zoom emulates the EFF and works in isolation). Essentially, Microsoft Teams can now connect to your office PBX systems. In simple English, anybody can make, receive or place internal and external calls with anyone, anytime, anywhere. End result? Connecting is easier for your clients and co-workers, whether on the road, in an office, at home or on the can (hey, it happens).

The benefits?

Well, aside from sounding sophisticated when you explain to your board why you’re running multi-system software, you can expect the following:

Streamlined communications
Simplified collaboration
Increased cost-efficiency
Adaptability for remote team members, office employees and WFH stalwarts alike.
Flexibility to choose the features and functionality your business requires.

The days where your business need be limited to a finite, one-or-another set of tools belong to a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (because only a Sith deals in absolutes, after all). Like pineapple on pizza (yeah, we’re those people), South Africa and darkness or Government and unwanted lockdowns, some things go so well together, it’s like they were made for each other. Your PBX and Teams can be no exception – provided it’s done correctly.

Interested? Let us tell you more by checking out www.vox.co.za/pbx.

Achieve Total Peace of Mind with Sixth Sense

Posted on 19 January 2022 by Guin Davies

Shop Asset Trackers

The Internet of Things is here to make our lives easier by giving us direct access to the things that matter most. We’ve made it even better with Sixth Sense.

It’s one thing to invest in a fridge that lets you know when you’re about to run out of milk or a washing machine you can turn off and on from your phone, but that’s really just scratching the surface when it comes to the value of IoT (Internet of Things) in the home.

What if we told you IoT can give you the kind of superpowers you’ve probably only dreamed about? Like, say, being in two places at once, and knowing for sure if you remembered to close the garage door when you’ve arrived at your holiday destination?

Or the Spidey-sense of giving yourself enough time to fix that leaky geyser before it really becomes a problem?

Better still, what about the ability to track the location of any person or valuable object in near-real time, removing the stress of the unknown and those anxiety-inducing “What ifs” if they ever happen to go missing?!

Vox Sixth Sense gives you the power to confidently eliminate those unknowns right from the palm of your hand. Some might argue you can’t put a price on that kind of power, but they’d be wrong. We have. And we’ve made it super affordable too.

Home Monitoring Tech Made Easy

As intimidating as IoT may sound, it really doesn’t have to be. When it comes down to it, this type of monitoring technology features three components. Physical sensors to collect and send info, a Data transmission network to receive that info and a platform for you to view and analyse all the info collected. Boom.

With Vox Sixth Sense, you don’t even have to worry about higher-grade things like setting up and configuring your sensors either. Once shipped, our self-powered sensors will already be added to your profile and transmitting Data before you even open the box. That’s right – these sensors won’t be a drain to your personal home network or Data package. They connect automatically to a Sigfox IoT-specific network, which also covers more than 93% of the population.

Once you’ve registered and logged into your Sixth Sense profile, just place your sensors where needed, rename them on your app, set your preferences for alerts and sit back and watch the Data start rolling in.

Already shaking your head at the thought of possible home DIY? Fear not. These sensors are compact and hard-wearing for a reason – and nothing a bit of double-side tape can’t handle. That’s for use indoors, though. If you’re taking them outside (and you can!), then we’d suggest opting for something a little more durable to keep your sensors (and senses!) where they need to be.

The Sixth Sense App Is Where It’s At

This is literally where all the magic happens.

We’ve gone above and beyond to create a locally-hosted, user-friendly application that gives instant access to all your sensors from any connected device.

Depending on the types of sensors you’ve chosen to add/activate on your profile, you’ll be able to view alerts, choose how you’d like to receive those alerts, add users, rename your sensors, and keep a check on the battery life for each one, all from a single platform.

The four sensors on offer right now are just the start. Vox Sixth Sense will grow to include even greater functionality with a more diverse selection of sensors and full integration into your home security Wi-Fi camera network via Guardian Eye.

Through it all, you’ll have a trustworthy partner in IoT to help you connect all the dots and see the bigger picture when it comes to eliminating doubts and protecting the things you value most. Honestly? There’s no putting a price on that.

Taking a Closer Look at Home Email Security

Posted on 13 December 2021 by Guin Davies

It’s your first line of defence against just about every cyber-attack imaginable. When it comes to home email security, you can’t be too safe.

We all use email so often every day, the importance of it has almost become an afterthought as most of us manically rush to open every digital envelope and reach the elusive inbox zero.

Who has time to actually read, let alone make sure that link you’re clicking on or file you’re about to open looks legit? It’s for this reason (among a few others) that email has become the most popular method of attack for cyber criminals.

Even if most of the mails we send don’t include pieces of important information – like our banking details or ID numbers – it doesn’t mean they don’t hold any value to cyber criminals who may use that info to gain your trust and create targeted phishing attacks.

No matter what you put in an email, including your nicknames for your cat and the last thing you ate for breakfast, chances are it has value to someone other than the person you’re sending it to. Also, let’s not kid, that’s exactly the kind of info you’re using to create your millionth password for the month when you have absolutely no more passwords left in you.

Valuable Info? Go Phish

Which brings us to phishing. Unlike fat with a ‘ph’, fishing with a ‘ph’ has never been cool. Phishing emails are responsible for 90% of cyber-attacks, and it’s just getting worse.

They’ve evolved beyond the standard ‘long lost deceased uncle’ narrative with the promise of millions in unclaimed inheritance and become a lot more convincing in their approach, often impersonating trusted brands or organisations to trick you into clicking that link or giving away your personal information.

Even though it’s always best to manually check each email address or hover your curser over each URL to double-check its destination, with so many emails flooding your inbox each day, having a reliable cyber security software with anti-virus and a password manager will definitely take the pressure off.

A good anti-virus solution will automatically alert you to any suspicious links or block them. Additionally, a good email gateway security solution will stop those malicious mails coming through to you in the first place.

Keep it Private

Anti-virus and anti-phishing software are excellent for protecting your inbox from malicious content and guarding against cyber criminals stealing your data, identity, and money.

Vox Internet Security is powered by Kaspersky Total Security – a comprehensive home Cyber Security solution that allows you to protect one or more of your home devices under a single licence. Kaspersky Total Security includes everything from anti-virus to parental controls and password managers.

If you’re sending emails using a browser (like via Gmail), Total Security will provide private browsing capabilities to stop websites tracking your activity and data.

Meaning those creepy, often all-too-accurate targeted ads will be a thing of the past. It also hides your data before you send it out into the wilds of the worldwide web, allowing you to shop peacefully and securely as nature intended – from the comfort of your own home.

Lock it Down

And if you’d really like to have all your bases covered, then choose a Cyber Security solution that allows you to secure your emails via a cloud gateway solution and also store it securely on your PC.

While, technically speaking, its main purpose is to keep enterprise email secure and safe from prying eyes, Synaq Securemail is also an affordable solution for home users too, offering email security for three users or more for less than R100 per month.

It’s a bargain, considering the fact that Securemail provides 99.95% spam protection, 100% virus protection, phishing protection, identity threat protection along with malware and ransomware attack removal via URL-based phishing and the ability to whitelist / blacklist email senders in a single solution.

A combination of Kaspersky Total Security and Synaq Securemail offers you the greatest prevention against possible ransomware attacks. Because honestly? It’s a jungle out there and, yes, even home users are considered fair cyber game.

Top five global tech trends and how SA businesses can get on board

Posted on 10 December 2021 by Tim Wood

By Tim Wood, Executive Head – IS & IT at Vox

Mark Twain reportedly once said: “Never make predictions, especially about the future.” The world of technology is awash with predictions, and these excite and scare us in equal measure.

Some predictions have lived to haunt those who made them, such as CEO of Intel, Andrew Grove, as quoted by the New York Times in 1992 saying: “…the idea of a wireless personal computer in every pocket is ‘a pipe dream driven by greed’”.

Another, made in 1998 by Professor Emeritus at Princeton University Paul Krugman reads: “The growth of the internet will slow drastically, as the flaw in Metcalfe’s Law – which states that the number of potential connections in a network is proportional to the square of the number of participants – becomes apparent: most people have nothing to say to each other! By 2005 or so, it will become clear that the internet’s impact on the economy has been no greater than the fax machine’s.”

While we reflect on these predictions, we should also acknowledge that driverless cars, augmented reality, Internet of Things, mass data and a host of other technological advancements were all predicted in various guises before they occurred.

Another well-known saying is that forecasts reveal more about the forecaster than the future – and in my case, I believe in technology’s potential to add value to our lives and businesses. And so, as we look at technology trends for 2022 and beyond, it’s important to do so to the backdrop of exciting innovations globally that will improve lives and businesses, while acknowledging the reality of our South African context.

Many businesses are stretched, electricity security continues to be a concern, cybercrime is on the rise and specialised IT skills are in short supply and come at a premium. This means many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are likely to continue contracting outsourced IT service providers to bolster their IT teams, where they will be able to take advantage of IT audits, support on cloud strategies, pen tests to find cybersecurity weaknesses in their organisation, and desktop support, among a host of other functions.

Let’s get back to the future. While much of the global technology commentary going into 2022 and beyond won’t necessarily be of immediate concern to local businesses and their budgeting teams, there are a number of ways local businesses can start dipping their toes into new technology.

The big five global technology themes for 2022 and beyond.

Artificial Intelligence

AI tools are embedded into many widely used cloud services and this will continue to grow exponentially over the next few years as the technology is embraced by service vendors. Some of these are natively part of the core offering, such as spam filtering, credit scoring, anti-malware and fraud detection, while others are being offered as additional add-on modules that come with hefty price tags. As competition between the service providers grows, AI technology will increasingly be embedded into the core service offering and will no longer be seen as a separately licensable add-on. As with the evolution of all technology over time, it will become more affordable to adopt.

How can South African businesses benefit? Position your business to take advantage of cloud service offerings as the AI toolset becomes part of mainstream applications. If you want to start dabbling with AI technology, have a look at available functional software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings such as lead forecasting or cybersecurity threat detection. If you are interested in internal development projects, consider the API web services available from the cloud super vendors (Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure).

Choose a project that will turn the dial and start prepping relevant data because clean, organised data will be key to success. Remain focused on practical implementation to solve real business problems.

Hang tight, before you know it, South Africa will have driverless taxis overtaking on yellow lines and cutting in front of us!

2. Internet of Things

Telemetry and SCADA devices have been around forever so what is different heading into 2022? The world is more connected than ever with massive volumes of data being generated every second of the day. IOT device proliferation (including wearables), advances in connectivity, storage and processing capability backed by advances in AI and machine learning have transformed what is possible.

How can local businesses take advantage of IoT in SA today? In its simplest terms an IOT environment takes a data feed from a monitored data source and triggers appropriate workflows based on predetermined triggers. Identify areas of your business that could benefit from this level of insight and automation.

Integration into CRM, ERP or other business applications can enrich the data feed and provide improved insights and customer experience management capability.

Areas where businesses could benefit would be asset tracking with geo-fencing capability to generate an alert if the asset leaves a demarcated area, or security monitoring including license plate, biometric monitoring and facial recognition.

However, cybercrime means that security and defence mechanisms must be paramount in any IoT strategy.

3. Quantum computing

When the technology becomes commercially available it will completely revolutionise what is possible but it won’t be troubling local IT manager budgets in 2022. However, businesses that are positioned to leverage cloud services will benefit first when the technology arrives.

4. 5G

5G rollout will progress steadily but coverage will continue to be patchy over 2022. The technology holds a lot of promise, as it will take South Africa another stride forward in mobile connectivity but we will need to wait a little longer for it to completely change our world.

It will provide another weapon in the IT manager’s arsenal and can provide alternative permanent or temporary connectivity and redundancy options to mainstream fibre. In time, it will further enable the mobile workforce and a work from anywhere model.

5. Blockchain and Non-fungible tokens (NFTs)

Blockchain technology fuelled the rise of cryptocurrency and continues to find application across the cyber landscape. Its immutable, or unalterable, nature, secure architecture and global transparency make it a compelling technology for tracking digital transactions.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are growing in popularity as a way of uniquely identifying digital assets (movies, videos, photos) and representing ownership in the digital world. Content creators are able to make their creations available to a global market, retain ownership and earn royalties through this mechanism. As an example, Adobe is adding a “Prepare for NFT” (Content Credentials) option to their Photoshop software.

Business use cases that could leverage this technology include:

1. Identification and certification of documents such as ID or passport
2. User identity management
3. Domain name ownership
4. Real estate (virtual and physical)
5. Supply chain tracking

Continuous improvements are bringing local cloud providers to the fore

Posted on 10 December 2021 by Barry Kemp

By Barry Kemp, Head of Managed IT at Vox

With the demand for cloud-based services growing as South African companies look to enable seamless remote or hybrid working and mitigate against power outages, local providers have been continually improving their offerings in order to provide customers with solutions that compare with those of international peers, but are more cost-effective.

Changes in business and society in response to the multiple levels of lockdowns over the past year has however seen these organisations taking a new view toward the continued use of on-premise infrastructure. The first headache is floorspace: at a time when many offices are downsizing as they adjust to a hybrid working model where everyone is not in at the same time, the area dedicated to a company’s on-premise infrastructure remains the same.

Beyond worrying about office leases, they need to worry about cooling for their server room, that connectivity remains uninterrupted and perhaps even the increased physical security risk from having your equipment in a sparsely occupied building. Not to mention ensuring that your generators are topped up with fuel, serviced as required and is regularly tested; there have been many instances where companies have been left in the dark after a power outage because their generator has failed to kick in.

This is a growing distraction for businesses at a time when many are looking to cut costs and recover from a tough economic environment. For organisations that already have their own infrastructure, and are looking to maximise their investments, co-location gives them the ability to place their infrastructure at data centres, which offers peace of mind when it comes to physical security, and reliability of power supply and access to connectivity.

Co-location isn’t the final solution however; while it keeps companies from having to worry about many of the external challenges traditional office environments would face, it still leaves them responsible for maintaining their servers that will now be located inside a vendor-neutral data centre.

Breaking free of IT maintenance

Fully freeing themselves from having to worry about IT infrastructure requires them to take the next step, and instead migrate to a virtual data centre, such as that offered by Vox, which provides them with remote compute and storage capabilities, as well as a range of connectivity solutions including direct point to point, VPN, MPLS or dedicated Internet breakout, all connected through a secure edge gateway.

Continuous developments by Vox over the past few years have ensured competitiveness with solutions offered by international providers, with new innovations being rolled out to cater to growing business requirements and the latest trends, such as the growing preference for multi-cloud.

Through offerings such as CrossConnect, customers have access to up to a 1Gbps dedicated link that provides a secure direct connection between Vox’s Virtual Data Centre and other providers, be it another co-location facility, or to a public cloud such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure.

Making cloud more cost-effective

Based at data centre facilities that adhere to the latest ISO 27001 and ISO 9000 standards, turning to a virtual data centre takes away the headache of companies having to manage large IT infrastructure anymore – safe in the knowledge that there are highly skilled specialists to assist with managed cloud or migration services if needed.

Being a local company, Vox can work closer with customers in order to design and implement unique network requirements that they might have. In fact, Vox uses its own virtual data centre to run its connectivity and voice business.

Leaving companies with fewer things to manage – their operating system, applications and data – not only means that IT staff have more time to carry out more strategic tasks that add real value, but businesses stand to benefit overall from the agility and flexibility of moving from capital expenditure to a consumption based model.

In Vox’s instance, this also means being able to provide local support for customers, as well as to bill in Rands and not Dollars, making it more cost effective and ensuring that customers are not subject to billing increases resulting not from increased consumption, but as a result of currency depreciation. With a return to loadshedding, a trend toward hybrid working, and availability of quality local solutions, can your company afford not being in the cloud?

Laptop Rental Saves Your Company More Than Just Money

Posted on 8 November 2021 by Guin Davies

Maintaining efficiency and upgrading to the latest tech in an instant is easy when you rent your laptops.

It’s almost impossible to name another piece of tech more integral to the day-to-day functioning of almost every business than the laptop.

Where once office workers were trapped behind bulky desktop devices from nine to five, now they’re free to work whenever and wherever their laptop connects to Wi-Fi.

With this freedom comes loads of responsibility – and most of it falls on a stressed IT department tasked with not only making sure the company’s laptops remain virus-free, but they also return to the IT department in one piece.

A small to medium size business can spend up to R500 000 to re-fresh its existing tech, while most usually don’t have the means to buy laptops outright, meaning staff are left to make do with outdated laptops unable to handle the stresses of hybrid work – which includes video conferencing and constant security updates.

No matter how well these devices are looked after, ultimately there will come a day (for businesses, it’s usually within three to four years) when they’ll no longer be able to accept any software updates. And that brings us to the first point:

We never really own our smart devices

While most of us prefer to own rather than rent our devices – it’s a once-off (albeit usually hefty) payment for an item we believe is ours to use as we please forever.

When it comes to tech, especially tech that needs constant software updates to work effectively or even at all, we’re all at the mercy of the companies supplying the software – usually via annual subscription – and the companies who issue these devices in the first place to keep supplying those services.

Unfortunately, as we become more interconnected via everything from smart TVs, to smartphones, tablets, and laptops, investing in these depreciating assets starts to make less and less sense. Especially when these assets stop accepting updates, start to glitch and eventually burn out while companies shell out added resources for hardware upgrades or replacements. Usually at the most inconvenient times during the financial year.

Take the recent release of Windows 11, for example. The minimum system requirements are already far beyond what most older generation laptops are capable of handling – especially when it comes to Microsoft Teams integration.

The future is flexible, especially with laptop rental

Choosing to rent laptops instead of owning them with Vox Laptop Rentals gives companies the option of upgrading or downgrading – not only the quality of their devices, but the number of devices too – when needed.

Starting now, in addition to our 36-month contract, we’re offering the opportunity to rent this hybrid work essential month-to-month with no contract lock-ins.

With a Vox Managed Service, your laptop rental not only guarantees access to the latest devices from the most trusted brands, but next business day onsite support for maintenance services or hardware replacements from our tech experts when needed too. We have a national footprint, and our support team is available 24/7 to assist.

All of our new devices are 11^th Gen Intel Core Processors and compatible with the requirements for the Windows 11 update, meaning there’s really no delay when it comes to working as efficiently and securely as possible.

When you’re ready for a tech re-fresh or a new contract negotiation, all you have to do is give us a call to keep your budget in check and your work essentials optimised.