Category: Uncategorised

95% of businesses get hacked via their email – don’t be a statistic – A Vox Webinar

Posted on by Mayleen Bywater

Email is a key part of our working lives and so are the rising phishing threats and data breaches.

These hacks are designed to cripple businesses. With 95% of primary breaches starting with an email, and 70% of SME businesses ending up closing down within 6 months of needing to pay a ransom, the need to look at your mail security and management has never been more crucial.

Listen to an informative session wherein our panel of experts discusses and unpacks how these email operational vulnerabilities can be curbed.

Topics covered include:

  • What happens when mail is breached: operational impact
  • How to prevent email security breaches
  • How to secure your email if your data is hacked
  • How mail can effectively and efficiently work for your business

 

qwerti launched to help guide local businesses on their IT strategy

Posted on by Craig Freer

Vivica Group, formerly known as Vox Holdings, has launched a new subsidiary, qwerti, which will provide locally-based enterprises, SMEs and consumers with cost-effective, personalised advisory and managed services to help them better manage their IT infrastructure and spending, enhance network and data security, and effectively and efficiently migrate to the cloud.

“qwerti was evolved out of the Vox stable to consolidate all managed services under a single brand, leveraging 15 years’ experience in delivering innovative and cost-effective services to the corporate and consumer market. Being an independent organisation allows us to be vendor-agnostic, as well as to expand our product offerings beyond what was traditionally offered through Vox. We are a mid-size MSP partner that has all the capabilities and tools that one would find in much larger organisations, but is able to deliver a more personalised level of support for our customers,” says Craig Freer, Head of Division at qwerti

According to Freer, qwerti will look to take advantage of the recent and ongoing evolution in the managed service provider (MSP) space: traditionally, organisations looked to MSPs for proactive IT management and improved uptime, and overcoming the lack of internal IT skills, or to simply free up more time for company IT staff to allow them to engage in more strategic work. Now, organisations are turning to their MSP for access to new technologies, for guidance around cloud migrations, to enhance their security, and to realise cost savings.

In response, qwerti is looking to meet and exceed these evolving business requirements by playing the role of a trusted advisor, by providing advisory and virtual CIO services; the role of a strategic partner, through monitoring, professional services and managed services; and as a technology supplier by offering customers hardware rentals and sales.

And, this is offered for multiple stacks across the IT estate. While the company doesn’t offer its own ISP services (access, voice, PBX, etc), it offers SLA management; in the case of networking (including routers, switches and WiFi), Infrastructure (including servers and network-attached storage) and the end-user (hardware and software), qwerti offers support across the stack, all the way from advisory to hardware sales and rentals.

There is also comprehensive support for security (both firewall and endpoint) as well as for cloud services, such as Vox’s Virtual Data Centre, Microsoft Azure, or for cloud backup.

“Our highly skilled teams provide a personal and flexible approach to proactively managing your entire IT estate, while our advisory consultants ensure continuous improvement and alignment of IT with your business strategy,” says Freer.

In order to provide the highest level of service to customers, qwerti has been structured with multiple teams: the organisation has its own business systems, such as integrated ticketing and monitoring, which will be maintained by the Systems Team; the Advisory Team will be key to assessments and continuous improvement at clients; and the Managed Services Team which handles advanced monitoring and dedicated end-user support.

Then there is the Professional Services Team which will be involved in major projects such as Microsoft 365 or Azure cloud migrations, while the Field Services Team will be responsible for any onsite support including troubleshooting or fixing problems that cannot be resolved remotely, or setting up IT hardware for new users.

“We start off every engagement with an IT assessment by our Advisory Team in order to unpack where the customer is in terms of their network, security, cloud strategies and more. This enables us to identify areas for improvement and to present the customer with a tailored roadmap for the future.

“In effect, our advisors act as the customer’s virtual CIO – they drill down into what is happening, monitor performance of multiple providers including the Managed Services Team, and strive for continuous improvement,” adds Freer.

Will augmented reality be a reality?

Posted on by Duncan Randell

Over time, the impact of technology on humanity has been significant. Most recently, being forced into an alternate reality since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, for example, has propelled businesses and individuals – at a higher rate than ever before – into technology adoption. Creating a new way for remote and hybrid working, grocery delivery and a host of other work and personal activities, has all been made possible through solutions rooted in some aspect of technology.

Augmented reality (AR), an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology, although a growing trend among companies globally combining mobile computing and business applications, in particular, had however experienced a marked slowdown in this period in South Africa.

Duncan Randell, Product Manager for Visual Communications at Vox, says, “Conversations around our Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) offerings, that we had started with likely adopters in several verticals ahead of and through the pandemic, didn’t get very far. Discussions we were holding with players in the education, healthcare, automotive, aeronautical and manufacturing sectors had considerably slowed and completely halted in some instances, by September last year.

“On the upside,” says Randell, “New developments in the AR and MR space in South Africa, are beginning to change the availability, and more importantly, the viability of this tech in the country.”

Randell believes that major players in the development of AR platforms, such as Microsoft – that less than a year ago considered Africa as a market that was not yet ready for AR adoption – have since done an about-turn. Businesses are slowly returning to normal operational capacities and they do so consciously of the impact the pandemic has had. Various industries are now rethinking their operational processes in order to increase efficiencies, streamline workflows and mitigate raw material wastage. King is confident that there’s opportunity for AR and MR to play a meaningful role in many key areas, for many types of businesses.

Randell’s view is that to leverage maximum benefit and return on investment from AR and MR, industry will need to implement it at a blue-collar tier but current price points can limit the adoption opportunity for use cases and touch points sector.

He anticipates that early adoption in South Africa would likely come from the mining, construction and healthcare sectors as, in these industries, white collar workers play a significant hands-on role in the day-to-day operations. Uptake of AR and MR here could see maximum benefit and it will result in the desired efficiency improvements and cost reductions needed for a successful AR and MR strategy implementation.

“A great example for which AR solutions are incredibly suitable would be the South African automotive industry. It is a growing sector with steadily increasing outputs observed over the last few years. Occupational health and safety of employees and the fact that motorists’ lives depend on high quality and first-time accuracy in the assembly process, is paramount here as it would be in any manufacturing and assembly plant. Admittedly this, being a well-established sector, may invite little to no influence from South African AR and MR services providers on their investment decisions,” says Randell.

A combination of AR and MR also provides a feasible alternative for multinational companies that are not able to hire specific expertise in every geography that they operate in. This is so because a new way of training and remote assistance is possible with AR on a level not seen before. This technology, tried and tested in the Healthcare industry, has even enabled surgeons to perform medical procedures from a distance over the internet. Augmented reality can enable Africa to still access the skills it loses to territories off the continent and also allow it to tap into potential and skills that may exclusively reside elsewhere.

“I believe that augmented reality will be a reality, in our country and on the continent,” says Randell.

The basis of this belief, he says, is the fact that the more prominent AR platform players are taking an active interest in the African, and especially the South African market, as the next territory for expansion. “In addition, AR technology is being brought to our shores by the large international companies into their local operations, to mirror AR solutions already established in their operations elsewhere in the world,” says Randell.

Randell is of the view that the uptake of AR solutions may initially be slow owing to prohibitive hardware costs and the lack of widespread awareness of possible solutions and use cases currently available in the local market. The arrival of the big platform expertise with recognisable brands, he says, will allow local partners to build better solutions and establish the proof points required to fully validate the benefits of AR use in various industries.

Randell says, “What is required for businesses in the manufacturing and other ERP driven organisations, especially if they are seeking to address possible issues in core processes, is to consider AR and MR technology-based solutions. They can start by partnering with an AR vendor that is well versed in the technology to help them conduct a comprehensive work-study analysis across their workflows. This will help them identify the areas in which augmented reality can contribute to saving time and resources in the long run, with improved efficiency, accuracy and higher outputs,” concludes Randell.

Wi-Fi Security – A Groot Ontbyt interview

Posted on by Nikita Appelman

We hear the term “AI” or “Artificial Intelligence” being thrown around and it almost seems like something futuristic. But the reality is that AI is very real and very much a part of our daily lives and we are not even aware of it. Apart from smartphones, laptops and desktops, we are now seeing more connected devices making their way into the home, including TVs, fridges, switches and so much more. Its obvious that a reliable internet connection is required, but with so many connected devices, how does it impact the threat of security risks?

Listen to Nikita Appelman, Product Manager for Wireless at Vox, as she discusses the steps that the home user can take to safeguard against potential security threats.

Is LTE still relevant? A Groot Onbyt interview

Posted on by Theo van Zyl

Just over 2 years ago, when the South African workforce was hastily adopting a new way of working from home – suddenly there was a need for high-speed broadband for homes and business across the country and LTE was suddenly in demand and being purchased by the masses.

Now as things settle into some sort of normality, we ask ourselves: Is LTE is still relevant?

Listen to Theo van Zyl, Head of Wireless at Vox, as he speaks to Groot Ontbyt and answers this question.

Employees using corporate accounts for personal use are risking data loss

Posted on by Heath Huxtable

The shift toward remote or hybrid working in South African businesses has been enabled through the rapid adoption of cloud services, with workers being able to carry out their duties from any location. However, this has also resulted in a growing number of employees using their corporate devices and accounts for personal use, which has its own unintended consequences.

And, this is not limited to the use of cloud-based applications. Most modern laptops now come fitted with solid-state drives – which offer higher performance but usually lower capacity – with the operating system already taking up a huge portion of the available on-device storage space, and this makes users reliant on the cloud to store their data. Apart from just overcoming their space constraints, it also means that their data is now available on any connected device.

With many employees now being given devices and access to cloud-based productivity tools by their organisation, they often question the need for subscribing to additional services in their personal capacity. The reality though, is that while your employer might give you access to a productivity suite, these are business accounts, with all information being stored on a corporate shared drive.

When someone leaves an organisation, their account is terminated, while someone else is given access to the cloud storage so that all relevant information can be extracted, reorganised and made available to other employees so that there is no loss of intellectual property.

The real risk for employees who save personal information on corporate cloud accounts is a total loss of access to their data. And, the data lost might not be as trivial as photos and a few letters, but critical information such as financial and legal correspondence, contracts with third-party service providers and more.

Granted, some users might only want to be able to use office productivity applications and not online storage, but the realight is that they should not be using their business account for personal use, or to store their personal information in the first place – even if it is all in neatly arranged folders.

Catering for the whole family

To cater for this growing demand for cloud-based productivity tools for the home, technology providers have introduced subscription plans that are intended for personal use, with options even being tailored to address the needs of the whole family in a far more cost-effective manner. Furthermore, these plans include additional benefits to what can traditionally be found in business plans.

As an example, the Microsoft 365 Family subscription provides up to six family members with access to applications such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more. The main member or administrator can then assign accounts to each of their family members, with each user then being able to install all the applications on 5 different devices.

This effectively means that the single-family subscription allows users to install all office applications on 30 connected devices legally – be it desktops or laptops powered by Windows or macOS or mobile devices that use Android or iOS.

Each family member also gets 1 terabyte of cloud storage on OneDrive, making it the ideal option for saving all their personal data, while also providing them with a more affordable means of backing up the photos and videos on their mobile devices. They can also easily share folders on their cloud storage with other family members to either just view or even contribute to, such as photo albums and more.

Families can easily stay in touch with each other through video conferencing via Skype, with each family member being given 60 minutes worth of landline calls each month. On the other hand, using Microsoft Teams Personal allows users to create multiple groups within the family in order to have broader conversations.

Safety and security

Premium safety features within the Microsoft 365 mobile application ensures that administrators of the family account are able to monitor how other members are using their devices, what content they are accessing, what they are searching for online and even limit screen time on their devices – making it especially useful to manage the online activities of children.

Furthermore, the family subscription also unlocks location alerts and driving safety features within the mobile application. This provides more information on where family members are, what their average speed is if they are in a vehicle and much more.

The subscription also helps users protect themselves against cyberthreats to a certain extent – as an added bonus, OneDrive ransomware recovery allows users to recover previous file versions for up to 30 days prior from the date of the attack.

In all, Microsoft 365 subscriptions aimed at personal use – and more especially the family plan – provides users with far more value, at a very low entry point, than them risking the loss of valued or even critical information (or flouting company policy) by making use of productivity applications, cloud storage, or even licences for installed software programmes, that are meant for business use.

Everything you want to know about SD Wan but are afraid to ask – A Vox Webinar

Posted on by Jeanette Simpson

SD-WAN offers numerous benefits such as centralised control and visibility of the entire WAN, as well as the ability to scale as the business expands. But among these and many other advantages, there is still a lot of SD-WAN confusion and misconceptions.

Many businesses are still working with outdated network infrastructure which are struggling to keep up with the demand of cloud solutions and the availability of smart devices. SD-WAN has emerged as a solution to some of the challenges of modern-day network management, but with so many providers in the market there are also a lot of misconceptions around SD-WAN.

Listen to our panel of experts as they unpack these common misconceptions around SD-WAN and outline how this solution can improve business performance.

Some topics you can look forward to in this webinar, include:

• Clarifying the concept of SD-WAN
• Looking and pros and cons of SD-WAN
• Myths around SD-WAN
• SD-WAN future trends

Microsoft Operator Connect – Vox and Microsoft join forces

Posted on by Andrew King

Vox has announced the launch of its Microsoft Operator Connect offering, enabling business customers to make and receive telephone calls within the Microsoft Teams application.

Listen to an interview with Aki Anastasiou and the team about hybrid working and how your organisation can benefit from this collaboration tool.

MSP evolution needed to address increased cloud adoption, remote working

Posted on by Craig Freer

By Craig Freer, Division Head: Managed Services

With businesses having to tackle a multitude of changes, including a growing preference for the cloud, a trend toward remote working, and the increased requirement to provide these employees with reliable and secure access, and managed service providers (MSPs) will have to evolve from being tech support to holistic IT advisors and providers if they are to provide true value that can take their customers into the future.

Traditionally, the job of the MSP has been rather straightforward: your customer had one site, one data centre and one network, with all users in the office sitting behind a firewall, which gave you full visibility. In many instances, the MSP just took care of the servers and desktops, while other different providers were responsible for taking care of the company firewall.

Things have been shaken up, however, with the rapid adoption of cloud services and applications (such as Azure or O365), as well as the pandemic-enforced shift toward remote or hybrid working, which brings with it a host of new challenges. This includes being able to effectively and efficiently manage remote users, regardless of how or where they are accessing the network from – and consistently maintaining a robust security posture.

Unlike the old days, simply ensuring that machines were patched and anti-virus definitions were updated simply don’t cut it anymore, and security now has to permeate across all levels of the organisation, while also encompassing identity and monitoring so that you can give remote employees the same level of security and support as available to those in the office.

To get this right, MSPs are increasingly involved in cloud storage, backups, continuity planning, security, systems, monitoring, hardware procurement, change management and continuous improvement. The added responsibilities see them involved in roles as varied as the helpdesk, ticket management, operations, billing and even HR. IT should even be taking the lead in areas such as ensuring compliance with the Protection of Personal Information (PoPI) Act.

This means that MSPs increasingly move away from being simple ‘break and fix’ organisations to ones that have a holistic knowledge of the IT ecosystem and can advise customers on best practice across the board – giving rise to the managed services professional provider (MSPP).

And, as providers evolve to being MSPPs, so too must the skills available within them: whereas previously technicians tended to stick to a particular area of expertise, they now need to be multiskilled and be able to understand how the IT ecosystem works together. They also need to have the adaptability to work with services – such as cloud – from multiple providers, so that customers have flexibility and aren’t restricted to just the solution that their MSP is familiar with.

Beyond just technical skills, and a focus on the IT infrastructure, they also need to be able to look at the end result – the experience for the end-user. This includes having the right set of skills – or teams of skills – to manage the expectations of frustrated end-users (who are often just looking for a similar level of service as they would get when in the office), just as much as managing the resolution of issues.

It also means that the customer engagement model for MSPPs is changing, by moving beyond an SLA that focuses on response times, repair times and mean uptime, and rather focuses on a continuous engagement in order to analyse the customers’ business and design and implement the required IT infrastructure.

Ultimately, it’s not about going into a customer environment and proposing a new product or solution to be implemented. It’s about gaining a deep insight into how their business operates and looking at what their requirements and challenges are, instead of simply looking at their technology needs.

Rather, the MSPP looks past the obvious problem, understands the core need, and proposes a continuous service that will help the business meet its needs while adhering to best practice.

Smart homes need even smarter WiFi

Posted on by Craig Blignaut

By Craig Blignaut, Product Manager: WiFi at Vox

Today’s households feature a growing number of connected devices, turning to actively managing home WiFi will help users optimise their network for the best smart home experience, enable profile-based filtering controls, and help detect network security threats before they become a problem – with the added benefit of access to specialist help should it be needed.

Apart from smartphones, laptops and desktops, we are now seeing more connected devices making their way into the home, including TVs, fridges, switches and even Internet of Things devices. Not only are all of these reliant on a good internet connection to work, but they could all also make your home network more vulnerable to threats.

Using software installed on compatible fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) routers, service providers, such as Vox, are able to use deep smart home insights and tools to proactively identify, test and resolve network and router issues, as well as to effectively and efficiently support customers who call in for assistance – and providing them with peace of mind as their concerns are addressed.

The provider can monitor connected devices, device bandwidth consumption and signal strength over time, uploads and downloads per device and on the network and much more, allowing for proactive remediation without the user even realising it. An example could be identifying that a certain smart device has poor connectivity due to congestion, and automatically moving it to a different WiFi channel to improve its performance.

More importantly, it means that your network and all the devices connected to it are being constantly monitored for threats and other critical vulnerabilities. When a device on the network is identified as being compromised, the provider will act based on the severity of the issue.

If a software or firmware update is all that’s needed, an alert will be sent to the user for them to take action; in extreme cases, however, a compromised device can be quarantined from the local network and the internet, and the user can request for support in resolving the issue.

Home users for their part have access to an AI-driven platform that provides them with WiFi traffic behaviour analysis, as well as more advanced network management, parental control, network threat detection and device management features and functionality than what is commonly found on consumer routers or mesh WiFi products.

Using an Android or iOS app, home users are turned into WiFi professionals with insights that guide them around improving security and better controlling and protecting their network, with features such as admission control preventing unknown devices from joining the home network, and the option to admit or deny connectivity access to those devices.

With internet research forming an important part of today’s learning process, parents need to look beyond basic steps such as limiting bandwidth or the time devices have access to connectivity, and rather filter sites (such as social media and gaming) and enable features such as safe search and safe YouTube, ensuring children are able to do their online research. By setting up profiles, they can dictate the permissions that are given to each user, ultimately transparently protecting their network without interfering with privacy.

When thinking of smart homes, the thought is often on a higher speed connection, but what good is speed without control? It is clear that the smart home era needs smarter WiFi too – without the user having to become an IT expert first – and managed home WiFi offers a unique, comprehensive approach to giving users full control of their home and guest WiFi network.

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