Press Statements

Productivity: it’s all about the information

Durban – 19 October, 2011 - Real productivity in the workplace is all about finding the information you need to do your job quickly and easily, without having to spend hours wading through Outlook folders and archives on your computer or company server.

That was one of the main take-outs from a round-table on productivity at Microsoft’s Tech·Ed event in Durban this week, attended by vendors and industry analysts.

Productivity is not a buzzword, or an easy way for companies to use technology to get their people doing more with less, says HP consultant Rudi Raath: it’s about time well spent – and it’s not a one-size-fits-all exercise that organisations can embark on.

“True measures of productivity are not fluffy measures of time saved. Productivity is all about changing people’s user experience, and it’s based on the way people in different roles and even of different ages perceive data and information,” said Raath. “Before you can get your people to be productive, you have to understand who is accessing information, what they need to do with it, and how they like to access it.”

Sadly, says Anders Spatzek, who works for Microsoft’s worldwide business group in Seattle, precious few companies have achieved the nirvana of an environment where information flows quickly to the right people to allow them to make better decisions. The key is getting people to use the tools, he says.

“We often think about productivity as doing more – we want to service more customers without adding more staff, for example. But productivity also means our service levels and the quality we deliver can go up. It’s not just about efficiency, but effectiveness as well,” says Spatzek.

In other words, adoption is everything. If people don’t use the tools, they won’t be more productive. The trick, says Spatzek, is to adopt a role-based approach, which gives people access to the data and tools they need to do their jobs. So the person filling orders in the warehouse gets a different set of tools and functionality as the guy in accounts, or the HR director.

Patricia Martins, who heads Microsoft’s Dynamics business in South Africa, believes old-fashioned spreadsheets remain the biggest competitor to modern business software. People know and trust spreadsheets – but it’s not going to give them access to business intelligence or give them a broader view of the business.

“So keep them on their spreadsheets – but start exposing them slowly to easy-to-use tools that make their lives easier,” says Martins. “Help them understand the business risks inherent in making poor decisions at critical moments, and how modern productivity tools make compliance and governance a breeze. You have to show them how the tools make a difference in their lives to get their buy-in.”

It’s what HP’s Raath calls the “quick wins”: “I adopt the new tools, and my first question is: is there a quick and easy change in the way I work? Instant gratification becomes the quick win. If people see the value for themselves, they are hooked.”

So what are the kind of tools that can enhance productivity in the real world? Spatzek gives the example of a travel expense management application that allows you to take photos of your restaurant slips with your cellphone, and upload them instantly to a database, which processes them. The result: hours of admin saved at the end of a trip. Now that’s productivity.

Or the plumber using a cloud-based productivity suite like Office 365, who gets an emailed request for a quote on his smartphone, accesses his company server to generate the quote, signs it electronically and sends it immediately. Now that’s productivity, says Tracy Bolton, who heads Microsoft South Africa’s Information Worker division.

“Technology should enable you to work where and when you want to, and the information that you need to do your job should come to you quickly and easily wherever you are,” says Bolton. “It’s all about getting the right information to the right people at the right time. It’s not just about the app – it’s about the app with info. Allow me to get to the info I need quickly – that’s productivity.”

But there are bigger opportunities, says Microsoft’s Martins. Used well, productivity tools allow companies to connect to suppliers and customers, and get SMEs operating quickly and effectively in a big enterprise supply chain.

“Productivity is not just about maintaining the status quo – it’s about how we grow our businesses and capitalise on the opportunities opened up by being part of a bigger supply chain,” says Martins.

‘Office in the cloud’ on its way to SA

Durban – 18 October, 2011 – Microsoft’s long-awaited Office 365, which will start trialling in South Africa later this year and become commercially available in early 2012, will make it easier for thousands of local companies to get and use the same business productivity solutions used by major enterprises.

Announcing the local launch of Office 365 at Microsoft’s Tech-Ed event in Durban this week, Microsoft’s James Avenant said the new offering brings together Microsoft Office, SharePoint Online, Exchange Online and Lync Online in an always-up-to-date cloud service, at a predictable monthly subscription.

Microsoft is optimistic about Office 365, which it says will bring cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, particularly smaller businesses without an IT department. The service will be hosted from the Microsoft datacentres in Europe, leveraging the economies of scale present in these large datacentres.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service,” said Avenant. “The power of cloud solutions allows companies to rent computing power, rather than acquire it outright. Microsoft Office 365 is software-as-a-service, a form of cloud computing where business services are presented to the end user in a subscription model.”

Moving to the cloud with Office 365 means people don’t have to change the way they work, because Office 365 works with the most popular browsers, smartphones and desktop applications people use today. It puts enterprise-grade email, shared documents, instant messaging, video and Web conferencing, portals, and more at everyone’s fingertips.

“Great collaboration is critical to business growth, and because it’s so important, we believe the best collaboration technology should be available to everyone,” said Avenant. “With a few clicks, Office 365 levels the playing field, giving small and midsize businesses powerful collaboration tools that have given big businesses an edge for years.”

With Office 365, people can stay on the “same page” using instant messaging and virtual meetings with people who are just down the hall or across the world. They can work on files and documents at the same time and share ideas as easily as they can share calendars. Office 365 gives people new ways to work together with ease, on virtually any device.

Microsoft Office applications are at the heart of Office 365. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Excel, OneNote, Outlook and other Office applications connect to Microsoft Exchange, SharePoint and Lync to deliver a world-class solution for communication and collaboration.

Microsoft is building a massive partner ecosystem around Office 365, including systems integrators, software vendors, resellers and other partners. These companies will package Office 365 with their own services — from Web hosting and broadband to finance solutions and mobile services — and bring those new offerings to small and midsize businesses.

Customers interested in trying out Office 365 on trial can register at www.office365.co.za. The trail version is a full, free version of Office 365.

HP Readies Data Centres for the Cloud

HP Consulting Services enable organisations to transform data centres, move to the cloud

Johannesburg, Oct. 18, 2011 – HP today introduced new data centre strategy, operations and continuity consulting services that enable organisations to transform their data centres and move to the cloud with confidence.

Organisations are under increased pressure to deliver IT resources on demand. However, legacy data centres, rigid IT architectures and technology sprawl are hindering implementation of delivery models that can strengthen competitive advantages, such as cloud computing.

To develop and adopt the right strategy for their business, organisations need a partner that understands, first hand, the capacity, reliability and management needed to deliver services via the cloud. HP offers a wide range of data centre consulting and support services to help clients meet their specific IT needs.

Faster data center transformation for cloud adoption
HP’s data centre strategy services reduce deployment by 40 percent with concurrent planning, design and build processes. ⁽¹⁾ As a result, clients can:

— Obtain buy in from across the organisation with a business case that demonstrates alignment between IT and company goals;
— Accelerate decision making and investment strategies, while broadening communications and cooperation among executives with a project roadmap;
— Stretch IT budgets and reduce risk with an assessment of existing facility and technology assets;
— Improve response time to customers and partners.

Readying IT infrastructures for operational efficiency and high availability
Many organisations operate in silos, resulting in process, capacity and utilisation inefficiencies. HP’s new services align clients’ IT and facility infrastructures to improve operational efficiency by up to 37 percent.(2)

HP assesses an organisation’s current data centre framework, infrastructure elements such as servers or network devices, the facility, and power and cooling components to identify areas for greater proactive management. By integrating the IT infrastructure and facility planning, clients can identify design-build improvements that lower operational costs.

Preparedness for availability and continuity
HP’s data center continuity services enable clients to easily predict facility and IT infrastructure failures before they occur by proactively addressing potential equipment and system points of weakness.
HP verifies facility maintenance programs, training adequacy and service level agreements with testing of critical facility infrastructure components to ensure peak performance.
HP works with clients to implement a continuous improvement program that can predict future data center performance issues using trend and gap analysis of disaster recovery programs to avoid unplanned downtime.
“Cloud computing continues to gain acceptance as a critical way to deliver on-demand information and resources to customers,” Rudie Raath, HP Technology Consulting Country Manager, South Africa. “Only HP’s Technology Consulting Services span a client’s facility, IT infrastructure, people and processes to help them effectively transform their data centres for increased agility and business continuity in the cloud era.”

The HP Technology Consulting Services for data centre strategy, operations and continuity help businesses and governments in their pursuit of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

HP’s premier client event, HP DISCOVER takes place Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Vienna, Austria. The event showcases how organisations can get started on their Instant-On Enterprise journeys.

Pricing and availability
The HP data centre strategy, operations and continuity services are delivered globally through HP Technology Consulting. Pricing varies according to location and implementation. More information is available at http://www.hp.com/services/dct.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.co.za

^{(1) Based on client comparisons.
(2) Based on HP internal testing.}

HP Speeds Clients’ Cloud Evolution

New data centre services, HP VirtualSystems solutions and HP CloudSystem programs streamline cloud adoption

Johannesburg, Oct. 18, 2011 – HP today announced new services and solutions based on HP Converged Infrastructure that empower service providers and enterprises to rapidly deliver cloud services while leveraging existing investments, minimising risk and lowering costs.

Organisations are under increasing pressure to deliver IT resources on demand to gain agility, increase competitive advantage and meet customer expectations. Legacy data centres, rigid IT architectures and technology sprawl are key barriers to implementing new delivery models such as IT as a Service and cloud computing. Adopting the right cloud strategy for the client’s organisation is critical to success.

HP’s new offerings include:
— HP Technology Consulting Services for data centre strategy, operations and continuity accelerate planning, design and building of cloud data centres by up to 40 percent while driving alignment between IT, facility operations and the business. ⁽¹⁾
— Expanded HP CloudSystem portfolio includes financing, services, developer resources and 100 new HP Cloud Centres of Excellence worldwide – 50 in the Asia Pacific and Japan region. These centres enable clients to experience HP CloudSystem, the industry’s most complete, integrated and open platform for building and managing services across private, public and hybrid cloud environments.
— HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft® and HP VirtualSystem for Superdome 2/HP-UX are new turnkey hardware and software solutions for rapidly deploying highly optimised, fully tested virtualised application environments. Using tailored consulting and HP Support services, clients can deploy standardised blocks of applications for thousands of users in hours versus months. ⁽²⁾

“Clients want our help in speeding their transition to cloud computing with proven methodologies and solutions based on HP Converged Infrastructure so they can increase innovation in their markets and better serve their customers,” said David McMurdo,Industry Standard Servers, Enterprise Servers, Storage and Networking, HP South Africa. “Our new offerings clearly reflect the best of HP’s skills and technology in driving this evolution for clients, while reducing complexity, costs and risk.”

Transforming the data centre for the cloud era
Legacy data centers need a critical transformation to prepare for cloud computing. They must be architected with shorter planning cycles to deliver services instantly, while optimising operations and improving reliability of those services. This requires better alignment, communications and planning across the organisation.

HP services address data center strategy, operations and continuity with the expertise, guidance and proven methodologies clients need to succeed.

— Data centre strategy services reduce time-to-transformation by 40 percent by allowing planning, design and build processes to run concurrently.(1) As a result, clients can accelerate decision making and investment strategies by broadening program communications with executives.
— Data center operations services lower a facility’s lifetime costs up to 37 percent with design-build improvements for infrastructure integration and facility planning that increase operational efficiency. ⁽²⁾
— Data center continuity services allow service providers to easily predict facility and IT infrastructure failures before they occur. With the modular services portfolio, clients can choose the HP Continuous Improvement Program to address availability gaps and reduce unplanned downtime, the HP Reliability Assurance Program to improve continuity, or the HP Disaster Recovery Readiness assessment to identify planning gaps.

Expanding the HP CloudSystem platform
HP CloudSystem is ideal for enterprises and service providers who want to deliver private and public cloud services ranging from compute to Software as a Service. With HP CloudSystem, clients can deploy a new cloud service in minutes or hours, not the weeks or months that a manual method requires. New financing, services and developer resources further extend the value of HP CloudSystem.

— With HP CloudSystem Financing,(3) part of the company’s program to provide up to $2 billion in financing for cloud projects, qualified customers have easy options to make the move to cloud affordable. First, they can choose a payment plan that can allow them to build their cloud environments without large upfront capital expenditures. This is critical for chief financial officers (CFOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) looking for a level of predictability with the IT investments they make. Additionally, as part of the HP CloudAgile program for qualified service providers, HP can offer a step payment plan, where payments start small and increase over six to 12 months, so those service providers can ramp their business and better align expenditures with revenue growth.
— HP CloudSystem Enablement Services offer predefined consulting and integration services that accelerate the build out of a client’s first set of cloud services. The new HP AllianceONE resource center for CloudSystem empowers independent software vendors (ISVs), systems integrators and service providers with a quick-start toolkit that includes sample code, video demonstrations and expert tips.
— New HP Cloud Centres of Excellence allow key HP channel partners to provide clients with fast, convenient access to live demonstrations of HP cloud solutions based on HP CloudSystem. The centers allow clients to more easily evaluate, test and deploy cloud-based solutions while evaluating their optimal path to the cloud.

Optimizing application service deployment and management
Virtualization is often a foundation for building a cloud infrastructure. With HP VirtualSystems, enterprises and service providers can quickly deploy blocks of applications and capacity to support thousands of users. Running major applications in virtualised environments drives greater flexibility, improved efficiency and lower costs.

— HP VirtualSystem for Microsoft speeds the virtualisation and delivery of diverse, business-critical workloads such as Microsoft SharePoint, Exchange and SQL Server. Through a single console, clients can track application services and pinpoint and resolve issues without downtime across hardware infrastructure, operating system, hypervisor and Microsoft applications.
— HP Virtual System for Superdome 2/HP-UX accelerates the path to virtualised mission-critical workloads including customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and core financial applications on HP Integrity systems. The combination of HP-UX 11i v3 and HP Integrity Superdome 2 is tuned for mission-critical applications, delivering the highest levels of resiliency, scalability and virtualization performance.

In a world of continuous connectivity, the HP Converged Infrastructure is a key element to delivering the Instant-On Enterprise. The Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with whatever they need, instantly.

HP’s premier client event, HP DISCOVER, takes place Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Vienna, Austria. The event showcases how organisations can get started on their Instant-On Enterprise journeys.

Additional information is available at www.hp.com/go/HPCloudInnovation.

About HP
HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.co.za

(1) Based on client comparisons.
(2) Based on internal HP testing.
(3) Financing available through Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company or one of its affiliates and is subject to credit approval and execution of standard HP Financial Services documentation. Other restrictions may apply. HP Financial Services reserves the right to change or cancel the information contained herein at any time without notice.

HP Provides Customers Affordable Route to Cloud with Financing Offer

Johannesburg, Oct. 18, 2011 – HP today launched a new global HP CloudSystem Financing ⁽¹⁾ offer for qualified customers transitioning to the cloud.

This set of offers is made available through HP Financial Services, the company’s leasing and asset management subsidiary.

Part of HP’s program to provide up to $2 billion in financing for cloud projects, the offer allows enterprise and government clients to build their cloud environments while conserving capital for growth initiatives. This should be especially appealing for both chief financial officers and chief information officers looking to strengthen business objectives while reducing IT provisioning costs.

Continued pressure on IT budgets can leave clients with little room to invest in newer technologies such as cloud computing. Providing a bundled financing agreement for HP CloudSystem solutions, customers can immediately harness the power of cloud computing for a low monthly cost. ⁽²⁾

With a variety of payment plans and financing options available through HP Financial Services, customers can now build and scale their cloud environments without the large upfront capital expenditures typically tied to purchasing technology.

Additionally, as part of the HP CloudAgile program for qualified service providers, HP Financial Services is offering a step payment plan, where payments start small and increase over six to 12 months, helping service providers ramp their businesses and better align expenditures with revenue growth.

HP CloudSystem is ideal for enterprises and service providers who want to deliver private and public cloud services ranging from compute to Software as a Service. With HP CloudSystem, clients can deploy a new cloud service in minutes or hours, not the weeks or months that a manual method requires. New financing, services and developer resources further extend the value of HP CloudSystem and accelerate the move to cloud computing.

About HP Financial Services
HP Financial Services Company – the leasing and life cycle asset management services subsidiary of HP, is the second-largest captive IT leasing company in the world and offers a full range of life cycle asset management and financial solutions for businesses. HP Financial Services develops financial solutions that can enhance clients’ ability to implement IT infrastructures that meet their needs today – and into the future. More information about HP Financial Services is available at www.hp.com/hpfinancialservices.

About HP HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.co.za

(1) Financing available through Hewlett-Packard Financial Services Company or one of its affiliates and is subject to credit approval and execution of standard HP Financial Services documentation. Other restrictions may apply. HP Financial Services reserves the right to change or cancel the information contained herein at any time without notice.
(2) Monthly payments may be as low as $9,500 a month for qualified customers. Pricing based on $340,000 estimated purchase price for HP CloudSystem Matrix configuration and a lease term of 36 months with a fair market value purchase option at the end of the term. The HP CloudSystem Matrix configuration includes eight HP ProLiant server blades, an HP Economic Value Added with 5.4 TB of storage, and the Matrix Operating Environment.

HP Doubles Customer Base of 3PAR Utility Storage, Scores World-record Benchmark

Simplified management, improved capacity utilisation drive rapid growth

Johannesburg, Oct. 18, 2011 – HP today announced that the service provider customer base for 3PAR Utility Storage has more than doubled in the first three fiscal quarters since the company acquired 3PAR in September 2010.

This rapid customer adoption has contributed to HP 3PAR’s triple-digit revenue growth year over year for the quarter ending July 31.

The HP 3PAR P10000 V800 Storage System also set a worldwide OLTP (online transaction processing) performance record, based on the Storage Performance Council’s SPC-1 benchmark. This world-record performance for tier 1 enterprise, virtualisation and cloud data centre environments will enable clients to consolidate their virtualised IT infrastructure on a massive scale.

“Raising the bar for agile, efficient storage for IT-as-a-Service has been our focus since HP acquired 3PAR a year ago,” said Tumi Pooe, HP Storage Business Unit Manager, South Africa. “Continuing to deliver world-record beating performance that surpasses 3PAR customer expectations is not only our goal, but a formula for fueling ongoing revenue growth.”

Tier 1 record-shattering performance
Launched in August, HP P10000 3PAR Storage Systems offer powerful features for the delivery of tier 1 enterprise IT within public and private clouds, called IT-as-a-Service. These features include multitenancy for unpredictable workload consolidation, expanded thin technologies for efficient capacity utilisation and autonomic load rebalancing to drive enterprise agility.

SPC-1 Results are real-world OLTP audited measurements that provide clients with a source of comparative storage performance information that is objective, relevant and verifiable. The independently audited HP 3PAR V800 SPC-1 Result delivered the fastest SPC-1 performance ever published by the Storage Performance Council.

Configured with a capacity equivalent of thousands of virtual machines, the standard commercially shipping version of the HP 3PAR V800 achieved 450,212.66 SPC-1 IOP/s – the highest performance by any single system and a 100 percent faster performance than the previous fastest HP 3PAR SPC-1 Result.

Higher performance, lower expenses
In addition to record-breaking OLTP performance, the SPC-1 Result highlighted the simple, autonomic management offered by the HP 3PAR V800. Using simple, standard commands, the HP 3PAR V800 self-configured and self-provisioned the required SPC-1 storage configuration. This illustrates clients’ ability to rapidly configure and deploy the HP 3PAR V800 for demanding service levels while eliminating management complexity.

Clients using competing storage arrays typically achieve written data utilisation rates of as little as 10 to 20 percent.(4) The SPC-1 benchmark demonstrated that the HP 3PAR V800 delivered record performance with 80 percent capacity utilisation, illustrating that clients can reduce capital costs while meeting critical service-level requirements.

HP 3PAR Utility Storage is part of HP Converged Infrastructure, which is a core element of an Instant-On Enterprise. In a world of continuous connectivity, the Instant-On Enterprise embeds technology in everything it does to serve customers, employees, partners and citizens with everything they need, instantly.

HP’s premier client event, HP DISCOVER, takes place Nov. 29 - Dec. 1 in Vienna, Austria. The event showcases how organisations can get started on their Instant-On Enterprise journeys.

About HP HP creates new possibilities for technology to have a meaningful impact on people, businesses, governments and society. The world’s largest technology company, HP brings together a portfolio that spans printing, personal computing, software, services and IT infrastructure at the convergence of the cloud and connectivity, creating seamless, secure, context-aware experiences for a connected world. More information about HP (NYSE: HPQ) is available at http://www.hp.co.za

Microsoft, HP make private cloud easy for businesses

Durban – 17 October, 2011 - Microsoft and HP have put down a strong marker in the South African cloud space with the announcement of their joint Database Consolidation and Private Cloud Appliance, designed to help organisations consolidate all their database workloads into a private cloud built around SQL Server.

Marketed by HP as the HP Database Consolidation Appliance (DBCA), the key attributes of the appliance are its ability to consolidate thousands of databases with no application changes and manage them from the operating system to the database with new custom software.

The HP DBC Appliance will include all the hardware, software and support a customer needs to migrate all their database workloads from physical servers into a private cloud designed for optimal performance and energy efficiency.

Frikkie Bosch, the Product Marketing Manager for the Application Platform at Microsoft SA, says the appliance provides the additional benefit of a private cloud infrastructure: elasticity, self-service, resource pooling and control.

“This is the first appliance in the industry to integrate virtualisation, consolidation, database and appliance for an out-of-the box solution with single support, simplified integrated management from the OS to the Databases, very rapid time to market, 80% energy savings, and enabling unprecedented database IT agility,” said Bosch.

Announced at Microsoft's Tech-Ed Africa event being held in Durban this week, the appliance was jointly engineered with HP to save customers the time and effort involved in building such a system themselves. HP also said it can provide support to commission the appliance and integrate it into a customer's existing environment.

“The appliance will enable customers to deploy new databases in minutes and reduce operational costs by up to 75 percent, thanks to cost savings in energy consumption and floor space. Customers will not need to make application or database changes when consolidating database workloads,” said Eugene De Souza, Product and Business Development Manager, Infra2Apps at HP.

The HP Enterprise DBC Appliance is delivered as a fully functional system, with the smallest configuration taking up half of a standard data centre rack. A complete rack provides servers with a total of 192 logical processors, 2TB memory and 58TB of storage.

Pricing for the appliance has yet to be disclosed, but HP and Microsoft says the cost reductions will lead to it paying for itself within two years.

Microsoft unveils array of new goodies at Tech·Ed kick-off

Durban – 17 October, 2011 - Microsoft has stepped up its aggressive drive into the South African consumer and cloud space with the imminent local release in the next few months of two key products: its Azure cloud platform and its cloud subscription version of Office, Office 365 as well as with the recently released Windows Phone Mango platform.

That was the big news from the opening day of the software maker’s Tech-Ed and Partner Summit 2011 in Durban, which has attracted more than 3 500 technology vendors, developers and executives from across Africa.

Tech·Ed runs from 17-20 October at the International Conference Centre (ICC), with Partner Summit ending one day earlier on 19 October. Another smaller event, Microsoft’s CIO Summit, will be hosted at the Oyster Box Hotel at the same time, and is has drawn nearly 100 of the country’s top chief information officers.

The Windows Phone Mango update brings 500 new features to local users of the platform, but the major development is the availability of Marketplace, which will allow South African consumers to buy local and international apps using local currency via their credit cards. Mango also includes Xbox live integration, which will allow users to access Xbox mobile games.

Speaking at the event keynote at the ICC, Microsoft corporate vice-president Jason Zander said Microsoft’s cloud platform, Azure, which is planned for release between March and May 2012. Office 365, which brings cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, will be commercially available in the first half of 2012, with trial availability towards the end of this year.

“Microsoft has repeatedly made its commitment to the cloud very clear and has made repeated updates to its cloud offerings,” said Zander. “We recently announced several new updates to the Windows Azure platform – which we see as the most comprehensive operating system for Platform-as-a-service – that will help customers create rich applications that enable new business scenarios in the cloud.”

In his welcome, Microsoft South Africa MD Mteto Nyati said the event would focus strongly on the two broad trends that are shaping the industry and are shaping Microsoft’s strategy: the cloud, both public and private cloud computing, as well as devices.

“You're going to see a whole bunch of devices of different shapes, sizes, form factors, speeds, usage types. We need a world of devices, and they need to be smart. They need to create data, they need to connect to the cloud,” said Nyati.

“The cloud for us is the extension of rich experiences that once began on the desktop or on the server, and it's making them richer and more interesting to users and more compelling every single day.”

Microsoft has high hopes for Office 365, which it says will bring cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, particularly smaller businesses without an IT department. The service will be hosted from the Microsoft datacentres in Europe, leveraging the economies of scale present in these large datacentres.

“Office 365 is the best of everything we know about productivity, all in a single cloud service,” said Zander. “The power of cloud solutions allows companies to rent computing power, rather than acquire it outright. Microsoft Office 365 is software-as-a-service, a form of cloud computing where business services are presented to the end user in a subscription model.”

Customers and partners can visit www.office365.co.za to pre-register for the trial.

More details on the events, as well as links to videos, blogs, product downloads, and other information about this year’s event, can be found at www.teched.co.za and www.partnersummit.co.za

Partners vie for top Microsoft awards

Johannesburg, South Africa – 11 October, 2011 – Some 40 of South Africa’s top technology companies have been named as finalists in Microsoft’s Partner Network Awards 2011, which will be handed over at a gala dinner in Durban next week.

The awards, across nearly 30 categories, recognise Microsoft partners that delivered exemplary solutions for their customers during the past year across a range of categories. The finalists were chosen from hundreds of entries submitted by partners across the country.

The awards coincide with Microsoft’s annual Partner Summit event, which runs from 17-19 October at Durban’s ICC. At the event, the software maker lays out its technology and business roadmap for the coming year to its partners, and highlights areas of innovation that will benefit end users.

Mark Reynolds, head of the small and midmarket business and partner division at Microsoft South Africa, said the standard of entries received for the awards was probably at its highest level yet. Finalists had to come through a grueling two-round process, which included face-to-face presentations to a panel of judges

“As a partner-centric business, Microsoft’s success is directly dependent upon the expertise, commitment and performance of our partners,” said Reynolds.

“Each of these partners has demonstrated a unique approach and exceptional dedication in addressing the technology and business challenges of our mutual customers. Their efforts continue to bring incredible value to the companies they serve and the marketplace as a whole.”

The full list of finalists can be found at https://secure.mseventssa.co.za/partnerawards2011

Microsoft goes large with Tech·Ed, Partner Summit

Johannesburg – 26 September, 2011 – More than 4 000 IT Professionals, developers, partners and technology enthusiasts are set to descend on Durban next month for Microsoft’s iconic Tech·Ed Africa and Partner Summit events, which will be staged concurrently for the first time.

Tech·Ed runs from 17-20 October at the International Conference Centre (ICC), with Partner Summit ending one day earlier on 19 October. Another smaller event, Microsoft’s CIO Summit, will be hosted at the Oyster Box Hotel at the same time, and is expected to draw 100 of the country’s top chief information officers.

Tech·Ed’s keynote speaker has been confirmed as Microsoft Corporate Vice President Jason Zander, and he will be complemented by a formidable line-up of local and international speakers, which include internationally recognised technology expert, author, and public speaker Michael Noel, and self-confessed geek Lynn Langit, who co-host’s the MSDN Channel 9 geekSpeak series at http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/geekSpeak/

Microsoft South Africa MD Mteto Nyati says the event will focus strongly on the two broad trends that are shaping the industry and are shaping Microsoft’s strategy: the cloud, both public and private cloud computing, as well as devices.

“There’s a lot going on in the Microsoft world right now; Tech·Ed and Partner Summit are critical platforms for us to share our plans, give some previews of what’s coming down the line, make a couple of major announcements, and discuss ways for our partners and customers to make the most of their opportunities,” said Nyati.

On the cloud front, Microsoft is bringing an increasingly compelling set of products and services to the table, with a powerful offering across infrastructure, software and services, and platform.

For devices, says Nyati, there is a proliferation of devices and of form factors. People are now carrying multiple devices, and they expect the applications and the data for their business is available on the device they want and optimised for that device.

“This, generally, creates a dual challenge for IT providers in that they need to be able to deliver an experience to that device while maintaining the security and the control and the visibility that is needed for compliance and for security. At Tech·Ed and Partner Summit, Microsoft will be talking a lot to the ways we have managed to overcome these challenges,” he said.

Partner Summit, which brings together Microsoft’s leading resellers, service providers and technology partners - and culminates in the legendary Partner Awards gala dinner – will see a strong focus on ways that partners can unlock opportunities within the cloud and beyond.

“Cloud computing is as big a transformation as we have ever seen and, together with our partners, Microsoft will help customers through the shift,” said Nyati. “By being part of Microsoft’s comprehensive approach to cloud computing, partners can embrace this transformation and build strong and vibrant practices that will advance how business gets done.”

More details on how to attend the events, as well as links to videos, blogs, product downloads, and other information about this year’s event, can be found at www.Tech·Ed.co.za and www.partnersummit.co.za.

Africa’s biggest tech event heads for Durban

Johannesburg – 29 September, 2011 – Durban is set to benefit from an economic windfall of in the order of R100 million in direct and indirect investment from Africa’s biggest technology conference, Microsoft’s Tech·Ed and Partner Summit 2011 event in mid-October, says the Durban KwaZulu-Natal convention bureau.

The conference, which is expected to draw more than 4 000 people to Durban, runs from 17-20 October at the ICC. The eThekwini Municipality will be hosting the opening reception for the event.

James Seymour, the CEO of the Durban KwaZulu-Natal convention bureau, said the event was critical in terms of boosting the city and the province as a significant business tourism destination, in particular for technology-related conferences.

“It’s well-known that business tourists often return as leisure tourists, and a good conference experience can turn delegates into ‘word of mouth’ ambassadors for a city,” said Seymour.

Microsoft SA managing director Mteto Nyati said the decision to stage the event in Durban again was further recognition of eThekwini’s growing importance as an economic destination, and based on ‘great feedback’ from delegates.

“This event is just another step in Microsoft’s growing association with the city. Tech·Ed Africa and Partner Summit are the premier events on the local IT industry calendar, and the ICC, and the city, are proving to be a fitting platform,” said Nyati.

Tech·Ed Africa and Partner Summit have traditionally been run as separate events, but will this year be staged concurrently for the first time. Another smaller event, Microsoft’s CIO Summit, will be hosted at the Oyster Box Hotel at the same time, and is expected to draw 100 of the country’s top chief information officers.

Tech·Ed Africa is aimed at IT professionals and developers, and provides an in-depth, highly technical roadmap of new and upcoming technologies that Microsoft believes will help IT professionals and developers to help their organisations save money and improve efficiencies.

While it’s seen as an event where the IT guys let their hair down, it’s also a place where serious work gets done, with learning and sharing being key, said Nyati.

Partner Summit brings together Microsoft’s leading resellers, service providers and technology partners, and culminates in the prestigious Partner Awards gala dinner.

Users the weak link in security, says new Microsoft report

Johannesburg – 12 October 2011 – Social engineering – in other words, user behavior - and unpatched vulnerabilities accounted for 99 percent of all malware attacks during the first half of 2011, according to the 11^th version of Microsoft’s authoritative Security Intelligence Report (SIRv11).

By contrast, less than one percent of exploits in the first half of 2011 were against zero-day vulnerabilities, which are software vulnerabilities that are successfully exploited before the vendor has published a security update or “patch.”

What this means, says Microsoft South Africa’s chief security advisor, Dr Khomotso Kganyago, is that most common computer threats can be mitigated through good security best practices.

“Fully 90% of infections that were attributed to vulnerability exploitation had a security update available from the software vendor for more than a year,” said Dr Kganyago.

User interaction, typically employing social-engineering techniques, caused nearly half (45 percent) of all malware propagation in the first half of 2011. In addition, more than a third of all malware is spread through cybercriminal abuse of Win32/Autorun, a feature that automatically starts programs when external media, such as a CD or USB, are inserted into a computer.

The report includes guidance to help educate people about commonly known social-engineering techniques, how to create strong passwords and how to manage security updates. In addition, Microsoft provides insight into reducing Win32/Autorun abuse with updates released earlier this year for Windows XP and Windows Vista (Windows 7 already included these updates) that prevent the Win/32Autorun feature from being enabled automatically for most media.

“Within four months of issuing the update, the number of infections from the most prolific Win32/Autorun-abusing malware families was reduced by almost 60 percent on Windows XP and by 74 percent on Windows Vista in comparison to 2010 infection rates,” says Dr Kganyago.

To protect networks and systems, he suggests that users adopt a multifaceted approach to managing risk, including building products and services with security in mind; educating customers and employees; upgrading to the latest products and services; and considering cloud services.

Organisations can choose to leverage the cloud to help ensure the services they use have the most up-to-date security protections. Cloud providers, such as Microsoft, are resourced to focus on security and, in transitioning the management of a portion of security functions, resources are freed up to focus on other areas of security or on different IT projects altogether.

More information about SIRv11 is available at http://www.microsoft.com/sir.