The Nation Newspaper

Category: Infotech

  • Ensuring security of information at data management centres

    Ensuring security of information at data management centres

    Technological innovations are designed to provide solutions to various challenges facing mankind. A  data centre is one such innovation. It is becoming the vogue with so many of them springing up in the country despite fears about security of data. While some of these data centres have their servers in the country, others have theirs offshore. LUCAS AJANAKU reports that managers of data centres must take extra steps to ensure security of clients’ data.

    Today’s information technology (IT) business leaders, need to have command and control insight on all operations that support the data centres housing their critical business infrastructure. They need to monitor, coordinate and optimise multiple interconnected systems to ensure that their data center operations are running at optimal levels to prevent any failures from any adverse externality.

    The solution to this is the deployment of sophisticated data centre management systems that address the myriad of issues associated with data centre operations. These Data Center InformationManagement systems, monitor power, cooling, computing resources, security and environmental variables to enable personnel to efficiently maintain the high performance required of all subsystems in the data center to work together seamlessly. These systems have come to the market at a time when the rapid growth of large commercial data centers have made it imperative to adopt more efficient management techniques.

    According to research conducted by Gartner in 2010, Data Center Infrastructure Management, integrates facets of system management with building and energy management, while ensuring that a bridge is built between IT asset and physical infrastructure monitoring. These tools reduce operating costs, improve IT efficiency and enable sophisticated infrastructure analytics, extending the life of data centers by years.

    The traditional approach to data center management and facility monitoring in earlier data center implementations, required manual intervention and collaboration between various technical teams. These collaborative activities were highly inefficient, leading to poor utilisation of resources and eventually inefficient data centre operations.

    First generation data center infrastructure monitoring systems were developed to monitor equipment availability and provide a complete view of data center infrastructure. These systems had the ability to measure and display real time equipment performance measurements using graphical display interfaces. However, they lacked the ability to monitor multiple interdependent systems in parallel, or even go as far as reporting on total system performance using aggregated input from all these sub systems.

    Modern data center infrastructure management solutions have evolved to automate a variety of tasks critical to data centre operations. At a high level, the software manages and displays all physical assets in a single graphical interface, while providing the capability to automate commissioning tasks, capacity planning and other time consuming manual tasks.

    This level of software intelligence, enables data centers operate at levels of efficiency previously thought to be impossible to achieve.

    Commenting on Intelligent Infrastructure Management for Data Centers, RiT Technologies, President and CEO, Motti Hania,  said these systems are described as best practice platforms that reduce operational costs significantly by enhancing ongoing operations, security and scalability. They enhance operations by continuous monitoring of a “self-aware” network, power and environmental apparatuses, which together determine network and operational status in real time.

    Chief Executive Officer, MainOne Cable Company, Ms. Funke Opeke, said in line with this global trend and with the increasing demand for content across Africa, the MainOne data centre has deployed an intelligent infrastructure management system that proactively monitors the facility environment and the equipment in it.

    She said: “Our intelligent infrastructure management system ensures a highly optimised data centre environment that guarantees best performance of all collocated equipment.”

    Chief Executive Officer, Venema Advies Nigeria Limited, Dick Venema said turning to the use of data centre could reduce operating cost for big corporations and SMEs by more than 30 per cent.

    He said: “What we see in Nigeria is that everybody is still using the break-fix model which means something is broken, they are going to fix it. And the solution we always see that is offered when it’s broken is that they buy new equipment. They install it and it works again. This is not how it works, most times, the equipment is not broken, it’s just bad maintained, no technical knowledge of IT consultants and bad advice from the IT company.”

     

    Top issues in data centre management

    According to the Chief Marketing Officer, FieldView Solutions, Sev Onyshkevych in the past, managing a data centre was pretty straightforward.  But due to the inexorable trend of processing more and more data, the management of these facilities grew in complexity. Complicating the situation, operational decisions at the data centre now include such factors as power, cooling, rack space and CPU availability. This is in addition to other information gleaned from IT systems, and related to the facility infrastructure components such as UPS devices, PDUs, chillers, HVACs, generators, branch circuits and others. He wrote via Data Centre Knowledge, an online platform.

    FieldView Solutions, a Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) solutions provider, identified the following as top issues in efficient data centre management

     

    Energy Efficiency

    Data centres are increasingly under attack for their energy consumption and costly operations.  According to a 2011 New York Times-sponsored study by Jonathan G. Koomey, a consulting professor in the civil and environmental engineering department at Stanford University, titled “Growth in Data Centre Power Use 2005 to 2010,” United States’ data center power consumption increased by 36 per cent over that period. Electricity used in global data centers in 2010 likely accounted for between 1.1 per cent and 1.5 per cent of total electricity use, respectively. For the United States, that number was between 1.7 and 2.2 per cent.

    Cutting energy usage will help organisations save significant money, while changing the public perception of data centers being “energy hogs” with a “greener” impression.  To reduce energy consumption, it must first be accurately measured.  The measurement must start with a baseline view of what energy every part of the data center is actually consuming.  And to be accurate, this view must include all areas such as IT equipment, power distribution infrastructure, and ventilation/cooling infrastructure. This is an often time-consuming and manual data extraction process to which nobody looks forward.

     

    Monitoring

    No doubt, day-to-day system failures have underscored the need for proactive response to potential data centre uptime threats.

    Proper monitoring also helps enable an effective call-to-action. In the event of a pending issue, alarms can be sent via e-mail, phone or pager, allowing proactive steps to be taken to correct problems before they become critical. In addition, continuous logging of all alarms and alerts empowers data center operators with a chronological, forensic, review of events to strengthen the infrastructure and improve disaster recovery plans.

     

    Capacity Planning

    It’s no secret that many data centre managers lack the systems visibility to determine if their facilities are truly running at peak capacity.  Traditionally, operators have left plenty of room for error so uptime isn’t interrupted—a strategy known as “capacity safety gap,” or “over-provisioning.”  This strategy wastes hundreds of thousands of dollars of unused space – not to mention wasting power and cooling.  In a day and age of chief financial officers (CFOs) deferring capital expenditure budgets, many data centre managers’ expectations of having additional data center construction have been unfulfilled, leaving about 30 per cent of data centre managers worried about running out of capacity.

     

    Performance Management

    One of the greatest challenges facing data centre operators is ensuring that power and cooling is operating at its highest energy efficiency.  One of the best methods to maintain this accuracy is via accessing a real-time data source that provides up-to-the-minute metrics such as Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and Data Center Infrastructure Efficiency (DCiE).

     

    Real-Time Reporting

    Without a real-time reporting system, operators may find it a challenge to make informed decisions.  Manual readings taken weeks ago on a static report are no longer valid for today’s complex data centre operations – where workloads, power consumption and temperatures vary widely throughout the day, and from day to day.

    Up-to-the minute information also allows for the optimisation of power loads and overall capacity trending.  Additionally, a dashboard view that spans across various monitoring and control systems is a necessity for accurately tracking energy efficiency across single rooms, complete floors, an entire data center  or multiple data centers—domestically and globally.

    Onyshkevych said the continued proliferation of applications, data and platforms such as mobile devices will ensure that data centres continue to grow.  This, in turn, will strain the data centre’s processing power and drain enormous additional amounts of energy from the grid.  As data centres evolve, so too should the tools that manage them.  The antiquated methods of storing vital operational data within individual software “silos” impedes the efforts of data centre facility managers and IT managers to optimise their operations properly and avoid potential downtime.

  • Global dearth of IT security personnel rises, says Cisco

    Global dearth of IT security personnel rises, says Cisco

    Globally, the skilled gap in the information communication technology (ICT) security sector continues to widen. This year alone, it reached more than one million, the United States (U.S) tech giants, Cisco has said.

    In the Cisco Annual Security Report presented in Lagos, the firm lamented that malicious traffic continues to grow at an unprecedented levels, adding that threats designed to take advantage of users’ trust in systems, applications and personal networks have now reached startling levels.

    The sophistication of the technology and tactics used by online criminals—and their non-stop attempts to breach networks and steal data—have outpaced the ability of information technology (IT) and security professionals to address these threats, it added, lamenting that many organisations do not have the people or the systems to continuously monitor extended networks and detect infiltrations, and then apply protections, in a timely and effective manner.

    General Manager, Cisco Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra-Leone, Dare Ogunlade, who unveiled the report with the firm’s System Engineer, Security, Adeola Kukoyi said the report’s findings offer a vivid picture of rapidly evolving security challenges facing businesses, IT departments and individuals.

    Ogunlade said attack methods include socially engineered theft of passwords and credentials, hide-in-plain-sight infiltrations, and exploitation of the trust required for economic transactions, government services and social interactions.

    He said: “Organisations across Africa must realise that it is no longer if they will be targeted by cyber-attacks, but rather when Chief Information Security Officers face growing pressure to protect terabytes of data on an increasingly porous network, manage information safely especially on the cloud, and evaluate the risks of working with third-party vendors for specialised solutions – all in the wake of shrinking budgets and leaner IT teams.”

    Ogunlade also noted increased sophistication and proliferation of the threat landscape, lamenting that simple attacks that caused containable damage have now given way to organised cybercrime operations that are sophisticated, well-funded, and capable of significant economic and reputational damage to public and private sector victims.

    Cisco also highlighted increased complexity of threats and solutions due to rapid growth in intelligent mobile devices’ adoption and cloud computing providing a greater attack surface than ever before, adding that new classes of devices and new infrastructure architectures offer attackers opportunities to exploit unanticipated weaknesses and inadequately defended assets.

    The tech firm said cybercriminals have learned that harnessing the power of internet infrastructure yields far more benefits than simply gaining access to individual computers or devices. These infrastructure-scale attacks seek to gain access to strategically positioned web hosting servers, name servers and data centers—with the goal of proliferating attacks across legions of individual assets served by these resources. By targeting Internet infrastructure, attackers undermine trust in everything connected to or enabled by it.

  • ‘Lack of trust inhibiting digital trade’

    ‘Lack of trust inhibiting digital trade’

    Global telecommunication solutions provider, Ericsson has said its studies have shown that lack of trust remains a major hindrance to uptake digital trade such as ecommerce.

    Its senior Advisor, Consumer Insight, Ericsson ConsumerLab, Rebecka Cedering Angstrom who spoke via video conferencing in Lagos during the media presentation of Ericsson’s 10 Hottest Consumer Trends for 2015: Connectivity Integrated into Daily Life, said consumers are becoming more comfortable with ideas that once seemed beyond imagination such as robots in the home and mind sharing, adding that consumers want technology and connectivity to be integrated into all facets of their daily life – in everything from bathroom mirrors, to sidewalks and medicine jars

    Head, Research, Ericsson ConsumerLab, Michael Björn, said: “The cumulative effect of smartphones becoming part of mainstream society is astonishing. As consumers, we try out new apps and keep the ones we think improve, enrich or even prolong our lives at such a rapid pace that we don’t even notice that our attitudes and behaviors are changing faster than ever. Services and products that quite recently seemed beyond imagination are now easily accepted and believed to rapidly reach the mass market. With only five years until 2020, the future really does seem closer than ever before.”

    The firm said next year and beyond, media use patterns are globalising. Viewers are shifting towards easy-to-use on-demand services that allow cross-platform access to video content. It said next year will be historic as more people will watch streamed video on a weekly basis than broadcast TV.

    It added that consumers show high interest in having home sensors that alert them to water and electricity issues, or when family members come and go.

    “New ways to communicate will continue to appear, offering us even more ways to keep in touch with our friends and family. Many smartphone owners would like to use a wearable device to communicate with others directly through thought – and believe this will be mainstream by 2020.

    “The idea of smart cities is intriguing – but a lot of that intelligence may actually come about as a side effect of the changing everyday behaviors of citizens. As the internet makes us more informed, we are in turn making better decisions. Consumers believe traffic volume maps, energy use comparison apps and real-time water quality checkers will be mainstream by 2020,” Ericsson said.

    The firm said as the internet enables people to efficiently share information with unprecedented ease, the idea of a sharing economy is potentially huge. Half of all smartphone owners are open to the idea of renting out their spare rooms, personal household appliances and leisure equipment as it is convenient and can save money.

    For digital purse, 48 per cent of smartphone owners would rather use their phone to pay for goods and services while 80 per cent believe that the smartphone will replace their entire purse by 2020.

    Although sharing information when there is a benefit is fine, smartphone owners see no point in making all of their actions open to anyone. 47 per cent of smartphone owners would like to be able to pay electronically without an automatic transfer of personal information. 56 per cent of smartphone owners would like all internet communication to be encrypted.

  • Glo gives telecoms package to aviation workers

    Glo gives telecoms package to aviation workers

    The workers of the Federal Ministry of Aviation have been connected to a special telecoms package by Globacom. The package will assist in the effective delivery of aviation services through seamless, quality and cost-effective communication with one another.

    The package is uniquely designed to cater to the needs of the ministry and will also enable aviation workers to communicate with their families at near zero cost.

    Its Head, Public Sector, Mr. Tunde Amunikoro, said at the launch of the package in Abuja that:  “Communication is key to efficient service delivery and speed and that is why we in Glo are excited to partner with the Aviation Ministry on the special lines. We believe the efficiency of the Aviation Sector is going to move several notches higher with this service.”

    He explained that the essence of the special package is to enable the workers to send or receive alerts and reach out to critical stakeholders, particularly those in distress, without being encumbered by the non-availability of recharge cards, even in the remotest part of the country.

    He further explained that those who receive the lines are only required to pay a relatively low monthly service rental after which they will be able to communicate with all those who have the special lines, including their families, without incurring extra cost on airtime.

    Amunikoro said family members were included in the package to ensure that, apart from on-the-job effectiveness, all the workers of the Ministry who are on the special package lines will have peace of mind as they can remain connected at no extra cost with their families from anywhere in the country.

    While launching the package at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel, Abuja, venue of the event, the  Minister for Aviation, Mr. Osita Chidoka said the special package would make work easier for all staff.

  • Etisalat takes stock, rates 2014 high

    Etisalat takes stock, rates 2014 high

    Etisalat has said this year has been good for its business in the country, promising to delight its customers with innovative products and good service quality in the coming years.

    Its Centre Manager, Marina Flagship Experience Centre, Oluwaseyi Ayebiwo, who spoke on the sideline with The Nation during the commissioning of the centre in Lagos said in six years of its operation, it has achieved the 20 million subscriber milestone, insisting that it is no mean feat considering that the telco came late and enjoyed no any form of incentive which the early birds did.

    He said: “For the year, we have not done badly as a company. Recently, towards the end of October, we hit the 20million subscriber base. That is in less than six years since we came onboard. For us, this is a great feat for any company and I don’t think any other company in the world has done that.  We have grown so fast at so short a time. We intend to maintain that feat.

    According to him, next year will be full of activities as the telco will not rest on its oars but keep redefining customer experience through innovative products.

    “Going into 2015, you are going to see a lot of innovative programme from the company. In terms of service quality, we will always strive to take it higher. We know that customers have to be served and they are the focus of our business. That is why we make customers an important part of our decision process. We organise customer forum from time to time, where customers tell us what the challenges are and what they would want to get from us in the nearest future. So the customers are dear to our heart,” he said.

    Speaking on the uniqueness of the centre, he said the ambiance and the way it is built is interactive with the customers, such that when customers comes in, all the equipment necessary to resolve all their issues and make sure they are happy are available.

    He said: “It starts from the interactive counters for devices, where customers can come in around the devices and they know from that which one they want to use.

    “Aside that, we have other dedicated counters for special customers services. We also have different original equipment manufacturers such as Samsung, Nokia, Apple, Techno and others. .They have their stands here and they are all available to ensure that every customer’s complaints are sorted out. We have a VIP lounge where customers can come in with a fully equipped library for those who wish to read. You can come in, take some time out after passing through the stress our of the day and relax.”

  • MainOne’s $40m data centre gets Tier 111 certification

    MainOne’s $40m data centre gets Tier 111 certification

    West Africa’s leading provider of network solutions for businesses, MainOne, has received Tier III Certification of Design Documents for its new Lekki Data Centre, from the Uptime Institute, a United States (U.S) based consortium of companies that engage in education, publications, consulting, certifications, conferences and seminars for the enterprise data centre industry and for data centre professionals.

    The 600 rack, $40 million facility is the largest in the West African sub-region and it is built to help meet the rapidly growing demand for co-location, managed hosting and cloud services within the region.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Ms. Funke Opeke said the state of the art facility providing highly-available and highly-redundant world class infrastructure is a carrier neutral. She said the facility, spread over 3,500 square meters, further consolidates the company’s investment in critical infrastructure to grow West Africa’s digital economy.

    She noted that the Data Center will provide a credible platform for businesses to transact online within the region without having to invest scarce capital and human resources to build out their own infrastructure, thus enhancing business efficiency and profitability.

    She said: “With the increased recognition of Nigeria as one of the leading emerging economies, it is important that we have available the infrastructure required to establish, enhance and sustain effective business performance in today’s global digital economy. Outsourcing of Data Centre and Connectivity services to a reputable provider like MainOne ensures businesses can adopt more cost effective models of consuming technology to allow increased focus of valuable company resources to drive business development and growth”.

  • Naira devaluation puts pressure on telcos

    Naira devaluation puts pressure on telcos

    The declining fortunes of the national economy which has forced the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to devalue the naira by eight per cent is already taking its tolls on the operation of telcos in the country.

    The value of the naira has been on a roller-coaster dive, exchanging more than 180 to $1 causing stress to businesses with import-dependent inputs.

    Chief Executive Officer, MainOne Cable Company Nigeria Limited, Ms. Funke Opeke said both the telcos and the consumers have been unwittingly put under pressure arising from the currency devaluation.

    Opeke who was former Chief Technical Officer (CTO) of MTN Nigeria spoke on the sideline of a reception organised for judges and winners of the Etisalat Pan African Prize for Innovation in Lagos. She urged the Federal Governmentr  to put a sort of economic stimuli to ease the pressures arising from the policy.

    She said: “Well the declining value of the naira is definitely putting pressure on margins for telecoms operators. As you know, a lot of the technology inputs into the sector are imported; so they are dollar-denominated and most operators have entered into long term supply service contracts.”

    According to her, with these supply service contracts entered into on a long term basis and the “value of your naira receivables against the dollar not at par puts a lot of pressure”on the telcos.

    She said consumers will also feel the pinch of the inflationary trends as they would not have so much disposable capital to spend on telecommunications.

    “So, it is a two-sided equation. I think we are all hoping that there will be additional stimuli instituted by the government to try to advance the economy a little bit faster to stimulate spending in all the sectors aside from oil so that the economy can quickly recover,” she said.

    On whether a sustained unease on the economy could ultimately lead to an increase in telephone end user tariff, she said it was too early for any operator to contemplate that as all the telcos would even strive to avoid taking such step.

    She said: “I think its early days. Given where the industry is, everyone will like to avoid that (tariff increase) because in an environment where consumers are also under pressure, they can least afford those increases. But perhaps for us as Nigerians, it is also an opportunity to look at other areas where we can grow our economy and add value and provide services out of Nigeria on a global basis and to earn revenue and to earn foreign exchange. There are other economies in the world that have done that successfully and we really need to be more aggressive .in trying to push for new frontiers in our economy.”

  • Nigeria’s strategic to our business, says Samsung

    Nigeria’s strategic to our business, says Samsung

    samsung Electronics West Africa has said the Nigerian market is of strategic importance to its business in Africa, adding that the consumers have also offered tremendous support for its business.

    Its Director, Information Technology and Mobile, Mr. Emmanouil Revmatas, who spoke after the firm partnered MTN on a promo that will make the holiday season more exciting for Nigerians in Lagos, said the initiative is part of the firm’s way of enabling its customers share in the joy of the season.

    “Nigeria is a very important market with high potential and it is very rewarding to know that people here support our business. The Samsung Galaxy Spin Wheel promo is our way of showing appreciation to our consumers for their loyalty and support throughout the year and our partnership with MTN Nigeria provides us with a platform through which we can achieve this goal. We look forward to having more initiatives of this kind in the years ahead,” he said.

    Revmatas reiterated Samsung’s commitment to developing best-in-class products and adding value through customer-centric partnerships to meet the ever-changing needs of its consumers.

    Also speaking, General Manager, Consumer Marketing at MTN Nigeria, Mr Richard Iweanoge said: “MTN is committed to bringing mobile data services closer to the doorsteps of Nigerians and our partnership with Samsung is yet another step in this direction. We believe that this initiative will propel smartphone penetration and increase data adoption in the country.”

    Iweanoge added that the collaboration will simplify the retail experience of individuals who are desirous of purchasing Samsung Galaxy devices by providing a one-stop-shop for their smartphone and internet data needs.

    He said: “Typically, Nigerians have to acquire their mobile device and mobile data plan from phone distributors and mobile operators separately. This special arrangement will further simplify our consumers’ retail experience and also cement MTN’s brand presence with Samsung’s customers.”

  • ‘High Internet penetration will boost SMEs productivity’

    ‘High Internet penetration will boost SMEs productivity’

    As technology continues to shape the interaction between businesses and consumers; stakeholders believe that increased broadband connectivity will impact greatly on Nigeria’s economy.

    Speaking recently on the Mara Mentor Talk Show,Mr. Olayinka Oni, Chief Technology Officer Microsoft Nigeria, said “people will get a lot more with broadband technology, especially through ecommerce which is said to contribute about 7% to Nigeria’s GDP.”

    In a recent report published by Ericsson Mobility, mobile broadband is becoming prominent in Sub-Saharan Africa as the region grows more reliant on mobile devices and society embraces mobility. And as Nigeria continue to lead other sub-Saharan countries, despite the challenges with broadband connectivity; Oni thinks SMEs will be more productive with increased internet penetration.

    Currently buoyed by soaring internet penetration and mobile adoption rates, business in Nigeria’s vibrant ICT sector, is championed by innovative young entrepreneurs leveraging on unique advantages of IT infrastructure despite challenges in running the business.

    According to Microsoft Nigeria’s CTO, “Technology is here to stay. It will continue to shape businesses.”

    He thus advised business owners to acquaint themselves with technologies that would grow their businesses, while keeping an eye on online consumer behavior and the latest trends in ICT.

    Considering the tight capital for startups, Oni also urged young entrepreneurs to leverage on new trends in technology, i.e. social media platforms, email marketing, online data and collaborative tools to drive growth and cut overheads.

    On adoption of cloud technology, he advised that SMEs take precaution and use genuine software.

     

  • Apple commends Glo on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus launch

    Apple commends Glo on iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus launch

    The creative management of the launch of iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus in Nigeria by Globacom has attracted commendation from Apple, manufacturer of high end smartphones.

    Of particular interest to Apple is the prompt and unique response to the demands of Globacom’s subscribers who thronged the Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos Gloworld in the early hours of Friday to purchase the newly launched iPhone 6 handsets.

    Apple Regional Sales Manager for Africa, Mr. Paddy McManus who gave the commendation at the unveiling ceremony of iPhone 6 expressed delight at the impressive turnout of subscribers, adding that he was pleasantly shocked and surprised.

    “This is a very loud move from a loud network in Lagos. I am extremely impressed. This is what usually happens all over the world when Apple is launching its products. Nigerians are really great,” Mr. McManus exclaimed.

    An On Air Personality, Mr. Folajinmi Akinsola became the first Nigerian to own an authentic iPhone 6 sold by any telecommunication network in Nigeria when he purchased the phone at the Gloworld shop on Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island, Lagos immediately after it was officially unveiled.

    Former beauty queen, Miss Tobi Phillips kept vigil to emerge the first Nigerian female to own an authentic iPhone 6 when she paid for the phone which she earlier pre-ordered.

    Iconic Glo brand ambassadors like Flavour, NaetoC and Chee the Voice were on hand to pep up the event. Flavour and Naeto C later joined the official Apple team to present iphones to early buyers who kept vigil at the Gloworld shop to make history.

    At 11am on Friday, an Asset Manager with Arthur Steven Asset Management Limited, Mr. Tunde Amolegbe sauntered into the Adeola Odeku, Victoria Island Gloworld shop to pay for his pre-ordered iPhone and thereafter got a celebrity treatment from Glo brand ambassadors Wande Coal and Waje.

    Similarly, at the Gloworld shop located in the Ikeja City Mall, the Managing Director, Cita Petroleum, Otunba Thomas Ogunbangbe was the first to pay for his pre –ordered iPhone at the shop.

    The story was the same in all Gloworld shops across the country where subscribers took delivery of their iPhones.