IBM predicts the African IT market will expand at a rate of 12 percent annually through 2015 due in part to substantial international investment and an influx of multi-national corporations.
IBM i systems management solution provider CCSS has announced an expansion of its global footprint by entering the African market with a new dedicated agent for the region, AnyKey Technologies, based in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The team at AnyKey Technologies benefits from more than 20 years experience in the region and established the company to address the rapidly evolving IT requirements of the African IBM i community. AnyKey offers both hardware/software consultancy services together with a broad product range—from high availability (HA) through to capacity planning and performance tuning solutions. The CCSS trilogy of systems management software solutions (QSystem Monitor, QMessage Monitor and QRemote Control) are the latest addition to Anykey’s product portfolio.
IBM predicts the African IT market will expand from its present size of $8.5 billion to $12.5 billion by 2015, representing a growth rate of 12 percent per year. Fuelling this growth is substantial international investment and an influx of multi-national corporations all keen to secure their early market share of one of the world’s most significant emerging regions. IBM itself now operates 20 subsidiaries in the region (including this year’s Senegal and Tanzania branch openings) and has invested more than $300 million regionally since 2006.
Establishing an infrastructure to support Africa’s commercial potential has always been a significant challenge but with it, new opportunities for innovation also exist. In many cases, infrastructure can leapfrog the traditional barriers experienced by developed markets as there may be no incumbent technologies to replace or adapt. The result for Africa is rapid evolution but also a greater requirement for specialist skills from a workforce who have missed out on the valuable learning curve that comes with organic growth and development.
AnyKey Technologies founder, Chantal Applewhite, says, “We’ve taken a very selective approach to the technologies we offer. The African market has unique requirements and the skills shortage issue influences the choice of supporting technologies that companies are looking to adopt. Part of the reason IBM i is so widely favored in the region is for its stability and reliability. We seek to add value to our client’s existing investments in that platform with CCSS’s systems management solutions which are well known in the IBM i community for their ease of use, functionality and ongoing customer support.”
In meeting the specific needs of the African IBM i, community the developer/agent partnership between CCSS and Anykey promises to extend beyond the boundaries of a purely sales or marketing agreement to embrace the specialist challenges of the market. President and CEO of CCSS, Ray Wright says, “The value of our partnership with AnyKey will be in a collaborative approach to customer issues. Automated solutions can go a long way to easing the burden on stretched teams and certainly, the current economic restraints faced by IT managers is a universal issue and one we understand very well. Our definition of being pro-active and creating greater efficiencies includes instilling best-practice principles. Many IT managers in Africa will have the uniquely advantageous position of building an infrastructure environment on this basis and together with AnyKey, we look forward to supporting them and sharing the valuable experiences of our existing global customer base.”
A recent example of CCSS’s ongoing contribution to highlighting industry best-practice standards to not only their customer base but also the wider IBM i community has been in the publication of a series of user-friendly guides on the topics of: Lights Out Automation; Security; High Availability; Rogue Job Management; Disk Expense and Cache Battery Monitoring. The CCSS Best Practice Guides are free to download from the CCSS website.
Contact details for AnyKey Technologies can be found at: http://www.ccssltd.com/about/contact-us.php
AnyKey Technologies was established early in 2011 by a group of South Africa’s leading IBM i and i5/OS specialist practitioners, both technical and marketing, who have been responsible for providing outstanding products and services to the IBM i in southern Africa community for the past 20 years. The company’s offerings include sales, support and services with selected third party software tools, like LANSA, and specialist installation and ongoing technical support of IBM i and i5/OS environments.
More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.
TRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now! Request Now.
Forms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.
Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:
Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.
IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn:
LATEST COMMENTS
MC Press Online