Cloudgate, a hand-sized device, aims to completely replace the desktop for a fraction of the cost.

So says Jonathan Young, head of product at Cloudware, who argues that desktop computers are a massive drain on the IT resources of most organisations.

"An IT department has a primary function – to deliver applications to end-users. Everything else – security, uptime, backups, support and maintenance – are important, but secondary to the primary function," says Young.

According to Young, the core innovation that makes this possible is Cloudware, a South African-developed application delivery solution designed specifically for low-bandwidth conditions."We have become lost in the complexity of the secondary options. A new model exists to reduce that complexity. You simply unplug your screen, mouse and keyboard from the old PC, plug it into a Cloudgate device and you have secure access to the entire corporate Windows environment and an Android desktop."

Cloudgate is hybrid, says Young. "Everything Android. Everything Windows. On a single device. Thin computing worldwide has been trying to achieve the holy triumvirate: performance, flexibility and cost. Cloudgate is the first to achieve all three."

To Young, thin computing is exactly that; it's thin and watered down. "It is void of all the things users want. Cloudgate gives users what they want, first and foremost, while ensuring business gets what it needs at the same time.

"We chose Android for the desktop because we found that users rejected earlier versions of thin client computing as being too restrictive," explains Young. "It turns out that giving people a desktop replacement that's just like their old machine, except without all the fun bits, is actually counter-productive. People need to be able to use the Internet and social media, for example, and sometimes to send private e-mails. But now none of that activity happens on corporate servers, and nobody in the business has to support it."

In fact, says Young, Cloudgate eliminates the need for desktop-level support and maintenance entirely. "If anything happens to the device, you just reset everything to the factory defaults and erase it," he says. "There's no company data on it to lose."

Based on the current cost of desktop support services, that's an instant saving of R200 to R300 a month, he says.

"With Cloudware, all a company's applications and data are managed from the data centre. The only thing that leaves that secure environment is a set of instructions for what to display on the screen. That means you can deliver any Windows application to any device."

In practice, he explains, that means Cloudgate users have a single Cloudware icon on their Android desktop that gives access to all their company applications, files and data.

It's completely secure – no information from the central server can be shared across to the device, not even by copying and pasting, says Young. "That option can be turned on if necessary, but the default is that the two environments are entirely separate."

Cloudgate also draws only 10W of power, says Young, "the same as an energy-saving light bulb. If you're replacing an average 300W desktop, that means the power savings are almost the same as the monthly cost of the device, rendering it effectively free.

"The desktop PC has dominated the office for nearly 40 years, but it's outlived its usefulness," says Young. "It makes no economic or management sense to put all that processing power and storage into a standalone machine that will never run at more than a fraction of its capacity. The principal physical reason to not move everything to the data centre has been slow network connections – but Cloudware solves that problem. Within a few years, the desktop PC as we know it will seem as quaint and outdated as the typewriter."

Additional Reading and Source:

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72009

As more commuters move into cities, congestion has caused a decline in productivity. The workplace now has to adapt to this problem while meeting employee demands, writes BRIAN TIMPERLEY.

Although the “work from anywhere” phrase has been thrown around ad nauseum, the truth is it has never become a reality. Corporates, specifically some of the big financial institutions in Sandton, are realising they have to offer flexible working time and flexible computing in order to attract and retain the best talent, while ensuring optimum productivity from every employee. 

To answer the question about how companies go about retaining staff, and lessen the impact of unproductive time in traffic, the simple answer is to allow them the flexibility and accessibility to get the job done. There’s no real need to ensure employees are sitting in physical office space any longer, since people can now collaborate and meet virtually. Talented individuals are inevitably moving to companies that afford them the work flexibility they demand, and saving hours everyday in productive and personal time.

This raises another question about what the future working world will look like and what technology will be used to streamline the process of working from any location and on any device. Forget about referring to the office or workplace of the future; the reality exists now! 

The fact is, access to data and applications is more important than the historical concerns over available connectivity. Connectivity has become a commodity in recent years, and its cost is driving down almost as fast as its access is improving. Our current levels of access in metropolitan and outlying areas provide real freedom to access data from anywhere. 

We need to redefine the way we work, and rather focus on being more collaborative with co-workers, sharing and accessing applications, documents and data when needed. The ability to access documents from anywhere means you’re achieving two things: you’re avoiding sitting in unproductive traffic congestion and you’re getting more done in the time available to you. 

Cloud-based collaboration, which is available through a number of operators locally and internationally, delivers far higher levels of efficiency because you’re collaborating on the same master document, avoiding the need to send copies of documents back and forth multiple times. True cloud-based collaboration means you can track changes back and forward, for as long as needed, and never fear the potential loss of critical data.

Users simply have to embrace a new way of working. The positive, tangible benefits are clear: 

• Short & long-term productivity gains
• Considerable cost reductions
• IT departments spend far less time supporting the mundane, and focus on innovation 

There are more than enough options available to businesses of varying sizes to ensure their employees remain productive, are able to work remotely and from any device. We’re no longer constrained by the desktop PC or laptop computer; modern tablets, smartphones and other handheld devices offer the same functionality, processing power and a more intuitive interface than antiquated desktop PCs ever have. 

Allowing employees to work remotely while connecting via VPN is a legacy approach to remote productivity, and often proves more cumbersome and challenging than it’s worth; that was how we worked ten years ago. More reliable, and readily available connectivity in South Africa, enables users to gain access from anywhere; and newer, lighter and more robust technologies are available on the market… technologies that in many cases, render VPNs unnecessary. If you’re connected to the internet, you’re able to securely work, without the cumbersome configuration of a VPN. 

While everyone appears to be fixated on how mobile their employees can be, the focus should rather be on how accessible their applications and content is. In fact, most “mobile” applications are watered down versions of the original, with limited functionality; in reality, fully-fledged applications are already being delivered to devices through any internet connection, allowing corporate networks to be securely accessed from anywhere. 

The key criteria to attract and retain talent is to allow them flexibility in their work. Make it clear that the location from which they work is irrelevant, and provide access to data and applications to get the job done. 

Once we’ve convinced people to avoid sitting in unproductive traffic jams, we’ll have made some real progress. Always bear in mind that happy staff are more productive. If morning traffic is a nightmare, pull over, enjoy a coffee and plough through your emails, update your financials, or write that urgent sales report… all from your iPad if you like. 

If traffic is always bad, many companies now allow employees to work from home in the morning to avoid rush-hour. Those who get in very early to avoid sitting in traffic, are then entitled to leave early. The question is whether or not companies can embrace mixing the two, which is the very definition of flexibility. One thing is certain, today’s ability to work remotely enables any level of flexibility a business chooses.

There’s a new way of working... start embracing it or risk being left behind. 

* Brian Timperley, MD, Cloudware

Desktop computers are a massive drain on the IT resources of most organisations. “An IT department has a primary function: to deliver applications to end-users. Everything else – security, uptime, backups, support and maintenance – are important, but secondary to the primary function,” says Jonathan Young of Cloudware. “We have become lost in the complexity of the secondary options. A new model exists to reduce that complexity.”

Cloudgate is a hand-sized device that, says Young, completely replaces the desktop as we know it for a fraction of the cost. “You simply unplug your screen, mouse and keyboard from the old PC, plug it into a Cloudgate device and you have secure access to the entire corporate Windows environment – and an Android desktop.”

The core innovation that makes this possible is Cloudware, a South African-developed application delivery solution designed specifically for low-bandwith conditions. “With Cloudware, all a company’s applications and data are managed from the data centre,” says Young. “The only thing that leaves that secure environment is a set of instructions for what to display on the screen. That means you can deliver any Windows application to any device.”

In practice, that means Cloudgate users have a single Cloudware icon on their Android desktop that gives access to all their company applications, files and data. It’s completely secure – no information from the central server can be shared across to the device, “not even by copying and pasting”, says Young. “That option can be turned on if necessary, but the default is that the two environments are entirely separate.

“We chose Android for the desktop because we found that users rejected earlier versions of thin client computing as being too restrictive,” explains Young. “It turns out that giving people a desktop replacement that’s just like their old machine, except without all the fun bits, is actually counter-productive. People need to be able to use the internet and social media, for example, and sometimes to send private emails. But now none of that activity happens on corporate servers, and nobody in the business has to support it.”

In fact, says Young, Cloudgate eliminates the need for desktop-level support and maintenance entirely. “If anything happens to the device, you just reset everything to the factory defaults and erase it,” he says. “There’s no company data on it to lose. Based on the current cost of desktop support services, that’s an instant saving of R200 to R300 a month.”

Cloudgate also draws only 10W of power, says Young, “the same as an energy-saving lightbulb. If you’re replacing an average 300W desktop, that means the power savings are almost the same as the monthly cost of the device, rendering it effectively free.

“The desktop PC has dominated the office for nearly 40 years, but it’s outlived its usefulness,” says Young. “It makes no economic or management sense to put all that processing power and storage into a standalone machine that will never run at more than a fraction of its capacity. The principal physical reason to not move everything to the data centre has been slow network connections – but Cloudware solves that problem. Within a few years, the desktop PC as we know it will seem as quaint and outdated as the typewriter.”

Additional Reading and Sources:

http://companies.mybroadband.co.za/blog/2014/03/17/cloudgate-to-end-40-year-reign-of-the-desktop-pc/

http://www.callcentrehub.com/news-2/2223-cloudgate-to-end-40-year-reign-of-the-desktop-pc

http://kopiarki.biz/kserokopiarki-2/cloudgate-to-end-40-year-reign-of-the-desktop-pc/

http://it-online.co.za/2014/03/17/cloudgate-ends-40-year-reign-of-desktop-pc/

http://www.themarketingsite.com/news/36727/cloudgate-to-end-year-reign-of-the-desktop-pc

Local solutions are designed for local infrastructure constraints, and are simple and affordable to implement and run, says Turrito Networks.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65547:Local-solutions-make-cloud-accessible&catid=69

ITWeb Cloud Computing Summit 2013 (16 & 17 July, 2013)

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63191&Itemid=2844

Cloudware helps Reach for a Dream get the job done.

http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65069:Cloudware-from-Vox-Telecom-helps-Reach-for-a-Dream-get-the-job-done&catid=112

Preparing for a mobile workforce beyond ‘bring your own device’

http://www.bdlive.co.za/life/gadgets/2013/06/19/preparing-for-a-mobile-workforce-beyond-bring-your-own-device

BY NIVEN PERUMAL, JUNE 19 2013, 05:55

Partner of the Year was awarded to Turrito Networks for the period 2012-2013 by Vodacom Business, as their top reseller of connectivity and unified communication services.

Virtualisation is the logical option for seamless disaster recovery and business continuity, says Turrito MD Brian Timperley.

When the entire application layer is virtualised and available to any operating system and any device, disaster recovery and business continuity become a simple and seamless operation, he says.

Turrito’s home-grown virtualisation solution has been in development for nearly 10 years, and was brought to market in January this year. Timperley says the response has been phenomenal as local enterprises see the advantages of a virtualised environment for seamless disaster recovery, in addition to operational benefits.

“We launched a virtualisation proof-of-concept for one of our clients, a multinational in the logistics and steel industry, recently, and happened to mention that virtualisation was also effective as a disaster recovery tool. A short while later, they experienced their first primary site outage in the history of the company. One of their engineers recalled what we’d said, quickly used it to load the necessary licences, and had the company operational within 40 minutes,” he says.

This illustrates the effectiveness of virtualisation as a business continuity tool, he notes.

Timperley says while many companies still use physical environments and infrastructure for disaster recovery, possibly because they were installed before virtualisation became viable and they wish to “sweat their assets”, he expects growing numbers of enterprises to move to a virtualised environment in future. “Every organisation will get to a point where at least part of their strategy will be to virtualise,” he says.

[EMBEDDED]“A virtualised environment is far more flexible. Once virtualised, it becomes far easier to scale your environment to multiple systems and locations, and it’s easier to configure.”

However, Timperley points out that, when virtualising the application layer, companies need to consider the multiple operating systems and devices that will be used to access the applications in the event of an outage. An application that runs in its native environment is ideal, he says, because there is no need to adapt it for multiple operating systems and platforms. Multiple devices are simply used as access tools, and the application itself runs as always.

In addition, it’s important to consider bandwidth when looking to virtualise the application environment. “Many solutions were built for an international market, where bandwidth is very affordable. But for the South African and African markets, it is important that the solution’s bandwidth requirements are kept as low as possible.”

The question of whether to make use of a private or public cloud is still an important consideration, Timperley says. “Most companies prefer the idea of a private cloud – mainly for control and management, and because they don’t want to relinquish their data centre to a public cloud. However, greenfield and SME firms are more likely to choose a public cloud, where they can benefit from economies of scale.”

Timperley will address the upcoming ITWeb Business Continuity 2012 conference on the ideal architectures to ensure continuity. He will also deliver a case study on the benefits of virtualisation in disaster recovery. The event will be held at The Forum, in Bryanston, on 13 November. For more information, click here.

source: http://www.itweb.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=59367:Virtualise-for-seamless-DR&catid=71

With an increasing number of devices entering the workplace, the simple fact is that most of your business-critical applications won’t work on all desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.

Businesses need to meet a range of criteria, including installing and supporting these applications on end-users devices and maintaining high levels of security. On top of that, in order to bring costs down, businesses can’t ignore the advantage of migrating current and legacy applications into the cloud. Cloudware, Vox Telecom’s latest cutting-edge technology, creates true mobility of any application, and enables the delivery of legacy applications to virtually any device seamlessly and instantly.

“It’s the easiest way to put applications into the cloud that we’ve ever seen”, says product manager Jonathan Young. “It’s the ideal solution for organisations that are having trouble delivering applications to any of their regional branches. Cloudware was developed in South Africa specifically to overcome the problems of poor connectivity. Other cloud application delivery services, which assume you have excellent, cheap bandwidth resources, can perform very poorly under local conditions.”

With Cloudware, all that is delivered to the end user’s screen is the screen display. “We send nothing but pixels, so the bandwidth required is tiny. The actual processing takes place on the server back in the data centre. The result is that users at a branch in Polokwane or Oudtshoorn get the same experience as those in the head office.”

The fact that only pixels are delivered also means it doesn’t matter what hardware is on the end user’s desk or in their hands, Young says. “It doesn’t’ matter if you have a Windows PC, a Mac, a Linux box, an Android smartphone or an iPad; we can deliver any app to virtually any device. We can even deliver multiple apps from different operating systems to the same desktop, at the same time.”

The cost savings can be dramatic, he says. “The bandwidth saving is just the start. Because you need little or no processing power on the desktop, you can delay upgrades and then replace desktop PCs with thin client terminals that are much more energy efficient and last longer. Users can’t install or break anything on their machines so your support costs are up to 70% lower, and you can do it all centrally. You don’t even need an operating system on the client device, so you can save on licencing fees as well.”

There are security advantages too, adds Young. “None of your data ever actually leaves your data centre – just the pixels. This is the perfect answer to the security challenges of the BYOD revolution, should you not have an MDM policy in place – as no data ever resides on the device.”

Implementation is painless, he notes. “There’s no need to replace any existing equipment, or to send a support team out to do the implementation. It can be as simple as setting up one server, then sending an email to all your users with an URL linked to the app.”

Vox Telecom is so confident about Cloudware’s success they’re offering a 30-day free proof of concept, says Young. Since launch, demand has been overwhelming, he says. “There is clearly a big need for this technology in South Africa.”

source: http://companies.mybroadband.co.za/blog/2012/10/17/cloudware-from-vox-telecom-set-to-change-the-face-of-desktop-and-tablet-computing/

MICROMEGA Seeing signs of promise Investors in Micromega can look forward to dividend payments now that the company has disposed of several loss-making units, says management. This bullish forecast is also partially based on the investment holding company's prospects for Turrito Networks, its new technology business, which provides among other things hosting, Internet and cloud computing services. Founded in 2008 and acquired by Micromega two years later, Turrito's cloudware application technology has been in development for the past 3l years. The cloud computing product allows users (Turrito clients) to send virtual displays from their own data centre through the Internet to any mobile devices.

Turrito MD Brian Timperley says the company has signed up 20 local municipalities and is in a proof-of-concept phase with about 25 blue-chip companies.

The key to this technology is two fold, says Keith McLachlan, senior equities analyst at Thebe Securities. Not only is it device agnostic (which means it can work on any Android or Apple device), it can be demonstrated in less than two hours. Most of the research and development costs have already been accounted for and McLachlan says Turrito will have the right to annuity-based revenue from monthly licence fees at some very healthy margins if management can convert a few of these proofs of concept into contracts.

But though Turrito shows great promise, it made no contribution to earnings in 2011. Micromega's headline EPS rose by 27% to 21c/share for the year to December, while the net asset value increased by 4,5% to 307c/share. Despite the seemingly improved earnings, which moved the share price up to more than 6% following the announcement of the results, discontinued operations had a huge impact, reducing headline earnings by R17m. Micromega CE Greg Morris told analysts during the results presentation at the company's new offices in Sandton last week that the restructuring undertaken in 2011 has resulted in a portfolio of good business with solid market traction. Our realigned portfolio will be more cash generative, and thereby place the group in a position to commence the payment of dividends. McLachlan remains cautious, however, saying: Though the company's prospects seem to have turned around, management still has to prove that it can deliver. Brian Timperley Under pressure to deliver

source: http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-283689959/micromega-seeing-signs-promise.html

The Turrito Application Delivery program, which was launched on January 1, after nine-and-a-half years of development, is being recommended to mining companies throughout Africa to save costs and improve their connectivity, says converged communications and Cloud provider Turrito Networks.

Sales director Louis Jardim tells Mining Weekly that the technology is already being used by some mining houses in Africa and interest in the technology is growing.

“Having been developed in South Africa, this technology is made for the African environ- ment, keeping elements like power and bandwidth restrictions in mind,” he explains.

Cloud computing refers to the delivery of information tech- nology services during which resources are retrieved from the Internet using virtualisation tools and applications, rather than accessing these services locally from a server.

The Turrito Application Delivery technology takes this a step further by providing a path for clients that require the benefits of cloud computing and virtualisation from their existing server infrastructure, whether it is private or public.

The software enables applications to be delivered to the client’s existing desktop hardware or mobile devices without having to migrate to a third-party platform or data centre.

“The technology enables the customer to become its own cloud provider instead of facing considerable disruption and migration costs associated with current cloud platforms,” says Jardim, who note

s most institutions or companies have a centralised server environment that stores business-critical data and applications, as well as financial information.

“The biggest challenge with these data centres is to install and support each application on each end-user’s device, and to establish compatibility with the users’ mobile devices.

“However, Turrito Application Delivery enables the virtual delivery of any application from the centralised server by pixilation to any device connected to the server. This eliminates the need to install and support business-critical applications on every end-user device,” explains Jardim.

Therefore, a customer can have an application, such as Pastel or Payroll, installed on its server once and instantly deliver it to thousands of staff in that particular business by distributing the pixels to any device, whether it has a Windows, Apple, Linux or a mobile-based operating system.

Users can have instant access to their business applications, provided that the device has a screen on which the pixels can generate and an Internet connection for the delivery of the application.

Jardim points out that mines in Africa can also easily communicate data and report to international owners and stakeholders.

“The mine employees have the ability to use this technology to communicate with family in other countries or cities. This technology was developed with businesses, as well as people, in mind,” he explains.

Meanwhile, as only pixels are sent down the link, the amount of data needed to interact with business-critical applications is a fraction of the current requirements.

“Security is also enhanced. As no actual data is sent, it cannot be intercepted. “If encrypted pixels were to be intercepted and compromised, the intruder would not retrieve data but rather encrypted instructions of individual pixels,” Jardim says.

He explains that even if these instructions were to be reassembled in the correct order, the intruder would, at best, only get a screen shot.

“Further, we use the ARCFOUR algorithm, a military-grade encryption, on the instructions set, which makes the encryption layer more secure than standard data encryption,” he adds.

“Most mine sites in Africa have a via-satellite (v-sat) connection. The v-sat technology is expensive and inefficient, as it has a high latency, which causes delays and time-outs when trying to access data or applications from the main data centre.

“This technology makes the v-sat link functional in Africa by removing applications’ sensitivity to high latency. “It works on any v-sat connection – even those exceeding the 800 ms latency mark,” he says.

The application delivery technology mitigates the challenge of high latency, as the applications are run inside the same environment in which the data resides.“

All the processing power takes place at one location, the data centre, with pixilation then being sent to the user,” says Jardim.

Cost saving is another feature of the technology, not only through bandwidth but also through eliminating the need for the client to put a database in more than one place.

Jardim notes that this technology also allows clients to have control over which applications end-users can access and at what times, increasing productivity in the workplace.

source: http://www.miningweekly.com/article/service-provider-recommends-new-virtualisation-technology-to-african-mines-2012-07-13