Dataflex to Deepen Offerings...Plans To Expand To New Territories

Dataflex, one of Nigeria’s foremost Information Technology Companies, has in line with deepening its offering in the Information technology space re strategized through the expansion of its solutions offering in the market. The company has in the past, provided well tested Datacenter solutions around power and cooling. Dataflex is currently regarded as one of the top five leading ICT companies in Nigeria, providing Power, Cooling and Hardware solutions to its growing list of customers.

One of Dataflex’s key areas of concentration going into the future is in providing cloud services to customers. According the Mr. Andy Nwani, the Company’s Managing Director, speaking at the Company’s Management Retreat, ‘the reality that computation will gradually gravitate into the cloud explains some of the recent technologies that we see in today’s business environment. "We at DATAFLEX believe that it is the key to future development and would provoke a certain level of Cultural change". Dataflex is currently investing in people and technologies to ensure that we can participate actively in the change gradually coming into this part of the world and as solutions providers the company will always seek to provide services to customers that would help them effectively optimize their costs and increase profitability.

As part of Dataflex’s re-engineering processes and investment in people, the Company has recently strengthened its senior management team by bringing on board experienced professionals who have been saddled with the mandate to drive the vision of the company to be a Leader in providing Solutions & Services. To drive new technologies and Solutions Offering, Nuhu Mazai has been engaged as the Technology Solutions Manager. Mr. Mazai has well over 10 years experience working in the Information Technology field where he has designed and deployed Enterprise Solutions to both Large and medium Scale organizations.

To support and build on its investment, Dataflex has partnered a number of Global Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMS) with the focus of driving Storage, Enterprise Solutions and Managed services. Mr  Nwani further stresses that ‘we are continuously training our people with the right skills that would enhance customer confidence to deliver high end solutions and other specific ICT requirements of our customers’.

In the next one to two years, Dataflex will have a West African face as well, as it has put in place active plans to establish a regional Office in Ghana that would respond to Public and private corporate entity technology requirements of the market. Proper management of customers and providing modern technologies will be the driving force of Dataflex as it continues to deploy customer fit solutions across industries.

EMC Debuts VSPEX Reference Architecture, Targets NetApp's FlexPod

EMC has unveiled VSPEX, its first reference architecture for building converged infrastructures that integrate storage, server, networking, and virtualization, and claimed it will in no way impact sales of the pre-configured Vblock converged solutions produced by VCE, its joint venture with partner Cisco.

With VSPEX, EMC jumps into a new battle with archrival storage vendor NetApp, whose FlexPod reference architecture has done well against VCE's Vblocks.

At the same time, the multi-vendor VSPEX reference architecture, which includes both Cisco and non-Cisco equipment, also gives EMC the opportunity to counter-balance moves by its long-term partner Cisco, which has benefited by working with NetApp in the FlexPod business.

EMC is positioning VSPEX as the alternative to the "build-your-own" storage business where customers and their solution providers configure converged infrastructure solutions on their own, as well as to the structured, pre-configured Vblock offerings from VCE, said Gregg Ambulos, EMC's senior vice president of global channel sales.

"When Vblock was launched, the goal was to offer the highest level of simplicity for the greatest control and management," Ambulos said. "VSPEX offers the flexibility of build-your-own with the value of Vblock."

The need for a flexible, vendor-sponsored reference architecture such as EMC's VSPEX or NetApp's FlexPod is open for debate, said Jamie Shepard, executive vice president of technology solutions at ICI, a Marlborough, Mass.-based solution provider and long-term EMC partner.

Reference architectures have been developed by solution providers for years to marry the storage, compute, networking, and virtualization layers specific to customer requirements, Shepard said.

"Engineers on my end scratch their heads over vendors' reference architectures," he said. "Why would a vendor want to come out with a reference architecture before a sale is made? You need to consult with customers first to understand their requirements." Channel partners are supposed to architect customer solutions based on specific needs, Shepard said.

"No one in the channel goes to the customer and says, 'How many VMs do you want? OK, that fits into this FlexPod or VSPEX,'" he said. "No one is doing this. You need up-front consulting."

For instance, Shepard said, a customer may have previously implemented NetApp storage, Cisco servers and networking, and VMware virtualization, and a partner could after-the-fact call it a FlexPod. Shepard also said that reference architectures are late to the market. "A customer who needs a reference architecture doesn't really need it," he said. "They need the cloud."

Cyber Nigeria Forum gathers steam...gets key endorsements

As the much expected 2nd edition of the Cyber Nigeria Forum billed to hold on the 29^th of June 2012 gathers more interest, major industry organizations as well as pressure groups has continued to identify with the vision. Prominent among whom is ‘the flagship of Nigeria in cyberspace’ – the Nigeria Internet Group, which is the umbrella body for the internet sector in Nigeria.

In its endorsement letter to the organizers of the event, the President of the association Engr. Bayo Banjo, expressed the pleasure of the group in identifying with Cyber Nigeria Forum 2012. In their words: “The Nigeria Internet Group (NIG) is pleased to endorse the Cyber Nigeria Forum with the theme: ‘’The Economics of Cyberspace and Cyber Responsibility’’ focusing on the activities of Nigeria in the cyberspace particular the effort by youth to make positive impact by using the social media tool”.

It went on to state that the NIG support for this forum is based on its reputation for an all-inclusive Nigeria participation in positive internet usage and development particularly the youth using the social media to make positive impact.

According to the NIG President, “We see Cyber Nigeria Forum being organized by the Cyber Africa as a roundtable for Nigeria Internet stakeholders in raising and addressing salient issues concerning the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector with particular reference to the internet positive usage, other related issues and development in Nigeria” he said.

The event tagged Cyber Nigeria Forum 2012, is a collaborative effort between Tribe Media Company limited (publishers of Horizon Magazine, CyberAfrica magazine and CyberAfrica TV show) and Private Media Mart Limited.

It is designed to focus on Nigeria’s' activities in the cyberspace; benefits derivable form the internet,  e business, cashless transactions, regulation, job creation and economic development in line with the government transformation agenda. The event will also examine Nigeria and its activities in the cyber space Vis a vis how the youth are channeling their creative energy to making positive impact or otherwise using the social media tools.

This full-day event will be broken into three (3) masterclass sessions. Each will have sub-topics to be delivered by seasoned local and international resource persons with some of the highlights of the day including the unveiling of CYBER NIGERIA FOUNDATION which is a collaborative effort that is meant to aid the adoption, and help the Nation’s youth to maximize the advantages of the cyber space for national development.

It will also have the institution of the maiden edition of the ‘Cyber Nigeria Awards’ which is otherwise known as Africa Information Society Merit Award (AISMA), which is meant to reward the various individuals, organizations and government institutions that have helped to deepen positive cyber content/access and availability and efforts in the country.

There'll also be a formal unveiling of CYBER AFRICA NEWSPAPER, HORIZON INTERNATIONAL MAGAZINE and TechBrandReview® newsletter. The event has so far been endorsed by National IT Development Agency (NITDA), EFCC, NOTAP and the Federal Ministry of Information Communication.

HTC may be developing own chips... Dumps Qualcomm?

In an attempt to reduce its reliance on third-party processor makers, HTC has reportedly signed a memorandum of cooperation with ST-Ericsson to develop its own mobile chips, following the same route as its rivals Apple and Samsung.

According to a report by the China Times, HTC will develop a dedicated application processor that will be incorporated into its low-end smartphones when production starts next year.

Facing increased competition in the smartphone market as of late, HTC has been forced to overhaul its device strategies, focusing on ‘hero’ devices that started with the launch of the HTC One range of Android smartphones that fused impressive hardware specifications with a tighter software experience that built upon Google’s Android operating system.

The move into processor development mimics that of Apple and Samsung, with their A4/A5/A5X and Exynos mobile chips powering their latest smartphones and tablets. Samsung has been rumoured to have dropped its reliance on Qualcomm, pushing forward with its new range of quad-core processors and HTC looks set to do the same when it starts production with ST-Ericsson next year.

A possible reason for HTC’s decision to reduce its reliance on Qualcomm (but also Nvidia) may be as a result of issues faced with the launch of its One X smartphone, which utilises Nvidia’s quad-core Tegra 3 in European markets but features Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 processors for its 4G-enabled devices in North America and other regions. It has also been suggested that by developing their own chipset, HTC could ease up on their dependance on chipset manufacturers and could start putting out lower-priced devices in the future.

Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia has already penned a deal with ST-Ericsson, announcing a deal in November 2011 to supply the chipsets for handsets it intends to deliver to the low, mid and high-end smartphone markets around the world. HTC has not confirmed the memorandum at the time of writing, but we have reached out for comment and will update the article should we receive a reply.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen HTC dabble in its own chips. The company debuted the HTC Image Chip in the new One Series of smartphones, an uninspiring name for a processor that significantly boosts the photography skills of devices like the One X and One S. However, an application processor like HTC will apparently be producing with ST-Ericsson is another level of complexity up from a companion chip.

The first chips are expected to show up in production quantities in 2013, and though neither HTC nor ST-Ericsson have said, but its possible both Android and Windows Phone devices will be aiming to use them. Currently, Nokia has the entry-level Windows Phone market mostly to itself, though ZTE is showing increasing interest in that segment, and HTC could well look to rebuild its fortunes with a play of its own.

Smartphone Battle era starts as Nokia Releases New Windows Phone

Nokia has released its brand new smart phone, the Lumia 900, and it’s basically mimicking what Apple pioneered a few years earlier except that it’s running Microsoft Windows – doesn’t work as well, but costs half as much.

Nokia could easily have slipped out of the collective consciousness of the cell phone market. After watching its shares soar at the start of the 21st century, the tech company slipped and fell by the wayside, letting competitors pass it by. Now, Nokia is making a serious bid to return to relevance with its Lumia 900 smart phone. This move is probably to prove a point especially with the recent ownership structure that has so far put Microsoft in the Nokia driving seat.

While the smart phone market is currently more than dominated by Apple and Google, some might scoff at the idea of Windows-based phones making in-roads. But then, those people may be forgetting the history of the company. Apple was once one of the strongest computer companies in the world, offering a widely available computing system based on a visual interface with a mouse before anyone else and cornering the market.

What happened? Microsoft and Bill Gates imitated the idea, undercut Apple, and eventually relegated Steve Jobs’ company to a maker of high-end, niche computers with a relatively small market share.

Now, with the market for smart phones still in its infancy, Nokia appears to be rolling the dice on a similar strategy, offering their well-regarded new phones at prices much lower than Apple’s iPhone. And, once again, it’s Microsoft and Windows that are trying to take a shot at Apple’s dominance.

The new Nokia Lumia 900 is available for $100 retail, with Amazon offering an ever better deal with the phone going for just $50. In its first day of release, the phone showed solid sales despite coming out on Easter Sunday, a day when many retail stores were closed. No doubt buoyed by its attractive price, sales helped catapult the phone to the top of Amazon’s smartphone rankings on Monday after the phone debuted at number five on Sunday.

The Windows phones are entering into a market that is still largely undefined as the product has only been available for about five years. While windows phones are clearly coming in a distant third to iPhones and Droids, where things will go over the next few years is hard to say. With attractive pricing (costing about half what a new iPhone would), Nokia could be seeking out a potentially untapped market of users who weren’t early adopters but are now ready to buy.

However, Michael Miller of PCMag seems to believe that the Lumia 900 is not the device that will take Windows phones to the next level. “People who follow mobile phones often talk about ‘hero phones’—high-end devices that truly define a platform and get people into the stores. Apple’s iPhone 4S is one, of course, and Apple is unusual in that the bulk of its sales come from that phone (though the 4 and the 3GS are also still sold),” he writes.

After describing the phone and its features, Miller comes to a firm conclusion: “So overall, the Lumia 900 is a very attractive phone, but not quite the “hero phone” that Microsoft and Nokia seem to need here. If you’re in the market for a Windows Phone, the Lumia clearly sets the standard with its modern design and LTE support.”

Whether or not Microsoft will be able to undercut Apple once again, offering a very similar if lower quality device at a much lower price, has yet to be seen. For the time being, Nokia and Microsoft are still clawing for a piece of a market that Apple itself invented and continues to dominate. However, for the folks at Apple, the $100 price-tag on the Lumia 900 may have some worrying about a case of de-javu.

What’s the economic sense of Google buying Motorola Mobility?

Google surprised the phone industry recently by announcing that it had purchased Motorola’s smartphone and tablet business for $12 billion. Google’s CEO, Larry Page, said the purchase would “supercharge” its Android operating system and help the company extend into other business ventures.

But in reality, it’s very evident that all Google seeks is the control of over 17,000 patents owned by Motorola, which will help Google protect its Android operating system. This is the first time Google has owned a phone hardware business and is the largest investment the company has ever made, dwarfing its previous purchase of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion in 2007. Google announced its intent to acquire Motorola for $12.5 billion last August. The deal has won regulatory approval in the U.S. and in Europe, but has been dealt a delay by Chinese regulators.

The deal will put Google in direct competition with other smartphone manufacturers such as Apple and Blackberry. Mr Page said that the acquisition will be greatly beneficial to Google. Of course, this is considering the simmering relationship with Microsoft over patent suits meant to choke the Android platform. But the question is: what will Google do with Motorola's world-spanning design and manufacturing facilities, not to mention its 20,000 employees. Does Google really want to be a company that makes actual, physical goods, or would it rather remain in the virtual realm?

After spending several weeks probing Google and Motorola for clues as to what the companies will do once Google finalizes its acquisition of Motorola, The Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman concludes that the answer is, well, inconclusive. Neither company is really sure how things are going to work out, at least with respect to Motorola's smartphone business, once Google owns the ailing phone maker.

“With mobility increasingly taking centre stage in the computing revolution, the combination with Motorola is an extremely important step in Google’s continuing evolution” said Page. Android is used in nearly half of all smartphones and many major companies have gone to the courts claiming patent infringement.

Mr. Page said that gaining Motorola’s patent portfolio will “help protect Google from anticompetitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.” The acquisition of Mobility is a gamble. Google can now make their phones as good as Apple’s, but if rival manufacturers feel squeezed by Google, they may look for alternatives to the Android operating system.

The sticking point is that Google is the creator, distributor, and guardian of Android. Android is its wildly popular smartphone platform. Google gives away the base code of Android for free, and in return is allowed to install its goods and services on smartphones. Those smartphones, however, are manufactured by some 55 different companies, including Samsung, HTC, Sony Mobile, LG, Asus, and myriad others.

Google's Andy Rubin has said earlier this year that Google will institute a "firewall' between its Android and Motorola teams so there is no conflict of interest when it comes time for Google to provide code to other hardware makers.

Google can't afford to tick off its hardware partners. With 850,000 Android handsets being activated daily around the world, it risks a huge opportunity if the ecosystem collapses. Even if Google can make its own Android smartphones via Motorola, it could never make up for the losses that would occur if other OEMs gave up on Android.

Therefore it seems more likely that Google may decide to collapse the Motorola mobile brand business so as not to directly compete with their hardware partners. If however it decides to continue the business, then there’s every likelihood of a sharp drop in their hold within the mobile and Tab sector in the near future, due to customer/market apathy. However, it’s hard to imagine the end of hello-Moto!

Acer confirms Android 4.0 for A500 and A100

Acer has confirmed the release date for Android 4.0 on the Iconia Tab A500 and A100 tablets, with the pair of slates in line to get Ice Cream Sandwich on April 27. The US A100 update on the 27th will be previewed in Latin America two days earlier, and then be pushed out to Canadian users on May 3; all three locations will get the A500 ICS upgrade on the same day.

Both slates are nearly identical inside, each using NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 dualcore chipset paired with 1GB of RAM. The A100 has a 1024 x 600 7-inch display, however, while the A500 uses a larger, 10.1-inch 1280 x 800 panel.

Based on previous experience – such as with Acer’s own Iconia Tab A200, which received the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade earlier this year - that combination of hardware should be comfortable running Android 4.0, even with Acer’s modifications to the UI. It’s worth noting that Acer has “no update planned” for the Iconia Tab A501, however.

Ice Cream Sandwich brings with it faster performance and a tweaked UI, along with features like Face Unlock. Acer’s mods, meanwhile, include the Acer Ring shortcut wheel, putting apps, web favorites, screenshot captures and social networking uploads front and center, along with app shortcuts on the lock screen.

Arriving with the claim of being the first from the company to house a 1.3GHz NVIDIA Tegra 3 quad core chip, it also brings in the taste of Ice Cream Sandwich for Android loyalists. Replete with an Olympics based theme, the slab dons a 10.1-inch HD multi-touch display proffering resolutions of 1280 x 800p.

The rear panel incorporates a 5MP camera with AF, and there is even a front-facing 1MP HD snapper onboard. Besides the 32GB internal storage capacity, it is supported by 1GB DDR2 memory and the chassis also sports a microSD card slot. According to Engadget, the slab arrives with options of a black or a white bezel that potential users can select from.

A peek underneath the hood reveals the presence of a 9800mAh rechargeable lithium-ion polymer battery which apparently breathes life into the device for up to 12 hours of video playback. This Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR enabled slate features a microUSB 2.0 port and a micro HDMI out for enhanced connectivity. It being preloaded with Kindle, Netflix and Google Music apps is something that many entertainment buffs may approve of. The device also extends support to Adobe Flash 11 while tagging along Polaris Office 3.5 for ardent photographers on the move. The Acer Iconia Tab A510 price is stamped at N80,000.

. "Investment portfolios generating low income returns, combined with the soft P&C market, have provided the impetus for many companies to look more closely at their sources of hazard losses over their entire area of geographic coverage."

According to CoreLogic's study of the 10 states with the highest number of tornado touchdowns between 1980 and 2009, only three tornadoes actually fell within what is traditionally considered "Tornado Alley." Further, tornado risk extends across most of the eastern half of the U.S., with some 26 states facing extreme tornado risk at least in part.

"The Joplin, Mo., tornado and the 'Super Outbreak' of last spring focused renewed attention on hail and tornado risk, and the Alabama tornadoes this year are representative of the tornado risk beyond tornado alley that has many insurance companies evaluating their current risk assessment of damaging winds loss potential," Botts says. "Many major companies have significant initiatives well underway that should result in underwriting changes, new product development and targeted marketing initiatives in 2012."

Better insight into tornado risk can help insurers plan for the events, which are difficult to forecast and come with a lot of unknowns, according to Douglas Nadeau, a spokesman for State Farm (Bloomington, Ill.; $1 billion in 2011 net income.) "State Farm continually analyzes the effects of severe weather events, including the tornados of the past few years, to determine if there is any influence on our historical claims data," he says. "The State Farm Catastrophe Team has the advantage of a fleet of mobile claim handling facilities specially designed to … provide optimal customer service even under challenging conditions."

Tornadoes aren't the only natural disaster for which insurers must be prepared this year; wildfires also present a very real risk, says CoreLogic's Botts. "Last year was a very wet, cool year in California," he notes. "With the weather pattern switching from La Nina to El Nino, there's real fear of wildfire in California, and companies are revisiting their exposure there."

Lamont Norman, a wildfire science modeling expert at Pitney Bowes Software (Stamford, Conn.), agrees that there is an increased risk of fire this year due to weather patterns, but he also notes that there is much more property at risk. "If you look at the number, 80 to 100 million properties are at risk of fire," Norman says. "And there's more than structural loss in danger. Traditional home properties are an attention grabber, but there are other types of properties, such as ranches."

Pitney Bowes has updated its Fire Risk Pro product to help insurers more accurately price property that is potentially in the path of wildfire, Norman reports. "We were seeing insurers back away from underwriting properties that were in those areas," he says. "But we feel our model will allow them to underwrite at a more profitable rate."