Data Sciences Corporation, which positions itself as a leading systems integrator and provider of data-driven technologies, announces today that it forges a new partnership with GigaSpaces Technologies, a global pioneer in the in-memory computing domain. The company’s flagship product is Smart DIH – an out-of-the-box solution that powers real-time modern applications, ensuring they run on fresh data, while simplifying and speeding up the development cycles of new digital services.

As part of this partnership, Data Sciences will have the opportunity to introduce enterprises across South Africa to cutting-edge digital transformation technology based on DIH architecture.

Companies today rely on multiple systems to store their data, each with its own configuration and data flows to front-end applications. Smart DIH breaks down these data silos by replicating all the organisation’s data into a unified data layer that is highly accessible and always available to front-end applications. This enables organisations to provide their customers and internal stakeholders with always-on services based on fresh data – even when specific systems are temporarily down.

“The main reason that guided us in partnering with GigaSpaces was not just their unique technology, but also the significant business impact that this solution can have on enterprises and organisations, particularly in speeding up their digital transformation,” says Adrian Wood, Director at Data Sciences. “Simply put, this technology helps businesses make the most out of their data, turning them into digital-first, data-driven enterprises.”

“We see the partnership with Data Sciences as a strategic growth engine for us in this region,” says Adi Paz, GigaSpaces CEO. “While we have a strong customer base in the US and all over Europe, we have a lot of room to grow in South Africa. It’s a market with huge potential for us, specifically in the banking and retail sectors.”

Residing at the intersection of data and application integration, Smart DIH consolidates data from multiple heterogeneous systems into a highly performant data layer. Low-code tools empower data professionals to deliver data micro-services in hours rather than days, shortening developing cycles and ensuring data consistency across all digital channels.

Data Sciences Corporation celebrates 10 years of offering a wide range of services, from storage and backup appliances to artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Its winning strategy over the past 10 years was to stay relevant to its valued enterprise customers by growing its core products and expanding into new technology offerings, as and when the market was ready.

With a consultative approach, it has maintained a good standing with its customers, always aiming to tailor solutions to specific needs. Reflecting on the successes achieved over the past 10 years, the company’s ability to build close partnerships with its vendors also stands out as a highlight. Data Sciences Corporation is very proud to be recognised by its vendors as representing the highest tier of partnership available, and often referred to as their “extension” in the market. A major differentiator for Data Sciences Corporation is its ability to service the technology it sells and provide its customers with a single engagement point.

Although the core business lies in the data centre infrastructure, Data Sciences Corporation has, over the past few years, invested time and money to identify and adopt next-generation technology. With its commitment to remain always forward-looking and expanding into new markets, Data Sciences Corporation excels at translating value to its existing and future customer-base. For example, its partnership with NVIDIA and the investment into AI technologies will be a strong focus for the business going forward, embracing the new wave of technology.

Data Sciences Corporation has also developed a unique Multi-Cloud Platform-as-a-Service, offering cloud-native solutions, using modern models that provide unmatched flexibility, scalability and reliability, resulting in improved uptime and security.

The company believes it is through this ability to provide unique, relevant and value-adding technologies and solutions that help solve customers’ challenges that gives Data Sciences Corporation the edge to solve customers’ complex needs.

With growth and expansion in mind, Jean Coetzee has been appointed as Data Sciences Corporation’s Group Executive for Enterprise Development. He is responsible for developing and executing strategies that increase revenue, expand their customer base and develop new business opportunities.

On sharing his vision, Coetzee said: “My chosen approach is to have a customer-advocate mindset, meaning that one must stay in tune with the customers you have or would like to have. With this outlook and through cross-functional collaboration within the business, as well as an understanding of the market dynamics, I will develop strategies and ultimately execute on the kind of experiences we would like to create.”

Coetzee has close to 30 years of ICT experience, encompassing various senior roles. He has proven expertise in managing and leading teams and businesses. In his previous role, he was responsible for growth at Teraco.

Coetzee is an MBA graduate from the Unisa School for Business Leaders, with a dissertation focus on business-to-business relationship marketing, along with several other qualifications, such as Digital Strategies for Business at Columbia Business School.

“We are very excited about Jean joining the team and look forward to the next 10 years of collaborating with our current and future customers and providing unique and relevant technologies that solve their challenges,” says Gerard Almon, MD of Data Sciences Corporation. 

Our roots stretch back to the ethos of a now-forgotten giant of the 1980s, Persetel, an indomitable entity in the mainframe arena. Leveraging Hitachi mainframe and storage technology, Persetel made its mark against giants like IBM and Amdhal, providing state-of-the-art technology at competitive prices underlined by top-tier service.

As the 1990s approached, the tide began to turn from mainframe to open systems technology in enterprise data centres. This shift led to the merger of Persetel and Q Data to form Persetel Q Data Holdings (PQ Holdings), redirecting focus towards open systems and severing ties with Hitachi. An opportunity was found amid change, and the former Hitachi team set forth to promote new storage array technology in South Africa.

In 2000, Shoden Data Systems launched with Hitachi’s backing, introducing the revolutionary Hitachi Lightning Storage to the South African market. As an underdog, the team demonstrated innovation and unmatched service, eventually building a significant business. Shoden’s success attracted global attention, leading to its acquisition by Hitachi Data Systems in 2012.

Disagreements with corporate strategies and emerging disruptive technologies paved the way for core team members to establish Data Sciences Corporation in August 2013. With aspirations to build a business centred on people, we sought to continue the legacy of innovation and world-class service.

“Our careful selection of technology partners, such as Pure Storage and NEC, has been vital to our success, propelling us to new heights,” says Adrian Wood, Business Operations Director, Data Sciences Corporation.

These partnerships have earned us several awards and a reputation as an “extension” of our vendors in the market.

Throughout our 10-year journey, staying relevant to our enterprise customers and building trust one client at a time has been a cornerstone of our success. We are proud to have a robust base of sought-after brands nationwide.

In South Africa’s challenging and sometimes overcrowded technology market, differentiation through next-generation technology that adds real business value has been the underpinning principle of our growth and continued competitiveness.

As we look forward to the next five to 10 years, the original strategies and core values will remain central to our success. Our investments in areas such as AI and our partnership with NVIDIA have positioned us to embrace the next wave of technology.

“We close this reflection amazed and grateful for the success we have achieved as Data Sciences in South Africa,” says Wood. Our achievements are a testament to our commitment to service excellence, the unwavering support from our partners and the trust our customers have placed in us. The future is bright and we remain dedicated to providing innovative solutions and exceptional service in the years to come.

If you’re fortunate enough to work in the field of Information Technology (IT), congratulations! You are part of one of the most popular and rapidly expanding industries in the technology sector. 

As an IT professional, you are part of an elite group. You are at the forefront of innovation, change, and progress. You are helping to shape the future of our digital world.

However, let’s be honest and acknowledge the truth that lies beneath the surface. This industry, while exciting and rewarding, can also be demanding, stressful, and intimidating, particularly for those who are just starting out. 

The challenges can sometimes feel overwhelming, and it’s easy to lose your sense of humor and sanity along the way. This guide will provide you with tips, tricks and strategies to help you manage Enterprise IT. It will help you to keep your sanity and sense of humour.

Enterprise IT engineering presents a unique set of challenges that can make problem-solving feel like a daunting task. It can be daunting to approach problems of great magnitude. However, it is important to do so with an attitude of curiosity, enthusiasm, and awe. Embrace your inner detective as you dive deep into the data, cracking the code and unraveling its mysteries.

A mindset that values the journey and progress is beneficial. It can increase problem-solving abilities and make the process more enjoyable. Expecting immediate solutions will not have the same effect. Remember, every byte of information brings you closer to the solution, so savor each step along the way.

In the fast-paced world of enterprise IT, knowledge and technology evolve rapidly. It’s essential to embrace a mindset of continuous learning to stay ahead of the curve. Embrace the opportunity to enhance your skills and expand your knowledge base.

Seek out relevant resources such as online courses, webinars, and industry publications to keep up with the latest trends and advancements. Engage in networking and knowledge-sharing activities, both within your organization and in professional communities. 

By immersing yourself in a culture of learning, you’ll not only enhance your problem-solving abilities but also build a solid foundation for your professional growth.

While individual brilliance is important, success in enterprise IT often relies on effective collaboration. Don’t hesitate to reach out to your colleagues, mentors, or subject matter experts for guidance and support. Tap into the collective intelligence and diverse perspectives within your organization to tackle complex problems more efficiently.

Collaboration not only allows for the exchange of ideas and knowledge but also fosters a sense of teamwork. Embrace the power of collaboration by participating in team projects, attending brainstorming sessions, and leveraging collaborative tools and platforms. Together, you can overcome any challenge that comes your way.

The tech industry is filled with jargon that might be hard to understand if you don’t work in the field. And if you’ve spent any time listening to tech nerds get going, you know the many hilarious acronyms that IT professionals have coined over the years. Case in point:

• • PICNIC — Problem in Chair, Not in Computer
  • PEBCAK — Problem Exists Between Chair and Keyboard (a personal favourite of mine)
  • RTFM — Read the “freaking” manual

However, that’s no reason to stop there. There are specific acronyms in the tech industry whose meanings are unclear or whose abbreviations don’t correspond with the actual technologies they represent. In an effort to rectify this situation (and because it was funny to do so), we found some common IT acronyms to better represent their actual meanings.

• • BBS — Bizarre Beeping Sounds
  • BSOD — Bummer. Serious OS Disaster
  • COBOL — Crazy Old But Operational Language
  • DHCP — Disconnection Headaches Causing Problems
  • DSL — Decidedly Slow Link 
  • HTTP — Head To This Page
  • HTML — Hieroglyphics, To Machines Legible
  • JPEG — Just Pretty Electronic Graphics
  • MTBF — My Thing’s Breakdown Forthcoming
  • MS-DOS — My Starter “Down-Memory-Lane” Operating System
  • SSD — Super Speedy Disks … or if you have a small budget, Spend Some Dollars
  • WWW — Wealth of Weird Websites

sData Science is a high-stress field, and it’s easy to become bogged down in the seriousness of it all. However, it’s essential to remember not to take yourself or the situation too seriously. 

Mistakes and challenges are inevitable, and it’s far more productive to approach them with a sense of humor and fun. Laughing at yourself can help you gain perspective and make the task seem less overwhelming and daunting. Here is a funny story to help you laugh at the exciting world of IT:

My computer is not yours

Me: XYZ technical support, how may I assist you?

User: I have some difficulty in locating some files on my computer, it seems I am not able to open any files

Me: Sir, could you please check whether you are able to get the Desktop screen.

User: Yes, now what?

Me: Can you open My Computer?

User: How can I open your computer?

The field of enterprise IT engineering, encompassing data visualisations, technology companies, and analysing data, is a dynamic and ever-evolving landscape. As professionals in this field, we bridge the gap between computer science and business needs, driving innovation and progress within tech companies. 

While the challenges we face can be immense, it’s crucial to approach them with a sense of humour and embrace different types of humour. This not only helps maintain our sanity but also fosters a positive and creative work environment. By combining our technical expertise with a lighthearted approach, we can unlock new possibilities and make significant contributions to the data-driven world of enterprise IT.

Almost overnight, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated businesses into the future of work. Employers were forced to figure out how to allow workers to work remotely from anywhere at any time.

Based on experience and the benefit of hindsight, the new work model of the future will likely be a hybrid that combines the best aspects of both worlds. With the benefit of hindsight, everyone can take a step back and investigate this new future a little more thoroughly from a global standpoint. 

Many professionals experienced the freedom that remote work can provide as a result of the pandemic. Employee connection and co-operation, higher productivity, increased flexibility and possibilities for learning and growth are some of the advantages of hybrid work. Many organisations have grown to appreciate the benefits of remote work while maintaining a solid commitment to in-office collaboration and culture creation.

Businesses had to build a digital workplace that functions like a machine; to do this, they needed the appropriate tools, like Nakivo Backup & Replication, which prevents unauthorised security breaches.

Tamia Eckersley, Junior Product Manager at Data Sciences, said: “With Nakivo Backup & Replication, you can reliably protect your virtual, physical, cloud and SaaS environments, ensure the consistency of application data, increase backup performance and reduce backup size.”

There are many ways to accomplish this; for example, Nakivo supports the following backup types.

• Microsoft 365 Backup: Creates incremental backups of Microsoft 365 data in Exchange Online, Teams, OneDrive for Business and SharePoint Online, which can help save space, time and money, all while ensuring the desired level of data protection.
• Backup to cloud: This backup service primarily ensures data recovery during a DR event. It sends backups to public clouds like Amazon S3, Wasabi, Backblaze B2 and Azure Blob Storage.
• Global deduplication: Deduplicate backups across the entire backup repository, regardless of the platform.

You can also quickly restore virtual machines (VMs), files and application objects from backups using Nakivo Backup & Replication by doing the following:

• Instant physical to virtual (P2V): Instantly recover physical machines from backups as VMware vSphere VMs.
• File share recovery: Recover entire file shares and specific files/folders inside shares to a custom location on SMB/NFS shares, send via e-mail or download to a browser.
• Universal object recovery: Recover individual objects by choosing a recovery point and mounting VM disks from the backup directly to another machine.

Not only that, but Nakivo also includes integrated site recovery functionality that allows you to manage disaster recovery and perform VM replication. Site recovery creates a disaster recovery workflow that ensures business continuity and availability.

Last but not least, Nakivo uses tools like native change tracking to detect changes without reading the entire source data, create faster incremental backups and throttle backup data transfers by configuring global or per-job bandwidth rules, particularly during working hours. These features can reduce network load by as much as 50% while doubling backup, replication and recovery speeds.

Matthew Odgers once said: “The sole reason we are in business is to make life less difficult for our clients.” And that is precisely what we have been doing for the past 10 years at Data Sciences Corporation.

If you would like us to help you backup, replicate, instant restore, recover and monitor in a single pane of glass, then what are you waiting for? Contact us now.

Digital twins feel thoroughly futuristic. The concept conjures virtual copies of advanced aircraft engines, cutting-edge manufacturing plants or tomorrow’s smart cities.

The digital twin is a living and evolving copy of tangible assets. Yet thanks to advances in the underlying technologies and more accessible computing resources, we can apply digital twins to a wider range of use cases, such as managing IT estates.

The sprawling and complicated layers of today’s physical technology infrastructure are a perfect opportunity for digital twins to show what they can deliver today.

“Every IT manager wishes they had a crystal ball,” says Werner Coetzee, Business Development Executive at Data Sciences Corporation. “IT systems are complicated, with a lot of variables. You can monitor things in real-time, have historic reports and pull all those things together. But it’s very, very difficult to spread that across multiple technologies and get cohesiveness. Digital twins work very well for such complex environments.”

Digital twins are helping IT teams understand the sprawling architecture that power today’s technological world, such as servers, networks and their appliances.

This idea has gained significant traction in the cyber security world. As companies started using digital twins to model systems such as server farms and cloud implementations, security teams are using these simulations to test security changes. While we visualise a digital twin as a copy of a specific piece of equipment, it can represent more sprawling assets, such as networks, servers and even cloud deployments.

At the entry level, digital twins are handy for monitoring and they are starting to prove themselves for more complex uses, says Coetzee: “Teams already document much of an estate, but that ends up in spreadsheets and manuals. Digital twins are becoming the living, breathing version of that process that can mature to do even more. They are helping IT teams with preventative measures; not just maintenance, but also security, efficiencies and such.”

It can be relatively easy to copy software environments for testing purposes. But duplicating hardware estates is an entirely different matter – a long-standing problem for IT managers and architects. Digital twins offer a solution, and the standard modern enterprise already has several foundation blocks to create virtual copies of their physical systems.

A digital twin for IT estates is not an obscure idea, so why don’t we hear more about it? Blame the hype behind digital twins, which sound very futuristic and unattainable to most enterprises. But we have it wrong, says Coetzee: “There’s the preconception that a digital twin is only a digital twin once it’s fully autonomous, running simulations and feeding data back into the system, giving us predictable areas and stuff like that. That is the future goal, but that isn’t where they start. There are several maturity stages for digital twins.”

Level one is a descriptive representation of the asset, such as a network. Companies already have performance and schematic data for such assets, which a level one digital twin brings together in a visual representation. Level two is more informative, adding sensory and operational data to establish an evolving copy of the asset in real-time. Level three starts to deliver predictive qualities and insights, and level four is the final stage of high-level automation and what some dub the “frictionless enterprise”.

Many large organisations have the capacity to realise stages one and two, says Coetzee: “They might actually already be utilising some form of digital twin concept within their organisation, especially in the IT field. They can get the fundamentals in place and then start maturing those levels so that those insights can become a more fundamental part of organisational decision-making.”

Where should companies start this process? Digital twins require some infrastructure and skills investments. Coetzee cautions against a big bang approach. They should focus on specific use cases where they can clearly define the value they expect.

Digital twins can deliver fantastic value through clarity and reduced risk, but “before you make any investment, really understand the reason why you’re doing this and the type of value that you want to show the organisation. It could be a system, processes, specific assets. All that is possible.”

When we hear about digital twins, we think of large industrial plants or maintaining heavy machinery. Yet they are incredibly well-suited to grasp, study and test the challenges and opportunities of a complex IT environment – and enterprises already have the data to make their first moves towards this capability.

TFG (The Foschini Group), the leading specialty retail group in South Africa with 34 brands and more than 3000 retail stores, had 110TB of data contained on a hybrid cloud storage solution that was at end-of-life (EOL). The company had initially chosen the infrastructure to meet various application performance and capacity requirements since it was capable of caching locally the most in-demand data for superior performance metrics, whilst also allowing its considerable backup and archival data to reside in the cloud. 

When it came time to replace this EOL solution, TFG decided to repatriate all its data locally, to a Pure Storage on-premise all-flash array. Since all the data contained on its previous infrastructure was available locally on-demand, the migration project was initially attempted using an enterprise file-based migration tool. Unfortunately, the migration services team soon ran into permissions issues, trouble with open files, as well as interruptions during the copying of large files over to the new storage. These issues created a string of roadblocks that prevented TFG from completing the migration. 

After struggling with the file-based migration tool, the team decided to change its approach. The business and its storage services partner, Data Sciences Corporation (an existing Cirrus Data solutions partner), determined that with the EOL date rapidly approaching, they needed to work with a data mobility expert that could streamline the migration. 

TFG, through their partnership with Data Sciences, selected Cirrus Data Solutions to help make the migration to Pure Storage successful without extending the current infrastructure beyond its EOL date. Together, they decided that a block-based migration was the best solution to move the underlying raw data wholesale, whilst preserving all permission structures. Cirrus Migrate Cloud (CMC) proved ideal for this scenario, since it didn’t require an onsite appliance. 

To demonstrate how Cirrus Migrate Cloud could efficiently move TFG’s critical block data without problems or significant downtime, Cirrus Data completed a proof-of-concept with Data Sciences to show how effective it was to move a current volume to its new local storage with no appliances or switch-based SAN insertion needed. 

Data Sciences features a team of highly qualified storage engineers who were trained to use CMC, and Cirrus Data Professional Services worked hand-in-hand with them to expediate migration of the retail giant’s data to its new Pure Storage array. 

During the course of the migration, Cirrus Data’s data mobility experts and storage engineers worked with Data Sciences to identify and resolve the issues related to the hybrid cloud solution, with Data Sciences making sure the customer was alerted to any issue, however minor. Although the project took longer than initially projected, the customer was impressed by Cirrus Data’s investigative team and even sent a special thank you via email once the migration project had completed. 

Very few data migration projects are perfect, but when your company’s data is at stake, you always want to have the right team behind you to make sure nothing is lost, that there is no unnecessary downtime, and that any unforseen issues are resolved quickly.

Cirrus Data has published a number of thought pieces on our website in the Blog and White Papers sections discussing the hidden challenges of data migration. Even companies that believe they know everything there is to know about their own SAN infrastructure frequently encounter unexpected snags when attempting to move their company’s data to newly purchased local storage or to the cloud.

Our storage experts have pretty much seen it all – storage with failing controllers and no support contract in place, vendors that have gone out of business whilst leaving their customers to fend for themselves, or even SAN environments that have flaky or missing paths that were previously not detected. No matter the challenge, Cirrus Data brings decades of storage expertise to even the thorniest of migration projects, and the one detailed here is no exception. 

CHALLENGES

• Hybrid cloud infrastructure contained data in different locations; hot data on local SSD, colder / less frequently accessed data on local HDD, and archival + backup data in the cloud
• Hybrid cloud solution had reached end-of-life and needed to be removed
• Previous (pre-Cirrus Data) attempt at migrating data using enterprise file migration tools had not been successful, with various issues encountered

SOLUTION

• Cirrus Migrate Cloud (CMC) provides block-level migration, preserving all file-level permissions
• CMC’s Host-based deployment is agnostic to local or remote data – as long as the client host can access the block data, it can be migrated
• cMotion allows immediate cutover to new storage if desired

RESULTS

• Cirrus Data conducted successful proof-of-concept on a TFG volume
• Cirrus Data Partner, Data Sciences, migrated data successfully onto new Pure Storage array
• Cirrus Data worked to resolve non-CMC storage issues as needed
• TFG gave the Cirrus Migrate Cloud solution and Cirrus Data high marks and sent follow-up emails praising Cirrus Data’s support team