Last night’s (March 8, 2012) IT News Africa Innovation Dinner has been hailed as another huge success. With the focus on cloud computing, IBM’s Werner Lindemann presented a thoughtful talk on cloud adoption and highlighted the features of IBM’s Smart Cloud.
Chaired by Google’s Head of New Products and Solutions for Sub-Saharan Africa, Brett St Clair, the event was held at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton, Johannesburg. The dinner also played host to Werksman Director Tammy Bortz, whose presentation focused on legal and legislative issues surrounding cloud computing.
On the subject of data protection, Bortz reminded enterprises to secure their data. “It is negligent to not have protection of data. The cloud works and it features fantastic security for companies. The main thing users can do when confronted with security issues, is to ask questions, be aware and have knowledge,” she said.
Discussing the matter of PPI ( Protection of Personal Information Bill) with the delegates, she urged companies to take the necessary steps to implement legislation. “The South African market is not ready to comply, but the reality is unavoidable. There are many practical ways to be ready for legislation.”
During the evening, discussions turned towards cross-border data and its implications. “The end user does not know where the data sits, but companies can select which jurisdiction their data falls under,” Bortz added.
Symantec’s African Regional Director Gordon Love added several interesting facts about email and spam to close off the evening’s discussions. “We backup around 50% of the world’s data and we are the second fastest adopted company. We also run the biggest public cloud infrastructure with about 90 petabytes.”
“Scale is a big key in the cloud. 67% of email is spam and in terms of the global email phising rate, there was a period last year when South Africa was ranked first for four months. Another shocking fact is that in February, 1 in 260 emails in South Africa was spam,” Love said.
After speakers touched on their respective topics, the dinner turned towards a panel discussion that focussed on data privacy and security in the cloud.
For more information on the Innovation Dinner, click here.
Follow dinner discussions on Twitter- #iDinner
Charlie Fripp – Online editor
