Africa’s internet use sees 2 000% growth

Growth of internet use in Africa has gone beyond that of the global average in the last decade, reaching 2000 percent growth, compared to 480 percent growth globally.

Internet in Africa has grown at an incredible speed (image: Patrick Hajzler)

This significant growth is partly as a result of the increased capacity provided by new ICT infrastructure on the continent, including improved fiber-optic connectivity and increased accessibility to computers and mobile phones.

Internet penetration on the continent remains lower than that of the developed world however. South Africa, Ghana and Egypt experienced the most growth, according to Frost & Sullivan ICT analyst Birgitta Cederstrom.

“With the new undersea cables and terrestrial fiber roll-out, as well as the satellite influx across Africa, we expect to see close to double-digits in terms of growth in the more mature markets over the next two to three years,” she said.

Data service prices in Africa are set to drop in the coming year as well. In the next two to three years, the use of data services is expected to grow by as much as 60 percent.

Sarah Sheffer

Anonymous to shut down the internet..Can they really

Anonymous, the leaderless hacking collective, has vowed to effectively shut down the entire internet on 31 March.

The logo of hacker collective Anonymous (image: Forbes)

The group, which has been credited for bringing down sites such as HBGary, Amazon and Sony’s PlayStation Network, said they would attempt the shutdown to highlight the problems facing the internet, and to “protest SOPA (The Stop Online Piracy Act), Wall Street, our irresponsible leaders and the beloved bankers who are starving the world for their own selfish needs out of sheer sadistic fun”.

Anonymous communicates through Pastebin, and in the latest entry they detailed exactly how they will achieve their goal. The initiative is called Operation Global Blackout, and will be done by shutting down the “13 root DNS servers of the Internet”.

The group claims that it will attempt to prevent users of the net from performing domain name searches (entering any URL or doing a Google search), causing an error screen. “By cutting these off the Internet, nobody will be able to perform a domain name lookup, thus, disabling the HTTP Internet, which is, after all, the most widely used function of the Web.”

Although they will attack the entire internet, the group isn’t sure how long it will last. “It may only last one hour, maybe more, maybe even a few days. No matter what, it will be global. It will be known.”

Charlie Fripp – Online editor

For further assistance please contact enquiry@artcosolutions.com or artcosolution.com

Is your organisation better prepared?

 2010 saw major earthquakes strike Haiti, Chile, China and Indonesia. It saw devastating floods in Pakistan and Australia. 2011 have brought out the opposite of resilience in people and organisation, confronted by the most extreme challenges. With flood events in Lagos, Australia, Brazil, the earthquakes in turkey, New Zealand, the tsunami in Japan, civil unrests in London, Greece, Spain, Italy, and the Arab spring of 2011, which ousted regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya and created fuelled growing opposition to regimes in Syria, Yemen, Bahrain and other middle eastern states. These are very real recovery challenges that face organisations and you.  According to the Lloyd’s of London’s risk index 2011, 2011 was the second most expensive year ever for the insurance industry because of these incidents. 

In addition, while many of types of risk may be industry or regional specific, cyber risk is universal. 2011 saw the hacking of state network from India to Brazil to Nigeria. For businesses, the incident and frequency of data breaches have been even more unrelenting; Nintendo, Honda, Toshiba, Playstation, Nokia, Google, IMF, Wiki-leak and the Hong Kong stock exchange are victims of some form of cyber crime or hacking. A global estimate of cyber crime is now costing business around $114bn annually. Technical solutions are needed to evolve rapidly, together with more efficient reporting of breaches to help quantify the risk more accurately. 

By reflecting on disaster in terms of the need for strong, visible and distributes leadership, differentiated response, recovery and effective communication, organisations can achieve better outcomes with BCM, and reliably meet their obligations to regulators, boards and stakeholders. Since the true measure of a BCM plan is the success of it after an incident, organisations should apply the good practice approach which provides a baseline and common language to help BCM professionals to perform a rigorous Business Impact Analysis Assessment (BIA). The BIA is the foundation on which the whole BCM is built. It can be used to understand the impact of the failure to deliver a service or a product. The BIA identifies business activities across the organisation, identifies management owners of processes, identifies suitable staff, quantifies time scale and collects data for the Continuity Requirements Analysis (CRA). The good practice dictates that a BIA should be reviewed as a minimum annually but frequently in the event of business change, change to internal and external business process and significant change to risk and threats. Furthermore organisations must focus on robust BCM frame works strategies, resource allocation supporting continuity plans which objectively ‘fit for purpose’, practical and periodically tested and rehearsed.

After the unfolding events of the last two years, businesses need to give much greater priority to BCM planning carefully for those risks they cannot prevent, as well as being realistic about those they can. Organisations must determine its BCM strategy by using information gathered from the BIA, CRA and risk and threat assessment. Whatever strategy an organisation selects it has to ensure that it meets the target time for resuming the delivery of its products and services following its disruption. One strategy could be ‘balancing cost and speed of recovery’. In this strategy, there is always a trade off between cost and speed of recovery which needs to be balanced when selecting a strategy. So shorter recovery time objectives = higher cost and vice versa. Another strategy worth considering and is quite popular is ‘separation distance and the concept of “off site” it’s basically replicating operations in a different location. It reduces the likelihood of two sites being affected by the same incident except in cases like pandemics and cyber attacks.  Artco Solutions will also recommend a centralised access to data, emergency communications, emergency plans and key documents so senior management and employee have what they need when they need it.

As we have read, more than ever, businesses need effective BCM plans in place to protect their plants, infrastructure, property, staff, and supply chains from the fall of natural, political, social and economic threats.  

For further assistance please contact enquiry@artcosolutions.com

South Africa: top 10 business continuity issues for 2012

What are the risks that South African companies and their boards should be factoring into their planning for 2012? ContinuitySA has identified what it believes are the top issues facing business in 2012 that are likely to impact on business continuity strategies:

1. Socio-economic challenges ratchet up a notch
Last year, it seemed as though we might be coming out the recession, but now the talk is all about the dreaded double dip. Economic hardship is exacerbating social and political tensions, especially as retrenchments swell the hordes of unemployed. Too many people without work or the prospect of it places a huge burden on the state, provides the climate for crime and is likely to fuel tension between the haves and the have-nots.

2. Government performance and service delivery still lag behind expectation
Ongoing service delivery and corruption issues have continued to fuel widespread social unrest. Some commentators are even talking about popular uprisings comparable to those that occurred earlier in the year in North Africa. Instability in the ruling party continues to unsettle political and social life, and this will only get worse as the ANC’s leadership conference approaches. Meanwhile — no doubt fuelled in part by the economic problems mentioned above — strikes and social protests seem to be getting more prevalent.
For business, one direct consequence is frequent work stoppages, with staff actually finding it hard to get to their places of work.
“It seems that South Africa is coming to a crossroads again, faced with the choice between the high and low roads,” says Michael Davies, ContinuitySA’s managing director. “We have to have confidence that our leadership will make the right choices but, meanwhile, prudence demands a renewed focus on safety measures, including proper business continuity plans.”

3. National infrastructure remains weak—and the middle class is feeling the pinch
While Eskom contrived to come through a very cold winter with relatively few blackouts, concern remains high as summer is the time for planned maintenance. Another concern is the availability of skills to maintain the aging infrastructure at Koeberg, and to operate planned new nuclear power facilities. On the positive side, recent moves to introduce independent power generation and green power into the South African energy market are welcome.
That said, there are worrying reports that lack of additional energy capacity at present is affecting the ability of some data centres to expand.
Other infrastructural challenges include the new toll roads around Gauteng and the new national health insurance system. While both are desirable, they are placing additional financial burdens on the middle class—i.e. the small tax base on which everything rests. Is the middle class coming close to feeling as squeezed as the poor and unemployed and, if so, how will it make its distress known?

4. Water remains a concern
Water security remains a problem in this country, exacerbated by the pollution of our existing water stocks.
Although the government finally woke up to the problem of acid mine drainage and made R400 million available, media reports indicate that little action has actually occurred. If substantial progress is not made in finding a solution, the acid water is expected to begin decanting into the Johannesburg basin in March 2012—it is already decanting on the West Rand. Companies with IT equipment in basements need to remain on high alert.

5. Worsening business climate
The risks mentioned elsewhere will continue to weigh on risk-averse foreign investors, while the volatility of the rand will encourage destabilising capital movements. The socio-political challenges we have mentioned are also taking their toll on the outlook of local business. With the business confidence index declining, investment in equipment and people will be curtailed at a time when they are more necessary than ever. Militant unions and demands for increases that are significantly above inflation are further worsening the business outlook.
With revenues under pressure, many companies will be tempted to skimp on business continuity but this approach is short-sighted.

6. Regulatory burdens and responsibilities increase
Promulgated during 2011, the new Companies Act has made the directors of companies personally liable for the outcome of their decisions. The legislation is new and untested, making compliance even more risky than it might otherwise have been.
In combination with the recommendations of the King Commission, the new act has made risk management a much more important item on the board agenda—and this includes IT risk.
Boards are increasingly accountable to all stakeholders rather than just shareholders. In this regard, environmental issues are becoming more prominent, which may add impetus to the move towards cloud computing, which has the effect of greening the IT department.

7. The sting in the supply chain tail
Recent natural disasters like the volcanic eruption in Iceland and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan have emphasised the flipside of global interconnectedness. In order to ensure business continuity, companies must increasingly consider their entire supply chains. Adequate consulting around the business continuity threats originating outside of the organization is imperative.

8. Cloud computing blurs vision
As predicted, 2011 saw considerable movement in cloud computing. While it’s clear that cloud computing has real benefits, non-specialist public cloud offerings should not be confused with specialist business continuity, which is also making use of cloud-based approaches.
“The need to have absolute quality assurance and security in terms of your business continuity remains, especially in light of boards’ enhanced accountability,” Davies notes. “On the other hand, the greater availability of bandwidth and improvements in technology are changing the model.”

9. Mobility is creating huge new data risks
The growing range of smart mobile devices, and the explosion in useful applications, has made mobility a fact of life. At the same time, there is growing awareness of the value of a company’s data, hence the emergence of ‘data as a platform’. Securing and backing up the corporate data on mobile devices usually owned by employees rather than companies is raising CIOs’ temperatures worldwide.

10. Business continuity is still not integrated into corporate strategy
Given the scale and magnitude of the challenges business faces, the danger remains that business continuity is marginalised and siloed. In many instances, financial pressures are causing companies to cut back on business continuity. For example, banks which have retrenched large numbers of people now have excess office space which they tend to use to provide their own workplace recovery—and this may lead to a business continuity solution that is less than optimal.
A related issue is that the long-term viability of smaller business continuity providers is looking less certain in this climate. We think this will prompt a ‘flight to quality’ in many cases.
As indicated above, the emergence of new opportunities to remodel business continuity using a private cloud approach is a game-changer, offering cost savings, a much more effective product and the opportunity to get a return on your business continuity investment.
www.continuitysa.com

Does BCM exist in Afica?

Business Continuity management (BCM) has become a very important aspect of good corporate governance and has become a part of best practice recommendations in various countries. However, in Africa, BCM is still in its infancy, and is nonexistent in a few African countries.

It is crucial to separate Africa from the rest of the world because the continent has its unique set of challenges that could disrupt business at any time. Think of draught, poor supply chain infrastructure, political instability, bureaucracy and industrial actions. Furthermore, power disruption and pandemics such as HIV/AIDS also have impacts on workers, is a real concern in Africa.

Many organisation leave BCM until a crisis. BCM is simply the ability to maintain operations and services during a disruptive event. It provides a framework for building organisational resilience with the capacity for an effective response that safeguards the interest of key stakeholders, reputation, brand and value creating activities.

Remember the Blackberry outage in October 2011? That is a good example of poor Business Continuity Management. It appears that the most recent service outage will no doubt have a long term impact on Research in Motion (RIM). The poor crisis response contributed to the drop of its Smartphone market share from 19% year earlier to 12% in 2011.

The lack of BCM is not a story about Africa unwilling to follow the rest of the world, but the story of how Africa lacks awareness, leadership and standardisation. Some central banks on the continent are beginning to take matters in their own hands by creating their own BCM guidelines for the banking community in their country. Countries like Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana have all developed a set of standards that can be applied in the African Context.

The next few points will discuss some of the challenges Africa needs to overcome before BCM can become a norm in the private and public sector.

1.     Lack of Skills

There are not enough skilled people to meet the continent’s need. The continent needs to promote and invest more on developing graduates and encourage more professionals to learn about the business discipline.

2.     Awareness

Another challenge Africa is to overcome is the lack of awareness. There is a need for standardisation in the continent that is globally recognised and acceptable. The region as a whole is to be aware of these standards and how important it is to implement effectively.

The successful establishment of BCM has to be embedded in national and organisational cultures by training and education.

3.     Understanding

With awareness comes understanding of what BCM really is. There are some misconceptions of what BCM is. Many managers think BCM is all about backing up data. No, it not just about backing up data in a remote location. It is a holistic process that identifies potential threats to an organisation and the impact to business operations that those threats, if realised, might cause. BCM is critical to ‘Business As Usual’ it is a benchmark for a resilient organisation.

4.     Long term management and maintenance

Even when awareness and understanding is improved through the educational effort of professional BCM companies, the lack of skills limits the effective implementations and maintenance of plans. Consultants often engaged by organisations develop and roll out BCM plans, design an efficient system for them. However the problems occur once the consultants have left. BCM is a continual process that needs to be tested and updated regularly, so training people in BCM skills is crucial for an effective strategy.

5.     Cost

Every company is concerned about costs and Business Continuity can be an expensive affair, especially if solutions are created in-house. In many instances, Business Continuity is put on the backburner simply because of the costs involved in setting up a programme. This is the wrong approach to take. If executives consider the expenses involved in creating their Business Continuity plan and then compare it to the amount of money it would take to recover from a serious disaster without such a plan, they would realise that the initial costs are quite reasonable. The Information Warfare Site states that fires permanently close 44 per cent of businesses affected, while after the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing, 150 businesses out of 350 affected (that did not prepare BCM plans) failed to survive the event.

Finally, business continuity process is a necessary sustainability tool for maintaining successful business operations and securing more Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in Africa.  We have to cultivate the sprit of getting things done, planning for, anticipating and minimising disruptive event. Let us protect our stakeholder.

Considering a BCM plan? Talk to Artcosolutions on enquiry@artcosolutions.com

The principles of Business Continuity Management

 

The constant evolution of today’s corporate environment has prompted many questions on how we plan for business resilience. Changing business dynamics coupled with the current economic climate pose new challenges for business continuity management; while events such as natural and manmade disasters we have witnessed this year push BCM to the fore as organisations seek to protect their continual survival.

Most articles on BCM have highlighted how an effectively structured and implemented continuity plan can serve to protect high-value activities and stakeholder interest. We ignore how BCM has contributed to overall business success and competitive advantage.

Artco solutions aim to offer an insight into what in our opinion are the nine principles of BCM

1.       Strategic orientation

BCM is a strategic initiative. It should be integrated into the corporate strategy planning level. Top management recognition and adoption of this strategic initiate is paramount to achieving organisational excellence. The business continuity manager has a pivotal role in establishing the competitiveness of the business through aligning BCM processes strategies and plans to corporate policy and structure.

2.       Leadership

Proactive business continuity leadership ensures that reputation and business performance are sustained from the moment disruptive event begins. It is important that business continuity is introduced at board level since it enhances the organisation’s long term competitiveness.

3.       Governance

BCM is an important element of an organisation’s overall approach to governance. It provides the impetus for delivering and governing the resilience programme in the organisation and its supply chain. It helps to establish the oversight capabilities required by senior executives to carry out their responsibilities for ensuring that effective management systems, including monitoring and control mechanisms have been out in place to protect assets, earnings capacity and reputation of the organisation.

4.       Good Business Management

The management function is about understanding the business philosophy, strategic objectives, corporate structure and critical operations of an organisation. It challenges corporate assumptions about threats and uncertainties, and facilitates greater certainty in the planning and achievement of long term goals.

5.       Multi disciplinary functions

It involves the skills and knowledge of a diverse group of people in the design, implementation and management of the programme. Management concepts in the field of strategy development, risk and insurance, human resources, quality planning and control, and finance, are all now essential parts of managing the BCM programme. The collective management progress preserves the long term well being of an organisation and its stakeholders, thereby facilitating business excellence. Core competence skills, notably, organisational management, analyse, communication, leadership, coordination, and innovation are the six fundamental managerial competencies of business continuity professionals.

6.       Anticipation

BCM is an active process which helps organisations anticipate threats and perceive the potentially significance implementations they could have for the organisations. This proactive sensing mechanism helps to remove the potential risk systems failures and safeguard mission critical operations.

7.       Communication

BCM promotes transparent communication within the organisation and amongst its stakeholders. A communication structure based on BCM underpins the corporate governance and improves the information flow to parties who require it for decision making, planning and implementation. During a crisis, it demonstrates the organisation’s transparency in dealing with the situation and reassures stakeholders. Such an approach reinforces stakeholder relationships and enhances shareholder value.

8.       Value preservation

Through BCM organisations are better able to withstand the impact of crises or recover more quickly thereby reducing the impact of loss and as a result preserving their overall value.

9.       Evolution

BCM is constantly changing and breaking new boundaries. One of the most common pit falls is that many regard it as simply a ‘crisis and invocation’ process stemming from IT DR origins. However, BCM has evolved significantly since then and is continually changing to meet new business challenges. It now offers a means of competitive advantage and gaining market share.

As business evolve BCM Mangers must take up the challenge of aligning BCMN with organisational performance, and promoting to senior executives the benefit it can provide in the context of strategic planning and the delivery of corporate goals.

Artco solutions believe that by training, exercising and rehearsing any organisation can make its plans, people and processes more resilient to a crisis. ‘We call this managing with certainty’. Our proficiencies reflect our strategic vision and ability to provide for the needs of new and existing clients to continue operations in the event of a disruption.

Is the London 2012 Olympics going to affect your business?

Let us engage in a conversation ...

London will be hosting the world’s largest sporting events in 2012. The games are already benefiting businesses. With billions of pounds of contracts to supply for the London 2012 games. The games promise to deliver a London changing experience. However, there will also be some challenges for business and individuals.

With 10.8 million tickets sold around 2 million Olympic visitors are expected to share the same resources as you and I struggle with daily. This will means millions of extra people will be using the transport system during the summer, a time that is already busy in the capital. Each individual or business will be affected by the games in different ways and to different extent and you will know best what is likely to work most effectively for you and your business.

The Game is likely to have an impact on the following areas of your business:

·         Travel to and from work for you and your employees

·         Travel for your customers or other visitors or family

·         Deliveries/ collections and other supplies

·         Business travel / personal travel

·         Internet security/ cyber attacks

Having established that you or your business will be affect, how are you preparing to manage these impacts?

·         Have you thought about  home working

·         Alternative routes to work

·         Have you thought about your supply chain management

·         How will your business deal with high absenteeism

·         How about flexi working times for employees

·         Using alternatives to meeting methods like teleconferencing, web conferencing

·         Have you thought about stock piling of non perishable goods

·         Have you asked your suppliers their plans for business during the games

Please share your thought below on how you/ your business is planning to reduce the challenges the LONDON 2012 games bring.