Johannesburg, 12 Aug 2011
IT management expert, CA Southern Africa, has donated 550 licensed copies of its leading anti-virus software to the Maharishi Institute - an organisation that provides disadvantaged individuals with tertiary education access, which would otherwise be out of their reach.
The Maharishi Institute has been in operation since 2007.
The institute provides unemployed youth with educational, financial and all aspects of support necessary for them to cope in vocational and tertiary education. In addition, work-based experiential learning opportunities and jobs are provided while they are studying, as well as entrepreneurship training and opportunities to succeed in their lifetime career.
Throughout their studies, students access personal development programmes, counselling, coaching and other programmes to ensure emotional, physical, and intellectual well-being and guidance. Education is made accessible to unemployed young people, including intensive foundation bridging programmes with remediation, 25-life-skills courses, followed by degrees in business, technology and many other specialised areas.
The institute recently won a Global Education prize at The Education Project, held in the Middle East.
For tertiary education students, the need for always-on, unrestricted Internet access is crucial, but also increases the risk of virus invasion.
“Viruses have been a major problem,” says Taddy Blecher, CEO of the Maharishi Institute. “This situation has finally been solved with the CA software donation.
“This will save considerable time for IT personnel. Academic server-based learning software now works effectively and classes run as planned - computer up-time will be close to 100%. While it is possible to download free basic anti-virus software from the Web, it is not possible to do this for a server on a large-scale implementation basis, and CA Southern Africa really saved us in this regard.”
The institute has a total of 448 network points, with desktops in offices throughout the building. There is also an additional large lab still to be set up.
The donation was sizeable and CA facilitated installation.
“CA has been an incredibly generous sponsor, donating 550 anti-virus licences worth a considerable sum of money,” says Blecher. “Furthermore, staff in the US, India and South Africa have spent an extensive number of hours helping to get the software installed and up-and-running, as well as providing post-installation support.
“This is the first time we have used CA anti-virus software and we are very impressed with the quality of the product. It certainly is a world-class solution for an educational environment,” says Blecher.
Gary Lawrence, MD, CA Southern Africa, confirmed that CA remains firmly committed to SA's development through education and the provision of opportunity.
“We intend to continue leveraging CA's world-leading technology into the future in support of this outstanding institute,” Lawrence concludes.
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