Cisco Expo South Africa 2013 is not only a premier networking vendor event, it also brings together a network of sponsors and partners to showcase the breadth of solutions available to local customers. This includes Bytes, official sponsor of the event.
Patrick Hastings, divisional MD of advanced technology services at Bytes, and Ben De Klerk, business development and vendor management at Bytes, discussed the importance of the Expo to customers as well as the overall market conditions shaping the local networking ecosystem.
Why is Bytes sponsoring the Cisco Expo?
Bytes has decided to sponsor the Cisco Expo 2013 event to market and promote Bytes as a formidable managed cloud services integrator and a key solutions provider of Cisco advanced architectures and services.
What does Bytes expect to see from the event, and from the delegates?
Bytes views Cisco Expo 2013 as the premier networking event that will attract the top industry customers and ecosystem partners. Bytes expects a high level of interaction and networking between various customers, ecosystem partners and Cisco.
Why are Cisco and Bytes important to one another?
Cisco is an excellent strategic fit for our overall managed cloud services, collaboration and data centre services strategy.
What is the role of Cisco technology within the greater Bytes portfolio?
Cisco provides a solid business platform to enable Bytes to provide industry leading managed solutions and cloud-based services to key industries and verticals.
How is Bytes' networking strategy evolving, and how will that be conveyed at the Expo?
Bytes' value has evolved in basic terms from transactional to a consultative model. Bytes has repositioned its business to address the market shift, which has seen the real owners of applications, the business, take ownership back. The ease of self-provisioning and consuming IT services as utilities is slowly becoming the norm.
It's Bytes' value to understand our customers' business requirements for its applications (performance, access, security, etc) and to transform these requirements into solutions constructed in consultation with our customers' IT departments. Through this, Bytes' networking strategy has evolved in a similar manner to that of Cisco's, with a key focus on the data centre, managed cloud services, borderless networks, BOYD and collaboration.
What areas of technology (covered by Bytes and relevant to the Expo) are most critical to the needs of customers today?
The data centre and virtualisation are the most critical needs of many customers today, as the majority want to reduce their compute and carbon footprints in a drive for efficiency of resources.
How has that evolved over the last couple of years?
All technologies have become seamless. Seamless in the way they are accessed; seamless in way they are consumed. The basic technology is still the same, beefed up and upgraded, but the demand for how it is consumed was the main factor in how these various technologies have evolved.
From Bytes' perspective, what trends are driving the networking marketplace?
Managed cloud services have evolved to a point of general market acceptance and there is a trend to put non-critical applications and services into some form of managed cloud, whether it be private, public or hybrid.
How is the Cisco Expo aligned with the greater trends Bytes sees in the market?
Many of the evolving business trends will be showcased at the Cisco Expo solutions hall by the various Cisco resellers.
What makes South/southern Africa unique as a marketplace?
Many African countries are viewed as emerging markets and do not have access to capital for networking and infrastructure projects; however, there is an increased demand for "pay as you go" or "infrastructure as a service" based models, where they can pay for these services as a monthly opex.
We hear about skills shortages, public bandwidth constraints... how different are we from other networking markets?
The African market is somewhat different in relation to the rest of the world, mainly due to the accessibility, reliability and the inherent cost of bandwidth. The increased demand for skilled resources is evident across all markets.
What specific needs do local customers have?
Most local customers are looking to drive down costs in all aspects of IT networking, infrastructure and managed services spend, due to the slowing down of the economy in many market segments.
Who from Bytes will be at the Expo, and what will they have to offer delegates?
Bytes, as the official sponsor, will be hosting a networking stand in the Cisco Expo solutions hall, demonstrating our full capability in terms of differentiated solutions; managed services and business value based on underlying Cisco architectures and technology. Bytes will also provide a number of focused, one-on-one technology and breakout sessions for potential and key customers. Bytes will be providing a number of keynotes and in-depth, one-on-one discussions at the Cisco Expo.
Cisco Expo 2013 is a registration-only event. Click here to register.
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