Black-owned and managed enterprise solutions integration company Cornastone will play a key role in bringing a number of value-added services to The Innovation Hub, including a sophisticated ICT platform that will support the intelligent community being developed at the precinct.
Cornastone, as one of the technology partners to this Blue IQ initiative taking shape in Pretoria, is implementing a number of business processes specific to the pure `greenfields` technology environment.
"The strategic IT partner to this innovative initiative will have a major responsibility to ensure that The Innovation Hub fulfils its mandate of adding significant value to Gauteng as the country`s `smart` province and to SA as a competitive economy in the hi-tech sector," says Kena Setshogoe, business development executive at Cornastone.
"For the past three years Cornastone has been the number one HP enterprise solutions and services partner in SA, and we bring the kind of expertise that has kept us at number one to The Innovation Hub. We have provided a high performance, cost-effective and adaptive IT infrastructure environment that is capable of evolving into a utility-based datacentre. This Adaptive Enterprise Datacentre will seamlessly accommodate and adapt to the business and technology requirements of The Innovation Hub as and when these change," he says.
This mission-critical solution will include HP`s High-end Integrity Superdome platform, a number of Itanium-based HP servers, as well as additional HP blade servers and ProLiant servers. Included is a highly scalable fibre channel storage area network (SAN) with backup and restore, and virtualisation management software - all of which will be made available to the residents and tenants at The Innovation Hub on a shared "utility-type" basis.
The Innovation Hub Management Company is expected to move into its new premises in December 2004.
According to Alan West, ICT consultant to The Innovation Hub, as the first Science Park in southern Africa that takes its benchmark from the best such developments in the world, while responding to local business needs, The Innovation Hub is creating a community for technology-related businesses across a range of disciplines.
The R346 million initiative by the Gauteng Provincial Government to stimulate economic growth for the province will focus on clustering hi-tech businesses to foster innovation of new products and services and drive the development of new intellectual property through research and development (R&D) projects that enhance the South African economy.
West points out that The Innovation Hub facility is also a technology showcase that demonstrates the convergence of infrastructure, architecture and applications such as voice over IP (VOIP) telecommunications, near 100% systems and services availability, and various value-added services to on-site tenants.
"The Science Park has been designed to encourage interaction between companies and employees. It features an Innovation Centre with the maxum Business Incubator and the CoachLab facility, where leadership skills are fast-tracked for the hi-tech industry, and the Enterprise Building, which will provide A-grade space at affordable rentals to a variety of tenants.
Systems and services will be provided to tenants at The Innovation Hub through an ASP model with `plug-n-play` functionality, making it simple for non-IT literate as well as technology advanced entities to join the community.
Setshogoe says the solution provided will ensure The Innovation Hub manages the supply and demand of IT resources in real-time so the business can quickly capitalise on and manage change. "The HP adaptive enterprise philosophy ensures that every business requirement change is met by an immediate IT response. And it`s not enough just to respond to change. To truly be responsive, you must be able to anticipate change - to make change work to your advantage. With HP`s Adaptive Technology, that`s exactly what we`ve been able to provide to The Hub," he concludes.
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The Innovation Hub is one of 11 projects of the Gauteng Provincial Government`s Blue IQ initiative to invest in economic infrastructure development in the province. It is a R300 million project that started construction in October 2003 with technology as the focal point of the entire development.
Cornastone
Cornastone is a black-owned company founded by two IT professionals and entrepreneurs with an extensive track record of delivering business value to stakeholders. Lufuno Nevhutalu, a founder of Yashu Solutions (Pty) Limited, before merging Yashu Solutions business interests into Computer Configurations Holdings Limited in 1998, brings entrepreneurship and proven business leadership skills.
Hamilton Ratshefola, a former IBM and CCH executive director, has extensive business leadership and sales experience. Hamilton led the IBM Public Sector business from a R30 million business in 1995 to a R300 million business in 1999. BMI-T Forge Ahead and Black IT Forum honoured both Hamilton and Lufuno as members of Top 20 Black IT Professionals in SA in 1999.
In 2001, Cornastone was HP VAR of the Year with over R80 million of sales in HP enterprise infrastructure. In 2002, Cornastone was voted the ICT Top Achiever Company of the Year 2002 with sales around R100 million.
Cornastone has assembled an array of highly skilled professionals at management and technical level, with outstanding track records in sales and solutions delivery.
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