Johannesburg, 22 Jan 2018
In wishing all our clients a happy New Year, it is worth noting that 2018 is already shaping up to be another year of change, says Johan Lamberts, MD of Ascent Technology.
We are seeing distinct shifts in the international arena, while at the same time, our local political sphere has also witnessed significant changes, including a strengthening of the rand that bodes well for the near future.
Although the general economic situation remains challenging, there seems to be greater optimism and business confidence in comparison to last year.
As this sense of dynamism pervades further, Ascent Technology expects to witness an increased uptake of its various offerings by the market, and it is looking forward to using this as a platform to once again further increase its capacity, skills levels and its ability to service its clients.
International growth
Having begun its international expansion late last year, with the launch of Ascent Technology's Middle East office, it is pleased to note that the new office - based in Dubai's Internet City - has got off to a positive start.
It successfully introduced itself to this dynamic region through its presence at Gitex Technology Week, and it has since begun doing business and delivering to clients.
In addition, Ascent recently hosted a series of successful workshops which allowed it to demonstrate its high-level skills and expertise in the Enterprise Data Platform arena, and it expects to build on this and accelerate its growth in this region in 2018.
Accelerating into the cloud
Cloud computing is a big part of what Ascent does and is something that is an integral part of its operations and services.
This is because cloud computing today can be described as having moved beyond 'hype' and into the area of 'business as usual'. This acceptance of cloud computing as a mature technology and business model is only reinforced by the news that South Africa will receive its own Dual Region Azure Cloud Instance from Microsoft in 2018.
While there is no doubt that this will further accelerate the cloud adoption of organisations, we remain aware that different clients are at different stages in their own cloud adoption journeys.
With Ascent Technology having made the investment in becoming a Microsoft Tier One Cloud Solutions Provider (CSP1), it is ideally positioned to walk this journey with its clients.
Not only is it well placed to assist clients in unlocking the additional value this journey will bring to their organisations, by helping them to build their required cloud solutions, but it is also able to add further value by offering them the opportunity to consume their Microsoft Azure Cloud Services via Ascent.
Evolving its services
While Ascent Technology's core business remains focused on solving its clients' Data Platform challenges, it is aware that there is a growing acknowledgment around the threats presented by security breaches, as well as a recognition of the importance of business intelligence to corporate success.
For this reason, it has begun evolving its services to meet the increasing demands being voiced by its clients in these particular areas.
Database security and compliance
Security breaches and threats continue to raise concerns among the business community, with many practical examples to be found in the local market in the past year. These include the notorious 'Gupta Leaks', the news that millions of South African ID numbers were leaked from a database, and the current challenges created by the Spectre and Meltdown hardware vulnerabilities.
Such challenges have always been high on most enterprises agendas, but historically, the focus has been placed on the data centre and perimeter security. Increasingly, however, there is recognition of the growing number of threats to databases, including that of unauthorised and even malicious internal access to the data within.
It is with this in mind that Ascent has developed a solution designed to ease the fears of CIOs. Known as DB Shield, this service protects databases on a network via a set of preconfigured defences, enabling clients to build custom security policies to suit their individual environments. This, in turn, makes it easier to demonstrate compliance and improve critical asset data protection.
Business Intelligence (BI)
Ascent began expanding its services into the BI arena several years ago, and has made some significant investments in that period. During this time, the traction and growth it has achieved has been substantial, and it has assisted many of its clients to transform their complex data into effective business insights.
Its continuing success here has led to a concentrated effort to evolve its BI capability through a number of channels. Watch this space for further announcements in this regard during the course of 2018.
The last word
Having said all that, although it may be evolving, Ascent remains true to its core business of managed database and BI, consulting and support services.
It continues to be an industry leader in this space, as noted by its growth, irrespective of challenging times.
Thus, even as it adds new services to its overall offering, it will continue to service its clients in the manner they have become accustomed to, providing them with a technology independent, multi-platform trusted partner, that is able to assist them with all their Enterprise Data Platform needs.
Finally, it would like to take this opportunity to thank all its clients for their trust and for the long-term relationships this trust has enabled it to build with them.
This year is one that suggests significant change and it is certainly looking forward to a successful year, and wishes all its clients the greatest success during 2018.