Pinnacle held its fifth TechScape event with partners and vendors. Titled “Mission: AI Possible”, a wealth of information and advice was shared with partners during two days of sessions.

Kathy Gibson reports

 

IT channel pivots to add value as AI takes off

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be at the peak of the hype cycle, but this doesn’t detract from the value that the technology will bring to the industry.

That’s the word from Tim Humphreys-Davies, CEO of Pinnacle, who points out that 88% of companies are already using AI, with an average return on investment of 5,8%

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How the IT industry is dealing with RAMageddon

There’s a new buzzword in the IT industry: RAMageddon. It refers to the current dire shortages and skyrocketing prices of computer memory.

Wayne Coetzer, consumer business director: South Africa and SADC at ASUS, points out that massive memory shortages are having a tangible effect on the industry.

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Get ready for the future of work

The next iteration of artificial intelligence (AI) – agentic AI – is going to change the way we all work.

Nitesh Doolabh, distribution manager at HP, talks about how this could play out. the technology for the Scuderia Ferraris team.

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Why you should build your own AI factory

As artificial intelligence takes off, organisations are focusing on how quickly they can build and deploy the relevant infrastructure.

These AI factories need to be bigger as well as smarter, flexible and able to scale, says Wynand Moller, regional manager at Supermicro.

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Nano innovation keeps storage on top of the data explosion

The amount of data we are creating has exploded – and it’s not slowing down any time soon.

In fact, we are currently creating far more data that we can possibly store, says Kobus Burnett, country manager: South Africa at Seagate.

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Alcatel Lucent adds AI, data centre solutions

Rumours of Alcatel Lucent’s demise are way off the mark. In fact, the company is thriving and looking forward to an even better future, says Craig Taylor, sales manager: strategic vertical at Alcatel Lucent Enterprise..

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AI turns security cameras into an intelligent IoT network

With the level of hype around artificial intelligence, it can seem like it’s something that landed just in the last couple of years.

But companies like HikVision have been integrating AI into their solutions since at least 2019, enabling automation and intelligence to improve Internet of Things efficacy, according to Tim Yen, MD of HikVision South Africa.

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Long-term strategy puts IBM in AI pole position

For years, IBM has been very deliberate in how it has shifted its strategy, positioning itself for today’s realities.

This is according to Clarissa Lindeque, ecosystem and software segment leader at IBM, who points out that the company has built an enterprise AI portfolio that directly addresses customer use cases.

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Resilience the game-changer as cyberattacks ramp up

As customers navigate one of the most significant technology shifts of our time, they are relying on distribution and reseller partners more than ever.

While artificial intelligence (AI) changes the world of work, there is another shift happening in the security and resilience space, says Brendan Tobin, partner business manager and alliances at Commvault.

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Partnering key in challenging times

Artificial intelligence (AI) is giving us new ways of creating and using data. But the data centres required to power AI are simultaneously wreaking havoc on the global memory supply chains.

Bennie du Plessis, regional sales manager at Dell, points out that DRAM and NAND stocks are increasingly difficult to source, while pricing is rising rapidly – as much as 600% in some cases.

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Huawei commits to partnering

Partnering is key for Huawei Enterprise as it grows its business in South Africa.

Kevin Zhang, chief marketing officer of Huawei ICT infrastructure, reiterates that the vendor works only through resellers in the enterprise space.

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