IS KENYA READY FOR IoT/M2M TECHNOLOGIES?

There are now more connected machines than there are people on Earth and, with machine-to-machine (M2M) technologies enabling the internet of things (IoT), this is about to accelerate. Are we as Kenyans ready for the age of the machines?

At some point back in 2014, the number of connected devices in the world surpassed that of the human population, according to GSMA Intelligence, with 7.2bn devices versus 7.19bn humans. Two years later, according to the GSMA’s real-time tracker, there are now 7.7bn mobile connections, including M2M devices. Kenya is entering into a world where the internet will work for us, continuously and quietly, in the background; doing all the necessary, everyday behind-the-scenes tasks, from renegotiating m-shwari loans to booking holidays, making smarter financial decisions to organising garbage collection and ensuring fresh milk is delivered to our smart fridges.

Cisco estimates the so-called IoT world of connected devices will grow to 50bn connected machines between 2020 and 2030. These connected machines won’t be like today’s connected machines, which require the usual human interface. Instead, they will talk to each other in the form of software agents using a confection of sensors: wireless technologies; 5G; Bluetooth; Wi-Fi; radio frequency identification (RFID), telemetry and GPS, to name a few. These machines will take every shape and inhabit every corner of our lives. We could have internet-connected 3D printers and equipment on factory floors responding to fulfil e-commerce orders made on a whim, half a world away, via a virtual assistant embedded in a personal device. A self-driving car, communicating with other connected cars on the road, could pick you up from the office and bring you to your front door, which will be unlocked by your smart watch, while intelligent light bulbs and smart meters might herald your arrival with welcoming lamplight and hot water for a bath.

To enlighten my fellow Kenyan STEM savvies, I will lightly touch on the history of M2M for better understanding of what we are about to get into in a few years coming.

radar_shutterstock

RADAR and SONAR were the grandfathers of LIDAR, the laser-based technology used not only in police speed-guns at waiyaki way, southern bypass and Mombasa road  but to enable the self-driving cars of tomorrow, which will be internet-connected and rely on GPS to know where they are and Bluetooth to talk to smartphones and smart watches. Machine-to-machine in today’s world mostly consists of devices with SIMs that are typically used in industrial applications to talk to other machines to relay data and control equipment.

RADAR and SONAR were the grandfathers of LIDAR, the laser-based technology that will enable the self-driving cars of tomorrow.During the Cold War, the advances in telematics, telemetry and radio, as well as the first concepts of the internet, evolved. Not many people know this, but the internet was originally intended as a way for the survivors of an expected nuclear apocalypse to communicate with each other.

    In 1968, the US state of Minnesota first began using radio transmitters to track the movement of several hundred wolves. That same year, the father of M2M, Theodore G Paraskevakos (also the inventor of Caller ID), came up with the concept for M2M, whereby machines would automatically communicate with each other. Within a decade, he formed Metretek in Melbourne to create the first smart meters for electricity grids.While all this was happening, factories started to become automated, with the first programmable logic controllers appearing in the 1950s, and the world saw the creation of SCADA systems, which were operating systems for assembly lines and power plants.

The next major leap in the evolution of M2M came in the form of intelligent barcoding technology, RFID, where passive tags would collect energy from a nearby RFID reader’s interrogating radio waves to track goods in warehouses. One of the first uses of RFID was in the early 1970s, when Los Alamos Laboratories used RFID tags on behalf of the US government to track cattle.

In 1973, Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn invented the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and the Internet Protocol (IP), to enable the exchange of data over networks. Just as the internet was about to change the world forever – thanks to Tim Berners-Lee inventing HTML to make it easier to use – the first digital cellular network, GSM, was deployed in Finland in 1991.

As of 2016, with 7.7bn mobile connections on planet Earth, some 240.1m are M2M devices.

nest-smart-thermostat

Nest’s smart thermostat is just one of the consumer-oriented internet of things/M2M devices designed to support the thoughtful home. The thermostat learns user behaviour to provide the right temperatures and interacts with other M2M devices, including smart light bulbs from Philips. Today’s M2M devices are designed to do specific things, such as relay temperature and location information from refrigeration trucks carrying food and medicine, analyse and report driver behaviour on behalf of insurance companies, and instruct soft-drink makers to resupply vending machines. But, as these devices start to connect with the cloud and analytics via IoT gateways, the possibilities to enhance our Kenyan lives, drive new services and reinvent entire industries become possible. As such, M2M is at the heart of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), powering smart factories that can be run remotely from a tablet computer, and smart buildings that monitor their environment and feed data back to the cloud.

In the consumer world, M2M is inspiring a whole new generation of inventors. Tony Fadell dreamed up the Nest device to learn people’s temperature preferences in their homes, while Irish start-up Drop has created smart connected weighing scales to help people cook and bake better.

Without M2M, the internet of things that will dominate our lives in future years would be a question mark, and the digital disruption transforming traditional industries would not be possible.

 ‘Personally through my experience in both the Telco’s and banking industries, I feel the biggest challenge is that a lot of the M2M devices may be cellular devices but they don’t have specific identities, so this opens up a whole question around security and trusted services ’~Samwel Kariuki

The future of M2M

M2M has had different guises over the years, starting out as telemetry and turning into telematics before its current catchy title. Yet, soon, M2M could disappear as it gets swallowed up by the overall move by telecoms operators  to be the key enablers for the internet of things.(A field am currently delving deeper& would want to champion this great course and revolutionize the way Kenyans will do businesses, run lives and change lifestyle for the better).

Many mobile operators such as Safaricom will view the IoT opportunity as a way of competing with cloud providers and over-the-top (OTT) players like Google and Amazon. This will be a very healthy platform for Kenya to compete globally and shine in its STEM undertakings.

M2M has been associated with cellular and operators want to use the technology to drive higher value-added services.While operators have lost ground to OTT players in terms of social media and other consumer services, the internet of things is a chance for such operators to define themselves much earlier on and, for this, they need to build out their competency within the application layer and integrate with the backend.In time, M2M – or, simply, internet of things – is an opportunity for our Kenyan telecoms operators to move ahead of OTTs and build extensive application delivery tools in internet of things and get first-mover advantage.

Once it was telematics and then it was M2M and now it is going mainstream. But the problem is there are now loads of devices out there communicating with systems that are behind a firewall. The biggest challenge is that a lot of the M2M devices may be cellular devices but they don’t have specific identities, so this opens up a whole question around security and trusted services. Backhaul capacity might have to increase by 1,000 times as the number of devices reaches 50bn. But I think so much of this will be invisible to people, supporting things that will work without effort.

Bluetooth is on the threshold of being the enabling wireless technology for the internet of things. There are other technologies like Wi-Fi and 5G, but it still comes down to power and range and why it makes sense to build on things that have already been built. At some point, it might not be possible to extend the life of Bluetooth, and [it will be time] for something new to come along, but that day is far away.

Another possible enabler of the IoT via M2M is a new network platform called Sigfox, which addresses power and range issue. Currently operating in 18 countries and registering more than 7m devices on its network, Sigfox owes its speed of deployment to the fact that its network requires lighter infrastructure than traditional wireless networks and only needs a limited number of sites in order for it to increase its network footprint. I wish to live& see for the day where our new innovators from campus will deploy a ‘’Kenyan Sigfox’’ and be able to compete both locally and internationally.

Whether it will still be known as M2M, or form a part of the internet of things collective, it is clear that machines talking to other machines on our behalf is only the start of the next phase of humanity’s technology odyssey in our beloved country Kenya.

                                                                                              Written and Compiled by: Samwel Kariuki

INTRODUCING IoT & M2M TECHNOLOGIES IN KENYA

The Internet of Things (IoT)—the practice of capturing, analysing, and acting on data generated by networked objects and machines—is among the hottest technology topics in

Kenyan businesses today. While a growing number of companies are creating business value with IoT applications, the technology is still in its early days. Two trends will dramatically expand IoT possibilities in the enterprise, multiplying practical applications while potentially lowering costs (a prayer of every Kenyan with vision 2030 mind set):

1. The emergence of new wireless communications networks designed specifically for IoT applications, which can lower the cost and extend the reach of connected applications all over our 47 counties.

2. The arrival of “edge computing” IT infrastructure, which facilitates analysing and acting on IoT sensor data close to the source, making applications more responsive to rapidly changing local conditions while avoiding communications bottlenecks.

By lowering IoT solutions’ costs, extending their reach, and increasing their responsiveness, these two trends have the potential to significantly expand the kinds of solutions that will be viable for businesses to deploy. While these trends are important, they are not revolutionary. Rather, they can be seen as part of the continuing technological evolution that is bringing the Internet of Things ever closer to ubiquity.

The IoT is already a large and growing market

The global IoT market is poised to grow briskly, from about 4.9 billion connected devices in 2015 to a projected 21 billion by 2020. IoT technology is projected to support 235 trillion Ksh in services spending in 2017-2019, a majority of that on professional services to design, install, and operate IoT systems.

Methods of connecting IoT devices can be classified as short-range or long-range. Short-range technologies such as Bluetooth, Zigbee(not so widely known amongst Kenyan living outside major cities), and Wi-Fi are the dominant choices for IoT connectivity today but are not well suited for every application due to their power requirements and their need for a local hub to connect to, which can be costly or difficult—in consumer applications—for end users to configure. Many other applications require long-range connectivity. Cellular currently dominates the wireless long-range market.

DEDICATED LOW-POWER IOT NETWORKS GAIN STEAM

A new kind of network, designed specifically to support IoT applications, is spreading across the globe. These networks are known by the generic term low-power wide-area networks (LPWA) and tend to have the following characteristics:

Low power consumption by endpoints with extended battery life—often more than 10 years

Wide area connectivity and higher penetration in dense areas like North Eastern areas

Low-cost chipsets and lower cost of network build compared to cellular technology

Lower connectivity costs

Lower throughput capacity compared to cellular networks

These characteristics are well suited for a range of applications in numerous sectors such as agriculture, construction, consumer electronics, health care, environmental, manufacturing, oil and gas, retail and vending, safety and security, smart cities, and utilities.

We can anticipate a growing number of enterprises to invest in such applications once appropriate networks are in place. These networks could be hugely important for the further development of IoT technology: Kariuki Samwel is forecasting that LPWA network connections will number more than 3 billion devices by 2023, exceeding cellular machine-to-machine connections, becoming the dominant wide-area IoT connectivity technology, and generating connectivity revenues in excess of 100 billion Ksh. We are already seeing clear signs of the build out of these networks: More than a dozen companies, backed by significant investment, are building them, employing diverse technologies. Safaricom is one company that is on the fore front on implementing such technology.

Growing adoption of dedicated IoT network-based applications

As dedicated IoT networks spread, they are likely to encourage the adoption of IoT applications where high connectivity costs and higher power consumption of cellular end devices or other limitations of cellular have thus far deterred deployments. A clear example is the areas of Turkana and far end in Mandera. Early signs of this include new product introductions and planned deployments in a number of areas like for example the digital kplc token unit and the 4G infrastructure laid by safaricom. Indeed, as Kenyans we expect the build out of LPWA to be an important driver of the growth of IoT technology.

These technology trends will make a broader range of IoT applications both feasible and valuable. Leaders who have considered and then shelved plans for an IoT project may want to revisit the business case: Improved economics and improved performance may tip the balance in favour of proceeding. Others who have not seriously evaluated the IoT’s potential for their business may find this is a good time to explore.(Free advice for my country fellow men).

These trends have implications for IT leaders as well. In recent years, many enterprises have focused on creating centralized cloud-based data processing and analytics systems. Edge analytics is a fundamentally different approach: In operations where the volume of data generated is high, and speed and responsiveness to local conditions is critical, localized analytics may deliver significant business benefits. A balanced approach, taking advantage of edge analytics and cloud analytics where each is appropriate, is essential.

Taken together, low-cost, low-power IoT networks and edge analytics solutions have the potential to improve the performance and economics of IoT solutions and are likely to hasten enterprises’ adoption of applications. Business and technology leaders may want to review their plans for IoT initiatives with these important trends in mind.

                                                                                                              Prepared by: Samwel Kariuki

                                                                                                                          Date: 22^nd August 2016

Managing Fraud in E-Commerce: Are our Kenyan Online Businesses Bulletproof?

A few years ago, most Kenyan would have scoffed at the thought of e-commerce becoming a necessity for retail success. Now, we know that it’s very much required for many retailers to survive. According to some research done by Samwel Kariuki while still pursuing his electrical and computer engineering in Wichita,Kansas....looking at the next few years in retail, e-commerce accounted for over nine percent of total U.S. retail sales in 2014, which is roughly $334 billion. Industry analysts back home in Kenya expect to see that number continue to grow, with expectations of a compounded annual growth rate hitting 10 percent over the next four years, translating to $480 billion in online sales by 2019.

This staggering growth of online sales brings huge opportunity for traditional retailers to meet customers’ demands in the changing marketplace and drive additional revenue, but it also presents a major issue that impacts every retailer’s bottom line: fraud.

As e-commerce continues to grow, so does the amount of retail fraud. For e-commerce retailers, the study shows there has been a 49 percent year-over-year increase in chargebacks as credit cards remain the most common method of payment for fraud after Mobile money hoax pretenders. Retailers also see a great deal of discount fraud for those redeeming a discount they don’t actually qualify for. According to experts, merchants that deploy remote channels experience a disproportionate amount of fraud, which the numbers back up.

Because it is so much easier for some cruel Kenyans to commit fraud online, there are a host of new challenges for those responsible for protecting businesses from theft. Loss prevention professionals are now tasked with crawling the dark holes of the internet for potential talk of a data breach, and must be able to identify potential fraudsters in mountains of customer data. It’s truly an awesome task for these people to keep up and evolve with new changes retailers face everyday and employ strategies sufficient enough to protect their respective brands. However, as daunting as it seems, there are ways to protect today’s Kenyan online businesses and thwart the guaranteed threat of fraud. Here’s what I recommend:

Take Advantage of the Available Data

As emphasis is put on creating ideal customer experiences, more and more companies are collecting consumer data to create customer profiles to better market to their customer base. They track transactions in order to provide personalized service and a better customer experience, and use predictive analytics based on past behavior to recommend products that customer may be interested in. And while marketers use this to encourage purchases, loss prevention professionals can use it to identify abnormalities and inconsistencies in shopping behavior. 

As profiles are built, the loss prevention investigators who pay attention and analyze the data will be most successful in identifying potential trends that are not normal and may pose a threat. 

Investigators can and should identify certain trends to watch out for and KPIs to target, and evolve their strategy to combat harmful behaviors. To do this, the team of decision makers and loss prevention pros should ask a few basic questions before a new promotion launches including:

●     What could happen?

●     What is probable?

●     Do we have mechanisms in place to identify fraud?

●     What metrics will help us determine what downsides came along with an increase in sales?

●     How can we track all of the elements resulting from putting a promotion in place?

LP leaders should revisit the resulting data on a monthly basis following the launch of a campaign to see how they’re stacking up against the set KPIs. Putting these systems in place ahead of time often results in a decrease of loss, so it’s always beneficial to be prepared to identify and monitor abuse through the analysis of actionable data.

Try an Audit or Pilot Program

More often than not, organizations don’t know what their acceptable rate of fraud is until they give something a try. The forward-thinking CEOs or COOs who will look ahead and say, “I think the fraud rate is going to be 20 percent, so we’d better put something in place up front,” are few and far between, which leaves many organizations shocked at their revenue numbers at the end of the year.

Running an audit is one of the best ways for loss prevention pros to understand where issues are. A variety of verification organizations do just this to give businesses an idea of how much revenue they’re losing to fraud and where those vulnerabilities are coming from. Often times, it’s a huge wake up call for retailers who may not have known they were losing a large percentage of sales due to credit card or discount fraud.

Another solution is to run a pilot program to monitor how much fraud is occurring and where vulnerabilities may be in the business. By offering a small sample size an exclusive, time-boxed discount, retailers can oversee what behavior is happening where, and easily identify issues or areas of weakness. 

Pilot programs and audits limit the risk to a business in case something goes wrong. It also provides a basis for a forecast and will help set expectations for any new solution providers or programs you put in place based on the audit or pilot results. Simply, you can test your way in. 

Find New Opportunities to Learn

Criminals in Kenya are getting more sophisticated and their strategies more complex as each day passes, which means loss prevention professionals have to continue to pivot their strategies and understand what’s happening in the industry so they can be ready to fight those threats.

In order to be effective, it’s vital these pros constantly grow, learn, and get better at what they do. Investigators need to take the initiative to keep up with industry news, attend conferences to educate themselves, and talk to colleagues in the loss prevention field. Getting to know and work collaboratively with partners in the IT department is essential since they’re constantly working with new technologies.

It’s also important to pay attention to what other organizations are doing right, and what they’re doing wrong. As many of us have seen, there have been some damaging breaches that have hurt large retailers badly, and it’s extremely important that all those responsible for loss prevention learn from these incidents and do their due diligence to ensure their organization isn’t vulnerable to the same type of threat.

Conclusion

While online retailing offers both customers and retailers new opportunities to meet the demand than ever before, the potential for fraud is a major concern than all retailers and organizations in general should be cognizant of. With a few tweaks, data analysis, and trails, as well as constant education, today’s loss prevention professionals can ensure that retailer’s bottom lines are minimally impacted by cyber crime, and that the customers of those retailers are protected from theft. 

DATA CENTERS TO IMPROVE OUR CLOUD COMPUTING IN KENYA

Any Kenyan organizations/institutions looking to improve their data center efficiency and cut costs can reap benefits by transitioning to a cloud computing model.

The volume of critical data produced by our digital world continues to grow, increasing the need for businesses to acquire expensive and power-hungry technology to support and run data applications. In kenya,my mother country,most if not a bigger number of institutions/Organizations are struggling to manage big data and adopt newer applications and technologies while addressing the environmental and financial pressures to operate in an efficient and sustainable way.

Often, businesses look to make improvements in the physical infrastructures within their own data centers to reach these goals. However, many have also begun to consider either co-location or cloud providers that promote energy efficiency and sustainable practices.

There has been some debate by ERC(Energy Regulatory Commission) on the energy efficiency and cost effectiveness of cloud computing, but the idea that cloud computing is inefficient is a myth. Since the cloud business model relies on high data security and operational efficiency, lean operating principles are often employed to improve financial performance. This has resulted in the cloud being a practical solution for businesses looking to lower their costs, improve their risk profiles, and increase their agility and efficiency, allowing them to delay large capital expenditures. 

Moving toward a virtualized environment, whether through virtualization of physical servers or by moving applications into the cloud, helps consolidate systems and reduce overall IT electrical load. It can also shift some capital cost into an operational expense and help businesses realize savings in administration, licensing, maintenance, and reduced downtime.

Any STEM whizz looking to improve their data center cost and efficiency by transitioning to the cloud can realize several benefits:

• Increased computing efficiency -- Cloud computing often allows for more computing per watt of power consumed by better utilizing applications and servers.
• Manage redundancy -- Applications can run on multiple servers, in multiple locations and shift to another location instantly if there is a problem.
• Financial value to the business -- Cloud computing supports alignment between investment and productivity by helping deliver more options for businesses to access the latest technologies, while reducing the need for large up-front capital expenditures (capex). Assets that would have required a significant capital infusion are now billed as operational expenditures (opex), freeing up funds for other projects that can help drive revenue and growth.
• Rightsized power and cooling systems -- Remaining physical equipment can now be repurposed and sized to meet specific needs, whether it’s critical data that must be managed onsite, or even basic storage backup that doesn’t require stringent uptime targets.

With businesses becoming increasingly reliant on technology for daily operations in our country and Africa at large, new and innovative ways of computing within the datacenter are needed. Data centers must find efficient and sustainable ways to operate, as well as adopt a cost and risk model that fits corporate goals and objectives.

As an alternative to updating physical infrastructure for increased efficiency, cloud computing is a viable method that can help to reduce fixed costs associated with a facility’s power, cooling, and hardware, allowing for greater agility and growth. Data center managers should feel empowered to rightsize their infrastructures and budgets to align costs with processing needs, resulting in a greener, more efficient footprint.

Complied and written by:Samwel Kariuki

Date:1st may 2016

BIG DATA IN KENYA

• 
  Big Data—which may be understood as a more powerful form of data mining that relies on huge volumes of data, faster computers, and new analytic techniques to discover hidden and surprising correlations—challenges our national privacy laws(if they are there) in several ways:To any Kenyan out there who is aware or/and self conscious  of what make his/her digital e-world revolve,it casts doubt on the distinction between personal and non-personal data, clashes with data minimization, and undermines informed choice.
  
• Personally i think our dear beloved country has never considered a General Data Protection Regulation that would replace the ageing Data Protection Directive despite having CAK(communication Authority of Kenya) set in place for a number of years now. This Regulation will create both new individual rights and imposes new accountability measures on organizations that collect or process data.But the Big Data tsunami is likely to overwhelm these reform efforts(**Chuckle**....since we all know why). Thus, a supplementary approach should be considered using codes of conduct. In particular, CAK should encourage businesses to adopt new business models premised on consumer empowerment by offering incentives such as regulatory flexibility and reduced penalties.

My Fellow STEM lovers,lets push for this agenda to be regulated if not yet!#ProudKenyan

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  <description><![CDATA[OUR FUTURE CLOUD.. Physical Servers Vs Virtual Servers Vs Cloud There can be several different reasons why Kenyan businesses ad companies are choosing either a Physical or Virtual Server for their day to day errands. Considerations such as business size, needs and price are all factors to take in to account. My goal is to give [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=188&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2014/11/04/our-future-cloud/">OUR FUTURE CLOUD.</a>.</p>
<h1 class="page-title entry-title" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;padding:27px 40px 5px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;font-weight:normal;line-height:36px;letter-spacing:-.01em;color:#666666;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="line-height:22px;background-color:transparent;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers Vs Virtual Servers Vs Cloud</span></span></h1>
<div class="entry-content" style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:medium;margin:0;padding:0 40px 18px;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;box-sizing:border-box;clear:both;float:left;width:920px;color:#666666;line-height:22px;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;">
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There can be several different reasons why Kenyan businesses ad companies are choosing either a Physical or Virtual Server for their day to day errands. Considerations such as business size, needs and price are all factors to take in to account. My goal is to give you a helicopter view of the key points of each so when you discuss the options best suited for your firm,you are informed on some of the terminology and factors.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers:</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers are the traditional way of doing things (in IT traditional means more than 3 years ago!) and involve a piece(s) of hardware that are configured to perform the tasks of your business. Generally this hardware is in your server room or broom closet. They can play any role required in the business, from Mail Server to a Web Host Server or even a combination of a wide variety of roles where required. With physical servers there is a tendency to try and do more with less.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">The advantage of a Physical Server for a small business with limited server needs, is that the one server can perform all the tasks required for the day to day running of the business. As your business scales up in size you will have a 2nd server and 3rd and so on, the number generally corresponding with scale of the business. Each server will generally be critical to the business in some form because rarely do people sign off on implementing a new server to do something inconsequential. Inconsequential tasks are added to an existing server where it won’t conflict with something in place.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Virtual Servers:</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">A Virtual Server is normally one of many servers that operate upon a single physical server with each virtual server sharing the resources of the physical server between them. However an effective virtual infrastructure cannot run upon a single physical server so proper implementation of virtual servers requires the use of multiple physical servers and more than likely a device capable of providing shared storage between the physical servers. This means the starting cost of a Virtual Server solution is higher than that of a single physical server solution.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">The advantage of Virtual Servers is that each server can be run upon any capable physical server and so the failure of a physical server, with a proper environment in place, means any affected servers that were sharing that physical server, can be started up seamlessly on any other available physical server. This can even be automated within most virtual infrastructure solutions which leads to near zero downtime. One of the consequences however of Virtual Servers is that because you can have multiple Virtual Servers on a physical server the temptation is to put each software product onto its own server because there is not the cost limitation of having to have one physical server for each. This is known in the industry as “server sprawl” and it is something to be avoided. While the benefits of Virtual Servers are significant, they still need to be planned and maintained effectively to ensure their continued productivity.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Cloud:</span></p>
<p class="separator" style="margin-bottom:0;text-align:center;clear:both;"><img id="BLOG_video-UPLOADING-0" class="tr_noresize tr_placeholder BLOGGER-new-video BLOGGER-object-element" style="cursor:move;margin-left:1em;margin-right:1em;" src="https://www.blogger.com/video-thumbnail.g?contentId=UPLOADING" alt="" /></p>
<p class="separator" style="margin-bottom:0;text-align:center;clear:both;">
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Cloud is a general term, largely expressed in marketing, to describe any server/service that is put outside your own control for someone else to maintain on your behalf. This type of solution is not new and have historically been called outsourcing, services from Application Service Providers and more going back over the last 4 years in Kenya. The Cloud terminology has gained great traction with decision makers because it sounds like a wonderful and cheap solution to remove IT considerations from a business.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">My note of caution with Cloud solutions is that anyone who has used IT services will know that the quality of service varies greatly between providers and even over time, with some providers being exceptional but gradually failing to deliver sometimes after years of effective service. Cloud solutions are generally designed by the provider as a one way solution. They assume that everyone that uses them will be forever happy with them and will never want to leave and so designing or considering the process of a customer leaving is rarely addressed. Strategic use of Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud and any other Cloud term you are likely to see or hear is definitely effective and a number of Kenyan Engineers have been providing services that are considered Cloud for a number of years now. In fact they are probablyamong the most experienced Cloud providers there is in Africa. However implementing a Cloud solution is something that everyone has to go into with their eyes wide open and a clear understanding of what will be provided, who will provide, who has access to your information, is it protected from disaster (and is the provider responsible for its loss!) and ultimately can you move to more advanced services or services that suit your business better in the future that will inevitably occur.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There are several advantages and disadvantages to each option. These range from power consumption, storage requirements, maintenance, product licensing and more. This wide range of considerations also mean almost no business has the exact same needs as another and so it is important to ensure you engage someone competent in all of these options and considerations before you make any decision so that the decision you make is the right one. The cost and effort involved in reversing decisions that turn out to be wrong can be catastrophic.</span></p>
<p style="margin-bottom:0;padding:5px 0;vertical-align:baseline;outline:none;border:none;background-image:initial;background-attachment:initial;background-color:transparent;background-size:initial;background-origin:initial;background-clip:initial;background-position:initial;background-repeat:initial;"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There are several Kenyan engineers who are now widely versed in these solutions and implement and support every conceivable variation of them on a daily basis. If anyone would like to mail and find more on these expertise and knowledge please email sknjeri@wichita.edu or samwelkariuki@icloud.com and i will gladly assist you.May Africa stars shine beyond the so called or discussed Cloud services.Its time for africa to rise and shine.</span></p>
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  <title>OUR FUTURE CLOUD.</title>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 04 Nov 2014 11:52:56 +0000</pubDate>
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  <description><![CDATA[Physical Servers Vs Virtual Servers Vs Cloud There can be several different reasons why Kenyan businesses ad companies are choosing either a Physical or Virtual Server for their day to day errands. Considerations such as business size, needs and price are all factors to take in to account. My goal is to give you a [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=185&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<h1 class="page-title entry-title"><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers Vs Virtual Servers Vs Cloud</span></h1>
<div class="entry-content">
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There can be several different reasons why Kenyan businesses ad companies are choosing either a Physical or Virtual Server for their day to day errands. Considerations such as business size, needs and price are all factors to take in to account. My goal is to give you a helicopter view of the key points of each so when you discuss the options best suited for your firm,you are informed on some of the terminology and factors.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Physical Servers are the traditional way of doing things (in IT traditional means more than 3 years ago!) and involve a piece(s) of hardware that are configured to perform the tasks of your business. Generally this hardware is in your server room or broom closet. They can play any role required in the business, from Mail Server to a Web Host Server or even a combination of a wide variety of roles where required. With physical servers there is a tendency to try and do more with less.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">The advantage of a Physical Server for a small business with limited server needs, is that the one server can perform all the tasks required for the day to day running of the business. As your business scales up in size you will have a 2nd server and 3rd and so on, the number generally corresponding with scale of the business. Each server will generally be critical to the business in some form because rarely do people sign off on implementing a new server to do something inconsequential. Inconsequential tasks are added to an existing server where it won’t conflict with something in place.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Virtual Servers:</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">A Virtual Server is normally one of many servers that operate upon a single physical server with each virtual server sharing the resources of the physical server between them. However an effective virtual infrastructure cannot run upon a single physical server so proper implementation of virtual servers requires the use of multiple physical servers and more than likely a device capable of providing shared storage between the physical servers. This means the starting cost of a Virtual Server solution is higher than that of a single physical server solution.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">The advantage of Virtual Servers is that each server can be run upon any capable physical server and so the failure of a physical server, with a proper environment in place, means any affected servers that were sharing that physical server, can be started up seamlessly on any other available physical server. This can even be automated within most virtual infrastructure solutions which leads to near zero downtime. One of the consequences however of Virtual Servers is that because you can have multiple Virtual Servers on a physical server the temptation is to put each software product onto its own server because there is not the cost limitation of having to have one physical server for each. This is known in the industry as “server sprawl” and it is something to be avoided. While the benefits of Virtual Servers are significant, they still need to be planned and maintained effectively to ensure their continued productivity.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Cloud:</span></p>
<p class="separator"><img id="BLOG_video-UPLOADING-0" class="tr_noresize tr_placeholder BLOGGER-new-video BLOGGER-object-element" src="https://www.blogger.com/video-thumbnail.g?contentId=UPLOADING" alt="" /></p>
<p class="separator">
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">Cloud is a general term, largely expressed in marketing, to describe any server/service that is put outside your own control for someone else to maintain on your behalf. This type of solution is not new and have historically been called outsourcing, services from Application Service Providers and more going back over the last 4 years in Kenya. The Cloud terminology has gained great traction with decision makers because it sounds like a wonderful and cheap solution to remove IT considerations from a business.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">My note of caution with Cloud solutions is that anyone who has used IT services will know that the quality of service varies greatly between providers and even over time, with some providers being exceptional but gradually failing to deliver sometimes after years of effective service. Cloud solutions are generally designed by the provider as a one way solution. They assume that everyone that uses them will be forever happy with them and will never want to leave and so designing or considering the process of a customer leaving is rarely addressed. Strategic use of Public Cloud, Private Cloud, Hybrid Cloud and any other Cloud term you are likely to see or hear is definitely effective and a number of Kenyan Engineers have been providing services that are considered Cloud for a number of years now. In fact they are probablyamong the most experienced Cloud providers there is in Africa. However implementing a Cloud solution is something that everyone has to go into with their eyes wide open and a clear understanding of what will be provided, who will provide, who has access to your information, is it protected from disaster (and is the provider responsible for its loss!) and ultimately can you move to more advanced services or services that suit your business better in the future that will inevitably occur.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There are several advantages and disadvantages to each option. These range from power consumption, storage requirements, maintenance, product licensing and more. This wide range of considerations also mean almost no business has the exact same needs as another and so it is important to ensure you engage someone competent in all of these options and considerations before you make any decision so that the decision you make is the right one. The cost and effort involved in reversing decisions that turn out to be wrong can be catastrophic.</span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:small;">There are several Kenyan engineers who are now widely versed in these solutions and implement and support every conceivable variation of them on a daily basis. If anyone would like to mail and find more on these expertise and knowledge please email sknjeri@wichita.edu or samwelkariuki@icloud.com and i will gladly assist you.May Africa stars shine beyond the so called or discussed Cloud services.Its time for africa to rise and shine.</span></p>
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  <title>NEW SERVICES ABOUT CLOUD COMPUTING</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2014/03/02/new-services-about-cloud-computing/</link>
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  <pubDate>Sun, 02 Mar 2014 10:40:27 +0000</pubDate>
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  <description><![CDATA[   Kenya is an amazing place to gather knowledge#trustMe,just mingle with the right group.Recently i just learn how to install some cloud computing services to other OS&#8217;s like ubuntu and the likes-This lovely sunday,i wanna share the same with our african techno-gigs,telcom aficionados and ICT lovers:Its about SALT. Salt is a tool which is used [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=178&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>   Kenya is an amazing place to gather knowledge#trustMe,just mingle with the right group.Recently i just learn how to install some cloud computing services to other OS&#8217;s like ubuntu and the likes-This lovely sunday,i wanna share the same with our african techno-gigs,telcom aficionados and ICT lovers:Its about SALT.</p>
<p>Salt is a tool which is used for remote exection, configuration management, code deployment and communication topologies. Salt competes with popular cofiguration management tools like chef and puppet. Salt claims to scale up to tens and thousands of servers. Salt is used by one of the social networking giants Linkedin for their infrastructure management.Salt has a very shallow learning curve and you can get going quickly.<a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/1736765_10202308871997661_355819987_o.jpg"><img class=" wp-image alignright" id="i-177" alt="Image" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/1736765_10202308871997661_355819987_o.jpg?w=390&#038;h=390" width="390" height="390" /></a></p>
<p><b>Architecture:</b></p>
<ol>
<li>There is a master server and it connects to the agent servers (called minions) in your infrastructure.</li>
<li>The master can run commands in the minions parallelly, it is what make salt very fast.</li>
<li>The minions will execute the command sent by master and return it.</li>
</ol>
<p>There are few concepts associated with salt.</p>
<p>Also Read:  <a href="http://www.comtechies.com/2013/08/setting-up-open-source-chef-server.html" target="_blank">Opscode Chef Configuration Management tool setup</a></p>
<p><b>Returners: U</b>sing which you can redirect the return object of executed code to any system which can accept data, like reddis, mongodb, or a PostgresSQL database.</p>
<div>
<div><a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/cb8a7-architecture.png"><img alt="" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/cb8a7-architecture.png?w=400&#038;h=298" width="400" height="298" border="0" /></a></div>
<div> </div>
<div><b>Salt-syndic:</b> salt syndic is an interface which lets you to control various salt masters in different data centers or different sections in an infrastructure from one centralized salt-master.</div>
<div> </div>
<div><a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/33a14-multi-arch.png"><img alt="" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/33a14-multi-arch.png?w=640&#038;h=354" width="640" height="354" border="0" /></a></div>
<div><b>Reactor:</b></div>
<p>Reactor sit up in the master. You can configure the reactor to list to the events .When the minions fire some events to the even bus in the salt master , the reactor handles the event by taking necessary actions based up the conditions set in the reactor. For example , if Jenkins is running on one of the minions and it fires an event to master saying the build has finished, the reactor in turn handles the event and redirect to another minion to take actions based on the Jenkins successful build.</p>
<p><b>GitFS:</b><br />In salt you can git as a source repository and pull the source files to server them to minions.<br />In this tutorial, am goin to set the salt master in RHEL and salt minion in Ubuntu 13.04.</p>
<p><b>Setting up salt master on RHEL6:</b><br />1. Enable the EPEL repo
<pre>rpm -Uvh http://ftp.linux.ncsu.edu/pub/epel/6/i386/epel-release-6-8.noarch.rpm</pre>
<p>2. Install the salt master package using yum
<pre>Yum install salt-master</pre>
<p>3. Set the salt-master service to start on system boot
<pre>Chkconfig salt-master on</pre>
<p>4. Start the salt master
<pre>Service salt-master start</pre>
</div>
<p><b>Setting up salt minion on Ubuntu server:</b><br />If you want both the master and minion in one server, you can install the minion in the same server using yum command. Here am going to use a separate server for installing minion.</p>
<p>1. Add the salt repository</p>
<pre>sudo add-apt-repository ppa:saltstack/salt</pre>
<p>2. Update the repo database</p>
<pre>apt-get update</pre>
<p>3. Install salt minion</p>
<pre>apt-get install salt-minion</pre>
<p><b>Configuring salt Master:</b><br />By default salt master listens to post 4505 and 4506. So make sure these ports are open in Iptables and any firewall if any. If you are using AWS instance , make sure these ports are open in the security groups.</p>
<p><b>Configuring salt minion:</b><br />By default salt minion listens to 4505 and 4506 , so make these ports are opened as mentioned above.<br />Open the /etc/salt/minion and uncomment the master option and give your masters ip</p>
<pre>master : ip of master </pre>
<p> </p>
<div><a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/f6582-masterconfig.png"><img alt="" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/f6582-masterconfig.png?w=640&#038;h=268" width="640" height="268" border="0" /></a></div>
<p>By default you have the hostname “salt”. You can use the same name if you edit your /etc/hosts file and make an entry for your salt master with name “salt”.</p>
<p><b>Registering minion with the master:</b><br />1. Start the minion</p>
<pre>salt-minion</pre>
<p>2. The above command will contact the master with keys for authentication.<br />3. Go to salt master and issue the following command to see it has any requests for authentication from new minions.</p>
<pre>salt-key –L</pre>
<p>4. You will see the hostame of the minion under unauthorized keys.<br />5. Accept the keys using the following command</p>
<pre>salt-key  -a  </pre>
<p>6. Once you accept the keys from minion , it will be registered with the master and the master can now issue commands to the minion.<br />7. You can list the minions using the following commands.</p>
<pre>salt-run manage.up 
salt-run manage.status 
salt-run manage.down</pre>
<p><b>Testing master minion connection:</b><br />1. You can check the master minion connection using the simple salt ping test. It gives you output as &#8220;true&#8221;</p>
<pre>salt &lt;minion-name&gt; test:ping</pre>
<p><b>Managing Keys:</b><br />If you want to re-register a minion to the master delete the existing minion key from the master using the following command</p>
<pre>salt-key –d minion-name</pre>
<p>Restart the minion after deleting the key and start it again to register it with new keys. </p>
<p>Salt has a GUI called Halite, which is in pre-alpha stage.</p>
<p>Kindly share the article and leave a comment for queries. &#8211; </p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="color:#666666;font-family:'Open Sans', sans-serif;font-size:large;">Author:Samwel Kariuki</span></p>
<p><span style="color:#666666;font-family:'Open Sans', sans-serif;font-size:large;">website:www.samwelkariuki.blogspot.com</span></p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/178/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/178/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=178&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
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  <title>DYNAMICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN FIBRE OPTICS</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/dynamics-of-cloud-computing-in-fibre-optics-2/</link>
  <comments>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/dynamics-of-cloud-computing-in-fibre-optics-2/#respond</comments>
  <pubDate>Sun, 29 Dec 2013 14:12:27 +0000</pubDate>
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    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/12/29/dynamics-of-cloud-computing-in-fibre-optics/">DYNAMICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN FIBRE OPTICS</a>.</p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/175/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/175/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=175&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
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  <title>DYNAMICS OF CLOUD COMPUTING IN FIBRE OPTICS</title>
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  <pubDate>Sun, 29 Dec 2013 13:36:53 +0000</pubDate>
  <dc:creator><![CDATA[samwelkariuki]]></dc:creator>
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  <description><![CDATA[  Technology has evolved almost immeasurably in the past several decades. I remember a few months back watching Telkom kenya discuss optical fiber. It went something like this: “Telkom(k) Company has fiber that can carry 24 phone calls on a fiber as thin as a human hair.” Using a standard calculation that a single phone [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=167&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>  Technology has evolved almost immeasurably in the past several decades. I remember a few months back watching Telkom kenya discuss optical fiber. It went something like this: “Telkom(k) Company has fiber that can carry 24 phone calls on a fiber as thin as a human hair.” Using a standard calculation that a single phone call is 64 kbits/sec (64,000 bits per second), a total of 24 phone calls would be 1.54 Mbits/sec (1.54 million bits per second)—or the equivalent of a Digital Signal 1 (DS1).</p>
<p>Let’s jump to current day. We now have fiber carrying Terabits—one trillion bits per second. That is an enormous amount of information passing at the speed of light through this one strand of fiber the size of a human hair.With this as a frame of reference, let’s now take a look at the impact of fiber in a data center environment. Data centers of the past were copper-based with multiple DS1 and Digital Signal 3 (DS3, approximate transmission rate of 45 Mbits/sec) lines handling the load of servers to an Optical Carrier 3 (OC3) with a transmission rate of 155 Mbits/sec. This OC3 would connect the servers to the network cloud or outside world. Copper dominated in a data center environment and the only fiber installed was that single line connecting the servers to the network cloud. All DS1 and DS3 connections were on copper panels, possibly with a digital access and crossconnect system (DACS).</p>
<p>    Now in 2013, video (iTunes, Netflix, Hulu and others) and cloud computing/hosted servers, backup and storage, Microsoft CRM, hosted private branch exchanges (PBXs), web analysis tools and web hosting are driving enormous growth in data center server deployments. Data centers are offering rates at DS1, DS3, 5 Mbits/sec, 10 Mbits/sec, 20 Mbits/sec and up to an OC3, all connecting to the outside world via 10-Gbit Ethernet or 100-Gbit Ethernet connections from multiple providers. Today fiber is heavily deployed in Kenya, placing a large concentration of revenue-generating traffic in a small place. To alleviate risk, the data center architecture is evolving away from the previous copper DS1 and DS3 panels, to fiber panels with multiple connections to the client and to the cloud for redundancy.</p>
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<h2><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjwzhAXINv6__VTKlz0CHXcLwyDc9B8nBOmpAEqUbBv-hykXCVjzgSE9Iiad4bVy_-3E9MZ_FAA8CO1ZT-BMMRBi-LcEXArV2y1OLNIvRgA4K9qFjtXliGI0Il1ZgykCFNpgfm5C8ubao/s1600/DSCN0091%5B1%5D.JPG"><img alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjwzhAXINv6__VTKlz0CHXcLwyDc9B8nBOmpAEqUbBv-hykXCVjzgSE9Iiad4bVy_-3E9MZ_FAA8CO1ZT-BMMRBi-LcEXArV2y1OLNIvRgA4K9qFjtXliGI0Il1ZgykCFNpgfm5C8ubao/s1600/DSCN0091%5B1%5D.JPG" width="320" height="240" border="0" /></a>Fiber connectivity, management</h2>
<p>     Historically, fiber in the data center was not protected with the same level of sophistication as was provided by telecommunications service providers. There were two standards—the high-end product lines that are used by the telkom (k) ensures the ultimate in reliability, and the low-end solutions used in the data center. However, the line between data and telco have become blurred, and as a result, the sophisticated standards deployed by the telkom(k) ltd are now being implemented in the data center. Fortunately, this does not equate to a huge increase in cost. In fact, choosing a fiber-management architecture that delivers reliability, modularity and scalability, without giving up density, will actually reduce the cost of fiber deployment. Choosing a modular fiber panel ensures that additional fiber connections can be added, on an as-needed basis, thus lowering the ongoing cost per port.</p>
<p>  For maintaining a fiber connection, proper handling techniques like cleaning the fiber are now brought to the forefront. Some copper connections can be wiped clean simply; not so with fiber. A dirty fiber connection can cause a completely blocked signal or introduce attenuation, thus limiting the distance of the signal. Equipment such as a fiber microscope is used to look at a fiber to see how clean the connection is. (Note: Never look into a fiber that is connected to a system.) Cleaning the fiber can be performed with specialty products available on the market, used in adherence to industry cleaning standards. These specifications are good references.</p>
<ul>
<li>IEC 61300-3-35, Fibre Optic Interconnecting Devices and Passive Components – Basic Test and Measurement Procedures</li>
<li>IPC 8497-1, Cleaning Methods and Contamination Assessment for Optical Assembly</li>
<li>IEC 62627 (DTR), Fibre Optic Interconnecting Devices and Passive Components – Fibre Optic Connector Cleaning Methods</li>
</ul>
<h2>Performance expectations</h2>
<p>Ensuring minimal insertion loss is key to performance of the network. In recent years, Telkom (k) ltd has established that the standard for loss should be no more than 0.4 dB. When it re-set the standard to 0.4 dB of loss, most patch cord vendors reported performance “typical” of the Telkom standard. As “typical,” the process to build the patch cord was capable of delivering 0.4-dB performance, but each individual cord that came off the line may or may not meet the standard—did 51 percent of the cords match the standard? 75 percent?Few patch cord vendors were “guaranteeing” the 0.4-dB loss, as it required extensive quality-control measures in their production process and very tight tolerances in their test metrics. These tightened performance specifications were perceived by the vendor as expensive and cost-prohibitive. Achieving a “guaranteed” performance level was expected to result in extensive production-floor “scrap” as patch cords that did not meet the guaranteed number were either set aside as “seconds” or repolished to achieve the desired results. Because there were no guarantees, network designers needed to allow for variation in patch cord performance. As a result, their network designs did not fully benefit from the reported performance enhancements.</p>
<p>     Performance of the fiber, guaranteed for immediate and ongoing performance for the life of the network, is critical to delivering the user experience that cloud computing promises. Not only should you demand guaranteed (rather than typical) performance of your fiber, but 0.4 dB should not be good enough in today’s demanding world. Vendors that have built their data centers for optimal performance are delivering guaranteed 0.2-dB loss.Entering the 21st century, we have seen a significant increase in the use of data centers. As a telco guy by heritage, Im now growning up with the central office as the core of a telco network and have seen an incredible amount of evolution that will occur over the coming years(vision 2030). Today there is even talk of data centers being the central offices of the future. With fiber being tested and verified by telco service providers over the past 20 years, the data center manager has some great practical wisdom to follow. We find ourselves at a time of great opportunity as we learn from the past to continue to create an exciting future. The best is yet to come.</p>
<p>   Africa needs to shine and its the natives that will do so.Hope is a waking dream so lets all make Africa and moreso Kenya the Tech point of this great continent.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Source:samwelkariuki.blogspot.com</p>
<p>Author:Samwel Kariuki</p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/167/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/167/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=167&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
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  <title>Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd in Relation to Fibre Networks</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/telkom-orange-kenya-ltd-in-relation-to-fibre-networks-2/</link>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:53:08 +0000</pubDate>
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  <description><![CDATA[Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd in Relation to Fibre Networks.<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=164&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/12/13/telkom-orange-kenya-ltd-in-relation-to-fibre-networks/">Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd in Relation to Fibre Networks</a>.</p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/164/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/164/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=164&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
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  <title>Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd in Relation to Fibre Networks</title>
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  <pubDate>Fri, 13 Dec 2013 13:47:50 +0000</pubDate>
  <dc:creator><![CDATA[samwelkariuki]]></dc:creator>
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  <description><![CDATA[    Increased use of cloud services by kenyan businesses has created a need for increased capacity in the data network. Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd is responding to this trend with a Ksh 40 billion investment in fibre optic broadband for businesses. Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd spends over Ksh 40 billion per year upgrading and modernising [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=151&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>    Increased use of cloud services by kenyan businesses has created a need for increased capacity in the data network. Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd is responding to this trend with a Ksh 40 billion investment in fibre optic broadband for businesses.</p>
<p>Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd spends over Ksh 40 billion per year upgrading and modernising the telephone, TV, and data networks in Kenya. Much of the investment goes into the comprehensive expansion of the fibre optic broadband network for the business market.The need for higher bandwidth in kenyan businesses is rising. We are currently experiencing a trend where services that were previously on local servers at each individual company are now moving to the Internet as cloud-based services. In addition, the use of video services in businesses is also increasing, both for live use and for training.The opportunities for savings through the use of cloud-based services are substantial, but services such as email, document storage and sharing, and accounting software require a stable and secure Internet connection with high capacity. Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd has therefore set in motion a vigorous investment programme into fibre optic broadband for the business market, both in terms of Internet access and virtual private networks (VPNs). With fibre optic broadband,  companies will be ready for tomorrow’s digital solutions.</p>
<h2>Simple model</h2>
<p>Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd has been building fibre optic infrastructure for the business market for many years. The model, now being used as a basis by the company for its proactive initiatives, will make fibre optic services more accessible to the nation’s businesses, including small and medium sized companies. The prerequisite is that there must be a minimum customer potential in an area for the company to start expansion.When a customer contacts us wanting a fibre optic connection, we check the company’s location and proximity to other companies. All companies in urban areas with a certain concentration of businesses will be able to receive fibre optic broadband from Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd.</p>
<h2>Modernising the copper network</h2>
<p>Even though Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd is now investing heavily in fibre optic, DSL broadband over the copper network will still be the technology that offers the best coverage across kenya for a long time to come. Therefore, Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd will in parallel with the fibre optic expansion also be upgrading the copper network in several places.In areas where  broadband is on several different technologies, Telkom Orange Kenya Ltd consider replacing the copper network with faster technology. A course of modernisation such as this will take place over many years, and no services of solutions will be removed before they are able to offer something that is at least as good. They will then help customers to move to new solutions, and  will notify customers well in advance within the applicable notice periods and existing agreement terms.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Source:internet(www.samwelkariuki.blogspot.com)</p>
<p>Author:Samwel Kariuki Njeri</p><br />  <a rel="nofollow" href="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/gocomments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/151/"><img alt="" border="0" src="http://feeds.wordpress.com/1.0/comments/sknjeri.wordpress.com/151/" /></a> <img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=151&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></content:encoded>
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  <title>Fibre Optics in relation to Cloud computing</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/11/19/fibre-optics-in-relation-to-cloud-computing/</link>
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  <pubDate>Tue, 19 Nov 2013 07:16:26 +0000</pubDate>
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  <description><![CDATA[   Until very recently, broadband availability in Africa was a major issue for both businesses and individuals. It limited access to modern business programmes and applications, including access to the cloud, that are taken for granted in many countries. Cloud computing has the capability to transform how businesses in Africa operate, whilst the rise of [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=141&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<div dir="ltr">   Until very recently, broadband availability in Africa was a major issue for both</div>
<div dir="ltr">businesses and individuals. It limited access to modern business programmes and</div>
<div dir="ltr">applications, including access to the cloud, that are taken for granted in many</div>
<div dir="ltr">countries. Cloud computing has the capability to transform how businesses in</div>
<div dir="ltr">Africa operate, whilst the rise of smartphones and tablet devices is increasing</div>
<div dir="ltr">consumer use of the cloud to access a rapidly expanding mix of applications in</div>
<div dir="ltr">areas such as social media, entertainment and education.</div>
<div dir="ltr">A symbiotic relationship exists between cloud computing and bandwidth – each</div>
<div dir="ltr">supporting the growth of the other. Cost-effective access to reliable, high-capacity and</div>
<div dir="ltr">affordable bandwidth is vital to the evolution of cloud computing in Africa, which is</div>
<div dir="ltr">itself a driver for the continuing deployment and activation of terrestrial and submarine</div>
<div dir="ltr">fibre-optic network capacity.</div>
<div dir="ltr">     An emerging ICT industry in Africa is anticipating that its future will be dependent on</div>
<div dir="ltr">serving customers and businesses through mobile cloud applications. With the rapid</div>
<div dir="ltr">uptake of smartphones in Africa, many region-specific mobile device applications are</div>
<div dir="ltr">being developed and the continent is gaining a reputation as a centre for innovation in</div>
<div dir="ltr">this sector &#8211; one prime example being iHub in Nairobi, Kenya, an open space for</div>
<div dir="ltr">technologists, investors and technology companies interested in developing innovative</div>
<div dir="ltr">IT products. The space is a community technology facility, with a focus on young</div>
<div dir="ltr">entrepreneurs, web and mobile phone programmers, designers and researchers. The</div>
<div dir="ltr">concept of the iHub is the first of its kind in Kenya and there is great expectation it will</div>
<div dir="ltr">spur on the technology revolution throughout Africa.</div>
<div dir="ltr">      Cloud computing was initially developed for business use, offering opportunities for</div>
<div dir="ltr">increased mobility, flexibility and scalability and the ability to move from capex to opex.</div>
<div dir="ltr">However, it has also turned out to be of enormous benefit to the millions of people in</div>
<div dir="ltr">rural areas who don’t own a computer and whose lives can be changed dramatically by</div>
<div dir="ltr">a couple of mobile applications. Safaricom’s M-PESA mobile payment system, for</div>
<div dir="ltr">example, allows its customers to transfer money to each other via mobile phones,</div>
<div dir="ltr">without the need to visit a bank or ATM, and has largely replaced cash transactions in</div>
<div dir="ltr">Kenya. Governments are also supporting such technological developments, anticipating</div>
<div dir="ltr">cloud-based technology will help transform economies, improve education and public</div>
<div dir="ltr">health, and even protect the environment.</div>
<div dir="ltr">  However, there is one other group of potential beneficiaries linked to the emergence of</div>
<div dir="ltr">cloud computing &#8211; telcos and ISPs selling connectivity and services to their customers.</div>
<div dir="ltr">Development of the cloud services market in Africa depends heavily upon continued</div>
<div dir="ltr">service provider investment in network infrastructure to maintain a reliable, high-quality</div>
<div dir="ltr">service. As Africa’s carriers’ carrier, WIOCC is ideally placed to observe changing</div>
<div dir="ltr">bandwidth requirements. Its ability to provide cost-effective, reliable, international</div>
<div dir="ltr">connectivity to carriers in Africa will keep it at the forefront of future developments in</div>
<div dir="ltr">the cloud arena.
<div dir="ltr"><a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1370629_10201363810171706_382205882_o.jpg"><img class="size-full wp-image" id="i-142" alt="Image" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/1370629_10201363810171706_382205882_o.jpg?w=650" width="237" height="411" /></a></div>
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  <title>BUILDING YOUR MOBILE APP ON CLOUD IN LESS THAN AN HOUR</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/building-your-mobile-app-on-cloud-in-less-than-an-hour-2/</link>
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  <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 09:48:18 +0000</pubDate>
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    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/building-your-mobile-app-on-cloud-in-less-than-an-hour/">BUILDING YOUR MOBILE APP ON CLOUD IN LESS THAN AN HOUR</a>.</p>
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  <title>BUILDING YOUR MOBILE APP ON CLOUD IN LESS THAN AN HOUR</title>
  <link>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/building-your-mobile-app-on-cloud-in-less-than-an-hour/</link>
  <comments>https://sknjeri.wordpress.com/2013/07/10/building-your-mobile-app-on-cloud-in-less-than-an-hour/#comments</comments>
  <pubDate>Wed, 10 Jul 2013 09:20:30 +0000</pubDate>
  <dc:creator><![CDATA[samwelkariuki]]></dc:creator>
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  <description><![CDATA[Two of the hottest topics in technology today are “mobile” and “cloud.” They are at the top of most CTOs list of objectives, yet they also seem to be the ones most shrouded in mystery. So where do our young Kenyan tech savvy and/or computer aficionados start? With the video and do-it-yourself guide below! This [&#8230;]<img alt="" border="0" src="https://pixel.wp.com/b.gif?host=sknjeri.wordpress.com&#038;blog=51744474&#038;post=132&#038;subd=sknjeri&#038;ref=&#038;feed=1" width="1" height="1" />]]></description>
    <content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Two of the hottest topics in technology today are “mobile” and “cloud.” They are at the top of most CTOs list of objectives, yet they also seem to be the ones most shrouded in mystery. So where do our young Kenyan tech savvy and/or computer aficionados start?</p>
<p>With the video and do-it-yourself guide below!</p>
<p>This<a href="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/2013-05-17-14-06-14.jpg"><img class="size-medium wp-image-137 alignright" alt="2013-05-17 14.06.14" src="https://sknjeri.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/2013-05-17-14-06-14.jpg?w=225&#038;h=300" width="225" height="300" /></a> year, at NCSIT 2013 Nairobi, I ran a session where we built a complete database-backed web application from scratch using the SpringSource Tool Suite and the Grails framework for Java. Then, we published the application to Cloud Foundry—an open VMcloud Platform-as-a-Service offering. Finally, we proceeded to build a mobile application that consumed the data from the web application built earlier.  I broke a cardinal rule by doing the entire session live, but it all went off without a hitch and audience participation with the application was an absolute blast. By the time we were done, we had built two applications from the ground up, and folks had an application that looked, smelled, and tasted like a native mobile application running on their phones. And, we did all of this in less than one hour!</p>
<p>In the months since, I have had multiple interactions with STEM advocates for Africa,start-ups Innovation firms in Kenya,Youth initiative programs directed towards Konza city and OpenWorld Ltd attendees. I have heard from many who followed the session content—they were building their own mobile applications using the same technologies and using the guide we used at OpenWorld!</p>
<p>In particular, a gentleman in the audience interrupted me recently as I was presenting at an event in Sarova Panafric. As I started talking about Cloud Foundry, he said that he was in our OpenWorld session and had redone the whole lab himself. And, the best part of his interruption? He wasn’t a traditional programmer. He was more focused on infrastructure, which was very rewarding to hear.  These are the things that make it fun to get up and go to work each day.</p>
<p>During the OpenWorld session we talked a bit about the “mobile dilemma” and the challenges that exist in mobile application development.  In this post, I thought I would:<br />
a) trim down the session content into just the programming pieces,<br />
b) make a video to share with the blogosphere,<br />
c) provide a complete “Do It Yourself Guide” to download and follow along.</p>
<p>The guide is a walkthrough and very basic introduction to some 101 “mobile web” concepts and technologies.  So, let me attempt to pull on my flame-proof suit up front with the following disclaimers:</p>
<p>This is not a formal dissertation on proper enterprise mobile application development methodologies and lifecycle management.<br />
This is not a “full stack” bootcamp that will make you a mobile rockstar.<br />
This is not a formal class on any specific development technology.<br />
This is not a  “best practices” view on mobile development.<br />
This is not a substitute for taking a proper mobile development course!</p>
<p>The purpose of this blog post is to simply have some fun and provide a simple introduction to help folks write their own mobile applications using a web technology stack that could easily be scaled in the future. And, I wanted to do it with technologies that<br />
a) folks could go and grab easily and<br />
b) implement immediately without having to buy anything, require existing services, or have any other “stuff” to deal with.  We will show you everything: from how to sign up for your very own Cloud Foundry account and download the SpringSource Tool Suite; to writing the web and mobile applications.  All from scratch.</p>
<p>In my travels,trainings and interactions, I find many enterprises big and small(SMEs) struggling to get started in this space.  Most everybody has a mobile application of some sort nowadays, but many times they are little more than what used to be a static website in the late 90’s.  Or perhaps, it’s a marketing tool.  More times than not, the entire development process was outsourced.  But now, people want to start building mobile apps themselves with real data and real logic.  And, they want real applications that provide business value or competitive differentiation. A good example of such an application is &#8220;OpenBusiness&#8221; which is 100% Kenyan made from design to the functionalities that befit the Kenyan business environment. My hope is that you will get an introduction to some technologies that allow you to reuse the web skills you have in house to build your very own mobile applications and use the experience as a launching pad into your next generation mobile strategy.</p>
<p>If nothing else, I hope you have some fun and can show off your new crazy mad mobile chops to your friends!  <img width='16' height='16' class='wp-smiley emoji' draggable='false' alt=':-)' src='https://s1.wp.com/wp-content/mu-plugins/wpcom-smileys/simple-smile.svg' style='height: 1em; max-height: 1em;' /></p>
<p>Now go build something!</p>
<p>Author:Samwel</p>
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