Intelligent CIO Africa Issue 31 | Page 7

NEWS Google unveil a subsea cable connecting Africa with Europe G oogle has introduced Equiano, a new private subsea cable that will connect Africa with Europe. Once complete, Equiano will start in western Europe and run along the West Coast of Africa, between Portugal and South Africa, with branching units along the way that can be used to extend connectivity to additional African countries. The first branch is expected to land in Nigeria. Google’s private subsea cables all carry the names of historical luminaries, and Equiano is no different. Named for Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian-born writer and abolitionist who was enslaved as a boy, the Equiano cable is state-of-the-art infrastructure based on space-division multiplexing (SDM) technology, with approximately 20 times more network capacity than the last cable built to serve this region. Equiano will be the first subsea cable to incorporate optical switching at the fibre-pair level, rather than the traditional approach of wavelength-level switching. This greatly simplifies the allocation of cable capacity, giving the flexibility to add and reallocate it in different locations as needed. The first phase of the project, connecting South Africa with Portugal, is expected to be completed in 2021. Equiano will connect Africa with Europe ///////////////// Redstor launches mobile app that provides secure access to data R edstor has launched a new app, giving customers instant, secure access to their data from their mobile devices. It is the latest initiative by the company that is disrupting the world of data management with pioneering technology developed in South Africa. With Redstor Mobile for Android and iOS, customers can: • • • • reducing investment in primary storage. Redstor also enables organisations to simplify deployment and billing, improve security and obtain borderless visibility of their entire data estate. Connect and manage multiple accounts on a single device Browse, download and share files Monitor usage trends View history and status of backup tasks Developed in response to customer demand, the new app is the latest automated feature in Redstor’s unique cloud data management solution. Thomas Campbell, Technical Services Director at Redstor, said: “This new mobile app provides users with data management and access to data wherever they are. It is free to download, available to all Redstor cloud customers and is already attracting great interest.” As part of a long-term strategy to treble revenue by 2020, Redstor is offering improved ways of tackling compliance, data growth, recovery from ransomware attacks, flexible cloud integration and www.intelligentcio.com INTELLIGENTCIO 7