What's Next with Aki Anastasiou

In this What’s Next episode, Aki Anastasiou discusses the future of SMS with tech experts Charles Stretch and James Pearce, the founders and joint CEOs of SMSPortal. Stretch and Pearce have built SMSPortal from a garage-based start-up to an international player and the biggest bulk SMS provider in Africa. In this episode, Stretch and Pearce give some background on the journey of SMSPortal and how...

Kobus Burnett is a storage and tech expert who is currently the territory lead for South, East, and West Africa at Seagate. Burnett has worked at Seagate since 2019 and has more than 10 years’ experience with the Seagate brand. In this What’s Next interview, Burnett shares some of the exciting features consumers can experience with Seagate’s One Touch portable drive series, including massive stora...

In this What’s Next episode, Aki Anastasiou talks to security experts Guy Golan, the CEO and co-founder of the Performanta Group, and Paul Green, the Services Director at Identity Experts. Golan and Green discuss the acquisition of Identity Experts by the Performanta Group and how the acquisition allows Performanta to extend its security capabilities across the Microsoft portfolio. They also share...

Ryan Ramawoothar is an experienced business executive and a senior software and cloud specialist at First Technology. Ramawoothar has been with First Technology since 2017 and has a history of working in the SaaS and cloud industries. In this What’s Next interview, Ramawoothar discusses the typical problems and challenges business face to become POPIA compliant and shares how the Microsoft Complia...

Simon Just is a leading ICT expert and the Cluster Executive of Advisory, Solutions and Group Marketing at EOH and iOCO. In this What’s Next episode, Simon shares how the work environment has changed over in recent times, and what the future of work looks like.

Mike Styer is an IT industry veteran and the country manager of GlassHouse South Africa. GlassHouse South Africa is a leader in managed services, backup, recovery, business continuity, and managed SAP services and systems monitoring. In his second What’s Next interview, Styer provides background on legacy SAP systems and shares insight into SAP’s modern upgrades. Styer provides key reasons for bus...

Ricky Pereira is a leading ICT distribution expert serving as the Dell Technologies Enterprise Business Unit Manager at Pinnacle, a leading ICT distribution company and authorised distributor for Dell Technologies in South Africa. In this episode of What’s Next, Pereira discusses how the pandemic accelerated the demand for enterprise solutions and how Pinnacle had adapted to the changing demands....

Pieter Pienaar is the Chief Executive Officer at Informed Decisions and a leading ICT executive in South Africa. In this What’s Next interview, Pienaar shares details around why Informed Decisions was started and the unique solutions they provide. Pienaar gives some insight into the future growth of IoT, their crowning achievement, and what the future holds for Informed Decisions.

Owen McConnell is an experienced software professional and the Director of Commercial Sales at Zendesk in EMEA. In this What’s Next episode, McConnell talks about digital transformation and the change in customer experience which has been aided by technology.

Mike Styer is an accomplished technology executive with more than 30 years’ experience in the information technology sector. In this What’s Next episode, Styer shares how the Covid pandemic had impacted organisations’ ability to protect their data and discusses cyber recovery and its importance for organisations.

Brett van Rensburg is a top ICT expert and the Sales Director for the Network Division of iOCO, Africa’s leading integrated technology services company. In this What’s Next interview, Van Rensburg discussed the advantages and challenges of a hybrid workforce and shares insight into the different remote access options for organisations, and the benefits of each option.

In this interview, Aki Anastasiou talks to two cyber security experts from Nexio South Africa, Brett Orwin and Guy Shannon, about how SMEs are being breached and why cyber security solutions for SME’s are often too complex, resource inefficient, and costly. Brett Orwin is the EHOD: Network and Collaboration at Nexio South Africa and has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecommunications and...

Donna Mostert is the Huawei Line of Business Manager at Mustek Limited. Donna is a high achieving, well networked, entrepreneurial Business Executive with an outstanding record of maximizing opportunities and growth within the most challenging and competitive environments. As a business leader, she has developed a B2B multi-disciplined and multi-cultural sales teams as well as customer and busines...

Morgan Malyon is the Executive Product Manager/Senior Solution's Manager Huawei Enterprise Technologies. Morgan is a skilled and highly innovative Senior Product Manager within the Information and Communications Technology sector. His strength and experience lie within the Data Centre environment, including data protection, disaster recovery, high availability, replication, virtualisation, SAN con...

Greg McDonald is Director – Systems Engineering at Dell Technologies in South Africa. A data centre evangelist, Greg draws on his deep technical expertise to convey to customers and the press what Dell Technologies can achieve through Digital Transformation. He leads a passionate team of system engineers, engaging with a wide range of customers, from small business to enterprise, across verticals...

Deon Geyser was appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Liquid Intelligent Technologies SA and brings over 15 years' experience in the ICT and Telco space, having worked in different countries across the African continent.

Phathizwe Malinga is the Managing Director at SqwidNet. He has been involved in the information technology and telecommunication industries for over two decades and has held several senior management level positions. As the Managing Director of SqwidNet, a fully-owned subsidiary of Dark Fibre Africa, Phathizwe is responsible for building an IoT connectivity business in South Africa in partnership...

Joe Robertson represents Fortinet to the CISO community, where he advises the executive committees of large enterprises and service providers as their digital transformation strategies require security-driven networks and holistic security approaches. In over four decades in the security and networking business Joe has held technical, marketing, management, and executive roles at companies as dive...

Vino Govender is the Chief of Strategy, Mergers and Acquisitions, and Innovation at DFA. He has held key roles in the ICT industry in African market leaders such as Liquid Telecoms, MTN, Vodacom, Neotel, Telkom, Nokia Siemens Networks, and BMI-T. Vino is a Chartered Marketer (SA) who has shared his wealth of knowledge through numerous thought-leadership articles and published market reports. He is...

Lixiang Baumann is the Country Head for China Mobile International (CMI) South Africa and Southern Africa area. Lixiang is responsible for CMI South Africa and Southern Africa overall strategy, business development, operation as well as local partner management. Her strategic focus areas cover carrier business, enterprises business, mobile and platform business across the region. CMI offers a full...

Evgeniya Kosareva is an International Sales Account Manager at ITGLOBAL.COM. Evgeniya has a masters degree in Foreign Trade and wide experience in international communications with more than 8 years in the IT-sphere. She worked in purchasing, sales, served as a product manager and now represents ITGLOBAL.COM on a global stage.

Marina Ionova is an International Partnership Development Manager at ITGLOBAL.COM. Marina is a Cloud Expert with 10 years of experience in the IT industry, Cloud Business, hardware and infrastructural projects.

Barry Venter, CEO of Nashua has extensive experience in the Information Technology and Services Industry. His history includes General Manager of Operations at Allied Mobile, Chief Operating Officer at Nashua Mobile, Acting CEO at Nashua Mobile, Chief Operating Officer at Nashua and now CEO of Nashua. Barry’s qualifications include an BCom in Marketing Management followed by an MBA in General Mana...

Jean-Pierre Pienaar is a Cloud Optimization Practice Lead at Synthesis Software Technologies and he heads up the Synthesis Well-Architected Program. He has extensive AWS Cloud knowledge with seven AWS Certifications including Solutions Architect Professional, DevOps Professional, and Security Specialty. He has been a part of the cloud enablement and security of various financial institutions and h...

Glenn Du Toit was appointed General Manager of Acer Africa in April 2020. Prior to this, he served as Head of Consumer Business in Acer Africa overseeing the expansion of Acer's business into the African market. In 2014 Glenn was the founder of MyDigitalMunicipality an online platform to assist municipalities in the area of service delivery. In 2015, Glenn joined Acer Africa and has been involved...