SMEs must look beyond anti-virus

Johannesburg, 19 Oct 2007

SMEs too often believe if they have anti-virus, their systems are protected, says Chris van Niekerk, country manager at McAfee.

He will address delegates at ITWeb`s upcoming Technology Roadmaps Conference on 31 October, in Bryanston, Johannesburg.

According to an online survey done by ITWeb prior to the event, SMEs highlighted information security as one of the biggest challenges they face.

"SMEs need to look beyond anti-virus. Current statistics show how the biggest growth in cyber-crime is not viruses at all, but things like Trojans, keyloggers, etc," Van Niekerk explains.

He explains that smaller entities need to start focusing on issues such as intrusion prevention, data loss prevention, and security issues relating to mobility.

McAfee partners with companies that can provide managed services to the SME, he says. "I`d suggest SMEs rather employ managed services and get properly assessed, instead of just buying a product."

Infrastructure costs

According to the survey, another challenge for the SME was the cost and management involved in ICT infrastructure.

"Smaller companies are advised to look at pre-integrated business process platforms that come out of the box," explains Alvin Paules, chief technology architect at SAP Africa.

SAP has found and integrated all the components of the business process platform to cut down on costs, he adds.

At the Technology Roadmaps Conference, Paules will review SAP`s technology roadmap, explore the collaborative eco-system roadmap process for an industry, and examine the link between enterprise architecture, roadmaps and strategy.

Do the 2.0

Victoria Bracewell Lewis, senior analyst at Forrester Research, will also speak at the conference. She will explore what Web 2.0 can mean for business.

Albie Bester, product marketing manager of infrastructure servers at Microsoft South Africa, will discuss the company`s IT portfolio now and for the future.