AWS VMware Solutions

When it comes to migrating from an on-premise data center to the cloud, organizations have a variety of options to choose from. One of the most popular options is to use AWS VMware Solutions. This approach allows organizations to run their VMware workloads on the AWS infrastructure, while still being able to leverage the benefits of the cloud.
To set up AWS VMware Solutions for storage, we recommend the following steps:
Begin by creating an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instance with the VMware Cloud on AWS. This will allow you to run your VMware workloads on the AWS infrastructure.
Next, establish a connection between your on-premise data center and the AWS infrastructure by creating an Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) with a VPC peering connection.
To provide storage for your VMware workloads, create an Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volume and attach it to your EC2 instance. EBS provides scalable, high-performance block storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances.
Additionally, you can create an Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) file system and mount it to your EC2 instance. EFS provides a shared, elastic file storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances.
Finally, configure your VMware environment to use the EBS and EFS storage, this will help you leverage the benefits of the AWS storage services for your VMware workloads.
It is important to note that migrating to the cloud, including setting up AWS VMware Solutions, can be a complex process, and working with an experienced AWS Partner like Altron Systems Integration can help ensure a smooth and successful migration.

Disaster recovery is a critical aspect of any business's operations

Disaster recovery is a critical aspect of any business's operations, and in today's fast-paced digital environment, it is more important than ever to have a robust strategy in place to protect your data and systems. One of the advantages of using cloud-based services like Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the ability to implement disaster recovery without the need for additional software or hardware.
AWS Backup is a great example of an agentless disaster recovery service that can be used to protect your data. With AWS Backup, businesses can centralize and automate the backup of their data across AWS services, including Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS), Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS), and Amazon DynamoDB. This service allows businesses to schedule backups, set retention policies, and quickly restore their data in the event of a disaster.
Another agentless service that can be used for disaster recovery is Amazon S3. S3 is a highly durable and scalable storage service that can be used as a data lake to store and archive your data, including backups. This enables businesses to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web and can be used to replicate data to different regions for disaster recovery purposes.
Amazon CloudWatch is another agentless service that can be used for monitoring your AWS resources and the applications you run on AWS. CloudWatch enables you to collect, analyze, and view metrics, collect and monitor log files, and set alarms. This service can be used to track the performance of your systems and services and proactively identify any potential issues that may impact your disaster recovery efforts.
AWS Storage Gateway is also an agentless service that enables you to store data in the cloud by connecting to Amazon S3 and Amazon Glacier. This service enables you to store backups and archive data in the cloud and can be used to replicate data to different regions for disaster recovery purposes.
In summary, AWS offers several agentless disaster recovery services that can be used to protect your data and systems. These services allow businesses to implement disaster recovery strategies without the need for additional software or hardware and can help ensure that their critical data and systems are always available and accessible, even in the event of a disaster.

Disaster recovery is an important aspect of any business's operations

Disaster recovery is an important aspect of any business's operations, as it ensures that critical data and systems can be restored in the event of an unexpected disruption. One of the most effective ways to implement disaster recovery in the cloud is by using Amazon Web Services (AWS) and its various offerings.
One of the most popular disaster recovery options on AWS is using Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) for data storage. EBS allows businesses to take snapshots of their data and store them in Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) for safekeeping. This means that in the event of a disaster, businesses can quickly restore their data from these snapshots, minimizing downtime and ensuring the continuity of operations.
Another option for disaster recovery on AWS is the use of Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) instances with the Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) for data storage. EFS provides automatic data replication across multiple availability zones, ensuring that data is always available and accessible, even in the event of a disruption. This can be especially useful for businesses that rely on high-availability systems, such as those in the healthcare or financial industries.
Another cost-effective solution is the use of Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) with Multi-AZ deployment. This service automatically failover to a standby instance in case of primary instance failure, ensuring that the database is always available and minimizing downtime.
AWS Backup service is another great option that enables businesses to centralize and automate the backup of their data across AWS services. This can help businesses ensure that their critical data is always protected, even in the event of a disaster.
Overall, AWS offers a range of options for disaster recovery that can help businesses ensure that their operations are always up and running, even in the face of unexpected disruptions. By carefully assessing their specific needs and selecting the appropriate services, businesses can implement a robust disaster recovery strategy that will help them minimize downtime and maintain the continuity of operations.

AWS Lambda and Serverless Architecture: A Key Component of Digital Transformation

In today's fast-paced business environment, digital transformation has become a key driver of success. Companies of all sizes and across all industries are looking for ways to streamline their operations, reduce costs, and improve customer experiences. One of the key technologies that have emerged as a key enabler of digital transformation is serverless architecture, and one of the leading providers of serverless services is Amazon Web Services (AWS).

AWS Lambda is a serverless computing service that lets you run code without provisioning or managing servers. With Lambda, you can build applications and services that automatically scale to meet demand. This means that you only pay for the computing resources you use, and there is no need to worry about capacity planning or server maintenance.

One of the key benefits of using AWS Lambda and serverless architecture is that it enables organizations to focus on delivering value to their customers, rather than managing infrastructure. With serverless, you can build and deploy applications and services quickly and easily, without the need for complex and costly infrastructure. This means that you can iterate on your product or service faster, and get new features and functionality to market faster.

In addition, serverless architecture can also help organizations to reduce costs. Because you only pay for the computing resources you use, you can save money on infrastructure costs. Furthermore, with automatic scaling, you can ensure that you are only paying for the resources you need when you need them. This can help to reduce costs and improve efficiency.

Another key benefit of AWS Lambda and serverless architecture is security. With serverless, you don't have to worry about patching, updating, or securing servers. AWS takes care of all of that for you, so you can focus on building and delivering value to your customers.

In conclusion, AWS Lambda and serverless architecture are key components of digital transformation. They enable organizations to focus on delivering value to their customers, reduce costs, and improve security. With serverless, you can build and deploy applications and services quickly and easily, without the need for complex and costly infrastructure. As more and more companies adopt serverless as a key part of their digital transformation strategy, the benefits will continue to multiply.

Students Learn Computational Science and Engineering through Android Smartphones

Prof. Godfrey E. Akpojotor (Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria) 

The general goal of computational science and engineering is to use computational approaches as a means of understanding the various disciplines in science as well as useful training for the future, while retaining the characteristics of these all disciplines in education, in-order to integrate understanding and adaptive learning. Computational approaches help students develop a more intuitive feel for their disciplines. They learn useful and transferable skills that will make them well-sought-after in industrial and commercial environments. These graduates will be better prepared to tackle both theoretical and experimental research problems at the post-graduate level. The learners are eased into programming and given the opportunity to develop a conceptual model of what a program is, and what it does. 

The best strategy to achieve this mission is to adopt an accessible and easy-to-learn programming language. This was the reason for our choice of Python, which is an interpreted, interactive, object-oriented, free, open-source and extensible programming language. It combines clarity and readability, making it an extremely powerful and multipurpose language that can be used for various applications and resolving problems. 

There is, however, a major challenge: access to enough computing devices and computer time. A three-hour computational course requires three hours of lectures and another three hours of computer activities. Further, the computing devices should be connected to the internet to facilitate continuous assessments and examinations. My initial strategy to meet these targets was to get my university to seek partnership with a laptop provider, who could supply the students the laptops, with a payment plan included in their school fees or over the period of the years of study. After years of an unsuccessful effort to initiate this partnership, it was a great relief to adopt the QPython, which is the Python version on Android smartphone devices. It has been a boost to our Python African 

Computational Science and Engineering Tour (http://www.pacsetpro.com/) as it has made possible the teaching/learning of computational approaches to “science and engineering anywhere, anyhow, anytime.” Code-named QPython PACSETPro, its mission is similar in spirit to One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiated by Professor Nicholas Negroponte at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The Android phones are acquired, maintained and repaired by the individuals. Interestingly, there is already an increasing penetration of smartphones including low-cost Android phones into all parts of Africa and many of the low-cost versions are even compatible with QPython! 

The strategy of QPython PACSETPro is to provide continually updates of the QPython and third party libraries important for scientific computing in Android phones - and hopefully in other smartphones in the future. Apart from the small keyboard and small screen, one major limitation of QPython is that only the built-in Math module is currently available for scientific computing. Therefore, many of the computing capabilities in third party libraries like NumPy and SciPy are not currently available in QPython. However, after about two years of adoption of the QPython in my undergraduate computational courses and in training workshops, we have been able to figure out a number of alternatives available in the math module. For example, we replaced the poly1d function in NumPy with the lambda expression in Math for creating arbitrary functions. Beyond these alternatives, the developers of QPython, hence our small but now rapidly growing community of QPythonists, are committed to future stable versions of the QPython compatible with the plotting capabilities of the Matplotlab module and the navigable 3D displays and animation capabilities of the VPython module. These accomplishments will add to the current very captivating capability of QPython: helping developers to develop Android applications. The presentation at the Education Summit of the Python 

Community Conference (PyCon 2019) held in Cleveland, Ohio, US in May 2019 (https://pyvideo.org/pycon-us-2019/adopting-qpython-insmartphones-for-teachinglearning-computational-science-and-engineering.html) was well received. The chairperson, who was a Google programmer, pointed out that this project needs to be extended to reach all underserved communities in other low-income countries in the world such as her own country of India. Finally, Guido van Rossum, who is the author of the Python programming the language was amazed at the already available capabilities of the Python in Android phones, and the possibility of now using the QPython for teaching/learning programming anywhere, anyhow, and anytime.

Faster Networks for Research and Education

Faster Networks for Research and Education

N. Chetty, Physics Department, University of Pretoria, South Africa

The African Research and Education Network (AFREN) met in Kampala, Uganda, 17-18 June 2019. The

meeting brought together National Research and Education Network (NREN) and regional REN technical

experts, managers and operators on the one hand and university and research leaders on the other

hand. Together they discussed the importance of RENs, to advocate for growing the national and

regional RENs in Africa, to outline services and potential new services provided by RENs, and to hear

directly from the research and education community about their REN needs. The AFREN conversation is

extremely important for growing the research linkages in Africa, and with physics being a lead discipline,

there is much hope and expectation that we are moving in the direction of increased intra-African

collaboration in physics for the future. The meeting was organized by the Association of African Universities. The context for the meeting was the African Union - Continental Education Strategy for Africa 2016-2025 (CESA 16-25). 

Meeting discussion points 

NRENs are important for the academic enterprise in any country. The goal of NRENs is to provide-low cost, high-bandwidth connectivity for research and teaching. NRENs provide services to the academic and research community that go well beyond simply providing network connectivity. It is in this respect that NRENs are different from commercial Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Major Objectives for RENs 

1. Provide scientific research and education institutions with reliable means of communication in order to facilitate ease of cooperation and coordination. 

2. Strengthen the notion of partnership and encourage joint scientific research among communities. 

3. Minimize the cost of research by using diversified academic and technical resources to be made available for use on the network with no need for duplicating investment. 

4. The fact that students, teaching staff, and researchers use such dedicated networks would eventually, uplift efficiency and productivity and would boost the concept of creativity and innovation. 

Major services provided by RENs 

1. Unified connectivity to all research and education institutions to provide country-wide standard communication facilities and capabilities to faculty, researchers, students, and staff, leading to better sharing of services, resources, information, data, knowledge and expertise. 

2. Consolidated Internet services, with the NREN acting as an ISP to universities and research institutions. Available statistics in some countries have shown that savings can go up to 40% on access costs while enabling common access policies and configurations at the national level. 

3. Connectivity to regional research networks, providing opportunities for joint research collaboration and online education initiatives. 

4. Access to content, common repositories, and library resources of all universities with a unified subscription to all journals and periodicals for all universities and research centres. 

5. Video conferencing services, media streaming, IP telephony, access federations, and wireless roaming for the purpose of facilitating communications, exchanges of lectures, and coordination of meetings, training and conferences between all users in universities and institutes. 

6. Consolidated agreements with software vendors on behalf of all universities for licensing, with savings reaching up to 50% in some cases. 

7. Common caching, filtering and anti-spam and anti-virus protection services provided by NRENs to all connected institutions. 

8. Furthermore, an NREN can be eligible to create and manage a national Internet Exchange depending on the regulations of the Country, and provide domain name registry services and networking consultancy. 

Implementing Research and Education Networks 

The REN model has been shown to work all around the globe. However, it is a challenge to convince governments in many African countries to provide funds for NRENs because they don’t always appear to appreciate the importance of NRENs. There is an urgent need to bring government officials, university and research leaders as well as academics together in many African countries to begin to develop and strengthen the NREN jointly, which should be seen to be much more than simply providing infrastructure. NRENs should be seen to be independent organizations funded largely by governments. The organizational structure of NRENs was repeatedly stressed by various speakers. NRENs need to be managed by the user community (the Higher Education sector and Research Institutions) so that the service provided can readily link with the needs of the community. There are best practices for governance for NRENs that are not always freely implementable because of political interference in some African countries. 

Why does Africa need NRENs? 

African scientists are not sufficiently connected with each other across national boundaries. It was repeatedly mentioned that African scientists are more inclined to cooperate with the global North than within Africa. NRENs are essential, but so too is connectivity within Africa. There are three regional RENs, with the names WACREN (West and Central African Research and Educational Network), ASREN (Arab States Research and Educational Network) and Ubuntunet, all of which aim to enhance connectivity on a regional basis in the continent. African Connect is a program funded by the European Union that has supported the regional development of RENs. In the era of the rapid increase in data sizes, for example in astronomy, high energy physics, genomics, medicine, etc., it is imperative that African academics have access to greater bandwidth for scientific research and collaborations. Accessing high-performance computing resources and large research data sets is critical for scientists working in less developed countries. Concerns were expressed about cybersecurity, and the need for the NREN community to learn from each other about ways to counter this growing international scourge. The idea of a virtual research and education college was discussed extensively and argued to be very realizable in the era of growing NRENs in Africa. Here, real-time communications were highlighted as important, for example in connecting with a collaborator in Africa or abroad, or a remote supervisor or thesis examiner, or presenting a seminar or an interactive lecture series to participants elsewhere in Africa. Sharing expert human resources over the network means that the quality of research and education can grow significantly, particularly in rural Africa where that capacity might not be strong. 

Data Science Training Opportunities In South Africa

Here we going to talk about a list of possible courses to take in order to learn data science in Mzansi.  You can take online classes or old school classroom classes, it is really up to you. So without wasting any time let me present to you :

Data Science Training In South Africa

Explore Data Science Academy’s 1 Year Data Science Programme

Course description: The EXPLORE Data Science Academy is the premier Data Science Academy in South Africa and teaches students the skills that matter: how to solve real-world problems using the latest Data Science technologies that have emerged. Our Data Science Accredited Skills Programme is an intense one year course that teaches students what they need to know: how to work with SQL like a Pro, how to code in Python like a mamba and how to use the latest machine learning algorithms like a ninja.

Location: Cape Town and Gauteng Campuses

Duration: 1 Year

Cost: The course is fully sponsored by BCX, and covers living expenses for students.

Prerequisites: You do not need any specific qualifications. You just need to exhibit a strong aptitude for solving complex problems, a flair with numbers and an ambition to make a difference. Our selection criteria are based on a series of challenging aptitude tests. If you show that you have what it takes then you will have a free pass to our Academy for 2019.

Learn More: https://www.explore-datascience.net/

The Knowledge Academy’s Data Science Analytics

Course description: This 1-day course will help you develop your skills to become a successful Data Analyst. By taking this course, you will be able to successfully study different types of data and turn it into a valuable source of information. You will also be able to learn various theories which include digital, technological and analytical techniques

Location: Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria, Port Elizabeth

Duration: 1 day

Cost: R28,365

Prerequisites: None

Learn More: https://www.theknowledgeacademy.com/za/courses/big-data-and-analytics-training/data-science-analytics/

University of the Western Cape’s Postgraduate Diploma in Data Analytics and Business Intelligence

Course description: An interdisciplinary curriculum of analytical and qualitative studies incorporates the disciplines of business management, information systems, statistics and computer science to be followed by an internship during which candidates need to demonstrate their ability to solve complex problems.

Location: Cape Town

Duration: 18 months, part-time

Cost: R50 000

Prerequisites: Admission requirements for the degree include a B-degree with an average of 55% for exit modules in Information Systems, Business Management, Computer Science or Statistics - or a B-degree (or equivalent) with two years relevant working experience.

Learn More: https://www.uwc.ac.za/News/Pages/Business-Intelligence-and-Data-Analytics-Course.aspx

University of Cape Town GetSmarter’s Data Analysis Short Course

Course description: On this data analysis online course, you’ll practice on real-world data sets and learn valuable skills to drive effective decision-making in your organisation. You'll walk away from this course with a sought-after skill set and a certificate in data analysis, backed by UCT, making you an asset to any organisation.

Location: Online

Duration: 8 weeks, with between 7 and 11 hours’ effort per week.

Cost: R14500

Prerequisites: None

Learn More: https://www.getsmarter.com/courses/za/uct-data-analysis-online-short-course

SANSA Space Operations tracking Chandrayaan 2 to the Moon

South africa has a great relationship with India in Science.

Chandrayaan 2 carried 13 different payloads, which were distributed across three modules. The payload were sent to the Moon aboard ISRO’s Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-MkIII (GSLV Mk-III) rocket engine.

“The work being conducted at Hartebeesthoek is of great significance in the advancement of space science and engineering. When we are involved in missions such as the one by India, it demonstrates our capabilities to operate competitively within the international space market,” says Business Development Manager of SANSA Space Operations, Tiaan Strydom.

You can find the rest of the story in https://www.sansa.org.za/2019/08/08/sansa-space-operations-tracking-chandrayaan-2-to-the-moon/

DATA SCIENCE IS THE FUTURE!

Data science is one of the leading sciences in the fourth industrial revolution and South Africans should take advantage of that. There are many programs which give courses on data science and some of them are free. African Institute of Mathematical Science is hosting a workshop in Capetown.

Data science has become very popular in the last decade due to spectacular successes in many signal processing and machine learning tasks. Mathematics plays a key role for the understanding and development of corresponding computational methods. A particular striking sub-area is compressive sensing which predicts that many types of signals can be recovered from seemingly incomplete data. This discovery has led to huge research activities on many applications and has triggered new developments in mathematics including optimization, approximation theory, statistics and high-dimensional probability theory.

Deep learning outperforms traditional methods in image classification, computer vision, natural language processing, and even in playing games. However, mathematical theory supporting the mostly empirical work in data science is largely missing and mathematicians are just starting to consider this challenging problem of major practical importance. The school aims to introduce participants to some the underpinning mathematical foundations (mainly methods developed in, and/or motivated by, compressed sensing) of data science. By the end of the school participants would be sufficiently armed with the mathematical tools and techniques to potentially undertake theoretical research in data science. For more information please visit https://aims.ac.za/2019/04/18/spring-school-on-mathematics-of-data-science/

Dates: 23 - 27 September 2019

Venue : AIMS South Africa, Muizenberg, Cape Town