What a ride! What a journey! What a story!
The number 25 has significance beyond just being a number. It signifies Salt's beginning, our growth and our continued drive to live and deliver our values everywhere.
CHALLENGE - EMPOWER - IMPACT
All great things start with a visionary leader that has what it takes to give live to a dream. One step at a time, and sometimes with leaps and bounds.
Salt's humble beginnings in Namibia started when Logical Networks was formed in 1998 by the South African Datatec Group as a specialist network design, installation, commissioning, and maintenance company. The team driving things behind the scenes knew that there is more Salt can to for the Namibian economy through smarter technology, and that is when in 2008 the name changed to Salt. Without Salt, the ocean is just dam water. We are the ocean to your business.
Every entrepreneur, company founder and owner will tell you, that the first step is the scariest and most exhilarating at the same time. And any chef worth his/hers Salt will tell you, the perfect recipe comes through hard work, trials, and error, and a never give up attitude.
We love celebrating the small things as much as we love celebrating our 25th birthday. We love changing people's lives one technology at a time. We are more than technology enthusiasts; we are leaders in making a difference. We love what we do, we love to CHALLENGE, we love to EMPOWER, and we love to IMPACT.
We love every day and every opportunity!
Salt would never have been here to celebrate this momentous occasion without the continued support from our customers, partners, distributors, and vendors and most of all, the Salties. You all have played such a crucial part in every success story we have to tell. There are not enough words to thank each one of you!
Here is to the next 25 years, and all our stakeholders continuing the journey with us!
Sonja Coetzer - Managing Director
Salt Essential IT (Pty) Ltd does not rest on its laurels. The company – celebrating its 25th birthday in March – has, yet again, made history by obliterating its own PMR.africa Diamond Arrow Awards winning streak.
The company has now been awarded three awards consecutively for four (4!) years. The award categories in which Salt has clinched the first spot and the coveted Diamond Arrow Awards are Cloud Service Providers, Data Centres, and IT Consulting Companies. No ICT company in the history of the business journal has even come close to this achievement. The 2022 awards bring Salt’s Diamond Arrow Awards tally to 20 in 10 years.
When the managing director, Sonja Coetzer is asked, “How do you do it?”, she responds with “It is never the how, it is always the why. ”
She continues, “Salt is honoured that our dedication to our clients through our client centric approach to delivery sees us winning these prestigious awards.Winning these awards 4 times in a row is truly a reason to celebrate.” “As we cannot enter, nominate or rate ourselves in this research, we are appreciative of the votes we receive, it makes the Why so much more worth it! The Why we are in business, is very important to us –we are in business to implement technology that optimises business and empowers people to effectively operate in a secure, productive, and sustainable manner .”
Coetzer explains that every Saltie embraces our mission and vision that is a living embodiment of our daily pursuit to deliver on our commitments. Salt’s evolution of the past 25 years has seen the company and its employees leading the market with solutions that disrupts industries in the Namibian market. Salt believes that enabled, empowered, and future-fit people are the most important asset a business can have to survive, grow and prosper.
“This is why we are in business. From inception we worked towards delivering technology that moved from being an architecture and systems provider to a partnership-based, human-centric business optimisation provider. And over the last 15 years, we’ve been continuously reinventing and refining this Why.”
“It is amazingly hard sometimes and we are not always successful the first time we try new technologies. Fortunately for our customers, by the time we recommend and implement tech in their space, they know we’ve thoroughly analysed and tested it, and we will do extraordinary effort to empower the people that will ultimately use it.”
Months before Covid-lockdowns in 2020, Salt was moving 4 thousand of users to cloud-computing services, but if ever Salt proved their fixation on future fitness, this was it. The company now serves 270 000 cloud-users at their customers across Namibia.
“Salt is a true team effort, and like most things, when the collective comes together greatness are delivered. Every Saltie’s dedication, commitment, and die-hard tenacity towards living and breathing our values every day is what makes all the difference at every customer.”
“The people at Salt enables your people to enable your business. That is our number one priority. And that’s why we are here.”
Sonja Coetzer - Managing Director
AI (Artificial Intelligence) is such a hot topic right now, with Chat GPT and Dalle taking the world by storm. But there is a darker side to AI that we as business owners and decision makers must be aware of.
I am convinced that if you are not yet harnessing the power of AI to protect your digital identities and assets, you will find yourself in a battle that you are not equipped to win.
The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to its knees, and it is by far not the greatest threat to humanity in history. We keep doing things the way we always have, not learning from our history and every time disaster strikes, we are unprepared.
In the previous millennia we could have blamed a lack of knowledge (not knowing that the cats ate the rats that carried the Yersinia pestis which caused the black plague,) as the root cause for the pandemic that decimated humanity's numbers. The root cause was actually the self-entitlement of the institutions in control of masses behaviour. Would the witch hunts still have taken place if the general population had been made aware of Yersinia pestis?
These are deep thoughts and much to ponder and speculate over, over a glass of Chardonnay.
The fact is we don’t have those excuses today. We know about Cybercrime. We are exposed to it on Social Media, from the media, that phone call telling you that you have won money that you did not even enter a competition for...
Just like with a disease, many people are taking all necessary precautions to avoid getting infected, but there are still many who refuse to admit that they can become infected. This behavior not only puts their own health at risk but also increases the risk of spread to others.
It is crucial to remember that, like a deadly virus, the effects of cybercrime are highly contagious, and anyone can become infected.
Traditional security is not enough. If you are not fighting AI with AI, you are heading to a gunfight with a knife.
Vanessa Maresch - Empowerment Specialist
A Microsoft exam might be daunting to study for and my fear of failure or constant anxieties don't help at all.
My first attempt for the AZ104 exam was on the 15th December 2022 and, boy, was I scared! I remember having breakfast and feeling like I forgot everything I studied. Well! After writing that day I scored 610/700, I was devastated . However, I had the best team ever who supported and motivated me to try again.
On my second try, I was wiser and made sure to prepare myself well. I am no expert but before I went for my second attempt, I followed these tips and would advice anyone to follow them:
I felt so ready, and I was confident in myself, the morning of the exam I was not even nervous because I was well prepared. I went back for my 2nd attempt on 24th January 2023, and I PASSED I got 710/700. Glad I pushed myself to nail this exam. It was an awesome experience!
I'm wishing you well on your upcoming examinations and BAG that certificate.
Selma Uushini - Service Desk Engineer
When it comes to IT peripherals, I just want it to be functional and practical. Easy to use, and easy to take on the road. A computer mouse, is a computer mouse, is a computer mouse. Right?
Wrong!
Who would have thought that one can get so excited about a mouse. Not the cartoon cheese eating mouse, but the mouse that helps you navigate your emails, documents, spreadsheets, and internet pages.
Well let me tell you about Logitech's POP mouse. I am in love!
The first cool feature is that it is a silent mouse. No click-click sounds! You can use it on up to three devices, as it is Bluetooth enabled. No more plugging and unplugging and plugging to with a little Bluetooth thingy that goes in the USB port. The funky middle button allows you to access emoticon's, alt key for special characters and symbols. (No more pressing the Windows key and full stop.) A right click that brings your toolbar to right where you are.
Sheila fits the palm of my hand. Yes, I had to name her.
What really got my super stoked is the environmental friendliness of this mouse. The plastic parts in the POP mouse include certified post-consumer recycled plastic. The paper packaging comes from FSC certified forests and other controlled sources. The carbon footprint has been reduced to zero through various intentional support and activities to sustain mother nature.
I LOVE MY POP MOUSE!
Sonja Coetzer - Managing Director
Since Salt's inception, 25 years ago, we have always been involved in our community by contributing in various ways, to make Namibia a better place to thrive. Namibia needs all of us to play a part in helping each other to build The House so that we can give hope to those in need and create a better future for all Namibians.
In 2022, as part of our branded corporate wear, we decided to incorporate socks. At about the same time we became aware of Project Never Walk Alone. It touched our hearts and we decided to sell some of our socks to raise money for this cause. The Never Walk Alone project focuses on disadvantaged Namibian children, starting with one of the basics we take for granted, proper school shoes.
The Salties are very proud that we raised N$5,612.71, and all the sales proceeds were donated to the Never Walk Alone initiative.
We want to thank each and every one that bought a pair of socks from Salt.
We still have some socks, if you are interested to know more visit the Rock your Socks On page on our website.
Vanessa Maresch - Empowerment Specialist
We're not a boastful bunch in general, but hey! Every so often a Saltie does something worthy of a big, public hoorah!
Yes, our very own Sonja Coetzer is speaking this weekend at the TEDxVinetaWomen event in Swakop. TEDxWomen events are about new ideas, new voices, and pushing boundaries. The theme of this event is Breaking the Bias.
This gathering will elevate the ideas of women connecting across generations to break the bias; inspire, ignite and uplift spirits. Sharing personal stories, stimulating conversations, and reigniting spirits with connections are always the hallmark of the TEDxWomen experience.
We know that being invited to speak at a TEDx event has been on Sonja's bucket list for a very long time, and we are super stoked with her, and incredibly proud to have her as our MD (Mother Dame) ;).
The title of Sonja's presentation is "Claim your seat at the table".
The event is this Saturday, 5 November, at the Swakopmund Plaza Hotel, 42 Libertina Amadthila Ave and it starts at 18:00.
It's a public event and limited tickets are available at https://tedxvinetawomen.com/ticket-purchase/
Sonja, you go girl! Break a leg. Let us celebrate our differences and embrace our diversity and the contrasting beauty of Namibia. Together we can #breakthebias
From all of us at Salt <3
With Ransomware and other ugly cybercrimes wreaking havoc in Namibia the past few weeks, it is critically important to understand that you have to have the right security in place to protect your user identities and digital property. If the worse does happen (because we are just human and the last line of defense can, and does fail) you need to have a backup in place so that you are not at the mercy of the criminals.
OneDrive is a Cloud Storage Application, where you stores files and folders that are accessible to you from all your devices. It ensures that wherever and whatever you are working form, it's the same file. It removes the need for saving as, emailing attachments, or have multiple versions with multiple people causing wasting of time and double work. It is a Synchronization Service which has the same file on multiple locations. You are able to restore previous versions of files, but if a previous version is restored and changed, the original is lost forever.
If you do need to restore files from months, or years ago, One Drive is not the solution, and it never proclaimed to be.
Now with backups, that is a different story. A backup is a is a copy of data (documents, files, etc) taken and stored elsewhere, so that it may be used to restore the original after the loss of a piece of data. The loss could be from criminal activities, maliciousness or purely in error; "oops I deleted it". It is best practice to have daily, weekly and monthly backups, and they should be kept offsite. Having the backup in your safe next to your server room is quite pointless.
The misconception that One Drive is a backup is very dangerous to your business's continuity. If you want to start mitigating this risk, Salt has managed to secure free trials from both Acronis and Veeam for our customers, should you be interested in testing the backup technologies. These trials are 30 days risk free, and we will help you set them up.
If you want a quote or a free trial please click here.
By Vanessa Maresch
Salt is holding hands with the Ministry of ICT to create awareness of cybercrime for all Namibians.
While we are used to Everything-as-a-service these days, it was scary for me to learn about Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS.)
An entire economy has been created by RaaS. The attackers are not sophisticated but they have access to super smart tools, and they are becoming very successful because they have power in numbers.
I found this e-book very useful in learning more about this topic. If you don’t like reading, watch this video to learn more.
Salt is always looking for ways to protect your assets, from your user identities to your data. We are offering *a free trial of an attack simulation to test your employees resilience against these types of attacks.
*Requires a Business or Enterprise Office or Microsoft 365 account with at least Exchange Online.
#DoItTheSaltWay #5IR #TechRev #OnsGeeOm #Saltoftheearthpeople
By Vanessa Maresch
Salt Essential IT partners with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology in creating awareness of cybersecurity.
On Thursday, 21st of July 2022, at the Theo Ben Gurirab Building in Windhoek Namibia, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two parties to collaboratively undertake a joint National Cybersecurity Strategy and Awareness Campaign to attain the goals and objectives of the National Cybersecurity Strategy and Awareness Creation Plan. This is done with the view to influence the adoption of safer online behaviour and instil a culture of cyber-hygiene in citizens with the aim to avert the incidence of cybercrime in the Republic of Namibia.
Mr Mbeuta Ua-Ndjarakana, Executive Director of the Ministry of ICT themed the milestone event in Maroon, a colour that represents depth, passion, and thoughtfulness. The colour Blue represents sensitivity, imagination, inspiration, and the colour Black which represents mystery, power, and sophistication. This initiative, he stated, is crucial because dealing with cybersecurity requires passion, sensitivity for dealing with the nation's sensitive information, and sophistication for dealing with a sophisticated adversary. The Executive Director concluded by commending Salt Essential IT - "a Namibian child” for partnering with the government “to catch this invisible bull by the horns".
Ms Sonja Coetzer, Managing Director of Salt Essential IT concluded by saying “The world needs more initiatives between government and the private sector to drive 4IR and 5IR opportunities to challenge, empower and impact the citizens of the world. Cybersecurity plays a major role in technology advances to create job security, economic development, and growth”. She thanked the Ministry for the opportunity to be part of this cybersecurity strategy and awareness campaign.
The Salties will be hosting cybersecurity awareness sessions for the public which will expose Namibians to the types of cybercrimes and how to protect themselves from them. The training sessions will also be made available on the Ministry’s public forums, there will be no cost or fee for attending these sessions. For more information, please contact Grace Katjivena at grace.katjivena@salt.na or 0614339900.
#DoItTheSaltWay #5IR #TechRev #OnsGeeOm #ThisIsHowWeRoll #Saltoftheearthpeople
By Grace Katjivena
