General News
Small Business Storage Solutions for Growing Productivity Needs
By Ghassan Azzi
Around the world, Small and Medium Entreprises (SME) have proved to be the backbone of economies. In Nigeria, the case is not different with data1 revealing that SMEs contribute about 49% to the national GDP.
In addition, SMEs account for about 96% of the total number of businesses in the country and employ approximately 84% of the local workforce in Nigeria. For this sector and the economy, the lockdown necessitated by the Coronavirus pandemic meant a new level of economic depression. This added to the many challenges facing SMEs in Nigeria.
One factor which indicates the improvement of the competitiveness of many enterprises is the usage of Information Technology in managing their business. In Nigeria, the impact of IT on SMEs operation performance has not been greatly explored.
In this information age manual operations is beginning to be inefficient with time and labour. Likewise, the new way of work necessitated by the Coronavirus pandemic has forced many SMEs in Nigeria to imbibe the use of information technology in order to survive.
The way we work and learn changed significantly in 2020 and it’s still evolving. In a flash, remote work has become the new norm. This massive shift means productivity and efficiency are changing everywhere and for everyone.
However, working from home does not take away the requirements for data and files to be efficiently managed and for workers to stay productive – from work documents to family photos to music and movie archives and more.
Doing so goes beyond simply storing data, to backing up data. One of the main ways to accomplish this goal is with network-attached storage (NAS). In a NAS system, data is centrally stored on a handful of bays, typically filled with hard disk drives (HDDs) or solid-state drives (SSDs).
Creating a robust NAS infrastructure is a necessity for backup, data protection, remote access and digital collaboration. There is now a spotlight on the need for storage solutions that offer high capacity, throughput, and reliability.
The increase in storage capacity also means that some users can take advantage of NAS systems with fewer bays, while others won’t have to upgrade to a higher-bay system when they run out of space.
Western Digital has designed and tested certain HDDs for NAS environments, keeping the productivity requirements of content creators and businesses at the core.
Since the range of use cases for NAS has become increasingly diverse, we are now making it easier for users to match the right drive with their applications and workloads – from moderate small office/home office (SOHO) workloads to intensive small- and medium-business (SMB) use, as well as more demanding environments.
Demands to store, share, and access personal data are increasing. As a result, NAS devices are tasked with balancing scalable performance and affordable cost. Now, NAS applications for small office and home office (SOHO) can get a huge performance boost from SATA SSDs that are robust enough for most users, yet significantly faster than any HDD. Our WD Red™ SA500 is one example.
The Right Drive for SOHO Users
From our experience, many SOHO users rely on their systems for office file sharing, home backup or content archiving.
Throughput and capacity are key considerations in these types of SOHO environments and WD Red Plus drives are built and tested for SOHO NAS systems. These drives give you the flexibility, versatility, and confidence in storing and sharing your personal home and work files.
For the Demands of Big Business
WD Red Pro drives, including the latest 16TB and 18TB capacities, are designed specifically with medium to large-scale business customers in mind and are available for up to 24-bay NAS systems.
Engineered with CMR recording technology at 7200RPM to handle high-intensity workloads in 24×7 environments, WD Red Pro drives are ideal for archiving and sharing, as well as RAID array rebuilding on extended operating systems such as ZFS or other file systems.
These drives add value by enabling employees to quickly sync and share their files, including backup folders, reliably in their NAS solution, thereby increasing productivity and efficiency.
Built for Optimum NAS Compatibility and Larger NAS Bay Shock Protection
WD Red Pro drives with NASware technology take the guesswork out of selecting a drive. Optimized for NAS systems, the unique algorithm balances performance and reliability in NAS and RAID environments. Simply put, a WD Red Pro drive is one of the most compatible drives available for NAS enclosures.
WD Red Pro drives are equipped with a multi-axis shock sensor that automatically detects subtle shock events and dynamic fly height technology, which adjusts each read-write function to compensate and protect the data.
This combination of technology further protects the drives in larger 24-bay NAS environments and helps increase hard drive reliability. Built specifically for RAID and NAS environments, WD Red™ Pro drives come equipped with error recovery controls as part of NASware™ 3.0 technology to help reduce drive fallout in RAID applications.
As a leader in HDD and flash technologies, we are committed to addressing the evolving needs of our customers and to offering the right technology for each implementation. This philosophy launched WD Red drives years ago, and they have been a leader in their field ever since.
We continue engaging customers and partners and analyzing real-world data to offer a family of WD Red NAS drives – from HDDs to SSDs – that serve a variety of workloads and applications.
Ghassan Azzi is Sales Director, Africa at Western Digital
Ugo Nwokolo, Nollywood actor, has shared a controversial opinion on internet fraud, saying it has been keeping the nation’s economy afloat amid a tougher economic climate.
Ugo Nwokolo, Nollywood Actor
Nwokolo made the assertion in a video interview currently circulating on social media.
According to the actor, the cost of living and soaring house rent have made life unbearable for legitimate income earners.
He said high rent in major cities like Lagos and Abuja has edged out those earning N50,000 and N90,000 monthly.
Nwokolo said, “Personally, I think Yahoo has helped keep the economy afloat. Do you expect a civil servant to afford house rent of N3 million or N5 million in Abuja?”
The actor maintained that only the rich, including fraudsters, could meet up with the rising cost of living.
“If you go to Lagos now, the least you’ll see for a two-bedroom apartment is about N7 million or N8 million. Who is supposed to afford it? The civil servants? Of course, it’s the fraudsters,” he stressed.
However, he argued that he was not justifying crime but merely stating fact.
“I’m not justifying crime, but yes, Yahoo is helping the economy. How do you expect people to live in this kind of economy?” he said.
Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, plans to dedicate one-third of his wealth to charity as part of his succession plan, Halima Dangote, his daughter, has revealed.
Aliko Dangote
Halima, a trustee of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, disclosed this in an interview with Bloomberg published on Tuesday, saying the billionaire had secured the support of his family to commit 33 per cent of his estate to philanthropy.
According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Dangote’s net worth is estimated at $35.1 billion, meaning one-third of his current wealth would be worth about $11.7 billion if his fortune remains at that level.
Halima explained that her father views philanthropy as a key part of his legacy and has incorporated it into the family’s long-term succession plans.
She said Dangote had structured his estate to ensure that charitable giving continues across generations, particularly in areas such as healthcare and education.
“He sort of put all the structure in place whereby we focus a lot on health and education. He actually donated 25 per cent to the foundation. If you look at it, it is what we call in Sharia Code in Islam; it means he has donated 33 per cent of his whole inheritance to his foundation,” she said.
Halima added that Dangote believes giving back is central to the success of his businesses and the family’s values.
She said the billionaire asked her, her two sisters, and his mother to sign the agreement allowing 33 per cent of his inheritance to be dedicated to humanitarian causes.
The planned donation builds on Dangote’s longstanding philanthropic activities through the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which was established in 1994.
According to Halima, the foundation received an endowment of $1.25 billion about a decade ago and has since received an additional $700 million in funding.
She said about 70 per cent of the foundation’s spending goes to programmes in Nigeria, while 20 per cent supports projects across Africa, with the remaining funds directed to initiatives in other parts of the world.
The foundation’s interventions focus on healthcare, education, nutrition, and humanitarian support, including partnerships that contributed to the eradication of wild poliovirus in Africa.
Dangote’s planned charitable commitment adds to increasing global attention on billionaire philanthropy.
Although the proposed 33 per cent allocation is below the 50 per cent commitment associated with the Giving Pledge, it would rank among the largest philanthropic commitments announced by an African billionaire.
Earlier this year, Dangote was named among the world’s most influential philanthropists by TIME magazine’s inaugural TIME100 Philanthropy list, recognising the impact of the Aliko Dangote Foundation, which reportedly spends more than ₦50 billion annually on programmes across Africa.
Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission (NAEC), has said that there are plans for Nigeria to begin to generate electricity from nuclear sources.
Mr Anthony Godwin Ekedegwa, chief executive, NAEC stated this when he recently visited Mr Umar Yusuf Girei, acting managing director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA),in Abuja.
He was at NIWA’s office to solicit the support of NIWA in achieving the numerous advantages of using nuclear energy technology in the country.
According to him, the partnership of critical stakeholders in Nigeria will position the country well in developing and maintaining its nuclear power plant.
The NAEC chief said Nigeria intends to begin the generation of electricity from nuclear sources instead of fossil-based power plants and hydro-based power plants, stressing that for Nigeria to develop, there is a need for the country to diversify its energy needs.
In his remarks, Mr Girei assured NAEC of his agency’s readiness to collaborate on the advancement of a nuclear power plant in Nigeria.
He promised the full support of NAEC for the success of a nuclear power plant in the country, saying that as the organisation saddled with the responsibility of regulating and developing Nigeria Inland Waterways, his entity is strategically positioned to play a critical role in the federal government’s quest for sustainable energy through the new technology.
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