Tarsus Technologies has announced the arrival of Dell’s world-renowned Alienware range of gaming notebooks in South Africa and that the brand will be officially launched at the rAge gaming expo which will be held at the Coca-Cola Dome between the 1^st and 3^rd of October.

“The Alienware brand is one of the most anticipated technology arrivals in South Africa, since it’s the only brand of notebook in the world that prides itself on providing mobility to the most hardcore gamers in the market, with no-compromise on performance,” says Brett Bygate, Dell product manager at Tarsus.

“And even though the entire range is something to behold – robed in cutting-edge designs, lighting configurations and the best hardware money can buy, one model in particular, namely the M11x goes even further, dispelling a number of myths around the weight and size of a gaming notebook,” he continues.

With the M11x, Bygate says Alienware has crammed an Intel Core i5/i7 processor, an NVIDIA GeForce GT 335M with 1GB of GDDR3 memory, 4GB of dual-channel DDR3 memory and 500GB of SATA hard disk storage into an 11-inch notebook that comfortably slips into any backpack and doesn’t weigh the earth.

“It’s an absolute marvel,” he enthuses, “and because of its size, competitive price and cutting-edge design, it is something I can see the local reseller channel becoming pretty excited about.”

Bygate acknowledges that the primary route to market for the Alienware brand will be South Africa’s specialist retailers; however, the entire range will also be available to the reseller channel.

“This is great news for local developers and niche-market computer users, since those who haven’t made the switch to a notebook because of the disparity between desktop and notebook performance can now also benefit from mobility while no longer compromising on performance,” he says.

“These machines open a window of opportunity in the market and in my opinion, resellers should be looking for opportunities to convert their more performance-demanding customers to the Alienware brand, since what they will gain in the long run from a productivity perspective is huge,” he says.

“There’s also no need to wait – the entire range of Alienware 11-, 15- and 17-inch notebooks is available and in stock,” he concludes.

Tarsus Technologies has announced the local availability of Dell’s Zino HD mini-desktop, a diminutive 8-inch by 8-inch square computer that’s the perfect companion for cutting-edge home users who want to make the most of digital audio and video.

A little larger than a stack of optical discs and finished in a choice of glossy coloured covers, the Zino HD strikes the perfect balance between performance, power-efficiency and competitive pricing.

“Apart from a choice of colourful chassis, users can choose from a variety of AMD Athlon Dual-Core processors, between 2GB and 8GB of RAM and between 160GB and 1TB of storage,” says Brett Bygate, Dell product manager at Tarsus.

“Add to this a DVD-RW drive, a built-in media card reader, 5.1 surround sound, wired and wireless networking, and an ATI Radeon HD 3200 graphics card that offers both a VGA and HDMI output and it’s clear that this little machine is in its element in a home theatre environment,” he says.

Unlike many of the computers in this category, which tend to be rather static in their configuration, Bygate says the Zino HD is upgradeable in a number of ways.

“For starters,” he continues, “if the embedded Radeon HD 3200 graphics card isn’t sufficiently powerful, users can add a discrete graphics card to the machine through a single PCI-Express 16 slot.

“Additional storage can also be added to the Zino HD by attaching an external hard disk to the two eSATA or USB 2.0 ports available on the rear of the machine.

“If a hard disk is connected to one of the eSATA ports, however, no performance degradation is experienced. The drive will operate at the same performance level as if it was connected to the Zino HD internally,” Bygate explains.

“Small, good looking and feature-rich, Tarsus believes the Zino HD is well placed to embrace the need for digital audio, video and computing gaming being expressed by modern households,” he says.

“We believe it will be very successful over the coming months,” Bygate concludes.

Traci Maynard, general manager of Acer at Tarsus Technologies has made a name for herself in the IT workplace over the past 17 years – and now she’s using that name to drive change.

While the technology industry has for the longest time been dominated by men, paradigms are shifting, boundaries are lifting and women are steadily beginning to make their mark in this vibrant market sector.

Traci Maynard is one of those confident, capable women making a mark on the South African IT industry. And the impact she’s making at her company and in the industry as a whole is paving the way for a very different future.

With more than 17 years’ experience in the IT distribution market – and about two thirds of that time spent creating magic for Tarsus Technologies – Maynard was the person behind her company’s success in driving the market’s adoption of the Acer, Cisco and Dell brands when they were fresh arrivals in South Africa.

Aside from creating the initial demand for these brands, Maynard’s expertise stretched into creating a robust foundation and instilling a steadfast loyalty for these brands in the channel.

Her positive attitude and all-encompassing experience in everything from the notebook, desktop, server and networking arenas has proved invaluable in this regard.

A true role model for other women in conventionally male-dominated industries, she believes that the workplace should be not about the battle of the sexes.

“It’s about who’s best prepared,” she says.

“It’s about the person who always has a plan up their sleeve and is ready to execute that plan, given a moment’s notice,” she adds.

Maynard believes that if you’re always well prepared and can adapt to any situation, there’s little that can go wrong for you.

Maynard’s decision to become involved in the IT industry, specifically in the area of hardware distribution, came after having completed a diploma in Marketing and Sales Management because, as she says, it seemed to be the industry that offered the best combination of everything: hard work, spiced with interesting challenges and tempered with a fair amount of fun.

And it seems that by all accounts, she found that to be true.

In terms of gender equality issues in the IT space, Maynard says she has noticed that an increasing number of women are holding top titles in South African companies and that senior management positions are held by both men and women, thereby creating a better balance and a happier working environment. 

“This,” she says, “is noticeable because staff want to talk to someone they feel they can relate to, and sometimes men forget this.

“While time is usually limited and everyone has a busy agenda, lending an ear to your staff and taking the time to listen, generally works in the company’s favour – and this is undoubtedly an area where a woman’s ability to nurture and support can be beneficial,” she adds.

While gender equality has become less of a concern in the industry of late, Maynard believes there are a number of other issues that still need to be addressed and she considers empowerment to be an ongoing process.

“More commitment is needed to ensure the true empowerment of women and previously disadvantaged individuals. South Africa is like a first world and third world country all rolled into one. A solid realistic plan is what’s needed for job creation to reduce poverty, which also necessitates addressing basic human rights in some areas – including housing, clean water, education and learnership programmes,” she says.

On the topic of green issues and being more environmentally responsible, Maynard believes that even though it hasn’t yet been legislated in South Africa, recycling should be a priority and environmentally-friendly modes of business ought to become the norm.

In terms of her vision for the future, Maynard hopes that the cohesion of vendor and distributor relationships can be solidified, and she believes that this requires the vendor to see the distributor as a vital link in the supply chain – not a place to dump stock and move on.

Additionally, she would also like to see more open communication between competitive distributors when it comes to resellers that are bad payers or non-payers.

With her pragmatic approach and her unfaltering determination, Traci Maynard has proven time and time again that she’s a woman worth keeping an eye on.

And if she can act as an inspiration to other young and vibrant women, and  attract them to the IT industry, all the better.

Complementing its recent acquisition of the Dell brand of server, storage, desktop PC and notebook hardware, Tarsus Technologies has announced the local availability of Dell’s range of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) and power distribution units.

“The availability of Dell’s PDU and UPS ranges locally allows customers to more accurately specify their power distribution and backup power requirements by matching Dell server and storage hardware with Dell approved, recommended and tested power solutions,” says Terence Barter, Dell product manager at Tarsus Technologies.

Barter says that this is because Dell’s power solutions are built on core technology from power management industry-leader Eaton and as such are rated by wattage so that customers can more easily select the best UPS model required for their IT environment.

Besides the convenience factor, Barter says that Dell’s power solutions have been designed to offer customers the highest level of reliability and peace-of-mind.

“Dell’s line-interactive UPS products (500W to 5600W) are most effective against the four most common power problems, namely power failures, power sags, power surges and under-voltage. They are built to run at 95 to 98 percent efficiency and for this reason consume less power, dissipate less heat and reduce cooling costs,” he says.

Dell’s on-line double conversion UPS models (2700W to 5600W) on the other hand provide both power backup and power conditioning.

“With a wide input voltage range, the Dell UPS does not depend on batteries to smooth out minor power fluctuations. Batteries are conserved for those times when utility power is highly unstable or completely out.

“That way, if an outage occurs, the Dell UPS transfers to battery with zero interruption in power, making this an ideal UPS for sensitive and critical equipment,” he explains.

Barter says that Dell UPS systems also contain the same feature-rich graphical LCD display as Dell servers, giving IT staff access to real-time load levels, actual battery runtimes and a service fault description.

“On-site users can utilise this feature to configure and monitor the many features of the Dell UPS using a large, bright, backlit display with easy navigation,” he says.

“Add a Dell network management card and the bundled Dell UPS suite of power management software to the mix and IT departments are granted superior control and visibility over their deployed UPS fleet, using an intuitive, graphical interface and SNMP.

“For example, this allows IT staff to establish a prioritised shutdown of network devices and client/server applications, test all networked UPS systems from one node, analyse trends and network conditions, and stay informed of power problems by pager and email,” he adds.

“Unlike the approach that many other large IT brands take – re-branding third party hardware as their own – Dell has put a great deal of time, effort and engineering into the development of its UPS and PDU range.

“This means that customers are getting a truly superior range of products. Since these solutions are focused on the most critical parts of their ecosystem, I would venture to say that it’s one of the most important areas to have this kind of competitive advantage,” he opines.

“We’re expecting the market to respond very well to these new products,” Barter concludes.

Local technology distributor Tarsus Technologies has announced the arrival of its first stock consignment from Dell and by all accounts, the products included in the line-up are set to stun.

“From ultra-mobiles that look breathtaking and deliver the right balance of performance and battery life, to notebooks and desktops that are absolutely crammed with the latest hot technologies, Dell has the client side of the enterprise well covered,” explains Terence Barter, Dell business unit manager at Tarsus.

“Things look just as compelling on the server and storage fronts,” he says,

“with Dell chasing glory in the small- to medium-sized SAN storage environment.

“We honestly haven’t been this positive about a brand acquisition for some time,” Barter adds.

Looking at the highlights of the stock delivered to Tarsus thus far, Barter says that netbooks are the new ‘rock stars’ on the mobile computing block and Dell’s offering in this space – the Inspiron Mini 10 – is a showstopper when it comes to looks, the technology crammed under the hood, price and most importantly portability.

“This stylish Mini 10 netbook is available in a variety of eye-catching colours and features a near full-size keyboard, a bright and crisp 10.1-inch display and a myriad of connectivity options, like wireless 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 2.1,” he adds.

“There’s also a webcam to make interactions with colleagues even more personal and with this netbook supporting the ability to output a video signal to a big screen using its built-in HDMI port, it is more than capable of delivering multimedia functionality on-the-go.

“It really is a leader in its category,” he says.

Barter says Dell’s hot new offering in the notebook space is powerful and sturdy enough to survive the rigours of everyday on-the-go computing.

“While the Latitude E6500 is crammed with components that make it a great performer, differentiators include its premium magnesium alloy construction, battery life that can be extended to a previously unheard-of 19 hours and the ability to add WiMAX communications to existing wireless technologies like IEEE802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth,” he continues.

“With data theft becoming a concern in workplaces worldwide, E6500 owners can also sleep easy knowing that their data is protected by wide-ranging security options such as biometric authentication, an optional smart-card reader and TPM v1.2,” he adds.

While mobile computing is definitely on the upswing, Dell hasn’t forgotten about those companies that haven’t made the leap to mobile computing.

And in the desktop space, Barter says Dell has a very compelling offering that maximises cost-efficiency, performance and reliability.

“The OptiPlex 360’s support of Intel’s Core 2 Duo processor (in addition to Celerons and Pentiums) with up to 4GB of memory and ample storage means that it can easily be configured as a high-performance desktop or cost-efficient workhorse,” he says.

“This versatility means it enjoys a long lifecycle of up to 36 months and a low acquisition cost when compared to similar offerings from other vendors. It’s also outfitted with basic security features that protect the business’ investment, like system and BIOS passwords and a chassis loop lock,” Barter adds.

Last up in the new arrivals, Barter says Dell’s EqualLogic PS-Series is an enterprise-class iSCSI SAN solution that combines performance with reliability and simple administration to deliver seamless scalability at an excellent cost-per-gigabyte.

“This little beast stores up to 48 Terabytes of data on a single unit and is designed to be up and running in less than an hour,” he says.

“Apart from being a strong performer, however, the PS-Series’ modular architecture means it can grow as business requirements do. Reliability is also catered for with hot swappable hard drives, auto-replication, automatic load balancing and thin provisioning.

“All of this culminates in an excellent enterprise-class SAN solution with a low total cost of ownership,” he says.

Barter says Tarsus has thus far been impressed by the response its tie-up with Dell has elicited from resellers and that many customers are keen to get their hands on the brand.

“And with the products that Dell has lined up for us that momentum is sure to continue.

“We’re extremely positive about the inroads we can make with the Dell brand over the coming months,” he concludes.