Archive for June, 2012

26 June

5 Reasons why your website needs AfriCDN!

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Since RSAWEB is now the only ISP in Africa to launch a locally developed, fully owned CDN – we wanted to give you our top 5 reasons why your site needs AfriCDN!

First of all – for those of you who are unsure, a CDN is a ‘Content Delivery Network’

Watch this short video now to find out everything you need to know! (Under 2 Mins) 

5 reasons why you need AfriCDN…

 

1) SPEED - CDN’s help your site load much faster by taking all the heavy, slow loading content off your website and offloading it across our Cloud Network.

2) COST  - Using a CDN can shave 50% or more off your sites data costs each month – less content to serve = lower data costs.

3) HAPPINESS - We all know that a fast loading website is good for business, whilst a slow loading website is bad. Did you know that a staggering 40% of users will abandon a website that takes more than 3 seconds to load? (check out this  Infographic to see for yourself.) AfriCDN can dramatically speed up your site’s load time which means happier customers and an overall higher conversion rate.

4) SEO –  Google’s page rank looks at things like website traffic / load time to decide if your website is relevant to users. More conversions and a lower bounce rate = many more returning visitors = better page rank.

5) UPTIME- CDN’s help your site function better during times of  heavy server traffic as your content is shared on servers across our network – this means your site can handle the load far more efficiently, meaning more up-time and more resilient website and user experience.

 

To find out more about AfriCDN visit our website, where you’ll find FAQ’s, Guidelines and How-To’s - if you’d like to more and discuss with us directly,  - we love to hear from you.

25 June

Team RSAWEB No.1 at National XCO Cup Series!

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We’re thrilled to announce that Renay Groustra , from Team RSAWEB has come in 1st at the National XCO Cup Series! Renay gave us a first hand account of his blistering win at World’s View in Pietermartizburg!

 

After a 7 year absence from the National series, Worlds View once again played host to some of the top mountain bikers in South Africa in what would be the final race out of 4 in the National SA XCO Cup Series.

The track, very a-typical of Worlds View, didn’t feature a lot of climbing or technical difficulty, but rather made up for it with very twisty and undulating single track through the forest, with high speed sections of jeep track in between.

The fact that some of our best riders were in Canada competing in the World Cup on the same day didn’t mean that the field was weak, with big names such as Oliver Munnik, Brandon Stewart, Arno du Toit, Sean Craig Silver and new boy on the block Jason Meaton – it just goes to show the great state that SA mountain biking is in!

As expected the start was fast, and immediately Arno du Toit showed me that he was going to be my strongest opposition for the day.  I set a hard pace on the front to stretch the field, and on such a flat track the gaps were never big. Arno and I switched the lead a few times throughout the race to help with the pacing. We both had our digs at each other to try and get a gap, but neither of us were giving an inch. I could tell that this was going to be a cat and mouse game!

It was halfway through our 4th lap of 6 that I put in a huge effort, and looking over my shoulder I was half expecting to see him there still. He wasn’t, and had given me a few meters at that moment I applied more and more pressure and managed to open up a gap of a few seconds, which is all you need on a track like this, and barring a mistake I could possibly hold on for the win!

I kept my head down, and focused on not over doing  it on the corners for the next few laps and managed to avoid any mistakes. By the end I had managed to stretch the lead to about 1 minute and took my first victory of the season!

This win was special to me as it also tied up my overall victory in the SA XCO Cup Series, a title that has eluded me since winning it in 2007 and 2008 as an U23 rider.

This was my first Elite title and it felt great!

Thanks to RSAWEB for their support through the season and enabling me to achieve, and to Rocky Mountain for the fantastic piece of machinery that carried me across the finish line in 1st place!

Now the focus is all towards SA Champs happening in Nelspruit in a month’s time on one of my favourite courses. Watch this space!

Thanks to Renay for the write up and congrats on a huge win! Follow Renay and TeamRSAWEB for more updates.

Check out the SA National Cup Series results/ leader-board here! 

21 June

AfriCDN – Slash your Hosting Costs!

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We’ve been working on a brand new service that’s a first in the SA tech space – and we’re really proud to be able to offer it to our new and existing clients.

AfriCDN makes your website load lightning fast & reduces your monthly bandwidth costs – save as much as  50% plus with data as low as  from R3 per GB!

Sounds too good to be true? Check out out pricing page here.

Now, onto the technical stuff –  what is this CDN and how does it work? Watch this short video and be enlightened. 

I want it, how do I get it?

Sign up online with RSAWEB, we ask you 3 questions, you choose the package that suits your site best and we can have you up and running in just 15 minutes.

In case you weren’t sold yet – here are the key benefits:

  1.  High speed content delivery across our worldwide network, no slow loading. Ever!
  2.  Improved Google ranking meaning better visibility: more visitors and conversions!
  3.  With your sites content distributed across our network –  your guarenteed 99.9% uptime – your site can handle times of high traffic much more   effectively.
  4.  High end failure detection and resolution technology – we can reroute traffic instantly to ensure consistent traffic delivery.
  5.  Much lower monthly bandwidth cost – 30-50% savings to your monthly data costs!

07 June

Meet Brian : Sales Manager at RSAWEB (Q&A session)

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We caught up with Brian who heads up our Sales team at RSAWEB. 

Brian has a wealth of IT solutions experience, and understands our key clients intricately. We wanted to chat to him about working in the industry, and his predictions and insights for the next year ahead.

How long have you worked in the Internet space?

I’ve been in IT pretty much all of my working career. I’ve been in the ISP space for five years now.

What keeps you interested and passionate about the industry?

It’s an ever changing industry, which requires us to be progressive and innovative. Demand on business to remain competitive requires advanced cutting edge technology to say ahead of the game. Translating these requirements into business solutions that add real value to a business is what I love doing.

What is your favorite type of client to work with?

It is most frustrating when we architect a perfect solution for a business requirement and the client just does not get it and opts for a second best solution, even if that means higher investment in the long run. So I guess the opposite is also true. Dealing with clients that are forward thinking smart minded people that understand how emerging technology, such as cloud, can add real value to their business is such a pleasure.

Do you enjoy the challenge of a complicated client solution?

I love the challenge of a complicated solution, especially when it requires a multifaceted combination of technologies to fulfil their requirement such as MPLS, Cloud and SAAS. Integrating these technologies to work together in achieving the desired end result can add great value to a business.  

What trends in the industry have you picked up on in the last 6 months – year?

There are many interesting trends that we can speak about, from Mobile to the result of increased capacity of South Africa’s International connectivity. But what is interesting in the forever increasing internet traffic being generated over the Internet in SA. I see this as a result of faster and cheaper last mile connectivity and broadband. All sorts of new successful online concepts are suddenly emerging that we did not see before, such Internet radio.

What are the most frequently asked questions or concerns you get about Cloud?

When we talk about Cloud Infrastructure-as-a-Service, which is what RSAWEB specializes in, the two most common questions seem to be around scalability and security. And second to that is compatibility with the business applications. The beauty of Cloud is that it  is as secure (if not more) than a dedicated server environment and the scalability, or “elasticity” as we call it just amazing. With Cloud a business can scale out and up in ways and within timeframes that is absolutely unheard of in a dedicated server environments. Compatibility is not an issue either because if configured correctly, a Cloud server behaves in the same at application level as a regular server.

Why do you like working at RSAWEB?  

We don’t stop looking into the future and inventing!

What products / services do you see being massive in the next 5 years?

Cloud will most defiantly take over onsite and dedicated servers. Smart storage in the cloud is also an emerging service and technology that we are continually developing.

 

04 June

Carl Pasio represents for SA at Xterra Italy!

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Thanks to the awesome Carl Pasio for his write up on Xterra Italy below! For more from Carl – check out his blog here! 

I had entered and planned Xterra Sardinia months ago and it was to be my first race in Europe, as it kicked off the European Xterra series. Sardinia is an island situated off the South West coast of Italy.  I had planned to meet friend and fellow athlete Stuart Marais on the island. Although training had not been going 100% according to plan over the past 5 weeks, I decided to see how my body would respond to some intense racing. I had raced the race back in 2010 and knew exactly what to expect. With 25 pro men on the start line and a world class field, the pace was bound to be fast and explosive.

I exited the first transition in 4th place and after just two kilometers on the bike, I suffered a mechanical blow. My rear derailleur had managed to bend upwards and jam the chain. In the time it took me to free my chain and fix the rear derailleur, six athletes had passed me and I was suddenly in 11th position.

From here on in the race, I could just not recover and found myself fighting the bike for the remaining 30km. I entered transition 2 with a group of four and knew the race was over for me.

The swim went really well for me, I swam within my comfort zone and never felt under pressure throughout the two 750m swim laps. The crystal clear and mirror like water made for a quick swim and I managed to exit the water in the 4th position, just over a minute behind the three leaders.

The run was a beautiful 2 lap circuit of 5 kilometers. We crossed open river mouths on suspended bridges and ran on long stretches of soft beach sand. I was happy to finish the race considering the complications in the build up to the race.

Racing at the top level in the world is never easy and you need everything to go well in order to pull off that great result.

Fellow South African’s Stuart Marais had a magical performance and finished just outside the podium in 4th position, while Carla van Huyssteen had a bad fall on the bike leg but still managed to finish in a respectable 8th position.

My next race that I will be aiming for is Xterra France in 4 weeks time! Onwards and upwards!!

Thanks Carl – for more on Team RSAWEB – check out our Facebook page or follow us on Twitter!

 

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