18 years in partnership, 20 years of Diamond ICT, a couple of visionaries, directors Robert Buck and Martin Thurgate recently had the honour of being invited to present to the Australian Computer Society Newcastle Chapter. They covered lessons they had learnt in growing from a startup in Newcastle to a successful multicity business, the technology trends they had seen along the way and what they predict for the future.

 

“We have had a multitude of challenges along the way, as any small to medium business owner would relate to but sheer persistence, the passion of the team and the right business partnerships have helped shape where we are today” said Robert.

Robert also discussed how the face of modern marketing for businesses is shifting from traditional search methods (Yellow pages) and even modern search methods (Google) to forming strong connections through networking and leveraging LinkedIn. No longer a CV showcase, LinkedIn is a powerful business professional network with nearly 3.5 million users in Australia.

 

Martin went on to discuss technology trends they have observed, highlighting that technology is in a better place now to deliver productivity than ever before, providing more reliability and lower cost opportunities for businesses.

 

“Technology has always been my passion and I get excited about the future of where technology is headed. We are seeing the fast development of the PC in your pocket concept, allowing users to connect to various dumb terminals, really enabling the mobile workforce through hot desking options,” said Martin.

“Workforce requirements for business will also continue to change with the development in Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, as recently seen with the introduction of JiLL – a humanoid robot receptionist being piloted at Global property services firm JLL in Sydney,” Martin added.

 

The hot topics for today, raised and discussed during Q&A, were Cloud hosting and data security, particularly with the continued incidents of Ransomware, Malware and Brute Force attacks covered in the media almost daily…

“We have been fortunate to divert Ransomware attempts on our customers through our custom made RansomBlocker solution designed in-house that basically detects, isolates and sounds an alarm, allowing us to prevent the spread of serious ransomware infections.

 

Our top three recommendations for protecting business [and home] include a solid password policy, a data recovery plan and reliable firewall equipment coupled with continued education on how to avoid these evolving threats,” commented Martin.

“We are seeing Cloud hosting and data sovereignty concerns becoming less of an issue with vendors investing in infrastructure here in Australia. We recommend businesses take the time to read through the fine print when engaging with any Cloud vendor,” added Robert.