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Huawei, a leading global information and communications technology (ICT) company joined hands once again with Just In Time Group (JIT) a Sri Lankan owned ICT Systems Integration Company to initiate a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activity in Deniyaya.

Affected children from Deniyaya received donations of school bags, each containing educational appliances necessary for their study needs, which would help them continue with their schooling. The CSR event was patronized by Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, Minister of Law and Order and Southern Development, Sagala Ratnayaka, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Shunli Wang and other dignitaries.

Deniyaya was reported to have encountered massive landslides and persistent rains, especially in the area of Morawaka Kanda, which had resulted in a number of deaths and displaced residents. School children were affected due to this epidemic.

In light of these events, requests from benefactors which included Huawei and JIT decided to come forward and assist flood affected students with their education. School children had their books and educational material destroyed as a result of these rains.

Previously, Huawei had also collaborated with JIT as strategic partners to work together in projects that were aimed towards supporting Sri Lanka’s ICT and digital economy. Many initiatives that Huawei had conducted in their quest to empower Sri Lanka’s futuristic goals through CSR, ‘Seeds for the Future’ was one such initiative which took place recently supporting and sponsoring young minds from state universities who were selected to travel to the Huawei Headquarters in Shenzhen, China on a study trip.

Commenting on the initiative that was taken by Huawei, Huawei Sri Lanka CEO Shunli Wang stated, “We were saddened to witness the recent epidemic which Sri Lanka had to endure recently. We identified with the areas that highlighted their need for assistance. Huawei decided to join hands with our strategic partners JIT and provide support to young school children who were especially affected by this issue.”

The purpose of this concept that was introduced to Sri Lanka was to enable opportunities for networking and the chance to connect with the rest of the world with the hope of exchanging latest technologies and best practices which would one day prove influential for Sri Lanka’s evolving digital landscape.

The CSIC was also endorsed by the Minister of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure Harin Fernando as an ideal learning centre which would benefit youth and students through excursions and get to witness the innovations of a global ICT company.

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Just in Time Group (JIT), a wholly Sri Lankan-owned flagship ICT systems Integration Company, steps into partnership with Huawei, a leading ICT provider across enterprise, consumer and carrier business segments in Sri Lanka as a strategic partner towards boosting the ICT landscape in Sri Lanka.

JIT and Huawei’s strategic and inaugural partnership is committed to enabling the future of building a Better connected Sri Lanka and confident about the Sri Lankan market. The synergy of this partnership will provide many benefits to the business landscape of Sri Lanka, and is committed to support and deliver towards the vision set by the Ministry of Telecommunication and Digital Infrastructure of a digitally-empowered nation. To activate this mission, the JIT partnership with Huawei will be focussed on implementing ICT solutions.

“At JIT we are all about technology, talent and transformation — believing in teamwork, tools, and smart thinking is what has made us successful and sustainable. JIT is proud of its progression and along with our strategic principals; we are committed to creating a brighter future for Sri Lanka – paving the way for further success. We are very optimistic and elated at this strategic union with a reputed technology giant like Huawei,” shared Chrishan Mendis, Chief Operating Officer of JIT.

Shunli Wang CEO of Huawei Sri Lanka said: “We are indeed delighted to partner with JIT offering the very best innovative solutions in making Sri Lanka a digitally empowered nation.”

Huawei is a leading global ICT solutions provider, focused on the carrier networks, enterprise, consumer, and cloud computing fields. Huawei products and solutions have been deployed in over 170 countries, serving more than one third of the world’s population. Huawei began its operations in Sri Lanka in 2005. At present, Huawei works with Sri Lankan operators to provide network service for about 70% population in Sri Lanka. Huawei’s smart phones are well welcomed by Sri Lanka consumers and is the fastest growing smartphone brand in the country.

JIT proudly stepped into their two decade metamorphosis in 2016, as their mammoth landmark in the e ICT landscape of Sri Lanka, as a leading ICT systems and solutions integrator to the country. This two decade success with our longstanding customers, strategic principals and committed employees have been the catalyst for JIT’s success and bringing many landmark projects with cutting edge technology to the country and making Sri Lanka’s mark in the global ICT map. JIT’s key strengths are focused on systems integration, software solutions, network and infrastructure, hardware, mobility, outsourcing IT professionals, professional services, information security services, maintenance and support services, etc.

JIT and Huawei collectively, fully support the vision of the Sri Lankan Government, for a holistic and empowered Digital Sri Lanka.

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It has been over 60 years since IBM introduced the first disk, the IBM 350, which was the size of a large wardrobe, with a capacity for storage of 3.75MB. Since then storage has evolved as more and more capacities were contained in smaller and smaller volumes.

In the present age, the typical IT infrastructure head would explore the possibility of keeping at least the data which is less frequently accessed and less critical hosted on the cloud. Computer storage prices have dropped below $ 0.10 per terabyte (TB), and it is simply not worthwhile to spend for the footprint, power and cooling for a category of data that can be stored elsewhere, and accessed on demand at a much less cost.

Evolution of network storage – The storage story in a nutshell
By the nineties, as enterprises needed to overcome the limitations presented with local storage, the concept of JBOD (Just-a-Bunch of Disks) caught on where a disk array connected via a SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) bus could be connected to a server, to provision storage. Some models offered a split bus option, where two servers could share the storage with RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) protection. They offered better usage of storage resources comparatively and were restricted by the speeds imposed by the SCSI connectivity.

With the decline of prices in computer hardware over time, Storage Area Networks which were considered as affordable only to the large scale enterprises, now became viable to be considered for the small and mid-range business enterprises. As such we saw Storage Area Network (SAN) based solutions being installed in State and private banks around 10 years back in Sri Lanka, with some of the then high performance Enterprise Class SAN systems being deployed at service providers like Sri Lanka Telecom.

Over the last decade or so we’ve seen SANs become a commodity. The product range varied, with high performance models with multiple controllers for large enterprises with heavy workloads, and dual controller models for mid-range and small businesses. The latter day models for small businesses have become so user-friendly that they are designed to be rolled out by the customers themselves with minimum involvement from the manufacturer or systems integrator.

Furthermore in the decade, the main pain points of the infrastructure chiefs have shifted from price of hardware to a different set. Decisions about the cost of the foot print in the data centre, cost of power and cooling, efficient use of compute have started complimenting the large scale integration that has been happening over the last so many decades in the field of semi-conductor electronics.

Storage today – The trends
Today we have network switches with very low latency, and deep buffers that can guarantee lossless networks, which is a “given” storage networking.

These trends in the networking field, complimented by the efficient use of compute power as availed via virtualisation, have today brought to the fore-front such technological trends as software defined storage aka, hyper-converged storages.

In one way the methodology of storage has taken the full circle as local storage is again being used. But by today the software stack which operates on these disks have advanced over the last decade and half, where each compute node works in unison with each other to present a common storage layer. The building blocks here are its local disks connected via a high performance network, ideally at a minimum of 10Gbps. Entry level solutions of this design have already been deployed in Union Assurance Life and Sci-com.

The major hurdle that the Sri Lankan businesses have at the moment is that their network infrastructure is slow to move forward from the 1Gb limit, which is an essential element to guarantee an acceptable level of performance, to match the speeds of the FC based, ( now traditional ) SAN, which operates at minimum of 8Gbps ( the newer models support 16Gbps ).

The future of storage and beyond
Yet, software defined storage is part of a small picture. The bigger picture is cloud based services.

The trend of cloud based collaboration services such as Google’s G-Suite, Amazon’s AWS or Microsoft Azure, where cloud based application and collaboration applications could be used for a much lesser fee than, if they were to be hosted in-house. This trend has already started in local Banks and other mid-range businesses. This would allow businesses to deploy only their core applications from within. So while SaaS (or Software as a Service) is already catching up in the local business sector, IaaS (or Infrastructure as a Service) would probably be the future, as prices decline so that businesses can host their core applications, use HPC (High Performance Computing) and carry out Big Data Analytics using the hosted Infrastructure. This would release the business from the responsibility of managing a complex storage infrastructure which requires a skilled staff, while meeting legal and compliance requirements too. More importantly, the business wouldn’t have to make the capital investment for storage and other compute resources.

These trends in combination (SDS, SaaS, IaaS), have made the designers of storage solutions to revisit their road maps. Flagship products by certain principles could very well be obsolete, and the models retired in the years to come, as advanced software which is hardware agnostic, coupled with diminishing hardware prices (for example solid state drives are fast becoming a commodity), offer more storage using simpler designs, with the software layer delivering what hardware did, a couple of years back.

(The writer is Solutions Architect, Just In Time Group.)

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Just In Time Group, a flagship ICT systems integration and services provider in Sri Lanka with 20 years in operation, has announced the appointment of Anthony Nair as its Group Head of Finance with effect from 1 June. This appointment is part of the Group’s restructuring, consolidation and growth strategy with its strategic direction of implementing the Government’s digitalisation vision and its journey to take the company into the future.

In a career spanning over 20 years, Nair has held strategic and operational management positions with leading local and multinational companies. Nair is doubly qualified with both finance and IT. Nair is a graduate in B.Sc. Accountancy and Financial Management from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura Sri Lanka. He is also an Associate member of ICSA, CIMA and ACCA-UK and a passed finalist of ICASL

Furthermore, he is armed with a Masters in Information Management from SLIIT-SL where he topped the batch by earning the ‘Best Performance’ award. Nair has also earned his MBA from the University of Wales – UK.

As the new Group Head of Finance, Nair will play a pivotal role in strategic financial management, risk management and re-engineering the internal process with the aid of information technology. Furthermore he will also be looking at growth avenues for the Group through acquisitions and consolidations.

Just In Time Group, a wholly Sri Lankan company has been a key partner and implementer of several cutting edge mission critical ICT projects in the country over the last two decades. With the dawn of 2016, Just In Time Group completed a two-decade mammoth journey in the ICT arena of Sri Lanka. This growth throughout the years is a vital milestone with their longstanding strategic partnerships with principals, customers and employees.

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Just In Time Technologies (JITT) was recently awarded with the latest ISO 9001:2015 certification. This certification is an identification of JITT’s commitment towards continual improvement in quality standards. JITT has been previously certified with ISO 9001:2008 and ISO 9001:2001 of which the current ISO 9001:2015 is an upgrade to their exiting quality standard. This was awarded and confirmed JITT from the International Certification Services under DNV GL accreditation.

A quality management system (QMS) is a set of policies, processes and procedures required for planning and execution in the core business area of an organisation. ISO 9001:2015 is the latest edition of ISO 9001 and ISO’s flagship QMS standard is the most recent standard with three years of revision work by experts from nearly 95 participating and observing countries to bring the standard up to date with modern needs.

The scope of the ISO 9001:2015 certificate for Just In Time Technologies goes by; the Supply, Installation, Integration, Support and maintenance of ICT Systems and Solutions.

ISO 9001:2015 offers a truly coherent framework towards consistent performance, reliable service and long-term continuous improvement. The International Standards Organization (ISO) Quality Management System (QMS) is the world’s most current and widespread management system standard, which is used globally, by over a million organisations. ISO is simply a set of strategic tools and guidelines to help businesses tackle some of the most challenging tasks of modern business. It ensures that business operations are as well-organised as possible, help to increase productivity and help businesses’ access new markets or opportunities. It will also reinforce the habit of management systems as a governance tool and assist in identifying business opportunities that contribute to bottom-line improvements.

“Our 20 year journey cements our commitment towards innovative and sustainable solutions to the customers. Having a quality management system certified by ISO standards undoubtedly gives greater confidence to our stakeholders to rely on our company for their IT solutions and services. ISO 9001:2015 similarly, supports the eco system of business needs through a holistic approach,” shared Just In Time Group Chief Operating Officer Chrishan Mendis.

This newly updated ISO 9001:2015 has evolved to remain relevant, and reflect the needs of modern day businesses. The standard is a powerful tool to make sure that businesses continually grow and remain organisationally resilient. The new standard will ensure; continuous improvement and quality management within an organisation, whilst integrating and aligning business strategies. It will also reinforce the habit of management systems as a governance tool and assist in identifying business opportunities that contribute to bottom-line improvements. The new structure will ensure ISO management systems standards and the ability to easily implement multiple, integrated management systems.

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Just In Time Group’s goal is to create reading corners in orphanages and rural schools for children who are lacking this much needed knowledge development resource. Reading even for just a few minutes a day has a myriad of benefits and helps shape a child’s personality. Encouraging reading in children is one of the most important things we can do to prepare our future generation to face life as a balanced human being and the foundation towards better academic and non-academic growth. By building mini libraries all across the country for rural schools or orphanages can greatly enhance the habit of reading in children andawarenessof the world around them.

This was Just In Time Group’s third CSR Project that was completed under their CSR initiative – ‘Today a reader –Tomorrow a Leader’. The selected project location was Vajira Sri Children’s Development Center in Pita Kotte, established in 1983 with 30 destitute children who were the victims and lost their parents due the civil war in Northern Sri Lanka.

Just In Time Group chose this home due to the fact that they greatly lacked books for the children and an engaging and attractive space for the children to read. Just In Time Group and its staff contributed in creating this mini library – a reading space for these children which was received with much excitement by the children and the staff.

The age group selected for this Reading Corner project was for the 4-10 year age group of girls and boys, as they did not have a library or activity area apart from their classroom spaces to call their own. Just In Time Group contributed their time and resources in painting the space and decorating it to make it attractive for the children and donating the home with a fully equipped library and activity corner complete with arts and crafts and most importantly books to let their imagination and knowledge soar! The staff ended the day with ahand painting activitywith the children which they truly enjoyed.

Vajira Sri Children’s Development Center is in the care of Rev. Dr. Hunupalagama Vajira Sri NayakaThero whose commitment from day one has been for the development and betterment of these kids. Each child has a story of their own, and a smile that makes you appreciate the blessings we have.

Working to create a better future every day for our country’s children and youth is a cause Just In Time staff are very passionate about, and Just in Time Group (www.jithpl.com) has already launched its corporate internship programme to further this initiative and the CSR programme ‘Today a Reader–Tomorrow a Leader’ to inculcate the habit of reading in children across the island thereby playing our part in shaping future well rounded leaders.

Just In Time Group (www.jithpl.com) a wholly Sri Lankan company has been a key partner and implementer of several cutting edge mission critical ICT projects in the country over the last two decades. With the dawn of 2016, Just In Time Group completed a two decade (20 years) mammoth journey in the ICT arena of Sri Lanka. This growth throughout the years is a vital milestone with their longstanding strategic partnerships with principals, customers and employees.

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The Christmas season is always a good time to extend our good fortune to help others and sharing our blessings with people truly in need and want. Providing essential items such as food and clothing etc., for families to enable them to experience the joy of the Christmas Season is a small way that can give warmth, love and hope to others. As said by Mother Theresa, “It’s not how much we give but how much love we put into giving.”

For this reason and season, Just In Time Group commenced on a Christmas Wish Project for Lucia Perotti Children’s Home situated in Welihena, a small town located on the outskirts of Negombo. Their needs were simple; bed sheets with pillow cases, food rations and sanitary items. But they wanted to do a bit more to bring extra joy to the children. The home lacked a TV and we installed a brand new 42 inch TV for the children’s activity room. The staff of Just In Time Group also contributed generously in order to give individual gift bags filled with accessories and stationery to brighten their day.

Lucia Perotti Children’s Home is a special one, which is managed by Missionary Sister Pushpa who is the main caretaker along with six other missionary sisters who have dedicated their lives solely to help children in need of assistance in facing their daily lives through the struggles they face. It becomes special because of the children who reside here, young girls from the ages 4-16 years who have been saved from extremely troubled backgrounds, experiences and struggles such as – extreme poverty, imprisonment of parents, ethical conflicts, abandonment and abuse to name a few. For this reason photos of these children are not allowed to be published to the public in order maintain their anonymity.

The primary goal of the home is to provide a comfortable place to live and conditions favouring schooling for the children who have no adequate parental protection, guidance or hope for the future. The children at Lucia Perotti come from all parts of the country, as residing in a different location gives them a new environment to have a new start towards a better life. The continuous works of the missionary sisters throughout the years have given the girls a comfortable, safe and healthy atmosphere to live.

Working to create a better and brighter future for our country’s youth is a cause Just In Time staff are very passionate about. Additionally to their Christmas Wish Project, Just in Time Group has already launched and running its CSR program ‘Today a Reader–Tomorrow a Leader’ – which inculcates the habit of reading in children across the island, thereby playing our part in empoweringour future generation.

Just In Time Group a wholly Sri Lankan company has been a key partner and implementer of several cutting edge mission critical ICT projects in the country over the last two decades. With the dawn of 2016, Just In Time Group completed a two decade (20 years) mammoth journey in the ICT arena of Sri Lanka. This growth throughout the years is a vital milestone with their longstanding strategic partnerships with principals, customers and employees.

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Commencing operations with modest beginnings 20 years ago, Just In Time Group is proud of its position as a leading ICT systems and solutions provider in Sri Lanka to a niche market and has today grown to unparalleled success cementing its position and harnessing its success and expertise towards the ICT footprint of the country.

It is indeed apt that upon reaching a 20 year milestone that the employees who contributed to this success be felicitated for their service and commitment. The inaugural Just In Time Group Long Service Awards, was held recently to honour and appreciate their long standing employees for their continued dedication, commitment and loyalty towards making Just In Time Group the success that it is today. Their service is an embodiment of passion, dedication and perseverance that will surely set an excellent model for other colleagues. This event was held recently at the Hilton Colombo.

“It was with great pleasure and pride that we honour our valued and devoted members of staff who are celebrating ‘milestones of service’ with the Group. Thank you for your many years of service and dedication to making our vision and values come true every day,” shared the Just In Time Group Chairman at the event.

This event commemorated six employees who have completed over 15 years of service, 15 employees who have reached over 10 years of service and 20 employees who have served more than five years of service. The Recipients of the Long Service awards were given a plaque and a commemorative gold coin. The consistent contribution from each of these employees showcases the support to Just In Time Group’s mission of being the foremost ICT Systems and Solutions Integrator in Sri Lanka.

“In our journey of 20 years we have customers who wholeheartedly appreciate the commitment and multi skilled knowledge of our staff. A sense of belonging and family like bond comes out strongly from our staffs, who appreciate the vast learning and knowledge gaining opportunities available. Many of those who are outside the company do not see the value of the width and breadth of knowledge that one gains when they join a solutions integrator like JIT. We are very proud to say that all our customers who have been with us from Day one still remain our customers to this day,” shared JIT COO Chrishan Mendis, who himself celebrates 18 years with the Group being the most senior member of staff today.

The 20 year milestone of Just In Time Group was also commemorated, with the testaments shared of the company, a brilliant pace of growth into a large and varied workplace with a shared understanding and sense of community that has created an atmosphere of a second home.

The vision of JIT has never wavered. Every project undertaken has been delivered with no compromises and it boasts of an unblemished record in delivering projects of monumental importance to the country.

“Throughout our journey, through the many ups and downs our staff have been resilient in the face of change – be it in the company or in the field of ICT and have adapted remarkably and been the backbone of our successes. We believe we can never suffice in our efforts to recognise our staff for their commitment to our organisation and through these awards we want to validate their efforts and dedication,” shared Head of Legal/HR and Admin Sherene Goonetilleke.

With JIT’s emphasis on creating a high performance organisation as part the company’s strategic objectives, it has ignited a focused and performance driven culture which propels employees on getting high excellence results. Empowering the people to reach their goals successfully and that of the organisation is the key fundamental that JIT’s foresees as the cornerstone of the company’s continuous growth and future business sustainability.

Just In Time Group a wholly Sri Lankan company has been a key partner and implementer of several cutting edge mission critical ICT solutions in the country over the last two decades. With the dawn of 2016, Just In Time Group completed a two decade (20 years) mammoth journey in the ICT arena of Sri Lanka.

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