Page 3 - EngineerIT August-September 2025

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CONTENTS PUBLISHED BY EIA (Pty) Ltd
Tel: 011 327 4062
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2025 www.eiapublishing.co.za
PUBLISHER
Nico Maritz
6 COVER STORY
nico@eiapublishing.co.za
Designing for disruption: Africa Data Centres’ blueprint for building redundancy into
South Africa’s digital backbone
SALES MANAGER
8 ENERGY Martin Fourie
South Africa’s solar powerhouse: ARTsolar proves local manufacturing can deliver 072 835 8405
global standards and power national priorities martin@eiapublishing.co.za
10 ENERGY
South Africa Inc: from energy crisis to a shared dream EDITOR
Justin Render
12 ENERGY VISION justin@eiapublishing.co.za
The SA Inc dream: Professor Vally Padayachee calls for unity and affordable
electricity to power South Africa forward EDITORIAL BOARD
Hans van de Groenendaal
15 ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION
Chris Yelland
Sensors that see through walls: VEGA’s radar technology transforms hazardous
Quark
waste monitoring with safety and precision
ADVERTISING
16 SATELLITE TECHNOLOGY
Innovative South African proposal for ESA Geo Amateur Satellite sales@engineerit.co.za
17 INDUSTRIAL TECH PRODUCTION CO-ORDINATOR
Interlynx-SA at 32: Military-grade engineering meets modern IIoT in this South Chris Grant
African success story
chris@eiapublishing.co.za
22 SKILLS DEVELOPMENT
DESIGNER
Companies encouraged to leverage their social responsibility spend to inspire
young people to follow a technical career Adéle Gouws
24 AUTOMATION
Smarter, faster, greener: Beckhoff is reshaping factories with leaner layouts,
modular design, and real-time energy data A VOICE FOR:
26 ENERGY OPTIMISATION
Microgrid Flex: Resilience and innovation in practice
28 SCIENCE
Next solar cycle could be more intense as the Glassberg wakes up

30 WORK AND SECURITY
The next frontier of hybrid work: Trust, flexibility, and cyber resilience in South Africa’s
evolving workplace
32 RENEWABLE FINANCE
When solar underperforms: How businesses are rescuing ROI with smarter
refinancing models
35 DATA SECURITY
Developing true cloud resilience by moving beyond data backup to full ecosystem
restoration
36 CYBER RESILIENCE
Building the human firewall: Digital literacy emerges as the missing link in modern
cyber defence
38 GEOPOLITICS
China vs the West: The factory floor that reshaped global power — and why the
balance keeps shifting east
40 NEURODIVERSITY
People with dyslexia may offer a truly unique perspective on how we create and
innovate
42 ICYM: SNIPPETS FROM OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTERS

3 | EngineerIT August/September 2025