Page 4 - EngineerIT Nov-Dec 2025

FROM THE EDITOR’S DESK

nergy is a significant focus our look at machine self-awareness,
in this edition of EngineerIT. we examine what happens when the
EAndré de Ruyter opens the tools we build begin to behave in
conversation with a clear view of ways we didn’t fully anticipate.
what delay has cost the country
and where cautious optimism may It’s a substantial 30+ page edition,
still be justified. We also look at bringing together the people,
how businesses are responding to technologies and decisions shaping
persistent price pressures through South Africa’s engineering and
solar-plus-storage solutions, and energy landscape.
why the growing rush into small- Automation and manufacturing take
scale embedded generation needs the stage as well, with local companies As always, our aim is to keep you
stronger standards to keep staff, demonstrating that capability on connected to the ideas that matter,
customers, and networks safe. the continent is shifting. Quantum and the systems that carry us forward.
research, showcased through
Digital resilience is also a critical experiments-on-a-chip, continues to
theme. Our cover story with blur the line between science lab and
Africa Data Centres unpacks real-world application.
how South Africa can strengthen
its digital backbone and Cybersecurity remains a national
build systems that continue pressure point, with South Africa
operating even when individual facing increasingly coordinated digital
components fail. Public-facing attacks. Healthcare’s relationship
services, industrial networks and with AI sparks debate, especially as
national infrastructure all depend practitioners weigh practical benefits Justin Render
on this stability. against ethical boundaries. And in Editor, EngineerIT

Quark’s Corner These devices sit at the core of modern utility

networks: switching, routing, converting, hosting
with EngineerIT’s Hack of all Trades cybersecurity apps, and keeping real-time
communications rock solid. Full IEC 61850
BROUGHT TO YOU BY… support, modular designs, bulletproof reliability
— it’s the kind of stuff that keeps grids online
Every now and then, I stumble and engineers sleeping at night.
across a company that’s so
specialised, so quietly To round it off, H3iSquared also supplies
essential to the way our InHand industrial cellular routers, perfect for
networks stay alive that remote monitoring when you can’t run fibre
I have to pause, lean in to the middle of nowhere. Together, they give
and go, “BEEP! Now this is a operators visibility over every outlying site
serious operator.” without endless kilometres of driving.

H3iSquared is one of those. But the real magic is the expertise.

Since 2006, they’ve been H3iSquared backs the tech with years
the South African home of hands-on industrial networking
of Siemens Ruggedcom know-how — audits, troubleshooting,
— that famously tough, custom designs and the kind of training
zero-moving-parts that actually prepares engineers for field
networking gear built for conditions, not theory.
substations, utilities and any environment
where normal equipment goes to die. If it’s hot, In short: if South Africa’s critical infrastructure
cold, noisy, electrically hostile, or mission-critical… had a “who you gonna call?” list…
Ruggedcom thrives. H3iSquared would be on it.

4 | EngineerIT November/December 2025