Wednesday 28 December 2011

Australia to Recruit Foreign Troops

The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is looking to recruit foreign personnel from New Zealand, Canada, the United States and Britain.

The ADF hopes to attract overseas soldiers, sailors and air crew as well as specialists, such as special force officers, fighter pilots and submarine warfare officers with the sweetener of a fast-tracked path to Australian citizenship.

The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) has recently sent a delegation to Britain, where the government has announced cutbacks on defence spending, to look into the possibility of recruiting sailors with engineering experience due to the competition with the mining industry. An ADF spokeswoman confirmed that talks had taken place with British officials. The RAN was working closely with the Royal Navy to offer Australian jobs to people earmarked for redundancy who meet Australia's Defence Force requirements.

On its website, the ADF says it "looks to overseas candidates to fill gaps in our services that can't currently be satisfied by standard recruitment".

Overseas troops who join the Australian services will be given an Australian visa for permanent residence, and will then be able to apply for citizenship three months later - rather than having to wait the standard two years.

If you are interested in Australian visas , contact Migration Expert for information and advice on which visa is best suited to you. You can also try its visa eligibility assessment to see if you are eligible to apply for a visa to Australia.

Monday 26 December 2011

In public a curmudgeon, in private compassionate

PROBABLY no one in recent Victorian history - with the possible exception of Jeff Kennett - so polarised opinion as Bruce Ruxton, who has died in a Queensland nursing home, aged 85.

Ruxton single-mindedly led the Victorian branch of the Returned & Services League for 23 years, and had an opinion - usually reactionary - on just about any topic. He was also deeply admired within the veteran community and beyond.
Advertisement: Story continues below

The public Ruxton could be loud, bombastic and ''colourful''; the other side, not often seen in political or media skirmishes, was compassionate and complex.

Ruxton's leadership of the RSL spanned an era that began with Anzac Day reviled by some as an excuse for gatherings of old soldiers to drink themselves into oblivion, and ended with unprecedented interest from young Australians in the nation's military history.

His friend Peter Isaacson, a decorated war hero and former newspaper publisher, wrote: ''Bruce Ruxton is primarily a kind man, humane and tolerant. But in his endeavours to be all things to all men and all women, he sometimes lapses into intolerances that were manifest in Australia during his formative years.''

Personable enough in close encounters, Ruxton played the media like a rasping fiddle, ever the curmudgeon, quick with a quotable one-liner but always with the best interests of his RSL members in mind.

Many within and outside the RSL found his views objectionable. But there were also plenty of old soldiers, widows and families who knew and respected Ruxton as a considerate and tireless campaigner for their welfare.

One story he liked to tell was of the veteran who rang him at 2.45am. When Ruxton asked if he knew what time it was, the veteran replied: ''Oh, it's 2.45, but it's all right. I've got a rug around me and I've got the radiator on.''

Ruxton grew up in Kew. The family enjoyed relative prosperity, at least until the Depression. His father, a bootmaker by trade, had interests in shops, which were lost when the economy soured. Young Ruxton attended state schools in Kew before being accepted at Melbourne High School as a 13-year-old in 1939.

His first form master was Bill Woodfull, captain and opening batsman in the legendary 1932-33 Bodyline Test cricket series. A contemporary was Keith Miller, later a World War II Spitfire pilot and then champion Test cricketer and footballer. Ruxton played inter-house cricket, but excelled at swimming and debating.

After a shaky start at Melbourne High - he was remembered as the rambunctious class clown - he performed solidly, contributed to school publications, was on the student representative council and was an active Boy Scout. He drilled with the reserves in Kew, and soon after his 18th birthday, in February 1944, he joined the army.

There is some dispute about Ruxton's military service. One story had it that he entered the army as a 16-year-old; another held that his entire service was as a cook. As detailed by his biographer, Private Ruxton VX94379 was assigned as a reinforcement to the 2/25th Battalion. He trained in Queensland, and was then attached to the 2nd Australian Field Survey Company.

In April 1945, Ruxton was sent ahead of the rest of the 2/25th to the island of Morotai in the Dutch East Indies, where he found spiders ''as big as pineapples''. From Morotai, he went to Balikpapan, an oil port in Borneo. There he saw action as a rifleman for almost two months before the Japanese surrender on August 15, 1945. He also came face to face with evidence of Japanese atrocities committed during the the war, including the killing of civilians and infants. These scenes would haunt him.

Ruxton volunteered to serve in Japan as part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, and he was assigned to guard duty. It was in Japan that he trained and worked for a time as a cook. He was promoted to lance-corporal, but a minor indiscretion saw his rank reduced again to private.

In total, Ruxton served in the army for just under five years and was discharged in January 1949. On his return, he worked with the Bureau of Meteorology and served briefly as a relieving lighthouse keeper at Wilson's Promontory in 1950. He then spent 18 months in Europe with his girlfriend, Ruth Proud. They married in Fremantle in June 1952, and settled in Melbourne.

Ruxton, who became a partner in his father's stationery business, General Stationers, in South Melbourne, had joined the RSL while still serving in 1948. By 1962, he had secured a place on the state council. By 1968 he was state vice-president and was senior vice-president in 1974.

He came to national prominence during the first of many campaigns to buy back Victoria Cross medals won by Australians that were being sold at auctions overseas.

In July 1979, Ruxton was elected to the honorary position of Victorian RSL president. He approached the task as a full-time job, to the detriment of his own business, which within six years had gone into receivership.

Ruxton pursued governments, departments and agencies tirelessly on behalf of ex-service personnel. He helped in some ways to bridge the gap between World War II veterans and those who fought in Vietnam, although his efforts were not always obvious. There were some bitter political fights within the RSL during his tenure, especially over the integration of the Heidelberg repatriation hospital into the state health system in the early 1990s.

Ruxton was politically well connected. An old friend was Don Chipp, once a Liberal minister and founding leader of the Australian Democrats. Ruxton had joined the Liberal Party in the 1950s, but he also collected unexpected friends, such as feminist Germaine Greer. He helped find proper care and accommodation for her

ex-serviceman father in his declining years.

Ruxton's forays into politics beyond veterans' affairs matters were marked by extremes. In the 1980s, he became the voice of bigoted Australia on the issue of Asian immigration. He was a staunch anti-communist. Other issues such as land rights and republicanism would later occupy his thoughts. His views on homosexuality in the armed forces led to the famous quote: ''I don't remember one single poofter in World War II.''

A persistent stirrer - he once took on Dick Smith for adding Anzac biscuits to his Aussie tucker range - his final significant public fray was during the republican debates of the late 1990s. As a monarchist, Ruxton was a natural stalwart of the ''no'' cause.

It was almost inevitable that he should fall out with the author of his authorised biography, Dr Anne Blair, whom he selected after he reviewed her earlier biography of counter-insurgency expert, Brigadier Ted Serong.

Blair had been given exclusive access to Ruxton's papers for five years and conducted extensive interviews in preparing the book, which was titled simply Ruxton.

Following publication, Ruxton thundered: ''I found the woman objectionable.'' He said she had spoken to ''just about everyone who didn't like me''. This was despite the fact that the two communicated extensively over the manuscript, with Ruxton making corrections before publication.

The harshest suggestions in the book are that Ruxton contributed, through his absences, to his first wife's various disabilities and - through his public opinions - to an assault she sustained at their home just weeks before her death.

Awarded an MBE in 1974 for services to the retired services community, Ruxton was elevated to the OBE in 1981. He was awarded an AM in 1997.

In 2000, Ruxton contracted viral pneumonia during a visit to Boer War sites in South Africa. The illness, which he dubbed ''Tutu's blessing'' (an infra dig reference to South African archbishop Desmond Tutu), was to trigger his retirement as RSL state president and affect his health thereafter. He also struggled with diabetes and prostate cancer.

His first wife, Ruth, died in December 1988. He married Jill McMahon, widow of a former soldier and farmer, in 1996.

Ruxton retired from the league presidency in 2002, and the couple moved to Tewantin, near Noosa, in Queensland, the following year and he largely retreated from public life.

Ruxton is survived by his wife Jill and a son, Ian, from his first marriage.

Thursday 22 December 2011

Curbs on nurse migration have not had 'anticipated effect'

Instead of joining the UK nursing workforce, they found overseas nurses from developing countries were finding other routes to migrate.

The National Nursing Research Unit at King’s College London assessed the implications of changes in nurse migration for the UK and non European Union countries over the last five years.

The number of internationally trained nurses entering the UK declined sharply from 10,000-16,000 per year before 2005 to around 2,000-2,500 by the end of the last decade.

As well as falling demand, the researchers noted this is largely down to stricter regulatory and migration services controls introduced in 2005. Some of these were “ethically motivated” such as the Department of Health’s ban on actively recruiting nurses from countries receiving UK aid.

But the NNRU researchers said such interventions had not resulted in improved retention of nurses in their home countries.

In Malawi, for example, they said nurses had found “alternative pathways to migration” by leaving nursing and taking on admin roles, and perceived the tightening up of UK regulations as “discriminatory”.

“Some nurses felt aggrieved that the doors of the UK that had previously been open to them, were now closed,” the researchers said.

In addition, they said new opportunities were opening up for developing world nurses in countries such as Hong Kong, South Africa, Jamaica and Japan. Meanwhile, they said the UK had become a “passive source country” for nurse recruitment by Australia.

The study authors said: “Tighter migration restrictions have caused a decline in nurses entering the UK workforce from non-EU countries. But this has not had the anticipated effect of improving source country retention, as increasingly nurses leave the profession to work outside of nursing.

“In other countries, such as the Philippines and India, nurses continue to migrate but are taking up employment in a new wave of destination countries,” they said.

The researchers predicted the UK would need to re-establish overseas recruitment to meet the likely increase in demand for nurses caused by an ageing population.

But they warn: “Tightening up of regulatory and migratory controls to the UK have compromised the ‘attractiveness’ of the UK as a destination for nurses, and there may be work to be done in the future to convince internationally trained nurses that they are welcome and needed in the UK.”

Tuesday 20 December 2011

Spanish and Portuguese nurses fill the gaps in the NHS

Portuguese nurses Pedro and Ines Goncalves (no relation) were hired by Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn, after failing to find work at home. Photograph: Fabio de Paola

As Ines Goncalves begins her 12-hour shift at Queen Elizabeth hospital in King's Lynn, she looks back over the year she has worked at the Norfolk hospital's stroke unit. "It's quite different from Portugal, the culture and the people. But I'm enjoying it," says the 23-year-old nurse from Lisbon.

After graduating last year she was unemployed for five months before signing up with a recruitment agency who found her work in the UK. And she is not the only Portuguese nurse on her ward."At the moment there are six or seven," she says.

Unable to attract enough applications from domestic nurses, Queen Elizabeth hospital NHS trust launched a major recruitment services drive in Portugal in 2010. It followed one in Spain a year earlier. While many of the Spanish nurses who arrived struggled to settle and have returned home, the 65 Portuguese nurses have fared better, helped by the area's already strong Portuguese community, where many migrants work in agricultural and food processing industries.

Jacqui Bate, director of human resources at the trust, says: "We decided to recruit from abroad because we were getting insufficient response to our job adverts from potential candidates in this country."

Queen Elizabeth hospital is not alone in recruiting heavily from the Iberian peninsula. Faced with a shortage of nurses across acute departments such as cardiac, stroke and accident and emergency, many hospitals have looked to southern Europe to fill vacancies. Northampton general hospital brought in 40 nurses from Portugal, Spain and Italy earlier this year. In Cambridgeshire, Hinchingbrooke healthcare NHS trust last year sent six senior nurses and HR managers on a recruitment drive to Madrid and hired 25 Spanish nurses.

Iberian recruitment

Society Guardian has learned that the number of nurses from Portugal and Spain registering to work in the UK has increased 15-fold in the last four years. Between 1 December 2010 and 30 November 2011, 536 nurses from Portugal and 431 from Spain joined the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register. That compares with only 32 and 31 respectively between 1 December 2006 and 30 November 2007.

While they number only a fraction of the 600,000 nurses registered with the NMC, these Iberian nurses represent the latest wave of immigrants to prop up the NHS.Britain's reliance on healthcare professionals from overseas began in the 1950s and hospitals have recruited foreign nurses and doctors ever since, initially from Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan, South Africa and the West Indies.

In recent years, overseas recruitment has shifted towards Europe, underpinned by the principle of "mutual recognition" of medical qualifications between EU member states that allows nurses from EU countries to register for work in the UK without having to undergo other competency checks.

Most employers insist that applicants have a good level of English. But the new reliance on nurses for whom English is a second language has raised concerns about their ability to talk to patients.

In October, the House of Lords recommended that regulatory bodies should be allowed to test the language skills of EU-trained nurses and midwives.

"Nurses and midwives who trained outside the UK enrich the diversity of healthcare services delivered across the UK. However, being able to effectively communicate with patients and colleagues is fundamental to delivering care that is safe," says Professor Dickon Weir-Hughes, chief executive and registrar of the Nursing and Midwifery Council .

In Norfolk, Queen Elizabeth hospital has set up language classes to help foreign nurses learn local colloquialisms , such as "blar" (to cry) and "hull up" (to vomit).

"Many of the terms for body parts, illnesses and bodily functions don't feature in the average English language class but are absolutely necessary for nurses to understand," explains Bate.

The sudden availability of vast numbers of young graduate nurses from Spain and Portugal has been driven by massive public sector cuts amid the eurozone debt crisis. In Catalonia, for example, the healthcare budget was this year cut by 10% in a bid to save 1bn euros, and hospitals have already begun to close.

Alina Souza, technical adviser for the Spanish General Nursing Council, says graduates are having to wait two years before they can get a hospital placement and the employment crisis has been made worse by the private sector recruiting cheap nurses from Ecuador and Colombia.

Many Spanish nurses are attracted to working in the UK, says Souza, because they "have proper contracts, not just work for a day or two days," and the training opportunities are better. "They can come to the UK and, say, in half a year get a midwifery certificate, and then come back to Spain as a specialist. It's very hard to get into a specialist programme here."

It is a similar story in Portgual where many nurses have to hold down two or three jobs to make a living, says Goncalves. "Contracts are very short and there is not a lot of career progression. I would earn maybe 900 euros a month, maximum, in a public hospital. Here it's about £1,600."

Professor Jim Buchan, who specialises in healthcare HR at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh, believes there will no let-up in inward migration services as the EU austerity measures continue to bite.

"The factors pushing nurses in Spain and Portugal to the UK are likely to continue at least for another couple of years. They are looking to make the move and there's nothing to stop them," he says.

While hundreds of nurses are being brought over in recruitment campaigns, Buchan says large numbers will be applying for jobs directly from home – or booking a cheap flight and chancing their luck.

But with austerity measures starting to hit British hospitals, many more could find themselves working in private care homes rather than hospitals. A recent internal NHS workforce analysis, showed a net fall of 3,647 nurses between May 2010 and July 2011 as hospitals begin to make cuts.

Barchester, which runs more than 200 nursing homes, has recruited dozens of nurses in Portugal this year. "There has been a notable increase in the interest we've had from Spanish and Portuguese nurses," says Hayley Senior, a Barchester spokeswoman. "They are keen to work for us, especially as job opportunities are dwindling in their respective countries."

Earlier this year, Peter Carter, Royal College of Nursing chief executive, , added his voice to increasing concerns about new nurses lacking the basic care skills required to provide the standard of care that patients expect.

Ricardo Magalhães, who runs Reach Health Recruitment, supplies Portuguese nurses for a major care home company in the UK. He claims they are better equipped to provide the basic nursing care than British nurses. "In Portugal it's a standard part of their graduation that they have to have learned the basic things, like feeding, bathing and lifting," he says.

Pedro Goncalves, who works alongside Ines, but is no relation to his colleague at King's Lynn's stroke unit, is determined to make a success of his new life. "I came [through a recruitment drive last December] without knowing anyone, which was difficult," says the 25-year-old nurse. "But I didn't even try to find a job in Portugal because there are so few."

Monday 19 December 2011

Asylum seeker tragedy: why the figures speak for themselves

Some naive, albeit well meaning, types never learn. Interviewed on ABC metropolitan radio yesterday, the Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young defended onshore processing of asylum seekers in Australia. This despite the fact that yet another boat containing asylum seekers sank off Java on Saturday, en route for Christmas Island.

Australia is a wealthy democracy. It has a generous welfare system and excellent, publicly-funded health, education and migration services. Clearly, Australia is a magnet for asylum seekers.

Many asylum seekers - particularly those from North Africa and the Middle East - come in groups by boat, usually after destroying their personal papers and paying substantial funds to people smugglers. The Coalition government, during John Howard's prime ministership, found that putting up a red flag reduced the number of unauthorised boat arrivals and, consequently, the number of deaths by drowning.
Advertisement: Story continues below

Initially the Howard government's approach was too harsh. Towards the end of his period in office, Howard relaxed the administration of mandatory detention, while maintaining a red flag warning to people smugglers.

Senator Chris Evans, when immigration minister in 2008, announced a softening of the Howard government's policy. Labor effectively replaced the Coalition's red flag with what was an amber flag to some and a green flag to others. The facts speak for themselves. Between 2002 and 2008, a total of 25 boats arrived on Australian shores containing unauthorised arrivals. In 2009, the figure was 61 boats followed by 134 in 2010. Also the number of asylum seekers on individual boats appears to be increasing. Hence the heavy death toll at the weekend.

Since the softening of the policy in 2008, some 300 asylum seekers are known to have drowned and two vessels (containing possibly 200 asylum seekers) appear to have been lost at sea. This works out to at least 500 deaths in just three years. And what solution does Hanson-Young have? Well, none at all. She said yesterday the "best way to smash the people smugglers' business model is to take away the need for service".

Hanson-Young seems to be saying that any asylum seeker who makes it to Indonesia or Malaysia, with the intention of taking a boat trip to Australia, should be accommodated under Australia's refugee and humanitarian intake. Currently Australia takes some 13,500 refugees each year. Hanson-Young's proposal, if implemented, would fill Australia's quota with potential boat people - to the disadvantage of refugees who have been processed by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and are awaiting placement in a host country such as Australia.

There is considerable denial in the current debate on asylum seekers. In an extraordinary interview on the 7.30 program last month, Paul Keating criticised Australia for putting what he described as a fence around the place and (allegedly) declaring: "It's verboten to cross the border." Leigh Sales did not see fit to remind her guest that mandatory detention was introduced by the Keating government in May 1992 in order to send a message to Vietnamese asylum seekers that it was "verboten" to arrive in Australia without a valid visa.

Today Keating simply denies that he was the father of policies aimed at discouraging unauthorised boat arrivals. When Keating acted in 1992, the number of boats which had arrived the previous year was a mere six. This compares with close to 20 boats in the last two months alone.

Then there is Malcolm Fraser. Today the former Liberal prime minister is an advocate of onshore processing of asylum seekers. Yet this is not what happened when the Fraser government generously - and wisely - accepted tens of thousands of Indo-Chinese refugees between 1976 and 1982. During the Fraser government, a mere 2059 asylum seekers arrived by boat. This compares with 5316 in 2001 (before the Howard government put out its red flag) and close to 7000 in 2010 (after Labor had pulled down Howard's red flag).

Today the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, and the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, disagree about whether offshore processing of asylum seekers should take place in Malaysia or Nauru. Yet both government and opposition concede the only way to deter the boats - a consequence of which would be to diminish or eliminate the drownings - is to process asylum seekers offshore.

This leaves the likes of Hanson-Young and other well-meaning but naive advocates as the sole proponents of onshore processing in Australia, which serves as a magnet to asylum seekers.

It is understandable why asylum seekers take the considerable risk to win the glittering prize of entry to Australia. But it is reckless for the likes of Hanson-Young, intentionally or otherwise, to encourage such dangerous behaviour.

Sunday 18 December 2011

Huge toll as boat sinks

MORE than 200 asylum seekers are feared to have died after their boat sank off Java, victims of increasingly brazen syndicates that are funnelling people through Jakarta airport before packing them onto unsafe boats bound for Australia.

Just over a year after a disaster off Christmas Island in which 50 people died, a boat carrying about 250 asylum seekers sank off Prigi beach in eastern Java on Saturday.

There were conflicting reports last night about how many people survived. Indonesian officials said there were only 34 - contradicting Australia's new Home Affairs Minister, Jason Clare, who said 87 asylum seekers had been rescued.

The Afghans and Iranians who survived five hours in the water included two boys aged about 10 and two women, while the rest were adult males.

An Afghan survivor, Esmat Adine, described the sinking as ''like the Titanic''. The boat capsized quickly from the rear, he told the Indonesian news site tribunnews.com. ''We tried to hold onto anything,'' he said.

Survivors said about 40 of the 250 people on board were children. The boat had a normal capacity of about 100, according to Kelik Enggar Purwanto, of the local search and rescue team. It was unlikely any more survivors would be found, he said.

A Jakarta refugee advocate told The Age he had been in contact with a survivor who lost his wife and two youngest children. ''They were packed onto a boat, most of them in cabins below deck. Some of those on deck survived but everyone below died when the boat capsized.''

Many of the asylum seekers had flown from Dubai to Jakarta, where Indonesian officials are said to have charged them $500 each to pass through the airport without visas. They were then taken in four buses to an unknown location on the south coast of Java.

The case highlights the increased confidence of people-smuggling networks and the huge demand for their services. In recent months, the regularity of vessels attempting to cross to Australia has increased, as has the size of their human cargo.

Australia's main political parties expressed horror at the latest disaster and condemned people smugglers, but avoided criticism of each other's policies. Acting Prime Minister Wayne Swan said: ''Our thoughts are with the families and loved ones of those who died or are missing following this terrible event. It's a tragic reminder of the dangers of attempting journeys like this.''

The opposition immigration spokesman, Scott Morrison, said: ''People smugglers have proven they are prepared to crowd boats and take people's money with little regard to whether the boat makes it to its ultimate destination.''

The Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young said: "This is an awful tragedy and all involved should be given the time to mourn."

But a lawyer acting for survivors and families of those lost off Christmas Island a year ago said 1000 people had drowned while politicians used asylum seekers as political footballs. ''This disgraceful state of affairs is the

result of both political parties being unable to come to a bipartisan agreement and to develop an offshore processing policy to deal with asylum seekers,'' George Newhouse said.

''If our leaders had an ounce of decency - both of them - they would get together and formulate a serious policy to deal with the issue.''

Controversial former ALP leader Mark Latham blamed Labor's Left and the Greens for the deaths. ''Let's be brutally honest about it, the boats sinking and families dying is a direct consequence of the so-called compassionate people who support onshore processing,'' he told Sky News.

''Onshore processing is a magnet for people to pay people smugglers to get on boats that are unseaworthy and to effectively risk their lives.''

Ian Rintoul of the Refugee Action Coalition said there was a tendency to send the worst possible boats and most inexperienced crews. ''Everything works to make them less seaworthy and less valuable because it is a one-way trip: the boat doesn't come back,'' he said.

''If the government is worried about people losing their lives at sea, they should decriminalise people smuggling so that the voyages can be planned in open and seaworthy boats.''

Thursday 15 December 2011

Australian security services worth $38 million: Frost & Sullivan

The Australian security-as-a-service market climbed 17.2 per cent this year and was driven by increasing Cloud adoption, according to new research from analyst firm, Frost & Sullivan.

In its report entitled A Strategic Analysis of the ANZ Security as a Service Market, the firm found that the market was now worth $38.4 million.

Ongoing migration services from on-premise software and increasing Cloud services penetration among small businesses is forecasted to drive a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.6 per cent by 2016, by which time the market would be worth $83 million.

According to the report, Cloud adoption in Australia was amongst the highest in the world and software-as-a-service (SaaS) was the most popular service model, used by 72 per cent of Cloud computing users.

Frost & Sullivan APAC ICT practice vice president, Andrew Milroy, said in a statement that the shift to security-as-a-service was driven by a number of factors including a desire by business owners to classify IT expenses as operating rather than capital expenses.

“This ensures a more predictable monthly expenditure for organisations along with other benefits such as lower up-front costs, greater standardisation, ease of upgrades and ubiquitous access,” he said.

Adoption was also driven by the shortage of qualified IT security staff which led to organisations using contractors and incurring higher costs in the process.

“Security-as-a-service removes this issue, at the same time as lowering management and maintenance overheads, by placing responsibility for delivery and maintenance of the security offering on the Cloud services provider,” he said.

According to the report, other attractions of security-as-a-service included the flexibility for an organisation to scale up or down and the ability to protect users irrespective of their location.

However, Frost & Sullivan also found that organisations still hold some concerns about moving security to the Cloud with the most common being fear of loss of control by outsourcing to a third party service provider and data sovereignty.

For example, companies could be faced with a potential regulatory impact of relying on Asian or US-based data centres used by many security-as-a-service providers.

“This use of international data centres has also raised uncertainties about latency, particularly as it applies to Web security,” said Milroy.

“We believe that latency continues to be a prominent restraint for adoption of Web security as a service in the medium term.”

The report also found that the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector was leading demand for security-as-a-service from the Cloud, driven by business continuity and preventing loss of intellectual property.

“This sector has also been an early adopter of add-on modules such as encryption to adhere to regulatory compliance,” he said.

Other users of the service include federal and state government ministries and agencies looking to consolidate IT infrastructure across departments.

Monday 12 December 2011

Refugees fear rapid influx of boatpeople

REBECCA Nyaret knows first-hand how hard it can be for asylum-seekers to integrate into the community.

As a refugee from Sudan, she struggled to understand our language and culture, to interpret documents and regulations, and to find housing and work.

Others like her report depression, feelings of worthlessness and problems with family or ethnic violence.

Ms Nyaret, 27, who was granted asylum before travelling to Australia in 2007, fears the increasing number of irregular boat arrivals since the collapse of offshore processing will put more pressure on jobs, housing and services for those already here.

She worries it will mean fewer visas for those, like her mother, who have been granted refugee status but are still waiting for permission to travel here.

"In Africa we would all like to come, but we don't have a boat -- we have to line up," Ms Nyaret said. "Even now it's hard to find housing -- when you turn up to the inspection there's always a huge line."

Her concerns mirror those expressed by the Coalition governments of NSW and Victoria, which have attacked Julia Gillard's plan to move thousands of asylum-seekers out of detention centres and into the community.

The nation's two largest states have condemned the policy as an exercise in burden shifting that would stretch police resources and threaten social cohesion.

As reported by The Weekend Australian, NSW Police Minister Mike Gallacher slammed the proposal, saying it had been undertaken without any consultation with the states, which would be expected to provide many of the services asylum-seekers need.

Mr Gallacher said the policy compromised the welfare of asylum-seekers, who risked being dumped in the community without adequate support.

In a briefing document obtained by The Australian, as reported yesterday, the NSW government warned that the increasing number of asylum-seekers being released into the community on bridging visas risked some falling through the cracks.

NSW Community Services Minister Pru Goward said refugees were "very intensive" users of social services and warned of rising levels of domestic violence.

But federal Immigration Minister Chris Bowen accused Ms Goward of grandstanding.

Susan Vogels, chief executive of SydWest Multicultural Services, said incidents of domestic violence among asylum-seekers were not known to be higher than in other sections of the community, but agreed the figures did not necessarily tell the whole story.

A refugee counsellor, who asked not to be named, said more common problems were "economic violence" and even extortion within families.

"Sometimes one family member says 'I brought you to Australia and you can't do anything without my permission'," the counsellor said.

The counsellor said men in particular often struggled with losing their role as breadwinners and their traditional powers to discipline their families.

"Men feel helpless when they lose control. The government needs to do more to educate men that violence is wrong, and to educated asylum-seekers generally about human rights."

Sunday 11 December 2011

New release of WatchDog Software automatically tests recoverability of backups

WatchDog Software today announced the release of Version 5 of its monitoring package, which tests and monitors backups from a central console and now features daily automated recovery testing (DART) technology.

Additionally, Watchdog Software has become an alliance partner of StorageCraft’s Asia Pacific operations, headquartered in Sydney, Australia. The alliance with leading real-time recovery technology provider StorageCraft Asia Pacific enables WatchDog Software to provide the highest levels of confidence in protection and recoverability of data, databases and complete systems available to date.

Matt Thompson-Moltzen, Chief Technology Officer of WatchDog Software, said: “This is an exciting alliance for us. WatchDog Software provides a near-absolute assurance that a customer’s data is safe and recoverable – no other product even comes close to delivering this level of detailed and automated testing for physical, virtual and cloud based servers.”

WatchDog Software centralises the monitoring of StorageCraft ShadowProtect backup, recovery, disaster recovery and system migration services installations to achieve new levels of data protection and recoverability. Its unique DART technology performs a complete test every night on all an organisation’s servers being protected with StorageCraft ShadowProtect.

Thompson-Moltzen said: “Our DART technology, combined with the advanced sector-based backup provided by ShadowProtect, delivers possibly the only solution capable of testing to this degree the recoverability of physical, virtual and cloud servers automatically without any manual involvement.”

Greg Wyman, Vice President – Asia Pacific for StorageCraft, said: “The integrated solution will give ShadowProtect customers an even higher degree of confidence when it comes to protecting and recovering their data. Now our customers can have total visibility into their backups and receive near-instant notification of potential or critical backup problems. They can identify and resolve backup problems faster and substantially reduce the costs of monitoring backup status and recoverability of data.”

Thompson-Moltzen said WatchDog Software reduces an administrator’s workload by providing a central console to view the status of all ShadowProtect backup jobs. Servers or systems with problems jump to the top of the queue and change the traffic light colour to red or yellow, depending upon the urgency of an alert. The software is simple to install, cost-effective and gives maximum reassurance that all servers can be restored in any environment with StorageCraft ShadowProtect.

WatchDog Software customer and Regional Support Leader (Qld) at Lion Pty Ltd, Sandy Pennisi, said: “WatchDog is a must-have add-on for ShadowProtect. Before implementing, we were a little blind as to the backups and whether or not they were working as expected. Now with WatchDog, we know instantly that the backups are working or have an issue since we have it displaying in our office for all technicians to see and act upon. We are then able to diagnose the issues within minutes and get the backups back on track, to have our required levels of data and systems protection.”

WatchDog v5 features an integrated database, improved reporting and revised investment structure, SNMP alerting to feedback ShadowProtect status into enterprise management framework products. The product was developed independently by WatchDog Software and is fully supported by the Asia Pacific operations of StorageCraft, headquartered in Sydney.

Pricing – Australia • BASE including 10 CALs (systems being monitored): $A487 annual subscription • Additional 10 CALs: $A299 annual subscription • Additional 50 CALs: $A584 annual subscription • Substantial discounts are available for three-year subscriptions

For more information: www.watchdogsoftware.com.au

About WatchDog Software

WatchDog Software has developed a centralised monitoring and automatic testing tool for Windows servers. This implementation supports StorageCraft ShadowProtect environments as well as monitoring the Windows event logs to provide a central dashboard to server health and the status and recoverability of backups.

Thursday 8 December 2011

StorageCraft rounds off stellar year of education with webinar series

After educating more than 1,500 people at technical training seminars across Australia, StorageCraft has scheduled a series of educational webinars to round off a stellar year of educating ShadowProtect users.

They are scheduled as follows:

Exchange 2010 migration made easy with Granular Recovery for Exchange 13 December, 15:30-16:00 AEDT Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/270716736

Demonstration of WatchDog Software 14 December, 11:00-11:30 AEDT Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/749326840

WatchDog Software Installation Training 14 December, 13:30-14:00 AEDT Register here: https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/891125048

About StorageCraft

StorageCraft Technology Corporation provides innovative backup, disaster recovery, system migration and data protection solutions. Their software products have been developed to reduce downtime, improve security and stability for systems and data and lower the total cost of ownership for servers, desktops and laptops. For more information, please visit www.storagecraft.com.au

For more information Greg Wyman, StorageCraft Vice President – Asia Pacific Phone: +61 2 8061 4444 or mobile +61 402 259 359 Email: greg.wyman@storagecraft.com.au

For media enquiries David Frost, PR Deadlines Phone: +61 2 4341 5021 or mobile +61 408 408 210 Email: davidf@prdeadlines.com.au



Tuesday 6 December 2011

The JASCO Group establishes two new Australian companies, OneNimbus and OneNimbus Research

The JASCO Group, Australian technology developer and cloud computing specialist, today announced the launch of two new companies, OneNimbus Pty Ltd and OneNimbus Research Pty Ltd. The new companies will focus on developing smart cloud solutions for businesses of all sizes by engaging with global partners to make migration services  communication, and data protection easier. With a highly experienced senior executive team at the helm, OneNimbus will deliver practical cloud solutions to business and will focus its R&D efforts to develop innovative cloud-based business solutions.

The OneNimbus product portfolio currently offers three solutions including the messageLinx, 2SQL, and EVault solutions.
  • OneNimbus messageLinx: Is a one-to-many broadcast platform. With message delivery options including voice, video, SMS, IM, Windows Live, MSN, Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn, messageLinx is a single solution for all communications needs
  • OneNimbus 2SQL: Automatically and simply migrates up to 90 percent of Microsoft Access database content (uniquely including apps and code) to Microsoft SQL Server (On-Premise or in the Cloud via Azure)
  • OneNimbus EVault: EVault solutions ensure the protection of corporate data on all platforms including mobile devices – even if they are lost or stolen. 
OneNimbus has a group of strong, experienced senior technology executives as its leadership team who are tasked with driving the business aggressively in the local and overseas markets. Headed up by Chairman and CEO, Jason McClintock, OneNimbus welcomes Harold Melnick, VP of Marketing and Alliances; Sean Walsh, VP Sales and Partners; and Andrew Dale, VP Global Sales; Courtenay Snell, Chief Technology Officer and Michael Verso, Head of R&D at OneNimbus Research.
“With the business strategy focused on significant growth both locally and internationally, OneNimbus has hired a team of experienced executives to lead the business to its full potential. We are thrilled to have such a strong team on board, each member bringing individual skills and extensive experience from the IT industry”, said Jason McClintock, Chairman and CEO of OneNimbus.

OneNimbus’s marketing and strategic alliances will be driven both locally and internationally by Harold Melnick, as the VP of Marketing & Alliances. Bringing over 25 years of senior, international technology marketing experience, Melnick’s role includes proactively driving marketing strategies across the international marketplace and generating strategic alliance partnerships. Melnick has previously managed global marketing for Microsoft divisions including Microsoft Press, Microsoft Consulting and Microsoft’s Enterprise division. Along with additional experience at NEC, Telstra and Vodafone, Melnick provides the enthusiasm and drive to market OneNimbus products at a global scale.

The new VP Sales & Partners, Sean Walsh joins OneNimbus from AppSense where he created a stellar sales record during his seven years as the VP Sales for ANZ. Prior to this, Walsh worked in a variety of senior sales roles with Enterprise software vendors such as Citrix. In his new role with OneNimbus, Walsh will be responsible for the development of the OneNimbus partner recruitment services program as well as driving sales for OneNimbus’s products and solutions in the Australian market.

OneNimbus has appointed Andrew Dale as VP Global Sales where he will be responsible for developing the OneNimbus sales opportunities beyond Australian borders, building on its already ignited international sales success with successful deployments in Asia. Dale joins OneNimbus with previous roles with NEC and Circa Telecommunications where he had been responsible for major growth strategy and execution.

Courtenay Snell is Chief Technology Officer at OneNimbus. Snell’s technology insights are well known and he has been an expert in the fields of messaging and unified communications over the past 10 years. In this new role Snell will identify customer needs and industry trends in order to focus R&D efforts to develop innovative cloud-based business solutions.
Michael Verso is Head of Research and Development at OneNimbus Research. Verso’s expertise has been instrumental in developing the messageLinx platform and showing leadership in delivering innovative technology. Verso’s understanding of customer needs has produced products that have been released under the OneNimbus cloud solution suite.

McClintock said, “The depth and breadth of experience in the OneNimbus leadership team is second to none for a technology start-up organisation. I am very excited by the opportunities ahead of us, thanks to this amazing team, combined with the outstanding technology solutions we are offering customers, which can add true business intelligence and bottom line benefits to their businesses.”

For more information on OneNimbus and its cloud solutions, go to www.OneNimbus.com

Monday 5 December 2011

Exodus: Movement of rich people - a life at home abroad

An Italian professor of maths moves from Rome to New York State, a lawyer moves from Sydney to Hong Kong after a spell in the Cayman Islands in between, a Portuguese executive moves from Mexico City to Bogota, a violinist leaves Serbia for the UK.

The movement of professional people on this scale was unimaginable 10 years ago.

The cross-border migration of highly-educated people from upper-middle income countries rose by 44% between 2000 and 2006, according to a recently published study by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In low income countries the cross-border movements also jumped significantly, by 28%.

Intra-company transfers in developed countries rose 39% between 2005 and 2008, and this does not include intra-company transfers within the European Economic Area, says OECD policy analyst Jonathan Chaloff, even though the scale of those "can be considerable".

"What is clear is a trend towards an increase, albeit interrupted by the economic crisis," says Mr Chaloff.

Multi-national companies and government organisations confirm that view.

Talent

Brookfield Global Recruitment Services is one of the major facilitators in the movement of professional people.

Others include talent assessors SHL, recruitment specialists Hays, and ECA (Employment Conditions Abroad).

Brookfield conducts annual surveys among its 250 corporate and business clients, helping them to relocate 50,000 people a year around 110 countries.

Its latest survey concluded that 61% of them expected to transfer more employees in 2011 than last year. ECA's own survey has produced similar figures, suggesting that companies will grow their expat workforce 67% over the next two years.

The globalisation of business is not just reflected in the geographical reach of companies. According to ECA nearly 60% of the firms it surveys employ expatriates from six or more different nationalities.
People shortage

What is driving these people, many of whom have a perfectly good life in their own countries?

For starters, there is plenty of demand for their services.

Hays' research into the area, in conjunction with Oxford Economic Forecasting, indicates that "all businesses face the same fundamental challenge - a shortage of the right people and skills in the right parts of the world," and that "in a world with seven billion inhabitants and with many countries already at record unemployment levels".

Hays places 50,000 people a year - and 100,000s more in temporary and contract works - and itself employs 7,000 globally.

Hays' director Charles Logan says the company's cross-border placements are growing in number, and range: "Three to four years ago the primary movements were between the UK and Australasia, but with more organisations moving people, we are ourselves expanding, and now operate in 31 countries."

"Our own business certainly reflects this. We have recently moved a German director to Chile, a French one to Mexico City and an Irish one to Toronto."
Demand for jobs

Certain industries have always had to draw on foreign professionals; oil and gas exploration and extraction for example, typically found in non-developed parts of the world where there is unlikely to be much local expertise.

The search for energy and rising regulation in the industry means that even as local skills improve, there is still high demand for the "talent" of non-national employees.

Demand is also fuelled by demographics. Brookfield's executive vice president Scott Sullivan says that the skills gap is growing: "That comes after the retiring baby-boomers, because for a number of years talent was unwilling to risk investing their career efforts in an industry that was seen as unpredictable.

"Mining is another industry that is similarly challenged... not only for specific technical skills but also for management and leadership skills and experience that have not had a chance to develop to the level and quantity required by these fast-growing economies."
Sucking in

Climate change provides more opportunities for people in the developing discipline of green energy expertise.

Hays points out that emerging economies may also look to developed economies to meet skills shortages in areas like infrastructure, construction and engineering and mechanical goods production.

But what are the favourite destinations?

Brookfield's latest relocation survey puts three of the "Bric" nations - China Brazil and India - at the top of its list of countries likely to employ foreign professionals.

Financial services firms in developed countries are also sucking in talent from abroad - to work in places like the UK, the US and Australia.

Like other global businesses, Hays is expanding fast in developing markets. Five years ago it had no presence in South America; now there are eight offices - five in Brazil alone - and there are big plans for more.

Hays' Charles Logan says as regulation is introduced in developing countries, new skills are needed: "There is quite a demand for UK-trained lawyers in former Commonwealth territories, as well as in countries where there is pressure to increase regulatory standards in legal and accounting - for example, South Africa, Nigeria and even Singapore and Hong Kong."

Moving money

That explains the reason for the opportunities. But why would anybody go through the upheaval of moving job and house - not within a country but to another continent?

Many move for a better life and more money, although firms - and relocatees - report relocation packages are less generous than they typically were five years ago. This partly reflects that these days it's not just the most senior executives that are moving. Amongst the number of middle-ranking professionals seeking a new life abroad is rising, but they are cheaper and may not be expected to stay as long.

Brookfield's Scott Sullivan says there is a move to more flexibility: "Companies are attempting to leverage flexibility by offering what is really needed for an individual assignee... as opposed to a blanket policy with full entitlement to all provisions."

Relocation itself is big business. Brookfield says relocation expenses for its business total $3.6bn a year.

Hays' fee income has risen 42% since 2005 to £672m.

The experience these companies are putting to work is not just in the employee's field of expertise - previous overseas postings can help an application.

Brookfield found that 12% of people in its relocation survey had previously been posted abroad.
Failure

Some get a strong taste for the life, but for others it is fraught with pitfalls both practical and emotional; there is homesickness, or relationship breakup.

SHL's chief science officer, Eugene Burke, says the wrong move incurs a heavy financial impact too: "The financial costs for a company putting the wrong person into a post can quickly run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars once relocation costs are added to repatriation expenses, project failure and, most gravely, healthcare costs if the individual suffers mental health problems as a result of a failed move. "

He says between one in 12 to one in five expat assignments fail.

"There is a debate over how you define a failed assignment, but the actual recall rate is around 10% in the US, with some statistics suggesting that it is even higher."

Eugene Burke says recall rates are hard to get hold. Companies are unwilling to disclose failures.

His company, he says, is "capturing intelligence on people every second of every day" and delivers 25 million assessments a year to almost 40 countries in 50 languages.

One of the key mistakes companies make, he says, is to assume that someone who has successfully completed a project in one country will be able to do the same elsewhere: "Most people say you have to be resilient - I think its more than resilience.

"We would argue very strongly that having intelligence on this person, knowing how they tick would help immensely. Some of it is about what you know but that's only part of it, its about your approach to it as well.

"You may think 'this guy has done a good job delivering in this country - lets get him to do the same in India - he'll be good at that' - well, will he?"

But as globalisation and economic growth - where ever it may be found - continues, the experience of moving countries and continents is becoming better understood.