Obsidian Systems’ Smarter.tech ’26 brought enterprise technology leaders and practitioners together online to tackle a question that gets harder to answer with every new platform launch: what does working smarter actually mean for organisations already carrying complex infrastructure and stretched teams, and now under pressure to adopt AI responsibly?

The answer that ran through the event was context. Technology becomes useful when it fits the environment people work in, respects the controls the organisation depends on and gives teams a practical way to run it.

Muggie van Staden, CEO of Obsidian Systems, set that tone in his opening address, encouraging attendees to engage across the programme so that everyone would leave with a clearer view of what smarter technology looks like in practice.

“Customers are not asking for more technology in isolation. They want to know how it will fit into their environment and how it can be governed. They also need confidence that their teams can operate and support it reliably,” Van Staden said. “Smarter.tech ’26 gave us the opportunity to put those questions into the same conversation as the tools and platforms shaping the market.”

Atlassian’s plenary showed why context has become central to enterprise AI. Its direction for Rovo and the Teamwork Graph is built on connecting organisational knowledge with work already under way in Jira, Confluence and other connected systems — giving AI agents access to relevant information while keeping people involved in how work is assigned, reviewed and completed.

Open platforms

Red Hat’s Chris Mulder brought another dimension, describing the complexity facing organisations that must support legacy workloads alongside containers and emerging AI platforms, usually without bigger teams or budgets. His answer was a consistent operating model built on open platforms, with stronger control over where workloads run and how data is used.

That thread carried into the practical demonstrations led by Obsidian’s teams. One session showed how Red Hat Satellite and Ansible can replace fragmented Linux server management with a managed operating model covering deployment, patching and reporting. The significance lay less in the tools than in the experience needed to integrate them and the discipline needed to maintain them.

It is a familiar problem for South African organisations modernising against legacy estates, skills constraints, rising security exposure and unpredictable technology costs. Adding a platform without first settling how it will be governed and supported simply adds a layer of complexity.

“Smarter technology should reduce the burden on people rather than give them another system to manage,” Van Staden added. “That requires technical depth and strong partnerships, supported by an understanding of the customer’s operating reality.”

Smarter.tech ’26 made the case that progress will not come from chasing every new capability, but from better choices about how technology connects, who stays accountable for it and how the environment can be improved over time.

About Obsidian Systems
Obsidian Systems is an established supplier of open-source software solutions. It was founded in 1995 as a modest services provider targeting businesses and organisations looking to integrate and leverage Linux infrastructure, and has since expanded through partnerships with Autumn Leaf and RadixTrie.

That expansion has built a team focused on finding smarter ways to align open-source expertise with enterprise requirements, spanning retail and subscription services; support and observability for managed services; and consulting, architecture and software services across hybrid IT models.

Obsidian Systems and its subsidiaries Autumn Leaf and RadixTrie bring three elements to the South African market: vendor-certified products; local skills providing consulting, development, support and training; and innovative offerings built on the latest open technology.

Obsidian Systems is a level 1 B-BBEE contributor and a supplier of open-source software solutions in South Africa, helping teams get their code to the right platforms and the right data.

Telephone: 0860 4 LINUX (0860 4 54689) | Telephone (international): +27 11 795 0200 | Physical address: Unit 5 Randridge Office Park, Ateljee Street, Randpark Ridge, 2154, South Africa | Postal address: PO Box 4938, Cresta, 2118, South Africa.