Our Story
Open Architecture Systems is a Johannesburg-based IT consultancy that has delivered enterprise IT solutions across Southern Africa since 1987. In an industry where companies appear and vanish within a decade, OAS has endured for over 40 years — not by chasing trends, but by investing deeply in the technologies and partnerships that matter most to our clients.
From Infrastructure Specialist to Managed Security Partner
OAS began as an IT consultancy in Johannesburg, partnering with Citrix from its earliest days in South Africa. That relationship — now spanning nearly four decades — remains the foundation of our virtual workspace practice. As a Citrix Platinum Partner (the highest tier), OAS has guided hundreds of South African organisations through every generation of Citrix technology, from early application publishing to modern cloud-managed DaaS deployments.
As the threat landscape evolved, so did OAS. The rise of ransomware, remote work, and regulatory pressure revealed a gap in the South African market: mid-market businesses needed enterprise-grade security but lacked the in-house resources to build and operate a security operations centre.
OAS responded with the Three Pillar Managed Security framework — a unified approach to endpoint protection, monitoring, and recovery that brings together SentinelOne, N-able, and Cove Data Protection under a single managed service. "Protect. Detect. Recover." is not just a tagline. It is the operational model that safeguards our clients' data, operations, and reputations.
Key Milestones
What We Stand For
Security First
Every recommendation starts with protecting your data and operations. We do not propose solutions that compromise security for convenience.
Partnership, Not Vendorship
OAS builds long-term relationships. Our engagement model is designed to transition from initial assessment through to years of managed service delivery — with quarterly business reviews, virtual CIO advisory, and transparent SLAs.
Technical Depth
The team that scopes your solution is the team that delivers it. OAS's engineers hold certifications across Citrix, SentinelOne, N-able, and Microsoft — backed by decades of hands-on deployment experience.
Local Expertise, Global Standards
OAS is headquartered at 25 Durham Street, Raedene Estate, Johannesburg. Our team understands the South African regulatory landscape — POPIA, FSCA, PCI-DSS — while delivering solutions built on global best-of-breed technology.
How We Work
OAS follows a structured, six-phase engagement model:
Discovery
Audit your current environment, security posture, and licensing
Assessment
Identify gaps, risks, and opportunities with a prioritised roadmap
Proposal
Present a scoped solution with clear pricing, timeline, and expected outcomes
Deployment
Implement with phased rollouts, testing, and validation
Onboarding
Train your team and transition to managed operations
Ongoing Management
24/7 monitoring, incident response, monthly reporting, and quarterly business reviews
This is not a project-and-leave consultancy. OAS is an extension of your IT department — proactive, accountable, and invested in your long-term success.
The Team Behind the Technology
OAS's strength is its people. Our team brings deep domain expertise across virtualisation, cybersecurity, cloud infrastructure, and managed services:
Desiree Gaddie
Strategic direction and enterprise client relationships
Penny Van Heerden
Delivery coordination and client communications
Chris Lavers
Solution architecture and implementation
Craig Gaddie
Infrastructure and credential management
Phil
DNS management and hosting architecture
Justin Lavers
Content strategy and communications
Devon Hunt
Brand identity and visual assets
Our engineers hold certifications across Citrix (CCE-V, CCA-N, CCP-V), Microsoft (Azure Administrator, Solutions Architect), SentinelOne, and N-able — equipping them to deliver solutions that are architected correctly from day one.