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EMC launches new Partner Program VMware brings EVO:RAIL in India

22nd Friday, May 2015Silver Oak Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi

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HP and SAP to Reduce Security Risk

HP has announced that SAP will resell HP Fortify application

security software as part of its quality assurance solutions portfolio. SAP is now offering the solution under the name SAP Fortify software by HP. SAP Fortify by HP helps address this need by enabling

SAP customers to identify, triage and fix vulnerabilities

in production applications, while also helping reduce risk.

“With SAP Fortify by HP, SAP customers can now

enhance the management of their software security risk by enabling proactive security testing throughout the entire software development lifecycle,” said Jyoti Prakash, Country Director, India and SAARC countries, HP ESP.

IBM revolutionizes its storage portfolio

IBM has unveiled IBM Spectrum Storage, a new storage software

portfolio designed to address data storage inefficiencies by changing the economics of storage with a layer of intelligent software. IBM’s new storage software creates an efficient “data footprint” that dynamically stores every bit of data at the optimal cost, helping maximize performance and security.

IBM Spectrum Storage incorporates more than 700 patents and is designed to help clients transform

to a hybrid cloud business model by managing massive amounts of data where they want it, how they want it, in a fast and easy manner from a single dashboard. The software helps clients move data to the right location, at the right time, from flash storage for fast access to tape and cloud for the lowest cost.

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Union budget 2015 – a growth-oriented outlook for India


S. Mohini RatnaEditor, VARINDIA

[email protected]

The recent Union Budget 2015-16 is forward-looking, progressive and practical, with a very clear direction for the future. It reflects the Government’s focus on increased investment in the growth

of infrastructure and this will generate skill-based employment. Changes in the taxation policy, reduction in corporate tax over four years and rationalization of customs duties are some of the welcome initiatives taken by the Government. The determination to introduce GST and its proposed implementation will boost the industry through the state-of-the-art indirect tax system. Efforts are being made by the Government to achieve its vision of “Make-in-India” and hopefully it will turn manufacturing in India into a more profitable and business-friendly proposition. Measures to curb black money, job creation through revival of growth and investment will benefit middle-class tax-payers.

With various opportunities ahead for technology players to showcase innovations in, like the project of 100 Smart Cities that is soon to come up, the actual implementation and financing of such projects has to be done by the State Governments along with local bodies. At a recently held event in Mumbai that focussed on Digital Disruption impacting the IT landscape, the CIO community had a strong feeling that the rise of digital opportunities across industries bring with it an unprecedented increase in risks to enterprises with they expecting an increase in their IT budget in India to risk management initiatives, an area in which they have traditionally underinvested.

Going forward, organizations are turning towards technology and innovations to more effectively driven business. At the centre of this digital business evolution is IT. To keep up with the business, IT has to rethink of how it can support these new business initiatives. Now, a million-dollar question is on how the Indian e-commerce market will reach $20 billion this year. It is interesting to note that Snapdeal has attracted investments from business tycoons like Ratan Tata and Azim Premji. Premji has invested $100 million in Snapdeal and a further $50 million in Myntra, another e-tailer which has been acquired by Flipkart. Narayan Murthy has also joined hands with Amazon through a private investment firm. It seems there is a big opportunity.

The hi-tech industry has also been grappling with intense competition, continuous product innovation and compliance adherence. The industry is making a move to integrate products with support services to create new and long-term revenue streams. The focus on developing smarter machines (M2M) that talk to each other, further impacted by the nexus of Social, Mobility, Analytics and Cloud Computing (SMAC) technologies, is redefining the way hi-tech players are doing business.

With these positive measures, our economy, which is expected to achieve 8.5-per cent growth rate, will be a game-changer in ease of doing business.

India’s economic growth to inspire confidence

HELLO INDIA

Meetul B PatelGeneral Manager - SMS&P

Microsoft

Please tel l us about your accomplishments in the industry that would sustain your interest in the long haul.

Information Technology is obviously the most interesting industry and at the same time India is the most interesting market to be in. This is a momentous time of transformation in India because of the Cloud and there is no other place I would like to be. Every couple of years, new technologies, new competitive environment, new options for customers come into play. It is an industry where you can constantly remain engaged.

Can you reveal some of your success stories from the past?

I am proud of what we have accomplished through our organization that I have been a part of. One is our commitment to small business markets in Microsoft. The fact is we have gone and built a healthy ecosystem that has helped to go out and reach into the wide space of the market and it has really raised the customer acquisition rate pretty substantially. We have done that with partners over a couple of years.

Creating business models and ways for partners to keep them thriving in a time of

change is something that can be useful for Microsoft in our mission. I feel good about it as we are making a stronger, healthier, bigger partner ecosystem and not the one which is shrinking and becoming less and less relevant.

According to you, what are the major bottlenecks in the industry when you design the business ecosystem?

There are many bottlenecks. One is lack of awareness about the Cloud as to what it really means and how people can benefit from it. The second is how customers can acquire Cloud services. Thirdly, it is about applications and their relevance for end-customers. Finally, it is about the support mechanism. Small businesses are learning how to use technology and Cloud helps them with the implementation, deployment, etc. These are the bottlenecks and these can be overcome by new partners and that is why I think it is very important.

Besides IT, what are your other areas of interest?

Even though I am not a physicist, but I enjoy Physics. Though it has been 25 years when I studied it but it is still something that I am passionate about and maybe someday when I retire I will go back to it. n

Meetul Patel is the General Manager for SMS&P India, Microsoft. He is responsible for establishing and executing the company's strategy in small and medium businesses. He is focused on building and working with a broad partner ecosystem to raise awareness of Microsoft’s solutions in this segment and on increasing the adoption of emerging technologies by Indian businesses to improve their productivity, competitiveness, and profits.

Prior to this role, Meetul was the General Manager of Microsoft’s Services business in India. Before joining Microsoft, Meetul spent over fifteen years in management consulting at Capgemini, Mercer Oliver Wyman, and Accenture.


Intel Revives the PC with new innovations

PC is not a by-gone era yet; not at least for Intel. With several of their innovative devices aimed at reviving the PC form factor, Ravi Gupta, Vertical Head, Public Sector and Enterprise Solutions Group, Intel speaks to VARINDIA of how this can help in winning back the lost turf for PCs

The IDC report on the PC market last year has been quite surprising. Despite the growth seen on the mobile side,

desktops accounted to more than 44% growth worldwide in both consumer and business segments, which means that there are still used cases of people using desktop as a PC or computer. PC manufacturers like Intel on their part are carrying out their own value additions to the form factor in the form of innovations. “We at Intel have not stopped innovating the desktop. Since the usage model for a user in the gaming segment and the user in the

Ravi GuptaVertical Head, Public Sector and Enterprise Solutions Group, Intel

workstation segment will be different, we make sure that our innovations cater to different verticals and segments of customers,” says Ravi Gupta, Vertical Head, Public Sector and Enterprise Solutions Group, Intel.

Some new usage models for PC are triggered by the fact that the form factor is no longer today used only in offices; the bank kiosk or the smart signage that is seen at airports is also a PC. As a result, a parallel set of market erstwhile served by consumer electronic devices will now be served by Intel with new innovative devices. “There are ISVs who are developing 3D-enabled touch and gesture based biology applications which will assist biology students in dissecting insects all by touch. So we are seeing those kinds of applications being developed now,” says Ravi.

Intel Rejuvenating the PC…Starting with 5th generation core, Intel has brought the human

machine interface to all its 5th generation computers, which primarily include laptops initially and will proceed to PCs and desktops later. “This gives us the ability to interact with PC through gestures, which we call it the Intel RealSense Technology. The PC is able to recognize voice, specific frequencies and gestures,” explains Ravi. This newest innovation is what Intel calls it the Next Unit of Computing (NUC), a small form factor PC designed by the chip maker and is today available with almost all leading OEMS. “This category of PC is called the Mini PC. We have this new set of device which is essentially made for the Channel and for them to position it at home or enterprise. Besides they can look at certain other class of usages which include ATMs, Smart POS, as well as digital signage, information kiosks at retail stores or any such usage model which will essentially replace a PC model with a Mini PC. This will indeed be a big opportunity for them,” he says.

With hand-held devices becoming the latest fad, a consumer today generally looks at mobility devices from 2 aspects – as a device that becomes the centre of the digital world for content consumption and the second as a device for content creation, for which he would need a device that is handier and user friendly like a PC. “The slogan ‘All the Power without the Tower’ is becoming very apt in this regard. A PC is fast becoming a hybrid innovation of consumer electronic on one side and mobility on the other. Today all of us require a PC that is small enough and very energy efficient. So this makes a Mini PC even more innovative as it is compact and consumes very less energy. People are looking at grossly reducing the OPEX of PCs by making it energy efficient while not compromising on performance,” explains Ravi.

Going forward…The innovation however does not stop here for Intel, as it

wants to keep the innovation on with PCs and is looking at many other form factors in times to come along with OEMs. It is also looking at partnering with telecom players who are developing CPEs – customer premises equipment, which becomes not only a termination point for broadband signals but also acts as a wi-fi access point at home which will distribute the signal to rest of the devices, while still being a PC. According to Ravi, Intel looks to retaining or gaining more percentage share in the overall PC market, while also preparing the ground for staging a major ‘comeback’ of PCs. n

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ROUND ABOUT

Let me start off with a question: what is the history of computers in India?

Has anyone chronicled this? I am an IT buff, and in no way am I a historian. However, anyone can write a narrative of his or her choices and experiences. So let me take an attempt and explain to you my understanding of the history of Indian IT.

Available records show that the first organization to have the computer in India was the Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), based in Kolkata. This was in 1955. Many of the present leaders in technology, including Bill Gates, were born around this time. I have started programming in Russia-made computer in IIT, Bombay in 1969. Not many know that there was a trajectory in India’s computer history, fraught with bitter trade wars and acrimony. There was skepticism around computers and its impact on employment. Many officials were worried that machines would soon replace them and they would eventually be out of jobs.

Growing cynicism around computers influenced policy making. The year 1977 was a watershed moment for the Indian economy. The government came out with a fiat that foreign computers should not hold more than 50 per cent of share in their operations. Many foreign companies refused to oblige. IBM refused to sell majority ownership of its Indian operations. Thus, they opted to leave India. The lobby, which campaigned against the introduction of computers, rejoiced. But this moment was short-lived.

In 1984, Rajiv Gandhi – a lover of new technology and a former pilot – was India’s Prime Minister. He changed government policies to encourage an indigenous computer manufacturing industry to grow and prosper. This led to a number of computer manufacturing units to spring up across the country. Many of these computers were assemblage computers, which imported components in either completely knocked down or semi-knocked down conditions and assembled indigenously.

In the meantime, generational changes were taking place on the technology front. Mainframe computers gave way to more efficient and smaller personal computers, which could be set up on a desktop. Also, the imports of computers were liberalized and the import duty on final goods was taken out, resulting in drastic reduction in prices, making them more affordable.

However, the politics of computers continued. Countries that had greater muscle power in the marketplace called the shots. India wanted to have supercomputers to deploy in areas such as weather forecasting and in the use of other sophisticated and complex data analysis. This was denied to

India with the reasoning that intellectual property protection in India was primitive, meaning there was no guarantee that such technology would be protected from piracy.

The software boom of the early 1990s in the US was a turning point. The US relaxed the visa rules to enable people from other countries, including India, to work there in computer-related fields. The influx of Indians to the U.S. seeking computer software-related jobs marked another phase of India’s digital history. Those who had gone there to reap the benefits from the software boom got exposed to not only the complex software development, but also the hardware aspect of it. Increased export realization of India through software and business process outsourcing (BPOs) was a trigger in bringing about greater understanding and more importantly some degree of reciprocity between the two countries. India, despite the huge political resistance against relaxation of the patent regime, gradually gave way to the increased pressure. Technologies became accessible. While India imported technology and know-how increasingly, India’s exports of IT and IT-related services registered quantum leaps and bounds and are presently pegged at US$119 billion, accounting for a sizeable share of the total exports from the country.

Domestically, information technology is creating paradigm changes in the way people think, act, conduct business, and how they communicate with each other. It is now entrenched into the Indian psyche. A cursory look at some of the policy documents may prove this point. Let us, for example, take three policy documents: the Railway Budget 2015-16, the Economy Survey 2014-15 and the General Budget 2015-16.

All the schemes launched in the two budgets are IT-driven. Let us take the Railway Budget. The Railway Minister proudly announces that his vision is to take the world’s largest railway network into the league of best in the world. How does he achieve to do that? His vision is to make the railways more tech-savvy and modernize all the stations to make them Wi-Fi-enabled. He wants to give passengers the option to book their tickets online. He also wants to introduce time-tested security measures to avert accidents, delays and other inconveniences.

Now let us come to the General Budget. The Finance Minister has made his intentions very clear that the nation should become a cashless society. The number of schemes that he announced in the Budget stand testimony to that. He incentivized settling of transactions through credit or debit card. Many of the programs which will have far-reaching impact are running on the digital platform. The subsidy transfer is through the

internet and the messages will be sent to the service users through mobile texting. Swachh Bharat is going to deploy a large number of drones to map the pollution, pinpoint the emission clusters and take timely steps for tackling such pollutants. Now, we are talking about the digital divide. Everyone wants to be a stakeholder in the expanding horizon of digital advantage. Policy framework is responding to that. Of the total 6.75 lakh villages in the country, 2.25 lakh have already been connected digitally by laying fiber optics. The rest of them will be connected in course of time and the Finance Minister is giving an assurance to that in his Budget speech. He also commits that that every new scheme that the government is announcing, be it energy, security, infrastructure development, poverty alleviation, employment scheme, financial inclusion will run on IT platforms. What a great transformation!!

Those who are aware of the budget drills would vouch as to how tedious the budget making process is. The Finance Minister and his colleagues used to work on the new Budget immediately after the presentation of the previous one and start consultations with stakeholders. But this has changed. The consultations can now occur online via video conferencing. The Finance Minister can scan through various proposals, recommendations and policy decisions from earlier years online. This was not the case before. Each draft had to be dictated, typed and corrected. We are now moving towards a paperless budget.

Each draft has to be dictated, typed, corrected and further value added. People in the know of Budget-making process observe that thousands of drafts at various departments, ministries, etc were to be generated earlier before zeroing in on the final draft. Now, we are moving towards a paperless Budget.

I foresee a lot of wonderful things occurring in India in the realm of Information Technology. Now, here is one more question for you: how will this journey continue? n

A Blurred Chronicle of Indian Information Technology

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HOT BYTES

NEC helps Surat City Police

Brocade acquires SteelApp

Dell joins Gujarat’s eKranti project CA Technologies and Tech Mahindra Secure IoT

Accenture and Adobe join forces

Cisco spearheads commitment to Digital India

Allied Telesis chosen by Grant County Public Utility

Allied Telesis has been selected

by Grant County Public Utility, the fastest Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the United States. With consumers demanding Gigabit access speeds to enable them to stream high-speed content, and watch 4K high-definition television (HDTV) in real time, the strained Cable and Telco networks are struggling to keep pace with demand. A fiber network, based on active Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) Pt-Pt, offers Internet access speeds that are 100 times faster than traditional Multiple-System Operator (MSO) Cable and Telco xDSL, as well as Fiber-to-the-Home (FTTH) Gigabit Passive Optical Network (GPON).

Symantec assists Europol

Symantec, Microsoft and other industry

partners have helped Europol to lead a law enforcement operation. Europol, with assistance from industry partners, has seized servers and infrastructure from the cybercrime group behind the Ramnit botnet. Symantec has provided technical analysis and telemetry as part of the investigation.

During its five years of operation, the Ramnit botnet (detected by Symantec as W32.Ramnit.B) has evolved into a major criminal enterprise, infecting more than 3.2 million computers and harvesting banking credentials, passwords, cookies, and personal files from victims. Ramnit has affected victims across the world and infections have been found in most countries.

NEC and I n n o v a t i v e

Telecom &Softwares have deployed NEC’s face recognition technology

for Surat City Police.NEC’s NeoFace Watch for Live CCTV surveillance and NeoFace Reveal for forensic criminal investigation will be deployed for Surat

City Police, an important step forward in Surat’s safe city initiative.

Koichiro Koide, MD, NEC India, said, “Our face

recognition technology has been through stringent performance evaluations and an extensive proof-of-concept process and has performed highly in terms of speed and accuracy."

Brocade has completed its

acquisition of the assets of the SteelApp business unit from Riverbed Technology. The addition of the SteelApp product line strengthens Brocade’s software networking portfolio for New IP data center deployments.

“Brocade is committed to open and emerging New IP technologies. SteelApp’s virtual ADCs significantly enhance our open Vyatta Platform offering for NFV and SDN, which plays a major role in transforming traditional network

infrastructure for enterprise, cloud and telco customers through the power of virtualization,” said Kelly Herrell, SVP, Software Networking, Brocade.

SteelApp is one of the top virtual ADCs providing scalable, secure, and elastic delivery of enterprise, cloud, and e-commerce applications. The SteelApp product line controls traffic to and from applications and enables fast, reliable, and secure application delivery to users anywhere from the cloud or data center.

CA Technologies and Tech

Mahindra have agreed to develop and deploy end-to-end secured IoT solutions for enterprise c u s t o m e r s w o r l d w i d e . The agreement will leverage solutions from the CA DevOps portfolio including CA Release Automation, CA Service Virtualization, CA Mobile App Analytics and CA Unified Infrastructure Management (CA UIM) with Tech Mahindra’s expertise to build

Dell has joined the eKranti initiative

launched in Gujarat as a technology partner. The project was recently launched by the Gujarat State Cooperative Credit Societies Federation, in an effort to facilitate the delivery of all government services electronically to citizens. In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Gujarat State Cooperative Credit Societies Federation and Dell’s channel partner – Earth Syscom and Project Central Partner –Jintech Solutions Limited for the

implementation of the project.

Vishal Garkhel, GM, West Geo, Dell India, said, “Dell believes that access to technology is not a luxury, but a necessity. Dell is proud to be associated with the eKranti initiative launched in Gujarat. This initiative of reaching out through the federation associations will bring access to a large new base of users that will improve citizen services. The project’s success will make Gujarat serve as a model that can be therefore replicated across the country.”

and deliver mobile applications.

“We’re excited to work with Tech Mahindra, a CA Premier Partner, on

c o m p l e m e n t a r y offerings and skill sets to deliver

c o m p l e t e I n t e r n e t of Things

solutions that can be deployed within

existing infrastructures, and extend to new web and mobile applications,” said Alyssa Fitzpatrick, senior VP, Global Partner Organization, CA Technologies.

Accenture and Adobe have

decided to expand their alliance to deliver greater marketing RoI to companies through the launch of Accenture Customer Engagement, a cloud-based managed service that simplifies the development, execution and measurement of digital marketing.

Accenture Customer Engagement features digital marketing services from Accenture Interactive wrapped seamlessly around

To help the company tap new

business opportunities and underlining its commitment in the Digital India campaign, Cisco has announced a Cisco India Advisory Board comprising five industry leaders to advise the India leadership team on strategic matter concerning digitization.

The India Advisory Board will comprise Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice Chairman, Apollo Hospitals; Rajiv Kumar, Former Director General of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce

Adobe Marketing Cloud solutions. Accenture will manage both the services and the underlying solutions.

“Bringing together Adobe’s marketing technologies with the strategy, design and implementation expertise from Accenture will help marketers create engaging customer experiences in a simple, agile and cost-effective way,” said Brian Whipple, Senior Managing Director, Accenture Interactive, part of Accenture Digital.

and Industry (FICCI); GK Pillai, Former Home Secretary, Commerce Secretary, Government of India; Kiran Karnik, Former President, NASSCOM and R Seshasayee, Executive Vice Chairman, Ashok Leyland. Anil Menon, President, S m a r t + C o n n e c t e d Communities and Deputy Chief Globalization Officer, Cisco will serve as the chairman of the India Advisory Board.


HOT BYTES

New Delhi top malicious city in 2014 – F-Secure

IESA to transform Pune

Zebronics to foray into Surveillance EMC launches new Partner Program

Netmagic to support growth expansion for HDFC Life

Blue Coat Systems taken over by Bain Capital

Avaya’s SDN Fx Architecture to build agile networks

To help enterprises build agile

networks for today’s dynamic applications, Avaya has introduced a new, open software-defined networking (SDN) architecture. The Avaya SDN Fx architecture is the first to deliver the “smart foundation” required to connect anything, anywhere. It is built on the Avaya Fabric Networking technology, features new products and capabilities for a complete solution that delivers on the promise of SDN, without the hidden complexity that comes with the towering overlays of software and hardware inherent in many other vendor approaches.

Su-Kam installs 50 KW grid-tie systems

Su-Kam Power Systems has

installed 50 KW grid-tie systems for Delhi Jal Board, Jhandewala, Karol Bagh. The company has bagged this prestigious project after winning a tender from Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure D e v e l o p m e n t Corporation Ltd (DSIIDC).

As part of this project, Su-Kam shall be installing two grid tie inverters 25 KW each and 200 PV modules of 250 Watt each. The installation will generate 90,000 units of electricity/year thereby helping Delhi Jal Board to save Rs 7, 20,000 annually.

Speaking on the occasion, Kunwer Sachdev, MD, Su-Kam said, “It is indeed encouraging that the government is looking at renewable energy to address the power crisis.”

Sality, Ramnit, Trogan.LNK.Gen,

Trogan.Script and Virtob are the top five malicious family detections and Delhi (20%), Hyderabad (9%), Chennai (9%) and Chandigarh (7%) were the top malicious cities in 2014, according to the detections from the “The state of Internet in India” Report, unveiled by F-Secure. The report affirms the rise of malware infections in the country and states Delhi as the most infected city in

India Electronics and Semiconductor

Association (IESA) has announced the submission of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for the proposed Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Pune, in association with Mahratta Chamber of Commerce Industries and Agriculture (MCCIA).

As knowledge partners to MIDC and MCCIA, IESA has extended support to prepare and submit the preliminary application with the project report for a proposed CFC (Common Facilities Centre) in Pune,

Blue Coat Systems has announced

that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by funds advised by Bain Capital, one of the world’s foremost private investment firms. The company is being acquired from Thoma Bravo, LLC in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $2.4 billion.

Over the past three years, Blue Coat has experienced a significant increase in its market share across the globe, where 80 per cent of the Fortune 500 are its customers.

2014. The report also

states that banking-related malware has been consistently topping the chart in India. The “Ramnit” malware steals bank user names and passwords and it mostly spreads through USB removable drives. Furthermore, PCs in India are moving away from Windows XP. Downadup/Conficker infection is also on the decline over the past three years in India.

under the guidelines of the EMC scheme of DeitY, GoI. The Government of Maharashtra will now submit the preliminary application to the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) for their in-principle approval.

The EMC project will have a large role in redefining the future of electronics design and manufacturing in the state. The cluster will be located in Pimpri Industrial Area, spread over 27,000 sq ft. and is estimated to have an investment of Rs. 70.89 crores.

Top Notch Infotronix has

announced its new independent business unit for the surveillance and security equipment business. The surveillance business will operate as an independent business unit with its own sales force. A business head is already in place – Ashok Jha, an industry veteran of 10 years working as country head for leading surveillance organizations of India, has taken over as Business head for Surveillance Products at Zebronics. The products will be targeted at mainly at SMB retail and commercial

establishments, and the home segment but are also suited for a variety of uses such as government, transportation, banking and finance.

Rajesh Doshi, Founder & Director, said, “The surveillance equipment portfolio is the first of our major announcements that can be expected this year. Zebronics is already an established brand with 12,000 partners carrying our products. That will form the backbone of our new business unit.”

EMC Corporation has launched of

a new global Business Partner Program (BPP). The new BPP brings together all the previous EMC partner programs to create a simple, predictable and profitable experience for each partner. Designed in concert with partners, the BPP offers more flexibility and choice as well as greater access to solutions and services to enable partners to play a leading role in both the second Platform and emerging third Platform of IT, characterized by the mega trends of social, mobile, cloud and Big Data.

Under the BPP, partners can choose the tracks that best fit their strategic objectives. The BPP tracks include: EMC resell, distribution, cloud service provider, system integrator and outsourcer as well as the RSA SecurWorld program. Partners in multiple tracks can use dollars earned and training credits in one track across other tracks for maximum flexibility, to lower costs and to invest in new lines of business with EMC.

Netmagic has a n n o u n c e d

that its cloud platform has been chosen by HDFC Life to support its business growth and expansion. HDFC Life partnered with Netmagic for an effective cloud strategy which includes an intelligent mix of hosting data on private, public and hybrid cloud as per the sensitivity. This has enabled HDFC Life to obtain the scalability to store an ever-increasing volume of data while

keeping costs under control. HDFC Life has also deployed Netmagic’s unique solutions in storage (tiered storage) and DR.

Sunil Gupta, COO, Netmagic, said, “We are excited to support HDFC Life in their cloud adoption journey and look forward to a long-term relationship. Our combined expertise will enable us to be the true infrastructure evolution partner to HDFC Life and help them realize their business goals reliably."

In India, Blue Coat has realized a year-on-year growth rate of 45 per cent and has a customer portfolio of more than 400 companies.

Globally, the company has also made several successful strategic acquisitions extending their solutions to the advanced threat defence, security analytics and encrypted traffic management spaces. Blue Coat offers an integrated portfolio of products that lead the industry in effectiveness in stopping today’s threats.


ON THE RAMP

VMware brings EVO:RAIL in India SanDisk introduces Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0

ZTE launches uSmartDC Solution

Eurotech Technologies announces Analog & IP Camera

Red Hat introduces Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host

NETGEAR launches ReadyNAS 3130 Series

neoteric Unveils GetOn Power Banks

The new range of power banks from

Neoteric, ‘GetOn’ is set to symbolize and promote the idea ‘Energizing the Environment’ through eco-friendly ways. GetOn power banks will provide fast charging for USB-chargeable devices such as cameras, smart phones, tablets, iPods, Mp3 and etc. These power banks are available at various capacities ranging from 2600 mAh to 10,000 mAh.

“The power-bank market is on an upswing with rising demands for consumer accessories and this is the right time for us to enter this space,” said Nityaprakash Patnaik, Director, neoteric infomatique Ltd.

NetRack Enhances its Portfolio

NetRack has enhanced its

NRS-e Series product portfolio by adding a new solution 'Cold Aisle Containment'. NRS-e series are ultra-rigid enhanced racks for high density applications running in data centers and server rooms. Applications running on servers and other equipment tend to generate a lot of heat when the equipments are housed in racks. Cold aisle containment solutions can handle the large heat generated by IT equipments and servers, improve the air flow and prevent the mixing of cool and hot air.

Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director Sales & Support at NetRack said, "Cold aisle containment will help improve the cooling efficiency of data center or server room by reducing cold air losses/ blocking the cold air movement to an unwanted area."

SanDisk has i n t r o d u c e d

SanDisk Ultra Dual USB Drive 3.0, a USB flash drive featuring both a micro-USB and a high-speed USB 3.0 connector for super-fast file transfers between On-The-Go -enabled Android devices, PC and Mac computers.

The new SanDisk USB Drive enables mobile users to transfer files and also free up space on their smartphones and tablets. The drive connects via micro-USB to a compatible Android device and gives users up

ZTE Corporation has launched its

green uSmartDC solution that covers all data center (DC) links from equipment room construction to multi-DC management, helping customers build efficient, elastic and cloud-based DCs. The ZTE uSmartDC with power usage effectiveness (PUE) value resolves customers' major issues around the DC by improving their competitiveness in the market.

With regards to the use of natural resources in the uSmartDC solution,

NETGEAR has i n t r o d u c e d

ReadyNAS 3130 in the market. With a 1U form-factor for easy rack

deployment in businesses of any size, this 4-bay NAS has a capacity up to 24TB. Its powerful processor supports up to 200 simultaneous users and is especially suitable for virtualized environments.

The NETGEAR

To enable businesses to build

and deploy a Software-Defined Data Center, VMware has announced

the availability of VMware EVO:RAIL for the Indian market through its Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners. It is a hyper-converged infrastructure appliance that helps IT organizations streamline the deployment and scale-

out of software-defined IT infrastructure at the speed of business.

Dell, EMC and HP have also announced the availability of their VMware EVO:RAIL-based offerings for India. Fujitsu, Hitachi Data Systems and NetApp have also partnered with VMware for EVO:RAIL and will make their respective appliances available over time. The solution will be offered by these partners’ channel as a single SKU covering hardware, software, and support and services costs, with single point-of-contact support being offered by the Qualified EVO:RAIL Partners.

to 64GB of extra storage instantly.

Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation, said, “Android devices offer users amazing features including high-resolution photography and 4K Ultra HD video recording, which quickly fills large amounts of mobile memory and we know our customers are looking for quick ways to access and transfer them.”

ZTE has introduced evaporative cooling technology to the DC cooling system. Depending on the local climate, wind can be used to cool the equipment. This means that the solution’s power consumption is very low, and that the PUE can reach 1.06, significantly lower than the standard 1.5 PUE of an energy-efficient DC. The energy-saving solution ensures not only the normal service operation of the entire DC, but also the sustainable development of the environment.

Eu r o t e c h T e c h n o l o g i e s

has launched BestNet Analog & IP Video Surveillance product series. The BestNet Surveillance product line-up is available in 10 plus models and comprises of IR Bullet Camera’s and IR Dome Camera’s to suit a variety of applications. To take full advantage of the high-quality images offered by the 700TVL, 800TVL, 900TVL and 1200TVL cameras, these models are designed to be coupled with feature-rich and powerful DVRs.

“Elegantly designed

and well suited to safeguard offices, residential premises & educational institutions and various verticals, the cost-effective Analog & IP Camera’s and HD-DVR promises users an excellent surveillance option for a wide range of applications,” said Anuj Jain, MD - Eurotech Technologies Pvt Ltd.

Red Hat has announced the

general availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host, an operating system optimized for running the next generation of applications with Linux containers. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host provides all of the components necessary to easily package and run applications written for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 and 7 as containers.

Specifically designed

to run Linux containers, Red Hat Enterprise Linux Atomic Host delivers only the operating system components required to run a containerized application, reducing overhead and simplifying maintenance. Because Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Atomic Host is built from Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, it inherits Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7’s stability and maturity, as well as its vast ecosystem of certified hardware partners.

ReadyNAS product line of network attached storage provides businesses with an advanced and easy-to-use solution for centralizing, securing and controlling access to digital assets. ReadyNAS pairs the latest in performance with the groundbreaking ReadyNAS operating system (OS 6.2) that features industry-first technology in 5 levels of complete data protection, backup, sync, and cloud-based management. It offers innovative efficiency technologies.


ON THE RAMP

GIGABYTE presents GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK

Fortinet announces FortiSandbox 2.0

Panasonic enhances home security

Lenovo unveils YOGA 3 Pro in India

Toshiba Unveils Canvio Connect II

Ruckus Wireless launches ZoneFlex H500

ViewSonic unwraps new Projectors

ViewSonic has d e m o n s t r a t e d

its brand-new sleek and streamline design LightStream networkable series of projectors in India.

The new LightStream line delivers smart features including ViewSonic’s patent pending PortAll for secured wireless streaming, SonicExpert for enhanced fuller range of integrated sound, an integrated cable management cover and “My Button” auto configuration mode.

“The LightStream PJD6 Networkable Series of Projectors is packed with smart technologies that deliver brighter true-to-life colour images for high-ambient lighting environments like classrooms and boardrooms,” said Brian Wei, Product Marketing Director, ViewSonic Europe.

Infor Announces EAM

Infor has announced Infor Enterprise

Asset Management (EAM) version 11.1, designed to help improve asset management during the entire lifespan of business-critical assets and equipment. The new iteration provides a wide range of capabilities to help quickly and economically manage assets via a cloud, on-premise or hybrid deployment. Infor EAM 11.1 can also enable greater accessibility for users to connect to the enterprise via mobile devices and tablets, adding an enhanced level of visibility and connectivity.

Infor has made substantial investments in product development to make Infor EAM cloud-ready and mobile-friendly, providing a wide range of deployment options to help fit the needs of many organizations.

GIGABYTE has presented a mid-

range PC motherboard that should excite both the conservative Indian PC user and the gamer. The focus is on GIGABYTE Technology’s GA-Z97X-UD5H-BK, a part of the company’s 9 series PC motherboards, and which supports the 4th-Gen Haswell processors, Haswell Refresh, and the 5th-Gen Broadwell processors.

It features an 8-pin power connector and a standard 24-pin ATX power connector, a

Fortinet has launched of

FortiSandbox 2.0, d e l i v e r i n g e n h a n c e d features to their top-rated Fort iSandbox Advanced Threat Detection Appliances and FortiSandbox Cloud solutions with the power to discover and isolate more advanced threats from more places than ever before. Integrated with FortiGate, FortiSandbox Cloud offers the ability to quarantine compromised users and

Lenovo has unveiled a range of PCs,

tablets and smartphones. The range of products, led by YOGA 3 Pro, the pinnacle of user-focussed technology, includes the reputed ThinkPad range of PCs and an impressive array of tablets and smartphones that offer an unparalleled end-user experience.

Amar Babu, MD, Lenovo India, said, “The Yoga 3 Pro, the flagship product of our Yoga franchise, is proof of this. It is a perfect blend of style, performance, entertainment and

Toshiba has announced the

Canvio Connect II, a device that takes portable storage to the next level. Available with up to 2TB of storage capacity, remote access capabilities, local and cloud backup and the ability to share and stream content, the Toshiba Canvio Connect II is an all-in-one portable storage solution.

The Canvio Connect II makes it simple to back up not just files and folders, but a complete system—or customize backups to your exact needs and

Ruckus Wireless has launched the

new Ruckus ZoneFlex H500 2x2:2 dual-band (2.4 and 5 GHz) 802.11ac indoor wall switch access point (AP). It is a wired and wireless wall switch that uses Ruckus patented BeamFlex adaptive antenna technology to deliver high-speed 802.11ac Wi-Fi in an ultra-sleek, low-profile design that can be quickly and discretely installed in a standard wall junction box. Ideal for offering converged services in hotel guest rooms, student residences, and multiple dwelling units (MDUs),

Killer E2200 series NIC (network interface card) partnered with Intel’s I217-V, and comes with support for multi-VGA configurations. Its key features include SATA Express and M.2 connections up to 10 Gb/s data transfer, and a Realtek ALC1150-based audio system.

endpoints with oneclick. When used together with FortiMail, previously

unknown email threats are proactively and automatically blocked. FortiSandbox 2.0 combined with Fortinet’s Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) Framework ensures a new level of protection from sophisticated cyber threats.

Panasonic has announced the

launch of its new range of Wireless Video Intercom models – VL-SW251BX and VL-SF70BX – priced at Rs.29, 900 and Rs.18, 500, respectively.

The VL-SW251BX comes with a 5-inch wide screen to deliver crisp and clear images with the ability of recording up to 400 pictures at a time. [50 separate sessions: 1 session consists of 8 shots]. Its special voice-changing function enables answering unwanted visitors by changing one’s voice. The intercom call feature enables the main

monitor station and the sub-monitor station to transfer a door call using the same operation. Furthermore, the door station is equipped with LED lights [illumination lamp]. It enables the colour display of visitors at a distance of about 50cm at night.

The VL-SF70BX comes with a 7-inch wide monitor – great for enhancing family security, this model can be easily installed anywhere at home. The picture recording function allows up to 50 images to be recorded at a time.

versatility and is a strong indication of the fact that the PC is not dead and is constantly evolving to match changing consumer needs.”

YOGA 3 Pro is light, yet brilliantly intelligent, comes loaded with intuitive software that responds to its user. The YOGA adapts to its user offering four different ways to do almost anything: Laptop, Stand, Tent or Tablet, which is the hallmark of the user-inspired YOGA range.

specifications. Users can experience secure backups with user defined password protection, or cloud storage. With the ability to schedule backups to run automatically, the Canvio Connect II will take care of the rest.

Toshiba will offer portable storage with capacities up to 2TB, to accommodate ever-expanding content libraries. With a sleek, iconic design and a high gloss finish, the Canvio Connect Ii is available in five colors: black, white, blue, red and satin gold.

the ZoneFlex H500 provides an easy way to offer multiple connections into a single room without multiple cables.

The Ruckus ZoneFlex H500 can be used to connect a range of wired network devices such as IPTV set top boxes, VoIP telephones, or networked minibars. An IEEE 802.3af-compliant Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) port on the ZoneFlex H500 allows devices such as IP telephones to be powered directly from the wall switch, and the ZoneFlex H500 itself may be powered via PoE or DC power adapter.


VOICE-N-DATA

Huawei and Intel to build Public Cloud Solutions

Telit announces CDMA Modules

Videocon Telecom plans to roll out 4G Services

BlackBerry, Google to improve business data security

Juniper expands Routing Portfolio

Hitachi offers Telecom solutions

Tata Communications expands UC Portfolio

Ta t a Communications

has expanded its unified communications (UC) portfolio with the launch of three new UC solutions – InstaCC Global, Hosted Lync, and Click2RTC services. These new offers will debut at Enterprise Connect 2015.

The addition of InstaCC Global, Hosted Lync and Click2RTC services to Tata Communications’ UC portfolio brings together multiple technology platforms to enable seamless and ubiquitous applications and services with integrated voice, video, chat and presence, delivered from the cloud and accessible through a rich set of APIs and software development kits (SDKs).

Broadcom partners with TCS and Anaren

Broadcom has partnered with

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to integrate its Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) solutions on to the latter's Connected Universe Platform (TCUP). Besides TCS, Anaren is also supporting Broadcom’s commitment to the development and distribution of innovative IoT-focused hardware, firmware and software solutions in the India market.

“Broadcom is excited about teaming up with Anaren to fuel IoT innovations in the fast growing India market,” said Sid Shaw, Broadcom Senior Product Line Manager, Connectivity Group.

To deliver public cloud solutions

for global telecoms carriers, Huawei has announced a strategic collaboration with Intel. By combining Intel’s technology with Huawei’s expertise in global information and communications technology solutions, the companies aim to provide carriers with greater access to high-quality, innovative technologies and solutions as they deliver carrier- grade cloud services to enterprises and individual end-users.

Working together, Huawei and Intel plan to

BlackBerry and Google have

come together to enable BES12, a cross-platform EMM solution to manage devices equipped with Android for Work, Google’s solution to securely separate business and personal data and applications. Backed by BES12, Android for Work creates a secure, dedicated profile for business data and applications. The BES12 solution will seamlessly integrate with the Android OS to enable platform-level containerization.

BES12 will provide organizations with the

concentrate their efforts on developing scalable, optimized and cost-efficient hardware and software platforms for telecoms carriers to use as they deploy cloud-specific usage models across server, storage, network and infrastructure m a n a g e m e n t technologies. The companies will also drive performance improvements and security enhancements for Huawei’s FusionSphere running on Intel architecture, DPDK, and Open vSwitch.

Telit has announced the launch of

a new cellular module, adding to the rich xE910 family. The CE910-SL was designed specifically for applications in areas where CDMA450 coverage exists as a commercial mobile network operation or where it can be licensed to be developed as a private network by utilities, emergency response organizations, and other similar government and private groups.

The CE910-SL is a single-band 450MHz CDMA 1xRTT wireless module. Its compact LGA form- factor is pin-to-pin compatible with the xE910 family, allowing for easy integration of different 2G to 3G wireless technologies into the same design. The CE910-SL enables reliable and secure CDMA cellular connectivity in up to 153.6kbps full-duplex data rates.

Videocon Telecom has planned to

roll out 4G services in UPE, UPW and Bihar telecom circles. The telco which holds 5Mhz liberalized spectrum in the 1,800 Mhz band in the circles plans to utilize the entire spectrum for rollout of 4G LTE services in 29 key cities and offer voice on overlay network in these select cities. In the remaining coverage area, the telco shall offer 2G voice on own network.

The telco will be making an investment of over Rs.1,200 crore in the

next three years for 4G rollout in 29 cities across these three circles. The telco will be rolling out in 6 cities in phase 1, 12 cities in phase 2 and another 11 cities in phase 3, covering the key potential cities across these circles.

Arvind Bali, Director & CEO, Videocon Telecom, said, “Our strategy now is to take the first mover advantage on data and do what we couldn’t do on voice having missed the bus. We will be the first telco to offer 4G LTT FDD services on 1,800 Mhz."

most secure and flexible way to manage Android for Work. Android for Work smartphones and tablets will be natively managed within the BES12 environment, which streamlines management of all device platforms and deployment models, such as BYOD and COBO, in a single command and control center. Android for Work will be deployable with BES12 either on-premise or in the cloud, and will be supported by BlackBerry’s gold standard of mobile security, scalable architecture and trusted network infrastructure.

To provide telecom providers greater

visibility for predictive service assurance and new revenue streams, Hitachi Data Systems has launched Live Insight for Telecom, an advanced and predictive analytics solution that provides telecom service providers with real-time insight into network, service and application-level performance. In addition, operators can now create unique carrier-hosted, analytics-based services to elevate their business value.

“Live Insight for

Juniper Networks has announced

additions to its routing portfolio that expand the company’s Carrier Ethernet offerings. The new Juniper Networks ACX500 and ACX5000 routers, as well as enhancements to the Junos Space Network Management Platform software, will enable service providers to handle added capacity and accelerate service orchestration and provisioning more cost-effectively than ever

before.With these new

products, Juniper is continuing to build out its mobile IP portfolio to deliver a holistic approach that will enable more efficient mobile service creation. When combined with Juniper’s existing offerings, such as the Service Control Gateway and MX Series routing platforms, Juniper delivers IP/MPLS solutions that can flexibly enable new services at an optimized cost.

Telecom is another critical proof point of the HDS commitment to Social Innovation. Our solution can transform how global telecom service providers operate, giving them the ability to unlock the power of data and use those insights to provide high-performance service and improve the customer experience,” said Kevin Eggleston, Senior VP, Social Innovation and Global Industries, Hitachi Data Systems.


Inspira launches “iProtect” for SMBs and SMEs

Inspira is offering “iProtect”, which is a cloud security platform for SMBs and SMEs that enables them to build and provide comprehensive security for any organization, helping IT teams to leverage their expertise & sparing them with more time to manage the overall infrastructure.

iProtect provides security solutions across Endpoints, Servers, Virtual Infrastructure, Core Network & remote locations. Ensuring that organization is secured, the employees browse clean web as per policy of your company where ever they may be based & using the organization’s IT assets (at work, Roaming or at Home). iProtect platform is hosted in ISO 27001-certified data centers and powered by Sophos Technology. Inspira SaaS team manages and runs it more efficiently compliant to SLA based service model.

The iProtect portfolio includes - • Standard Endpoint Protection (SEP): “iProtect SEP” delivers an integrated protection for desktops, laptops and other devices against

viruses, spyware, spam, hackers, vulnerabilities and web threats. It includes antivirus, web protection (optional) and device control.

• Advanced Endpoint Protection (AEP): “iProtect AEP” delivers an integrated protection for desktops, laptops and other devices against viruses, spyware, spam, hackers, vulnerabilities and web threats. It also lets you control the movement of sensitive information, block unwanted applications with an application control list, provides device control and scan computers for missing patches of windows.

• Server Protection: “iProtect server protection” effectively protects your server environment from malware while keeping your servers at peak performance. It automatically recognizes popular server applications and adapts the configuration. Frequent, lightweight definition updates keep your protection current without causing network congestion. And Live Protection looks up unknown and suspicious files in real time, keeping your servers secure, even between updates.

• Complete UTM Protection: iProtect gives you complete security from the network firewall to endpoint antivirus. It simplifies your IT security without the complexity of multiple point solutions. The Complete UTM Protection has no proprietary hardware. You can choose between lines of pre-installed hardware appliances (UTM only), can install the UTM software on Intel compatible hardware, install in a virtual environment such as VMware, HyperV KVM, or Citrix Xen, or in the cloud.

HP expands its compute portfolio with Cloudline

To maximize data center efficiency and increase cloud service agility, HP has announced HP Cloudline, a new family of compute platforms that enable service providers running hyperscale IT architectures.

“The business success of today’s service providers is directly correlated with their ability to cost-effectively acquire and operate their IT infrastructure to meet customer demand. Built on open-design principles with extreme scalability, HP Cloudline servers help service providers reduce infrastructure cost and accelerate service delivery to improve business performance,” said Vikram K, Director, Servers, HP India.

The new HP Cloudline server family is a result of the HP-Foxconn joint venture. HP Cloudline combines the compute and service leadership of HP with the high-volume benefits of an original design

manufacturer (ODM) sourcing model while delivering the global scale, support, services and management that service providers require.It minimizes risk with custom design capability, a global supply chain, a service provider service portfolio and a trusted brand that is

associated with quality high standards and global reach.HP Cloudline systems are built on an open design philosophy using open components to increase adaptability and facilitate IT integration.

HP Cloudline supports open management tools, such as OpenStack technology, and leverages common industry interfaces, such as IPMI, in hardware and firmware. As a result, HP Cloudline easily integrates into a multi-vendor environment.

Compute for Cloud Age Service Providers Purpose built for cloud-scale deployments, HP Cloudline servers meet the technical requirements, economics and functional performance

needs of the growing service provider market. HP Cloudline facilitates demand-driven deployment, accelerated service delivery and cost-effective operation.

HP Cloudline servers are optimized for workloads including cloud (OpenStack and other open cloud platforms), web servers, content delivery, hosting and big data (Hadoop framework).

TECHNOMANIA


CHANNEL BUZZ

RAPOO boosts Partner confidence with Factory Visit

SAP Labs organizes SAP IoT Day

“Upsell” Training for Rashi-SanDisk Champions

Polycom recognizes its Top APAC Partners

RAPOO has boosted the confidence of its valuable

partners by organizing second consecutive Shenzhen factory visit. It was a four-day trip to Shenzhen and Macao. RAPOO has taken 16 top volume partners from pan India, including two

senior officials from distributor's side and two from Rapoo India team to their Shenzhen factory. The motto behind organizing these factory visits is to showcase their R&D and Specialized manufacturing strength, which makes them undisputed global leader in Wireless peripheral space.

Saurabh Grover, Country Head – India, SAARC & MEA, RAPOO, said, "As a brand, RAPOO evolved constantly with R&D and market feedback. Interactions like these help RAPOO and its partners exchange valuable feedback that

helps to come out with high-quality products fulfilling market needs of the region. While partners gain from global trends, RAPOO gains from on-ground market situation of the region aptly expressed by partners in terms of brand, competition and

market maturity."Channel partners were taken

to Fully Automated Robotic Factory located in Shenzhen to demonstrate RAPOO's manufacturing capabilities and R&D strength. Partners had interaction with Sales and Management team of RAPOO and exchanged valuable information about global trends and Indian market scenario. Partners felt that this visit helped them to gain deeper insight about nuances of premium peripherals market. This factory visit has boosted the confidence of these partners in brand RAPOO.

SAP Labs has hosted the SAP Internet of Things

(IoT) Day, an exclusive event for partners, customers and start-ups to connect, share and explore the possibilities of IoT. The one-day event held at SAP Labs India Campus in Bangalore saw the participation of eminent thought leaders from the Information Technology industry and the SAP leadership team. Additionally, demonstrations of IoT applications were conducted by SAP partners and start-ups.

Speakers at the event included Venkatesh Natarajan, Vice-President, Ashok Leyland; Sanjoy Paul, Managing Director, Accenture Technology Labs; Arvind Tiwary, Chair, TiE IoT Forum, and senior leaders from SAP.

“With our enterprise-class expertise across multiple

industries, we are helping customers become early adopters of IoT by bringing together the new world of connected things, sensors and machine data with existing business processes and applications,” said Dilip Kumar Khandelwal, Managing Director, SAP Labs India and Executive Vice-President, Suite Engineering, SAP SE.

At the event, SAP “d-shop”, a grassroots global program for bringing IoT technologies closer to all SAP employees, was launched. The program is a community-driven open content creation forum around IoT that focusses on employee-to-employee informal knowledge transfer. It covers technologies like augmented and virtual reality, connected electronic development boards, 3D printing, beacons and sensors, among others.

Ramoji Film City played host to 40-plus champions of Rashi from all across the country. The main objective of this seminar was to enhance their upselling skills, improve their confidence and productivity.

The first dawn of the conference saw an introduction to SanDisk and its preambles by the country head himself, Rajesh Gupta who stressed upon the visions and the values of the company. It was followed by active discussions between the champions and Avjit Ganguly, whose technical knowledge inspired and enhanced the technical aptitude of the champions tremendously.

“Rashi is one of the key

distribution partners for SanDisk and has done a commendable job in expanding the channel coverage for SanDisk retail products across India. It was an excellent experience to participate in an offsite session organized by Rashi to train the SanDisk business champions on our products and share the directions for 2015,” said Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager – India & SAARC, SanDisk.

“It is quintessential for our champions to have extensive knowledge about the product, without which we cannot expect them to persuade our partners,” added Rajesh Goenka, Vice-President – Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals.

Polycom has announced winners of its 2014 Circle

of Excellence Awards at TEAM Polycom 2015, the company’s annual partner conference held in Orlando, Florida. During a special awards ceremony, Polycom recognized partner companies that excel at incorporating value-

added solutions and services which create lasting value for customers. These partners also demonstrate the highest level of expertise in implementing Polycom’s solutions, while delivering best-in-class performance and exceptional sales results.

“Partners play a critical role in Polycom’s journey to unleash the power of human collaboration. Polycom’s partner community is highly skilled, motivated, entrepreneurial and innovative. Our strategy relies heavily on our ability to work in lock-step with our partners and we are thrilled to recognize our top-performing partners,” said Mark Arman, Polycom Vice-President of Worldwide Channels.

In addition to recognizing its go-to-market partners, Polycom honoured its technology and

alliance partners for demonstrating unique and innovative approaches to implementing customer applications that extend the value of the Polycom RealPresence Platform and software components.

Polycom places user experiences at the centre of

its product and solutions development to create voice, video and content collaboration solutions that fit the way teams work. Polycom’s portfolio advances collaboration regardless of location or device. By teaming with leaders in the IT channel, Polycom will continue to go beyond in customer service, innovation and creating experiences that defy distance and fuel the workplace of the future – today.

Honourees are part of the Polycom Partner Network, a global ecosystem of partners. Members embrace and extend Polycom's open standards-based video collaboration solutions to deliver comprehensive collaboration solutions for the enterprise and across vertical industries.


Data Analytics play a major role in decision making of any business

The Indian market is very competitive and the challenges

the Indian IT managers are facing arequite similar to CIOs across the globe. India has very advanced IT skills, but as it is a competitive market, everybody is looking for an edge in technology.

India is an important part of EMC’s business. The company has invested a huge amount in Bangalore’s India Excellence Centre. Thousands of engineers are engaged in it and they work not only for the country but help to develop the products. India market is also a fast-growing sales opportunity.

Technological transformation and opportunity…

According to the EMC “State of Big Data” survey conducted in collaboration with IDG, 56% of IT decision-makers in India find the current business environment challenging. IT is now viewed as a strategic enabler to grow business and better connect with customers and the role of big data has emerged as of primary importance with 49% agreeing that their decisions are based on Data Analytics. 34% believe that analyzing data from diverse sources is one of the key challenges that can be addressed through Big Data and 31% feel it can help organizations in making informed strategic decisions. However, despite acknowledging the significance of big data, only 3% of Indian IT decision-makers rated the analytical capabilities in their organizations as world-class.

Understanding the needs of customers, EMC has come up with Data Lake Foundation and added new features to its offering Isilon in India. Enterprise Data Lakes are the best way to combine data applications and analytics together. It is the foundation to run Big Data analytics.EMC’s Data Lake Foundation consolidates data and applications while delivering analytics wherever needed to address these challenges.

“The first problem that most companies face is the barriers to extracting values from the data that they captured. One of those barriers is data transformation. The data is in different formats, silos and different parts of the Enterprisewhich are not connected. It is disaggregated and adds complexity to search in different areas and to consolidate

that data. So EMC has brought to market Business Data Lake Foundation. It is a foundation of infrastructure and it stores all of those different pools of storage into a single foundation. Once that data gets together then the accessibility is more uniform, security is more comprehensive, better management and the quality of the data is higher. That means it can be more accurate, can help to predict future upcomings and address the market more accurately,” said Sevior, Chief Technology Officer, APJ region, EMC Isilon.

Data security – A concernThe more disintegrated systems, the

movement of data from one system to the other is also high. During that movement

through WAN or internet links, it could be exposed to security breach. Even if one is using https or some other secure protocol, the chance of security breach is there. By having the data in one foundation layer, where there is less movement, the data is all managed in a single volume with very scalable advanced system.

“All the data is important to provide a uniform standard, to make sure that

Major growth verticals Keeping the opportunities in view,

EMC sees a lot of interesting sectors like telecommunication where the network operators are looking at monetizing their assets, BFSI Banking are looking at ATM analytics and fraud detection. The third opportunity is Retail. With all the latest happenings in the e-commercespace in India, opportunities to do cross-sale, upsale, developprograms,plan schemes for an individual are there.

And finally the government sector. It has the largest aggregation of data. So there is an opportunity to mine that for the purpose of citizen’s security.A lot of Smart City projects have been launched where video surveillance will be the key. Opportunity for EMC is to take those feeds and mine the areas where there are hot spots of trouble and deploy policing.

the infrastructure and systems that are holding the data is kept upto date with the latest standards. The organizations must make the certifications in their respective industry. All of these are very important for security and vulnerability solutions

or certification levels that ensure that the information is kept in the best possible condition. Now, if a CTO keeps some data in different systems that are out of date or based on commodity hardware and open source and does not use high-quality systems or maintains standards, there will be greater risk of vulnerability. Just storing information in Cloud in an unprotected storage could be vulnerability. It might save some dollars, but in case of a breach the impact to the enterprise could be many millions of dollars,” he added.

New initiatives and investmentsFrom a hardware perspective, EMC

is a US product but a lot of software and systems are developed in India’s Excellence Centre in Bangalore. This is one of the reasons why EMC invests heavily in human resources in India. Indian enterprises should realize that EMC believes very strongly in brain power and capacity of engineers to invest heavily in India. We have very good support and services all over India. EMC has already participated in Smart City projects across the globe.So the company is interested to participate in it in India also n

[email protected]

Charles SeviorChief Technology Officer, APJ region, EMC Isilon

FACE TO FACE

"EMC is bringing to market Business Data Lake Foundation. It is a foundation of infrastructure and it stores all of those

different pools of storage into a single foundation."

For every organization, data plays an important role in business growth and even at the time of decision making. In the present-day world, data is pouring in with great velocity, volume, variety, and organizations are facing difficultyto manage, store and analyze those unstructured data. Elaborating on technological transformation and opportunities in Big Data, SMAC, Charles Sevior, Chief Technology Officer, APJ Region, EMC Isilon, discussed about the security breach, data vulnerability and importance of the Indian market.


BUDGET

Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman - Microsoft India“The Finance Minister has presented a broad-based Budget focused on

accelerating India’s inclusive growth. The Budget retains the focus on financial inclusion, education, health and agriculture. It has increased focused on infrastructure development, housing and manufacturing in India.

Overall, Budget 2015 is wide in its scope and takes into account the interests of

diverse sections of society – middle class, farmers, youth, aged and the disabled. The budget talked about financial discipline, a monetary policy framework with RBI that will keep inflation at less than 6%, but look at possible double digit growth. The FM is looking at reducing the fiscal deficit to 3% but in three years’ time to release additional investments.

The Government has recognized the need to support startups, and incubators and has acknowledged that a culture of innovation needs to be fostered. Budgetary allocations for incubators, a mechanism for supporting self-employment and talent utilization will allow startups and MSMEs to access the funds and talent, creating new avenues for growth and employment.

Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC“The budget by the Finance Minister, Mr. Arun Jaitley is a bold and an

assertive one. We are pleased to know that local businesses and budding entrepreneurs stand to make a mark globally through various schemes that will help them prosper. A number of steps have

been announced to improve the ease of doing business; creation of Micro

Units Development Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Bank, with a corpus of Rs. 20,000 crore, and credit guarantee corpus of Rs. 3,000 crore is a positive step to encourage young, educated, skilled workers who aspire to become first generation entrepreneurs or expand their activities. With robust growth in the Digital India initiative announced last year, it is heartening to see that the Government wants to further expand it and increase the network connectivity to more rural areas. A progressive and investment focused budget overall from which we hope to see tremendous growth for the Indian economy.”

Union budget 2015 – a growth-oriented outlook for India

The Union Budget 2015-16 is a positive budget focused on accelerating India’s inclusive growth and is a step in the right direction that brings lot of confidence on the new Government. The Budget reiterates major programs and initiatives that have been previously

announced – Jan Dhan Yojana, Skill India, Swach Bharat, Make in India and Digital India. Speedy implementation of the national fiber optic network will enable more rural communities to benefit from the ecosystem of services that can make governance more effective. Budget focus on technology as a backbone for government processes, introduction of GST and improvements in financial infrastructure of the postal network of India, eCommerce companies are likely to get respite.

The Government delivers on its promise of strengthening the infrastructure sector. It endorses a vision of India where there is a house for every family with 24 hour power, potable water and all accessible by road. Mobile that the Finance Minister referred to is indeed positive in a mobile-first, cloud-first India.

The Government delivers on its promise of strengthening the infrastructure sector and commitment to skill development to equip the nation’s youth to take advantage of economic opportunities, with a focus on job creation through the Make in India program, and providing gainful employment to India’s youth is commendable and a future oriented outlook. Innovative schemes of monetizing Gold, preventing leakages and corruption with direct transfer and Digital India initiatives and support to the startup ecosystem, the scheme for the alternative energy development and the direction towards GST are the steps in the right direction.

Union Budget 2015-16



Alok Ohrie, President and Managing Director - Dell India

"We’re glad to see a positive budget announced by the Hon’ble Finance Minister. This reaffirms the reform stand taken up by the government and its commitment to investors here. Some of the forward looking statements made by the Finance

Minister have a bearing on our sector – exemption of SAD, reduction of Basic

Customs Duty on electronics components, inputs etc., ease of doing business, encouraging startups and the big boost to healthcare. The economic survey has indicated a clear mandate for big bang reforms coupled with a benign environment can propel India to a double digit growth trajectory."

Ravi Swaminathan, MD - AMD India & Corporate VP - AMD South Asia

“The announcements made in Union Budget 2015 are certainly a step in the right direction to boost growth of the technology sector and also further drive investments. The exemption of all special additional duty (SAD) on inputs/components used in the

manufacture of personal computers is a significant step towards integrating

India into the global supply chain enhancing the technology capabilities in hardware.

Further, the thrust on NOFN will provide a tremendous opportunity to bring Digital-India's vision to the fore. Such initiatives enable not only the industry but also citizens."

Sanjay Rohatgi, Vice President, India - Symantec“Continuing on the direction set last year, this is an excellent budget focusing

on the outcomes and not just the outlays- aligned with the flagship programs, namely Make in India, Digital India, Skill India and Swach Bharat. Technology is going to be a critical enabler whether it is for making

GST operational; direct benefit transfers and cashless transactions; e-Biz portal or

enabling booking of unreserved railway ticket through mobile phones for the masses. However, to ensure wider adoption of technology, it must be safe and secure to foster end-to-end trust. Overall, a pragmatic and progressive budget, indeed.”

Sanjay Kapoor, Chairman - Micromax Informatics“The Union Budget 2015-16 was very critical as it outlines new government’s

commitment to reinvigorate the economy, kick-start investment cycle and also maintain fiscal prudence. They have the advantage of a stable political regime and lower inflation. In the light of these two things what I

expect from the budget were growth & infrastructure enhancement, including the

Digital infrastructure like access, backhaul & storage. There is an undoubted focus from our Government on Infrastructure development both physical and digital but the task in hand is very arduous. Allocations are still small and our execution track record as a nation is poor.”

Amar Babu, President - MAIT and Managing Director - Lenovo

“Budget 2015 is a balanced budget that touches upon many areas of infrastructure, universal social security vision, insurance for all, education among others. From an IT industry perspective, it is a mixed bag with the inverted duty structure being finally

addressed with the removal of SAD on all components. The removal of customs

duty on components and concessional structure of 2% without CENVAT credit are positive steps to encourage tablet manufacturing in India. However it disappoints as no initiatives have been taken to increase PC manufacturing and promote exports."

Ichiro Iino, MD - Hitachi India Pvt. Ltd.“The current Union Budget strives to drive the growth of the Indian Economy

especially in the Social Infrastructure domain. We are all geared up to work towards transforming India into a self-reliant country by actively getting involved in fields such as Water,

Urban Transportation, IT, Healthcare etc. and contribute to the overall welfare

of the Indian society. The current Union Budget is very positive and promises growth

for everyone.”

Rodney Noonoo, CFO - Xerox India“The Union Budget 2015-16 is a positive budget and step in the right direction.

I appreciate the fiscal discipline and intent to reduce the fiscal deficit that stood at 4.5% of GDP in 2013-14 to 4.1% for the financial year 2014-2015 and subsequently reduce it to 3.6% in 2015-16 and to 3% in 2016-17. Overall

I see a spirit of enablement, long term growth with announcements of multiple

schemes aimed at bringing a change in the economic and social ecosystem that includes job creation, skill development, bridging the social divide etc.

The government had promised to make it easy to do business in India and the intent is evident in the budget."

Sunil Khanna- President and M.D. - Emerson Network Power India

“We welcome the Union Budget 2015-16 as a pro-people and growth oriented budget. On the corporate front, the focus on infrastructure and the desire to make taxation regimes simpler as well as deferring GAAR by another two years, is a welcome

addition. We look forward to a long-term and sustainable growth path as set

b y the honourable finance minister. Specifically from the perspective of Emerson Network Power, the plan for investment in infrastructure and enhanced rate of GDP growth at 8% for the next two years will augur well, spurring business momentum."



Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director - South Asia, Middle East and Africa - WD

“The budget carries forward the government’s vision of Digital India and Make in India, and had some encouraging announcements especially regarding the development of infrastructure, employment generation and training of the youth.

The proposed reduction in the rate of income tax on royalty and fees for technical

services from 25% to 10% will empower small businesses and start-ups digitally. Similarly, steps taken to enhance the employability of the youth through National Skills Mission and Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gramin Kaushal Yojana will result in the industry having an educated and trained workforce.”

Somshubhro Pal Choudhury, Managing Director-Analog Devices India (ADI)

“The 2015 budget is well balanced and sustainable with a prudent mix of fiscal discipline and much needed investment across key sectors like infrastructure along with a well thought out safety net for the poor under a financial inclusive agenda.

The positive aspects that I see immediately apparent are the reduction in

Corporate Tax to 25% in the next subsequent years, the #MakeInIndia initiatives with several corrections to the inverted duty structure and the national skill development mission for the tens of Millions of young Indians joining the workforce every year."

Sunanda Rajendran, Secretary General - Indo African Chamber of Commerce &

Industries“The FM mentioned lot of schemes

including social welfare through insurance schemes, swach bharat, building 6cr toilets lot of emphasis on agriculture sector with emphasis on improving the throughput and

bringing in efficiencies are welcoming move. Additionally, rationalizing the

corporate taxes, bringing the Indian corporate tax to more global levels ease of doing business, introduction of easier norms for setting up businesses, cutting the red tape path breaking scheme, funds availability for the poor and huge allocations to infrastructure will aid the economic growth."

Shirish Deodhar, Co-founder & CEO - Sapience Analytics

“Spread a large number of seeds even in an unfriendly environment, and you will get a few trees. A conducive environment will result in a forest. The start-up fund, a simpler regulatory environment, ease of doing business, provides the seeds and environment that can lead to a large number of

successful companies. Job growth is inevitable in a fast growing economy. Small businesses make up 99.7% of U.S. employer firms, 64% of net new private-sector jobs, and 49.2 percent of private-sector Employment. A lot of this has to do with the ease of doing business."

S. Rajendran, CMO - Acer India“We’re happy and welcome this positive budget which has defined a clear roadmap

on many aspects addressing the need for stability in policy framework. Some of the bold announcements made by the Finance Minister and have a direct bearing on our sector - infrastructure spending, direct transfer

to beneficiaries, committed date of April 01, 2016 for Goods & Service Tax (GST)

a n d enhanced social security thrust will convey a reassuring message to potential overseas investors. However, we’ll need to review the provisions before any predictions could be made on the impact they will have on the sector. IT industry expected more from the budget."

Soon Kwon, MD - LG India“Overall, the budget is forward looking, progressive and practical, with a very

clear direction for future. It reflects Government’s focus on increased investment in infrastructure growth and generating skill based employment. We welcome the changes in taxation policy, with the reduction in corporate

tax over four years and rationalization of custom duty. The determination towards

GST and the proposed implementation will boost the industry through the state of art indirect tax system. Efforts being made by the current government towards achieving its vision of ‘Make in India’ policy is evident in this budget and will turn manufacturing in India into a more profitable proposition."

Jerold Pereira CEO - Videocon Mobile Phones"We welcome the Union Budget 2015 and believe it will give boost to local

manufacturing as government increased duty benefits for domestic producers of electronic items, this is in line with PM Modi's “Make in India” initiative. The decision to expedite National Optical Fibre Network Programme (NOFNP)

will lead to more Indian citizens going online. The reduction in basic customs

duty on raw material inputs to optical fibre cables and manufacturing components of handheld devices will reduce the cost of this programme and fuel the demand for better services in online content delivery and communication."

Aloke Ghosh, CFO & CS - Blue Star Infotech “It is encouraging to see that the Union

Budget 2015 had a special focus on PM‘s ambitious Digital India initiative. The JAM trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, Mobile & GST can prove to be game changing reforms taking forward the financial inclusion programme and smoother, seamless transfer of subsidies to the intended beneficiaries. The budget looks at not only creating new jobs, but also incentivizing self

employment and entrepreneurship. It will introduce more competition, innovation and bringing global expertise and technology giving a boost to the 'Make in India' programme. Its success is inextricably dependent on creation of skilled workforce."

BUDGET



Somesh Chandra, COO & Chief Quality Officer - Max Bupa

“The Union Budget is a breakthrough budget and sets pace for fast growth economic trajectory through a robust financial framework. We are delighted that the budget has fulfilled the wish list of the health insurance sector and delivered on our long standing

demand, of increasing the tax deduction limit under section 80D. Increasing the

t a x deduction in health insurance premium from Rs. 15,000 to Rs 25, 000 and up to Rs 30, 000 for senior citizens will improve affordability, accessibility and awareness of health insurance. This will boost health insurance penetration which is currently under 5% and mostly restricted to the urban areas."

Anirudh Dhoot, Director - Videocon“The 2015 budget is a balanced one, setting long term goal for better economy

by keeping fiscal deficit target 3.6% and implementation of GST from April 2016.

The thrust has been given on infrastructure and social security. The postponement of GAAR is a positive

relief and reduction in corporate tax form 30% to 25% in next four years will

help industry to grow. Further thrust has been given on ‘Make in India’ where the basic custom duty on imported raw material has been reduced. This will boost assembly and value added manufacturing in the country. Reduction in the basic custom duty to zero from 10% are welcome steps.”

Sudhindra Holla, Country Manager, Axis Communications India & SAARC

"The budget put forth this year by our Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley has been well thought of and it addresses the much needed security and infrastructure needs of the country. The focus on security is particularly

commendable, with INR 1000 crore being added to the Nirbhaya fund. To

further boost the ‘smart cities’ campaign, the government has also announced funds for

infrastructure development. INR 25, 000 crore is being allocated for the rural infrastructure development and INR 1,200 crore for DMIC project – this will definitely steer India towards becoming a ‘smarter’ country."

Arvind Bali, Director & CEO - Videocon Telecom “A positive budget that increases disposable income, people can be more

connected and leverage the benefits of basic telecom services. The trinity of Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile that FM referred is indeed positive. The Budget resonates Make in India spirit. Speedy implementation of 7.5

lac KMs in 2.5 lac villages thro NOFN will enable more rural communities to

benefit and improve effective governance. Telecom fraternity is committed to and now the onus is on us to connect the last mile for the benefit of the society.”

Dinesh Aggarwal, Jt. Managing Director - Anchor Electricals Pvt. Ltd.

"Though there was no specific announcement on reducing Import duty on project imports or encouragement of energy saving products, we at Anchor believe that the overall direction of the budget was consistent with the government's commitment

to strengthen the confidence in the Indian economy. The macro indicators

a r e positive and there is a direction set to strengthen the governance of financial markets and move towards global standards, commitment towards investment directly by the government and through public participation in Infrastructure development."

Rakesh Kaul, Executive Director, Government & Public Sector Practice, PwC India

“Project like Digital Locker, eBiz, Meghraj (Govt. Cloud), e-Gov Application Store have been launched and other ambitious projects like NII and NOFN are being fast tracked. Digital India would help Smart City program to leverage existing and

future ICT investments of Digital India. To name a few projects which can get

leveraged include State Portals, State Data Centers, Citizen Service Centers, MSDG, NII, Digital Locker ... hence a missed opportunity.Ambitious projects like e-Health care and e-Education, which are part of Digital India, need innovative implementation solutions."

P.G Lakshminarayan, Vice President-Finance – eScan

“The Budget looks pragmatic and realistic and was in line with expectations. Defined focus on domestic manufacturing & infrastructure, investment allocations to build Smart Cities & to increase broadband penetration of Indian

villages, liberalization of FDI in ecommerce sector, promised actions to

finalize GST this year, clarity on transfer pricing along with a collaborative framework to minimize future disputes etc., are all steps in the right direction and indicative of a positive start. The Budget is quite optimistic with clear roadmap ahead and it will be quite interesting to track."

Deepak Sahu, Chief Editor-VARINDIA

“I am positive about the reaffirmation of the Government’s commitment towards PPP as a key drive of infrastructure creation. This would provide more opportunities for innovation-led companies to partner in India’s

growth. There was a mention of removing SAD on components to

remove the duty inversion. This can help l o c a l manufacturing of electronic goods as part of the Make for India initiative.”



(From Left to Right): Mr. Manoj Kanodia, CEO - Inspira Enterprise India; Mr. Rohit Biddappa, Sr. Manager - Enterprise Marketing & Corp.comm – NVIDIA Graphics; Mr. Jiten Mehta, Secretary-ISODA; Mr. Navin Sabharwal, Channel Manager-STG,

IBM Global Services; Mr. Pramoud Rao, MD - Zicom Electronics Security; Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu, MD & Chief Editor - Kalinga Digital Media (VARINDIA); Shri. Vineet Goenka, Co-convenior - IT cell, BJP; Shri. Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD and CEO - Bombay

Stock Exchange (Chief Guest); Mr. Uday Bhaskar Rao, CIO - iRam Technologies; Mr. Meheriar Patel, Head of Technology - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.; Mr. Yunus Khan, National Business Head (IMS) - CANON India; Mr. Kshitij M Kotak, Chairman – ASIRT;

Mr. Sandeep Kothari, CIO - Travel Food Services and Mr. Anil Kumar, Regional Head - VARINDIA

EVENT

WIITF – 2015 discusses Disruptive Technologies and Its Effect at length


The premier business event on how Disruptive Technologies are affecting

the IT landscape was held recently in the financial capital of the country – Mumbai. The fifth edition of WIITF – 2015 (Western India Information Technology Fair) served as an ideal platform to explore the intersection of technology, innovation, vision of CIOs, Technology Gurus and investors. The summit, besides focussing on the segments where disruptive technologies find usage, also focussed on the challenges faced by the CIOs and how the process can be simplified to create business strategies, develop and evaluate solution effectiveness.

Making it truly a global platform to connect the industry leaders in Mumbai, WIITF was inaugurated in the august presence of 250 luminaries and was witnessed by CIOs of corporates and solution partners from across Western India. The Summit was inaugurated by Shri Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange; Shri Vineet Goenka, Co-Convenior – IT Cell, BJP; and Shri Paras Shah, CEO, Neoteric Infomatique Ltd. Other distinguished guests joining the inaugural ceremony included Mr Vishal Jain, Director, Inspira Enterprise India Pvt. Ltd; Mr Pramoud Rao, MD, Zicom Electronics Security; Mr Kshitij M. Kotak, Chairman, ASIRT; Mr Sandeep Kothari, CIO, Travel

Food Services; Mr Meheriar Patel, Head of Technology, Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd; Mr Sanjay Mehta, CEO & Investor, MAIA Intelligence; Mr Uday Bhaskar Rao, CIO, iRam Technologies; Mr Yunus Khan, National Business Head (IMS), Canon India; Mr Navin Mehra, Regional Manager, Fortinet; Mr Rohit Biddappa, Sr Manager, Enterprise Marketing & Corp.comm, NVIDIA; Mr Navin Sabharwal, Channel Manager – STG, IBM Global Services; Mr Jagannath Pattnaik, CEO, NNR IT Solutions; and Mr Gaurav Midha, Group Manager – IT, Rolta India Limited.

The event was supported by Canon, Fortinet, Ingram Micro, Alcatel Lucent, Neoteric, Inspira and Max Security.

The summit focussed on the opportunity to discuss some of the important aspects of technologies like the requisite infrastructure, metrics for measuring ‘technology glitches’ inside the organization, key trends, issues & challenges in implementing the technology on demand inside the organization, role of ICT in building and crafting smart cities and so on. Being a real opportunity for the VARs, WIITF tried to understand on how CIOs are reacting to it and whether any big risks are coming with such digital investments.

The summit also deliberated on the rise of Big Data and the emerging efforts to put

the power of analytics in the hands of CIOs. Disruptive technology is changing the world, not to mention the way companies are developing products and services, interacting with customers and running their businesses. Its unique business models are impacting industries and organizations like never before. There is a digital transformation happening by leveraging disruptive technologies, resulting in many organizations experimenting it while others making big investments in it. For CIOs, CTOs and IT professionals, this has a significant impact on the decision-making processes that form part of their IT strategy. IT strategies need to be flexible enough to adapt in response to the changing landscape of new technologies, organizational conditions and business goals in order for a company to be a disruptor and not the disrupted. Hence, technology is fuelling the next waves of growth and especially the social media is driving better customer engagements, giving the ability to directly connect to people.

The summit offered opportunities for networking and learning opportunities through keynote sessions by experts, corporate presentations and panel discussions with the CIOs and industry associations, policy-makers and influencers and entrepreneurs from across Western India.

Shri. Ashish Kumar Chauhan, MD & CEOBombay Stock Exchange

“Technology can change lives in many different ways we cannot even imagine in the last 30 years. In absence of new technology, govt. services would not have possibly been made available to citizens. In earlier times any new technology would have taken a longer time to reach out to impact lives. But slowly the circle of spreading of technology is getting shorter. It is reaching out to your house, your hands faster like never before. Going to the last mile was a major issue in India till some years back but the new technology of mobile with prices coming down has changed the mobility scenario in a different way.”

Shri. Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor, VARINDIA “Disruptive technologies have changed the way companies create products and services,

interact with customers and in general, run their business, thus simplifying the procurement process to provide sustainable cost-savings, greater economies of scale and an increase in efficiency levels. VARs can add real value to every organization by making the whole procurement process much simpler and more cost effective. This disruptive technology is changing the world, not to mention way companies develop products and services, interact with customers and run their businesses.”

Shri. Vineet Goenka, Co-convenior-IT cellBJP

“This is the first time in history of India that a Prime Minister of the country is sincere about listening to people. For instance, talk about Smart cities and this is going to be a big opportunity for VARs like you. The idea is to ensure a better living for our generation as well as the generation to come. As politicians we can generate ideas from entrepreneurs like you and this in turn can help in designing the right technology that will further steer ahead this initiative. We encourage suggestions and feedback from interested parties like you through our website MyGov.in.”

Shri. Paras Shah, CEONeoteric Infomatique Ltd

“Life is all about adapting or you perish. The biggest threat in this country of 1.2 billion population is its demography but the biggest asset has been the freedom we all are entitled to and which is missing in our neighboring China. We are possibly the # 2 Start-up in the world after US because of this. Though manufacturing has its own challenges in India at present, it can possibly become a manufacturing hub in times to come. One of the few things that have still not happened in India is the creation of IP and unless proper infrastructure is created this is going to take some.”


(From L to R): Mr. Rohit Biddappa, Sr. Manager - Enterprise Marketing & Corp.comm – NVIDIA; Mr. Sandeep Kothari, CIO- Travel Food Services; Mr. Meheriar Patel, Head of Technology - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.; Mr. Navin Sabharwal, Channel

Manager-STG, IBM Global Services; Mr. Uday Bhaskar Rao, CIO - iRam Technologies and Mr. Kshitij M Kotak, Chairman – ASIRT

Q & A by Solution Partners

Mr. Manoj Kanodia, CEO Inspia Enterprise India

Mr. Navin Mehra, Regional ManagerFORTINET TECHNOLOGIES INDIA PVT. LTD.

Corp

orat

e

“Network trends and opportunities are growing, security is fast becoming prevalent. As per Gartner cyber crime is itself becoming an industry. Internet is open and on viral platform, the one point of security to block cyber hackers and protect the data we have what we call the Security wall. This is the first line of defense and if we move ahead the network concerns keep on getting more and more sophisticated. Today most of the threats are from inside and most of the IT applications have become web-enabled. Some of the applications are productive while some are not.”

“Cloud is something all of us have heard about and it has the potential. Instead of putting your money in trying to build your own, you can use the Cloud infrastructure and pay for whatever services you have used. The same concept you can carry to your own customers. If you are not an IT company, managing IT security and some of the solutions could be really tough. Cloud brings a pool of talent which otherwise would not have been available. And this is a very intangible benefit because we cannot attach a price tag to it.”

The panel discussion on ‘Disruptive Technologies effecting the IT Landscape’ moderated by Mr. Deepak Kr. Sahu, Managing Director – VARINDIA was an attempt at exploring the power of disruptive technologies shaping the future of technology and how it can transform business, right from the infrastructure level to customer experience. A wide portfolio of disruptive technologies include Internet of Things(IOT), Machine-To-machine(M2M), Biotech, Data and analytics, 3D Printers to name a few. The esteemed panelists presented their take on it and what they think would increase productivity of businesses.

Mr. Sandeep Kothari, CIO- Travel Food Services remarked as to how mobile device is changing the landscape and is going to be a big game changer for businesses. He further added by saying that Mobile technology empowers customers to make the right decision and also enables the company to serve their customers wherever they are.

Mr. Meheriar Patel, Head of Technology - Sun Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd added that Mobility as a platform is looked upon as a disruption technology and as an Indian grown pharmaceutical company that has grown across the globe, his company has strategies on mobility not only on the device front but also on the app perspective.

Mr. Navin Sabharwal, Channel Manager-STG, IBM Global Services said that data has always been important for IBM and the rise of mobile devices and the applications together have contributed to almost 80 % in the last 2 years. Referring to Analytics, he praised it as a tool that gives insights of which all are the apps that are working for us and can add to the customer experience.

Mr. Rohit Biddappa, Sr. Manager - Enterprise Marketing & Corp.comm – NVIDIA tried to explain the Mobility concept both from a VAR perspective and from a consumer acquisition objective. Whether we like it or not, we cannot segregate mobile from Cloud and is slowly changing the business paradigm with companies going for a platform as a service model. He stressed on the fact that with everything moving to Cloud and becoming mobile, it becomes imperative for every company to understand what business model to adopt.

Mr. Uday Bhaskar Rao, CIO - iRam Technologies sees mobility devices to be beyond mobile phones and smartphones and took it down to the inter-connectivity between living and non-living things to explain it further. He discussed how mobility devices besides serving as a connectivity device can act as a major propeller in building the concept of IoT, where a non-living object with a sensor can correspond with a living being.

Kshitij M Kotak, Chairman – ASIRT said that while talking about disruptive technology, one has to talk about variable technology and Big Data. He cited the example of how the mygov.in platform uses business and social media intelligence to specifically target people. He said that technology in future will evolve to such an extent that 2 people would be able to read each other’s mind with the help of technology.

EVENT


AWAR

D W

INN

ERS AW

ARD W

INN

ERSBEST VAR, WESTERN INDIA XPRESS COMPUTERS LTD

BEST VALUE ADDED DISTRIBUTOR, WESTERN INDIA

INSPIRA ENTERPRISE INDIA PVT. LTD.

BEST NETWORK INTEGRATOR, WESTERN INDIA

PENTAGON SYSTEM & SERVICES PVT. LTD.

BEST SOFTWARE SERVICES, WESTERN INDIA

ORIENT TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD.

BEST SYSTEM INTEGRATOR, WESTERN INDIA

MAGNAMIOUS SYSTEMS PVT. LTD.

BEST MADE FOR INDIA PRODUCT FORTUNE GRECELLS PVT LTD.

Solution Display Kiosks

Mr. Yunus Khan, National Business Head (IMS) - CANON India

“We want to be a part of Digital journey and contribute in it to make India digital. Be

it a government organization or a corporate, there are 2 types of customers – internal and

external. The information flow in any organization will include creation of document, filed,

stored and then retrieved. Almost 30% of the work time is wasted in locating those documents

and 60% chances for them to be stolen; here digitalization will play its part. India is still the

largest analogue country and the next step forward is digitization.”

Corporate Speech

BEST SOFTWARE SERVICE SUPPORT COMPANY Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

BEST IT Brand iBall

Best IT World India Pvt Ltd


Tier-II and -III cities have emerged as the growth drivers for the Indian

market. Companies are seen moving to smaller cities as they have significant cost advantages and are attracting investment. Several government initiatives that have started of late through a wide range of reforms have created a big opportunity in the smaller cities. As a result, it will generate significant demand for vendors to innovate with the right technology and drive operational efficiency and cost effectiveness.

The upcountry markets, which comprise Class B, C and D cities, are the regions that

are expected to witness the maximum growth in the coming time. While PC penetration in these regions is still below 10, there is a definite pattern of a growing category of users in this region, who are tech-savvy and are willing to pay a little more to get superior products and services. Hitherto, this used to be the trend only in the metro cities until a few years back. “Less than half a decade ago, the majority of business contribution used to be from metro markets. It is not the same case anymore. According to research firm Zinnov, India is home to around 50 million SMBs currently, out of which 10 million

are technology-ready. Modern SMBs are investing heavily in tools like PCs, internet and website to market themselves and compete in the global /domestic markets. Today, a brand cannot ignore the business viability from the upcountry markets,” remarks Anil Sethi, Director & General Manager – Channels, Dell India.

Vendors bullish on Upcountry markets...

The upcountry markets which are primarily category B and C towns and cities, hold a huge potential for growth for Acer,

Sunil GrewalDirector – Sales & MarCom, GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd

Gopakumar AmbujakshanDirector – Channel Business, Emerson

Manish GodhaCEO & FounderAdvaiya Solutions

Upcountry Markets beckon VendorsThat B, C & D class cities is where the opportunity lies for IT vendors

is no longer news. What is of interest now is how vendors are banking on the untapped opportunities in these markets that sound business to everyone and letting loose an expansion spree by heavily counting on the Channel

COVER STORY


as a good chunk of its business comes from these markets. “To quote the data released by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) last year, it has been observed that the faster rise in rural incomes as compared to urban areas led to a near doubling of spending in the upcountry markets. Having said this, the gap between rural and urban consumption patterns and expenditures has narrowed down in the past few years and would likely converge over the next decade. Therefore, our well-spread networks and service capability help us achieve our goals in penetration of these markets,” says S.

Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India.

Tier-C, -D and -E markets are part of Canon’s overall expansion plan. “These markets are going to make a huge contribution to IT business, not only for us but everyone in this space. So our strategy is to expand the current distribution model. We are indulging our existing partners to expand into the upcountry markets which will enable both of us to reap the benefits of the potential available there,” explains Gautam Paul, Assistant Director & Head, Consumer Systems Group, Canon India.

Agrees Meetul Patel, General Manager, SMS&P, Microsoft India, “Upcountry markets are extremely important for us. We have a lot of work to do in metros as well as the tier-II & -III markets and we will keep doing that. For a few years now, Microsoft

has been engaged in a geo-expansion strategy and we went on to deepening our penetration in these cities. We see the next leg of growth coming from these cities and this is where our technology will help to bring in fundamental change. We invest quite heavily in these markets; we spend capital, time, efforts, assets on what we call the development of infrastructure, making sure that there is awareness of what our technology can do in those territories.” Microsoft also works with its academic teams and educational institutions to ensure that students are aware about its latest technologies and they start adopting them on a faster scale.

Lifesize plans to expand to 100 cities in the tier-II and -III categories. The major solutions it tries to pitch in are its Cloud solutions. “The importance of such markets has grown so much for a vendor like us that whenever we launch any cloud solutions in the large markets, we plan to unveil the same

simultaneously in the upcountry markets too.

However, these cities never used to spend money earlier but now the trend has changed. Since these markets are typically price- sensitive, our solutions are fitted for these markets as we believe in providing high-quality and reasonably priced offerings,” asserts Gagan Verma, Regional Director, India and SAARC Region, Lifesize.

“When we look at the data center infrastructure like server, storage, networking, a large amount of this business is moving down to tier-II and -III cities. All of us are trying to focus and understand how we monetize that. We have been spending a lot of time enabling our channel partners, who will be our primary point of contact in these locations. We are enabling them so that they act as a VMware face in these markets and position our products and solutions. That will predominantly be our strategy,” observes Arun Parameswaran, Managing Director, VMware India.

More than 40% of Fujitsu’s business is targeted at the B- & C-lass cities and it caters to customers, institutions and corporates which are based in these locations. “These cities are extremely important for us. We work very aggressively with partners there to develop specific business plans and target specific customers. We try and develop the solutions together with partners in areas that we have expertise like high-performance computing, virtualization, reiterates Mehul Doshi, Country Head for Datacenter Products & Solution in India, Fujitsu. Depending on the kind of business that the partner is into, it helps to build a competency for them that will eventually lead to business sustenance and reach out to customers who seek similar solutions or products.

Zebronics plans to grow 100% in the coming fiscal and this it will achieve by staying strong on the computer peripheral. But apart from that Zebronics will have a big focus on the three new segments that it is foraying into – surveillance cameras, tablet PCs and LED TVs. “We have a separate team lined up headed by Marketing Heads for all

Khwaja SaifuddinSenior Sales Director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, WD

Gautam PaulAssistant Director & Head, Consumer Systems Group, Canon India

S. RajendranChief Marketing OfficerAcer India

Peter Chang, Regional Head, South Asia & Country Manager, System Business Group, ASUS India

Gagan VermaRegional Director, India and SAARC Region, Lifesize

Rajesh DoshiFounder & DirectorZebronics

Reports from IDC, Gartner suggest that contributions from these towns would be 40% of the total business.

The upcountry markets never used to spend money earlier but now the trend

has changed. Since, these markets are typically price- sensitive, our

solutions are fitted for these markets.


the segments. The go-to-market strategies for each of these products are also going to be different. We wish to penetrate as far as possible into upcountry markets because it is there where our true strength lies. We are a mass brand and a value-for-money brand and thereby we sync very well with these markets,” says Rajesh Doshi, Founder & Director, Zebronics. Zebronics also has a programme where it has already collaborated with 120 schools to inform students more about the brand.

Upcountry markets have started assuming a larger role for Emerson Network Power in

India. While the number of SMBs and SME businesses has increased exponentially, the country currently faces an energy deficit situation. This has led to a larger market opportunity for Emerson and its channel partners. “The UPS market in India provides vast opportunities for us. Various IT services such as data centers, servers, and electronic & medical equipment need a high level of uninterrupted power supply. This generates a significant demand for high power range of UPS systems in India,” says Gopakumar Ambujakshan, Director Channel Business, Emerson.

“In a better connected digital world with enormous growth in social media, smartphones, and other computing devices, both the content proliferation as well as consumers’ awareness levels has gone up. It is good for our business,” comments Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, WD.

Juniper looks up to various means to focus on these markets. It finds an easy route through the various government initiatives announced recently like the financial inclusion, digital India, Smart City, Make in India and the expansion of BPOs-KPOs

to these markets to enter these territories. Customers are gearing themselves up and IT vendors are taking up initiatives to know what is gaining traction in the ecosystem. So this is a good thing for all of us,” says Mrityunjay Kumar, Country Director, Enterprise and Channel Business (India-SAARC), Juniper Networks.

Channel expansion at the core...While there has been a good deal of

business expansion happening at the tier-II and -III level, vendors have come to realize the real saviour in the form of the Channel. To meet sales and business expansion targets, vendors are relying heavily on the Regional Channel and making them available every possible resource at their disposal. They are drawing up strategies in such a way that last-minute change in it would not impact the working of the Channel.

“To capitalize on the emerging upcountry markets, Dell launched its distribution business strategy in 2014 to enhance its commercial business sales. The strategy was an effort by Dell to aggressively focus on tier-II & -III city partners and resellers who can contribute to the business. It also formed a partner advisory council which aims to build a strong think tank and discuss Dell’s partner plans, strategy and programme offers moving forward. “To maximize our business proposition from the upcountry markets, we empower our partners in these regions by conducting regular training and enablement programmes. In the upcountry markets, we conducted ‘Solutions for Success’ in places like Shillong, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Coimbatore, Surat, Vijayawada and Jaipur,” says Anil. The PartnerDirect competencies programme is another programme that enables partners to take full advantage of Dell’s end-to-end solutions strategy and offer customers comprehensive solutions.

SanDisk is looking at capitalizing on opportunities in emerging markets across India, and it is executing strategies to boost growth, explore new channels, and provide high-quality products and training to its channel partners. Keeping this vision in mind, SanDisk launched a comprehensive geo-expansion retail strategy targeting 27 cities in 2013 in order to enhance reach in emerging markets across India. We work extensively on the availability of our product range to the channel by working

on the supply chain,” explains Rajesh Gupta, Country Manager India, SanDisk Corporation. SanDisk also introduced the SanDisk Ultra Club Programme in 2014, an exclusive loyalty programme for top SanDisk partners that provides them an opportunity to earn rewards.

Along with geographical expansion, Lifesize also plans to expand its reseller network in these markets. With the proliferation of cloud, the growth in these markets has been tremendous. “In India, we have a full-fledged support centre in Bangalore where we have more than 100 people working and they give support to customers across India. Level 1 and 2 support is usually given out by our resellers and this is where our channel program comes into play,” explains Gagan.

Channel expansion will remain the key to Canon also for expanding into tier-II and -III markets and it already has a channel roadmap ready to expand into these markets. “We appoint either a single or more than one distributor in a particular state depending on the size, potential and infrastructure available for the distributor to service that market,” says Gautam. With regard to support, Canon has 41 Canon Care Centres which are managed by Canon and 200 authorized service centres. These service centres and Canon Care Centres reach close to about 4,000 points. Besides, it has 130 Image Squares stores in 65 cities to reach out to customers.

VMware has a specific tier-II and -III city expansion programme that it had run last year. “We went to places which were traditionally not touched by us like Coimbatore, Vizag, Lucknow, Chandigarh, where we did training programmes for customers and partners. A big chunk of this programme is designed keeping the partners from upcountry markets in mind in which we introduced many rebate programs, incentives specifically for them. This is our focussed effort to tap the potential in these markets,” remarks Arun.

ASUS tries to give a digital experience to its customers, which is possible only when it is present in the e-commerce platform. The company, therefore, continues to maintain its business relationship with both e-commerce companies and the channel. “The channel is there to stay for sure but at the same time our mantra is to coexist with both of them and have a right mix of online and offline

Meetul PatelGeneral Manager, SMS&PMicrosoft India

Mehul DoshiCountry Head for Datacenter Products & Solution in India, Fujitsu

Rajesh GuptaCountry Manager India, SanDisk Corporation

COVER STORY

Non-metros are also contributing significantly to the growth of

the IT-BPM and AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming and comics)

industries in India. Secondly, the huge infrastructural projects that

have been coming up in non-metros are good for data center drives that

can be deployed for surveillance and larger data center set-ups.


partners to reach to our end-customers,” says Peter Chang, Regional Head, South Asia & Country Manager, System Business Group, ASUS India. Asus has today 120 Exclusive stores around the country and has more than 1,000 partners; more than half of these partners are from tier-II and -III markets. “Every quarter, we are reaching out to new cities that we think we should be having our coverage in,” he says.

According to Anish Kanaran, Channel Director, Epicor Middle East, India and Africa, Epicor offers a comprehensive partner programme with tools and resources to enable and support them to grow their business. Combining local expertise and knowledge of partner and vendor has proved to be a proactive and successful approach to building business opportunities for partners in India. Besides, Epicor invests heavily in R&D to ensure that its solutions stay one step ahead of its competition and offer customers flexible and responsive software solutions.

Keeping in mind the country's geographic spread, Epicor partners have been strategically chosen to expand reach across the country. This includes B and C class cities. Its current set of partners service the entire country and its policies remain the same across partners, regardless of where they are based. In these cities, Epicor actively encourage partners to invest in lead generation, for which there are various co-funding programmes available, and training. This, in turn, helps them secure and deliver projects and business while also contributing to their bottom line, i.e. revenue.

As part of its investments in non-metro cities, Gigabyte is hosting a series of channel partner meets, providing access to its online GIGABYTE Value Partner Programme (GVPP), its incentive initiative for resellers. “We are also carrying out outdoor branding in the vicinity of IT markets by putting up our product-specific advertisements on billboards, metro railway stations and bus shelters, among others. The setting up of sophisticated, high-tech post-sales service centres across India is another way of building connect with partners and retail customers. Though they are present only in metro-cities, these centres will operate as service hubs for their respective regional zones, which covers non-metro regions to a large extent,” explains Sunil Grewal, Director – Sales & MarCom, GIGABYTE

Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd.Emerson’s channel and retail roadmap

for upcountry locations remains the same as the top tier markets. Very recently, it launched the Triple Treat incentive programme in association with PAYBACK so that partners can redeem reward points for sales of Emerson products. “We hope to build a stronger awareness about technology trends, products and services and will help organizations, including the government, to induce a positive change in the energy landscape, by providing flexibility and a holistic insight into power management to partners and customers alike,” says Gopakumar.

WD, on its part, conducts channel partner meets and training continually across major cities in India as well as in smaller cities to engage with its partner community. “WD Master Blast”’ is a way of reaching out to its channel partners at their doorsteps and updating them on WD solutions in a fun-filled manner. “WD Ki Paathshaala” consists of regular training sessions with channel partners to apprise them of its offerings. Likewise, “WD Contact Progra”’ helps to initiate and grow relationships with relatively new channel partners in the upcountry markets.

Juniper is present pan India wide through its direct sales presence combined with focussed set of VADs and Channel partners across the country. It decides its GTM based on two fundamental consideration – one, the geo focus and presence of channel partner and, second, channel's vertical focus and expertise. “Our partner programmes are designed to encourage partners to lead from the front. Our channel and marketing teams work very closely with the VADs and SI partners and assist them with market intelligence, training, solution design support, certification. Our focus is to 'do more with less' and leverage focussed partners to deliver remarkable customer experience always,” says Mrityunjay.

Emerson provides ultra-care 24x7 service support from the Emerson Global Service ENPGS Service set-up at more than 50 locations across India. Moreover, the company offers a toll-free 24x7 hours. Its focus is on delivering network-reliability programmes backed by the largest global services organization in the industry.

Acer is expanding its service footprints for the customers to avail the services without

Anish KanaranChannel Director, Epicor Middle East, India and Africa

Mrityunjay Kumar, Country Director, Enterprise and Channel Business (India-SAARC), Juniper Networks

Arun ParameswaranManaging DirectorVMware India

having to undergo travel for more than 25 kms. “In India, we work on the Application Service Provider (ASP) model and currently Acer has one of the largest supporting networks today in the country. We cover more than 750 small towns through our ASP model,” says Rajendran. Presently, Acer has 259 service centres across India which offers carry-in facility for Notebook servicing. This is over and above the 225 ASP locations and 46 Resident Engineer locations, which provide onsite services.

WD believes that a user should be able to get a replacement product with the same ease with which he purchased his product. WD provides “WD Express”, a door-to-door replacement service that ensures that in case a customer’s product has to be replaced, it is easy to do so.

Opportunities opening up ahead...

Upcountry markets have begun to witness balanced growth across all business sectors, though of course with a great regional variation. It remains to be seen of how fast internet proliferation happens in these places, but once this happens the technology adoption curve will be much more interesting to observe than what it is now.

However, as Manish Godha, CEO

& Founder, Advaiya Solutions, puts it, “While growth opportunities are significant, investing in these markets has remained equally challenging. Underdeveloped infrastructure, high levels of corruption, shortage of skilled manpower and ever-changing regulation are some of the many obstacles businesses are faced with when entering second tier emerging markets.” “Overcoming such obstacles requires an excellent understanding of the market dynamics, growth potential, consumer needs and competitive outlook. In other words, it requires an entry framework specifically designed for selecting the right market and building a sustainable strategic advantage,” he further says. n

[email protected]

Today, customers from a smaller location are equally aware about the latest technologies that a customer

from a larger market looks for.


Element14 looks at IoT as a big opportunityTalking about latest products and solutions, Ravi Pagar, Regional Director - element14 throws light on how as

a community, the company has received phenomenal support from engineers and developers which eventually has helped it to steer forward its growth

What new opportunities is Element14 eyeing in 2015?

The Internet of Things, industrial automation, robotics, wearable tech, renewable energy and 3D printing are the high-profile trends that have been gaining momentum. These new high-growth segments present huge opportunities for expansion in the electronics industry and we plan to support our customers’ needs in this space.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is emerging as a mega-trend in technology. IoT aims to fuse the physical and virtual world by connecting billions of devices to the Internet. IoT will be able to mine customer data and segment them for users to personalize the IoT experience. IoT enabled products will be able to communicate between and among products through its embedded technologies. Engineers developing these devices will find

these embedded technologies more relevant and thus improving the service proposition of these devices.

For element14, there is immense opportunity to help developers create IoT devices. Through its developer kits, element14 simplifies the developers and engineers efforts by providing them with the necessary support they need. Element14 helps these developers convert their idea from concept to a final marketable product.

What role are you envisaging to play in driving IoT in the country?

IoT is a vast ecosystem in which

element14 brings together the latest solutions through products, services and development software. The entire catalogue of solutions is complemented with an innovative online engineering community of over 280,000 members globally. Through this community, purchasers and engineers can network with peers and experts, and access a wide range of independent technical information and helpful tools. Our global reach as part of the Premier Farnell Group provides great access to stock and stronger relationship with suppliers. This allows us to provide the latest offerings and a wider range of products thus helping us better serve geo-specific technology needs.

New products launched such as the open-source SBC (Single Board Computer),RIoT(Revolutionizing the Internet of Things) board from Freescale, EnOcean self-powered Sensor Kit, and STMicroelectronics STM32 microcontrollers are ideally suited for IoT applications.

Our recent acquisition of Avid Technologies, an engineering design services company in USA has helped us provide our global customers with a wealth of new and unique design services, tools and turnkey solutions at the early stage of the electronic design cycle. Element14 caters to a wide range of market segments which include industrial controls and automation, defense, aerospace, medical, automotive and wireless communications; all of which are developing products and solutions for the IoT era.

Could you shed some light on the projects you have undertaken of late?

Element14 works closely with its partners on several projects to bring to market the latest products. We recently launched the Raspberry Pi A+ with updated hardware and it complements the B+ modules launched earlier in 2014. This product opens up greater solutions and usability to customers worldwide.

We have also launched industry’s first IoT enables Launchpad and Boosterpack from Texas Instruments. These added to our comprehensive offering of low power IoT-enabling development tools from the world’s leading suppliers.

Through our partnership with STMicroelectronics we provide an extensive portfolio ofSTM Nucleo development boards. These boards are both affordable and flexible for design engineers to build prototypes quickly with any STM32 microcontroller line.

Do you also conduct any training programs or modules for the developer community? How

far these trainings have been beneficial to them?

From the March of 2013, element14 launched its education programme in India with the first co-partnered programme with Analog Devices, the global leader in high-performance semiconductors for signal-processing applications. Such programmes on element14 Community as webinars, Road tests, ‘Ask an Expert’ and legislation have become highly popular with our India engineers.

Through our webinars, participants get easy access to online and downloadable software and teaching materials, circuit simulation tools, online support, textbooks, reference designs and lab projects. We have received real good feedback from these webinars and will continue to support this ecosystem through most such trainings.

Where does India as a nation stand when it comes to giving impetus to new talents and ideas?

India is a source of immense talent with a phenomenal number of engineers. We are supporting these engineers by giving them the opportunity to connect with community of like-minded professionals who will be able to help them grow in their skills and perhaps even be entrepreneurs in creating new devices in the IoT sector.

There are multiple ways we support engineers. Offering them opportunities to get trained by industry experts via our element14 Community, to participate in our technical roadshows across 12 cities in India every year and bringing innovative products like Raspberry Pi or Beagle Bone to them at a pricing that is affordable. n

Ravi PagarRegional Director - element14

FACE TO FACE


Demystifying the ITaaS model of DeliveryTarun Sareen, Head EMC IT - APJ and APJ Theater Lead speaks to VARINDIA the implications and benefits of

an ITaaS Cloud delivery model and it has successfully transformed businesses of its customers

How has the role of a CIO changed with the emergence of Cloud?

Today’s CIO has not only to play a critical role in running and accelerating the business but also a leadership role in growing and transforming the business for tomorrow. Additionally, he/she must be constantly seeking business growth through innovation.

The need for the CIO is to be much more of an influencer, a shaper, a business strategizer than it has ever been. CIO influences and impacts every part of the company’s business today. In essence he/she is integrated with business.

Cloud has accelerated IT ability to deliver differentiated services with higher speed. As CIOs and IT leaders, we are a broker of value to our businesses and as such must leverage services from private cloud, public cloud or a hybrid cloud to advance our business.

What are the implications of an IT as a service model to an organization (both IT & non-IT)?

The cloud computing model has changed the way IT is delivered and services are managed. For IT organizations and IT service providers alike, the IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) model results in running IT like a business so that customers can be charged back only for their consumption rather than a flat tax model which is the norm in a traditional IT organization.

At EMC, “We believe in delivering IT as a Service and running IT as a Business”. Thus, ITaaS model in enterprises require service, business and entrepreneurial mindsets. It requires us to drive away from a monopolistic mindset into becoming an enabler of services in order to win our business, bringing in value and agility that the business needs.

How has been its demand in the public sector as well as the govt. vertical?

ITaaS can be a big driver to improve literacy rates through online e-education in some of the rural and remote areas of our country. Schools connected with broadband, can enable teachers and students to leverage the power of internet for education.

The healthcare ecosystem is also changing. The convergence of several critical factors is necessitating a complete re-evaluation of healthcare systems and the delivery of care. ITaaS can help to improve life expectancy by introducing e-Healthcare through government. Patients can get access to online medical consultation from doctors and medical reports.

Government and public sector banks can leverage ITaaS for financial inclusion, by offering retail banking product portfolio and broad range of offerings through mobile. This technology also can be used to drive social transformation and improve the quality of life.

What is driving IT as a service in the market today?

CIOs today are facing a lot of pressure from business internally to deliver IT at the speed of business and to break out of monopolistic control approach. All this is leading them in thinking of shared infrastructure to deliver IT as a Service.

Consumer of IT is looking for better services and ease of service consumption. To enable that, IT should run service delivery more like a business, with the ability to deliver competitive solutions and account for their successful adoption and profitability.

How successful have you been as a service provider in transforming the business of your customers?

EMC IT delivers IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) to its internal customers, who are the employees of EMC in over 86 countries globally. We transformed our internal IT infrastructure to deliver full-scale cloud computing to the users. Over the past several years, we have

delivered undeniable benefits to our customers through the power of virtualization, cloud computing, big data and trusted IT. There is no better representation of our commitment to ITaaS than infinIT – our internal portal that allows EMC IT’s employee customers to browse and purchase the tools and services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS/Apps) they need to work faster, smarter and with greater agility.

What kind of fundamental challenges would a company’s IT organization face, while migrating to an IT as a service model?

ITaaS will require fundamental changes in how IT services are created, paid for, delivered and consumed as well as in the roles for those who support them. This effort encompasses focus on technology, people, processes and cultural changes.

As one embarks on the journey to ITaaS, it is essential to take some big bold bets around standardization on multiple technology stacks, simplifying and consolidating myriad of existing infrastructure, pooling the resources to drive more operational efficiency and increasing the level of automation. One of the bigger challenges is to deliver services at a scale, and figuring out the robust systems which will enable you to achieve this. Another challenge in taking the ITaaS approach is building a service provider mindset and skills. Since few IT Professionals have mastered these skills, they will need to be acquired through training existing staff or hiring staff with product management expertise.

While ITaaS is a journey and a challenging one, it will result in an agile, relevant and vital IT operation that can keep pace with today and tomorrow’s changing technological and business demands. n

Tarun SareenHead EMC IT - APJ and APJ Theater Lead

FACE TO FACE


App Business – extending its horizon As per IDC’s smartphone shipment

report of India, smartphones have occupied a 35-per cent share of the total mobile phone market – a rise of 13 per cent as compared to Q4 2013. This shows the accelerating growth of smartphones in India. As smartphones and mobile applications go hand in hand, these open vast opportunities for mobile application players. Growth in the smartphone market will give a boost to the mobile application market. The growth of smartphones has made mobile applications one of the upcoming sectors in India as well as globally.

According to ASSOCHAM, mobile app downloads in India are likely to cross 9 billion this year. The availability of an increasing number of Android smartphones at competitive price slabs has contributed substantially to the rising penetration of smartphones in India. For a majority of online Indians, their first access to the internet has been via a mobile device, and for a substantial part of this population, internet access would remain restricted to mobile devices only. The exponential growth that the Indian e-commerce and travel portals have witnessed has been aided further by their mobile apps and this is a testament to their effectiveness in reaching out to a much wider set of consumers and in driving increased engagement.

A mobile app can be instrumental in assisting the growth of business. If the right strategies and tools are employed, mobile apps can help a business understand customer’s behaviour and expectations out of the service being provided. This helps a business channel their efforts in the right direction so as to serve the consumers better and offer a better experience of its services.

India App marketIn India, opportunities for mobile app

business are immense as new uses of applications are surfacing. India is slated to become one of the biggest players in the global app market by 2016, overtaking leading smartphone app markets such as the US and five Western

European Union countries, according to a report by an independent mobile industry market research and consultancy provider, Research2Guidance.

“Likely to touch Rs.3,800 crore by 2016, led by a surge in smartphone sales, the app market in the country is likely to grow more than four times to $626.23 million by 2016 with paid apps contributing to Rs.2,065 crore. According to the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), the total worth of Indian app economy is worth $150 million currently (Rs.900 crore), but it has immense potential to grow. A number of factors favour the app revolution in India, one of them being the presence of over approximately 3 lakh app developers with about 100 million app downloads each month.”

“The paradigm shift of people’s attitude towards Internet-enabled devices is also affecting the way the data is being consumed

in the e-domain,” said Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Rockstand.

Apps can be used in a variety of contexts like education, health, entertainment, work, shoping, etc.

“Smartphones and ‘Mobile Only’ Internet users are growing rapidly and India is expecting to double its base of smartphones and mobile internet subscribers by the end of 2015. 60 per cent of the shopping happens on the mobile. It has become important to have a mobile-friendly website or an app. Giving an option to users to transact from any device is the key to success for any business nowadays,” said Kulpreet Kaur, Co-Founder.Shoppirate.in.

“ESPN cricinfo is observing a boom in the shipment of smartphones in the country. In fact, in the last 12–18 months, it has seen a huge consumption of mobile content on cricinfo platform. Cricinfo is prioritizing a lot of work on mobiles ensuring to give the best experience to the consumers. Cricinfo has revamped and relaunched the iOS, Android and Windows version before Cricket World Cup so that consumers get contents in a much better way,” comments Gaurav Thakur,

Director – Mobile Products & Revenue, ESPN Cricinfo and ESPN Digital Media, India.

Talking on the same lines, Nirmal K., Assistant Director, Mobile Product, ESPN Digital Media India, added, “We also make sure that we adopt the latest technology that each of the ecosystem offers. We have also integrated with Google to offer Now cards for cricket. We are a privileged partner and first cricketing partner to work with Google now. We also adopt the newer technologies at very early stage so that users can get the best of experience.”

Trends in mobile applicationVarious applications are available in the

market for different requirements of users. There are apps for games, entertainment, information, voice calls, education, travel, e-commerce, social network and even for utility bill payments. Different app users have different criteria. But the most commonly used apps are games and social networking.

“Communication apps are the most popular ones, followed by a variety of e-commerce, online classifieds, games and entertainment apps,” Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Founder, Riva (Ringo), added.

“Games are the most popular mobile app segment among smartphone users and it

Praveen RajpalCEO, Rockstand

Kulpreet KaurCo-Founder. Shoppirate.in

Gaurav ThakurDirector - Mobile Products & Revenue, ESPNcricinfo and ESPN Digital Media, India

Nirmal K.Assistant Director, Mobile Product, ESPN Digital Media India

APP SPECIAL


makes the most revenue among paid category. The second most popular category after games is social media apps,” Yogesh Agarwal, CEO, Applane Solutions, reiterated.

Rajesh Kaul, Co-Founder & CEO, Triotech Solutions, is of the same opinion, “Social network, games, health and education are primarily the leaders in the application business. These applications are needed to bridge the gap between users and service players. Applications are driving the change and have become important in the day-to-day usage aspect.”

“The key segments driving growth and adoption of mobile applications in India include Social, Local, Games, Commerce, Travel, Utilities and Entertainment,” said Hemant Jain, Co-Founder, Happy Hours India.

Revenue generationRevenue is the most important part of

any business. The app players come up with unique business strategies to attract users. Different players have different revenue generation models.

“Ringo is a pay-as-you-go product. Unlike most international calling apps and systems, Ringo does not expect consumers to opt for a subscription package or a monthly commitment fee to avail our services. At Ringo, we believe in transparency. As such, there are no added or hidden charges associated with international calls made using Ringo,” said Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Founder, Riva (Ringo). “Our goal is to help Ringo reach out to as many consumers as possible, be it for their personal or business use. We are deploying various distribution channels to help Ringo reach out to its audience,” he added.

Unlike Ringo, Drona HQ has a different approach to its revenue generation.

“Our core proposition to the customers we help them standardize their entire mobility roadmap for the next few years. For example, a company which has 25–30 internal companies has a huge workforce, within every company group they require different apps but if we don’t have standardized approach all employees will continue to build their own apps. Further when an employee

purchases a new phone maybe Android or iphone the life cycle will be vanished. It needs to be upgraded, maintained, compatibility as we have no control over it. We license the enterprise mobility platform – Drona HQ. The basic license allows an enterprise with hosting a set of micro apps that an enterprise needs. They can always buy add-ons to host more and more,” said Jinen Dedhia, Managing Director, Deltecs Infotech.

An e-book and e-magazine application like Rockstand has a different approach to revenue generation. “A fixed percentage of each retail is shared with the publisher. It may vary depending on the type of agreement we have entered into with the respective publisher. Several distribution strategies are in place to promote and distribute the content available on Rockstand. There are affiliates, offers, digital marketing campaigns, etc to distribute contents to the target audience. In some cases, a publisher may suggest a distribution strategy for their respective content. In that case, we run a campaign on the same. However, a user can only read on the application as all the content is hosted on this platform,” revealed Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Rockstand.

An offline app provider like HolidayIQ.com has a different revenue model. “HolidayIQ.com follows the core revenue model. People come to HolidayIQ.com for research but after that if they want to book a hotel or holiday packages, etc, we connect them to people who will give them bookings. Every time we pass a customer to the booking agencies, we get paid,” said Hari Nair, Founder & CEO, HolidayIQ.com.

Popularity of Freemium app model

Freemium model started gaining popularity with the rise in social gaming, and although its usage is still largely dominated by games, it has rapidly started expanding to other categories as well. The success of Freemium model can be judged from the fact that 9 out of 10, and 42 out of the top 50 games in the "Top Grossing Segment" on Android playstore are free to play games, which are generating revenue from Indian consumers on the sale of in-game merchandises. This further

illustrates that, though the consumer is price sensitive, they are not shy of paying for an item (physical or virtual) where they see some value attached to it.

“Indian consumers are opening towards the paid apps. However, the number is expected to rise with the rising subscriber base of 3G services,” stated Yogesh Agarwal, CEO, Applane Solutions

Praveen Rajpal, CEO, Rockstand, added, “While a fairly strong majority of 83 per cent of the top thousand apps on each of the iOS app store and Google Play – monetize via freemium, an even bigger proportion of revenue generated by those top 2,000 apps arrives via freemium, i.e. 92 per cent.To go from being non-existent just five years back to being one of the most widely recognized and spoken about industries requires something special. The applications or app industry has more than its fair share of specials. So, clearly the freemium model is working in India.”

“For good applications, customers are willing to pay. Different revenue models are been explored like click-to-use model which is tied up with the advertisement model. This model is catching up very fast,” said Rajesh Kaul, Co-Founder & CEO, Triotech Solutions Pvt. Ltd.

Kulpreet Kaur, Co-Founder, Shoppirate.in, is of the view, “Trend is changing. People are willing to pay for better apps which give real benefit to them. Mobile users do understand the extra benefits they get with premium apps and are not that hesitant like before. Moreover, the market is flooded with app users who are sensible and intelligent. They understand the value of important apps and thus are willing to pay for premium apps of their choice.”

Bhavin TurakhiaCEO & Founder, Riva (Ringo)

Yogesh AgarwalCEO, Applane Solutions

Rajesh KaulCo-Founder & CEO, Triotech Solutions

Hemant JainCo-Founder, Happy Hours India


Repeating the same view, Hemant Jain, Co-Founder, Happy Hours India, said, “Freemium model has done well with the consumers. Since it follows the classical try-and-buy approach. I am of the view that consumers today are not averse to paying for branded and differentiated – contents and experiences.” He added, “We will soon witness emergence of alternate payment options beyond the standard credit and debit cards. With the growth in smarter access mediums and faster connectivity, consumers are on the lookout for richer experience at their convenience. Hence, I really don't foresee an issue of consumers not being receptive to pay for useful apps.”

Offline Apps – A new trend in industry

Offline apps are an extension of the online app experience. Cloud technology enables real-time sync in the user data. Offline apps are not restricted to the mobile screen but are also extended onto the PC screen, thereby enabling user’s convenience.

“One of our beliefs is that people may go to a numberof places where they will not get

internet connectivity because in India a lot of places are there where internet connectivity has not reached yet. It will be a problem for the people. So, HolidayIQ has launched an app that can work in 1,300 destinations with all information without internet. So, we want to help smartphone users to get information with internet.”

“Our app will work both online and offline. If any person is visiting a place with no internet access, then the user can download information of that particular place before visiting. Then, all the information that is available with HolidayIQ’s server will get downloaded into the smartphone. The user will have full access to that and cannot differentiate between an online and offline app. We have tested it with our users and the acceptance rate is over 90%,” said Hari Nair, Founder & CEO, HolidayIQ.com.

“Offline mode is a good-to-have additional feature to use apps when there is no internet connectivity. With this mode, apps simply allow users to perform certain key/crucial actions, and then as soon as internet connectivity is regained, the offline actions would be synced with the servers. A good example of this would be the Facebook app, that lets you write a post on Facebook, and the post is updated when you are connected to the internet later,” commented Bhavin Turakhia, CEO & Founder, Riva (Ringo).

Though offline apps have some benefits, these have some flaws also. In case of real-time information, a user always needs an internet connection for it. Contradicting the above view, Yogesh Agarwal said, “Offline apps have become the trend because of the added benefits over online app. Firstly, in case of no network connectivity also the apps will work so that the user can get uninterrupted benefits from the app. Also, some of the apps provide

Jinen DedhiaManaging Director, Deltecs Infotech

Hari NairFounder & CEO, HolidayIQ.com.

full functionality in the offline mode also. Secondly, apps in the offline mode consume less power from the battery as compared to online apps.”

But the online apps are not going anywhere. With online apps, one can use navigation services, watch news, transfer money, make purchases, etc. Developers are now making apps that can be used both online and offline.

Expressing similar views, Kulpreet Kaur, Co-Founder, Shoppirate.in, said, “Businesses need to have omnipresence. An offline mobile solution allows a user the ability to run the app regardless of network availability and gives comfort to users to never go offline. It gives an ease of usage and comfort to the users. Definitely, there is more success rate especially in business apps. But at the same time it has its own plus and negative points.”

Finally…All said and done, the smartphone market

has opened up a parallel market for mobile application players. The application market is still at an evolving stage and vast opportunities need to be tapped. n

[email protected]

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Canon MAXIFY iB4070 Canon iB4070 is a single-function printer. It is fitted with two 250-

sheet paper cassettes, facilitating high-volume 500-page print jobs quickly and easily. This printer come with standard yield ink capacities of up to 1,000 pages for black-and-white and 700 pages in color. Optional XL high-yield ink cartridges are available, and these can print up to 2,500 document pages in black-and-white and 1,500 pages in color. Canon has also developed a new Dual Resistant High Density Ink (DRHD) that it says possesses excellent water and marker-resistant properties on plain paper. The new high density black pigment ink not only produces crisp and sharp text, but is also water and marker resistant. Speed-wise, this printer features ISO/IEC 24711-12 print speeds of up to 23 images per minute (ipm) for black-and-white documents, and up to 15ipm for color. It comes with MAXIFY Printing Solutions App, which is available on both iOS and Android platforms. It allows users to enjoy mobile printing on their smartphones or tablets and with MAXIFY Cloud Link, users can print from popular online services for office use, like Dropbox, Google Drive and OneDrive. The user can take Record of use through manage printing cost by conducting simple print accounting. This function tracks printing information for more convenient cost management. The administrator can perform password restrictions for printer settings to protect office confidentiality and reduce printing cost.


FACE TO FACE

Amkette focuses on innovative products The digital lifestyle company, Amkette,

believes in providing its consumers high-quality products at affordable prices. The products are designed in order to complement the needs of the consumers by incorporating the latest technology existing in the market. The products that are created are fashioned on the basis of extensive consumer research and feedback. This helps the company to deliver the best possible products at the lowest possible prices. Rajiv Bapna, Director, Amkette, also mentioned about the company’s R&D centre and it is a R&D-driven company wherein special emphasis is laid on designing and creating the best products for consumers. Its R&D centre is located at Udaipur. The company invests 6% of its revenues to R&D each year.

Trends“For Amkette, 2015 will be all about

wearables, gaming devices, smart TV devices and mobile audio. With affordable innovations as the buzz word in all our product lines, we will offer our consumers cutting-edge innovation and unique products. We are already leaders in smart TV devices and mobile audio devices. In 2015, we will also strengthen our foothold in the car accessory market. Bluetooth devices and smartphone accessories will continue to be our focus area,”

said Rajiv Bapna, Director, Amkette.

ChannelsChannel has always been a critical part

of the company’s retail strategies. It has a strong network of 6,000 channel partners and 200 distributors across 110 cities. The company provides partners with specialized and focussed trainings. Amkette also helps them in their store level promotions, etc. The channel partners have been supportive and with their support and encouragement, the company has witnessed appreciatory sales in 2014 and looks forward to further strengthening the relations with them.

2014 has been the year of transition for e-commerce where price wars, aggressive sales, low margins, quality and warranty were some of the issues. The e-commerce companies are now setting specific margins and discounts. Offline, on the other hand, has a settled and systematic market. The offline sellers offer the buyers a trust value. The after-sales services and on-time issue resolution make the offline market shine. The core focus of the company is to provide innovative products and customized marketing support to channel partners. Amkette believes that both mediums have their own strengths and will witness evolution steadily in their forms.

Future RoadmapAmkette always keeps looking out for

newer avenues to tap consumers and reach out to them through more powerful mediums. The company has recently entered the North-East market. It focusses on the entertainment space currently. The company will be strengthening the product line catering to audio, smart TV and gaming devices in 2015. n

Rajiv BapnaDirector, Amkette


VAR MOBILITY

ASUS Fonepad 7 – FE171CG

LAVA Iris Fuel 10

ASUS Fonepad 7 is an Ultra Slim & Ultra-Light beautifully crafted 7 inch tablet

that features the PixelMaster technology for amazing pictures, the fast and intuitive

Zen UI, a narrow bezel for comfortable hold and ease of use and dual SIM support.

Asus Fonepad 7 packs a 1.2 GHz Intel multi-core processor with Intel Hyper-

Threading technology. With Intel's 2x2 technology inside and 2 GB of RAM, the

Fonepad 7 comes with a 8 MP primary camera and a 0.3 MP secondary camera along

with an enhanced Digital Image and Signal Processing, allowing you to capture in

all lighting conditions with great detail. Powered by Android 4.3 operating system,

the Fonepad 7 can be upgraded to Android 4.4 KitKat for a whole new experience.

Integrated with 3G and Wi-Fi connectivity features, the Fonepad 7 can effortlessly

connect to the internet whether at home or outdoors. The USB and Bluetooth

options allow you to connect to various devices to transfer content without any

hassle. It is a Dual SIM tablet with Dual standby. It is also endowed with INTEL

Clover Trail plus Z2520 1.2GHz Dual Core CPU along with storage capacity of

up to 64GB Micro SD. It comes with 3G embedment, G-sensor and Micro SD/

Micro USB/ 2 x Micro SIM and is available in two basic colors of black and white.

The LAVA Iris Fuel 10 is for consumers who want a high performing smartphone with long lasting battery that lets them utilize the maximum potential of the smartphone and enhance their usage of 3G connectivity. It comes with 3000mAH Li-Polymer battery. The advanced Li-Polymer battery is much more secure as compared to Li-Ion batteries in the market. The super lasting 3000mAh battery offers 14 hours of continuous 3G talk time, 6.5 hours video playback and 60 hours of music playback time using earphones. It offers a 1.3 GHz Mediatek Quad Core Processor for a glitch free smartphone experience along with 1 GB RAM. It exhibits Oncell touch for enhanced functioning. Oncell is better than G+F and G+F+F touch panels and also has a higher accuracy as compared to Normal Touch. LAVA Iris Fuel 10 sports 4.5 inch display with 480 x 854 resolutions and 217 pixels per inch. It also has a 5 MP Rear Auto Focus Camera with BSI+ Sensor and Real LED Flash. It has a 2MP front camera for clicking selfies. A big USP of the smartphone is the Dedicated Selfie Button on the back cover of the smartphone and Voice Controlled Image Capture. Now consumers can just say “Cheese” or “Capture” to take a selfie. This smartphone runs on Android KitKat 4.4 with a guaranteed upgrade to Android Lollipop 5.0 and is 3G enabled. Aimed at capturing the market of mid-level smart phones with high battery needs, Iris Fuel 10 offers complete specifications. Big battery and innovation in camera are coupled with smart looks. On the connectivity front, it supports 3G connectivity, micro USB v2.0, Bluetooth V3.0 and Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g/n). The smartphone has an internal storage of 8GB that can be extended up to 32GB.


PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Gizmobaba GB142 portable speaker

Gizmobaba GB142 is a portable speaker for mobile tablet.

It doesn't require pairing via Bluetooth or the use of

cables or to work. The device amplifies the sound coming from

any device just by being placed next to it. The gadget is so portable

enough that it fits into your laptop bag or purse. You can use it to

listen to music, or for the conference calls. Music is a stress buster

for most of us and everyone wants to listen to his or her music at

home or office to relax and even to play at home or office party.

But the sound of most of the phones is not loud enough. So you

are just left with either buying an external speaker with messy

wires or getting a bluetooth speaker to pair your phone with. To

avoid all this mess, Gizmobaba brings the latest technology gadget

as mobile speakers. It uses the latest induction technology to read

the music waves from your phone or other device and amplifies it

automatically. The Magic Box Gadget works using 3 AA batteries.

It can also be used on 5V USB power (cable included). It has a

3.5mm Audio jack if you need it.

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ISACA spreading Cybersecurity awareness

“We have been talking about information security in the last two years and we have heard a lot about cybersecurity which has been accentuated by global happenings. Organizations have been significantly impacted by cybersecurity attacks – and they are large organizations. So, for the first time, there is a realization among the large organizations and government, which got affected by cybercrime. That is where awareness starts coming in. Talking about India, we do have a lot of cybercrimes that are happening, but the fact is most of it doesn’t get reported anywhere so it is still behind the garbs. But it does not mean there are no threats,” said Rob Stroud, International President, ISACA.

ISACA started as a non-profit global association that helps in spreading cybersecurity awareness across the globe. It has over 115,000 professionals and in India the association has over 6,000 professionals who are a part of ten chapters. Information systems audit, assurance, security, risk and RT governance are the areas of focus for the association. These are the areas where it provides guidance, certification and also provides significant education.

The objective of ISACA is not profit making. It aims to strengthen the community of practitioners, to empower membership so that they can do a better job in an organization, community of knowledge. It also aims to grow the community of practitioners and develop their knowledge in best practices. It develops standards and also provides certifications to the practitioners.

Cybersecurity law in IndiaThe Government of India has done a lot in cybersecurity in the last

two years and come up with a national cybersecurity policy in 2013. It was a major step forward and it is giving importance to cybersecurity. The new government also has done all the set-up mechanism to make it functional and to refine it. With the new initiatives of the Indian Government like Digital India and e-governance project, every individual is considering cybersecurity with importance. Many focussed agencies are also coming and operating in this space. India is certainly on a fast forward track in cybersecurity.

“India was the eighth country in the world to have a strong cyber law. The Information Technology Act of 2000 attaches significance to it. It was based on the United Nations’ IT criminal code. We are among the few nations which are early adopters of it. We started off pretty early, but the enforcement had its problems because it was new to the country. But the amendment of 2008 has brought a significant amount of operational focus into this entire thing and we have a lot of prosecutions happening under the Act. Added to that is the corporate law that has transformed. The 2013 SEBI guidelines got revised and the revised corporate law has brought a whole new perspective into this entire thing that is already there. Adding to it, the Right to Privacy Bill that is waiting to get passed in Parliament will make our cyber law even more strong across the globe,” said Rob Stroud.

ISACA’s association with governments and initiativesCybersecurity is not just a demand coming in from the corporates or

governments, but there is a growing demand from consumers also.

In terms of the cyber space, ISACA is working with the US Government and National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST). Moreover, the association is also working with ENISA in Europe and looks forward to continue similar engagement in other countries also. ISACA also focusses on cybersecurity awareness in the industry.

The other area that the association is focussing on is general awareness. For ISACA, India is a unique opportunity market.

Globally, ISACA recognizes government’s outreach as one of the key focus areas. In India, ISACA has been present since 1986. The first chapter kicked off from Chennai and currently the company has 10 chapters growing into eleventh. With 6,300-plus members, ISACA is operating across 10 chapters presently. When an individual takes up certification from ISACA, the opportunity opens up for those because the courses help them to get placed at some level for the top companies of today. ISACA is recognized by the Reserve Bank of India because RBI mandates SEESA in certain roles like IT Audit etc. Similarly, SEBI and IRDA have also recognized ISACA. CAG are the early adopters of SEESA in India as it holds great importance for its audit of government institutions. COBIT 4.1 is important for IT governance. n

[email protected]

Rob StroudInternational President, ISACA

In today’s connected world where every person is linked through Internet and access to information is just a click away, cybersecurity has gained great

importance. It has become imperative for every individual or organization, whether it is public or private. Security is a cause for concern.


VAR MOBILITY

Fly Mobiles and Snapdeal.com launch devices

OPPO announces availability of R5

Samsung introduces Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge

Spice Mobiles launches latest version of Android Lollipop

Fly Mobiles, in association

with Snapdeal.com has launched its new range of

mobile handsets in India. The UK-based mobile phone brand has unveiled three models in the category of smartphones, viz. Qik+, Qik and Snap. Each of the phones is a perfect amalgamation of smart features and modern technology. These devices will be available to Indian customers only on Snapdeal.com.

Rahul Goel, President, Fly Mobiles, said, “We

have been in the industry for a decade now and are excited about our new range of Octa-core

phones. Fly India will focus on bringing exceptional smartphones from its global portfolio. We believe that the India has huge potential in this category and are confident of

satiating the needs of the smartphone generation.”

Qik+ comes with Mediatek 1.7 GHz Octa-Core Processor, features the next-generation 13MP primary camera and a 5MP front camera. Its vibrant 12.7cm (5”) HD screen with a resolution of 1280x720 pixels (293 pixels per inch) makes HD entertainment come alive. It has a sleek design at 7.8mm.

OPPO has announced exclusive availability of the gilded version of OPPO R5 – the strong ultra-slim 4.85mm smartphone. OPPO R5 Gilded Limited Edition comes with a luxurious gold frame and will be available in the market from today onwards at a price of Rs.29,990/- till stocks last. The smartphone is available across India only through pre-booking, making it a special gift for special occasions.

Tom Lu, CEO, OPPO India, said, “This phone has been developed with the end-user in mind. We used cutting-edge manufacturing techniques to create a phone that fits perfectly into the users’ hands, and that feels incredible. The gold frame has been forged nine times and then finished by hand to give a perfect sheen and feel. It has a quality that is not available anywhere else in the industry. The R5, like the rest of the R series,

delivers a truly stylish, exquisite and distinctive design and will continue to delight our customers with its innovative yet practical functions.”

Measuring 4.85mm in width and weighing 155g, the 4G-enabled R5 is equipped with exceptional technology including an octa-core Qualcomm MSM8939, and comes with a 5.2-inch AMOLED screen giving the highest brightness and colour rendition, the lowest reflection ratio, and highest ambient light contrast ratio available. The R5 also includes OPPO’s VOOC Mini 1.1, through which a 30-minute charge will provide 75% battery life and a five-minute charge will allow for a two-hour call.

Samsung has announced its

redefined smartphones – the Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge. Both Galaxy S6 and S6 edge incorporate enhanced processing power, with Super-fast high- quality loading camera, good charging, Metal Design Appealing. Equipped with an incredible vivid images with fast, bright rear camera, fully embedded with wirelesss charging technology.

The thin and lightweight Galaxy S6 and Galaxy s6 edge integrate the most advanced cutting-edge core technology, easy and protected mobile payment service, etc. Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge are built on the upgraded Samsung

KNOX.Both will offer the

users ultimate experience of smartphones. The Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge will be available globally starting from April 10, 2015 with 32/64/128GB storage options available in White Pearl, Black Sapphire, Gold Platinum, Blue Topaz (Galaxy S6 only) and Green Emerald (Galaxy S6 edge only).

Spice Mobiles has announced

the release of the latest version of Android Lollipop 5.1 for its Dream Uno Android One handsets in India. The Android Lollipop 5.1 update is the latest version of Android operating system and offers a significantly improved smartphone experience with an enhanced visual appeal, user interface and general improvements in system stability.

P r a s h a n t B i n d a l , CEO, Spice Mobility Ltd, said, “In line with our brand promise “Always the latest”, we are delighted to be the first player to release the Android Lollipop 5.1 update, exclusively for our Spice Dream Uno users in India. Android Lollipop 5.1 is the latest version of Lollipop and consists of lots of improvements over Lollipop 5.0, such as an improved battery and

RAM management and smarter notifications, thereby offering our customers an enhanced user experience. In the future as well, we look forward to be the first to offer our consumers the latest technology with our devices.”

The upgrade will be made available to Spice Dream Uno users in batches over the next few days, wherein customers can experience the latest Android version on their smartphones.

Motorola debuts Next-Gen Moto E

Motorola has debuted its next-

generation of Moto E smartphone. It is a new class of smartphone tailored for those looking for a great mobile experience at a price that wouldn’t break the bank.

The new Moto E helps user connect to the world like never before. Available currently in 3G, the product will soon be introduced at 4G LTE speed in India. It comes with a 4.5-inch qHD display, front-facing camera, the latest Android software (Lollipop) and even more customization options. And, for the first time, Motorola has brought personalized software experiences.

The new Moto E

features a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU and advanced graphics. With a 2,390mAh battery, the new Moto E is designed to last a full day.

The new device comes with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a second camera in front, making it perfect for selfies or video calls with family and friends.

With the new Moto E, user can get premium Moto experiences like Moto Display for notifications and updates without interruptions and Moto Migrate to quickly and easily transfer contacts, photos and videos to your new phone.

The 3G version of new Moto E is exclusively available on Flipkart starting at an introductory price of INR 6,999 till the stocks last.

55 www.varindia.com March 2015 ©Copyright 2015 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained herein is subject to change without notice. The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

Intel, the Intel logo, Xeon, and Xeon Inside are trademarks or registered trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.

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56 March 2015 www.varindia.com 56 pages including cover

e-magazine, march 2015 issue

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