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GOOGLE @15
ifteen years is a tiny speck in the context of corporate stalwarts (the likes of IBM, GE and P&G were founded over 100 years Fago). Yet, when it comes to a poster child of the Web such as Google, it is a long period. Curiously, when I searched as to when exactly the search giant turned 15—on Google, of course—the results were a mixed bag, not unlike the results Google throws up when you look for something online. A report on Mashable says Google has celebrated its birthday on different dates over the years (the date this year being Sept. 27). But let us not make a kerfuffle here. Regardless of the exact birth-date, Google has given us enough reasons to celebrate its existence: Gmail, online office apps, maps, YouTube and Android, to name a few. Not that Google was the first to make breakthroughs, nor did it develop everything on its own (it has made over 100 acquisitions). But ENTERING whenever it lent its cute name and rigorous technical patronage to anything under the sun, the gesture met with raves and whistles. The MID-TEENS,THE brickbats were few and far between, as founders Page and Brin walked the corporate tightrope as skillfully as high-wire wizard Philippe Petit COMPANY HAS to stay true to their mantra: Don’t be evil. TRIED ITS HAND Google has tried its hand at several things but it is search that has kept it on top of its game. Growing amazingly fast, Google has AT MANYTHINGS. rendered names like AltaVista, Lycos and Excite either a thing of the past or boring to netizens and investors. Even the software king BUT IT IS SEARCH Microsoft is struggling to make a dent with its re-launched search offering, Bing. THATHAS KEPTIT Google has been so relentlessly focused on “organizing the world’s information” that it has spent lavishly on acquiring anything that ON TOP could help its search business (advertising, driven by search, still accounts for over 95% of revenue). So it bought Motorola for a huge sum—not for the devices but primarily for patents related to Android. It is another matter that industry pundits are still scratching their heads over the true returns from the acquisition. However, given that Android now dominates the smartphone pie with over 79% share, it is but obvious that Google’s search grip continues on mobiles as well. And while its other projects often failed to take off, Google has rarely let that grip slacken. I am mostly happy for Google. But as this brat enters mid-teens and grows in size and sheer dominance, it does look scary to find everything through this single funnel. Because, good intentions apart, consumers must have choices—even in where to look for those choices. Not sure if I’m feeling lucky.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 3 contents
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COVER STORY RE-PLUGGING THE DATA CENTER Data center migration is never a happy IT decision for CIOs. But it can be executed in a hassle-free manner if planned meticulously
BY MEHAK CHAWLA
feature column
SMALL MATTERS 36 Guru Ganesan Small data in embedded intelligence can indeed liberate the Internet of Things as more and more devices plug in USING SOCIAL TECHNOLOGIES 37 By Sumeet Anand and MPS: TOWARD EFFICIENCY BYOD: MANAGING THE S.M. Nafay Kumail How to synergize the corporate A tech alternative for greater print GENERATIONALDIVIDE mind and how not to control and efficiency, Managed Print Service is likely to emerge as It is critical to understand the a favorite with CIOs in tune with nature of the workforce when their mobility, cloud, or organizations formulate and collaboration plans implement Bring Your Own Device policies
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4 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com feature in the news 26 SPEEDING UPTHE » Dassault Systemes CLOUD WITH FLASH 44 releases SolidWorks 2014 product portfolio How flash memory can » ERP9 for BlackBerry comes help accelerate 45 application performance to Tally users and enhance server » Netgear adds two new utilization in cloud products to ReadyNAS family environments » HP announces new security 46 offerings for enterprises
» HCL to provide IT services case study 47 to Anglo American's global operations FOR AROBUSTNETWORK FINDING THE RIGHTFIT » Mindtree launches Gladius, 30 34 a video management software Aircel takes an integrated Muthoot Group overhauls for advanced surveillance its network with help from approach to data Juniper Networks warehousing and BI » Indian service providers top 48 Zinnov's annual GSP Rating 2013 news analysis » Juniper launches production- 49 ready SDN solution » ZyXEL partners with QNAP MICROSOFTIN AFLUX for 10G Ethernet powered 38 With a major restructuring NAS solution underway, and integration » Intel launches its latest Xeon with Nokia in the pipeline, 50 Processors in India the Windows maker is in a state of upheaval interviews
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BOBBYJOSEPH HENRYJOHN SEDDON KENNETH HEE Country Director, Vice President, Director of Business Development - India & Middle East, Plantronics Global Field Marketing, QlikTech Enterprise Security,APAC, Oracle “We are trying to put “Companies need to “Organizations should a lot of software into empower business users focus on howusers access our products” to do analytic reports applications and data” themselves”
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COVER STORY RE-PLUGGING THE DATA CENTER Data center migration is never a happy IT decision for CIOs. But it can be executed in a hassle-free manner if planned meticulously
BY MEHAK CHAWLA
hile we sit back and enjoy our growth for third-party outsourced data much awaited national center market in India by 2017. Quite a bit of holidays every year, there are this growth in the business of independent some IT heads who sit with data centers (IDCs) is expected to come fingers crossed and await the from migrations, either from captives or successfulW migration of their data centers. from other service providers. Almost all CIOs have been there. At some The reasons for rising data center point in time, the data center they have migrations differ from cost efficiency to been relying on is sure to regulatory pressures. Though run out of something – data center migrations have space, power, tolerance. become much simpler than they From there begins the were, they are not without daunting, and often significant complexities. As terrifying, task of 32% Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder CAGR GROWTH RATE migrating a data center. & CEO, CtrlS Datacenters, Migration of a data McKinsey has predicted a 32% observes, “Migrating a data center and all its IT assets CAGR growth for third-party center is much easier today than is a complex and large- outsourced data center market it was few years ago, but it is still scale change in India by 2017 not a decision to be taken lightly management effort, or without careful involving several stakeholders, and consideration. Over the years, we have significant investment and risk. As per learnt many lessons in this area, and this Gartner, the Indian IT infrastructure market has translated into better processes and a is expected to reach US$ 3 billion by 2016. more structured approach to data center McKinsey has predicted a 32% CAGR relocation.”
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EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 9 COVER STORY
However, what a migration certainly may drive organizations to go for data does involve is meticulous planning, center migration,” says Shankaran. Huge extensive testing and a strategy involving underutilized capacity of both servers all partners- right from the networking and storage is also assisting migration managers, to the service provider and the decisions. According to Sunanda Das, end -user. Express Computer looks at Managing Director, Pacnet India, factors encouraging the migration drive, “Enterprises nowadays are increasingly and the challenges that CIOs are most realizing the benefits of IT consolidation likely to face when dealing with a data and virtualization from a cost and center migration. management standpoint, prompting Migrating a data them to consider migrating to modern, center is much Key drivers cloud-enabled data centers. In India, According to Krishna Shankaran, migration to a hosted data center is a easier todaythan it Delivery Manager, Infrastructure growing trend, with larger enterprises Management Services, Infosys, the demanding dedicated co-location was a fewyears primary reasons that compel enterprises services.” ago,but it is to undertake data center migration are Mandar Kulkarni, VP, Solutions business drivers, technology drivers and Engineering and Private Cloud Practice, still not a decision regulatory drivers. Business drivers Netmagic corroborates by saying that to be taken lightly. include things like mergers and currently, “Most of the business that is acquisitions, or the possibility of lowering coming to us is either from greenfield Sridhar Pinnapureddy, TCO by shifting to a new facility. There projects, or from migrations.” Founder & CEO,CtrlS Datacenters are quite a few data centers in India that Apart from these, regulations, are no longer able to keep up with the especially in economies that have power, cooling and efficiency demands of stringent environmental guidelines, are today’s high performance, high-density also triggering migrations from equipment. Lack of upgraded data center inefficient captives to more efficient, facilities, resulting in business hosted data centers. A few disruptions, is making a strong case for companies/countries’ regulations may data center migrations. demand a disaster recovery strategy, as a When it comes to technology drivers, result of which organizations may need to the technologies that are compelling go for migrations. CIOs to evaluate migration are These drivers have also sparked virtualization and cloud. “With the another trend in the data center space. advent of cloud computing and a growth They have compelled many enterprises, in consolidation requirements, there is a that typically prefer to own a captive data growing trend amongst today’s center in the interest of security, to businesses, with upwards of 53% of seriously consider the hosting option. companies, planning either data center Also, since third party data center re-locations or consolidation of some providers are able to bring significant kind within the next two years. Two value to clients with varying compute disruptive technologies impacting the workloads, the proposition of migration future of data centers are virtualization has become more attractive than ever Two disruptive and cloud computing, elaborates before. This level of flexibility can be a technologies Deepinder Bedi, Executive Director, major benefit for smaller organizations. Tulip Telecom. Some of the smaller, internet-centric impacting the “Moving dedicated applications to organizations are actively exercising this future of data cloud or even modernizing applications option. As Kulkarni mentions, “When a centers are virtualization and An enterprise must engage with a strategic partner in a migration cloud computing. scenario,because a data center migration requires meticulous Deepinder Bedi, Executive Director,Tulip Telecom planning.Aplanning cycle can be as long as 3 months
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CIO CHECKLISTFOR DATA CENTER MIGRATION
● Develop an inventory: In the process of a move,it’s easy for items to get mislabeled,misplaced or lost,delaying the process of getting new data center up and running.Before the move,it is essential to develop a detailed inventory of all the data center hardware and software. ● Schedule the move: An efficient relocation minimizes the downtime of the business-critical systems. When organizations choose a target date for the move,they must be sure to determine the allowable downtime for the business-critical systems,and prioritize the equipment and applications that must be up and running first. ● Choose a relocation specialist: Hiring a single relocation company to handle your entire data center captive data center runs out of capacity and manageability that comes with the move which can provide you with and becomes inefficient from a cost cloud infrastructure in terms of workload comprehensive planning,technical perspective, enterprises often evaluate provisioning on demand, without the skills and best practices required migrating to a third party data center.” need of buying too much new hardware is to achieve a successful,incident- driving migrations.” However, an free data center move. Migration options enterprise must engage with a strategic Data migration, in today’s virtual world, partner in a migration scenario, because ● Develop a budget: Develop a can be of two types – physically moving a data center migration requires realistic budget for the move, hardware to a new location or moving meticulous planning. A planning cycle analyze the total weight,transit data to a different data center. Either can be as long as 3 months, Goradia time,mileage,insurance,labor and ways, it is critically important to ensure cautions. other factors that will affect your aspects like security, business continuity Kulkarni of Netmagic elucidates the budget. and minimum downtime. So, what are the three key approaches to data center ● Inspection of new site:To avoid options available to an IT head, once he migrations. The first is the big bang unpleasant surprises,CIOs should has decided to undertake data center approach. Here, the enterprise identifies inspect the new site to verify that migration? a lean period (like a national holiday) and the utilities,network,cabling and According to Nilesh Goradia, Head, migrates the entire data center in that other infrastructure components Pre-Sales, India Subcontinent, Citrix, limited window. It works for small to meet the requirements. “Most of the migrations are happening medium data centers with 20-30 racks. from captives to IDCs or to a hybrid “It’s a quick method but requires ● Perform and verify backups: It model using bridging technologies. In extensive planning”, advices Kulkarni. is very important to ensure a plan such a scenario, application workload can The second approach is big bang for backing up and storing the data pan across both data centers.” He goes on combined with disaster recovery. Here, in a secure location while the move to add that a migration scenario might be the enterprise brings their disaster takes place.Once a backup is a good time to upgrade technology as well recovery (DR) site in play during the performed,the transferred data as evaluate what cloud model is best migration to avoid outage and still serve should be verified to check if it is suited for your organization. “Efficiency customers while the data center is in complete and uncorrupted.
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For us,it wasn’t only movement; we also decided to optimize our data center during this migration process. SriRama Evani, Principal Director & Head - IT Services,DSTIndia
transit. Large organizations that cannot complexities involved in moving a data sustain downtime and have a functional center — labeling, legacy apps, Unix DR, adopt this method. The third machines that haven’t been restarted in approach is the bubble set up. This years and security in transit, involves creating a small network bubble organizations are now opting for and moving apps in a phased manner. migration services that most of the IDCs Though bubble set-up is the costliest provide. Cost of these services is usually option out of these three, Kulkarni on per rack+manageability basis. reveals that enterprises are using it for their mission critical apps. “Sometimes, Orchestrating a migration strategy customers end up using a blended If there is a unanimous view on data approach . Bubble set up is the costlier center migration that is shared by the option but it is available on a pay per use vendors and IT heads alike, it is the model. Big bang is the most widely used emphasis on planning, rather than actual We consolidated approach. BFSI is the sector that is doing execution. The one thing that IT heads from five enterprise big bang with DR,” he explains. must be prepared for is numerous hidden Another trend that is catching up, and complexities. They are sure to run into owned data centers coming in handy for mid-sized legacy apps, a broken hardwired IP organizations, is data center migration- address, Unix machines, archaic to a co-location as-a-service. Since there are quite some mainframes and countless networking hosted data center with a Since there are quite some complexities involved in moving a data service provider. center,organizations are nowopting for migration services that Arun Gupta, CIO,Cipla most of the IDCs provide
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issues. Data center migration, say properly, there is always the risk of experts, is all about delving into detail. crippling outages. Lead time required to Das of Pacnet illustrates some DC MIGRATION BEST procure new equipment and getting unforeseen complications that might support on older/legacy equipment is arise during data center transition. PRACTICES another key challenge.” “Migration often also requires the use of Security is definitely one of the key cross-platform technologies, some of concerns that makes enterprises hesitant Adata center migration is a which are untested and can potentially about migrating from traditional data fresh start and a great opportunity affect the speed and efficiency of centers to virtual data centers and cloud. to bring in some best practices migration. Factors like this should be Many a time, organizations are not fully accounted for in the planning stages ● Plan for scalability: Establish aware of all the applications currently in itself.” requirements that will give you a use. If critical applications are not Arun Gupta, CIO, Cipla shares his glide path for the next two life properly identified and assessed prior to migration experience and the planning it cycles of technology — six plus the migration, there is a serious risk of entailed. “We consolidated from five years. data loss, leading to downtime. It is enterprise owned data centers to a co- necessary to ensure proper backups are location, hosted data center with a ● Look at the layout: Data center in place before migrating the data. service provider. Planning meticulously migration is a great time to plan SriRama Evani, Principal Director & to cover each and every step and its the layout instead of placing Head , IT Services, DST India, runs us impact, should any step not work, was hardware in an ad-hoc manner. through his experience of migrating a critical towards successful transition. We Place the server and storage data center as a result of a shift in office went over the plan many times, each time assets where they are going to location. “For us, it wasn’t only refining it before execution. A team of 20 make the most sense. movement, we also decided to optimize people worked for over 48 hours to ● Do one time cabling: That goes our data center during this migration achieve the migration successfully.” for electrical branch circuits as process. We wanted to do virtualization Any data center migration strategy well as telecommunications and bring in cost efficiencies in our should work in three parts, believes cabling.Make sure that you have captive data center, while also expanding Ashok Shenoy, Regional Manager, Cloud branch circuits pulled to all future from a scalability perspective. The key to and Data Center Sales, Cisco India & cabinet locations. data center migration is planning and SAARC. The first part is orchestrating designing. We took almost 2 months to the complex move of mission-critical data ● Create a fresh inventory: plan our pre-migration activities. The center assets from one site to another. Everything that goes in the data migration was done by our own IT team, The second step involves ensuring center should be documented in since we have senior people who have business continuity, maintaining the Configuration Management handled data center migrations before.” application performance and availability, Database (CMDB) with an owner According to Evani, factors to be and delivering operational service levels and notations about critical considered in a migration scenario throughout the physical move, with little business process dependencies. include data security, business continuity or no of error for costly, unplanned Don’t leave anything for later. and disaster recovery. “Also, retrieving service outages. The final part deals with ● Bring in standard processes: data from backups becomes crucial. growing the investment value of the data Let your data center build out be Another typical challenge is combining center by evolving data center strategy to an excuse to bring in virtualization with migration. A lot of meet business objectives. standardization in data center licensing issues come up. We migrated Other aspects that need to figure in a activities about 20 racks in a phased manner.” migration strategy are availability of Major challenges from a service expertise, appropriate and timely provider perspective are to convince communication with the end-user, customers, since migration is never a application delivery optimization, and happy IT decision. Also, the window is proper testing for things like load often too small. Hardware failures are balancers and optimizers to see if they are another problem, and the service compatible with the new hardware provider has to ensure that all machines models. Shankaran of Infosys points out are rebooted well in advance. another challenge that CIOs might face. “Managing application to application or Post migration blues application to infrastructure inter- So you have just completed your data dependencies is a key challenge during center migration. But can you claim it to data center migration. If this is not done be successful yet? Well, a migration is
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 13 COVER STORY
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Most of the business that is coming to us is either from greenfield projects or from migrations. Mandar Kulkarni, VP,Solutions Engineering and Private Cloud Practice,Netmagic
During the migration almost identical to setting up a data technique where a strong set of magnetic process,ITheads center from scratch. As a result, there is fields are passed over the hard disks to must be prepared for much post-migration work to be done. IT ensure that the old data can never be heads not only need to justify the recovered, and finally sanitizing, which numerous hidden migration investment, but also grow it to involves overwriting the disks completely improve TCO and RoI of the new data with junk data to ensure that none of the complexities.Theyare center. old data can be recovered from it. “There Upon completion of the data center are certified tools available in the market sure to run into legacy migration, it is imperative to take one that enable complete sanitization of additional step: the incorporation of disks,” he explains. apps,a broken knowledge, updated processes, Apart from ensuring data security, hardwired IPaddress, procedures and documentation into the there are several tests to be run, normal support structure of the IT applications to be optimized, network Unixmachines, infrastructure. Post the migration, it is loops that need to be corrected and cloud also important to ensure that no traces of strategies and protocols to be archaic mainframes data are left behind in the old servers. implemented. So the CIO’s work doesn’t The three most effective ways to do this, really end with infrastructure migration. and countless according to Pinnapureddy are: physical It actually begins from there. destruction of the hard disks on which networking issues the data was stored, degaussing, a [email protected]
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FEATURE MANAGED PRINTING » MPS: TOWARD EFFICIENCY Currently a tech alternative for greater print control and efficiency, Managed Print Service is likely to emerge as a favorite with CIOs in tune with their mobility, cloud, or collaboration plans
BY HEENA JHINGAN
lmost every enterprise today There definitely is logic behind that. believe, defining MPS can be a confusing swears by services. The CIOs are Managed Print Service has evolved way journey and trying to understand all busy hunting the best from a beyond the concept of cost per copy (cpc) MPS functionalities can be just as Aplethora of offerings available “as or providing an assessment to right size daunting. A section of the industry a service”— be it software, video, storage the fleet. Most Managed Print Services describes it as an end-to-end system or platform. In some IT savvy enterprise (MPS) today entail the outsourcing of designed to manage an organization’s alcoves, the commonly known Managed the fleet and document strategy to entire document output infrastructure Print Service offering is already being ensure the customer’s business process by streamlining supply channels, referred to as Printing as a Services. optimization goals are met. Experts equipment acquisitions, maintenance
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support and establishing rules based reduce print bills. Having witnessed the expects it to grow to about Rs. 1350 crore workflows. scope, more and more enterprises tend by 2015. According to the Ernst & Young In any form, the key drivers for the to partner with large solution providers report, BFSI and telecom, being early uptake of MPS are cost reduction and to simplify, better manage, and reduce adopters, are expected to continue to be improving efficiency by rationalizing the the cost of their print infrastructure. the dominant spenders of MPS in years print environment, which most Indian Vishal Awal, Executive Director, to come. Contribution of manufacturing enterprises at present desperately need. Services, Xerox South Asia quotes an including automobile, FMCG is expected The market has lately seen enterprises Ernst & Young report that pegs the to increase slightly by 2014 from current in India using MPS to identify waste and Indian MPS market Rs. 430 crore and 20-22%.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 17 FEATURE MANAGED PRINTING »
MPS includes consultancy,on site manpower, management of access rights.It encompasses various core and non-core activities. V.Balakrishnan, Executive General Manager- Market Sales,Konika Minolta
The report finds that the contribution companies. According to research firm from healthcare and energy and utilities Gartner, the first quarter of 2013, the sector is currently low owing to the low combined serial inkjet and page printer, level of privatization of these sectors. copier and multifunction product (MFP) Verticals like media and entertainment, market in India, saw a 8.9% decrease travel, transportation, hospitality and from the first quarter of 2012. The report CIOs have become logistics, construction and real estate, finds that the total end user spending on government and education are currently printing remained almost flat, verysensitive to less than 3-4 % and are likely to remain witnessing a fall of 1%. In the face of such low in the coming years. a situation of depleting revenues, the secure printing,as On the vendor side, the Indian MPS vendors have no choice, but to supplant theyrealize that stage is currently well populated not only their traditional print business model by OEMs such as HP, Canon, Lexmark with a services and software strategy, one of the obvious etc and System Integrators like HCL, but one that will provide better margins and also with managed service providers led arguably tighter, longer relationships sources of by IT and copier resellers. As the MPS- with clients. information edge is slowly cutting through skeptical Seeing a gap where customers mindsets, apprehension is giving way to demanded a product plus service, with leakage is hard an increased awareness and buy-in of the customization for their individual needs, copies. potential customer base. Xerox from being a pure products Analysts see a major push of these company ventured into the managed Nitin Hiranandani, services coming from the fundamental services space. At present, services Director - Printing,PPS,HPIndia shift — shrinking printing spends of the account for 50% of its revenues. Another
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key player in the space, Canon expects to Typically every MPS customer is garner Rs 100 crore in sales and service highly customized, notes V. INDIAN MPS revenue this year from its managed Balakrishnan, Executive General document services business in India Manager- Market Sales, Konika Minolta, MARKET IN NUMBERS alone. a relatively new player in the Indian MPS space. Decoding MPS As Balakrishnan puts it, MPS, for ` 430 Cr Nitin Hiranandani, Director - Printing, them includes consultancy, on site (2013) PPS, HP India explains that vendors manpower, management of access rights. could have different offerings depending It encompasses various core and non- on their strengths. core activities, there could be over 60 “We have a three pillar MPS strategy odd services under the fold. — optimize infrastructure, manage the In India, there have been some environment and improve workflows. pioneering enterprises that have taken Optimizing infra is about devices or the the lead to embrace MPS. Xerox India hardware, involves looking at the boasts of clients like Vodafone, Cisco and number of devices vs number of users, Standard Charted Bank. However, for volumes of prints, what kind of printers vendors it still a learning period as to — mono or colour, A3 vs A4 etc, which we what customers want. It is still a phase enable by our software called the where both vendors and CIOs are WebJetadmin, that can be deployed on experimenting with how to leverage the ` 1,350 Cr (expected in 2015) the network of the customer and through service to its best. that the customer can look at all the print data,” he says. The print strategy He adds, the second important leg is At present, most CIOs are focused at about managing the print environment attaining greater efficiency at lower enabled by security and job accounting capex and incorporating basic security solutions. “A secure print environment and management tools that allow has become a standard discussion in retrieving prints anywhere on the every enterprise. CIOs have become very network. Going forward, organizations % sensitive to secure printing, as they will be compelled to take a holistic 50ATPRESENT,SERVICES ACCOUNTFOR realize that one of the obvious sources of approach that factors MPS into their 50% OFREVENUE FOR XEROX information leakage is hard copies. over all workspace strategy and ensure Besides, this has a dual advantage of that this is tied to their mobility, cloud, or green. You are actually cutting cost and social business and collaboration carbon footprint. It is a win-win all agenda. through. Finally, it is about improving Experts believe such a workflows.” comprehensive approach will become more prevalent as enterprise business and IT decision makers will start looking cr `100REVENUE IN SALES AND SERVICE beyond siloed elements of their EXPECTED BYCANON THIS YEAR organization to see the bigger ecosystem and how it needs to flourish to create productive, future-proof workspaces for their resources. Rajesh Uppal, CIO at India’s top car maker Maruti Suzuki, feels the IT heads of his league shouldn’t be spending their IT energy on printing and the entire activity should be outsourced. “It makes sense to outsource the entire process if that can bring greater efficiency and cost savings. From our association with Canon, we are looking at cutting printing cost by over 20% and at the same time improving employee
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 19 FEATURE MANAGED PRINTING »
device ratio from 2:1 to 6:1,” he says. Ranjit Satyanath, Customer Care Another first mover in MPS space, Associate & Senior General Manager, Yes Bank has been a believer in Solutions & Technology, Shoppers Stop outsourcing of non-core activities, Suren explains that if printing is down it affects Shetty, Senior President & CIO says they their communication with the outsource every bit of IT that is customers. commoditized. Since the bank was using He says, “With dependency on these different devices across branches and printers increasing, it became a operating centers, the system lacked challenge for our in-store FMS people to standardization. The IT team would manage the expectation from the user spend a considerable amount of time teams. We currently use HP’s MPS only It makes sense to keeping track of the annual maintenance for device management for our 65 stores outsource the entire contracts, re-order quantities, and and four warehouses across 13 cities. We tracing consumables like toners and may at an opportune time consider using process if that can cartridges. it in other areas as well.” bring greater “Technology in the domain of printing Like any other new change in the is fairly standardized. It is the service that system, MPS too can be difficult to adapt efficiencyand makes all the difference,” says Shetty. to. The role of an effective change The strategy was two fold to save manager is critical to keep the ball cost saving. capital and bring in smooth efficiency. rolling. Balakrishnan observes that Rajesh Uppal, Shetty elaborates, “ We decided to under efficient change manager, the rate CIO,Maruti Suzuki deploy Canon Multifunction Printers of success of the project can go up by at coupled with a managed document least 5%. In Maruti’s case, they chose to services contract. We deployed entry- take the lead as change managers. level MFDs at the branches that house A positive development here is the fewer employees and opted for the mid fact that the SMBs in India are also and high-range MFDs for the corporate waking up to the importance of MPS. A offices. This helped us save capital report by AMI Partner notes that 18% of expenditure we would otherwise have these organizations are now using incurred. Under this rental business managed printing and publishing model of five years for all the MFDs, services. The study shows that at Canon will manage all the printing present, SMBs are not really interested services, including consumables, on a in using device management per-click model.” infrastructure or workflow management For real estate developer BPTP that and mainly gravitate toward printing handles global accounts like Merrill done on pay-per-page basis. Lynch, confidentiality of information was Industry watchers feels that it is a bigger challenge than management of going to be interesting to see how OEM the devices. They had to manage the vendors will break the MPS maze for volumes and keep them confidential as India’s SMB space. Currently, quite a lot some of the prints were value documents of the print-jobs of these SMBs actually like the government issued stamp go to the unorganized, so called Print papers. In such a situation, it is always Jobbers (neighborhood print shops that The talks with better to have an audit trail on the provide printing or copying services). company’s print, scan and copy There is definitely a latent demand for SMBs are now activities. “print-solution-in-a-box” concept. There Letting users authenticate and are certain “specialization” not focused on retrieve print jobs, helps maintain opportunities where each Jobber may just printing SLAs, confidentiality and reduces wastage. address different SMB customer Reports can be generated to have a segments that include architects, but on service transparency about who prints what. planners, educational institutions etc. SLAs as well. Conversely, for industries like retail, The SMBs also might not be have the where documentation does not happen budget for sophisticated solutions. Bhaskar Joshi, at a very large scale, print demand is Interestingly, Bhaskar Joshi, Head Head,Marketing - Office Imaging mostly for purposes like in-store signage, Marketing - Office Imaging Solutions Solutions Division,Canon India billing etc. Division, Canon India points out, “The
20 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
Technologyin the domain of printing is fairly standardized.It is the service that makes all the difference. Suren Shetty, The growth of digital communications is reshaping the print Senior President & CIO,Yes Bank market,and is impacting the use of print and production methods used to deliver it talks with SMBs are now not focused on reprographics department (CRD) awaits just printing SLAs, but on service SLAs a big makeover. The growth of digital as well. These customers are looking at communications is reshaping the print print control at a cheaper price point.” market, and is impacting the use of print and production methods used to deliver Printing the future it. These changes are creating The Indian chapter of the MPS story is opportunities for print rooms not only to still being developed. Several factors like win business from outsourced print cost benchmarks, poor understanding of providers but also to redefine their role benefits of the offering have been within the enterprise. keeping the demand low. The vendors Increasingly, organizations are using too are grappling to provide support in the latest workflow technology to deliver tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Stringent SLAs, on demand printing services like web-to- under such situations become print technology that enables print impossible to deliver. The Indian PSUs rooms to streamline their print orders have traditionally been a tough segment through an online portal. Web-to-print If printing is down, to crack due their decentralized solutions are now inching closer to operations and procurement marketing asset management tools it affects our procedures. More importantly, the offering even greater functionality such communication segment’s inherent resistance to change as, allowing users to select pre-approved has kept this segment quite passive to marketing materials such as brochures with the the trend. and customizing them online using The global market has become design templates. Needless to say, the customers. attuned to the trend. Canon’s Joshi sees a next couple of years will see significant Ranjit Satyanath, revolution in the making in the printing developments for print rooms. Customer Care Associate & Senior space. He says that the traditional in- General Manager,Solutions & house print room or central [email protected] Technology,Shoppers Stop
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 21 FEATURE MOBILITY » BYOD: Managing the Generational Divide It is critical to understand the nature of the workforce when organizations formulate and implement Bring Your Own Device policies
BY SCOTT ROBERTSON
22 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
e are a society that knows no bounds. Technology has propelled us into a state of omnipresence and an intense Wdesire for omniscience via channels such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and a plethora of other social media. The rise in the number of millennials entering the workforce – the first of whom have now reached their 30s – is already posing a challenge to traditional work practices. These gen Y folks, representing one of the fastest growing segments in today’s workforce, have been exposed to a rapid evolution in technology as they grew up. The next generation, known as the pluralists or gen Z, is also coming of age; and it’s not unusual for these kids to be reading e- books on Kindles at primary school. Baby boomers and those belonging to gen X are trying to keep their feet on the ground amidst the technology explosion and learning to understand the ways of the next generation. Given this state of play, it is critical to understand the nature of the workforce when organizations formulate and implement BYOD policies. The main dilemma that security experts are now facing is how to implement a long term BYOD strategy in line with strategic business priorities when competition for acquisition and retention of talent is fierce. According to Gartner, CIOs in 2013 have rated ‘mobile technologies’ as the number 2 most important technology priority. This coupled with their business priorities that include ‘reducing enterprise costs’ and ‘attracting and retaining the workforce’ at number 7 and 8 respectively, proves how critical it is for them to implement BYOD policies that work in their favor with minimal risks for security breaches while achieving their business and technology objectives. However, this wish list is a double-edged sword that requires careful planning after undertaking a thorough audit of their workforce demographics. We have entered an era where presidential campaigns are won and lost based on the market segmentation and strategic use of social media and its reach. A blanket BYOD policy that enforces a ‘one size fits all’ edict by blocking or limiting access to social media or Internet is not going to win an organization talent, let alone loyalty. Any policy that sounds like a Biblical commandment of ‘thou shalt not’ will be resisted by the tech-happy millennials who are profiled as outspoken and very comfortable with the prospect of changing
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 23 FEATURE MOBILITY »
www.expresscomputeronline.com many jobs before they settle into the one Create a secure ecosystem they like. Consumerization of IT is real and BYOD policies are not going to work in it’s not only here to stay, but grow both in isolation. Creating a secure ecosystem will size and scope. So how can an organization ensure that all entry points in an manage the generational divide when organization are secure and the risk of creating BYOD policies? breaches is mitigated. Some recommendations to create this Treat them like adults ecosystem are: The old adage of ‘you reap what you sow’ is extremely pertinent in this case. Never ■ Use scalable security solutions that lose sight of the human element when allow an organization to easily develop and setting policies. The gen Yers are adults amend policies and layers of security to and have been for some time and expect to suit the changing workforce be treated as such. They are desperate to demographics is critical. make their mark in this world. Before any ■ Most security breaches are due to policies are designed and enforced, it is poor configuration of firewalls that are therefore important to consider getting too complicated. Solutions that allow the employees involved in the process to Ablanket BYOD policy quick and easy segmentation of networks gain their buy-in. Unlike the gen Xers who make the job less taxing for IT are independent and self-sufficient and that enforces a ‘one administrators. used to enforcement of policies, the gen ■ With the VPN capabilities of a security Yers like to be involved in solving the size fits all’edict by solution, administrators can enforce world’s problems. In making them feel like acceptable use policies for mobile, remote they are a part of the solution rather than blocking or limiting and road warriors who need to access cause of all the issues, organizations have a corporate data anytime, anywhere. These better chance of gaining their access to social media controls even protect users in the most commitment to safer BYOD practices and or Internet is not hostile environments, such as hotels and ensure compliance sustainability. public Wi-Fi hotspots. going to win an ■ Security solutions with application Support social media control and web surfing controls also Social media facilitates knowledge sharing organization talent, makes it easy for IT to setup and and expansion of networks. Most gen Yers, administer policies around acceptable and even gen Xers now for that matter, rely let alone loyalty and unacceptable web surfing activities. on industry updates via Twitter and Since such services reside at the gateway, LinkedIn news feeds. Social media is a they are agnostic to the type of device great vehicle to promote a company’s responsible for the management and well- that an employee brings in. Therefore, brand name as pure word of mouth that is being of their device if IT does not support safe web surfing practices can always be always perceived much more favorably by it. Once in place, communicate these enforced. the public, than cash for comment. Hence, policies regularly to employees as short, BYOD is only going to become more do not immediately assume that use of sharp and interesting messages so they prevalent with the changing workforce Facebook or other social media are aware of the real risks of a breach. and the ‘new normal’ of the accepted applications means that employees are work patterns. With it, come new sets of wasting their time. Instead, it is much Tailor your AUP challenges and opportunities for better to review and examine the nature of Developing an acceptable use policy businesses as well as their IT the applications traversing the network (AUP) that is meticulously customized to a departments. This means that a BYOD before making any draconian moves that particular organization is important. Off- strategy that is flexible, agile, cross could grind productivity to a halt. the-shelf solutions will only cause long- generational and ‘human’ is critical for term compliance issues and success and data security. As part of a Keep it simple and keep it real complications. Once in place, ensure that strong BYOD strategy, having well- No one likes to read long laborious the policies are applied to a segmented designed policies and end user documents. IT should focus on policy to network. Sensitive data should always agreements in place will be key as long as “keep BYOD simple.” The policy should be reside on a different network than that an organization has the employee buy-in clear with a list of acceptable devices and which is open to guests, contractors or and understands its generational divide. operating systems that can be supported. other non-employees. With a segmented Tech-savvy employees can then utilize network, IT can apply one set of policies Scott Robertson is Vice President - Asia Pacific, what they like, knowing that they are for employees and another set for guests. WatchGuard Technologies.
24 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013
FEATURE STORAGE » up SPEEDING THE CLOUD WITH FLASH
he rapid increase in processor causing transactions to stall and servers With low latency performance and the deployment of to be under-utilized—a dynamic that has and reduced power highly virtualized data centers has now made I/O latency the primary Tplaced increasing stress on limiting factor in server storage consumption, flash conventional storage to the point that it is performance. now often the main bottleneck to This shift has renewed the focus on memory can help application performance, and just as the enormous I/O latency gap between a importantly, to server utilization. Flash server’s memory and hard disk drive accelerate application memory, with its low latency and reduced (HDD) storage: 100 nanoseconds versus performance and power consumption, holds the key to 10 milliseconds, respectively—a accelerating application performance and difference of five orders of magnitude. enhance server utilization increasing server utilization As with I/O to a storage area network (SAN) or anything new, flash was initially network-attached storage (NAS) is even in cloud environments considered risky by cautious IT managers higher, owing to the intervening Fiber who believed it would be difficult or Channel or Ethernet network, which disruptive to deploy. Success by early also frequently becomes congested with adopters is now changing that view. deep I/O queues waiting to be serviced. BY GREG HUFF Flash memory breaks through the Breaking through the storage bottleneck caused by storage latency by bottleneck bridging the gap between main memory Multi-core processors and virtualized, and even the fastest-spinning, shortest- multi-processor servers have stroked HDDs. Whether deployed as a dramatically improved server storage solid state drive (SSD), or as an adapter, input/output (I/O) rates, while flash can accelerate application and bandwidth and I/O operations per workload performance up to 30-fold, an second (IOPs), the preferred metrics for increase that improves server assessing and improving storage utilization. performance, have increased to surpass 200,000 to 250,000 IOPs for common Direct-attached solid state storage workloads. The problem is that most The closer the data is to the processor, databases and other applications with the better the performance. This is why heavy I/O processing require writes to applications requiring high performance storage to complete before continuing, normally use direct-attached storage
26 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
(DAS). With a typical SSD read latency of about 200 microseconds and write latencies often around 100 microseconds, using SSDs to supplement or replace HDDs can substantially improve application performance. And because SSDs have the same connectors and host interfaces as HDDs, they can be deployed seamlessly in standard server storage bays, or other external or internal configurations. Even the logical unit number (LUN) assignments can remain unchanged. Although both Serial ATA (SATA) and Serial-Attached SCSI (SAS) SSDs can be used for DAS, SAS is the better choice for higher performance. While some applications can saturate the bandwidth of existing SAS SSDs, which operate at 6 Gb/s, 12 Gb/s SAS drives are now becoming available. And dual active/active interfaces hold the potential for 24 Gb/s SAS. By contrast, SATA drives, which target client devices, operate only at 3 Gb/s or 6 Gb/s with no roadmap for higher throughput. Another option is to put the flash memory directly on the Peripheral Component Interconnect Express (PCIe) bus. Current PCIe cards consume up to 25 Watts of power (versus the 9 Watts in a storage bay), enabling higher flash Whether deployed as a solid state drive (SSD),or as an adapter, performance at higher capacities, and flash can accelerate application and workload performance up to have more lanes for higher throughput (8 versus the 1 or 2 in a storage bay). 30-fold,an increase that improves server utilization A new class of products has emerged that integrates flash caching directly into Deploying an all solid state Tier 0 for utilization, reducing the number of PCIe-based RAID controller cards. The some applications is now even feasible. servers and associated software licenses cards have no extra cables or drive bays Decisions about using flash for a and service contracts required to for SSDs, or LUNs or mount points. Hot, particular application typically focus only accommodate the same application or frequently accessed, data is the storage layer, pitting HDDs against workload. In some cases, SSDs can automatically recognized and stored in SSDs with an emphasis on the capital reduce other system-related costs 5 to 10 flash on the card, while cool data is expenditure. But a look at the application times while delivering a better user automatically migrated to HDDs layer reveals that SSDs often reduce total experience. attached to the RAID controller, usually cost of ownership despite their higher up- improving application performance and front cost. Flash cache acceleration for SAN server workloads 4- to 5-fold. Solid state storage is more reliable, and NAS Additionally, these controllers easier to manage, faster to replicate and With flash memory capacity far dramatically accelerate rebuild time, and rebuild, and consumes less power than exceeding what is possible with Dynamic maintain performance in the event of a HDDs—advantages that make it easier to RAM (terabytes versus gigabytes), flash hard disk failure. These plug-in devices satisfy service-level agreements and caching has become a highly effective and enable simple upgrades and promise to avoid penalties for falling below cost-effective way to accelerate be the most transparent, least disruptive acceptable service levels. And just as performance and improve virtualized way to accelerate applications and importantly, the superior performance of server utilization. Flash memory is also workloads. SSDs produces far higher server non-volatile, another important
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 27 FEATURE STORAGE »
www.expresscomputeronline.com
advantage in a cache for write operations. Like DAS, flash cache typically MEMORY / STORAGE GAP delivers the highest performance when deployed directly in the server on the Processor PCIe bus. Intelligent caching software places hot data in the low-latency flash cache, a process that is transparent to L1 Cache 1 ns applications. With no external connections and no intervening network to a SAN or NAS, the hot data is quickly L2 Cache 10 ns accessible. And even though flash memory has a higher latency than DRAM, flash delivers superior performance Main Memory 100 ns because its significantly higher capacity dramatically increases the cache hit rate. Holding an application’s entire working dataset in the flash cache is even Latency Penalty for becoming commonplace. leaving Memory Efforts are also underway to virtualize “100,000x flash cache, in effect making it a pooled Hierarchy resource like virtualized servers and SANs. Moving an application to another virtual machine (VM) currently requires T1 Storage 10,000,000ns (10ms) copying the cache to the new host. With virtualized flash cache, these moves will be immediate and transparent. T2 Storage 20,000,000ns (20ms) Emerging Express standards PCIe flash adapters deliver exceptional Near Line >20,000,000ns (>20ms) application performance but lack standardization and critical storage device attributes like external Flash memory fills the void in both latency and capacity between main memory and fast-spinning serviceability. These limitations will begin hard disk drives. to disappear starting in 2013 with the advent of new standards optimized for flash. Support for the PCIe interface on an and SATA drives. And support for new to do more work with less infrastructure, externally accessible storage midplane SATA Express (SATAe) and SCSI and the number of applications are will use a new Express Bay standard with Express (SCSIe) SSDs will also be growing fast as datacenter managers see a new storage form factor SFF-8639 provided in standard bays by the growing ROI flash delivers. For most connector. The Express Bay provides four multiplexing the PCIe protocols atop users, the best practice is to continue dedicated PCIe lanes and up to 25 Watts of existing SAS/SATA lanes. using HDDs for their high capacity and power to accommodate ultra-high Will flash ever completely replace low cost, while beginning to integrate performance, high-capacity enterprise traditional spinning media? Not any time flash where the additional performance SSDs in 2.5- or 3.5-inch drive form factors. soon, as there is no real advantage to is required and the benefits outweigh Because the Express Bay is a superset using SSDs in slower storage tiers or for the higher initial cost. of and can coexist with standard drive bulk data storage. But in the fastest tiers, bays, this evolutionary enhancement flash is already delivering substantial Greg Huff is Senior Vice President of Corporate assures compatibility with existing SAS benefits, freeing servers and applications Strategy for LSI.
Even though flash memoryhas a higher latencythan DRAM,flash delivers superior performance because its significantlyhigher capacitydramaticallyincreases the cache hit rate.Holding an application’s entire working dataset in the flash cache is even becoming commonplace
28 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 INTERVIEW www.expresscomputeronline.com BOBBY JOSEPH Bobby Joseph, Country Director, India & Middle East, Plantronics, talks to PLANTRONICS Heena Jhingan about the company's performance in India and the importance of software integration in its products “We are trying to put a lot of software into our products”
How is Plantronics' enterprise business At this point, domestic contact centers are shaping up in India? not worried about what happens to health of We fundamentally operate in three segments - the people, what happens to the hearing of the contact centers, enterprise unified people if they use a non standardized headset communications and retail. On the contact or if a particular headset allows you to make center front, it is a known phenomenon that long duration calls. Eventually, they will start the IT/ITES sector is on a slowdown, and the considering that as well. There is a really long growth here has been relatively flat and our way to go before India catches up on the businesses also reflect that. domestic side. We do have products for this Based on usage, enterprise users can be segment and at the right price points. divided into two groups. An enterprise user in Plantronics terminology would be anybody UC is no more just about hardware.How does who uses a terraphone for more than three Plantronics leverage software? hours. Today, if you look at the office We have always tried to move away from being environment, it’s becoming more open and to just headset manufacturers and look at do a more secured call is not possible in an ourselves as providing enhanced open office. The other part of it is Unified communication to the users. We just don’t Communications, which is being driven by make hardware, but are trying to put a lot of companies like Microsoft, Cisco and Avaya software into our products. etc. That bit is growing and is growing 100% For example, the ‘Voyager Legend’ with year on year for Plantronics and that is a big intuitive intelligence. Assume a customer is a area for future growth. Microsoft unified communicator, the moment Though mobile penetration is high in India, he moves away from his laptop, the status headset usage has not really picked up to that doesn’t really change till it switches to idle extent. So, for us the retail business is not The contact center mode indicating the user's absence, but that’s very big. First, we do not advertise and space is largely not real time. Real time change is when you secondly, we are expensive as we do not make divided into two move away from your laptop and the status cheap quality headsets. Our growth is limited immediately changes from available to busy or to key select markets largely tier I and II cities parts — not available or away. And that's what our on the retail side. international and headset does. The moment you move away domestic. using a Voyager Legend, “on my Laptop” the How is the contact center demand evolving and International status will change. That's where we built value how is Plantronics offering to plug the gaps? contact center with software. The contact center space is largely divided space in India is For people working on Salesforce, one of the into two parts — international and domestic. somewhat biggest pain points is typing the data in International contact center space in India is whereas there is a third party application somewhat matured. They use good quality matured.Theyuse called Popcorn from a company called telephone systems and headsets and we have good quality ThreeWill which is available only on a dominant share in that market. The real telephone systems Plantronics headset. It can be downloaded to challenge lies in the domestic market, which is and headsets and give voice to text input on Salesforce. At this just evolving. we have a dominant point of time, users can download it only on For example, if you call one of the domestic share in that laptops or desktops. The next version will also banks, you might hear the background noise market.The real support mobiles. There are a lot of and that is not good customer service. But if applications that Plantronics is building over you look at the MNCs, they invest in noise challenge lies in the the headset and that differentiates us from the cancellation headsets. It will take some time domestic market, competition. for domestic market to go through that which is just evolution. evolving. [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 29 CASE STUDY AIRCEL »
FINDING THE RIGHT FIT Aircel takes an integrated approach to data warehousing and BI for a comprehensive view of customers in order to push best-fit products
BY HEENA JHINGAN
ith about 10% share of the needed an enterprise data warehouse Teradata 2x boxes through data mover Indian telecom pie, Aircel has (EDW) solution atop which they could utility,” he explains. come a long way from being a integrate the business intelligence (BI) Dinesh Jain, Country Manager, Wregional player in Tamil Nadu tools to make analytical inferences. Teradata India believes since the telco and now offers a slew of voice, data and operations are very complex, it is better enterprise solutions. The company, co- The warehouse strategy to have different stacks for processes. owned by Malaysia's Maxis The cellular operator evaluated several “Aircel's total analytical ecosystem Communications, has emerged as one of major EDW providers but having rated amounts to about 250TB, in such the fast growing telcos in the country. them on various technical, strategic and scenarios it is important to keep it However, despite the pace of growth, commercial factors, Aircel decided to simple,” he stresses. the cellular operator till some time back close on Teradata as it offered a Once this was done, Sewell adds, “As lacked a single window view of its combination of these factors to match the part of Enterprise BI, other technologies customers. Robert Sewell, Head- company's business needs. were also used. We deployed SAP Technology Solutions Group, Aircel, says Along with its IT partners Wipro, Business Objects, BO Explorer, BI on that they depended on a variety of Aircel's IT team set out on implementing Mobile, a Hadoop based platform for heterogeneous systems used to capture the solution. Sewell informs that they faster processing of profile attribute and huge amounts of customer data. He decided to follow a phased deployment recommendation/campaign explains, “Business users faced a approach, the first phase commenced in management tools.” grueling task of extracting information August 2011 and went live in February The implementation brought together from the vast amount of data in disparate 2012, followed by Phase 2 in October 2012 various lines of business and over 20 systems. This created numerous and finally they closed the third Phase in varied data streams into a central data problems in providing robust, March this year. hub. Now with the integrated data view sophisticated analytical capabilities to Aircel Enterprise Data Warehouse provided through the EDW/BI solution, business users and made it difficult to get was set up on Teradata Appliances. This, the cellular service provider is able to get an integrated view of customers to Sewell says was done carefully, keeping a comprehensive view of the customer analyze customer demographics, usage the processing and data warehouse life cycle, which includes tasks such as patterns and social behavior.” layers separate so that ETL (extract, customer identification, acquisition, Such systems make the processes transform, load) processes do not affect customer relationship management, time consuming and it also becomes the end user query performance. “Data retention and value enhancement. difficult to establish relationship between gets processed on Teradata 5x/6x series According to Sewell, the various parameters. The operator thus, boxes, which is then moved onto implementation has eased the processes
30 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 31 CASE STUDY AIRCEL »
www.expresscomputeronline.com
for not just one, but various departments. development of enterprise (source) For instance, the device department is applications. Any change in the flow or now able to classify customers based on architecture of the source application device/handset type. With BI, KPIs such had a direct impact on EDW project as device-wise revenue, data around timelines. “We could handle the change ARPU, rotational churn and age on because we managed to maintain network are available to the business. synergies within teams through effective “Leveraging on the customer profiling communication processes,” he reasons. framework, we have recently started He adds that since data from many implementation of predictive or streams used to travel to the EDW/BI via Leveraging on the statistical modeling, including churn multiple hops, ensuring data modeling, cross sell/up-sell and revenue completeness and manual reconciliation customer profiling forecasting,” he explains. was a mammoth task. Implementation of Aircel's sales and marketing team auto reconciliation at each data hops and framework, now closely maps KPIs related to alert triggering mechanism at various we have started network cell site as this allows them to stages for data loading/processing was an monitor performance of each cell site and innovative approach that has resulted in implementation of plan campaigns to extract maximum optimal data quality, user satisfaction benefits from low utilized network sites. and ease of manageability. predictive modeling, This has also helped in promoting This being Aircel's first EDW including churn, geography based product constructs. implementation was a reason that till now, Since sales executives need to access the business users viewed the business cross-sell/up-sell data on the go, Aircel needed to invest on intelligence and EDW key performance and revenue BI on mobile. “So we innovated with indicators (KPIs) from a mere operational releasing the BI KPIs over SMS — this perspective and this had to be changed. forecasting. helps in pushing information to the sales They involved a business analyst, executives on the field as and when functional SPOCs (single point of contact) Robert Sewell, needed,” he says. and the EDW project life cycle team to Head - TechnologySolutions Group,Aircel The best part of the implementation is overcome this challenge. the availability of an integrated, centralized and online business view Fine tuning ahead through BI, which eliminates the need to With completion of the third phase, keep offline data repositories. This results Sewell informs that all major milestones in significant capex savings, covering risk have been achieved and they are now of data security and substantial savings under an optimization phase. Following on off-role resources that were earlier the initial implementation, Aircel required for manual data processing. undertook a couple of critical initiatives, including integrating the system with The availability Challenges advanced analytical tools and Bringing about 20 data streams together is implementing BI on mobile. of an integrated, definitely not an easy thing. As Jain points However, the operator believes there is centralized and out, data modeling plays a critical role in still a lot more to build. Future plans call for making the analytical tools effective. building capabilities of processing online business view Even though a group of customers unstructured data in the BI platform and might be using similar products and enhancing social media analytical through BI eliminates services, they might have different usage capabilities. Also in the offing is the patterns based on their segments, integration of the platform with operational the need to keep geographies and devices used. Getting systems to close the loop with analytical such insights can be an arduous task for outcomes, so that operational systems can offline data telecom operators. Post excessive save CPU cycles (the time in which a single repositories, discussions and workshops, Aircel instruction is fetched from memory, modeled its profiling framework. decoded and executed). The idea is to add resulting in Sewell says that a bigger matter of business value at an operational level. concern for them was the fact that their significant savings EDW was evolved parallel to the [email protected]
32 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 INTERVIEW www.expresscomputeronline.com HENRY JOHN SEDDON In a conversation with Harshal Kallyanpur, Henry John Seddon, Vice President, QLIKTECH Global Field Marketing, QlikTech, talks about the changing BI and analytics sce- nario, the impact of social media on enterprise applications and more. Excerpts... “Companies need to empower business users to do analytic reports themselves”
There is a lot of action happening in the BI and That caused us to become very clever about analytics scenario today.How do you see this how we use CPU and memory. space changing or evolving? Today, CPU and memory continue to get What we are seeing is that business users' cheaper. You can today load terabytes of data in needs are changing. About five years ago, it was memory and share it with thousands of users okay to provide business users with a monthly with a relatively cost-effective infrastructure. report with some statistics. If they need With the traditional solutions, we heavily something else, they create an Excel sheet and relied on databases and disk power which is get away with it. Today, they are expecting to go slow. Today we see others taking the in-memory to their businesses with their own devices and approach. However, with QlikView, you do not have the ability to access corporate have to buy an extra database, while HANA information through those devices. There isn't requires you to buy a specific piece of hardware enough IT stuff to produce report after report and is designed to run on their [SAP's] ERP and push them to these users. Companies need systems. HANA is an engineering solution to a to empower business users to do it themselves. bad design problem.
With the emergence of social media and mobile About five years Which features of BI solutions do you think work devices,a lot of data is getting generated on the ago,it was okayto well in the Indian market? consumer front.How does it affect the provide business A lot of users find it difficult to use a BI solution. development of BI and analytics solutions? The key strength of such solutions is ease of use; It's rare for somebody today to make a decision users with a in-memory processing is as relevant in India as just on their own. For instance, someone buying monthlyreport in any other part of the world. The cost- life insurance would go over the Internet, get with some effectiveness of the solution, however, is very some answers and then talk to someone with the statistics.If they critical in the country. Through PoCs, we have domain expertise. What we are finding is that our need something been able to demonstrate that they can deploy customers are asking for a user environment else,theycreate an our solutions within weeks, with a relatively where they have access to all the information, Excel sheet and get small investment and scale it out. Our top few navigate through that to get answers to questions verticals here are BFSI, automotive, FMCG, and share these answers online so they can awaywith it.Today, consumer electronics and IT/ITeS. collaborate with others to form a consensus. theyare expecting A common question we face from enterprise With our software, we can allow one user to to go to their customers is, “I have BusinessObjects or SAS. do some analytics and share that dashboard businesses with Why should I go in for another tool?” We explain with another colleague with the click of a their own devices to them that what we do is very different from button. In old days, the security team would and have the ability what these tools do and we add value and build policies that would prevent people from to access corporate protect their current investments. having enough information to make decisions. What we see across the globe is companies Worse still, people would find other ways to information that start with SAP for months, don't get access information and share it, which further through those anywhere and then start looking elsewhere for increases the risk to data. devices.There isn't answers. If you take the Indian scenario, the enough ITstuff to largest user base that SAP or IBM Cognos have Did you foresee something like this happening produce report in an organization would not be more than 150 and start off with a road map which would after report and or so. We have got customers where there are eventually lead you to the present stage? push them to these thousands of users. Even if a traditional I wish we could say that. But when we started software like Cognos is given to, say, 2000 users, 20 years ago, we developed a solution that was users.Companies they cannot use it effectively as it is complex to 'in-memory' and that wasn't fashionable then. need to empower use and needs the help of an IT expert. It wasn't popular then because memory was business users to expensive and CPU processing was expensive. do it themselves. [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 33 CASE STUDY MUTHOOT GROUP »
For a Robust NETWORK
To maintain its leading market position, Muthoot Group overhauls its network with help from Juniper Networks
BY JASMINE DESAI
trong networks can be compared undertook one if its most significant to backbones. And just as networking implementations with backbones keep our bodies Juniper Networks. Shealthy, networks enable Spanning 16 diverse fields, serving businesses to succeed in today's millions of customers across the nation, connected world. and serving an assortment of industries, Financial services provider and gold Muthoot Group's network is spread loan leader Muthoot Group recently across 21 states and four Union
34 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
territories. To maintain its leading controlled, so there is no facility at the position in the market, the group end-users to change anything.” Also, day- required a mission-critical, robust and to-day monitoring of customers for scalable network. repayment etc. is possible today. The new Says KNC Nair, CTO, Muthoot Group, network enables Muthoot Group to “We were doing transaction processing in guarantee its customers that their loan a distributed way earlier. A branch used applications will be processed in a matter to have a small server, and all customer of minutes now. data and queries at end of the day were Muthoot does not believe in following updated to the central database. It had lot the crowd, so it tread on a different path of its own limitations, the major one being from the standard network linked from there was no real-time update.” Organizations should the branch level. Normally, financial Having an urgent need for a robust and do POC veryearly. organizations go for MPLS lease-line or scalable network, the company began the ISDN lease-line as the connectivity lease arduous process of searching for a suitable Theyshould make with the branch level. In their case, the vendor. Apart from Juniper Networks, sure that it meets all organization wanted cost effectiveness. Muthoot evaluated other vendors like HP Thus, they fine tuned their applications, and Cisco. Mentions Nair of Muthoot, the required all of which are developed in-house, to “The organization gave weightage to work in a normal broadband connection. installation base and the availability parameters of The main advantage has been that especially for client-base running to 7,000 response time, many of its rural branches can work branches, with around 40-50,000 users. smoothly using these connectivity Thus, it was very vital for us that the scalability,etc. options. Having already provided solution gave very good performance and functionality to the branches, now the should be easily scalable.” KNC Nair, organization will be utilizing the same CTO,Muthoot Group The organization did a POC (Proof of platform for offering other channels also. Concept) with the help of network and Customers can use normal internet for equipment provider and found that managing their account and transacting Juniper gave best performance in their on it. Muthoot has also joined the mobile environment. It took six months to race by providing a mobile interface, so properly connect all branches and that customers can access the system Muthoot went live with the solution in anytime anywhere on mobile devices. June 2012. Muthoot has deployed Juniper Giving advice on what organizations Networks SRX Series Services Gateways should not miss while proceeding for and EX Series Ethernet Switches at its similar deployments, Nair says, data centers and branch offices across “Organizations should do a POC very India. Muthoot migrated the data into early. They should make sure that it new systems, and every week they would meets all the required parameters of convert around 200 branches. The group response time, scalability, etc. That is has a Level 3 co-located data center in essential before deciding the partner, Bangalore at Trimax. All of Muthoot's vendor and the system. Also, the solution branches connect through this data should be implemented in a phased center through MPLS broadband The newnetwork manner.” Muthoot itself took around nine connectivity or single VPN. months to migrate from a decentralized enables Muthoot to a centralized system, which included Counting benefits data migration, training people, setting The tangible benefits after the Group to guarantee up the system, etc. implementation immediately started The future plan for Muthoot involves pouring in. Mentions Nair, “One of the its customers analytics as well. At present, the major benefits we have had from the company is developing MIS tools for implementation is that we now have that their loan analytics. Talking about other future centralized control. Transactions are applications will plans, Nair says, “Maybe in future we will being carried out on a real-time online apply for a banking license; after that we basis. Earlier, in a distributed system we be processed in a will upgrade our applications.” had to believe that everything was all right. Everything now is centrally matter of minutes [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 35 COLUMN www.expresscomputeronline.com GURU GANESAN SMALLMATTERS
n the 2002 sci-fi thriller Minority of mobile technology that is always Small data in Report, Tom Cruise is greeted by connected. As a result, we all leave digital embedded intelligence automated displays with personalized traces. Tweeting or posting on social Imessages as he enters retail stores. networks, or searching for the best e- can indeed liberate the That was how screenplay writers believed commerce site that sells books through the distant future would look like. Today, search engines all emit digital traces. This Internet of Things as we actually live in that world. It’s no secret data can then be aggregated and more and more devices that there are already billions of things converted into market intelligence to connected to the Internet. Service enable service providers to tailor service plug in providers are always looking out for offerings to their target customers. opportunities to plug in even more devices Today there are scores of data players to the ‘Information Superhighway’. This that specialize in collecting customer data firmly established trend is the foundation for online retailers. They use that real- of the Internet of Things (IoT). time data accessibility to build customer The IoT describes a world in which intelligence, thereby enabling clever actual ‘things’ such as devices, data and discounting to attract them and enhance locations are all interconnected with customer experience. Similarly in the IoT applications and users over the Internet. world, little bits of data will come from Anything that can be connected to the sensors and other embedded intelligence Internet will soon be. This will transform in connected devices in the workplace and how people and systems control, interact in the home. This is the small data that will with and experience the world around play a critical role in your regular, them, sparking new products, services everyday world. and job opportunities. From mobile devices to tiny microprocessors in Small is big sensors, to networking and mobile Let’s examine how small data in infrastructure, to servers — exciting new embedded intelligence is being applied products and markets beckon. to the problem of finding a parking space IoT capabilities can be added to just in a busy city such as Bangalore. In about any physical object in areas as future, there will come a time when diverse as clothing, medical devices, connected devices will collect and household appliances, home automation distribute real-time data about parking and industrial controls. This new world spaces both on roads and in Multi-level will need cost-effective sensing technology Car Parking (MLCP) areas across the that can last for years, not hours. These city. This will ensure considerable time sensors gather small amounts of data for and fuel savings for drivers since it will long periods. These tiny amounts of data mean you do not have to circle the same are the building blocks of what has become area again and again looking for parking known as ‘big data’ — the huge amounts of space. This kind of small data will be data currently being generated that, on generated by energy-efficient parking Anything that can be the one hand, enable powerful new big bay sensors armed with long-lasting picture analysis of trends and behavior, micro-controllers. We have already seen connected to the Internet soon but on the other, present pressing capacity similar deployments in other countries challenges for networking and mobile and it will soon become a reality in India will be.This will transform how infrastructure. as well. The challenge ahead lies with people and systems control, connecting these data streams to What is Small Data? provide viable, diverse services with the interact with and experience One’s digital trail is the genesis of Small support of a strong ecosystem. Data. We generate these miniscule pieces the world around them of data because most of us use some form Guru Ganesan is Managing Director of ARM India.
36 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 COLUMN
www.expresscomputeronline.com USING SOCIALTECHNOLOGIES
ocial computing seems to have come going to happen. If you don’t make the BY SUMEETANAND AND full circle. The euphoria has been cycle of expression, organization and S.M. NAFAY KUMAIL replaced by serious appraisals. The discovery seem like a breeze, it is, again, Shype is fading and hubris not taken not happening. However, in an enterprise as gospel anymore. context that needs to follow compliance, How to synergize the It overshot even what its inventors the solution should be flexible in the way corporate mind and probably had in mind. From letting friends that you can define access to content and know what you are doing and connecting data. It should allow people to express how not to with friends, it effected big political freely but securely. changes. Businesses also started experimenting with it—looking at it as an Unification and intelligent discovery opportunity as well as a threat. Companies Information discovery is a complex issue first banned it, fearing loss of productivity because information is ubiquitous and in and critical information flying out with ease, many forms, while discovery needs to be but they also began offering their unified and intelligent. The problem is not increasingly younger workforce some sort information overload but failure to filter. of enhanced intranet. Some solutions were We need to unify structured data and internally conjured up while others were unstructured content as a Big DB and then acquired from the sundry social technology make it collaborative while organizing it solutions or legacy upgraded versions. well for easy and meaningful discovery. Two things happened. In response to We should allow people to pull banning, people took more fiercely to information from the web, legacy data, and social media, often trying to solve their from their own wider networks. Once they work-related problems out in the wider have begun sharing stuff, you will have to public networks. People also did not like sift through it and organize it for them. the hurriedly cobbled together in- And, finally, allow easy and just-in-time enterprise networks that companies access to the comprehensive and evolving offered. These tools ended up as bulletin knowledge. boards for whining and for other less meaningful activities. This led business Higher relevance for easier adoption leaders to doubt the utility of in-enterprise For communication to turn meaningful, networks and social platforms. promote a culture of openness and While this was variously happening, collective learning. The tool should build several challenges emerged. The solutions higher relevance by being closer to to the problems employees faced were people’s work needs. Companies should WE NEED TO UNIFY often not within but ‘out there’. So every put new and legacy data in a form that employee took the long and arduous enables people to access it across the STRUCTURED DATAAND journey, trying to find the relevant but ecosystem. The framework should allow sans motivation and facility to collaborate. people to see value of their contribution in UNSTRUCTURED CONTENTAS Search and organizing stuff in a solving business problems and discoverable way just in time, have also improvement in personal productivity. ABIG DB AND THEN MAKE IT been getting increasingly difficult. Organizations should see people’s In this rather collective confusion, contribution as an important performance COLLABORATIVE WHILE some clear trends and specific solutions indicator. This is being done with varying ORGANIZING ITWELLFOR are emerging. degree of success. The sooner we mainstream it the better. EASYAND MEANINGFUL Social yet secure If you put many constraints and ask people Sumeet Anand is Founder CEO and S.M. Nafay Kumail is DISCOVERY to share only the relevant up front, it is not Co-Founder of Kreeo (i-nable Solutions)
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 37 NEWS ANALYSIS MICROSOFT »
MICROSOFT IN A FLUX
38 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
With a major restructuring underway, and integration with Nokia in the pipeline, the Windows maker is in a state of upheaval
BY MEHAK CHAWLA
With Nokia, Microsoft has got access to what might n July 11, 2013, Microsoft CEO of several principal business units and still arguablybe the Steve Ballmer, in a long mail to product lines along simpler tangents. employees, set in motion a broad Going forward, the company will be best maps in the Ocorporate shakeup. An overhaul organized by function: engineering, world.This is one of the corporate strategy in Microsoft marketing, business development and had been under speculation a few evangelizing, advanced strategy and area where Microsoft months prior to this announcement. In research, finance, HR, legal, and COO. his mail, Ballmer unveiled a plan aimed As a result of this restructuring, can veryactively at restructuring the software giant and Microsoft will have four engineering compete with repositioning it as a “devices and areas: “Operating Systems (OS), Apps, services” firm. Cloud, and Devices,” explained Ballmer. Google. The message was not new, but the In what may be a fundamental change urgency had been intensified. The for Microsoft, it aims to make its Katyayan Gupta, announcement came on the heels of a Windows, Xbox and Windows phone Analyst (serving infrastructure & decent fiscal fourth quarter in which platforms work more seamlessly operations professionals),Forrester India Microsoft reported quarterly sales of together. $19.9 billion. The software giant’s The restructuring process, which is revenue for the period ending June 30 likely to be completed by end of this was up 10% year over year, a result that calendar year, certainly has echoes of seemed to buck the sluggish sales trend Apple’s restructuring that happened affecting the global PC industry. back in October 2012. The iPhone The prime reason behind makers’ senior vice president of iOS this restructuring is that Software, Scott Forstall, left the Microsoft continues to rake in company as part of a reorganization The Nokia acquisition, huge profits from its designed to “Encourage even more traditional software business- collaboration between the company’s to many,did not come licenses sold to businesses for world-class hardware, software and its Windows PC and server operating services teams.” Microsoft’s as a surprise.It is system, and Office software suite. restructuring has been accompanied by However, the company has been losing the exit of Kurt DelBene, who will retire being seen in line with ground in fast moving technologies like as president of Microsoft’s Office cloud services and mobile devices, division after having been at the firm Microsoft's recent where Amazon, Google and Apple have since 1992. drive to re-brand itself established a strong foothold. This is Microsoft’s first real Dubbed “One Microsoft,” the major restructuring in over a decade, and will as a devices and restructuring effort involves an not be easy to establish, say analysts, executive shakeup and the consolidation given the many divisions and the huge services company
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 39 NEWS ANALYSIS MICROSOFT »
churn required. “One Microsoft” and the software and services divisions. “For hardware supporting it will belong to subsequent acquisition of Nokia’s instance, we can expect Xbox and PC the tech giant. Microsoft already sits devices and services business, seem divisions to get closer to each other. pretty within the enterprise market- aligned with the organizational Microsoft will also be looking to make its from a data center as well as a Windows branding strategy. The only piece that hardware talk to each other. The result stack perspective. With this deal giving Microsoft was missing in their mobility of this could well be a piece of extremely it control over back-end hardware story so far, was the hardware bit. powerful hardware, which none of the management, it could expand its share Though the company did try its hand at competition can match. Because in the mobility pie,” elucidates Gogia. mobility devices through their tablets Microsoft does have the resources. One The deal could also expand Surface and Surface RT, it failed to make Microsoft is aimed at better aligning Microsoft’s reach to market, especially a dent in an already crowded market. A these resources,” says Gupta. in developing countries where Nokia has dent which resulted in a $900 million Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst and a lot of entrenchment in channels and write-off for the company. Nokia, which CEO, Greyhound Research, agrees that consumer retail, while Microsoft has a is already using Windows platform for collaboration will increase as a result of great foothold in the enterprise and the its popular Lumia series, is likely to give this organizational shift. “With the home segment. Microsoft the back end integration simplification of entire portfolio that What Microsoft did wrong, according between hardware and software, Microsoft is undertaking, we shall see to Gogia, is that it invested a lot of something that has been missing from more symphony and conjoined efforts money in mobility prior to this their mobility offerings. between their hardware and OS acquisition. “But if they do get the divisions. Another thing working for hardware correct, then this deal can be Urgent makeover Microsoft here is that their Office 360 can a very compelling story. When it comes There is no doubt that Microsoft’s sit beautifully in a mobility scenario. to the application ecosystem, Microsoft recent efforts signal the need for the There are bigger bets placed on Windows has the resources and means to build it.” company to re-brand and rebuild itself 8.1, and though it will see traction, that’s A tighter integration between in the era of cloud and mobility, while not likely to happen very soon.” software and hardware can also be a big there is still time. The analysts also feel driver for Microsoft’s Surface in the that Microsoft did need to undergo a Windows to mobility mobility space. “However, the level of major shift in order to bounce back into The acquisition of Nokia’s device and integration is very crucial if this the game, and this reshuffling drive, services business, according to Gogia, is acquisition is to yield results. The coupled with an acquisition that the not merely about phones, it is about success depends a lot on how swiftly and experts largely claim to be a sensible having a footprint in hardware. “It is not tightly can the devices, software and one, is likely to give a more unified look about revival of a brand, it is about apps pieces be integrated,” emphasizes to the company. supply chain management for Gupta of Forrester. “Yes, restructuring will surely result Microsoft.” A very important piece of this story, in making operations more streamlined, The acquisition, to many, did not which not many are talking about yet, more focused on innovation and come as a surprise. It is being seen in says Gupta, is the Maps bit (Though especially aggressive in terms of line with Microsoft’s recent drive to re- Nokia has per say not sold its Maps to presence and marketing,” observes brand itself as a devices and services Microsoft). Microsoft will get access to Katyayan Gupta, Analyst (serving company. To that extent, it also follows Nokia’s Here Drive, Here Maps and Here infrastructure & operations the Apple story of one technology giant Transit, as a part of this takeover. “With professionals), Forrester India. having full control over the hardware, Nokia, Microsoft has got access to what If Windows 8.1 doesn’t deliver, device and services pieces. might still arguably be the best maps in Microsoft is in trouble, especially with “Phones today are no longer a the world. They are certainly one of the rivals like Google and Apple already hardware story. They are an experience oldest and evolved maps. This is one announcing OS updates. and applications story. So when area where Microsoft can very actively So this restructuring signifies the Symbian ship was sinking, Microsoft compete with Google. Microsoft can do a urgent need to achieve more synergies came up with a robust platform. With lot in the maps and augmented reality and more alignment between hardware, this acquisition, the platform as well the space,” elaborates Gupta.
The deal could also expand Microsoft’s reach to market,especiallyin developing countries where Nokia has a lot of entrenchment in channels and consumer retail,while Microsoft has a great foothold in the enterprise and the home segment
40 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
The impact of the acquisition will only reflect by end of 2014. Though some believe that might be too late, the fact is that the smart phone market is nowhere close to saturation. It is all about bringing in innovation that will appeal to customers, opines Gupta. India isolated? India’s position in Microsoft’s corporate strategy has never really been clear. And though India has a robust developer and channel ecosystem, it has been isolated from corporate policies. Microsoft never released their tablets, Surface and Surface RT in India, a move that many analysts debated and the strategy behind which remains unclear. Even if they did not do well, a robust tablet market like India would have proved to be a great testing ground for them. Since they did not launch in India, Microsoft has no mobility hardware present in the country, something that can prove to be detrimental when they try to make inroads with mobile devices, thanks to their acquisition of Nokia. Another complication that Microsoft might face is that in India, Nokia as a brand, might have far greater recognition than Microsoft itself, given the percolation of Nokia phones in semi- urban and rural areas. Also, a key question that everyone has been asking with respect to India is what happens to the hugely popular Asha series, because that’s where the installed user base is, at Gogia of Greyhound believes that adds Gupta of Forrester. the moment. Gupta believes that feature with this restructuring, which clearly However, the ripples of this phones will continue to be manufactured centers around Windows OS and restructuring are not likely to be felt in under Microsoft’s label. “We expect mobility, Microsoft cannot afford to India before the end of next year. Microsoft to continue building feature sideline emerging markets. “Emerging Ballmer’s controversial exit is slated for phones, but they will certainly try to market story will be big for Microsoft July 2014, and he is expected to see bridge the gap between smart phones and it can’t afford to leave India out of through the rejig at the corporate level and feature phones, both in terms of their corporate story, as they have done before he leaves. Also, Nokia’s integration pricing and fresh capabilities.” Cost in the past. India has been weak for in Microsoft’s fold is likely to happen mid bridging is one of the widely expected Microsoft primarily because of its cost next year, and it will take still more time outcomes of this acquisition. In line with points. That will change.” to stabilize corporate policies. Only by “One Microsoft”, we can also expect “India is strategic for all mobility then can we expect to see some Nokia’s mobility devices to be better firms because of two reasons. The first structural, organizational and strategical aligned with other Windows running is the cloud computing wave gripping changes with respect to channels and go- hardware possessions of Microsoft. the country- cloud is being used for to-market. As Gupta of Gartner says, “We According to Anshul Gupta, Principal everything ranging from email, to see no implications for India in the near Research Analyst, Gartner India, “For music, to collaboration. The second future. We might see effects in some more India, the implications of hardware will aspect is India’s great appetite for advanced markets first.” be more significant, especially with devices. So from a Microsoft Windows 8.1 in the pipeline.” perspective, India cannot be ignored,” [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 41 INTERVIEW www.expresscomputeronline.com KENNETH HEE Kenneth Hee, Director of Business Development - Enterprise Security, APAC, ORACLE Oracle, talks to Mehak Chawla about enterprise security trends, and the impact of cloud and mobility. Excerpts... “Organizations should focus on how users access applications and data”
What are the enterprise security trends across enterprise. The composite network has the APAC region? become large – it even encompasses multiple Enterprises in the APAC region, as elsewhere countries across the globe, outsourced data around the world, are increasingly concerned centers and, more recently, private and public that corporate cyber attacks are growing in clouds. So it is virtually impossible to secure number and in sophistication. According to an the perimeter completely from cyber attacks Oracle sponsored CSO Market Pulse survey, and other external threats. As a result, the corporate answer to the rising threat enterprises today have to re-engineer their levels is to spend more on security. But bigger thoughts to understand what is the right budgets alone have not increased CSOs’ approach to secure information assets in a new confidence in delivering a highly secure world, where sensitive corporate data is stored enterprise. While 59% of respondents say How is Oracle and accessed from beyond the company’s their IT security budgets have increased working with direct control. during the past 12 months, only 23% say their Indian enterprises For this reason, instead of focusing on more organization has a superior strategy in place with respect to complex network security policy, across all key aspects of data security. security? organizations should focus on how users Much of this investment is also reactive. access applications and data. When criminals Organizations are not considering long term We are focusing on breach a network, they target weak user strategies to protect information assets, sectors like access controls as a means to acquiring especially the most crucial one – database. valuable information assets. Most companies invest in perimeter and telecom,BFSI and network defense because they believe government in the What kind of security layering are companies database and application data are inherently country.These opting for,especially the ones that have legacy safe as they lie deep within the firewall of the sectors own a lot of infrastructures to take care of? company. This is a dangerous assumption. classified or When burglars break into a home, they look for According to a 2012 Verizon report, servers confidential data electronics, jewelery or cash – yet homeowners were the largest category of compromised and are more prone focus mostly on securing their doors and assets (64%) and database servers were the windows, not their valuables inside the house. source of 94% of compromised records to securitythreats. This mindset permeates enterprise IT as well. involved in security breaches. Network Theyare also The CSO Market Pulse survey found that two- infrastructure, by comparison, accounted for guided bystrong thirds of security budgets are used to protect less than 1% of compromised assets. regulatory the network, with less than a third used to This is why Oracle propagates an ‘’Inside- compliance that directly protect the data and intellectual Out’’ approach. Protecting data at the source mandates them to property that reside inside the organization. increases confidence that security put in place an in It’s clear from these results that most investments are aligned with the external organizations are focusing an inordinate threats. Protecting data in the database depth,multi- amount of attention on network vulnerabilities would also save both time and money because layered security and neglecting their most valuable assets: most of the organization’s sensitive data model.Hindustan applications and data. resides in the database. Petroleum We at Oracle believe that while defense Corporation parameter is important, organizations should How are technologies like cloud,especially Limited (HPCL), also focus on how users access applications public and hybrid ones,and mobility,impacting TVS Motor and and data. Securing access to customer data, the security framework of enterprises? intellectual property and financial data at the The adoption of cloud and mobility has Aircel are a few source, i.e., the database can save companies expanded the IT infrastructure of an enterprises that time and money. enterprise. A company’s IT assets no more have deployed our reside just within the four walls of an securitysolutions. [email protected]
42 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 BUSINESS AVENUES www.expresscomputeronline.com
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 43 NEWS
SOFTWARE www.expresscomputeronline.com Dassault Systemes releases SolidWorks 2014 product portfolio
DASSAULT SYSTÈMES, A 3D Experience company, recently introduced SolidWorks 2014, a 3D software portfolio delivering a rich array of product offerings including 3D CAD, Simulation, Product Data Management, Technical Communication and Electrical Design. The 22nd software product release is based on theme of 'design without limits.' The latest release has over 200 enhancements, among which 90% are based on customers' feedback and requirements. The new SolidWorks 2014 release is designed to deliver major productivity and usability gains and allow companies to spend more time on knowledge-centric tasks that help push innovation to the forefront. Productivity boosters, M Ravikumar, Sales Director, Professional Channel-India, Dassault Systèmes announcing the workflow and mobility enhancements launch of SolidWorks 2014 in Bangalore will enable users to re-use data more dynamically, expediting the sharing of giving them the enhancements needed to the last five years, the company has grown design data to help accelerate validate and share their product design – in both CAD and Non-CAD segments. collaboration within product regardless of whether it’s a device to help SolidWorks has around 2.2 million users development. Added mobility support for clean the environment or technology to and 180,000 customers worldwide. Android and iOS devices would allow the save a life,” added Bertrand. Beside the areas of mechanical tool more than 2.1 million SolidWorks users to According to PM Ravikumar, Sales designing, ancillary machines, connect and experience new 3D designs Director, Professional Channel-India, automotive, aerospace, power and anywhere and anytime. Dassault Systèmes, for past 12 years process, the company is also focusing on Recent market studies reinforce the SolidWorks was just one core product new areas of medical tools and devices. importance of product aesthetics in that company but today the company is In India, seven units of the Ministry of initial customer purchase and experience. enhancing its product portfolio in areas Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) are Whether the end product is an industrial around its core product and new using SolidWorks software for training machine, a smartphone or a medical additions are focused on data purpose. Overall, the company has some device, customers want both product management and technical 4200 customers in India. Apart from these functionality and appealing designs. communication. “India is looking to scale verticals, it has a strong focus on the SolidWorks 2014 helps product designers up its innovation index so as to leverage education sector. In fact, about 610 transfer their creative ideas from design the opportunities which the economy is educational institutes including colleges sketches and images into 3D models bringing. SolidWorks 2014 will help and universities are using Solidworks faster than before, while expanding the businesses up the ante on innovation in a software for teaching purpose in India. set of design tools to transform ideas into sustainable manner,” Ravikumar said. SolidWorks has 65,000 installed products for new markets. In the last 17 years, the company hasn't license base in these 610 educational “Our commitment is to deliver a changed the pricing model of its software centers. To drive the software among product portfolio that recognizes user product, but has added value to customers students, SolidWorks has made license feedback and protects users’ by adding new features and enhancements. arrangements with colleges and investments,” said Bertrand Sicot, CEO, Largely, it earns revenue from software universities that allows students easy SolidWorks, Dassault Systèmes. “We subscriptions and last year SolidWorks access to software for learning and support our users’ drive for excellence by reported a US$ 527.8 million revenue. In training purpose.
44 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 NEWS
SOFTWARE www.expresscomputeronline.com ERP9 for BlackBerry Netgear adds two comes to Tally users newproducts to ReadyNAS family
NETGEAR HAS ANNOUNCED ReadyNAS 3220 and ReadyNAS 4220, new additions to its ReadyNAS product family. The new devices are the latest network-attached-storage (NAS) products to run on the ReadyNAS OS, introduced in March 2013. Available for the first time in 2U rackmount form with 12-bay capacity, ERP 9 FOR BlackBerry, the latest Vikash K. Agarwal, President, Tally the new ReadyNAS 3220 and 4220 will application for the Tally software series is Solutions (P) Ltd. said, “In today’s world, enable easy storage for businesses now available on the BlackBerry World instant access to information is very vital supporting up to 500 concurrent storefront giving existing Tally.ERP 9 and enterprise mobility using users. customers enhanced business smartphones has become a business ReadyNAS 3220 and 4220 feature a capabilities on their BlackBerry necessity. At Tally, we continuously strive sleek new interface and the smartphones. ERP 9 for BlackBerry to make the lives of our customers ReadyCLOUD web portal for full file offers real-time access to critical simpler and this includes bringing management from any browser. business information on Tally.ERP 9 mobility solutions into the country. We Moreover, the newest members of the through Tally.NET framework. are very happy that BlackBerry shares portfolio are the highest performing With all the features required for high- this vision of ours and has taken this ReadyNAS solutions available which performance business management, initiative with aggression. With ERP 9 for support 10GbE infrastructures, boast Tally.ERP 9 customers with a BlackBerry BlackBerry now being available for the latest in performance capability, smartphone will not need to make BlackBerry smartphones, customers will and include technologies such as frequent calls to their accounts team for be able to leverage the tremendous unlimited snapshots and cloud- information. Customers will receive potential of Tally.ERP 9 on the move.” managed replication for reducing any instant and important financial updates Commenting on the announcement, possibility of data loss. for modules like creditors, debtors, bank Hitesh Shah, Director Commercial ReadyNAS 3220 and 4220 are balance, top 10 customers, inventory Business, BlackBerry India said, virtualization-ready with iSCSI status and more, directly on their “BlackBerry smartphones have always support, thin provisioning capability, BlackBerry smartphone. been about empowering business and certification for interoperability The app provides instant access to customers, and Tally being an important with VMware and Microsoft. The customer information including tool used across industries is a welcomed ReadyNAS 3220 and ReadyNAS 4220 concerned person, email id and contact addition. The availability of ERP 9 for are currently available with Netgear’s information amongst other details. Users BlackBerry provides more value to authorized distributors in India. The will also be able to make a call from the business customers by giving them the price for ReadyNAS 3220 starts from customer information accessible from opportunity to make important and Rs. 4,00,000 and ReadyNAS 4220 the creditors and debtors module. timely decisions while on the go.” from Rs. 5,50,000.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 45 NEWS
SECURITY www.expresscomputeronline.com HP announces new security offerings for enterprises
HP HAS ANNOUNCED new products and services that will enable enterprises to disrupt the adversary marketplace, manage risk and extend their security capabilities to better protect themselves against a growing threat landscape. Cybercrime continues to increase, with 92% of Forbes Global 2000 companies reporting data breaches in the last 12 months. This growth is due to adversaries forming a more sophisticated and collaborative marketplace through which they share information and advanced data theft tools. Studies estimate that the global cybercrime black market has a value of $104 billion per year. Evolving regulatory and legislative requirements are further adding to enterprises’ security burden, with an estimated average cost of noncompliance at $13.7 million for global organizations. Additionally, in the world of bring your own device, IT no longer controls the endpoint, offering the adversary many more control points to attack. HP’s new products and services will enable enterprises to approach their security challenges with a single view of information security, and to manage risk and compliance. Leveraging HP’s its four walls, it’s made up of a vast teams accelerate threat identification, security research and security ecosystem of suppliers, devices that can response and remediation by providing professionals, these new offerings are go anywhere and, not to mention, a web expertise and advanced security designed to help organizations optimize that is literally worldwide,” said Susanta intelligence. their risk postures and extend their own Bhattacharya, Director, Infrastructure According to the company, with HP capabilities. Technology Outsourcing (ITO) Portfolio, MSS, intrusions can be detected within “Enterprises today aren’t facing a Enterprise Services, HP India. “HP helps 11.8 minutes and 92% of major incidents single attacker; they are fighting a well- clients reduce risk and manage the can be resolved within two hours of organized, well-funded adversary complexities of protecting the flow of identification. HP MSS security marketplace,” said Ranndeep Singh information—both internally and professionals also possess global and Chonker, Country Manager, HP externally—enabling them to focus on regional knowledge of legal, regulatory Enterprise Security Products, India. “To driving innovation.” and standard developments to improve succeed in thwarting attacks, you need a New offerings include HP Threat overall risk posture. New offerings from trusted partner that can provide end-to- Central, HP TippingPoint Next- HP MSS and HP Enterprise Services end security with enhanced threat Generation Firewall (NGFW), HP include the HP Supplier Security intelligence to disrupt the adversary. ArcSight and HP Fortify and HP Compliance Solution and HP Distributed Only HP can deliver this.” SureStart. HP Managed Security Denial of Services (DDoS) Protection “An organization extends well beyond Services (MSS) help internal security Services.
46 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 NEWS
IT SERVICES www.expresscomputeronline.com HCL to provide IT services to Anglo American's global operations
ANGLO AMERICAN, ONE of the world’s largest mining companies and HCL Technologies (HCL) have announced entering into an engagement where HCL will deliver IT services for Anglo American businesses across the globe. As a part of this contract, HCL will transform Anglo American’s end user computing and data center landscape to improve operational efficiency, business agility and the user experience. The scope of service covers end to end infrastructure services, including data center and hosting services, email services, service desk, local area network long term partner for Anglo American." growing strength as the provider of and security management, end user “This contract reinforces HCL’s focus choice for the Gen 2.0 outsourcing computing and on-site IT services, on developing markets and further market,” he added. utilizing hybrid on-premise and cloud cements HCL’s position as the provider of HCL will leverage its 'Enterprise of the delivery models. choice for IT Infrastructure Services. Future' framework to continuously David Heppenstall, CIO and Head of HCL will create an environment of upgrade and evolve Anglo American’s IT Global Infrastructure, Anglo American transformation, innovation and services and infrastructure for users said, "HCL has been one of the most continuous improvement of services that across multiple locations. This framework successful infrastructure suppliers in the will strengthen Anglo American’s will allow Anglo American to evolve IT market in recent years, and we have been leadership position in the marketplace, ” infrastructure services by utilizing a impressed with their solution and the said Ashish Gupta, Senior Vice President hybrid on-premise and cloud delivery people we have worked with. We are and Head EMEA, HCL Technologies ISD. model along with over time adoption of confident they will become an effective “This deal is also a testimony of our “as a service” model into the enterprise.
Mindtree launches Gladius,a video management software for advanced surveillance
MINDTREE LIMITED HAS launched video analytics, smart video streaming, and Gladius, a video management software can be unified with video data, access control targeted at city surveillance, enterprise events and alarms. It supports a wide range sectors, industrial and retail industries. of industry-leading IP cameras and “Gladius Video Management Software is a encoders, and will also be available as an testimony of Mindtree’s continued focus to application for iOS and Android platforms engineer innovative solutions that simplify for on-the-move mobile surveillance. business and adds unique value to our The solution will be offered to customers customers,” said S Janakiraman, CTO, in India and globally through a network of Mindtree Limited. system integrators who will help customers Gladius Video Management Software will with deployment and training on the provide benefits like scalability, advanced software usage.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 47 NEWS
INDUSTRY www.expresscomputeronline.com Indian service providers top Zinnov's annual GSP Rating 2013
ZINNOV MANAGEMENT CONSULTING, has announced its Ratings of Global R&D Service Providers' across geographies. Global R&D Service Providers (GSP) Rating 2013 is an annual study to assist business leaders spearheading global engineering initiatives make the right decisions in partner selection across geographies. Indian service providers have clearly emerged as the leader and soon India will have a $1 billion Product Engineering Services player in the market, according to the study. The service providers can be broadly classified into three groups – Wipro, HCL, TCS, Tech Mahindra and Infosys, comprise of the first group that has a significant large product engineering practice and cover most of the outsourced R&D activity. iGATE, L&T TS, Infotech, Mindtree and Symphony Teleca, are part of second group that continue to expand their coverage across verticals and are transforming to take on larger players gives it a definite edge. The niche leaders world continues to grow at a brisk rate across all the verticals. While, the third continue to enjoy a dominant position in and the top 500 R&D spenders alone group is a set of niche companies like their respective verticals of operations have invested close to US$ 560 million in Aricent, KPIT Cummins, Persistent and have considerably increased the non- R&D. R&D Globalization continues to be Systems, Sasken, eInfochips, Quest linear revenue as a percentage of overall on the rise with India and China Global, Tata Elxsi and Tata Technologies. revenue, according to the study. garnering a major share of the Based on the study's criteria including Overall from an operations engineering services revenues. Over 225 human resource, product development perspective, attrition has remained new R&D centers were set up in India in capabilities, financials and others, TCS stable at around 14% in this segment and last 5 years. Indian service providers topped with the most expansive service the companies have been able to sustain continue to retain the lion's share of the offering across all the verticals, while the pricing pressures and retain the overall Engineering and R&D Wipro and HCL being heritage billing rates. There has been a significant outsourcing pie – accounting 23% of the engineering and R&D service providers, uptake in terms of alternate pricing overall market. have deep and strong capabilities in this models like risk rewards, revenue share Currently, the total exports in the space, the study noted. and the service providers are now Engineering R&D outsourcing segment Tech Mahindra has emerged as a proactively approaching customers with from India stood at US$ 16.3 billion. strong in this segment with strong eco- these new business models. Since the last However, the growth in the same system support from the engineering year, the service providers have segment lagged the overall Indian capabilities of the Mahindra Group and significantly invested in lab industry growth rate and stood at 10.9%. erstwhile Mahindra Satyam. Infosys is infrastructure; the Indian service Engineering analytics is a significant strengthening and growing its presence providers alone have invested over $25 opportunity area, with over spending in in areas like semiconductors and million in lab infrastructure. this segment set to increase to around electronics and notably, its strong According to Zinnov study, the overall US$ 27 billion by 2017 at a rate of 16.5%, training engine for Engineering R&D R&D spending by companies across the the study stated.
48 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 NEWS
NETWORK www.expresscomputeronline.com Juniper launches ZyXELpartners production-ready SDN with QNAPfor 10G solution Ethernet powered NAS solution
ZYXEL COMMUNICATIONS, A provider of secure broadband networking solutions has partnered with a commercial Network Attached JUNIPER NETWORKS HAS announced one year subscription license at $1,000 Storage (NAS) provider QNAP to the availability of Juniper Networks per socket. create affordable, 10G Ethernet Contrail, a standards-based and highly Juniper Networks Contrail, formerly powered NAS solution packs for small scalable network virtualization and known as JunosV Contrail, the network to mid-size companies (SMB). The intelligence solution for software-defined virtualization and intelligence solution is solution packs include ZyXEL's networks (SDN). Contrail is a comprised of all the components needed XGS1900 series Web-managed smart production-ready SDN solution shipping to create a virtual overlay network: SDN 10G Ethernet switches and QNAPs today, that is based on stable and proven controller, vRouter, and analytics engine. TS-870U-RP NAS appliance. networking standards. This network It is a simple way to connect physical To capitalize on the benefits of virtualization and intelligence solution networks with a virtual environment and virtualization, SMBs need a lightning has been in trials with more than 40 provision underlying services, reducing fast network and high performance global customers. Juniper Networks is the time, cost and risk for customers storage solution. Field-tested to ensure also unveiling new technology when configuring the network. optimal performance, the ZyXEL 10G development partnerships and product Juniper Contrail can be seamlessly switches and QNAP NAS solution pack integrations with Contrail that will help integrated with Juniper Networks claims to meets the SMBs unique needs. customers pragmatically and confidently flagship virtual firewall, Firefly The joint solution promises compati- evolve to SDN. Perimeter, which is the first of many bility with a range of virtualization The solution also offers a robust Juniper SDN-enabled security services platforms offering data center operators analytics engine, providing a real-time that provides unparalleled performance, the reliability of a robust solution at an view into network operations. Contrail scale and coverage across virtualized attractive price point. empowers customers to quickly bring data centers. With this integration, Together, the ZyXEL 10G switches new services to market by providing a customers can benefit from simplified and QNAP NAS claim to alleviate smooth transition with automatic orchestration, provisioning and network congestion and deliver back- provisioning and dynamic service management of service-chained virtual up and disaster recovery capabilities chaining in cloud environments that run and physical security services. to SMBs. This is critical as more on x86-based servers. The commercial In a related announcement, Juniper connected devices are added to the version of Contrail is available through Networks introduced OpenContrail, an network, and the popularity of Juniper Software Advantage and is open source software platform that applications like video processing, offered as both a perpetual and makes the core software powering business analytics and multimedia subscription software license. Perpetual Contrail available through an open that demand large bandwidths and big license is priced at $1,700 per socket and source license. storage keep escalating.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 49 NEWS
HARDWARE www.expresscomputeronline.com
Intel launches its latest Xeon processors in India AS THE MASSIVE growth of IT services places increasing demand on the data center, Intel India has outlined its strategy to re-architect the underlying infrastructure, allowing companies and end-users to benefit from an increasingly services-oriented, mobile world. Intel’s global data center business, which generates more than US$ 10 billion in revenues annually, develops solutions that help businesses keep pace with the increasing demand for cloud services and for managing data generated from billions of users and connected devices worldwide. Intel’s goal is to re-architect the data center to enable a common, software- defined foundation for both data centers and cloud service providers that span servers, networking, storage and security. As part of strategy Intel unveiled its Xeon Processor E5-2600 v2 product family which promises up to 45% greater energy efficiency and 50% higher Narendra Bhandari, Director, Software and Services Group, Intel Asia Pacific, unveiling the performance as compared to the new Xeon processor in Banaglore previous generation. The other products Intel launched are the Intel Atom C2000 of rapid service delivery and we continue version of Xeon servers and optimization processor family, first based on to see significant opportunities for & performance testing was carried out on Silvermont micro-architecture. growth across network, storage and Intel Xeon Processor E5-2600 v2 product The company announced that the 4th servers. In many cases, it requires a new family. Gen Intel Core vPro processors offer a approach to deliver the scale and N Muralidaran, Chief - Special range of enhanced capabilities across efficiency required, and today we are Projects (NSE) & Director (NSETECH) security, manageability and productivity. unveiling the near and long-term actions said, “The ever increasing want of Intel SSD Pro 1500 Series is optimized to enable this transformation. Through exchanges for efficient and high- for the business user offering secured this initiative, we are looking to performance data center infrastructure, data and more productivity to the accelerate Intel’s progress in the makes them early adopters of cutting- user with faster boot and application enterprise space in India with high edge technology advancements. We often start times. performance solutions that address the closely align our technology roll out with This robust pipeline of current and high performance needs of the fast Intel’s new processor releases to meet future products and technologies will evolving space,” said Narendra Bhandari, ever increasing compute needs and it allow Intel to expand into new segments Director, Software and Services Group, reinforces NSE’s leadership position”. of the data center in India. The role of Intel Asia Pacific. He further added, “For PRISM, the information technology has evolved from National Stock Exchange (NSE), the Intel Xeon processor E5-2600 v2 product being a way to reduce costs and increase world’s largest bourse in terms of number family has delivered 1.55x higher corporate productivity to becoming the of equity trade has been collaborating throughput than the previous generation. means to deliver new services to with Intel to address their huge compute This brings promise for capacity businesses and consumers. requirement. NSE’s current application expansion per $ for many other “Data centers are entering a new era ‘PRISM’ was being run on the previous applications too.”
50 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013
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