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SURVEILLANCE 2.0
here have been several terror attacks in India in recent times. But one of them stands out: the Mumbai attacks of November T2008 in which the massacre of innocent lives went on for three days across places as varied as a bustling railway station, a roadside cafe and a couple of five-star hotels. After condemnations and consolations in the wake of this attack began a large-scale rollout of surveillance cameras on public and private property. These were boosted by an equally large number of metal detectors and X-ray scanners. Coupled with growing instances of terror and sabotage all over the globe, all these security contraptions now seem to have become an inconvenient truth for us. We must allow ourselves to be frisked, searched, X-rayed and monitored as much as the security agencies feel necessary. (It is another matter that in some of the budget-starved and intelligence-challenged situations—Delhi Police road checks, CLOUD-BASED for instance—we must also bear the grossly irritating physical barriers put up with the intention of culling out culprits but which SURVEILLANCE end up choking the already crawling traffic.) SOLUTIONS MAY On the face of it, these measures give us some assurance that security is being taken care of. But there is a bigger challenge that the BE CHEAPER, agencies and CISOs face behind the scenes: What happens to all those images and impressions captured while people or vehicles were MORE FLEXIBLE moving or passing through? How to store, retrieve, archive and mine all that humongous amount of data? Who looks at that data and when? AND QUICK TO These and many more questions need to be answered by each organization aiming to make itself secure against unwanted intrusions DEPLOY and attacks. As the next step, organizations must invest in storage, archival and analytical systems. After making their own assessment for requirements (I could not find any Indian legal guidelines for organizations on keeping surveillance data), they will need to acquire, install, maintain and use those systems. One emerging possibility is to use cloud-based solutions, which may not only be cheaper but also be more flexible and quick to deploy. What is more, going the cloud way and partnering with a hosted solution provider can help solve the skill and support issues that several companies face. Another challenge, especially for the government, will be to keep the installed base of cameras maintained and running. Vandalism and technical support problems continue to dog several installations. Also, with higher resolution and more efficient cameras now available, there would be a need for constant upgrade—at least in the more sensitive places where the quality of images is critical. The first thing, of course, is to install the equipment: for one, as per a media report, the CST station in Mumbai is still awaiting those CCTV cameras even five years after the attacks.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 3 contents
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feature column
MAXIMIZING 35 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION By Ryan Hollenbeck
FOR A WIDER CLOUD 36 By Dhruv Dhody
DO YOU 38 HAVE ENOUGH SAFEGUARDS? 16 By Atul Khatavkar
WORKING 40 Providing modular architecture, better FOR BIG DATA OPEN MEANS security and enhanced ustomization, open source ERP and CRM are set to grab more By Sukhvinder Pal Singh BUSINESS market share in the next few years
4 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com case study in the news
» IT fuels revenue & job growth 45 for Indian SMEs: BCG report
» Tata Communications links Asia’s top stock exchanges
» Public-Private Partnerships 46 help to address vocational training challenges
» Nokia’s HERE launches 47 community mapping in India
» VMware expands its operations in Pune GAMING ON 24 » 91% Indian businesses Playblazer sets a new score by providing cloud hosted 48 say big data leads to better services to game developers and enabling them to launch decision making: study new games quickly » Social media - new tool of 49 cyber attack: Trend Micro TOWARD A TAKING 32 42 » Infor launches cloud based WIRELESS CAMPUS THE APPROUTE e-commerce platform Deploying networking The rollout of a mobile » IBM, Tata Power Delhi solutions from Allied Telesis booking app is helping 50 Distribution join hands to propel has enabled Assam Valley radio taxi major Meru Smart Grid in India School to experience a stay ahead in the race » SAP announces HANA based hassle free network across 52 solution for retail its residential campus » EMC unveils its Transformation Coach interviews » HP brings advanced, 53 data-driven security solutions for organizations
21 27 28 » ING Vysya Bank Selects IBM 54 MobileFirst to Support Business NITIN HIRANANDANI GERALD ATTIA MICHELRIVA Growth Director - Printing, Deputy CEO,Alten Group, and CEO of Swiss cable maker PPS, HP India R&M RAMANDEEPSINGH 52 “Printing anything, CEO,Alten Calsoft Labs “R&M has invested anywhere from any “Concentrating on time and money device is the new different sectors into innovation big thing” enables us to even during this balance growth” sluggish growth”
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Express Computer Reg. No. MH/MR/SOUTH-132/2012-14 RNI Regn. No. MAHENG/49926/90 Printed for the proprietors,The Indian Express Limited by Ms. Vaidehi Thakar at Indigo Press, (India) Pvt. Ltd. Plot No. 1c/716, off Dadoji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027 and Published from Express Towers, 2nd Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021. (Editorial & Administrative Offices: Express Towers, 1st Floor, Nariman Point, Mumbai - 400021) Editor : Sanjay Gupta (*Responsible for selection of News under the PRB Act.) Copyright @ 2012 The Indian Express Ltd. All rights reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in any manner, electronic or otherwise, in whole or in part, without prior written permission is prohibited.
6 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013
COVER STORY
ocated in the Indian state of Gujarat, Junagadh attracts E) from Axis Communications, which were installed at eight a large number of tourists and pilgrims who visit different locations spread all over the city. The solution also various historical locations as well as places of religious included the implementation of a complete wireless monitoring importance in the city. While there are more than 2000 and storage facility at the Superintendent of Police (SP) police personnel deployed in the Junagadh district, the headquarters in Junagadh that helps to monitor strategic places cityL law enforcement authorities wanted to install a video such as a dam and places of religious importance which are surveillance solution as an additional monitoring tool to assist potential terrorist targets. The Director General of Police of the police teams. The solution was intended to help monitor and State of Gujarat has sanctioned funds to be utilized in further keep track of suspicious vehicular movement at the entry/exit upgrades of this initiative. points of the city as well as other critical locations. “We were looking to execute a surveillance system across The solution was to be implemented in phases. The first Junagadh city to help supplement the police personnel’s efforts phase of the project was to cover all major entry and exit points in monitoring the critical city areas. It was prohibitively costly to as well as other critical areas of the city of Junagadh. The use fiber connectivity or connectivity offered by telecom or ISP solution consisted of network cameras (XIS P1343 and 215 PTZ- companies. We did not have the budget to pay the recurrent
8 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 1-15, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 9 COVER STORY
There should be a proper integration of the camera with video and access control. Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder & CEO,CtrlS Datacenters
amount year on year for data usage. Esec the aftermath of growing incidents of brought in their own wireless solution terror attacks, sabotage and theft. As per along with the Axis network cameras,” an IMS report, in 2013 the video says Dipankar Trivedi, Superintendent surveillance market in India is pegged at of Police, Junagadh. (Esec Technologies $272 million out of which $76.2 million is is a Maharashtra-based supplier of estimated to be just networked video. By security solutions.) 2016, the market is estimated to grow to Once implemented, the control room $463 million and networked video will be set up at the SP office enables round-the- $223.8 million. Overall, the video clock, centralized and remote monitoring surveillance market is growing at 20% of all these locations instead of relying annually. Also, in 2016, IP-based only on conventional methods of surveillance will overtake analog-based patrolling and local intelligence. The surveillance in terms of revenue. solution is designed to allow easy One cannot underestimate the scalability in the future, complying with importance of security surveillance in the Junagadh police’s requirement for our day and age. However, while scaling up the first phase of installation. organizations and cities at large have The department foresees deployment of invested hugely in surveillance tools, the a minimum of 20-25 cameras in the next big challenge lies in post-implementation Analytics is also two phases. The department is also and lack of knowledge on utilizing these coming into the looking at integrating other functions of tools optimally. city surveillance such as the possibility of Mentions Ashish Raina, Principal picture wherein integrating Automatic Number Plate Analyst, Gartner, “India is still an Recognition System (ANPRS) and video evolving market. We were not even organizations can analytics. automated, the cost of developing this have the facilityto Junagadh is not alone in its attempt to solution earlier was quite high and the deploy surveillance solutions for civic sense was very low. Thus, it was record onlywhat is heightened security. More and more limited only to some large enterprises needed. police forces, government organizations and certain units like IT, R&D, where and enterprises are supplementing their there was confidential data.” Even from Sudhindra Holla, security efforts with video surveillance IT service perspective, compliance issues CountryManager,Axis Communications equipment and solutions, especially in makes it necessary that there is no data
10 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
theft, thereby leading to installations of these tools. From compliance driven VIZAG SEAPORTGOES FOR IP-BASED SURVEILLANCE usage it escalated later, into commercial spaces when large retail outlets started deploying surveillance. Presently, more The Vizag Seaport terminal is part of authorities were also keen on improving than ever we are required to manage it in Visakhapatnam Port,which is one of the operational alertness. a much more formal and organized way. 12 major ports in India.The terminal In the first phase, the team installed was part of an expansion project under a total of 17 cameras, including Axis 215 The best practices PPP (Public Private Partnership) PTZ-E and Axis P1343 cameras (that are Surveillance management and its scheme of Government of India.The suitable for outdoor locations),Axis surrounding best practices is not as port carries out bulk handling of cargo 233D and Axis Q6032-E PTZ network tricky as organizations might assume. on a 24/7 basis,with 25 vessels on cameras.The factors that were given Scalability and reliability are extremely average visiting the terminal per month. the highest priority during planning and essential when it comes to it. According Vizag Seaport Terminal as a part of implementation were environment, to Sharmila Saha, Vice President and Visakhapatnam Port and with the usage demand and the ruggedness to Head of IVSS at Mindtree Limited, “The International Ship & Port Security withstand all these elements. surveillance management software (ISPS) code coming into effect, the port Footage for 90 days is backed up and should be standards compatible so that it authorities were looking for a way to maintained by the port authorities.This is future proof. It should support cameras enhance their monitoring and allows the port authorities, from multiple vendors and be ONVIF surveillance capabilities. unprecedented insight into the port’s ready so that customers are not tied to a The Vizag Seaport,which had a activities; thereby helping to streamline particular brand of camera.” completely manual security system processes and identify redundancies.The Says Sridhar Pinnapureddy, Founder with guards patrolling the port, decided solution allows the monitoring of sensitive & CEO, CtrlS Datacenters, “There should to go in for a greenfield IP-based and non-sensitive areas selectively.It has be a proper integration of the camera surveillance solution. In the first phase, also reduced a lot of unnecessary disputes with video and access control. An ideal the port installed 17 cameras to monitor with the contractors and sub-contractors network with sufficient bandwidth and the cargo handling operations and allied and with the external entities that work at compression capabilities to transfer activities at the Vizag Seaport.The the terminal. dynamic images captured in high- implementation team had to take In addition, the surveillance system resolution, is critical to optimized utmost care while installing the system acts as a deterrent for any possible performance.” at all critical locations due to the nature thefts or security and protocol C.G. Prasad, Director - Information of the weather and applications violation.The surveillance solution also Systems, Premier Inn India Pvt Ltd, says, sensitivity. facilitates random remote inspection of “If an organization is very mature in its The implementation of Axis network- the port by share holders spread over outlook of surveillance systems, it will try based surveillance system enabled three different countries. to have a DR system for the backup authorities to supervise port activities Apart from better surveillance, the storage. They store backup data and on a 24/7 basis with minimal manual system provides data that can serve as replicate it both on-premise and off- intervention.Additionally, the recorded a training tool for new employees. For premise so that business continuity is not data also serves as a powerful training example, existing videos of key events affected. The end-point devices should be tool to help new employees understand can be used to educate new employees tamper-proof, but that is not often the port functioning.While upgrading on the procedures for handling such case in India as there are no rules or security was an important objective, the events. regulations around it.” Premier Inn has installed Cisco and Honeywell surveillance tools, using IP and analog CCTV devices, covering the entry and exit points and the entire property. They also keep a backup of these recordings. According to Trimax IT Infrastructure and Services Ltd, organizations have to put a lot of effort in continual monitoring of surveillance. 24X7 multiple trained staff needs to be deployed for monitoring. They also need to train specifically toward disaster management as they need to take the
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 11 COVER STORY
Our civic sense is very low. [Surveillance] is taken as a secondarything. It should have a legal impetus. Ashish Raina, Principal Analyst,Gartner
corrective action if they see any threat. disaster and that is why ensuring best Nowadays, organizations have also been practices is extremely vital. investing in static IP-based monitoring to Organizations should do regular internal view the footage from anywhere, any time. audits and keep on upgrading these tools. Mentions Sudhindra Holla, Country Organizations should check if they [tools] An organization with Manager, Axis Communications, are strategically placed. Also, “Integration of access control and video organizations need not lax in this area a mature outlook surveillance is one of the latest trends. It just because no offenders have been will tryto have a is better to go with open standards. caught in months. Traditionally, they are proprietary in DR system for the nature. Analytics is also coming into the The hurdles picture wherein organizations can have Lack of awareness and planning can backup storage. the facility to record only what is needed. bring unforeseen challenges in dealing C.G.Prasad, This helps in saving the storage as well as with surveillance tools. One of the major Director - Information Systems, bandwidth.” challenges that organizations face is that Premier Inn India Pvt Ltd A single breach can lead to major they require huge bandwidth. The
12 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
different events and cameras is becoming challenging.” Predicting the needs (HD, higher bandwidth, etc.) of GUIDELINES FOR various users in the organization is turning more complex due to rapid SURVEILLANCE growth and ever evolving dynamics of the office environment. According to Saha of MindTree, “The To control physical access to network is the heart of the system and it is video surveillance imperative to ensure it is up all the time. components, consider the Another important aspect is the storage following guidelines: infrastructure for easy management and ● If possible, place retrieval of stored videos.” components in areas where India is a very different country and you can control who can our use cases are very different from access the areas. For example, other countries. Our requirements are consider placing servers in different from Europe and US. Says locked cages or rooms. Raina of Gartner, “Our civic sense is very low. It is taken as a secondary thing. It ● Lock components in racks. should have a legal impetus. The ● Lock cameras in their requirement has to be in sync with local locations or use vandal- requirements. Here it is polluted, there is resistant devices. lot of dust, lot of smog. The cameras need to be dust resistant. They also need to be ● Protect network cables and made cheaper.” other infrastructure More challenges lie in terms of components. organizations’ lack of awareness in Scalable storage for video optimally utilizing these tools. surveillance Sometimes, organizations put these tools in place and do not use it. They do not With the increasing popularity utilize the data. If you have these systems of IP video surveillance then there should be a dedicated security systems, data storage in department and a security team. video surveillance is In the India context, the legal undergoing a major revolution. department should write down strong Today’s video surveillance measures in terms of what should systems require storage that organizations follow and be legally bound can: to have effective surveillance in place. ● Scale to larger capacities Mentions Prasad of Premier Inn, “Organizations should have a system ● Record higher frame rates network needs to be designed properly or where it is mandatory to store data of without dropping frames else it would get choked. There is also particular days. In India, the security ● Add cost-effective storage knowledge related issues in terms of end- system has been a precarious thing and it for longer retention periods customers that do not have lot of has not been given much attention. knowledge in handling these equipments. There have to be strict measures to ● Handle higher resolution People need to be educated when they implement it.” video from megapixel and are shifting from analogue to IP based India is a diverse market with diverse multi-megapixel cameras surveillance. needs. Organizations and vendors need ● Mentions Pinnapureddy of CtrlS, to work more on spreading awareness Store and manage videos “The growing need for organizations to and training to make surveillance centrally from a distributed stretch the retention period of captured management hassle-free. How many implementation data from 30 days to 90 days and in some incidents do we need before the lesson— ● Scale to accommodate cases, even 365 days is creating demand that security cannot be compromised—is future growth. for high capacity storage systems and driven home? even high performance computing and Courtesy: Trimax IT Infrastructure and memory. The correlation between [email protected] Services Ltd
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MicroStrategy India Pvt Ltd | Trade Cenre, Regus, 1st Floor | Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra (E) | Mumbai, 400 051, India FEATURE OPEN SOURCE »
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OPEN MEANS BUSINESS Providing modular architecture, better security and enhanced customization, open source ERP and CRM are set to grab more market share in the next few years
BY KTP RADHIKA
oimbatore based Trident are now entering the open world of Specific figures for India may not be Pneumatics is into manufacturing business software. From the reliable, available at the moment, but experts say critical compressed air solutions. secure Linux operating system, to the the industry is maturing faster. Another COne of the largest exporters of air unsurpassed LAMP platform (a platform report from Gartner in 2012 said open treatment products in India, the consisting of Linux, Apache, MySQL and source software would continue to company was using an Indian accounting Perl/PHP/Python), open source has quite broaden its presence and create pressure software to manage its business a lot to offer for enterprise business on market leaders during the next three operations. However, streamlining systems. In recent years, open source to five years, especially when open source business turned out to be a problem. The software has begun to move into the becomes a key element of the software management wanted to automate the mainstream business application quality landscape beyond the developer interlinked business processes and to get marketplace, and are increasingly level. It forecast that nearly 70% new real-time and accurate management deployed in mission critical scenarios. enterprise Java applications will be information. Trident also required better According to IDC, the global software deployed on open source Java application inventory management and optimized market is worth close to $300 billion, with servers by the end of 2017. production planning and control. open source growing at an average yearly It all started with Linux going into data The management felt that only open growth of 22% and expected to exceed $8 centers, comments Arun Kumar, General source solutions were capable of offering billion by this year. In 2012, Gartner Manager, Red Hat India. “From analytics high levels of customization, and decided reported that on average, 29% of to business applications, interests in open to use an open source alternative for ERP. deployed code was open source. The source is getting high because Linux data It implemented OpenERP 5.0.14, an open research firm also predicts that by 2015 centers have received a lot of credibility in source product from the vendor at least 95% of mainstream IT the past 10 years. Linux data centers have OpenERP, which solved all their organizations will leverage open source grown from virtually zero to around 20% problems. solutions within mission-critical software during this period. It is poised to grow from Like Trident, a whole lot of companies deployments. 25% to 30% in next 2- 3 years,” he says.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 17 FEATURE OPEN SOURCE »
Open source software are widely adopted by companies for asserting control over their IT infrastructure, feels CHECK THEM Sumit Misra, General Manager and Head - Competency Process, RS Software. “An OUT open source model for an ERP or CRM allows companies to access the system's code and customize it using their own IT Some popular open source department instead of paying extra for business applications: vendor customization services and ERP: OpenERP,Fedena,ERPnext People who are licensing, as is typically the case with (for SMB space),Openbravo, closed source programs.” RS Software Apache OfBiz invested in Linux started using open source tools from 2011 have moved up in for its analytics and mobile application CRM: Sugar CRM,OpenERP's CRM development (Android). and sales solution the stacksince they Typically, organizations adopt the HRM: Orange HRM,Waypoint HR, open source software stack bottom-up. Simple HRM (SMBs) have experienced That is, they start on the system that open source infrastructure level (e.g. Linux) and then Point of Sale: Apache OfBiz, move up the stack to application OpenERP is as good or infrastructure (like applications servers) even better. and then to business applications. “Thus people who are invested in Linux have According to Rushabh Mehta, Arun Kumar, moved up in the stack since they have Founder, ERPnext, a cloud-based open General Manager, experienced that open source is as good source ERP vendor, in an open source Red Hat India or even better in certain aspects ERP or CRM, it is up to the user company compared to the proprietary alternative. – not the vendor – to decide what is the Their next option is middleware. After time to upgrade. that core applications will be their Fine architecture is another choice,” explains Kumar. advantage open source software offers. Open source applications are coming Not just cost with zero legacy. Thus developers can Free and open source software (FOSS) build applications with latest tools. holds many compelling advantages for Kumar of Red Hat states, “In open source businesses. There is a common view that applications, the architecture is far price is the motivating factor for adopting superior since they do not have the open source software since it is relatively burden of legacy to take along with. So cheap. But open source is much more they have a whole lot scope for than that. The results of a survey on innovation. Open source applications, 'Future of Open Source' conducted by hence, will be more modular, architected Black Duck Software, a leading open with latest framework, developed using source software partner, and North latest best practices and much more Bridge Ventures this year shows that secure. With all these features, open freedom from vendor lock-in and better source developers can bring out Last year,we saw quality software are the prominent completely new breed of applications for factors in choosing open source software. enterprise users.” several clients Atul Saini, Founder and CEO, T3 Edutainment, a company that provides Secure and flexible adopting open source technology solutions and a range of Bugs in open source software also tend to in the business quality educational programs, states that get fixed immediately. “Open source freedom is one of his major criteria while codes are available publicly. And open application space choosing open source. The company is source communities globally contribute on a large scale using open source tools for their and analyze the code, making it more inventory management, project secure and constantly increasing the Mantavya Gajjar, management and sales management for quality. So they are rich in features, Director,TinyERP the past two years. excellent in design and more secure. Also,
18 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
Flexibilitywas one of the main attractions for choosing open source solution for our business. Mahesh K.Malani, Head (Operations), Mahesh Engineering Services
open source tools provide us with the much needed customization and agility,” IN 2012,GARTNER says T3 Edutainment's Saini. Another major benefit, obviously, is REPORTED THATON customization. Open source solutions can be easily customized for diverse AVERAGE,29% OF businesses involving no additional costs. Open source applications offer a DEPLOYED CODE WAS framework which can further be OPEN SOURCE An open source model customized to build an application to suit various individual requirements. So, more for an ERPor CRM number of businesses are embracing the Head (Operations), Mahesh Engineering allows companies open source development technology. Services, a company that supplies Mantavya Gajjar, Director, Tiny ERP, a industrial electrical products, states that to access the division of OpenERP, says, “Open source flexibility was one of the main attraction solutions in the business application space for choosing open source solution for his system's code and have helped companies set up their online business. The company currently uses customize it using identity in an easier and cost effective ERPnext for its business purposes. manner. It is very easy to customize open “Whenever there was a scenario of a their own IT source software if you are familiar with the considerable change in our product code. You can also change work flows as offering, pricing, specification, terms and department. per requirement.” OpenERP is a global demanding customer expectations Sumit Misra, vendor of open source ERP. requirements, open source solutions General Manager and Head - Competency Flexibility is a major factor that provided us all the flexibility and Process,RS Software attracts adoption. Mahesh K. Malani, scalability where proprietary solutions
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 19 FEATURE OPEN SOURCE »
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failed,” he says. Reduction in the total cost of ownership is indeed attracting companies to open source business applications. “ERP is a valuable tool that allows businesses to realize improved performance and better financial management. Even with its benefits, the high cost of proprietary ERP causes many executives to question their return on investment in these products. However, the costs for proprietary and open source systems vary widely and scales with the size of the business. With open source solutions, the system is free to download and there are no user licenses. No licensing fees means businesses are able to create as many user accounts as they need without worrying about the cost,” explains Gajjar. Adoption gearing up Obviously, all these benefits are boosting goes wrong, it will affect the entire adoption of open source applications OPEN SOURCE business.” So if companies are not able to among businesses, especially in the small find out a proper vendor or system and medium (SME) sector. Technological APPLICATIONS integrator to step up and provide innovations such as cloud computing and adequate support, there wont be a major mobile-based solutions are driving ARE COMING WITH rise in the adoption rate. “But all these adoption for open source business challenges are a question of time. People applications. ZERO LEGACY.THUS will see this as an opportunity and will In the past few years, many open start coming up with proper solutions, source based software have become DEVELOPERS CAN support and will monetize it in coming popular in areas such as ERP, CRM, BUILD APPLICATIONS few years,” he visualizes. HRM, POS. Gajjar says, “Last year, we While proprietary software laid most saw several clients adopting open source WITH THE LATEST of the foundation for computing since the in the business application space on a beginning, open source has proven to be large scale, and we saw an increase in TOOLS just as useful and valuable as proprietary proposal work related to open source.” software has been. With advancements in In the SME space too, open source technologies emerging everyday, open adoption is on the rise. “In India, people environment. Some open source source solutions will become very are still stuck with Tally. But things are solutions may never work well with powerful and continue to advance and changing. The industry is slowly moving established proprietary products. contribute to computing and software up. There are many companies now Another challenge is training the internal development. They will start managing offering open source ERP services which staff. States Gajjar, “In many enterprises, the critical needs of the enterprise will drive innovation in this space and the staff are traditionally trained and community. Experts feel that in the near drive adoption,” feels Mehta. practiced using proprietary software future many more open source tools, programs. Introduction of new programs which can be integrated with core An open future and software may require re-training in business applications, will emerge and Despite their new-found popularity in the order to enable the crew to use open will enhance the functions of core business application space, open source source solutions. This may be a challenge business applications. These solutions, tools still have a long way to go to catch for many organizations.” rather than replacing the entire system, up with their proprietary counterparts. Scarcity of vendors with adequate will help increase the functionalities of One challenge is that open source support is also posing a challenge for the the existing systems and boost the value solutions may require additional user community in business application proposition of the entire business. development to enable them to integrate space. Kumar feels, “ERP and CRM are with an existing proprietary business critical applications. If anything [email protected]
20 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 INTERVIEW www.expresscomputeronline.com NITIN HIRANANDANI In a conversation with Heena Jhingan, Nitin Hiranandani, Director - Printing, HP PPS, HP India, throws light on the kind of metamorphosis the print industry is undergoing. “Printing anything, anywhere from any device is the new big thing”
This year’s first quarter hasn’t been very good for enterprise customers. The AIO market has been the printer industry in India.Going forward how do growing over 100% for last 6 to 8 quarters. As per you see the market perform at the end of the IDC, the market size of single function laser and fiscal? all in one is almost 50-50 (in units) in value terms The first quarter might not have been great for the market for AIO is much higher. So very the industry, but HP continues to maintain the clearly, there is a distinctive shift or lead. Over the years, we have been driving the transformation to an all-in-one kind of a market overall printing market in India. We continue to that is primarily driven by the fact that features drive technology leadership and innovation both like scan and copy are again a part of every from a vendor and consumer perspective, customer’s life, be it SOHO or SMB — building into our products what customers affordability, definitely is another factor for want. The entire IT industry is going through a inflexion. huge transformation—both application and expectations have now changed. I believe in The All in One Software is now becoming a critical part in the these testing times, innovation will be critical to (AIO) printer printing business.How does HPplan to leverage its move ahead. market has been software hold in the market? Earlier, the customers needed a printer to growing over Software definitely an important piece and now which they could simply fire a job and get done, 100% for last 6 to we see it well knitted in our strategy. We have a which is no more the case. We recently launched a 8 quarters.As per three pillar Managed Print Services (MPS) web-connected, cloud ready printer, on demands strategy. Optimize infrastructure, manage the of the customers asking for a printer that they IDC,the market environment and improve workflow. Software could connect with on the network and on the size of single plays a central role in all the three stages of the web. We launched a new range of printers that function laser and MPS offering. I think our MPS offering is an don’t require a computing device to be connected all in one is almost excellent example of HP’s software integration to the web, you can connect through the printer, 50-50 (in units) in into the hardware. Our expertise and knowledge download the content and print it directly on the value terms the in the software domain helps us understand the printer. In addition to that, our printers now have market for AIO is customer needs better and equips us to develop things like a front panel and touch. the right application to meet the requirements of What is really changing and evolving is the much higher.So the customers. We are now extending MPS to the customer needs. Being leaders in this space, it is very clearly,there SME through a channels led model. We very important for us to take the technology to is a distinctive understand the ambition of these small and consumer. A revolution is brewing up in the form shift or medium enterprises to grow in a structured of e-print technology. Printing anything, transformation to manner. anywhere from any device is the new big thing. an all-in-one kind When we look at our enterprise portfolio, we of a market that is In times of color and MFPadoption,HPrecently have the product range for MFS with retractable primarily driven by announced mono laser printers.What is the keyboard, for adding meta tags and adding the thought behind this? document to the workflow. the fact that Clearly, the thought behind is the customer’s features like scan need. It’s not that we will not sell color (printers). How does the market look like as of now? Do we and copy are again These mono lasers are targeted at SMEs and still see the single function printers going strong? a part of every enterprises. We know the printing scenario in the The printer market is at a very interesting stage customer’s life,be office, a majority of it is mono. These solutions are as of now with a wide range of products. The it SOHO or SMB — for customers for whom larger bulk of printing is multi-function printers can be further be broken mono and they want a product that is as robust into two categories. One is AIO (all-in-one), affordability, and stable as a laser printer— 90 ppm and 12000 which is an entry level thing up to 20 ppm (prints definitely is duty cycle, at an affordable CPP (cost per page). per minute) and then we have the high end MFPs another factor for – 30 ppm and above, which are meant for inflexion. [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 21
CASE STUDY PLAYBLAZER » GAMING N
Playblazer sets a new score by providing cloud hosted services to game developers and enabling them to launch new games quickly
BY HEENA JHINGAN
24 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
ith the rising popularity of all their Facebook friend lists and email sorts of games, the gaming address books. This has resulted into industry is on a roll. The some successes like Draw Something, WFICCI-KPMG Indian Media Words with Friends, etc. and Entertainment Industry Report 2013 With an experience in publishing and estimates that the games industry in studio side of the game Industry, Soman India (console, mobile, PC and online believes they understand the primary games) to grow at a 22% CAGR to reach pain points and the associated need gaps. $776 million by 2017. In such times of “These insights combined with meeting rapid growth and stiff competition, and discussions with many developers Playblazer, a software-as-a-service AWS wins on keyfactors gave us a very good idea of the solution provider, puts game makers on the fast required. This also gave us an early track and is enabling them to reach the like geographical reach insight into the key trends shaping the market quickly with its ‘ready-to-use’ industry,” he says. back-end services for game studios. of the platform,quality Soman says that building multiplayer In an era of social and multi-player of management tools, games is incredibly challenging, and that gaming for multiple devices, Playblazer is because of how rapidly these games can offers about 15 pre-built middleware ease of integration, scale. A simple word game can fetch game services and components, such as flexibility, millions of users in a couple of weeks from player management, social network launch, and for studios, that can be a integration, social publishing, lobby granularityof tough situation to handle. They not only systems and session management via a need to think about the game logic, device cloud-hosted service that game pricing,etc. specific issues and creative aspects, but developers can include into their game Nikhil Soman, also need to worry about building a clients (mobile apps) via a web API. Founder,Playblazer scalable backend for the game. The So, the game developer has to do the backend is the game. That is where the least on the server side. When business challenge of delivering a scalable implemented in this way, every user of product meets technology challenges. the game connects to Playblazer’s “We thus built a modular system that backend for the respective capabilities leverages the best of cloud computing integrated into the game. using the various capabilities of Amazon The SaaS provider has a simple Web Services (AWS) to create a flexible revenue model, based on the total number set of game services that can scale up and of active users on a daily basis (all unique down on demand. We also worked on users that log in on any given day). creating a multi-tenanted architecture “Besides, a fixed monthly fee is for our service. The intent was to quickly charged for access to the Playblazer be in a position to leverage economies of platform during development phase, as scale across many games. This provides a well as for staging and sandbox cost effective solution to individual infrastructure that provides a games/studios while also giving us the continuously updated trail environment ability to use resources efficiently,” he without affecting live services,” explains reasons, adding that committing huge Nikhil Soman, Founder, Playblazer. budgets to building game specific backends and infrastructure is simply The best of cloud unviable, given the risk of a failed game. Availability of games on powerful yet So, when they set out developing the portable personal devices bundled with Most other cloud platform in August 2012, they evaluated a 3G connectivity (on smartphones) has number of solutions, including the caused a major shift in the industry. This platforms had a very possibility of building their own requires the industry to respond with dedicated infrastructure, using custom game mechanics that leveraged rigid technologystack traditional data centers, as well as using things like accelerometers, and that hid awaya lot of other cloud platforms like Google App capacitive touch displays. It isn’t just Engine or Heroku etc. about the physical changes — consumers things that Playblazer Soman recalls, “However, each of the are changing too. Players demand options considered had a number of multiplayer gameplay — powered by wanted in its control challenges that made them unviable.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 25 CASE STUDY PLAYBLAZER »
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Building our own infrastructure had the same disadvantages that studios had suffered – high capital requirement, high operating costs incurred on human resources, power, cooling etc. – besides none of these activities were core to our product. We needed to use a platform that let us focus on more important issues related to enabling new game mechanics, rather than reinventing the wheel of data center operations.” They found that most other cloud platforms had a very rigid technology stack that hid away a lot of things that they wanted in their control. Most of them were restricted to certain operating systems, specific languages or proprietary services. These factors would have been contrary to their goal of He is of the opinion that using AWS building a platform agnostic solution that has enabled Playblazer to significantly could work on ‘any’ infrastructure ALEVELUPWITH shorten their time-to-market, from idea provider. conception to implementation and Playblazer is Soman’s second AMAZON delivery to customers - in less than 5 entrepreneurial venture using AWS after months. The same benefits are also Dialify (a pioneer in audio gaming), which passed on to game studios. also was on AWS, hence it was his first How Playblazer benefited from its Soman thinks the primary value of choice as a cloud vendor given this choice of Amazon Web Services AWS is that it lets them focus on core association with them since 2007. ● Multi-tenancy capabilities, while taking away a lot of the Getting on to the business was hardly operations processes that otherwise a task. So, Playblazer, a team of two, built ● Highly secured platform would require a very large team. This the platform in-house in about six months ● Application agnostic gives him the reason to boast of his two- and is already working with studios like man team today that delivered a platform Jump Games and Khelega Games. As ● Flexibility to auto-scale and load- of about 15 component services, used by Soman puts it, “Learning and integrating balance. games each of which drives over 100 AWS services was perhaps only about a million API calls per month. 5% effort.” There is nothing he wants to change quality of management tools, ease of about AWS services that the company is The winning bout integration, flexibility, granularity of using, instead he wants to build on the Over the past few years, a number of pricing, billing, security and scalability, system and keep adding components and other options have emerged viz Softlayer, data storage coupled with finely tuned, capabilities for small and large studios to Rackspace for building one’s own high-speed read and write operations rapidly build more and more complex virtualization platform using tools like over a web service. gameplay and game logic. He says, “We OpenStack or Eucalyptus. That does not Another feature that Playblazer offers, also plan to start work on a set of move the Amazon fan in Soman. In his thanks to the AWS cloud is "Multi- extensions that integrate directly into opinion, AWS still remains the category tenancy". Soman elaborates, “This means Front-end Game Design tools like Unity, leader in terms of geographic that each game does not need to be run on GameSalad, Corona, etc. distribution of its infrastructure, and its separate servers (though it is possible to He sums up, saying that he plans to pace of providing new and more relevant do so if a particular game gets too big). provide a Publisher Suite of services. “Of course the excellent Instead, we provision multiple tenant Measurement & Monitoring services, management tools that AWS provides games on the same infrastructure at the along with the capability to cross- are also one of the key factors in making same time, while providing each game its promote games within the community of the choice between various cloud own secure area, invisible to other games Playblazer hosted games leading to the providers,” he adds. co-existing in the same space. This ability creation of a full-service game delivery In fact, he views AWS as the strategic lets us dramatically bring down the cost of and game distribution platform for social partner to grow the company’s gaming infrastructure for tenant games. This and multiplayer games. business. AWS wins on key factors like efficiency of infrastructure is only geographical reach of the platform, possible in the cloud.” [email protected]
26 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 INTERVIEW www.expresscomputeronline.com GERALD ATTIA, RAMANDEEP SINGH Gerald Attia, Deputy CEO, Alten Group, and Ramandeep Singh, CEO, Alten ALTEN GROUP Calsoft Labs, in a conversation with Pankaj Maru talk about the group’s overall business, Indian operations post the Calsoft Labs acquisition and more... “Concentrating on different sectors enables us to balance growth”
Which are the verticals that are driving your map that includes organic and inorganic company’s overall business? growth fueled by the U.S. and European Gerald Attia: There are 16,000 people in the markets. The year 2013 has been a good Alten Group that help us in serving large year so far and as per our projection, the rest customers across geographies in the areas of of the year also looks positive. We don’t see project management as well as global R&D any major impact of the U.S. legislation on support. Aerospace, automotive, telecom, visa. information systems, and energy and life sciences are the five key verticals we focus What kind of challenges are you witnessing on. Each contributes around 20% to the in terms of talent given the new technology company’s revenue. GERALD ATTIA trends? However, in the past few months the Gerald Attia: Recruiting talent remains a key automotive sector has underperformed due part of our business. There’s a big demand for to the crisis in Europe that has brought the talent in the cloud and big data. vertical’s contribution under 20%. We are witnessing enough scope for growth in the Ramandeep Singh: Technology changes every energy and life sciences space. Our day and staying updated is essential for a concentration on different sectors enables us business to survive. We are investing in cloud, to balance our growth. Our skill big data, and in certain emerging areas in diversification strategy helps us expand networking such as SDN (software defined from one geography to another and plays networking) and NFV (network functions well with our organic and inorganic business RAMANDEEP SINGH virtualization) to train our teams with the plan and execution. help of experts and engage them in new proof of concepts. So we need a mix of experience Can you elaborate on your India business and new talent. and operations? What are your Gerald Attia: Post our acquisition of Calsoft expansion plans Recently, Calsoft Labs joined the Labs in India, we are pursuing two types of Network Intelligence (NI) Alliance. Can you business opportunities. One, we are doing in India? please elaborate on the significance of projects for clients like Airbus and other this move? companies in Europe by using India as the Gerald Attia: We Ramandeep Singh: The telecom sector is delivery center. And the second business don’t come to India changing rapidly and more intelligence is now opportunity is to focus on the Indian market for lowcost or getting onto networks. The network should doing projects with the captives of MNCs or pricing but for the be aware of what is going on. To implement their international clients in India. However, talent pool that’s better security, and improve reliability and bringing business from Europe to India is available in quality of service, networks are required to more challenging compared to bringing abundance when be upgraded with new technologies. We have business from the U.S. This is largely due to been in the business of making networks factors like mindset, culture and cost, so it compared to Europe intelligent for a number of years. By joining remains a daunting task. and the U.S.Earlier, the NI Alliance, we will be able to offer Besides, there is competition from near- India was onlya next-generation network architecture shore countries like Romania, Ireland and testing ground for IT and services to telcos and service providers. others. We have 1000 people in India and as projects.But today, We have built a center of competence in per our strategic plan we want to increase it Indian teams are India, which will be useful for testing and to 2000 by 2016. We are looking at inorganic driving the entire development, and will be helpful in serving as well as organic growth. global clients and markets. project,which is a Ramandeep Singh: We have a definite road positive trend. [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 27 INTERVIEW MICHEL RIVA R&M Michel Riva, CEO of Swiss cable maker R&M, discusses with Pankaj Maru the company’s business, the impact of slowdown, new technologies used in cabling products, plans for the Indian market and much more. Excerpts... “R&M has invested time and money into innovation even during this sluggish growth”
Please brief us about the company’s overall with relatively new market entrants and global business in the past year or so. services like 3G being introduced in the India. R&M has been able to grow steadily over the The next technological wave coming into India last couple of years. We have been able to see a is the 4G network and we can see that India is double digit growth for the organization and now getting onto that bandwagon. The telecom win key global accounts across various regions. growth will require better networks which will The future of the cabling industry looks bright have a direct impact on structured cabling. and we are making strides in the right Telecom along with key sectors such as retail, direction. The organization will continue to automotive, manufacturing, IT/ITES as well as bring innovative, technologically superior the public sector will need more stable, reliable products to the market. We invest heavily on networks and R&M will continue to provide R&D to ensure that the products we develop newer, robust solutions for networking and launch are ready to meet requirements requirements of these sectors. that arise in the future. We can see cloud computing in enterprises requires higher bandwidths that can be Given the sluggish economy,how much impact effectively met by deploying fiber-optic based are you seeing in demand of cabling products? solutions. As these services gather more The perception that global recession has had momentum, it will increase the demand for its effects on the best of economies is true. fiber-optic solutions. Requirements set by India has not been insulated from this effect, How strategic is business customers are becoming tougher and but there’s predominantly been a slowdown. India as a market tougher. In this dynamic scenario, R&M sees its This can be seen in the way the markets have for R&M role as ensuring that the physical layer of next performed and the cautious steps that are compared to generation networks is reliable and allows for being taken by investors too. From the industry other regions or high-performance networks. standpoint, we have seen many expansion countries? plans that were stalled and recruitment frozen. R&M has been a late entrant in the India market, Today, the market has recovered and there India as a market so how are you trying to make your space among are many positives toward growth. We witness the customers and competitors as India is a this positivity as companies previously hit by has a huge amount price-sensitive market? recession have moved into expansion mode of potential.R&M R&M has entered the Indian market relatively with hiring of new staff, and infrastructure. feels that India at late in comparison to our competitors but this Through these companies, we foresee larger the moment is one has in no way hampered our growth over the volumes of business transactions and with it of their main years. R&M’s innovative, Swiss-quality cabling higher data and voice transmission markets mainlydue products and solutions have really gathered requirements emerging. R&M has invested to the reason that momentum. The product quality and technical time and money into innovation even during features help the market to offer a greater this sluggish growth. We have seen positives the countryhas degree of differentiation and value to the end through our unique differentiation in product shown positive customers. R&M will continue to focus on design and we believe we will continue to see signs over the last developing our presence in all the sectors this in the future too. fewyears.India as across India and also have a focus on the compared to other channel market, especially in Tier 2 and Tier 3 Over the past few years,there’s been a rapid markets holds a cities. Through the R&M Qualified Partner growth in telecom networks like 3G and 4G, huge importance.It Program (QPP), we continue to train and certify evolution in enterprise mobility along with cloud partners and system integrators. We will computing.How do these developments go with is surelyone of our continue to offer innovative products and cabling products and technologies? important markets solutions for office cabling, data center and The telecom sector is experiencing a revolution for business. FTTH (fiber-to-the-premises) markets, with
28 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
the introduction of new products that help achieve to achieve this once again as we look to strive higher performance and reliability to our enterprise to success. customers. Which segments of the Indian market are you What challenges are you facing in the Indian market? focusing on? R&M faces the same challenges in India as in any We as an organization would like to do business in all other market across the globe. The challenges of Structured cabling segments. Structured cabling forms the foundation such an ever-changing market are of higher speeds, forms the for any communication or data network. This makes reliability of networks, their expandability, and foundation for any it an almost ubiquitous requirement in any sector. offering a greater value proposition. But at present, communication or IT/ITES continues to be a major vertical which has the main challenge has been the currency the highest demand of structured cabling. The fluctuations of the Indian economy. data network.This growth of data centers has also fueled demand for makes it an almost faster, high performance and high density structured How has the company performed in the Indian market ubiquitous cabling (Cat.6A) solutions. Manufacturing and despite being a late entrant here? What are your requirement in any automotive sectors also require an industrial grade of expectations from the India unit in terms of sales, sector.IT/ITES structured cabling that can shield the networks from revenues and overall growth? continues to be a foreign particles and water splashes. We have been gaining key accounts even if we major vertical Other sectors that we see growing are telecom, arrived late into India. R&M products and solutions healthcare, hospitality and retail. R&M’s specialized are used across a myriad of sectors like IT/ITES, which has the portfolio of cabling solutions enables us to offer manufacturing, BFSI, healthcare, education, highest demand of solutions that best suit each sector’s different automotive, telecom, etc., to name a few. Each structured cabling. requirements. For instance, with R&M’s end-to-end market has its own distinct set of requirements and The growth of data solution for data centers and FTTH networks given our portfolio of end-to-end cabling solutions, centers has also facilitates organizations and system integrators for we are able to cater to those requirements. In 2012- fueled demand for greater flexibility while designing their solutions 13, the demand in Tier 1 cities and from major faster,high such that they are future proof and can be enterprises functioning in these cities contributed administered with ease. R&M’s Swiss quality the highest. However, the emerging Tier 2 and Tier 3 performance and products and solutions facilitate the creation of cities also attracted demand and contributed high density higher performance and reliable IT infrastructure. significantly to our growth. R&M grew consistently structured cabling year on year at a rate of over 20% and we would like (Cat.6A) solutions. [email protected]
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 29
CASE STUDY ASSAM VALLEY SCHOOL » TOWARD A WIRELESS CAMPUS
Deploying networking solutions from Allied Telesis has enabled Assam Valley School to experience a hassle free network across its residential campus
BY KTP RADHIKA
32 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
he Assam Valley School (AVS) is needed fiber-oriented backbone for a one of the exclusive coeducational secure, highly resilient and scalable boarding schools in the North network for future expansion. AVS also TEast of India. Spread over 203 looked out for a solution that can provide acres at Balipara in Sonitpur district of interoperability with existing products Assam, AVS is affiliated to the Council for and also can keep the legacy network Indian School Certificate Examination intact without degradation of services. (CISCE). The school has about 900 Thus, in 2011, after a rigorous market students, and features state-of-the-art research, the management decided to go infrastructure to cater to the growing for Allied Telesis networking solutions. needs of the students. It also has the Addressing all our latest IT infrastructure to facilitate all The solution educational needs. All of the 900 Allied Telesis offered four switches to networkissues, students and the teachers use laptops cater to the school’s needs. Subhasish and access the Internet. The residential Gupta, Country Manager – India & Allied Telesis has school sees high demand for Internet SAARC at Allied Telesis, says, “AVS provided us with consumption as the students and faculty required high availability of bandwidth need huge amounts of Internet with sufficient coverage and anticipated a hassle free, bandwidth for their academic activities. further expansion. Conceiving this, Allied reliable and In its initial days, the school was using Telesis catered the suitable product from solutions from a popular networking gear our product portfolio. In this network, we scalable network. maker for all their network used the x900 series switch, which is an infrastructure needs. However, the advanced Layer 3 switch with built-in Rupjyoti Das, management soon found out that the radius server for user authentication, System Administrator, solutions were not suitable for their which is appreciable for a wireless Assam ValleySchool expansion plans. Rupjyoti Das, System network.” Administrator at Assam Valley School, This switch supports Ethernet states, “Those products are very entry Protected Switching Ring (EPSR) level. We used to give students online technology that provides true carrier- assignments and when all the 900 class network for a highly resilient students start accessing Internet, we network topology. Virtual Chassis would experience a network drop and Stacking (VCSTACK), a unique disconnection of devices.” And when it technology for the Allied Telesis' switch, rains with lighting and thunder, these provides high density bandwidth for all devices would get damaged. users simultaneously instead of keeping With these difficulties, AVS started the standby resource absolutely unused. using products of an American With stacking capability, the multinational company for quite a while. requirement of scaling further can be But support was a major issue with this met seamlessly without disturbing the networking solutions provider. Describes network operation. They also installed The 8000 series Das, “It provided good products, but the other switches like AT-8000S/24 series problem was support.” Moreover, its that run on the same open software POE enabled switch products were very costly too. platform. Another AT-8000/8 POE – Fast provides the option The school needed a solution that Ethernet switch was installed along with. offers them high availability for data “The 8000 series POE enabled switch to put the access network on a wireless media. They also provides the option to put the access points properlyas the building AVS wanted a solution that could provide interoperabilitywith aesthetics are also existing products and also keep the legacynetworkintact without taken into account. Subhasish Gupta, degradation of services CountryManager – India & SAARC, Allied Telesis
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 33 CASE STUDY ASSAM VALLEY SCHOOL »
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points properly as the building aesthetics getting good support from Allied Telesis. are also taken into the account,” says “Allied products are very cost effective. Gupta. Allied Telesis fiber-supported Allied Telesis We are getting three year warranty and switches minimize the need for multiple fiber-supported support from them for Layer 3 switches distribution boxes or patch panels which and 10 year warranty for our Layer 2 require extra space and attention from a switches minimize switches,” adds Das. All the switches maintenance perspective. The switches have stacking capacity to expand further. have built-in fiber ports to provide an the need for multiple “Addressing all our network issues, Allied end-to-end solution. For providing high Telesis has provided us with a hassle free, quality and efficient coverage to all users, distribution boxes or reliable and a scalable network which will several access points of Allied Telesis help us in further expansion whenever have been successfully deployed inside patch panels which needed,” comments Das. AVS is planning the campus. The company’s media require extra space to go with Allied Telesis for its future converters were also used to incorporate networking initiatives too. As its next the existing network. and attention from venture, the school is planning to enable Wi-Fi connectivity in the entire campus. The benefits a maintenance “Right now, all our connections are wired. “Now all our hostels are getting We are removing them and will create a individual fiber for connectivity. Students perspective. wireless campus by next year,” says Das. are not complaining about connectivity issues anymore,” says Das. AVS is also [email protected]
34 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 COLUMN www.expresscomputeronline.com RYAN HOLLENBECK MAXIMIZING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
ompanies today are facing a including software for speech analysis, The trick is to do struggle to balance critical, often text analytics and enterprise feedback it while optimizing conflicting business objectives: management, workforce management, Cmaximize customer satisfaction quality monitoring/recording, e- performance at the and increase revenue, while minimizing learning/coaching, and performance the cost of delivering an outstanding management are often implemented to same time customer experience. deliver on the promise of organizational Managing this balance at the highest performance improvement and level is difficult enough, yet it is compliance, as well as an improved complicated further by the fact that it customer experience. However, these takes many different functions and technologies traditionally support supporting processes (e.g., back office specific functions, creating a siloed claims processing, order fulfillment, etc.) environment that forces each part of the within the enterprise to service the customer service value chain to act customer. Through the contact center, independently. This is especially true in marketing, customer experience the banking environment, in which each owners/managers, branch stores, and functional area of service delivery back offices, organizations are striving to (branch stores, contact center, optimize the performance of their people, marketing/customer experience, Web, processes and technologies to increase etc.) is making independent decisions to service effectiveness and efficiency, and drive performance, rather than the result to help build customer loyalty and an of a holistic business strategy. improved customer experience. Further complicating matters, the That customer experience now goes customer experience value chain is ever- far beyond the realm of traditional widening across the enterprise and the service channels and has expanded into underlying processes to service the back office, social media and even into customers are unproductive, ineffective, service channels the enterprise doesn’t or in some cases, non-existent. manage or control, such as social Companies seek to streamline these community destinations. In fact, some customer experience processes however multi-channel customer interactions that possible. happen today didn’t even exist as little as The solution is a customer-centric five years ago (no social media, twitter, workforce optimization offering that etc.), which has made understanding breaks down the barriers between siloed what customers are saying and their functions across the customer service sentiment more challenging than ever. value chain so organizations can capture, To speed up and improve the customer analyze and act on cross-functional experience, companies must break down information concerning workforce organizational silos. Customers are performance, customer interactions and expecting immediate responses or at customer experience processes. An end- Increasingly,companies are least faster customer service, having to-end offering helps companies uncover been influenced by instant gratification trends and discover why certain adopting a customer-centric from the leading Web and social employee and customer behavior is companies. occurring, while also deploying the right management strategythrough Increasingly, companies are adopting solutions to manage to excellence and which customer wants and a customer-centric management strategy achieve continuous performance through which customer wants and needs improvement. needs drive a company’s drive a company’s business processes. Workforce optimization and voice of the Ryan Hollenbeck is SVP of Global Marketing at Verint business processes. customer analytics technologies, Systems.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 35 COLUMN DHRUV DHODY FOR AWIDER CLOUD
loud is all the buzz these days and optimize the network. There exist A peek into the it’s often said to be the next big mechanisms in MPLS (Multiprotocol evolutionary idea of thing. In fact cloud is almost here, Label Switching) based network to Cright at your doorstep. More and reserve some bandwidth with a service aware path more enterprises are cutting their IT mechanism to add more bandwidth when budgets and exploring moving their service disrupts. This way of providing a computation to applications to the cloud. So how does best path and hoping the service improve the cloud “cloud” impact our routers? parameters would be okay, and taking Applications which were available action only when these parameters are supporting wide area over the LAN would now need not satisfied is unacceptable. Service connectivity over a WAN, making the parameters should guide the path networks distance between the user and the selection process optimizing the network application to drastically increase. based on the QoE of user rather than Routers providing this WAN connectivity some arbitrary cost metric. would be a key to deliver the cloud Different applications have different functionality to the enterprise. service requirements; some may want To improve the cloud supporting WAN high bandwidth, some low jitter, some networks, there are some revolutionary minimal packet loss and its various ideas (software defined network or SDN) combinations. and then there are some evolutionary The network should be aware of the ideas (service aware path computation service parameters, and the routers using PCE – Path Computation Element). should measure and make these available Software Driven Network aims to to the PCE. The PCE server would use improve network behavior by controlling these parameters in path selection the network devices using a central process, optimizing the paths and overall orchestrator; it opens up the control of network, thus guaranteeing better QoE. data flows through the network to Other major technology trends customizable software that is include big data (large complex data set independent of the hardware that used by business intelligence) and real- forwards the flows. OpenFlow is one such time data analytics. Hadoop is a revolutionary approach to program the framework for distributed processing of dummy box replacing the decades old such complex unstructured data in a control plane function of the router. cluster set. Big data has unique service- Another evolutionary approach is to parameters which should be considered make the current control plane service in path calculation. aware — where the network elements Thus, we can assure traffic that is (routers) are fully aware of delay delay-sensitive. For instance, in financial (latency), jitter (latency variation) and stock trading, data may follow a different packet loss. path in the network than regular data There existed many mechanisms to backup. The best effort connectivity or Service parameters should measure these parameters after the path just reserving some basic bandwidth is has been established (ex VOIP), but this is not efficient. It’s a must to differentiate guide the path selection inefficient — these service parameters traffic from enterprise to cloud to be well should be considered during the path aware of the application and its inherent process optimizing the network selection process itself. service requirements. based on the QoE of user rather Concern for quality More evolved than some arbitrarycost Quality of Experience (QoE) is essential PCE-based service aware path for all users and can only be achieved if computation is more evolutionary as it metric. these service parameters are met to best retains much of the investment in widely
36 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
deployed technologies, migrating only computation – OSPF (Open Shortest Path the key service aware path First) & IS-IS (Intermediate System – computation/selection function to a Intermediate System) Routing Protocol centralized PCE server. The path extension to carry link service aware computation process is key in managing properties to populate the TEDB (Traffic the network behavior by control traffic Engineering Data Base); MPLS engineering policies with service –aware (Multiprotocol Label Switching) for parameters. The PCE architecture framework and use of these service delivers this crucial piece without parameters along with CSPF modifying every network element. This is (Constrained Shortest Path First) a gradual mechanism to a complete algorithm updates for the new constraints. centralized application aware software Cloud Service Optimization (CSO) is driven network. an area with key requirement for service We along with other vendors and PCE-based service aware path awareness. This is because cloud operators, have been leading this effort in balancing (geographically dispersed data the Internet Engineering Task Force computation retains much of the centers) puts pressure on the service (IETF) PCE Working Group (WG) with provider network. As more and more WG adoption toward RFC investment in widelydeployed organizations move toward the cloud, standardization. The work is aimed at there is a need for communication and allowing the PCE to provide path technologies,migrating onlythe joint optimization of network optimizing new service parameters (bandwidth, latency, etc.) and data center (provide a path with minimum delay) or to keyservice aware path application IT (server, memory, CPU...) set boundary conditions (provide a path computation/selection resources. Service aware PCE is a key with minimum jitter and max packet loss component of such optimization. allowed 0.001%). Close co-operation with function to a centralized multiple WGs is planned to achieve a Dhruv Dhody is a System Architect with standard complete service aware path PCE server. Huawei India R&D.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 37 COLUMN ATUL KHATAVKAR DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH SAFEGUARDS?
n the current environment, enterprise’s information security, and In the wake of trends information is considered as currency. how can they mitigate such risks. like BYOD and third- Information in any enterprise involves However, it is the combination of both Iits consumers, operations, business these measures that must go into the party hosting, it has relationships, work force, brand image, making of the ultimate defense strategy and financial status, to name a few. for enterprise security. become critical for Protection of this information is turning Today, organizations are highly enterprises to have complex and enterprises are necessarily reliable on technologies such as cloud being required to be careful of the with help of third party vendors and adequate security growing threats. It has become extremely solution integrators. The very recent $45 critical to leverage adequate security million global ATM heist, in 27 countries measures measures to safeguard an enterprise is believed to have occurred due to lax business. security practices at third party vendors. Cyber criminals leave no stone Therefore, while it becomes important for unturned when targeting any organizations to keep a continuous check organization. The enterprise mobility on duration vendor contacts, wave, coupled with emerging public cloud organizations must practice constant computing solutions and rise in the usage checks and time to time due diligence of social media consumption has unfolded tests on vendors. It is also important to the traditional, closed on-premise keep the data back-up strategies in place enterprise IT infrastructure and is while being compliant to security making it more vulnerable to different certifications such ISO 27001, SSAE 16, kinds of security threat vectors. SAS 70, SOC 2, ISO 22301 etc. Modern security breach market has a The stronger adoption of BYOD is now peculiar behavior. While breaching an leading towards BYOX for social organization, cyber criminals, basement networking on the go. As a result, IT hackers, etc. work in an organized way resources are moving outside the firewall. and have enough smarter tools that are Therefore, it is important to set clear often difficult to trace. The easy prey are guidelines on defamation, data protection diverse: from large sectors such as and privacy. Additionally, encouraging government, financial services and telcos direct forms of communication will help to small retailers and medium businesses in restricting access to data loss. There is who do not have sophisticated security a strong need to educate the staff on measures. About 85% of the breaches in organizational IT policies. the enterprise segment today come from While mobile computing is being the mass market. Newer technologies promoted to be able to have real time data such as cloud, mobility and big data and information access, organizations initiatives are the other pet avenues for must ensure that devices are hardened cyber criminals. and updated to handle malware. While the current situation has Considering SoCloMo trends, CIOs brought in enough worry, CIOs and CTOs should be abreast of technologies that can are busy filtering ways to combat issues help organizations better manage There should be stronger of enterprise security which involves security threats. As the security various layers of this bigger issue. Some landscape is getting complex than ever identityand access control for may stress on the need to take a multi- before, CIOs need to leverage sufficient information protection.There layered security approach like employing security solutions to safeguard the gateway protection and end point information at each and every level. should be better control for security solutions. While some may give more preference to educating employees Risks from third party hosting information movement as well. about what’s threatening their Of late, CIOs have been debating the data
38 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
security risks associated with hosting 10-fold increase in the number of things enterprise data on a third-party server that are going to be connected in next few while availing cloud services. There is a years. However, security measures for need to make an intelligent decision this are insufficient. There should be where enterprises design an better understanding about the network arrangement for themselves that fulfills and there should be much more visibility the whole transaction over the public to provide better security. Also, there cloud, but is also secure through should be stronger identity and access appropriate security solutions present control for information protection. There on-ground. Enterprises are looking at should be better control for information means to extend typical security controls movement as well. such as firewalls, IDS/IPS, anti-virus, Thus, CIOs shall partner with solution web filtering, privilege user management, providers who can help them build a integrated logging and event correlation, multi-layer, end-to-end information Federated identityand access etc. into infrastructure of the cloud security process consulting as well as a providers and ensure grounds-up technology solution with tight management platforms are security. In addition, (federated) identity integration of all components right from and access management platforms are process improvement to technology being integrated with cloud being integrated with cloud providers to solutions. Moreover, they will need to ensure tighter control over access along provide solutions that will monitor and providers to ensure tighter with enterprises also integrating security prevent unauthorized activities from controls such as data tokenization to outside and insider threats and solutions control over access along with secure sensitive data co-located even at that will ensure compliance policies are enterprises also integrating the SaaS provider’s end. met and user access is granted as per In the next few years, there will be privilege levels. securitycontrols to secure increased connectivity: everything will be connected to everything over time, Atul Khatavkar is VP,IT Governance Risk Compliance, sensitive data that is co-located and networks will expand. There will be a AGC Networks Ltd.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 39 COLUMN SUKHVINDER PAL SINGH WORKING FOR BIG DATA
ig data is creating a buzz in the analysing large volumes of data to derive It is high time aspirants world today. Google Trends shows business insights. To work with big data, readied themselves for that interest in the term “big data” they should also have an overview of the Bhas been consistently increasing various big data technologies (Such as the multifarious jobs for the last 3 years and has been regularly Hadoop, NoSQL, etc.). reaching new peaks. A search for “big The data scientist role can also be seen coming up in the data” on Google throws more than 30 as an evolution of roles such as data domain of big data million results and over 100,000 news analyst or business analyst. While a data items. analyst will typically collect data, look it Digital companies like Google, Yahoo, from one dimension and publish reports, Facebook and Amazon are already data scientist will look at enormous sets of leveraging the potential of big data and data from all dimensions and publish other enterprises are moving toward it. insights which would have otherwise According to Gartner, by 2015 nearly 4.4 remain hidden. Data scientists should million new jobs will be created globally by have strong business acumen to act as big data demand and only one-third of bridge between business and IT. Good them will be filled. There is already a data scientists will not just find the right demand-supply gap in the market and solution to a business problem; they will employers are willing to pay higher salaries also find the right problem to be to qualified professionals. All this is making addressed. big data an attractive career option. Typically, a data scientist will analyse A search for the keywords “big data” the data to spot business opportunities, on a major US job portal shows over 8000 create a mathematical model and then jobs in USA (with hundreds of different convert that mathematical model into a titles) from companies such as Intuit, pseudo algorithm for computerization. Microsoft, Amazon and eBay. A closer A variety of trainings are available for analysis of these jobs shows majority of those interested in making a career in the jobs belongs to three primary data science, starting from short term categories of jobs: data scientists, big courses in big data/ data science/ data architects, and big data engineers. predictive analytics to M.S. In India, ISB provides a one year part-time course in Data scientists predictive analytics. There are short to Data scientist has been termed as the medium term courses available from IITs sexiest job of the 21st century. As per and IIMs also. Universities and institutes McKinsey Global Institute, data in the U.S. provide options for online and scientists are so much in demand that on-campus MS in predictive analytics. there won’t be enough of them to fill every position by 2018. A data scientist is not Big data architects exclusively tied to big data but demand Big data architects are solution architects for data scientists has grown specializing in big data technologies. They exponentially with growth of big data. convert the vision of a data scientist into a Data scientists are professionals technical blueprint. They are responsible As per McKinseyGlobal typically having a degree in STEM for implementation of complete big data (Science, Technology, Engineering, and solutions, including platform selection, Institute,data scientists are so Mathematics) field, preferably with solution architecture, data acquisition, much in demand that there advanced degree in statistics, storage, transformation, and analysis. mathematics, analytics or machine They should have a solid understanding of won’t be enough of them to fill language. Those with PhD, have further infrastructure planning, scaling, and advantage. Data Scientists have deep administration considerations that are everyposition by2018 analytical skills and are capable of unique to big data products.
40 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
A big data architect generally comes architects with training in technical and Software engineers with 4-5 years of with minimum 10 years of experience in solution architecture frameworks such experience in object-oriented design and the field of normal solutions architecture as TOGAF. There are institutes and coding can move to big data with training followed by training and experience in a universities offering technical courses in in relevant technologies. Those with variety of big data technologies and big data. One such source, background in Java, PHP, Python, C++, solutions like Hadoop, MapReduce, BigDataUniversity.com, can be a good SQL, NoSQL, ETL tools and data Oozie, Mahout, ZooKeeper, Hive, HBase, starting point. warehousing may have an edge. An MongoDB, PIG, Ambari and Chukwa, engineering degree in computers NoSQL, etc. In addition, a big data Big data engineers provides an advantage. architect should have experience in Big data engineers develop computer Big data engineer aspirants can also designing large data warehouse solutions programs based on the ‘solution go for similar training as specified for big and in-depth understanding of blueprint’ prepared by big data data architects above. Organizations programming and scripting languages architects. They implement, test and such as Hortonworks and Cloudera like Java, PHP, Ruby, Phyton and R. BI maintain the big data solution. They may specialize in providing training on big architects having experience in also assist architects during the solution data technologies. distributed RDBMS and ETL tools such architecture and design phase. They Besides these three role categories, as Informatica Microstrategy and should have experience in big data other role categories such as product Pentaho, etc. have an advantage. They technologies being used by the managers and data visualizers are also in should also be (at least) aware of cloud organization e.g., Hadoop, MangoDB, demand. The field of big data is wide and computing technologies. NoSQL, etc. They also need to have open; if you want to play the game, it is Good solution and technical experience in implementation of data the time to put your socks on. architects can switch over to big data warehouse solutions. They also need to with training in big data technologies. Big optimize the solution to provide best Sukhvinder Pal Singh is Director of Competencies at data engineers can also become big data performance. Fujitsu Consulting India.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 41 CASE STUDY MERU CABS » APPR UTE TAKING THE TAKING
42 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 www.expresscomputeronline.com
The rollout of a mobile booking app is helping radio taxi major Meru stay ahead in the race
BY MEHAK CHAWLA
nnovation often becomes a necessity System (OS) space. Nokia had begun its for a company trying to balance decline, and Android was catching up, growth with its infrastructural while iOS remained for the elite. “So back Iupgrades. Similar was the case of then, we decided to work on something Meru Cabs, the much renowned operator that worked across platforms. We figured of the olive green vehicles. With over that different solutions for different 6,000 cabs in 5 cities, Meru is the largest handsets will result in support and cost radio taxi operator in the country today. issues at our end,” says Sangoi. Over the years, the company has been As a result, about a year and a half devising fresh and hassle free ways for back, Meru came up with a mobile site customer bookings. Be it their in-house based on HTML5. The site would work developed GPS system or handing over for any phone with Wireless Access PDAs to drivers, the focus on travel Protocol (WAP) capability as well as on technology has been a given for Meru. smart phones. “It was tightly integrated The most recent technology addition to with our core system which could detect their arsenal is their mobile application. whether the request was coming from a Nilesh Sangoi, CTO, Meru Cabs, feature phone or a smart phone and details the tech gene of the company. respond accordingly,” elaborates Sangoi. “Our key aim behind launching the phone However, some time later, clear application was facilitating easy winners started emerging in the mobility bookings. When Meru started space, both in terms of market share as operations, we became pioneers in the well as stability. It was then that Meru call center booking mechanism. However, started thinking about building native as volumes grew, we realized that applications for different platforms. customers had to face long and Native applications are not only lighter, cumbersome call queues for booking a but can also inculcate more features and cab. And since it was impossible for us to provide quick and easy booking options scale our call center so quickly, we to customers. started evaluating other options.” It was back in 2010 that Meru began The app journey taking online bookings through their Since Meru already knew, through device ‘real-time’ website. “We integrated the fingerprinting, what OS were their site with our back-end systems, so we customers primarily using, they decided were the first ones in the industry to start with mobile applications for iOS checking availability and taking bookings and Android. Meru's core systems like in real-time,” explains Sangoi. dispatch, GPS and GPRS based maps A couple of years back, Meru started have all been built in-house. For their contemplating on how they could use the mobile applications, they adopted a mobility wave that has gripped India. As hybrid approach where their in-house a result, they started thinking about tech team worked with their IT partners taking their first steps in the mobility for building, testing and deploying the space. However, at that point in time, it application on both the platforms. was difficult to ascertain any leaders in The application development process, the mobile handset and Operating which began early in 2013, scaled several
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 43 CASE STUDY MERU CABS »
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levels like coding, design, quality Testing on Android, on the other assurance, testing and finally hand, proved to be a huge challenge, implementation and integration. While even though the process for getting the they had separate teams for coding for application online is simpler on both the platforms, given their distinct Android. However, Android requirements, Sangoi says they decided encompasses a huge gamut of devices to have common teams for design to give by several OEMs, having different a unifying experience across platforms. features and functionality. “For the “While we adhered to all guidelines and While we adhered Android app, a lot of customers gave us design standardizations, we worked on to all guidelines feedback about things that were not providing an identifying and integrated working on a particular handset etc. We experience for all customers across all and design fixed some problems via subsequent platforms.” The quality assurance and updates based on customer feedback,” implementation teams also remained standardizations, Sangoi says. It were the intermittent common. we worked on providing errors that took longer to identify and “Apart from enabling quick booking then fix, he adds. through maps, home/office tags or an identifying Meru first released their Android app previous trips, the app also allows and integrated and followed it up with the iOS app a customers to track the cab on the map couple of weeks later. The Android app is while it is approaching the customer or experience for all currently running in its 1.0.7 version while while reaching the destination. The the iOS is in 1.0.3 version. The application customers can also get e-receipts and customers seen over 80,000 downloads within the rate the services,” explains Sangoi. across all platforms. first month of its launch. Meru has also inculcated a feature As far as the load on their back-end called “Ice”, which is short form for 'In Nilesh Sangoi, infrastructure is concerned, Sangoi case of an emergency' in its mobile app to CTO,Meru Cabs explains that the beauty of native apps is distinguish itself and also enhance that most of the stuff remains on the security for travelers. According to consumer device itself. The mobile Sangoi “Ice Alert option that one can applications are hosted in the public avail in an emergency situation is a value cloud that also hosts the Meru website. added service offered by Meru, specially Needless to say, there is a very tight designed keeping in mind the safety of integration between their web and Meru customers. Through this service application platforms, in order to provide one can alert family members or friends real-time bookings to customers. in case of an emergency and receive help Also, as per Sangoi, a great benefit of as soon as possible.” A customer who these mobile platforms are that they send wishes to avail this service would have to crash reports to application developers. feed in two contact numbers of family or “So we know how many times has our friends, who will be alerted as soon as the application crashed, on what platform ‘Alert’ option is selected. They will also be and device and we can fix it accordingly.” able to view the exact location of the After seeing a fair number of person for 30 minutes. This service can downloads in a relatively short time- be used by anyone, and is not restricted span, Meru is now planning to enhance to customers traveling by Meru. its mobile applications portfolio. “We are After seeing over planning to come up with additional Challenges en route features and also developing an app for The coding process for these mobile 80,000 downloads Windows phones, which are gaining applications, according to Sangoi, was popularity. We are also optimizing our relatively hassle free. It was in the testing in a relativelyshort application for iPad,” says Sangoi. and deployment stage that the surprises “As of now, about 14% of our bookings sprung up. “Even though Apple has more time span,Meru is are coming through the mobile. However, stringent standards for applications on nowplanning to it's only been a month and we expect this its App store, and the application also number to increase in the coming few takes longer to go live, we found testing enhance its mobile months,” he sums up. relatively smooth since we had to test only for 2-3 devices,” he reveals. applications portfolio [email protected]
44 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 NEWS
INDUSTRY www.expresscomputeronline.com IT fuels revenue & job growth for Indian SMEs: BCG report TECH-SAVVY SMALL and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs) created more new jobs and drove more revenue gains over the past three years than SMEs using little technology, according to new research commissioned by Microsoft Corp. and conducted by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The BCG report, Ahead of the Curve: Lessons on Technology and Growth from Small Business Leaders, found if more SMEs in India adopted the latest IT tools there is potential for SME revenue to grow by $56 billion and create 1.1 million new jobs. The study argued that the latest wave of technological advancement, such as cloud services, brings potential for the customers and markets, particularly broadband networks, and many lack the most far-reaching innovation and outside their own region or country, and skills to get the most out of IT. Many business growth ever, creating an compete with much larger players. SMEs are also still using large amounts opportunity for more SMEs to achieve These companies employ the full range of old and less efficient hardware and the growth rates of technology leaders by of available tools — from productivity software. leveraging technology to fuel software to Internet connectivity and New devices are also sometimes very productivity and growth. cloud-based services. expensive due to high import duties, and The research revealed that high- But at the same time, the research SMEs are concerned about online performing SMEs stayed ahead of revealed a risk, because SMEs’ security and privacy. But the growth mainstream IT adoption, riding new adoption of IT is decidedly uneven. prospects described in the study are too waves of advancement to improve Across the world, many SMEs and their important for governments and the IT productivity, connect with new customers don’t have access to modern industry to ignore.
Tata Communications links Asia’s top stockexchanges
TATA COMMUNICATIONS, a leading with major financial capitals in Asia, is the only multipoint Ethernet service communication provider recently the United Kingdom and the United offering on a single network announced the extension of its low States. underpinned by 802.1ah, Provider latency network in Asia with direct According to the company, its Backbone Bridging (PBB) technology. connections to the National Stock network is faster than traditional The underlying core Ethernet Exchange of India Limited (NSE), the point-to-point systems. The global technology is said to provides the lowest Singapore Exchange Limited (SGX) and network will integrate exchanges with possible latency as it is native Ethernet the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx). low latency connectivity to Europe and with no mapping to other protocols like The low latency network further beyond, enabling firms to reach major SDH. extends the company’s global financial financial centres, such as in According to the company, it also trading connectivity network. As a Chicago and London in milliseconds, adds an additional layer of security by result, it will support mission critical, through a single network and single separating the customer’s traffic with real-time trading applications by supplier model. each customer benefitting from seamlessly connecting the exchanges The company claims that its network dedicated bandwidth.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 45 NEWS
INDUSTRY www.expresscomputeronline.com Public-Private Partnerships help to address vocational training challenges between 15 and 18 years old, are eager to learn, but they also want to start earning as soon as possible. ● Develop an alternating training- apprenticeship model; with a special focus on manufacturing - Training providers should break their courses into shorter semesters. At the end of the each semester, trainees should be given an opportunity to work for a company as part of an apprenticeship program, which will help them learn on the job and build a better understanding of work life. ● Empower trainees with general skills required for employability – Providing useful skills and education, such as computer skills, English-speaking skills and civic knowledge could enhance A NEW STUDY from the National Skill and sustainable growth,” said Nilaya trainees’ employability. People from Development Corporation (NSDC) and Varma, managing director, Accenture’s rural, low-income locations who are Accenture has found that private funding Health & Public Service practice in India. placed in companies that operate in and public-private partnerships are urban locales often lack these skill sets. helping India overcome two of the largest According to the research: Coupling basic courses that help improve challenges to vocational education ● Initiatives funded by NSDC and overall employability with job-specific training: an inadequate infrastructure private-sector organizations have skills training can help address this and a shortage of job offers. The study achieved high placement rates for challenge. identifies five steps business and trainees. About 50% of those who ● Collaborate with the government and government can take to better support complete training receive job offers small businesses to fund and operate vocational trainees and helps meet India’s within three months. apprenticeships — Stipends paid to goal of engaging 500 million trained ● These schemes recorded higher trainees provide an incentive to continue youth by 2022. placement rates than similar initiatives. training and set expectations regarding Vocational education training (VET) ● Those who leave a job within a month compensation in a trainee’s chosen must provide prospective employees with of their hiring cited disappointment with career. Providing paid apprenticeship the skills required to support the next the job profile or pay. opportunities to new trainees, helping generation of economic growth in ● Pre-placement support services them through the apprenticeship phase manufacturing, retail, construction and provided to trainees needs to be and creating a career path after they tourism, according to the study. improved. For example, about 50% of complete training can help set trainee Addressing the rise in the number of VET trainees interviewed said resume writing expectations and keep employees trainees who do not accept job offers or was very important, but only 21% motivated to stay on the job. leave jobs within one month of employment reported receiving such training. ● Build a career ecosystem of lifelong is critical, the research shows. learning — Stakeholders are shaping the “This action plan dovetails with India’s Action Plan future together. It is time for the skilling Five Year Plan targets. By tapping The research identifies five steps VET system to become a career system that younger candidates for training from stakeholders need to take to reduce will increase the number of trainees while rural, low-income locations, empowering dropout rates and help VET trainees building value for trainees and employers them with employable skills and building develop careers. alike. Vocational training needs to shift their careers in important growth sectors ● Attract people from rural, low-income from providing standalone transactional such as manufacturing can help India geographically dispersed locations at a services to supporting lifelong learning meets its goals of inclusive, accelerated young age – Young people, preferably and career growth for trainees.
46 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 NEWS
MOBILE www.expresscomputeronline.com
Nokia’s HERE launches VMware expands its community mapping operations in Pune VMWARE RECENTLY ANNOUNCED the expansion of its in India operations in Pune. The company has HERE, A NOKIA business, recently leased an additional area of 26,391 announced that it is launching a square feet at the Bajaj Brandview community mapping pilot program building in Wakdewadi, Pune, where it in India, the first major country already has a presence. The expansion where HERE will combine its will allow VMware to accommodate industrial data collection an additional 185 employees who will methods with a crowd contribute to VMware’s innovations in mapping initiative. By R&D. The Pune centre currently balancing both its highly of employs 200 employees who advanced industrial capture communities according to the company, play a key methods and contributions from across the country. role in supporting VMware’s global residents of local communities, HERE In smaller towns and operations. takes a best-of-both-worlds approach to cities, locals will help ensuring that its maps consistently HERE build out road provide the freshest, most precise and networks, while in densely locally relevant information. populated areas contributors will With a team of more than 1000 provide information about points of people in India, the regional HERE will interest and capture changes. HERE has work directly with local experts from already rolled out industrial capture more than a dozen universities around methods in some of these areas, but local the country, such as Mount Carmel communities can further improve and College in Bangalore and the SAL humanize HERE Maps. Institute of Technology in The project in India is part of an Ahmedabad. Using Map Creator, a ongoing series of pilot programs that HERE tool that allows people to add HERE is using to enhance its community missing streets, bridges, points of mapping capabilities and tap the VMware’s India-based R&D and interests (POIs) and other information knowledge of local experts. support operations are second in size to the map, these local experts can “Sophisticated mapmaking is already and scale only to those at the share insider knowledge of the areas a human and capital-intensive business. company’s headquarters located in they know like the back of their hand Add to this the fact that the world around Palo Alto, California, U.S. Its R&D and, in turn, put their communities on us is constantly evolving with the operations in India are said to make a the map. addition of new roads, new significant contribution to the To maintain accuracy and ensure map infrastructure and even new names, and company’s portfolio of virtualization quality, HERE has built a community cartographers simply can’t keep up,” said and cloud computing products. map moderation system that allows both Michael Halbherr, EVP,HERE. According to VMware, developers in our HERE team as well as the community “In vibrant, fast-growing countries Bangalore and Pune contribute at large to verify edits before integrating like India a community mapping important components of VMware’s them into the base map. Once integrated, approach, paired with input from the key technologies — the software- these changes will become available right experts, means HERE can keep defined data center, hybrid cloud and within days to all users across the wide pace with the ever-evolving landscape end-user computing. range of HERE customers, including so that our maps are never obsolete. The company’s center in Pune has automakers, personal navigation device Equally important, however, is not just seen consistent growth through both manufactures, mobile device makers and the pure number of people contributing hiring and acquisitions and has web and enterprise clients. to our map-making community, but that emerged as a key hub for innovation Given India’s diverse urbanization we work with the right experts,” he in the areas of network and security patterns, HERE will work with a variety added. virtualization for VMware globally.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 47 NEWS
BIG DATA www.expresscomputeronline.com
91% Indian businesses say big data leads to better decision making: study
fronts laregly, on cost reduction through IT transformation projects and improving profitability and customer satisfaction driven by big data analytics. “Economy has started to stablize in the second half and organizations are looking to deploy IT. The freezed IT investments of 2012 and now started to roll out and we expect good traction this year and coming year as well,” said Venu Reddy, Director, IDC.
Key Findings of the India-specific study include: ● 26% of companies surveyed have no current plans for implementing big data technology. ● Culture (35%) followed by no clear business case or proven ROI (28%) are cited as the most common inhibitors to big data adoption. EMC HAS RELEASED the findings of a respondents also agree that big data Companies in India continue to look to survey that asked IT decision makers in technology will prove vital in identifying IT innovation to compete locally and on India for their perspective on the and protecting against cyber attacks. the global stage: challenges and opportunities that Big 89% respondents agreed that data center ● 92% of companies in India agreed that Data and IT transformation — and automation will be crucial to innovation their business sees technology related skills — can present to their and agility over the next three years. investment as a strategic way of companies. The survey found that 91% “Businesses in India are increasingly achieving its goals. percent Indian businesses agree that big seeing transformative benefits of using ● The top three drivers for the data will lead to better decision making. analytics to enable better resource transformation of IT systems and According to the company, in India, management, gain competitive and infrastructure in India are: Business big data is giving rise to marked market insights and enable truly process/operational efficiencies (61%), improved decision making and is having a transformational business decisions. improved governance and compliance significant impact on companies’ While there is consensus in the business (46%), and enhancing customer competitive differentiation and ability to community that data would enable better experience/engagement/communication avert risk. decision making culture seems to be the s (45%). The survey estimates that 91 % of Indian biggest issue that businesses will need to ● 79% of respondents report that they businesses reported that better uses of overcome as India continues its journey have the correct level of skills and big data will lead to better decision as a progressive economy,” said Rajesh knowledge in place to complete their making. 68% of the respondents believe Janey, President, EMC India & SAARC. business priorities successfully. that big data will be a key factor in According to Janey, despite the ● 82% of respondents in India report that determining winners and losers in their negativity in the market, there are ensuring skills keep pace with the rate of industry. 35% have already achieved a opportunities of growth as there are IT IT innovation will be a challenge for their competitive advantage as a result of big investments happening in telecom, BFSI, organizations over the next three years. data analytics technology. education and government sectors; and ● 80% of respondents agree that IT is 68% respondents believe that those these investments were on hold last year now equipped to handle the most industries that succeed will be the same have actually started to be done now. The essential business priorities – and that ones using big data tools. 62% of IT investments are happening on two now, the biggest barrier is cultural.
48 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 NEWS
SECURITY www.expresscomputeronline.com
Social media new tool of Infor launches cloud cyber attack: Trend Micro based e-commerce platform INFOR HAS ANNOUNCED Infor Rhythm, a cloud-based e-commerce platform. The solution is built on a complete and proven e-commerce platform and complemented with designs from the Hook & Loop creative agency. Rhythm includes software for storefronts, product configuration, recommendations, upsell and cross sell, pre-packaged ION integrations to order management, natural language search, content management, layout,
CYBERCRIMINALS TARGETED SMBs do so through dubious means (usage of and marketers who were trying to increase malicious scripts or botnets). their online presence in second quarter of Also, as more users manage multiple the year, revealed Trend Micro Q2 2013 online accounts, cybercriminals explored Threat round-up report. According to the means to use this trend to their advantage. compay, influence in social media depends They abused popular blogging sites like largely on the number of followers an entity Tumblr, WordPress, and Blogger to host has. Cybercriminals created sites which fake streaming sites of popular summer lured users by the idea of acquiring a huge movies, including Man of Steel, Fast and number of followers in a very short amount Furious 6, and Iron Man 3. These attacks and predictive analytics - all available of time, and with almost no effort at all. abused the use of the SSO approach, in the cloud for a monthly subscription “These sites offer not only followers, which should serve as a reminder to and rendered in beautiful design. but also retweets and likes for particular protect online accounts and avoid using According to the company, these posts indicated by the customer. The weak passwords. applications are proven at major required payment would depend on the In response to compromised incidents, customers like Tommy Bahama, number of followers, retweets, or likes LinkedIn, Evernote, and Twitter rolled out Microsoft, Mohegan Sun, and Navy preferred. The payment process requires additional security measures, which Federal Credit Union. the customer to transact via payment sites notably included two-step verification “It’s time to modernize e- like interkassa.com and ligpay.com (for measures. Instagram scams showed that commerce sites. Companies have been mobile users). In the end, no followers, cybercriminals are targeting SMBs and hiring creative agencies to spruce up retweets, or likes is provided to the marketers who wish to increase their dated storefronts; however, without customer, only the risk of information and online presence. Such scams offer “free deeper customer engagement on their money theft,” said Dhanya Thakkar, followers” or use professional looking sites sites, the sales conversion rate doesn’t Managing Director, India & SAARC, where they can supposedly buy followers improve as much as they’d like,” said Trend Micro. in bulk. The tactic of selling followers is not Charles Phillips, CEO of Infor. It is important to note to those who are new though. Cybercriminals simply The first suite, Infor Rhythm for interested in employing such services that turned to different avenues outside Commerce, is available now. Infor doing so leads to more harm than good. Twitter and Facebook. Interestingly, this plans to release additional suites in These services either just scam their threat appeared while social media sites 2014, including Infor Rhythm for customers by not delivering their found ways to monetize the services they Civics (public sector), Patients promised service, or actually deliver, but offered. (healthcare), and Hospitality.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 49 NEWS
UTILITIES www.expresscomputeronline.com IBM,Tata Power Delhi Distribution join hands to propel Smart Grid in India
demand response pilot program that will automate and regulate supply of electricity to consumers in sync with the fluctuating demand. This project will help add a layer of digital intelligence to the grid and ensure reliability when the demand rises exponentially and the supply falls due to heavy consumption. In addition, this will provide customer service improvements including new digital meters, enhanced self-service options and access to a customer portal to manage energy use. IBM will support Tata Power Delhi Distribution to create the system architecture, ensure adherence to international smart grid standards, optimize business process and incorporate dynamic business analytics function to offer actionable insights. In addition, Tata Power Delhi Distribution IBM RECENTLY ANNOUNCED that it This is an important milestone for the will leverage IBM expertise to integrate has been selected by Tata Power Delhi energy distribution in India as we new advanced metering, meter data Distribution to conceptualize, design and intensify our efforts to empower management, and demand response deliver an Advanced Smart Grid solution consumers and provide them choices of systems with existing applications that will collect and analyze real-time usage of their electrical appliances and including customer and geographic information from smart meters and data manage their load efficiently.” said information systems. from the communication and Praveer Sinha, Chief Executive Officer According to the news release, an management infrastructure. This will and Executive Director, Tata Power Delhi advanced infrastructure based demand enable Tata Power Delhi Distribution to Distribution. response is a complex exercise and has better manage energy output and further In India, aggregated technical and not been done in India before, and this reduce outages. commercial losses that occur due to engagement is the first step in creating As a joint venture between Tata electricity transmission and energy theft an end-to-end intelligent utility system to Power and the Delhi Government, Tata are estimated at about 26.4 per cent on a manage generation short fall by peak Power Delhi Distribution sought a national average. The Government of shaving of actual load. Peak shaving is a solution that would enhance the India has launched the Restructured- technique that is used to reduce electrical reliability and efficiency of energy Accelerated Power Development and power consumption during periods of distribution across the Northern and Reforms Program (R-APDRP) with the maximum demand on the power utility North western part of Delhi. Additionally, aim to reduce these losses in the country and enable consumer to redistribute the solution would also help empower its and to improve the power distribution loads to different period of the day, thus over 1.3 million electric consumers to sector of state utilities, during the 11th saving substantial amounts of money due manage their own energy usage. centralized and integrated national to peaking charges. “TPDDL is committed to accelerate economic programs Five-Year Plan When complete, the multi-phased the smart grid deployment which will period, 2007-2012. engagement is expected to enhance the give customers more visibility and As a part of its smart grid initiative, relationship between Tata Power Delhi control in managing their energy usage Tata Power Delhi Distribution will Distribution and its consumers thereby and transform the electric network into a collaborate with IBM to develop an enabling more efficient consumption of robust, secure and intelligent system. advanced metering infrastructure and electricity.
50 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 BUSINESS AVENUES www.expresscomputeronline.com
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 51 NEWS
SOFTWARE www.expresscomputeronline.com
SAP announces HANA based solution for retail
SAP HAS ANNOUNCED the SAP As the backbone of SAP Customer Customer Activity Repository application, Activity Repository, SAP HANA is a new retail data repository powered by intended to deliver lightning-fast insight at the SAP HANA platform. SAP Customer a user-determined level of detail, to help Activity Repository is intended to support eliminate the time needed to handle retailers in becoming more customer- multiple data transactions in the point-of- centric by bringing together customer, sale (POS) transaction log, other sales sales and inventory information from channels and reporting systems. siloed applications. A unified view of the The solution is also intended to help customer will help retailers drive retailers establish the foundational data consistent experiences across all channels that can be used to better understand and improve business efficiencies, processes and more. customer demand and predict future profitability and brand perception. The “As consumers expand their shopping buying behavior. Features such as real-time announcement was made at the SAP experiences across multiple purchase visibility into consumer sales data down to Retail Forum North America, held channels, retailers have an opportunity to the transaction level are intended to enable between October 7 to 9 in Dallas, Texas. engage more fully and provide more retailers better understand what, when and SAP Customer Activity Repository personal interactions,” said Lori Mitchell- where customers will make purchases. One aims to empower retailers with consumer Keller, global head, Industry Business Unit consolidated data pool for all customer insights by consolidating customer Retail, SAP. “This is a daunting task, transactions across channels will support interactions from stores, online and requiring access to multiple databases ease-of use and accessibility to the right mobile channels with insight from social and tools. With SAP Customer Activity information. Further, SAP plans to design media feedback such as Twitter or Repository, retailers will have access to better access to inventory levels, predictive Facebook posts. The information will act powerful consumer insights, be able to models and analytics in the application for as the basis for a “single source of truth” to centralize critical business data and run improved operational management. help retailers optimize branding, reports instantly, and make better General availability of SAP Customer marketing, promotions, pricing, business decisions that support both sales Activity Repository is planned for the first merchandising, inventory management and the customer experience.” quarter of 2014.
EMC unveils its Transformation Coach
AT THE RECENTLY held EMC Forum in Briefing Center (EBC) in Bangalore. company's recently unveiled VSPEX, Mumbai, the company unveiled its new However, not everyone would be willing VNX, and other products related to Transformation Coach, a bus as a mobile to travel, and therefore the company cloud, big data and trust, and also focus lounge that would showcase the came up with the idea of having an EBC on solutions for storage management, company's solutions and product on the road such that they could reach out software defined data center, and the demonstrations targeted specifically to every customer better. availability of mission critical towards the SMB market. The coach will go around the country applications — targeted at the mid Rajesh Janey, President India & reaching out to mid-market customers market, through its Virtual Lab and some SAARC, EMC talking at the launch spread across seven cities that include actual demonstrations. explained that SMBs constitute a large Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, The EBC program is customized to a part of EMC's business and that the Chennai, Hyderabad, and Delhi from specific customer, while the product company sees tremendous opportunity to October 3, 2013 to March 31, 2014. The demos will be customized for across a grow this market further. company aims to tap over 500 customers certain vertical. Customers and partners EMC typically demonstrates and with this intiative. will be able to register for the coach showcases its solutions at its Executive The coach would showcase the through a mobile app and online.
52 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 NEWS
SECURITY www.expresscomputeronline.com
HP brings advanced, data-driven security solutions for organizations
HP Vertica Analytics Platform for broader big data analytics, and HP ArcSight ESM for real-time security monitoring and analytics, with applications running over the platform. The Haven platform enables security operations teams to use the updated HP ArcSight Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) v6.5c to analyze security events in a broader context when used in conjunction with Hadoop, HP Autonomy or HP Vertica Analytics Platform data stores. It allows customers to benefit from an accurate prioritization of risks and anomalies as well as advanced insider threat patterns. The HP ArcSight ESM solution operates in real-time, sifting HP RECENTLY ANNOUNCED new and The portfolio also includes ArcSight through millions of log records, enhanced solutions that are designed to Risk Insight. Incorporating key elements correlating the data at a rate of two help organizations disrupt the life cycle of originally implemented in the HP million events per second to find the a cyber-attack and improve the overall ArcSight EnterpriseView product, HP critical events. effectiveness of security operation teams ArcSight Risk Insight is delivered as an HP ArcSight ESM v6.5c through accelerated big data analytics add-on to HP ArcSight ESM. The new incorporates the latest iteration of the and real-time, application-level threat solution is designed to help security highly optimized back-end storage detection. operations teams identify advanced engine that allows faster querying to The company has introduced new attack targets, analyze current security enable real-time alerts during complex ArcSight solutions that can identify and technology deployments and weigh searches, accelerates algorithm prioritize threats faster, combine emerging risk to determine where to performance for correlation event security intelligence with business focus mitigation efforts. processing and significantly improves intelligence, and close potential blind Also launched is the new ArcSight data storage efficiency. spots at the application layer, giving Management Center an enterprise- ArcSight Application View is available customers greater control over their grade, centralized security management immediately worldwide. A 30-day free security environments. hub that will enable ArcSight customers trial offer is available, with pricing According to the company, while to effectively and efficiently manage large starting at $2,000 per application security spending continues to focus on deployments of HP ArcSight Logger, following the conclusion of the trial the perimeter, 84% of business security ArcSight SmartConnectors and period. HP ArcSight Risk Insight is breaches originate at the application ArcSight Connector Appliance from a expected to be available this fall. layer and mobile vulnerabilities have single console. The HP ArcSight ArcSight Management Center is grown by 68%. The new portfolio Management Center is designed to help expected to be available in October. A incluides the HP ArcSight Application streamline centralized configuration free trial version will be available for View solution that closes this gap by management and compliance, while evaluation of full capabilities. ArcSight integrating the HP ArcSight Security reducing the time it takes to alter the Enterprise Security Manager (ESM) Information and Event Management system or implement a policy change. v6.5c is available as hardware or (SIEM) platforms—HP ArcSight ESM The HP Haven platform consists of software, providing flexible and HP ArcSight Express—with HP Hadoop for raw data storage and batch deployment options for any Fortify Runtime to automatically detect mode analysis, HP Autonomy for human environment and is expected to be and log application security events. generated information processing, the available in October.
EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013 53 NEWS
MOBILE www.expresscomputeronline.com
ING Vysya Bank selects IBM MobileFirst to support business growth
solutions portfolio, to help create cross- platform apps, as well as manage the whole app development life cycle. According to the company, using this technology, the bank has been able to reduce the time to market and cost for product development. Worklight also provides secure connectivity with the client’s back-end systems, allowing it to efficiently manage version upgrades, user data and audit data. With data capture capabilities, the bank will be able to analyze patterns and trends of customer usage. “As the mobile revolution continues to change the way we interact with customers, transforming our services to meet these demands and deliver a consistent customer experience, regardless of the device or operating system, has become critical to our growth,” said Aniruddha Paul, chief information officer, ING Vysya Bank. “With the IBM mobile solution, we are now able to quickly and easily roll out new mobile services to support our business growth strategies.” According to IBM, the bank is the first Worklight client in India to go live with a publicly downloadable app. Currently available on the Apple iOS mobile platform, ING Vysya Mobile apps will soon be extended to other platforms such as Android, BlackBerry and ING VYSYA BANK has selected IBM For instance, using the app, thye Windows Phone. MobileFirst solutions for the bank’s customers can use their mobile “It has become mission-critical for development of its ING Vysya Mobile, a devices to pay utility bills, transfer funds organizations to have a mobile presence, cost effective, secure and scalable to other accounts, view mini- given increasing customer demands,” mobile banking app. Launched in July, statements, request check books, stop said Naveen Gupta, business unit the new app will effectively enhance the payment of checks, and locate the executive, IBM India/South Asia. “Many bank’s reach into untapped markets, nearest ATM and branches, among companies want to build mobile apps such as remote cities and rural areas. many other features. As a result, the with the same features as their web Additionally, the app will improve customers will able to manage their counterparts, without compromising on engagement with the bank’s customers accounts and financial performance user experience. IBM MobileFirst helps through new personalized features that more efficiently. clients dramatically reduce mobile app provide greater availability and The bank selected IBM Worklight, an time to market and ensure cost convenience to its services. integral part of the IBM MobileFirst effectiveness.”
54 EXPRESS COMPUTER OCTOBER 16-31, 2013
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