On the Network

INTERVIEW | Ravi Chauhan, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Juniper Networks | Pg 32 Weigh your security investments

for the next generation of cio s New Kid on the Network Senior IT decision makers are learning the nuances of simplifying network orchestration with Software Defined Network, a new phrase in the industry Pg 10

BossTalk Influencer to Innovator Pg 06

PLUS The Next Dark Horse: Tackling BYOA Pg 28

Editorial

The New Chant

Change! It is here all over again. The “While there have been IT industry is subject to changes and varied connotations about the SDN concept, what’s every now and then, new jargon emerges to interesting is that each keep the market busy and players on their toes. So, now what? Well, it’s the new mantra being chanted by one and all— one is revelling in its own Software Defined Network. This new chant is getting IT decision makers understanding and trying attuned to the new offering and influencing them to adopt it to make their network agile and efficient. to apply to the scenario in Obviously, all vendors, whether it’s storage, server, networking, virtualisation, hardware and software, are equally excited and forming their the best possible way” own groups to evangelise this concept. Whether it is utopian or a reality, the Geetha Nandikotkur buzz word is creating a huge noise in the industry making it imperative for IT heads to tag along and not miss the bus. Blogs To Watch! While there have been varied connotations about the software defined Nuances of software defined networks concept, what’s interesting is that each one is revelling in its own data centre http://www.vmware.com/ understanding and trying to apply to the scenario in the best possible way. files/pdf/VMW_13Q1_BB_ The cover feature on ‘Software Defined Networks’ in the current edition SDDC_020813_FINAL_LTR.pdf of IT Next attempts at addressing what SDN is all about, how it can make What is SDN and what are its offerings? IT managers’ lives easy and more fulfilling. http://www.itc23.com/fileadmin/ However, there are a few aspects which need more focus and one must not ITC23_files/slides/K1_McKeown- take SDN as some tool to help in automation. The study helps IT managers ITC_Keynote_Sept_2011.pdf Genesis of Software Defined get insights into how SDN needs to be understood, dealt with, and how it Networking should be differentiated from virtualisation technologies or cloud. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ It is said that SDN is now in a phase where virtualisation was a few years Software-defined_networking Software-Defined Networks ago. There is always a first mover advantage, if one doesn’t really bother (SDN) about the acquisition cost and, instead, drools over the benefits SDN can Providing the agility needed to simplify, scale and automate the bring in. network It is heartening to find that the senior IT managers find this technology http://h17007.www1.hp.com/ us/en/networking/solutions/ or concept to be empowering them to drive new IT innovations and technology/sdn/index.aspx#. architectural best practices within their enterprise. Uh8qEtLddrE

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LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/ groups?gid=2261770&trk=myg_ ContFor the latest technology uP DATES Go to itnext.in eSEPTEMBER 2013 ntVolume 04 | Issue 08 ugrp_ovr New Kid on the Network Senior IT decision makers are learning the nuances of simplifying network orchestration with Software Defined Network, a new phrase in the industry

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cover story boss talk interview 13 SDN Makes Network Management Simple Panacea lies in the intelligence of a network controlled by software

18 Why is SDN IT Managers’ Best Bet? IT Managers’ network investments are in tune with business 21SDN Vs Virtualisation: Synergy? SDN is an enabler of virtualisation and cloud to build agile networks

26 What is Innovative about SDN? Automated non-strategic menial tasks will free time for administrators to seek opportunities in driving IT innovation

INTERVIEW | RAVI CHAUHAN, MANAGING DIRECTOR, INDIA AND SAARC, JUNIPER NETWORKS | Pg 32 Weigh your security investments 06 VP & GM of Citrix India, 32 Ravi Chauhan, MD, India &

FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF CIOs New Kid on the Network Senior IT decision makers are learning the Rakesh Singh on the role of SAARC, Juniper on the impor- nuances of simplifying network orchestration with Software Defined Network, a new phrase in the industry Pg 10 cover Design: Binesh Sreedharan BossTalk CIOs changing from influenc- tanc e of weighing security Influencer to Innovator Pg 06

PLUS The Next Dark Horse: Tackling BYOA Pg 28

2 itnext | september 2013 PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION/IMAGING CREDIT business expectations is importanttoinnovate tomeet Projects, MagmaFincorpsaysit Subhomoy Chakraborti,GM-IT, 42 model isbestsuitedforbusinesses Business saysSecuritySaaS Director-Government Kharwal, Saa oluitonI while choosingaSecurity 08 37 data centretrend the softwaredefined decision makers areleveraging VMware emphasiseshowIT Engineering, India&SAARC, B SNagarajan,DirectorSystems m

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mediaworx Pv p © Allrights re Sr. Photographer: Chief Photographer: DI STU M Peterson PJ &Pradeep GNair Designers: Shigil Narayanan &HaridasBalan Sr. Designers: Visualiser: Sr. Visualisers: Associate rtDirectors: Sr. ArtDirector: Sr. Creative Director: D E Group E E Printer &Publisher: Managing Director: MANA Editor: GeethaNandikotkur Printers Pvtltd.,A-46-47,Sector-5,NOIDA (U.P.) 201301. at A-262DefenceColony,NewDelhi-110024,India.PrintedTara Art Ltd. PublishedandprintedontheirbehalfbyVikasGupta. Published, PrintedandOwnedbyNineDotMediaworxPrivate are registeredtrademarksofZiffDavisEnterpriseHoldings,Inc. and hasbeenreprintedunderlicense.eWEEK,BaselineCIOInsight Certain contentinthispublicationiscopyrightZiffDavisEnterpriseInc, A-262 DefenceColony,NewDelhi-110024,India L Nine DotMediaworxPvt O Logistics: MPSingh&ohd.Ansari Production Executive: VilasMhatre Executive Logistics: NileshShiravadekar Asst. Manager-Logistics:Vijay Menon Manager Operations: Sr. GM.Operations: Product Ad co-ordination/Scheduling: Assistant BrandManager: West North: South: Sachin Mhashilkar(09920348755) National Manager-Print,Online&Events: Senior VicePresident: Brand Manager: sales & market Designer: ar ditor: GeethaNandikotkur I DITOR N IG ES ff ARC t withouwrittenpermissionfromNi ne Do i : ce Add SamikshaGhadigaonkar(+919833608089) OM O DeepakSharma(09811791110)

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INTERVIEW | NITIN DANG, COUNTRY GENERAL MANAGER, MICRO FOCUS INDIA AND SAARC | Pg 32 “COBOL on an Integration Spree” COVER STORY | BEST SECURITY TECHNIQUES qualify for a NEXT100 award, FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF CIO s win one (or more) IT NEXT

Sunil Varkey Chief Information Security Officer, Wipro Technologies Technology awards.

ENTERPRISE SECURITY CHIEFS ARE ON A MISSION TO SECURE THE ENTERPRISE WITH INNOVATIVE Nandkishor Dhomne TECHNOLOGIES AND NEW VP-IT & CIO, Manipal Health Enterprises, PRACTICES AS DEFENSE AGAINST Manipal Group GROWING THREATS AND DATA BREACHES Pg 10 Tanmoy Mukhopadhyay, Chief Technical Officer, A2Z News Channel Parag Deodhar BossTalk Chief Risk Officer & VP-PE, Bharti AXA General Insurance Co Ltd Take Risk to Innovate Pg 06

Plus Transform Business, August 2013 | `100 | Volume 04 | Issue 07 | A 9.9 Media Publication in a Flash www.itnext.com | facebook.com/itnext | @itnext_magazine Pg 36 Managing IT Projects ENTERPRISE SECURITY CHIEFS ARE ON A august 2013 MISSION TO SECURE THE ENTERPRISE ADOPTING on time BEST SECURITY PRACTICES AS DEFENSE AGAINST GROWING THREATS Nandkishor Dhomne Vishal Salvi Parag Deodhar It is important consider BY N GEETHA DESIGN BY RAJ VERMA IMAGING BY ANIL T a few vital aspects while ata breaches can be an expensive proposition for any organisation. Worse still, industry players echo the fact that organisations in India are not confident about IT NEXT thanks detecting and preventing security threats, which result in huge data breaches. managing IT projects on time. The testimony to this fact is Sony paying a fine of £250K for its 2011 PSN data breach, when its network was hit by an attack that forced PSN offline for an its Readers Amit Pradhan Sunil Varkey Amit Kaul extended period of time. UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) levied a hefty fine against Sony for what it called ‘a serious breach’ of the UK’s Data Protection Act. Against for the warm 1. Write down a list of all the INSIDE this backdrop, every enterprise information security chief has to evolve a defense mechanism against detecting and preventing security threats and data breaches. The reasons to secure get even more 13 | Access via Mobile Made Secure compelling as new emerging trends such as cloud computing, BYOD (bring your own device), BYOA response 14 | Banking & Insurance-Secure on Cloud (bring your own application), Mobile Applications, QR codes, etc., contribute to the security risks, 17 | BYOD’s Security Conundrum things you will need to do in your now increasing in geometrical progression. One of the reasons for a lackadaisical approach towards 22 | Data Breaches viz-a-viz DLP information security may be that corporate security consumes a huge chunk of time, money, complexity 25 | Assess Security Risks in a Scientific way and human resources. Thus, there is little awareness among the business functions and users at large 28 | QR Code, newest way to leak information about the adverse implications of data breach or data leakage on the entire organisation. Satish Das Dr K Harsha Upasna Saluja project. Then take a look at the list www.linkedin.com/ AUGUST 2013 | ITNEXT 11 groups?gid= you made and break each of those 2261770&trk= IT NEXT values your feedback myg_ugrp_ovr steps down into smaller steps. We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it a 2. Set a date for when you would 300 members better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the preferred like your project to be completed publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, complaints and work backwards to calculate or questions about the magazine to [email protected]. your timeline. Give yourself a deadline for when each major step needs to be completed Why Projects Fail 3. You should know what needs A project is considered a failure when it has not delivered read this to get done and you need to figure what was required in line with expectations. Therefore, in issue online out when to do it. If possible, try to set a time each day to work on order to succeed, a project must deliver to cost, to quality, http://www.itnext. in/resources/ your project. and on time; and it must deliver the benefits presented in magazine 4. Take an honest look at your the business case. schedule. It may seem as though Here are some of the main reasons why projects fail: the every minute is accounted for: wrong business requirements were addressed; it was not be honest with yourself and you will most likely find some extra possible to deliver the business case; governance was time. If your project is portable, poor, or the implementation was poor; people lose focus take it with you wherever you go. of the project’s benefits and the environment changes; 5. No matter how great you are making timely decisions, considering smaller projects and at holding yourself accountable and staying on track with your managing expectations. deadlines, it’s always helpful to have

Tanmoy Mukhopadhyay, a partner. Having one specific person Chief Technical Officer, A2Z News Channel who knows your deadlines and asks if you met them is even better. Needed: Pocket CIO programmes 6. Working towards finishing a The CIO post is becoming more important than ever before; it is no longer project is a lot of hard work. Write only about managing the information technology infrastructure, but down a list of every reason you rather about architecting the business strategy and organisation for the want to accomplish your project and information age. It is essential that CIOs understand the fundamental how it will feel when you’re done. link between IT functions and the overall functions of the organisation. 7. As you continue finishing your The Pocket CIO programme examines the best practices of top global project, you will learn a lot more companies and their successes in creating value through information about it. You might find that you left systems. Areas of concentration can include: Business Strategy and out a lot of steps or some were not Information Technology; Impact of Wireless Technology; IT Enabled necessary at all. Review the work Business Transformation; Network Innovations, and Strategic ITNEXT you’ve done and the work that still Alignment. By attending the Pocket CIO programme, we also gain the and send it to needs to be done. opportunity to get trained in the latest technology and managerial skills, 5 67 67 8 Rajkumar Nair Manager - IT at Kana- receive a Pocket CIO certificate, secure an interview with the jury, and *Special rates apply kia Spaces Pvt Ltd

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leadership Management Influencer to Innovator

he role of CIOs is changing, from being mere consumers of the product to being influencers in taking it to the right destination. Innovation is the key ingredient of any trend, and having a Tclear technological vision is most important if one has to align it with customer needs.

Technological Vision Any R&D vision should revolve around people, with a common theme underlying the products and technologies that can impact customers and employees equally. The prevailing trend has been “Leadership and innovation are key that most customers are big believers in BYOD, flexible working hours and allowing employees ingredients to any growth. This is especially to work remotely. Cloud computing is one core true for senior IT managers who are on their theme that supports the trend. The key aspect is to map between cloud and mobility to facilitate social way up the career ladder” collaboration, data sharing, mobility platforms--thus allowing people to work from anywhere. Irrespective and without using the sales approach of pitching of any vision that customers carry, a CIO or a senior the product. It was more about trying to fit the IT manager has to work around three tenets: a) Work product with the need. With the evolution of is not a place; it is something you do; hence, enable product management, the kind of interaction with employees to work from anywhere, at any time and technology companies is changing. on any device. b) Simplicity--the simpler the better. c) Anyness--being open to different platforms and Suggestion BOX Route to Innovation supporting different devices and operating systems. It is critical to have insights into global trends, perhaps a little earlier than some customers or Focus on Innovation CIOs. The time lag for these has been decreasing. With over 150 patents to its credit, the R&D head It’s also important not to be shy of India-specific believes that employees should be involved and requirements. India was once a slow market on the aligned with the strategic objectives of the company global map. Now, India has been recognised as a and that core functions are executed here. high-growth market, though cost sensitivity could Innovation is the right path for senior IT be higher here. What’s important is to understand managers to move ahead; it will empower them trends in consumerisation, executive mobility, to scale up faster. Product management is an area The book that work shifting, bring your own device (BYOD) which has undergone tremendous change. Earlier, focuses on the and eventually to understand that these trends interactions were limited to sales, focussed only specifics of are not going away. We must adapt to not only IT on designing the road map and presenting the marketing high technologies and processes, or IT training or hiring. company pitch to customers. Now, interactions are tech products Desktop managers have to work from data centres based on the requirements of customers. There are during the early and must deal with businesses which are big more interactions with customers around product start up period. strategic projects. In IT, it is not about controlling architecture and re-defining product capabilities. employees, it’s about enabling them. Writer: Geoffrey Moore Earlier, when I was in the US, we’d spend hours Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers just talking about the business and technology Price: ` 520 Rakesh Singh, VP and GM of Citrix India

6 itnext | september 2013

Industry trends deals products services Update people

the cloud for greater security in the ever-changing threat landscape. The relinquishing of control for the IT administrator is a tough pill to swallow even though it is for a smaller population of the employee base. The optimal way to look at this situation is to do a total cost of ownership (TCO) and return on investment (ROI) analysis, factoring in the risk of remote employees not keeping their systems up to date with security. Con- sider the offerings of security SaaS software vendors: Can you reduce or eliminate the on-premise hardware and software costs, deployment and maintenance by offloading the server management to a third Security Saas party ? 5 questions to ask in choosing model is well Does the vendor offer a hybrid suited for solution with a single manage- a security SaaS solution businesses ment view of security across the that have few enterprise? TECH TRENDS | Security Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is security con- or none IT Does the SaaS management plat- trols that are available by subscription and are managed and delivered resources form hosted by the vendor on via the Internetby a software vendor.The Security SaaS model is gener- their infrastructure off site, offer ally well suited for businesses that either have few IT resources or none centralized deployments, report- at all in-house, no desire to invest in security hardware, little time for ing and management online? managing security or a large number of remote users. For most CIOs With an Internet connection, around the world, taking on SaaS based software services is not an option regardless of connection to cor- anymore, it is a necessity. Enterprise CIOs have realized that for them to porate network, are all users remain competitive they need to optimize their IT budgets and leverage constantly protected with a “version-less” solution – with transparent updates and Obama campaign around big data upgrades, and policy manage- CLOUD ment? How the Obama Campaign Leveraged Big Data From a longer-term investment Big data strategy for Obama’s election Hire analytics team 5x larger than Merge all databases and add social media, perspective, does this software 2008 campaign polls or swing states campaign involved hiring of analytics Experts Consolidate vendor have the breadth of secu- experts that was 5 times larger than the earlier campaign. Merging of all Measure Everything rity portfolio so that you can get

data bases and addition of social Detailed models for swing all security SaaS solutions, with state voters, help predict media polls, democratic voter files for who will give and volunteer a single, centralized manage- servign states. Detail model to analyse Model Crunch Run election 66,000 times every night; ment console from the same and swinging state voters, help predict allocate resources based on results who will give and volunteer and vendor for greater ROI? target results. Targetg Expandp Rakesh Kharwal, Director – Test and place ads based on results Mobile app users give 4x more; expand program Source: Qlik Government Business - India, McAfee

8 itnext | september 2013 Intex’s Cloud X4 and Turtle Beach Fujifilm X-M1 and Cloud Y2 Android headsets un- XF27mm f/2.8 pan- 4.2 smartphones veiled cake lens Two new smartphones from The limited edition Fujifilm India’s latest Intex Technologies under its headsets for Call of mirrorless camera in the Cloud series – Cloud X4 and Cloud Y2. Targeting Duty: Ghosts will feature a black and X-series line-up, the Fujifilm X-M1, along the entry-level smartphone segment. The Cloud white design along with blue highlights, with the new XF27mm f/2.8 lens. Pack- X4 is priced at Rs 4,590 and Cloud Y2 at Rs 6,190. a bone-coloured body. Price: $299.95. age Lens is priced at Rs 31,999.

toward avoiding the danger of Focus on Continuous IT Cost tactical cost initiatives, which may seem to generate savings Optimisation: Gartner in the short term, but can mean costs returning into the business TECH TRENDS | After years of in the long term.” tactical cost-cutting, many organ- Transparency: Higher matu- isations now face the challenge of rity IT transparency practices continuous IT cost optimisation are seen as a prerequisite for after the realisation that optimisa- better supply and demand deci- tion practices are never finished, sions, and they enable many according to Gartner, Inc. Accord- enterprises to optimise costs and ing to a worldwide survey of cut costs the right way, while 2,053 CIOs, 65 per cent of those preserving what is most impor- surveyed stated that the main tant to the enterprise. Others are barrier preventing organisations agility, accountability, simplica- from achieving continuous opti- tion and discipline. misation of IT costs was related to Gartner recom- and costs end up returning The challenge of optimising mindset. CIOs felt that, if organ- mends 5 key into the business,” said Sanil IT costs isn’t just about trying isations were properly motivated principles of Solanki, Research Director at to reduce the unit cost of IT, but and moving to achieve the same organisation’s Gartner. “CIOs should consider trying to keep a balance between goal, they would make a greater cost optimiza- incorporating five key principles lower unit costs and sourcing impact on savings. tion practices into their organisation’s cost IT in a flexible way so that the “Organizations don’t often to form a basis optimisation practices to form organisation is able to remove or achieve the desired results from for continual a basis for continual optimisa- add resources/costs in response their optimisation initiatives, optimisation tion. These principles are geared to any changes.

Around The World quick byte Icertis and Microsoft team up to empower governments

Icertis, providers of enterprise solutions in the Microsoft cloud, announced that it will collaborate with Microsoft as part of Microsoft’s global CityNext initiative. CityNext helps cities take advantage Larry Ellison, CEO, Oracle Corp of existing resources to build a sustainable “Oracle is doing way better than competitors SAP and model of innovation and support for eight critical Workday.Oracle’s got 100+ functions: government administration, public enterprise applications living safety, healthcare, buildings, tourism, education, in the cloud today, while SAP has got nothing but Success- transportation, and energy. CityNext initiative aimed Factors until 2020” at empowering cities and its citizens.

september 2013 | itnext 9 New Kid on the Network Senior IT decision makers are learning the nuances of simplifying network orchestration with Software Defined Network, a new phrase in the industry by n geetha Design by haridas balan IMAGING by binesh sreedharan SDN | cover story

hile the industry comes up with new buzzwords from time to time, the latest on the go is Software Defined Networks (SDN). IT leaders and practitioners, and vendors, in particular, are looking at ways to influence senior IT managers to capitalise onW this evolution called Software Defined Network.

Is SDN a new concept? SDN is an architectural approach to networking that separates the Inside data, control and application planes that enable the intelligence of the device to be split from the packet-forwarding engine and be controlled 13 | SDN Makes Network Management Simple centrally, while data transport is distributed. Most IT practitioners 18 | Why is SDN IT Managers’ Best Bet? argue that while the concept of is not new; the approach should be 21 | SDN Vs Virtualisation: Synergy? new as it provides networks with more real-time intelligence, deep 26| What is Innovative About SDN? application integration and high levels of automation to prepare networking technology for the rigorous demands of the cloud era. There is been sudden hype and aura created around SDN which definitely is no passing fad. Most vendors including, HP, Juniper, VMware, Cisco, Citrix, EMC, Netapp etc., have invested huge resources in SDN. Amandeep Singh Dang, Country Head-Networking, Dell India, claims that the new approach to networking was forged within some of

september 2013 | itnext 11 “While the application delivery tool would cost between $100,000 to $500,000 as a ball park figure, depending upon the user base, the advantages are huge” Nilesh Goradia, Head - Pre-Sales – India Subcontinent, Citrix,

the largest data centres in the world where the leading innovators sort of mass recognition or adoption which would lead to in cloud computing have been working to deliver a new breed of further maturity. Bhatia believes that organisations should: highly automated and elastic networking technologies. Start to understand what SDN can offer them, but Nilesh Goradia, Head - Pre-Sales – India Subcontinent, Citrix, keep an open mind about the different approaches says that SDN is bringing a paradigm shift in the way networks to SDN and not limit thinking to a single approach . function. “Implementing an application delivery solution as part Do the upfront planning to get an understanding of what devices of the SDN strategy at the user layer, IT managers can bring the and applications live on your network, what you need the network to user to the virtual network. With SDN, the controller plays a major do in the next 2, 5 and 7 years and what you might need to add on top role in defining the network components and its efficiency, as the of it. Use this information to explore different use cases and options. basic switch is replaced by the controller,” says Goradia. He argues Look before you leap: Network equipment vendors are that the acquisition cost of SDN is also very high and says, “While doing significant new development to ensure their products the application delivery solution would cost between $100,000 remain relevant in the new paradigm, while many start-ups are to $500,000 as a ball park figure depending upon the user base, pushing innovation to new levels. Because of its marketing value the advantages derived are immense with scalability, reduction in however, SDN is being applied to many existing technologies operational cost of the data centre, efficiency of the data centre and to give them fresh appeal; these technologies need to be sifted reduction in terms of infrastructure.” through and understood for what they are. We can expect Aligning with the SDN trend, virtualisation vendor VMware to see further consolidation in the market as some start-ups launched VMware NSX, the platform for network virtualisation are acquired, which we believe could introduce additional that will deliver the entire networking and security model organisational risk. Additionally, there’s much work to be done from Layer 2-Layer 7 in software, decoupled from underlying regarding SDN standards and many standards bodies have networking hardware. VMware’s approach to network working groups looking at various aspects of the technology. virtualisation will enable data centre operators to treat their Understand the operational impact: Think about the need physical network as a pool of transport capacity that can be to support your network on an ongoing basis. SDN will impact consumed and repurposed on demand. your support models as the environment changes and evolves. Work with a vendor-independent partner with a thorough Suggested Approach to SDN understanding of networking, network architectures and protocols. Murtaza E Bhatia, National Manager (Security), Dimension Additionally, the partner should have a solid grasp of virtualised Data, believes that there should be no doubt that programmable infrastructures and the nature of cloud computing workloads, and networks and SDN represent important paradigm shifts that how these impact the network. This combined knowledge will will enable future networks to be more flexible; however, guide pragmatic and practical SDN choices that fit the overarching they must be approached with care. These technology network architecture, and ensuring that the network platform breakthroughs are still nascent and haven’t yet reached any continues to support ICT and business objectives.

12 itnext | september 2013 SDN Makes Network Management Simple The panacea lies in the intelligence of a network system controlled centrally by software to make the network agile

ost agree with the popular belief that having to touch individual switches. He can change any Software Defined Networking (SDN) is all network switch’s rules as and when needed--prioritising, about controlling/automating many diverse de-prioritising or even blocking specific types of packets with elements within the network stack from a a very granular level of control,” says Matta. He adds, “This is control plane rather than at the component especially helpful in a cloud computing architecture because Mlevel. The main concept in SDN is the separation of a network it allows the administrator to manage traffic loads in a flexible device’s control plane from its data plane. and more efficient manner.” Ashish Khanna, AVP-IT, EIH Ltd, argues that in the case SDN’s Modus Operandi of SDN, unlike traditional networks, the logical control plane In simple terms, says Vijay Sethi, VP-Information Systems is decoupled with the hardware which is used only for data & CIO of HeroMoto Corp Ltd., SDN provides a new network forwarding. This decoupling allows the control plane to be architecture in which the part of network system that makes implemented using a different distribution model rather than decisions about where traffic is sent (the control plane) is the data plane. “The Network administrators who used to take separated from the systems that forwards traffic to the days to perform a particular change across the network, that selected destination (the data plane). This ensures that is, shaping the traffic for a new application, defining a new intelligence of a network system can be controlled centrally VLAN scheme etc., will be able to perform the same task in by software. “With this, the amount of automation and few hours,” he says. scalability in networks can increase tremendously. This The primary reason for adopting software defined also helps increase the flexibility of network utilisation, network solution by most IT managers, as Anand Tirunagiri, thus making the entire system much more cost-effective,” Business Development Manager-India & SriLanka, Allied says Sethi. According to Nilesh Goradia, Head - Pre-Sales – Telesis, observes, are for optimal utilisation of network India Subcontinent, Citrix, “In the SDN concept, the network resources and achieving better scalability of data centres. simplification is brought about by making changes in the Tirunagiri says that the proponents of SDN aim to solve basic architecture where the user switch is replaced by a three problems: a) Simplify network management b) Optimise controller to create a virtual network.” network performance through centralised flow management Kamal Matta, Head-IT& Telecom, Sonic Biochem Ext. and c) Overlay virtual networks over a shared physical Ltd., believes that the IT managers’ task will be made easy as infrastructure. their control over the network will drastically increase due SDN solution, which is a controller, aims to simplify the to network optimisation, and their purchasing power will network management process. increase due to cost reduction in networking components. Treating the network as a single unified entity, configured “Using SDN, a network administrator will be able to plan and maintained from one central location, can greatly reduce the traffic from a centralised control console without the cost of network management. Central management can

september 2013 | itnext 13 cover story | SDN

SDN architecture approach leaving the data plane on commoditised switch hardware. “Centrality of control plane will completely eliminate inter device convergence protocols and associated issues, enable network splicing, bring around capabilities to port network Application Orchestration Applications services overlay as well as open the framework to build any Plane kind of custom or stand network orchestration build-outs to deploy, manage, control, provision or analyse networks,” says Dang. Joe Green, CTO, Systems Engineering, APAC, Juniper, clearly articulates that inside every networking and security Control Plane Controller device--every switch, router, and firewall--you can separate

OS Switch

Data Plane Hardware Hypervisor “Using SDN, a network pSwitch vSwitch administrator will be able to plan the traffic from also reduce disruption when major upgrades or policy a centralised control changes are being implemented. To ensure centralised flow management to optimise console without having network performance, a set of switches are configured with rules that map out a network structure: which ports belong to touch individual to which VLANs; which subnets are attached to which VLANs; a loop-protection mechanism to block redundant switches” links; a routing protocol to distribute subnet information; possibly even dynamic VLAN allocation rules at the edge. Kamal Matta, “The switches are connected together; each applies its rules Head-IT & telecom, Sonic Biochem independently, and shares appropriate information with its neighbors and a system that can reliably transport data between thousands of individual end-points comes to life,” says Tirunagiri. Such networks are resilient to failures of links and switching nodes—the loop protection and routing protocols re-converge onto a new forwarding topology, and data continues to flow. Tirunagiri further says, “The networks share a common set of hardware, and they are provisioned and updated frequently. Manually configuring dozens of switches to implement these regularly changing virtual networks is unfeasible.” SDN solutions are being developed that implement the virtual networks. Such solutions use a centralised controller to directly update switch forwarding tables,” he adds. Amandeep Singh Dang, Country Manager, Networking, Dell India, points out that from a monolithic system (such as the networks are today, with each element having its own control and data plane), communication has been more of a democratic setup with 5000 + RFC standards of command and control for devices to collaborate, interconnect, inter-operate and form networks. SDN decouples the control plane into a centralised control

14 itnext | september 2013

“The switches are connected together; each applies its rules independently, and shares appropriate information with its neighbors and system”

Anand Tirunagiri, Business Development Manager, Allied Telesis

the software into four layers or planes. As we move to SDN, Services is an area that is terribly underserved by networking. these planes need to be clearly understood and cleanly This enables network and security services to scale separated. This is absolutely essential in order to build the independently using industry-standard, x86 hardware based next generation, highly scalable network. on the needs of the solution. “Centralisation is powerful; it is a key principle for SDN Step 3: Creating a Centralised Controller is a big step forward. and it’s very appropriate to apply centralisation to networking The Centralised Controller enables multiple network and software. Centralisation only makes sense within a highly- security services to connect in series across devices within the connected, contained geographic area--for example, within a network. This is called “SDN Service Chaining”--using software data center, throughout a campus, or in the case of a service to virtually insert services into the flow of network traffic. provider, across a city,” says Green. Service chaining functionality is physically accomplished today Even with this centralisation, network devices themselves using separate network and security devices. will remain distributed and they must have local intelligence. Today’s physical approach to service chaining is quite crude; When you add the concept of centralisation to networking separate devices are physically connected by Ethernet cables; software, the four planes move around a bit. Regardless of each device must be individually configured to establish the the number of distributed devices, you’d like to manage service chain. With SDN Service Chaining, networks can be the network as a system and centralised management does reconfigured on the fly, allowing them to dynamically respond that job. When you centralise management, it becomes the to the needs of the business. SDN Service Chaining will configuration master; all of the devices keep just a copy. dramatically reduce the time, cost and risk for customers to Services have historically been implemented within each design, test and deliver new network and security services. networking and security device but with SDN, services can Step 4: The final step of optimising network and security move to the centre and are performed on behalf of all devices hardware can proceed in parallel with the other three. and there are four steps: As services are disaggregated from devices and SDN Step 1: Management is the best place to start as this provides Service Chains are established, network and security the biggest bang for the buck. The key is to centralise network hardware can be used to optimise performance based on the management, analytics, and configuration functionality needs of the solution. to provide a single master that configures all networking Network and security hardware will continue to deliver 10x devices. This lowers operating cost and allows customers to or better Forwarding performance than can be accomplished gain business insight from their networks. in software alone. The combination of optimized hardware Step 2: Extracting Services from network and security together with SDN Service Chaining allows customers to build devices by creating service VM’s is a great next step because the best possible networks.

16 itnext | september 2013

Why is SDN IT Managers’ Best Bet? IT managers are making their networking investments more in tune with business today

n IT manager can expect a long of simplification, What is Going to Change for IT Managers? playfulness, orchestration and convergence Amandeep Singh Dang, Country Manager, Networking, Dell India, from SDN. This change will allow him to reiterates that SDN enables a new type of network virtualisation, accelerate in cloud, converged infrastructure providing the last piece of the puzzle required to deliver low-lost, and workload awareness around his IT all-inclusive private cloud solutions to the enterprise data centre. systems.A IT managers will be able to gear their networking “SDN is the key to enabling significant technologies from the all- investments more in tune with the business, rather than just inclusive elastic private-cloud to secure mobile access, BYOD and seen as speed-and-feed universal connectivity components as beyond, all with a highly automated model that can give enterprise networks are deemed by business today. IT never-before-seen levels of agility while reducing both capital and operational overhead to the lowest levels ever delivered in enterprise solutions,” he says. Dang candidly says that IT managers can

“If you plan to build an SDN, you don’t need to hold off your investments today for fear of protecting those investments down the road. None wants to rip and replace network” Joe Green, CTO, Systems Engineering, APAC, Juniper

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“Standards about SDN and the application and partner eco system will also evolve as there are more adopters. Requires change management”

Vijay Sethi, VP-IS & CIO, HeroMoto Corp

Leverage cloud technology to the fullest. Enable a new type of new possibilities for the future of networking, says Dang. network virtualisation Vijay Sethi, VP-IT & CIO, HeroMoto Corp, finds various Do network simplification with more real-time benefits: ease of management of networks because of intelligence, deep application integration and high levels automation, elimination of the need to configure individual of automation to prepare networking technology for the devices as central configuration would be possible, increased rigorous business demands network reliability and security because of centralised Allow competitive multi-vendor play bringing down overall and automated management of network devices, uniform cost of ownership policy enforcement and fewer configuration errors and Do network consolidation and IT unification (server + Storage better experience to end-users and be more cost effective. + Networking + App’s awareness) He says that not many IT leaders and network managers Networking as a service to the internal enterprise are considering SDN in corporate India, as of today, as Dang says that as the cloud era takes shape, technology awareness about the SDN concept and capabilities is very continues to play an increasing role in all aspects of business; low. “I feel we are experiencing the cycle we underwent this role is shifting from operational support to becoming core to during virtualisation and cloud--where there were some product and service delivery and customer interaction. “Business early adopters; --but it took a few years to have those concepts investment in technology is the question of who will get the budget universally understood. SDN will follow a similar route, and and control over technology investments in the new growth areas in time to come, SDN would be a much more frequently used in business innovation. This is where SDN can be of tremendous term in corporate IT departments. Standards about SDN benefit. Not only in mere operational streamlining, but rather and the application and partner eco system will also evolve through providing robust tools that empower administrators to as there are more adopters. “Also, for going in for SDN, drive operational innovation,” adds Dang. IT departments would need to go through a lot of change SDN does not turn the network into a template to pass on to management as the role and skill sets of network managers server administrators; rather, it provides a deep and dynamic would undergo a lot of change,” says Sethi. application and network integration driving an end to silos According to LuiSimonetti and Gates Zeng – Networking through greater collaboration, enabling network architects to take Systems Engineering Specialists, Avaya, “Senior IT managers a more proactive role in delivering cloud services, applications should expect SDN solutions to require a certain amount of and driving the next-generation user experience. And that customisation (which can be very involved). So they need is the real value of SDN. It is not a specific killer feature or to ensure enough of the right type of specialised technical use case, but rather, it is a platform with the clear potential of resources are available to handle it. These resources may be solving many of the most critical challenges in the traditional hard to come by.” networking model, and it is a platform that creates entirely “The IT organisation typically relies on the standard control

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INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs cover story | SDN

“SDN is the key to enabling significant technologies from the all-inclusive elastic private-cloud to secure mobile access, BYOD and beyond”

Amandeep Singh Dang, Country Head-Networking, Dell India

plane protocols such as Open Shortest Path First (OSFP) the network becomes more efficient and agile, and an enabler and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) for topology discovery for delivering on business goals for application performance. and to establish routing/ forwarding databases,” remarks A few points for IT Managers / CIOs to consider while they LuiSimonetti, Networking Systems Engineering Specialist, map their SDN strategy: Avaya. Now the IT organisation has more freedom and control, but necessary resources are required to understand and handle 1. The Buyer’s Journey different situations. For example, early adopters of SDN (Google If an organisation plans to build an SDN now, or plans a for instance) have a sizeable development team working on future implementation, you don’t need to hold off your net- SDN, programming and writing code. In a nutshell, if you want work investments today for fear of protecting those invest- the network to be programmable, you need to program it. ments down the road. Nobody wants to rip and replace their Gates Zeng – Networking Systems Engineering Specialists, network. For a successful implementation, there are three key Avaya, believes that today there is little interaction between the factors to consider: investing in the right architecture, open platform and network side, and that both sides are controlled interfaces, and flexible programmability. by different management system. “Through SDN, however, the chance of integrating platform and network management 2. Invest in the Architecture becomes a reality. For example, through OpenStack, the open The network buying decisions that an IT Manager / CIO makes cloud computing platform, data centre administrators will be today are driven by specific projects such as adding scale and able to use a single graphical user interface to do everything capacity, building new applications and services, bringing new from deploying virtual machines to assigning storage to facilities online, retiring end-of-life equipment, and network configuring networks,” says Zeng. consolidation. One should base their decision on differentiated network architectures that deliver the features and capabilities How to Map the SDN Strategy: you are looking for with an added focus towards simplicity of Software Defined Networking represents the biggest change management; nobody wants to deal with a network that’s diffi- to the network in many years. According to Joe Green, CTO/ cult to install and use. This will reduce OPEX for managing the Systems Engineering, Asia Pacific, Juniper, what makes SDN physical network while delivering the key features and applica- interesting is the transformation that it can enable. With SDN, tion performance that’s reliable and predictable.

22 itnext | september 2013 SDN | cover story SDN vs Virtualisation: Synergy? SDN is an enabler of virtualisation and cloud to build agile networks and drive business efficiency

s an industry trend, Software Defined Networking is to start with virtualisation. “Network Functions Virtualisation (SDN) is as potent, vital and impactful as (NFV) is a key part of a service provider’s broader SDN strategy. Virtualisation and cloud in IT space. Amandeep While NFV and SDN are often seen as separate technologies, Singh Dang, Country Head-Networking, Dell the reality is that the two are highly complementary and it is in India, says, “Virtualisation is a technology to combination that they deliver the most value. NFV allows for Asplice physical IT assets into virtual need based assets. Cloud is the deployment of network components as software via virtual commercial/non-commercial business process modelling using machines,” says Paul. Virtualisation as the technology, while SDN is the technology There are already early implementations of network functions enabler that will allow virtualisation of networks or for cloud business modelling.” All three are not the same; but they are inter-related and concurrent to the overall IT virtualisation wave that we are experiencing whether from a business process standpoint, or from a technology standpoint or from network as an IT element standpoint. Sajan Paul, Director, Systems Engineering, India & SAARC, Juniper, points out that if IT managers are ready to jump aboard the SDN bandwagon, they might wonder where to begin. The answer

“SDN abstracts the traditional networking hardwayre layers into software and hardware for efficient management of hardware and data flow”

Ashish Khanna, AVP-IT, EIH Ltd

september 2013 | itnext 23 cover story | SDN

virtualisation that are resulting in more cost-effective operations and faster, more efficient deployment. “However, SDN has paved Paul reiterates that virtualising network functions is the first step towards building an agile network and truly leveraging SDN. way for innovation in DCs Virtualisation not only provides quantifiable benefits, it allows using the open platform providers to easily and quickly add capacity while dramatically lowering the operating costs associated with running their approach. SDN leaves networks. With an agile network, providers can deliver more data more efficiently, and pioneer new revenue streams while only forwarding jobs to increasing customer satisfaction along the way. Ashish Khanna, AVP-IT, EIH Ltd, admits that since the SDN switch ASICs” concept is still evolving, a lot of people are confused between SDN and network virtualisation, although in functionality, there is Bimal Raj, CEO, Smartlink Networks Ltd. a thin line of difference between both technologies. “The major difference is that network virtualisation focuses on combining a few hardware resources (from one vendor) and presenting them to the application and administrators as one common resource, while SDN abstracts the traditional networking hardware layers into software and hardware for efficient management of hardware and data flow,” says Khanna. LuiSimonetti and Gates Zeng – Networking Systems Engineering Specialists, Avaya, maintain that virtualisation and Cloud are terms typically used to describe the decoupling of applications from the server environment which would normally host them. SDN is a “big umbrella” term which is mostly used to described the decoupling of the network infrastructure which would support such applications and server environments into two core components: the control side (Control Plane) and the network side (data forwarding). For Avaya, the Shortest Path Bridging (SPB) standard is the fabric that helps enable network virtualisation. With SPB, you can fluidly build network connectivity for an application and scale it to tens of thousands of virtualised networks. On the control side, it’s all about being able to manage the network assets and communicate to applications running on the network. Bimal Raj, CEO of Smart Link Network Systems Ltd., believes that having seen ups and downs in the economy for the last one decade, one of the priorities for most organisations is infrastructure cost control, both in terms of CAPEX and OPEX. CIOs and CTOs are also under the scanner by auditors or independent agencies to check how effectively they drive the show. However, the challenge for these CIOs is even more, since IT requirements are more demanding due to the increasing use of the web world today. Thankfully, the Applications and Operating systems have moved beyond on hardware vendors. Unfortunately, there was no way to work proprietary hardware based approach and are free to move from in the “Open” manner when it came to Switching Hardware and one platform to other seamlessly. “Both private and public cloud Switch Control System which had to be from the same OEM till service providers enjoy the benefits of the virtualisation which a few years ago. “However, SDN has paved way for innovation not only provided agility but also 100 per cent redundancy,” he and experimentation in DCs using the open platform approach. says. However, when coming to network infrastructure, most of SDN basically allows to control network traffic using a centralised the data centre deployments today end up with standard driven controller (mostly different from Switching Hardware vendor) and protocols/codes written by most hardware vendors which leave leaves only forwarding jobs to switch ASICs. no space for innovation and experimentation. According to Raj, This allows controlling network traffic behavior in a more although standards are beneficial for seamless operations, the flexible manner even without using protocols like STP, RSTP etc. standardisation itself takes years which may not be required for Customers can use SDN capable that is, open flow based switches internal implementations but still organisations need to depend from different vendors,” he remarks.

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What is Innovative about SDN? Automated non-strategic menial tasks will free time for administrators to spend on strategic opportunities in driving IT

n the one hand, Software Defined Networking to drive IT innovation. (SDN) will commoditise switching hardware It enabled a new generation of more intelligent and robust from the current proprietary or rather tools, creating a platform to enable technologists to drive monopolistic block it is today. On the other, it operational innovation and architectural best practices. will give rise to a new industry with Software, The centralisation of user and application data facilitated OApps platforms, and orchestration tools and/or optimised deeper application integration creating a platform to hardware for controllers. empower entirely new IT innovations. The nature of this innovation is such that every enterprise will see a very different use case for it. To highlight just a On Demand Network Play few, SDN will enable Multi-tenant DC with network slicing, SDN will bring about the capability for applications to control L4-7 network services and traffic steering, Cloud bursting, their networking environment, on demand and with no delay. Network monitoring—analytics and visibility, WAN In the process, SDN will bring forward innovation both in the bandwidth optimisation, and more. networking hardware and software arenas. Relevant analogy that can provide clarity around the New chipsets will be designed to support the SDN impact of SDN is an examination of modern wireless model. Greater integration with applications will require architectures which have recently undergone a transition development of APIs and programmable interfaces from a very similar to the changes facing wired networks today. software perspective. And at the same time, existing network Prior to 2005, the vast majority of wireless implementations equipment will adapt to support the SDN model to gain the utilised “fat” access points which functioned essentially the benefit of the new architecture. same way that wired switches do today. And then the lightweight access points swept the industry almost Spotting Intelligence in the Network overnight, moving intelligence away from edge devices Innovation lies in making the network an intelligent, pro- towards a centralised controller, just as OpenFlow grammable entity that uses information from within the architecture does. This transition did not commoditise network as well as that from applications and systems on enterprise wireless networks but rather empowered them. top to make informed decisions to enable greater respon- The nature of this architecture itself provided 3 significant siveness to dynamic events, facilitate intelligent applica- impacts: tions and allow optimal use of network resources. It automated non-strategic menial tasks, freeing time for Understand the fundamental attributes of administrators to spend on more strategic opportunities programmability and start laying the foundation through

26 itnext | september 2013 Frequent “Since there is better Breakdowns visibility of network, hampering your business? granular control, saving on infrastructure and monitoring and control on resources is possible”

-- Rajiv Agarwal, Head-IT, HAL Ltd.

network abstractions, automation schemes and programmatic interfaces. Creating the decoupling of the control and data planes allowing the control plane to be run on an x86 server is critical Creation of multi-layered workflow automations to allow workflows to interact with the network at different levels to accommodate the rate of change, and to enable customers to innovate independently, and published north- and south-bound APIs. Adopting a philosophy of hybrid intelligence recognising that the decision to centralise or distribute network functions is based on the domain. So, for example, what gets centralised in a physically compact environment like the data centre may be in Control Rooms quite different from the optimal approach for a global IP network run by a major service provider.

True Network Value ® The true value of networking comes from enabling dynamic awareness and control of the underlying topology by higher Removes harmful gases level applications, where applications can direct the network about their needs and the network can be re-configured and Prevents corrosion of electronic components re-provisioned accordingly. Simply put, SDN can provide better alignment between the Gas Phase Filtration network and the applications and systems that use them. In • Most efﬁ cient system for many ways, we have approached the network as a vast sensor purifying the air array with visibility into traffic flows, security events, counters, • Based on advanced usage data, etc., and have focused on exposing this network Honeycomb technology intelligence to OSS/BSS systems, management systems and using chemical ﬁ lters other applications. • Bry-Air EcoScrub looks Enabling this closed loop, bi-directional interaction makes the sleek and works quietly • Designed to complement network more robust and agile and the application and user Backed by experience more consistent. the servers Service

Self Serving Networks Enriching existing connectivity services with self service customisation, optimising video delivery with a centralised management, Get in touch with us today! virtualised intelligent traffic and dynamically customising the ® ISO 9001:2008 & 14001:2004 CERTIFIED delivery of applications from the cloud. Phone: +91 11 23906777 • E-Mail: [email protected]

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The Next Dark Horse A better approach to tackle BYOA is to either build an enterprise app store or deploy mobile application management software

by Vijay Saradhi

hen it comes to consumerisation, Factors Fuelling BYOA Momentum no concept has come under more Mobile applications have become intelligent scrutiny than BYOD (Bring Your receptors that help accomplish tasks. From WOwn Device). However, there is Evernote (utility) to sophisticated apps such as yet another emerging dark horse: BYOA (Bring Your Adobe photoshop, most tasks, which were once Own Application). Mobile applications, whose roles performed using laptops and computers, are now have grown by leaps and bounds, have transformed accomplished using mobile devices in the form of themselves into significant tools for business mobile apps. productivity. The most important cause for an These apps are reshaping the way employees increase of such mobile applications is the increase work and are shifting users’ preferences, making in the use of smart phones and tablets in the market. them use applications for personal or official tasks.

28 itnext | september 2013 IMAGing: HARIDAS BALAN can bevulnerable to malware attacks these thirdpartyapps; theseapps enable officialdata to be stored on commercial applications that would concerns; such astheuseofcertain white? BYOA hasitsown setof employees work onmultiple platforms. costs andplatform agnostic that help tasks, reduction inITenterprise advantages like easeofusetoperform applications come with a certain set of web applications aswell”. BYOA hasbeguntoaffect desktop and mobile strategy, andthetrendtowards the development ofacomprehensive bring your own device (BYOD) in (BYOA) hasbecomeasimportant as says, “Bringyour own application Vice-President, Research, at Gartner, andmobile devices.on PCs Ian Finley, managing corporate-sanctioned apps will have anenterprise app store for report, by 2017, 25 per cent of enterprises growth ofapps intheenterprise. 6:thisisample evidenceiOS ofthe introduced theapp lock policyinits one such leading vendor, Apple, has building securityforenterprises; organisations forspecific purposes. enterprise apps that arebuiltby BYOA hastodo withthein-store/ personal apps, too. their own devices, which include achieve work-related tasks by using thereby, itenables employees to been provided by theorganisation; their device only for the app that has policy that enables employees to use is benefitingfromanapp restriction For instance, thehealthcareindustry Is the scenario all that black and Commercial orenterprise According to a Gartner research Mobile vendors areinclined towards Another aspect in the growth of but if they try to accessbut if they try official mail devices iscommonamongemployees; at risk. Accessing mailfrommobile putting thecompany’s information Marketing Analyst, ManageEngine restriction policy restriction policy use their device use theirdevice only fortheapp provided by the provided bythe achieve work- related tasks” that has been that hasbeen employees to employees to employees to organisation; organisation; ealth care “Health care that enables that enables from an app from anapp industry is is industry benefiting benefiting it enables it enables Vijay Saradhi,

managing applications. complications for IT staff while cause data leakage, thus creating from mobile apps, it can possibly commercial orin-house: can help manage apps, whether application management best practices downloading commercialapps. employees, which might lead tousers number ofoptionsbeingavailable to But thedisadvantage liesinaless be moreorlessenterprise specific. data andtheusage ofthoseapps would enterprise app stores isthat itsecures software. The advantage ofbuilding an deploy mobile application management either buildanenterprise app store or A betterapproach totackle BYOA isto How toT business productivity. and toensure consistent andsecured and consofoptionsfortackling BYOA policy, itisadvisable toweigh thepros corporating BYOA intheenterprise IT reflecting onenterprises. Before in foresee asubstantial growth inapps atLooking the current trend,onecan On theotherhand,thesemobile the document restricting sharing orediting of in helps containerization Data when thedevice isunder threat automatic uninstallation ofapps stringent securitymeasures such as proactively securesdata by enforcing Mobile application management also tributing andmanaging applications It alsostreamlines theprocessby dis Play store mercial app stores such asiTunes or It enables ordisables access tocom ing ofapps cies by creating ablack orwhite list It canhelpindefining ITmobile poli- ackle BYOA er 2013 september BYOA | insigh | BYOA

| itnext - - - - t 29 Accelerate to Perform Innovation and technological advancements in WAN Optimisation space that are being leveraged by the IT managers

by Robert Healey

e at Riverbed have been working on several traffic acceleration across WAN via the Granite – this was innovations which are most relevant to the previously considered impossible – allowing 100 per cent current demand. This is a continuous process. consolidation of branch office IT infrastructure and many new WIn just the last 12 months, there have been major architectural models for IT service delivery innovations in the WAN optimisation arena which is impacting Massive improvements in QoS and throughput, with WAN enterprise customers. They include: Optimisation systems scaling into tens of Gbps New service models extending WAN optimisation to Other imminent innovations include extension of WAN accelerate cloud-based SaaS applications like Microsoft optimisation client software to non-PC mobile devices, Office 365, Google Apps and Salesforce.com including tablets and smartphones, to better support Extension of WAN optimisation technology to support storage BYOD environments.

30 itnext | sep tember 2013 IMAGE by: HARIDAS BALAN revenue-generating opportunities. availability forusers,and trimtimetomarket withnew to reduce ITcosts, improve ITstaff efficiency, increase in 2007and2010, IDCfound that customers were able optimisation. In thisstudy, asin previous studies conducted that analysed the typical ROI from adeployment of WAN The ITindustry analyst firmIDCwroteareportin2012 RoI andPaybacks selling itontotheirown customers. in bothusingthistechnology internally themselves, aswell as providers andsystems integrators have beenvery proactive downturn. The larger Indian domestic andinternational service growth fortechnology vendors, even during theglobal economic has resulted invery impressive businessperformance and vertical orindustry, though theadoption ratio might vary. This IT infrastructure, anddoes notrestrict itselftoany specific This technology works forany enterprise that hasadistributed Which Verticals onWAN Optimisation the company’s bottomline. business productivity is dramatic, and directly affects the sameplace. The boost inusersatisfaction and collaborate in real time as though they’re all in any device, over any typeofconnectionto – allowing everyone, everywhere, on needs oftheirentire distributed workforce the businessapplication performance IT managers canproactively address performance issues that impact business, Platform” approach to diagnose and cure By implementing the “Performance enterprise performance ofthe the workingand transforming WAN Optimisation on theirITinvestments. and thebest possiblereturn in optimum performance and curethemall,resulting distributed infrastructure performance issues withtheir help today’s ITmanager diagnose products andtechnology designed to “Performance Platform” – asuite of not only WAN optimisation but an entire more than 10 years in business, solution providers now offer both across the corporate WAN and the public internet. After of applications and data andusers connecting a variety ofdevices with users and IT resources highly distributed, multiple sources Today’s modern enterprise ITenvironment isincrediblycomplex, by ITmanagers Cutting-edge technologiesbeingleveraged “Performance optimisation but an entire optimisation butanentire now offernotonly WAN 10 years in business, 10 yearsinbusiness, solution providers solution providers “After morethan Technology Evangelist, APAC andJapan Healey,Robert from remotesites,butalsothe“soft” costs ofITsupport forthose reduces or eliminates the “hard” costs or hardware and software IT infrastructureback tothecorporate data centre. This notonly benefit: WAN optimisation enables consolidation ofbranch office undoubtedly significant. As anexample, consider just one directly visible, andthoseperhaps somewhat lessso, but many, andinclude both“hard” and“soft” costs –i.e., those The benefits tothebusinessofusingWAN optimisation are Business andTechnology Benefits monitoring, detection andredirection. WAN Optimisation toolsenable network visibility, proactive well as the actual software applications themselves. Most which identifies issues withboth network infrastructureas as delivered by the performance management solution set, resolution of corporate application performance problems, The key itemsarethespeedy and accurate diagnosis and lifetimewiththeaddition oftheperformanceboost.service or servers –theyalljust work better, andwith anextended faster needed toanorganisation’s existing routing, switching, security changes during necessary implementation. No changes are enterprise’s existing IT infrastructure, with minimal to no performance solutionsareextremelyeasy tointegrate into an and Replace” approach recommended by major IT suppliers, into existing ITenvironments. Rather thanthetypical“Rip The beauty true of this technology is its ease of integration to makeitworkBetter Changes thatITManagersNeedtoBringit Key ingredientstoaddressbusinessissues remote sites, including staff time, travel costs, management Platform” – Platform” – burden, power billsandsoon. Reaping theBenefits The best way fororganisations tounderstand the will immediately see a drastic reduction in WAN their own production network environment. They benefits of this technology it themselves is to try in WAN Optimisation |insigh bandwidth and improvement in business application performancedelivered compel himtogo infordeployment.. by thistechnology, making it very evaluation which willeventually obvious how they can save their equipment sent for customer networking costs and boost user order isincluded withthetrial In most cases,apurchase business productivity. One un-accelerated performance. point tonotethough –this back olddays” tothe“bad of technology isquite addictive, usually never wants to go and anyone who tests it sep ember 2013 tember | itnext

t 31 32 itnext | september 2013 Inve Securit Weigh Your

IMAGE by: peterson pj need to align security withbusinessfunctionstomaketheenvironment trulyneed toalignsecurity secure threats.Inconversation withNGeetha,Chauhanreiterates serious security the the areasofgreatestriskarereceivingadequateattentionandhowtheycanaddress investment weightingtoassesswhether companies needtoreviewtheirsecurity Ravi Chauhan,ManagingDirector, Indiaand S is questioned? technologies security network technologies aremost effective experience indicates that thenew cyber securityrisks. Their holistic approach tomanaging and, hence, do nottake amore focus on the inside-out threat promises; also, organisations shorttechnologies of vendor fall is that theemerging security organisation. Thereason primary security threats their facing only address apart of the cyber emerging securitytechnologies The securitychiefs argue that unwarranted internet traffic. down web applications or block not minimise attacks that bring effective as they should be and do security technologies arenotas agreed that emerging network include seniorITpractitioners, a majority of the respondents, who Ponemon Institute indicated that One ofourstudies alongwith

efficacy of emerging efficacy ofemerging Why doyouthinkthe s tment should raise awareness about of organisational alignment. environment, data centres and lack least risk arethenetwork server What’s considered toposethe (such as smartphones andtablets). insider risk andmobile devices connectivity/visibility, malicious These arealack ofsystem their posture? security network threaten network and security to risks the as greatest perceived are What more comprehensive andholistic. technology investments needtobe external attacks suggests security out threat. However, the rise of remain focusedon the inside- sophisticated risks. Companies are safe--which could address new about how much theexisting tools effective isminimisinghacktivism attacks. What is considered less advanced malware and botnet in minimisinggeneral malware, Users believe theirorganisations One ofmy concernsisalso y

etworks, says that saysthat AARC, JuniperNetworks, Ravi Chauhan |intervie

the control of thesecurity the most effective features in (IPS) and firewalls areconsidered Intrusion prevention systems while 14 percent areunsure. when deploying feature theIPS suffers performance degradation say their organisation’s NGFW Fifty-seven percent of respondents fire wall) offersplusesandminuses. NGFW (Nextservices. generation to applications andtheuseofcloud technologies toheighten visibility use emerging network security respondents say theirorganisations their organisations. Just half of the biggest network securityconcernfor securing web traffic the isby far important. Amajority believe that to applications andthecloud are traffic andincreasingvisibility security technologies securing web Efficacy ofemerging network positivesfalse is of less priority. environments. Minimising move from on-premise to cloud to web traffic andexpeditethe emerging threats, increase visibility s september 2013 september | itnext w 33 interview | Ravi Chauhan

the organisation’s network. The application control feature in NGFW is most often configured for corporate usage enforcement (53%) and monitoring and reporting only (47% of respondents). For many organisations, the reasons for not having granularly configured application controls is that concerns about settings that are too granular and management set the level. Concerns about false positives curtail use of WAF. Most say their organisation deploys WAF in block mode. The biggest concern is that its use will affect revenues. Sixty-one per cent of respondents say that if they don’t use WAF(web application firewall), it is because of the high false positives that sometimes block real customers. This is followed by the difficulty in setting and updating blocking rules or policies. A significant amount of time “The emerging is spent setting up, configuring and updating rules or policies network security for WAF. Only 21 (9 + 12) percent technologies are of respondents say they can immediately (or within a few most effective in hours) set up and configure minimising general their organisation’s WAF. The denial of service attacks. The least majority of respondents say that are viruses and hacking. malware, advanced it can take at least a few weeks to malware and botnet accomplish these tasks. It is said What are your thoughts on that technicians spend less than projecting data centres against attacks, but not in four hours each month to update global attacks? hacktivism” rules or policies for each WAF. Today, companies are struggling It can also take days each month to keep pace with the increasing to update rules or policies for volume and sophistication of cyber quickly disseminate that intelligence each WAF. attacks, particularly those aimed across the data centre and into the Many believe blocking of IP at web applications and servers, network. Juniper Networks can addresses is an effective security which deal in high-value traffic and deliver this intelligence through measure. Does the blocking typically reside in data centers. its Junos Spotlight Secure global of IP addresses make users This leaves significant attacker intelligence service, uncomfortable? A majority exposure to the most concerning which acts as the consolidation believe such actions make their attacks, and protecting against point for attacker and threat organisations uncomfortable these attacks requires security information, feeding real-time because of possible false positives systems that incorporate real- intelligence to Juniper’s security which could block legitimate time, definitive and actionable solutions. The first products to traffic and the need for a more intelligence about attackers. leverage Spotlight Secure security granular identification method To effectively secure data centres, intelligence are Junos WebApp than simply IP addresses. Juniper believes companies must Secure and Juniper Networks® SRX By far, the two most serious types possess knowledge of the attacking Series Services Gateways. of cyber attacks are web-based and devices, not just the IP address, and Juniper Networks security solutions

34 itnext | september 2013 Ravi Chauhan | interview

attacks. What is considered less can then be propagated to all other effective is minimising hacktivism. subscribers of the service. This Most argue that the organisations means if an identified attacker visits should raise awareness about another site, they can immediately emerging threats, increase visibility be tracked and prevented from to web traffic and expedite the forging subsequent attacks. move from on-premise to cloud environments. Of less priority is How do you create business minimising false positives. value out of security? CISOs need to periodically IT is important for security officers evaluate and assess the age of to bring in innovation and sell firewalls which are largely static security differently within the and rope in dynamic tools, as it organisation. Selling IT security is is found that 60 per cent of the often seen as an insurance policy. current IP related security tools Things can go really bad in your are not fit to prevent new threats. network, with your assets, devices, The volumetric attacks are easy applications and so forth. All the to detect, but sometimes the flow bad guys are out to get you. At the rate/size of attack can be hard to same time, organisations need to manage. L7 or application attacks be more agile, increase their speed can be very difficult to detect and if of innovation to be competitive in you can’t detect them, you certainly their respective industry without cannot manage or mitigate them. losing productivity and control of This hinders security professionals their security. It is critical to align from preventing attacks and wastes the IT capabilities to business needs resources as they chase false- and then security can make much positives. So while the industry sense. To establish credibility within has, for some time, had data about the enterprise, CISOs must focus on potentially dangerous IP addresses understanding his or her world. through reputation block-lists, this What is their business value focus? simply isn’t enough. In fact, it’s a What is our strategy in context of will also be incorporated into very ineffective way to identify and their agenda? Can we demonstrate security service chains, as outlined deal with attackers in the datacentre. what similar organisations are in the company’s recent Software Juniper’s first-of-its-kind doing in the industry? What did Defined Networking (SDN) vision Spotlight attacker intelligence they learn? and strategy announcement. This service doesn’t rely on IP addresses. The same principle applies to the approach will allow additional It is capable of uniquely identifying vendors to make the technologies intelligence to be shared across attackers even if they are NATed or that they represent effective. We network layers and enable the proxied on the same IP address or at Juniper believe that security quick deployment of security if attackers change their IP. Using is as much about prevention, services as part of the SDN Intrusion Deception, a technique defending and compliance as it is service chains. Juniper’s vision that uses fake code to trick attackers about being a business enabler. By for implementing SDN includes four into exposing themselves, we are demonstrating the breadth and steps, beginning with centralised able to detect attackers when they strength in the security capabilities, management, which is available are in the process of attacking. it is also possible to visualise the today with Juniper Networks Junos After preventing the attacker from real business benefits for the Space Security Director. getting to any sensitive information, customer by understanding their the system gathers various non- world and their needs. Basically, Where do the emerging personally-identifiable device what capabilities are we enabling network security technologies attributes as part of the standard for the customer by leveraging our work best? interaction with Web applications technology? Too many times, I see The emerging network security Find other inter- to create a fingerprint. sales guys approach a customer views online on technologies are most effective the website The attacker fingerprints are by starting to sell without really in minimising general malware, www.itnext. then shared with the Spotlight listening to the customer before in/resources/ advanced malware and botnet interviews attacker intelligence service so they talking.

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By B S Nagarajan

T vendors are always creating new jargon, and now the target seems to be data centres. Which is why, while most vendors are developing software that can helpI manage the data centre and power cooling efficiently, the industry resounds with the latest jargon, SDDC, short for Software-Defined Data Centre. It is all about driving agility, performance, simplified architecture and an efficient orchestration of various components. SDDC is the phrase used to refer to a data centre where all infrastructure data centre is virtualised and delivered as a service. The control of the data centre is fully automated by software, meaning the hardware configuration is maintained through intelligent software systems. resolve the This is in contrast to traditional data centres where hardware and devices typically define the infrastructure. dc puzzle Most often, technical architects are asked, “What is SDN anyways?” While the work for SDN began at Stanford Industry players are vouching software and the term caught on and created the defined data centre being a reality and how entire SDN revolution, no one is clear as

ILLUSTRATION: A nil . t ILLUSTRATION: to what the term really means. IT decision makers are leveraging this

september 2013 | itnext 37 38 networking.” just anumbrella termforcoolstuff in general term for networking; it is now says, “Now itisjust beingusedasa itnext conceptual right now, but it is the way He says that thisobviously ismostly concept ofSDDCresonates well. about any SDx assignation, hethinks the is Software DefinedData Centres. pack, according toCappucccio, though, The interesting onetocomeoutofthe Defined Radio Receivers (really).” Software Defined Power, and Software Organisations, Software DefinedStaffing, and I’ve heardabout Software Defined lately thevariation gamehasbegun which intuitively make sense, but Networks andSoftware DefinedStorage, thepack“Leading isSoftware Defined Defined X”. and thebuzzword du jouris“Software However, hesays, spin forward totoday, that gobeyond far itsoriginalconcept. that phraserolesandresponsibilities can get amazingly creative inassigning one catches on,thevendors andpress new catch phrases--and when a new Blog, says that the industry just loves Dave Cappuccio, Member oftheGartner DC hallenges change theirvisionofthedata centre. affect engineersandarchitects and server virtualisation, and how it would convergence of networking, storage and SDDC. And he was talking about the of VMware, Dr. Steve Herrod, coined bigger. It issaidthat theformerCTO of allthesethings into somethingmuch is emerging todenote theconvergence this league,joining the new term SDDC software andeverything isvirtualised. hardware is now being defined by new cloud computing services. both legacy enterprise applications and as itprovides asolutiontosupport virtualisation and cloud computing, next step intheevolution of SDDC isconsidered tobethe Next StepinVirtualisation UTE MANAG15-MIN E VMware’s chief technology architect While originally he was skeptical While networking and storage is The trend appears to be that all IT

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PHOTO/ILLUSTRATION/IMAGING CREDIT

Source : thinkdigit.com 15-MINUTE MANAGER “We are Sofware formulating Defined Data the vision into Center reality and * Data center where all infrastructure is virtualized and delivered as a service. Control about 50 to 60 of the data center is fully automated by software, meaning hardware configuration per cent of the is maintained through intelligent software enterprise data systems. This is in contrast to traditional data centers where the infrastructure is centres will be typically defined by hardware and devices. * SDDC is a next step in the evolution of under the spell virtualisation and cloud computing * SDDC provides a solution to support both of SDDC” legacy enterprise applications and new cloud computing services — B S Nagarajan, Director-Systems * There are three components of the Engineering, India & SAARC at VMware software-defined data center. It includes, network virtualisation, server virtualisationa and storage virtualisation. the industry is heading, and astute scale and protect applications and data * A business logic lyaer is also required to IT managers today are thinking based on business needs. translate application requirements, SLAs, not necessarily about the bells and While the benefits of SDDC are well policies and cost considerations. whistles vendors promise,-- but articulated, and the idea might sound about the organisational impact these good, many were dismissive of the term * Software-defined data centre is a relatively environments are going to cause. because VMware started using SDDC new enterprise computing phrase, but a VMware believes that the current as a marketing tool for its own products, number of vendors have rolled out their network architectures are rigid, including vCloud Director and its products around it. complex and create a costly barrier to various components. realising the full agility organisations and extend the principles to other expect from Private Cloud. Solving the DC Complexity components of the data center. Limitations of physical networks with SDDC With this process, it gets easy to tie an increasingly pooled dynamic VMware as a company is pursuing its virtualise the components of the data centre. virtual world back to inflexible, broad vision of the Software Defined VMware is offering a full suite of dedicated hardware, creating artificial Data Centre. It’s a vision that is about systems--vSPhere, vCloud, VFabric, barriers to optimising network untethering workload mobility from vCenter--all designed to provide a architecture and capacity utilisation. hardware infrastructure. coordinated, integrated approach to While a virtual machine can be VMware’s technology architect says software-based everything. provisioned in a matter of minutes, that the Software Defined Data Centre Since it already owns much of the “surrounding” that VM with all the is not necessarily about replacing virtual server action within most data necessary network and security humans with some form of autonomic centres, it is in a position to simplify services still takes days. intelligence. infrastructure, not merely camouflage This is because the current “The goal is, how you make networking its complexities the way OS does for the network and security operations have the properties of software systems PC. “We are formulating the vision into remain dependent on manual as far as innovation, provisioning speed, reality and about 50 to 60 per cent of provisioning of VLANS and and upgrade speed?” he says. the enterprise data centres will be under dedicated physical appliances with “You want networks to be as flexible the spell of SDDC,” says B S Nagarajan, fragmented management interfaces. and as agile as compute is. That’s not the Director - Systems Engineering, India & As a result, current network and case today, but that’s where we’re going.” SAARC at VMware. security architectures not only reduce But the SDDC concept works well. “We are trying to solve the data efficiency, but also limit the ability of The vendor has been helping customers centre challenges in an unconventional enterprises to rapidly deploy, move, convert servers into software compute manner,” adds Nagarajan.

september 2013 | itnext 39 15-MINUTE MANAGER

As IT organisations move to a Product review converged infrastructure and service- oriented model, many find that current Ms rolls out YouTube data centre networking architectures are a limiting factor. app for Win Phone 7&8 VLAN-based switching models have a long history, but suffer from the following challenges in the data centre: Inflexibility: VLAN and switching boundaries are not flexible nor are easily extensible. As requirements grow or shrink, compute and storage resources need to be allocated without major operational overhead. Operationally Inefficient Fault Tolerance: High-availability technologies such as VMware Fault Tolerance work best with “flat” Layer 2 networks, but creating and managing this architecture can be operationally difficult, especially at scale. VLAN and IP Address Management The YouTube app keeps appearing and disappearing from the Windows Phone Limitations: IP address maintenance Store, leaving users with no option but to resort to third party apps, but hope- and VLAN limits become challenges fully, that will change from today. as the data centre scales, particularly when strong isolation is required or in Microsoft has finally released an official YouTube app for Windows Phone 7 and service provider environments. Windows Phone 8. It is common knowledge that Microsoft and Google have VMware and Cisco Systems have created been battling over the Windows Phone platform for quite some time, with the the VXLAN technology. VXLAN is a latter company refusing to provide open support for Redmond’s mobile OS. method for “floating” virtual domains The YouTube app in particular has been a key area of focus, with the app being on top of a common networking and plagued by many issues. virtualisation infrastructure. Initially, the YouTube app was nothing but a web interface packaged into an app By leveraging industry-standard as Microsoft tried to work out a deal with Google to give it access to the YouTube Ethernet technology, large numbers of APIs. Microsoft maintained that Google was intentionally holding back access virtual domains can be created above from Microsoft to its YouTube APIs. The Redmond Company later released an existing network, with complete an updated YouTube app, complete with the ability to upload videos, download isolation from each other and the videos of offline viewing, but most of all, the videos played without any adver- underlying network. tisements. Google did not take very kindly to the downloading of videos and the ad-free experience, citing that the move was causing the company to lose Benefits to Data Centres ad-revenue. The app was promptly pulled from the Windows Phone Store at Flexibility: Datacentre server and Google’s request, leaving users high and dry. storage utilisation and flexibility is Microsoft has now come back with another official YouTube app, which is identi- maximised through the support of cal to the one they had released earlier, save for two changes. You cannot down- “stretched clusters” that cross load videos for offline viewing and when you do view videos on the apps, there’s switching and pod boundaries a pre-roll of an advertisement, just like on YouTube. Here is a list of features Streamlined Network Operations: according to the description of the YouTube app in the Windows Phone store: VXLAN runs on standard Layer 3 IP * Pin any video, playlist, channel, and search queries to Live Tiles networks, eliminating the need to • Manage your YouTube profile with your unique My YouTube page build and manage a large Layer 2 • Manage your playlists, uploads, and video lists underlying transport layer. • Find channels, videos, and playlists with the quick access search bar Investment Protection: VXLAN runs • Share videos to your social networks, e-mail, and text messages over standard switching hardware, • L e t y o u r k i d s w a t c h s a f e v i d e o s i n K i d ’ s C o r n e r a n d k e e p t h e i r o w n p r o fi l e with no need for software upgrades Source: Thinkdigit.com or special code versions on the switches.

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www.theleadershipinstitute.in 9.9 Mediaworx, B-118, Sector 2, Noida – 201 301, India Tel: +91 120 4010999 cube chat | Subhomoy Chakraborti

Change Excites Me “The constant dynamics of providing a solution within the said time and cost is a challenge that inspires me,” says Subhomoy Chakraborti, GM-IT Projects, Magma Fincorp Ltd

By N Geetha

hange is what excites Subhomoy in hand, but went against the regular trend and Chakraborti, GM-IT Projects on a pursued his M.Tech in Computer Science from ISI. day-to-day basis and the constant Says Chakraborti, “After M.Tech in 2003, I changes in business and technology worked briefly for Cognizant Technology Solutions, offer him immense scope for learning for a European financial giant, before joining Oracle andC motivate him. That apart, he enjoys leveraging Applications product development at Oracle India. innovation to meet business expectations at the low- After some years, I found mobile technology was est ever cost. “The constant dynamics of providing a the next big thing. So, I joined the Mobile Devices solution within the said time and cost is a challenge group in Wipro Technologies in 2006. Working that inspires me,” says Chakraborti. for around 6 years with various tier 1 OEMs The scene today, however, is that tech guys are across the world with international customers, interested in the “how” or the nuts and bolts of naturally, Chakraborti was picked up by the current a solution, while the business guys wait for the company, based on his track record, and was part final solution. “Instead of over-emphasising on of its new initiatives such as Gold Loan, Housing My sucess the “how,” IT guys should primarily focus on the Finance, Insurance (a Joint Venture with HDI). mantra ‘what’ of solving business problems. That would be Now the GM, he and his team have implemented Constantly innovate a win-win situation for both IT and Business,” he a Collection field force automation system using to meet business says. After a Bachelor’s in Mechanical Engineering POS handheld devices and a web solution. Built on expecttations from Jadavpur University in 2001, he had two jobs an open source stack, it has become one of the most

42 itnext | september 2013 cube chat

Fact File

Full Name: Subhamoy Chakraborti

Current Designation: General Manager (IT Projects)

Current Role: Head of Mobility Vertical and Technical Project Manager of Core Project

Work Experience: Working in mobility areas since the last 7 years has helped me gain formidable experience. gained exposure in developing IT strategy for an organisation.

Favourite quote: “Heaven is not a place, and it is not a time. Heaven is “Instead of over-emphasising on the “how,” IT being perfect” from “Jonathan Livingston guys should primarily focus on the ‘what’ of Seagull” by Richard Bach.

solving business problems, which would be a Favourite book: Some of my all-time win- win for both IT and Business” favourites are “The Art of the Start” by Guy Kawasaki, “Steve Jobs” critical applications driving the organisation. a Google Glass.” Steve Jobs as a perfectionist- by Walter Isaacson, Further, “We are doing a strategic initiative -“I became a Steve Jobs fan after reading his in building a completely custom developed biography; he is the best marketer I have Favourite food: Mexican and ERP system, which will cover all business seen so far.” Jack Welch as the management Continental, but that and support functions. It will also integrate guru--“I have read Jack Welch since my early doesn’t stop me from with a couple of external credit and lead career days; that, to some extent, has shaped gorging on Mughlai or generation systems. A multi-year project, how I see “management”.” I have been closely Thai. we are working with the best of vendors in tracking social media trends and technologies Favourite destination: application and infrastructure development and have a huge interest in social media as Dream destinations along with process reengineering. I am part of a science. I try to figure out how it can help are : Switzerland the PMO team of the project, and involved in turn around businesses or how ROI can be & LadakhFavourite daily governance and project management. “ calculated for a social media investment in an gadget for work: Recently I have moved Vendor management is also part of the Indian context,” especially in the SMB sector. completely from job; he works with multiple vendors in Photography is my passion. I have an old iPhone to Android application development and Mobile OEMs Canon 350D DSLR and some lenses. Another platform. engrossed towards building a workable ecosystem. dream for him is to drive a huge project (like with Android Nexus What inspires him? Google as an UIDAI), a real test of management skills and Favourite gadget for innovating hub--“It delivers new things technology knowledge, involving diverse personal use: almost every day. I am waiting to get hold of stakeholders. Nexus 7 tablet.

september 2013 | itnext 43

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book For you A platform to air your views on the latest open Debate developments and issues that impact you Leadership Isn’t for Cowards How to drive performance by challenging people and confronting problems. Author: Mike Staver is Is innovation vital to CEO of The Staver Group and provides keynote presentations, have a competitive edge? executive coaching

Ritesh Srivastava Makarand Prakash Kumar You are a leader. Maybe you lead a Programme Sawant Director IT at team of two or three people, a depart- Manager, Royal General Manager - Delta India ment, or even a company. Whatever the scope of your leadership, the pres- Bank of Scotland IT at DFPCL The concept of competitive sure is on. You have been entrusted How many projects do you a) Today’s competitive sce- edge has not changed ever with the great responsibility of mess- know in your career history nario is more volatile and since Porter’s Famous ma- ing with people’s lives. Every decision which completed on original unpredictable. There is a de- trix was propounded. How- you make, regardless of whether timelines under original clining emphasis on single ever, the underlying enabler it creates tremendous profits for cost with absolutely zero domestic markets and an in- has shifted towards in- your company, can breed discontent production incidents (within creasing emphasis on global novation and it has become among your subordinates—which in 6 months)? I know what markets as more industries more pronounced with IT turn, can spell your demise. Every day you are thinking...change globalise. Companies find becoming the center force. is a tightrope walk between fiscal re- requests, unclear require- that they must compete dif- This is impacting the nature ment, agile, environments, ferently to achieve strategic of competition. Innovation sults and their human consequences. test data not available, etc. competitiveness and earn is not a vertical process; Are you able to keep your balance? Hold on to your RCA (Root above-average or supe- it is more horizontal than With his new book, Leadership Isn’t Cause Analysis) engine! Let’s rior returns. New ways of vertical and horizontal pro- for Cowards, Mike Staver drives home confront the reality, these competing may include the cesses are better enabled the unique concept that managers/ constraints will be there. For following: through IT. Today, more leaders are ‘messing with people’s me, competitive advantage is a)Bringing new goods and than the product innova- lives.’ The book pushes you to have “the capabilities - managerial, services to market more tion, process innovation has the courage to be an impactful and technical, functional, busi- quickly become more important successful leader, while focusing on ness - that the IT provider b)Diversifying the product because it is more sustain- the ‘must haves’ in business AND the brings to the table to help c)Shifting product emphasis able and difficult to copy. ‘should haves.’ me deliver expected results d) Consolidate and com- And more often than not IT .j (product / software / solution) bine on-line selling with can help in innovating the IT NEXT Verdict to my business customers. physical stores processes. Identify the areas in your business or life where a gap exists between your current reality and desired reality. Make a specific com- mitment to the outcome(s) your want . Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the Editor at [email protected] Star Value: PHOTO IMAGING : p e t ers on IMAGING PHOTO

september 2013 | itnext 45 update

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Like something? Want to share your objects of desire? Send us your wish-list or feedback to [email protected]

46 itnext | september 2013 presents

“Where Finance meets Innovation” I

September 13 - 15, 2013 Marriott Resort & Spa, Goa Meet and connect with: • Mr Jamling Norgay, For CFOs • Shri Shakti Sinha, IAS, • Dr Subir Gokarn, Everest Mountaineer • Dr Ajay Shah, Professor, PrincipalNIPFP Secretary, Govt. Of Delhi • Shri Vinod Rai, Former Deputy Governor, RBI • Dr Shubhro Sen, With CFOs Former CAG • Mr Joy Bhattacharjya,Director, Tata Management Training Centre & Founder, By • ConsciousDr Pramath Capitalism Raj Sinha, Institute Advisor, Kolkata Knight Riders (IPL Auction) CEO & Group MD, 9.9 Media Highlights: Tech Gallery 75+ CFOs and Gain exposure to cutting-edge technology solutions that impact your professionals business and function! seniorrepresenting finance THOuGHT LEADER FinThinkers ‘Unconference’ initiative to IPL Mock Auction A pioneering CFO Policy Forum top,of influential India identify and Innovation Workshop recognise the companies leading ‘thinkers’ in finance. 5compelling reasons to join us in Goa... • Imagine possibilities and ideas for the future with dynamic speakers and like-minded peers • Create the future and problem solve with senior members of the community • Engage in conversations and meaningful exchange, not monologues • Learn, challenge and be challenged in an informal, interactive and friendly setting • Experience the perfect mix of work and fun!

TECHNOLOGY BANKING INNOVATION KNOWLEDGE VIRTuALISATION RISK BuSINESS TECH GALLERY PARTNER PARTNER PARTNER PARTNER PARTNER & CLOuD mANAGEmENT DISCOVERY PARTNER COmPuTING PARTNER PARTNER PARTNER

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Advertisement One Pager CFO vFinal.indd 1 28/08/13 2:43 PM my log Sangita thakur varma Managing Editor, India Now

The knots that bind Our liberty is very much in our

v e d hands, just break free h ac v s na : ma Illustration This overcast skies put a damper on Inde- meandering reverie. As a mother, can I pendence Day in Delhi. The rains played dissociate myself from work when my ducks and drakes with our great histori- nine-year-old has something of obvious cal city and roused citizens’ ire against importance plaguing her mind? Can I our monolithic municipality. Too much is for once, put aside my laptop, to listen 3 Essential happening in the country that calls us to and not just hear and nod, at her little Reads tickle our funny bone unless we want to be problems? I found myself shaking my drowned in the floods of depression (pun head a wee bit sadly. How often, I have intended) sweeping across the economy. brushed her aside, with an imperious, Onion tears or crocodile ones notwith- “I am working, can’t you see?” standing, all is certainly not well with our At work, can we revert to the age of Mother. As we cross swords and pass the no social media? I know it has its uses. parcel of blame, time we did some intro- But trawling the internet, checking out spection to analyse where we, as individu- Facebook updates, checking mail, and Ravi Chauhan, MD, India& SAARC, als, have faulted? tweeting every half-an-hour not only Juniper shares the importance What I found myself doing this Day destroys our concentration, lowers of weighing the security investments of Liberty—introspecting on my role as a productivity but the time wasted away citizen, manager and mother. Yes, each of us from work adds up to the backlog that plays multiple roles in our lives. None cut you carry back home. As a corollary, it and dried, each overlapping in duties and ties you to your work 24x7. hours. As managers in a connected world, When at home unable to pay we are on call 24x7. We carry our laptops attention to pressing personal matters, home and are wired to the office. When at you carry the backlog to work with you. work we have our smartphones, tablets and There are bills to be paid, so you the world of social media connecting us to log on in office to do that. There are BYOA: The Next Dark Horse and the best approach to tackle it friends, family and everyone else outside instructions to be relayed to workers our work sphere. Gone are the days when at home or family members need some advice such as don’t carry work home or urgent guidance that you were unable family to work was heeded. You carry to share as you were working at home your baggage in the back of your mind to complete that urgent report. Result: much as you lug your laptop bag on your You walk out of office to attend that shoulders. We have become fabled citizens personal call that takes at least half an of Panchtantra—Vikram & Betal—the King hour every one hour or so. It’s a vicious Magma's Subhomoy Chakraborti on and the ghost. circle and we have tied ourselves into how changes and challenges excite Our wired existence suddenly evoked knots. I have resolved to undo some this him and how to meet business visions of chains and brought me out of my August 15. So can you. expectations

48 itnext | september 2013 Taru Email

Sharad Documents

Rashi Meetings Work has gone Google.

“Going Google” means running your business on Google Apps, a suite of online tools including email, calendar, meetings and documents. google.com/work