Tata Internet to provide data centre facilities to GTB
Tata Internet Services has forged an alliance with Global Trust Bank (GTB), whereby the latter will employ Tata Internet Services’ state of the art data centre as a hub for its core banking operations. The Data Centre will house GTB’s core banking and ATM operations as well as other Internet Banking applications. With Global Trust Bank, Tata Internet now has over 30 large corporate clients for its data centre services.

Tata Internet was chosen after a sophisticated evaluation process to provide data centre services with a combination of disaster recovery and production operations. GTB evaluated leading Internet Data Centre Service Providers for data centre infrastructure and network services. The main parameters of evaluation were: demonstrated commitment to superior service in line with the Tata brand, responsiveness to GTB’s requirements, and quality of infrastructure (experience of operations team, location, security and high availability). The scope of services required were server co-location, bandwidth and support services.

Sonata Software achieves SEI CMM LEVEL 5
Sonata Software recently announced that it achieved Level 5 (Optimising Level), the highest possible through an assessment on the Capability Maturity Model (CMM) Based Appraisal for Internal Process Improvement (CBA-IPI) developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute (SEI). This assessment has enabled Sonata to join the list of elite software organisations to have achieved this distinction. The achievement reflects Sonata’s commitment to provide high quality software solutions through robust software development processes.

The assessment was conducted in accordance with Software Engineering Institute’s CMM Assessment Framework (CAF). The assessment involved a detailed evaluation of Sonata’s management, organisational and technical processes. DSA USA, conducted the CMM Assessment, and the assessment team was led by Richard F Storch, an SEI authorised lead assessor.

SLMsoft.com acquires Design Expo
Defying global tech slowdown trends, 70 percent of the issued, subscribed and paid-up equity share capital of Design Expo Network (Mumbai), has been acquired by SLMsoft.com, a leading Canadian global provider of electronic financial transaction solutions for the e-commerce market. This development will provide SLMsoft.com with a platform to build a world class R&D centre with cost effective implementation and manpower to support the deployment of its products across their global clients.

TCS, IBM India tie up to cater to enterprise market
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and IBM India have formed a strategic alliance to jointly address the IT needs of the enterprise market. TCS will market and implement IBM’s software products and services in the enterprise space. As part of its marketing initiatives, IBM recently decided to forge alliances with Indian software companies. This is part of the company’s strategy called i alliance, aimed at taking products developed by its Indian software development partners on IBM technology, gain wide acceptance in the global market.

— Business Standard

Government spikes SBI’s IT arm proposal
The centre has shot down State Bank of India’s (SBI) proposal to float an IT bubble. SBI is trying to persuade the government that the proposed IT subsidiary is not a dotcom venture, but would aim at offering software solutions. Moreover the entire SBI group would provide a captive customer base. Effectively catering to the in-house software solution needs of the company itself will be a massive task for the proposed IT company. The bank’s board had cleared the proposal in February. However the plan failed to go down well with the government. At present Reserve Bank of India has a 55 percent stake in the bank. The ownership pattern may have been one reason, which has prompted a precautionary move.

— Economic Times

ASUS releases P4B motherboard on Intel 845 chipset
Global motherboard manufacturer, ASUS, recently announced the release of the P4B motherboard, which supports socket 478 Pentium 4 processors with SDRAM and leverages Intel’s 845 chipset technology. The ASUS P4B and the Intel 845 chipsets exploit the latest Pentium 4 technology while using mainstream PC133 SDRAM. The P4B and Intel Pentium 4 also provide enhanced multimedia Internet, gaming etc and support the latest socket 478 Pentium 4 processors beyond 2.0 GHz and up to 3GB of SDRAM, offering a highly expandable platform.

HCL Tech picks up 51 percent in Deutsche Soft
HCL Technologies has formed a joint venture with Deutsche Bank AG which involves the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in latter’s subsidiary—Deutsche software India—in a cash deal. The new entity is expected to be a $100-million integrated solutions company at the end of three years. The joint venture has also been promised the first right of refusal for all software projects outsourced from Deutsche Bank to India for the next seven years. The joint venture is part of HCL’s strategy of growth though organic means and through selective partnership. It has invested $16.55 million in technology funds and strategic partners.

— Financial Express

Siemens ME45 and S45 make mobile business fun
Siemens recently announced the launch of the ME45 and the S45 models in the Indian market. These phones feature EMS, an industry standard for enhanced messaging, along side a flexible memory capability and GPRS. According to company sources, the device combines high level functionality and a comprehensive range of flexible business tools with a robust but chic design. The flexible memory option allows capacity to be allocated across the range of organisational tools. The ME45 and S45 use GPRS to facilitate swift and secure data transfer via the enhanced WAP 1.2 browser and also offers a range of graphically enhanced games.