“Private
Cloud and public Cloud are two different things”
Paul Serrano, Senior Director, Marketing, APAC/Japan, Riverbed
Technology discusses how organizations need to treat public
and private Cloud environments differently when it comes to
optimizing performance, in a conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary.
“Cloud
is a potential game changer for outsourcing”
Narayan Sundareswaran, Head of Business Development, Outsourcing
and On-Demand, SAP, is responsible for managing the programs
in SAP focused on partners who provide outsourcing services
in the areas of IT Outsourcing (Hosting), Applications Management
Services (AMS), Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) and On-Demand.
He talks about SAP's on-demand play and shares his perspective
on the kind of impact Cloud is likely to have on outsourcing
business in a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary.
News
Data
Management risks rampant reveals research
Informatica Corporation, the leading vendor of data integration
software, recently announced research figures detailing the
enormous risks and inefficiencies that permeate the data management
practices of most organizations
India’s
IT services market to reach $7.5B
The total domestic IT services spending in 2011 is expected
to grow by 15.5% over 2010, riding on the strong waves of
IT outsourcing services, finds the latest India IT Services
Report from Springboard Research
Cloud
will transform businesses
Technology is often a savior during the downward economic
cycles as it enables the creation of more efficient business
models and ecosystems
RSA
launches Cloud Trust Authority to accelerate adoption
Security vendor RSA recently announced the RSA Cloud Trust
Authority, a set of cloud-based services designed to facilitate
secure and compliant relationships among organizations and
cloud service providers
TCS
forays into Cloud with iON
Tata Consultancy Services recently announced the launch of
ion - a fully integrated information technology solution for
Small and Medium Business (SMB)
Punjab
National Bank standardizes IT Infrastructure on Infosys and
Oracle
India’s second largest public sector bank has become
the world’s largest site for Infosys’s FinacleTM
Universal Banking Solution running on Oracle Real Application
Clusters, Oracle’s Sun SPARC Enterprise Servers and Oracle
Solaris
Bharti
Infratel selects IBM for smarter cell towers
Bharti Infratel, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel and one of
the world’s largest telecom passive infrastructure providers
has selected IBM to provide Intelligent Site Operations to
more than 32,000 Bharti Infratel tower-sites spread across
11 telecom circles in India, which include some of the toughest
terrain and remote locations in the world
Kale
introduces Miscellaneous Billing Solution for airlines
Kale Consultants Ltd., the provider of solutions to the airline
and travel industry, has announced the launch of FINESSE MBS
Solution to streamline Miscellaneous Billing processes at
airlines
Avaya
launches Cloud-based Web collaboration for businesses
Avaya recently announced the launch of a new cloud-based,
on-demand purchasing options and features for Avaya web.alive,
the company’s immersive web collaboration platform designed
for businesses and organizations
Global
businesses switch to web conferencing to cut costs
Businesses across the globe will increasingly rely on web
conferencing instead of travelling to meet face-to-face in
a bid to cut costs in the aftermath of the recession, predicts
Ovum
Retail
banks continue to resist social media
Despite fragile consumer confidence, most retail banks do
not view social media as an important tool to engage with
customers, putting them in a dangerous position, according
to Ovum
VMware
unveils Zimbra 7
Virtualization bigwig VMware recently announced the launch
of VMware Zimbra 7 – the latest version of its next generation
email and collaboration platform
Products
Products
- WD My Book Live Home Network Drive
- MSI WindPad 100W Tablet PC
- DIGISOL DG-FS4526
- Dell Venue and Venue Pro Smartphones
Case Study
We revisit some of the best IT use
cases from the year gone by.
Getting
the IT edge
IT helps Freightstar establish its operations and gain a competitive
edge. By Rajendra Chaudhary
TBZ
cuts energy costs with virtual blades
The jeweleries retailer replaces rack servers with virtualized
blades to trim datacenter power and cooling costs. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Outsourcing
desktops
Fullerton India Credit Company saves on desktop management
costs by outsourcing. By Rajendra Chaudhary
ADCs
can't address the Internet middle mile problem
Bruno Goveas, Head-Products (Asia-Pacific), Akamai Technologies
discussed the strategic importance of Web application delivery
and the associated challenges in an interview with Rajendra
Chaudhary
“The
Indian enterprise technology landscape is now in its third
wave”
According to Rahul Kanodia, Vice Chairman and Chief Executive
Officer of Datamatics Global Services Limited is of the view
that Indian enterprises are in the third phase of technology
adoption and with the basic automation completed at most organizations,
they are now looking at ways to implement global best practices.
Kanodia talked about the current trends in the market, Cloud
and more in a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary
Microsoft
launches Microsoft Dynamics CRM Online Cloud Service in India
Microsoft India recently announced the launch of Microsoft
Dynamics CRM Online, the cloud version of the new Microsoft
Dynamics CRM 2011 release that delivers new levels of productivity
to sales, service and marketing organizations
IDBI
Bank goes live with Oracle Apps
IDBI Bank, one of India’s leading commercial banks, has
implemented Oracle Financial Services Asset Liability Management
and Oracle Hyperion Planning to automate budgeting and planning
processes
Microsoft
Dynamics based ERP solution for the leather industry
Samadhan, a Microsoft Certified Gold partner has recently
announced the formal launch of ‘Leather Export Samadhan’
on Microsoft Dynamics NAV 2009, the ERP solution for the leather
sector
India
playing a strategic role in ethernet services growth, says
MEF
India’s growing strength in the global business landscape
was recently underlined by Kevin Vachon, COO of the MEF (Metro
Ethernet Forum). Speaking at the recently held MEF’s
Ethernet Business Services Seminar in Mumbai, he spoke of
the dramatic growth in Ethernet services across the world
as providers embraced the flexibility, performance and cost
advantages of Carrier Ethernet
IDC
names Cyberoam as the leading UTM Appliance vendor in India
Cyberoam, a division of Elitecore Technologies, has announced
that the IDC had identified it as the No.1 UTM appliance vendor
in India based on factory revenue figures for Q3 2010 (July-September
2010 quarter)
HCL
Infosystems to sell entire equity share in HCL Infinet to
Tikona
HCL Infosystems, one of India’s leading hardware, services
and ICT systems integration and distribution company and Tikona
Digital Networks Limited (Tikona) have announced the signing
of the agreement on latter taking up the entire equity stake
of HCL Infinet Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of HCL Infosystems
Novell's
linux support leads the industry
According to an independent firm Lighthouse Research &
Development, Novell leads its competitors when it comes to
providing customer support
Capgemini
partners with VMware to deliver V2B
Leading consulting, technology and outsourcing services player
Capgemini has just announced the launch of a new suite of
virtualization services in partnership with Vmware
Unprecedented
rise in malware activity in 2010, finds report
PandaLabs the anti-malware laboratory at Panda Security –
the Cloud Security company – has just published its 2010
Annual Security Report covering an extremely interesting year
with regard to cyber-crime, cyber-war and cyber-activism
BSA
launches leadership in Software Asset Management (SAM) program
in AP
Business Software Alliance (BSA) recently announced the launch
of its Education and Certification Program “Leadership
in Software Asset Management: A Step towards improved Corporate
Governance” in the State of Andhra Pradesh
Cyber
criminals regionalizing operations to diversify fund distribution
N etwork security provider and a leading vendor of unified
threat management (UTM) solutions, Fortinet, has come out
with its December 2010 Threat Landscape report, which identifies
a concerning evolutionary step cyber criminal operations are
taking to more effectively diversify the distribution of their
ill-gotten gains
Products
Products
- Zebmate Cinema Portable Media Player
- GIGABYTE 6 Series Motherboards
- Seagate Goflex for Mac External Drives
- Kingston SDHC UHS-I UltimateXX
Cover Story
Getting
IT Governance Right!
Rajendra Chaudhary explores the key challenges faced by CIOs
during an IT governance implementation
Case Study
BI
beginings at HHML
The BI platform enables the management at two wheeler company
to make informed business decisions. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Meetings
on-demand
Reliance Consumer Finance employs on-demand collaboration
solution to facilitate interactions across branches. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Special Feature
Kick-starting
a Cloud project
Despite the obvious incentives, IT managers and CIOs struggle
to kick-start a Cloud project. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Project Monitor
Shell
India deploys Tally.ERP 9
In an effort to streamline operations at its retail fuel stations,
Shell India is deploying Tally.ERP 9 at all its locations
spread throughout the country
Don't
leave it to the employees!
Old world access policies wherein password management is left
up to the employees is a bad idea. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Back of the book
Executive
Conversation
One of India’s fastest growing integrated logistics solutions
providers, DIESL attributes a lot of its success to its IT
efforts. Ajay Chopra, CEO, DIESL talked about his company's
strong IT bent and how it has helped DIESL carve a niche in
the highly unorganized logistics space in a conversation with
Rajendra Chaudhary.
“Enterprise
VAS will become big with 3G”
Vish Iyer, Vice President, Service Provider, Cisco India &
SAARC discusses the 3G rollouts and what they mean to the
Indian enterprise customers in a conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary.
“As
a platform, SoftADC is still a very small portion of the overall
ADC market”
Despite being a leader in the ADC market, F5 Networks has
been a bit slow in the SoftADC aspect. Despite the criticism,
Anil Pochiraju, the newly appointed managing director (India
and SAARC) of F5 Networks believes that their stance on SoftADCs
is fully justified. He discussed the reasons for being a bit
‘slow’ in the SoftADC space and the global market
trends in a conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary.
“The
Identity & Access Management (IAM) market has bounced
back”
The global Identity & Access Management (IAM) market took
a severe beating in 2009 due to the economic recession. Gemalto
one of the leading players in the digital security solutions
space also has a play in the IAM market. In a recent interview,
Brajeshvar Wadhavan, Sales Director - Security Business Unit,
Gemalto (India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) spoke about recovery,
recent project wins and IAM in the Cloud in a candid conversation
with Rajendra Chaudhary.
News
"2011
will be the year of cloud action"
According to CA Technologies, as companies realize the promise
of cloud, security will evolve from cloud barrier to cloud
enabler in 2011
Symantec's
top storage trends for 2011
Security and Storage vendor Symantec recently came out with
a list of trends that are likely impact storage adoption in
a big way in 2011. Anand Naik, director, System Engineering,
Symantec explained the key trends.
Fortinet’s
top 5 security trends for 2011
Security vendor Fortinet has identified the top five security
trends for the year ahead. According to the vendor, in 2011
we will see:
3G
and BWA rollout to re-invigorate aggressive growth: FICCI-class
Report
A FICCI-class Report entitled ‘Broadband for All’
reveals that telecom companies, whose operating margins are
under pressure due to usage of multiple SIMs, multiple tariff
corrections and rising competition, are keenly awaiting the
roll-out of 3G and BWA to bolster the maturing urban markets
and enhance margins
Data
security & privacy in BPO industry – gearing up for
the challenge
Over time, the Indian BPO Industry has withstood significant
customer and regulatory scrutiny, and has been able to demonstrate
that it is able to embrace data security and privacy governance
processes that are required as a minimum baseline for providing
outsourcing services in a high trust mode
Cellular
tower study debunks radiation myth
The first of its kind study, specific to the Indian environment
carried out independently by the Premier Engineering Institutes
revealed that “Levels of Radiation” from cellular
base stations in Delhi fall hundreds of times below international
safety standards
IT
Governance Institute launches “Taking Governance Forward”
The IT Governance Institute (ITGI)—a nonprofit, independent
research arm of global membership association ISACA—has
launched Taking Governance Forward, a free online resource
that provides a way for people to learn the latest on governance
and join the debate on how to make it work for their organizations
DPS
deploys Cloud based Email
One of the premier educational institutes of the country,
Delhi Public School (DPS) has just announced that its 5,000
students and faculty members will begin using Microsoft’s
Live@Edu, an online communication and collaboration offering.
With this students will be able to interact with each other
and teachers, or access and share course material ‘anytime,
anywhere’
Indian
Green Grid Group selects IBM for new Green Data Center
IBM and Indian Green Grid Group (IG3) have just announced
that they have entered into an agreement, in which IBM will
design a Green Data Centre for IG3. IG3 is constructing one
of the largest Data Centers in the Asia Pacific Region
Internet
Grows to 202 Million Domain Names in Q3 of 2010
The global base of Internet domain names grew by nearly 3.8
million in the third quarter of 2010, according to the latest
Domain Name Industry Brief, published by VeriSign, the provider
of Internet infrastructure services for the networked world
HT
Burda Media Ltd set to go live on SAP
HT Burda Media Ltd. which recently commenced printing &
finishing operations at its Greater Noida facility is currently
in the process of deploying SAP ECC6
Databases
move into the Cloud
DBAs believe that Cloud will be the single biggest factor
determining the shape of future databases. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Back of the book
Executive
Conversation
In an industry segment where use of IT is still limited, Pune
based Chitale Dairy is setting the standards for IT adoption.
Under the aegis of Vishvas Chitale, the CEO & CTO of the
company, Chitale Dairy is fast building an IT infrastructure
that is already playing a significant role in business growth
and helping it tap newer opportunities. Interview by Rajendra
Chaudhary
EXPRESS INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE
December 2010
Edit
Boom
time for MPLS
If the data services market is on a roll with a projected
size of Rs. 16,779 crore by FY 2014 at a CAGR of 22.6% according
to Frost & Sullivan, MPLS is the second fastest growing
segment with a CAGR of 34.2%.
Interview
“Ours
is a bundled solutions approach”
Colin Day is the vice president of global banking solutions
for SunGard’s banks business. On his recent trip to India,
he caught up with Rajendra Chaudhary and outlined SunGaurd’s
perception of the Indian market and the key focus areas for
the company in the country.
Interoperability
between telepresence and videoconferencing makes sense
Sanjay Bansal, Chairman of the Board & Managing Director,
Business Octane talks about the potential for the telepresence
in the Indian market and how Business Octane is looking to
capitalize on the opportunities in a conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary.
Avaya
Data Solutions launches Virtualization strategy
Avaya, the enterprise communications systems vendor has just
gone public with its new Data Center virtualization architecture
that promises to revolutionize the Data Center in 3 key areas
Motilal
Oswal achieves higher branch trading uptime
Networking & IT management solutions firm, Elina Networks,
delivered a modular and integrated solution with Network Visibility,
Network Continuity & Network Security to Motilal Oswal’s
branch networks
AWS
launches Amazon Cluster GPU Instances
Cloud services provider Amazon Web Services, recently announced
Amazon Cluster GPU Instances, a new instance type designed
to deliver the power of GPU processing in the cloud
Gartner
identifies seven must-do projects for CIOs during next three
years
With 2011 predicted to be the year when the IT industry will
reach nearly $3.5 trillion in revenue and show long-term growth
for the next five years, analysts from research firm Gartner
have identified seven business and IT issues that CIOs will
need to pay attention to during the next three years
Indian
consumers believe in purchasing genuine software reveals Microsoft
study
According to the results of a global consumer survey, which
asked more than 38,000 men and women in 20 countries around
the world about their perceptions of counterfeit software,
people are increasingly wary of counterfeit software and see
a real danger in using it
Netmagic
announces opening of Co-location Datacenter at BSE
Netmagic Solutions, one of India’s leading Managed IT
Hosting Services Providers, recently announced the inauguration
of its co-location datacenter at the Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE) facility in Mumbai
Sophos
releases FAQ guide on security implications of new Facebook
email service
Following Facebook’s recent announcement of a new email
service which brings together Facebook messages, instant messaging
chat and SMS messages in one place, IT security and control
firm Sophos has produced an FAQ guide to help users understand
the implications for security before they sign up for the
new service
Healthcare
IT spending in India to grow at 22% during 2009-13, finds
Springboard Research
Healthcare IT spending in India is expected to grow from $
274.2 million in 2009 to $ 609.5 in 2013, growing at a Compounded
Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22% from 2009-2013, says the
latest “IT in the Healthcare Industry - Emerging Trends
and Market Opportunities in India”, a report from Springboard
Research, one of the leading IT market research firms
SAP
launches new industry specific analytics applications in India
SAP India recently announced local availability of ten new
applications from the newly launched SAP BusinessObjects Analytics
Application family to address today’s challenges in specific
industries and lines of business including BFSI, Healthcare,
Retail, Telecom, and Government
Red
Hat announces availability of RHEL 6
Open Source leader Red Hat has just announced the general
availability of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (RHEL 6), the latest
release of the company’s flagship operating platform
India's
popular financial web site Moneycontrol.com compromised
Websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network has detected that
the leading Indian financial web site moneycontrol.com was
compromised and injected with malicious code on November 6th
2010. It was cleaned up the next day
The
MPLS Wave
Rajendra Chaudhary looks into the adoption of MPLS by Indian
enterprises
Case Study
Marico
deploys RHEL for SAP ERP
FMCG manufacturer reduced IT costs by 50 percent and increased
performance by migrating mission-critical SA P applications
to Red Hat Enterprise Linux. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Special Feature
Securing
the social experience
As Indian companies get ready to embrace social media, experts
advice them to pay attention to the security challenges. By
Rajendra Chaudhary
Project Monitor
Toyota
Boshoku deploys tape backup
In a bid to address its growing backup pains and automate
the entire process, Bangalore based Toyota Boshoku Automotive
India Ltd recently migrated to a new tape based backup solution
Of
Management and People Skills
CIOs don’t always get the opportunity to work on their
management and people skills, writes Rajendra Chaudhary
Back of the Book
Executive
Conversation
Paul Abraham, Chief Operating Officer, IndusInd Bank shares
his views on the role of IT at the bank and how it helps sustain
the growth momentum for IndusInd, in a conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary
The
New Innovation Leader
Indian CIOs are starting to view themselves as change agents and
are currently striving to harness the power of IT innovation to
continually transform their firms’ business. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Justifying
Innovation
For those who still find it difficult to articulate the rationale
for IT innovation, CIOs recommend building a case through innovative
justifications and a governance mechanism By Rajendra Chaudhary
Interview
Let
the specialists handle PLM
Nitin Tappe, Vice President and Head, Software Services, Geometric
is of the opinion that enterprise software vendors that have forayed
in the PLM space still have a long way to go in terms of developing
products that are at par with those from PLM specialists. He discussed
the current market dynamics and key industry trends in a chat with
Rajendra Chaudhary.
Effective
information management is key to BI success
On his recent trip to India, Paul Nannetti, Global Leader, Business
Information Management Service, Capgemini, said that the fundamentals
for effective information management need to be in place before
one can exploit the true potential of Business Intelligence (BI).
He talked about the criticality of a holistic approach to information
management in a conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Different
security models for hybrid environments are not viable
Shantanu Ghosh, Vice President, India Product Operations, Symantec
Corporation believes that managing security across hybrid computing
environments is a major pain for users and that they are currently
looking for ways to unify their efforts. He talked about the prevailing
trends in Cloud security in an exclusive conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary.
BI
power to the people
David Brierley, Vice President, International Markets, QlikView,
believes that for BI to truly succeed, it has to be deployed enterprise
wide, across a much broader user base. He spoke about how QlikView
is taking BI to the masses in a discussion with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Virtual
desktop prices are out of whack
While NComputing may not have the same recall value as that of a
VMware, few people know that it has already beaten the latter in
the desktop virtualization game by selling more virtual desktops.
The company is redefining the economics of desktop virtualization,
by propagating a virtualization concept based on the concept of
the shared PC. On his recent tour to India, Jim McHugh, SVP, Global
Marketing, NComputing shared his views on the desktop virtualization
market and his company’s vision for the same, in a conversation
with Rajendra Chaudhary.
News
Reducing
software piracy will boost economic activity finds survey
According to the new study titled “The Economic Benefits of
Reducing Software Piracy” from Business Software Alliance (BSA)
and market research firm IDC, reducing the 65 percent software piracy
rate in India by 10 percentage points over four years would create
over 59,728 high-tech jobs, $4.6 billion in new economic activity,
and close to $512 million in new taxes by 2013
Survey
reveals increasing adoption of private clouds
According to a global survey of more than 200 IT leaders at large
enterprise organizations, the adoption of cloud computing is happening
at a faster pace than most anticipated and organizations are busy
developing private cloud infrastructures to support their growing
computing needs
ISACA
issues updated BMIS
Information security breaches continue to plague enterprises worldwide
despite the use of the latest technology. Solving these issues requires
more than just gadgets and software
Emerson
upgrades datacenter infrastructure management solution
Emerson Network Power, has just introduced Avocent Data Center Planner,
a visual infrastructure planning and management software
solution within Emerson Network Power’s strategic framework
for data center optimization
G.E.T
POWER hires IBM's services
G.E.T POWER Private Limited, a pioneer in the field of design, fabrication,
supply, construction, and erection of transmission and distribution
lines, substation with structures and industrial electrification
works, has selected IBM’s robust hardware platform to run its
SAP application
McAfee
and Riverbed extend partnership
McAfee and Riverbed Technology have announced an expansion of their
partnership to now deliver Web 2.0 security capabilities on the
Riverbed Services Platform (RSP)malware protection and WAN optimization
to protect Web 2.0 experiences throughout the organization, regardless
of location.
mCarbon
deploys Red Hat solutions
MCarbon, a leading product company in the Indian telecommunications
sector, has partnered with Red Hat to build its software infrastructure
platform on Red Hat Enterprise Linux for a more scalable, high-performance
and cost-effective solution
Indian
Healthcare market presents $600 million opportunity for Cloud
According to management consulting firm Zinnov’s recent study
in which it surveyed the potential for Cloud Computing in the Indian
healthcare sector, the total addressable opportunity for Cloud solutions
will be an estimated $600 million by 2020
Managed
Print Services (MPS) business evolving: IDC
IDC is of the opinion that managed print services (MPS) is undergoing
an extreme makeover and is increasing its focus on “services”.
Vendors are starting to expand services offerings either in-house
or via partnerships to bring MPS to the boardroom
Worldwide
PC Shipments Grew 7.6 Percent in Q3 2010: Gartner
Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 88.3 million units in the third
quarter of 2010, a 7.6 percent increase from the third quarter of
2009, according to preliminary results by Gartner
News Analysis
Datacenter
power crisis to deepen
Energy-related costs account for approximately 12% of overall data
center expenditure and are the fastest-rising cost in the data center,
say the findings of a recent Gartner study
Case Study
SIP
Academy deploys Ramco On-Demand ERP
On-Demand ERP enables the education company to increase operational
visibility and lends greater control in management's hands
Project Monitor
DIESL
deploys OTM
DIESL (Drive India Enterprise Solutions Ltd.), one of the country’s
fastest growing integrated logistics solutions providers, is currently
deploying Oracle Transport Management (OTM) to automate its otherwise
manual processes and bring greater visibility to its daily operations
IT Manager
of the month
Kartikay
Sharma, Head-IT, Modi Tyres
Despite a keen interest in computers, for some reason, Kartikay
Sharma could not pursue it academically until after he finished
his graduation
Conversation
with functional head
From a little known online promotions agency in 1999 to becoming
South Asia’s largest digital and mobile entertainment company
within a short span of 11 years, Hungama’s journey is truly
awe-inspiring
IT
managers are wary of putting their core data on VMs
Despite the benefits of server virtualization, its adoption has
been confined to a few large enterprise accounts. Many IT managers
are still wary of putting their core data on a virtual platform
and prefer to host it on physical servers. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Features
Server
virtualization impacts storage
While most organizations understand the value of a virtualized server
infrastructure, many make the costly mistake of either downplaying
completely or overlooking the important role that storage plays
in these environments. Rajendra Chaudhary writes that companies
can transform their storage systems without the need to rip and
replace existing storage assets
Two
tales of desktop virtualization
While it’s true that desktop virtualization projects come at
a cost, there are several business cases which CIOs can use to justify
a project. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Rethink
and redesign the supply chain
The financial crisis has made businesses rethink their supply chain
strategies like never before and they are now focusing their energies
towards optimizing their supply chain at every stage. Steve McNulty,
President (Asia Pacific), JDA Software discussed some key trends
that have emerged post recession in a conversation with Rajendra
Chaudhary
MFIs
are in a desperate need for automation
Hanuman Tripathi, Group Managing Director, Infrasoft Technologies
believed that MFIs must forgo their apprehensions and invest in
technologies that let them cash in on current opportunities and
go for automation. By Rajendra Chaudhary.
“We
have defined SaaS in a different way”
Shoaib Ahmed, President, Tally Solutions spoke to Rajendra Chaudhary
about their latest ERP 9 version and his business plans
“Indian
manufactures are ready for BI”
According to Jim Byrne, Director – Business Development (SAP
Alliance), Asia Pacific & Japan, Teradata Indian manufacturers,
who have invested heavily in base systems years ago ,have grown
beyond the process excellence phase and are now exploring newer
avenues of business growth. He discussed the emerging trend with
Rajendra Chaudhary.
HP
unveils first ProLiant MicroServer for SBs
HP introduced its first HP ProLiant MicroServer designed to help
small companies to confidently grow their businesses while taking
advantage of the reliability, performance and security of a server
Wipro
joins Oracle to deliver vertical solutions
Wipro Technologies announced an initiative with Oracle to jointly
deliver a Warranty Management and Analytics solution for the industrial
manufacturing, automotive and high tech industries
Dell
Services puts Max Healthcare’s EHR on cloud
Dell Services (formerly Perot Systems) has converted the information
technology infrastructure of all eight Max Healthcare facilities
into a private MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) cloud running
remotely from Dell Services Data Centre in Noida
84%
of rural India not aware of Internet
About 84% of rural India is not aware of Internet. This was highlighted
in a research jointly conducted by the Internet and Mobile Association
of India (IAMAI) and IMRB
Ramco
launches OnDemand ERP 2.0
Ramco Systems announced the launch of its OnDemand ERP 2.0 (RODE
2.0)—the next generation of India’s first full-fledged
ERP offering on the cloud
Spectra
Logic’s advanced enterprise tape library
Spectra Logic, launched its most advanced enterprise tape library
that meets demanding archive and backup requirements while saving
customers up to 30% on initial capital investments and 15-20% on
annual recurring operational expenses
Digital
data to grow 2x in India
EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure
solutions, shared the findings of the IDC Digital Universe Study,
sponsored by EMC, titled ‘The Digital Universe in India’
and its key initiatives to address customer challenges associated
with the digital information deluge
Blue
Coat’s DLP appliance to ease complexity
Blue Coat Systems, Inc, the technology leader in Application Delivery
Networking, has introduced Blue Coat Data Loss Prevention (DLP)
family of appliances that provides comprehensive data loss protection
in a single integrated appliance to enable compliance without complexity
Alibaba.com
sees strong domestic demand; setup customer support in India
Alibaba.com Limited, the world’s leading small business e-commerce
company, announced that it is investing in India, with the launch
of its local customer service operations here to better serve the
vast Indian small business community
MAHAGENCO
Collaborates With SAP to Enable Sustainable Energy Management in
Maharashtra
SAP AG has won the prestigious contract from the Maharashtra Power
Generation Co. Ltd (MAHAGENCO) to standardize business processes
and optimize energy and natural resource efficiency in order to
improve profitability and deliver better energy for the citizens
of Maharashtra
News Analysis
Consumers
ready to trade privacy
The convergence of mobile technologies and online systems are fast
changing customer perceptions about privacy, security and m-commerce
finds Rajendra Chaudhary
Project Monitor
Oracle
EBS goes live at TBZ
Tribhovandas Bhimji Zaveri (TBZ) is the first Indian jewelry retailer
to have successfully implemented Oracle's famed application E-Business
Suite (EBS) release 12.1.1. By Rajendra Chaudhary
IT Manager of the
month
Sharat
Airani, Manager-IT, Forbes Marshall
As a young science graduate some twenty years ago, Sharat Airani
didn’t quite have it all figured out. He didn’t know what
he wanted to do next
Conversation
with functional head
Shiv Kumar Goel, Founder Director of Bonanza Portfolio is one of
those rare functional heads who like to dabble in the IT affairs
of his company. So much so that in addition to his regular job,
he also handles the IT and risk initiatives at the broking services
firm
Desktop
Management Blues
Desktop management has been a pain in the IT managers neck for far
too long. Rajendra Chaudhary spoke to CIOs on how it affects their
strategic work
Features
Hosted
Virtualization desktop: What's your Big Idea?
While many IT mangers preferred to deploy VDI to solve their desktop
management blues, terminal services gets a dekho because of its
low licensing costs if they have operations in remote locations.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Outsourcing
desktops
Fullerton India Credit Company has saved significant cost in managing
its desktop by outsourcing to Omnitech InfoSolutions By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Desktop
Virtualization market is wide open
Desktop virtualization is about to bring about a fundamental change
in end-user computing and its deployments will have an increasing
impact on data center operations, support, security, service levels,
and, ultimately, the way businesses deliver applications to their
employees. By Manjari Juneja
Interviews
“We
sold 1.5 million desktop virtualization licenses”
Nabeel Youakim, Vice President, APAC Products, Partners & Alliances,
Citrix Systems, Asia Pacific spoke about desktop virtualization
trens with Rajendra Chaudhary
ITSM
requires well rounded skill sets
A lot has said about ITSM and how Indian enterprises need to adopt
the practice urgently. Robert Stroud, Vice President & IT Service
Management and Governance Evangelist, CA Technologies spoke to Rajendra
Chaudhary about the service manager role and where can organizations
find an apt candidate
GRC
in the cloud makes sense
Chandra Sekhar Bilugu, Chairman & Managing Director, eGestalt
Technologies spoke about the cloud based model for GRC with Rajendra
Chaudhary
“Hand
coding has had its run”
Girish Pancha, EVP and GM of Informatica’s Data Integration
unit believed that enterprises must stop hand coding scripts for
data integration as the practice has had it’s day and is no
longer valid in today’s time. He also discussed data quality
challenges Rajendra Chaudhary
“The
average deal sizes have shrunk, but that’s natural”
PLM is a relatively new domain for Oracle after it acquired Agile
in 2007. Rathina Kumar, Director, Sales/Consulting, PLM/SCM Applications
(APAC) Oracle spoke about its success in PLM space with Rajendra
Chaudhary
News
PC
sales bounce back; ship 8 million units in FY 2009-10
MAIT's Industry Performance Review for the financial year 2009-10
shows positive signs of revival atleast in the PC sales. As per
MAIT, the total PC including desktop computers, notebooks and netbooks
grew by 18% to 8.03 million units between April 2009 and March 2010
over the last fiscal
Accenture
to implement UIDAI's biometric solution
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has awarded
a contract to Accenture to implement the core biometric identification
system in support of the Aadhaar program
TAKE
Solutions launches OneSCM SaaS Platform Upgrade
TAKE Supply Chain, a division of TAKE Solutions and solution provider
in and demand-driven supply chain networks announced an advanced
version of its OneSCM online supplier management platform that features
a multi-tier, multi-tenant, software as a service (SaaS) architecture
designed for mid to large-sized manufacturers and distributors
Red
Hat integrates server and Desktop Virtualization
Red Hat has integrated the enterprise-grade server and desktop virtualization
portfolio with Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization 2.2. The upgrade
includes new scalability capabilities, migration tools and features
to expand the performance and security of the solution
Home
Ministry selects Wipro to develop Software for CCTNS
Wipro Infotech has been selected as the Software Development Agency
(SDA) at the Union Government for the prestigious Crime and Criminal
Tracking Network System (CCTNS) project, a mission mode project
under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), one of India’s
largest e-governance projects till date
Tulip
Telecom wins R-APDRP Projects worth Rs 158.2 crores in UP and Gujarat
Tulip Telecom Ltd. (Tulip), India’s leading enterprise data
connectivity service provider, has recently been named as the Network
Bandwidth Service Provider (NBSP) for deploying data connectivity
services in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat under the R-APDRP
scheme
Vertical focus—Oil
& Gas
Streamline
vendor payment systems
Oil & gas companies are automating and integrating their vendor
payment management with their transactional systems to reduce delays
and costs. By N Geetha
“Our
business comes through IT systems”
S. Sekhar Vasam, MD and F.R. Singhvi, Joint MD, Sansera Engineering
spoke to Akhtar Pasha about the strategic value of Wrench PLM in
new product development
IT
is our Lifeline
Debashis Roy, Vice President-IT, CESC discussed with Akhtar Pasha
about the three key IT projects that have transformed its business
in two cities—Kolkata and Howrah
Project Monitor
D-Mart
implements SAP NetWeaver PI to automate vendor payment
Avenue Super Marts Pvt Ltd., (ASPL) owns and operates hypermarkets
and supermarkets by the store name D-Mart. It has been effectively
using IT and applications to drive growth combined with efficient
supply chain system and efficient payment mechanism
IT Manager of the
month
Deepesh
Thakar, CTO, Destimoney
Deepesh Thakar could have easily ended up selling stocks or trading
diamonds for a living. Either way it would’ve been a terrible
loss to the Indian CIO-CTO fraternity
Building
a Storage Giant
Manoj Chugh command a respect his achievements speaks volumes. In
this month’s Idea Exchange, Express Computer hosted the man
who is said to have written the script for the storage company’s
tremendous success in the region. He fielded a range of questions
from the Express Computer’s editorial team.
The
entrepreneur par excellence
Being an entrepreneur is not easy and a successful one at that,
is extremely difficult. Lt. Col. Hardeep Singh Bedi, CMD, Tulip
Telecom is one of those rare individuals who exemplifies the entrepreneurial
spirit in the truest sense of the word. For it is he who turned
a little known family venture into an enterprise that just hit a
turnover of nearly Rs. 2000 crore last year. The former army man
and today the head of one of country’s leading network connectivity
companies shared his views about his business, his story of being
an entrepreneur and the things that helped him succeed in a conversation
with Prashant Rao, Editor - IT Publications at Indian Express and
the group’s editorial team.
The
Energy Crisis is Real
The power and cooling cost of data centers have grown at such an
alarming rate that some top managements have pulled up IT managers
for not doing enough. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Dealing
with Power and Cooling issues
With IT guys expected to do more with less as managing power and
cooling issues in an organization becomes a nightmare for CIOs.
By Manjari Juneja
Business Case
Tally
saved power using thin clients
Tally Solutions has deployed a thin client solution that has resulted
them in 15-20% power savings annually. By Rajendra Chaudhary
TBZ
saved 50% of energy cost using blade servers
The Mumbai-based jeweler replaced its rack servers with virtualized
blades that helped them to cut their DC power bill by 50%. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Vertical Focus—Retail
Retailers
to use BI to drive profits
Though the economic slowdown has hit the retail industry hard in
2009, many retailers changed their fortune using BI and productivity
tools. By N Geetha
Wrech
helps Sansera to speed up NPD
Sansera Engineering has used Wrench’s Project and Document
management to speed up its NPD which has helped them to acquire
new customers says Akhtar Pasha
Case Study
Tacking
sales pipeline
Modern Properties has automate customer sales enquires and contact
management using Sage ACT Premium, which has resulted in higher
sales conversion ratio
News
Emerging
technologies to reshape electronic payment
RSA, the Security Division of EMC has unveiled new advanced security
technologies can be combined with emerging outsourced services to
relieve merchants of the growing burden of storing electronic payment
card information
Sage
& Milagrow to expand their SME base
Sage today announced its Partnership with Milagrow Business &
Knowledge Solutions to address the business automation requirements
of the burgeoning SME sector in India
Transcend
sets up online store in India
Transcend Information, Inc., after setting up has its India specific
portal (www.transcend.co.in) and established its presence on social
networking platforms like Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/TranscendIN)
in order to connect with its Indian customers better, has now come
up with a new initiative–the Indian online shop (http://shop.transcend.co.in)
Videocon
d2h fall victim to fake Websites
Videocon d2h, the Direct-to-Home service provider has lodged a complaint
with the Mumbai Cyber Cell Police Station, Bandra Kurla Complex,
Mumbai requesting them to block certain fake websites which are
using the Videocon d2h brand name to cheat the public and malign
their brand name
Industry
mulls over 2,048 bits long digital signatures for strong authentication
The Information Technology Act 2000 (IT Act) prescribes digital
signatures as a means of authentication of electronic records. In
India, organizations of different sizes have opted for digital signatures
for the smooth functioning of their businesses
NetApp
and Microsoft to help SPs to take SMBs to cloud
NetApp has enhanced integration with Microsoft to deliver enterprise-class
data protection solutions to cloud service providers by leveraging
the Microsoft Dynamic Data Center Toolkit for Hosters
SMBs
lead Linux server OS adoption across India
The Linux server operating system (OS) has grown its way to a prominent
position in the Indian server OS market, with its adoption rate
increasing from 7.0% to 8.1% over a 13-month period (since April
2009), per the latest research from Springboard Research
Corporation
Bank enhances online security
Corporation Bank has implemented 3i Infotech CSL’s eMudhra
Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) solutions to become the first ever
Indian bank to implement this world class authentication security
solution, provided by a licensed certifying authority under the
Information Technology Act, to their corporate online banking customers
Asia
MotorWorks consolidates IT infrastructure onto IBM platform
Asia MotorWorks Ltd. (AMW), one of India’s leading heavy commercial
vehicle manufacturers has selected IBM’s robust hardware platform
to consolidate complete server hardware infrastructure for its new
data center
RRBs
to drive CBS to the next level
The Regional Rural Banks in India are set to drive CBS adoption.
Haragopal Mangipudi, Global Head–Finacle, Infosys Technologies
talked to Rajendra Chaudhary and N Geetha about his company’s
plan in this space and other banking trends
“Simply
buying more bandwidth won’t help”
Jonathan Andresen, Director, Product & Solution Marketing, Asia-Pacific,
Blue Coat Systems said that buying raw bandwidth capacity to address
network performance issue is not a practical solution and that firms
need to optimize their WAN infrastructure. By Rajendra Chaudhary
CIOs
want technologies that pay extra dividends
According to Sanjay Tugnait, Lead & Managing Partner, Financial
Services, Accenture India CIOs from banking vertical are interested
in BI and CRM technologies that gives them extra RoI. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Data
center network need a serious overhaul
Raju Ranjan, Worldwide Evangelist for Systems Networking, IBM STG
believed the network architecture supporting DCs have remained unchanged
and enterprise need to upgrade their networks with a unified architecture.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Event Report
Indian
pharma need fresh dose of IT
As Indian pharma companies compete across geographies to tap global
opportunities they face challenges in documentation, compliance,
supply chain and performance management
Server
virtualization
Vikas Srivastava, Vice President, Infrastructure Technology Solutions,
Wipro Infotech gave us technology tips for virtualizing servers
and how to plan capacities for VMs. By Akhtar Pasha
Project Monitor
Aegis
Logistics goes live with SAP ERP
Aegis Logistics, one of the country’s leading oil and gas logistics
services providers has completed Project Bluewater wherein it has
rollout SAP ERP (ECC 6.0)
IT Manager of the
month
B
Murali Nair, CTO, Lakshmi Vilas Bank
There are those who are very good at adapting to changes and then
there are individuals who drive the very change. B Murali Nair,
the Chief Technology Officer of Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB) is seasoned
in both the skills
Back of the book
Conversation
with functional head
Bajaj Allianz, a private general and health insurance company was
looking for IT support to reach out to customers in shortest possible
time. V Philip, COO and Thomas Varghese, CIO have played a vital
role in driving business efficiencies and growth using IT
The
software licensing puzzle
COOs are not happy with vendors who employ dictatorial and monopolistic
policies in software licensing agreements says Rajendra Chaudhary
Other Cover Stories
The
multi-core licensing debate
IT heads are unanimous that the current software licensing based
on per core must go as chip makers keep adding the number of core
each year. Rajendra Chaudhary says that CIOs are looking for a sustainable
licensing model for multi-core licensing that are acceptable to
one and all
Impact
of virtualization on software licensing
Despite great reservations software vendors are finally starting
to make certain changes to how they sell licenses for virtual machines.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
The
art of deal making
Until now Indian enterprises have remained largely indifferent towards
software licensing contract negotiations. It's about time they asserted
their rights and got fair deals. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Bajaj Electricals Limited has six strategic business units—Engineering
and Projects, Appliances, Fans, Luminaires, Lighting and Morphy
Richards. R. Ramakrishnan, Executive Director and Pratap Gharge
S, CIO shared details on how IT will help them achieve their target
revenue of Rs 3,000 crores in 2010.
Vertical Focus
Network
connectivity is vital to government projects
The national and state e-governance projects are expected to drive
huge investments in network connectivity and in automation of business
processes in 2010. By N Geetha
Case Study
Birlasoft
grows its sales convertion by 3x
Birlasoft has grown its sales convertion ratio to three times and
increased the efficiency of its sales force using Oracle On Demand
CRM. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Innovation
success at banks
Bhaskar Banerjee, Consultant-Product Strategy, Finacle UBS, Infosys
Technologies Ltd., talked about why innovation is critical for banks
to stay ahead in the competition
Update
BSM
doesn’t need evangelizing anymore
Paul Avenant, Senior Vice President, ESM Products & Support,
BMC Software believed that enterprises have already realized the
benefit Business Service Management and therefore conversations
with customers today are more about how best to deploy. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
“Our
aim is to take cloud to Everything-as-a-service”
As part of the Verizon Business’ APAC media forum in Singapore,
Blair Crump, Group President-Worldwide Sales & Services, Verizon
Business, shared his thoughts on evolving a strong cloud based service
model for customers. By N Geetha
Old
world security techniques are just not enough
Didier Guibal, Executive Vice President, Global Sales, Websense
believed that traditional methodologies of securing IT are no longer
valid in today’s times for they haven‘t kept pace with
the sophisticated threats of today. He spoke to Rajendra Chaudhary
on emerging threat landscape and cloud security
EMS
takes complexity out of the data center puzzle
Don Kennedy, Senior Vice President—International Sales, EMS
discussed the focus of Micro-Modular Data Centers in India and its
their core area of operations with Rajendra Chaudhary
Social
CRM will significant impact customer relationships
The CRM software market is perhaps the most dynamic of all enterprise
software segments as it keeps evolving at a breakneck speed and
the latest being social CRM. Raj Mruthyunjayappa, Senior Vice President,
Managing Director, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Talisma shared this
trend with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Analyst View
Try
Windows 7 in 2010 says Gartner
Organizations should be plan and test Windows 7 in 2010 and they
should try and eliminate Windows XP by the end of 2012, according
to Gartner
Generation
Standby on the rise
Clearswift, a UK based software security company recently unveiled
a research report outlining the impact of social media and Web 2.0
on today’s workplace
Facebook
users want default setting for privacy
IT security and data protection firm, Sophos conducted a poll of
605 Facebook users in the wake of the latest changes to the social
network's privacy settings and revealed that vast majority of users
would favor default settings that do not automatically share their
information
Reset
your Twitter password
websense Security Labs ThreatSeeker Network has detected a spam
posing as a Twitter Password Reset Notification
Technology News
Samsung
unveils its new smartphone platform bada in India
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., launched its new smartphone platform
bada in India. The ‘bada’ platform was launched at the
Global Developer Day organized by Samsung Electronics in Bangalore
VMware
and Novell expand strategic partnership to deliver and support
VMware and Novell today announced an expansion to their strategic
partnership with an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) agreement
through which VMware will distribute and support the SUSE Linux
Enterprise Server operating system
IBM
to consolidate DR center of Century Plyboards
Century Plyboards (I) Limited, the plywood and veneer manufacturing
company in India along with its group company Star Cements, has
selected IBM’s p6-550 server, DS 5020 storage and virtualization
technology to consolidate its Disaster Recovery (DR) center
Ingredients
for a successful DR set-up
Large companies have extensive DR set-ups in place. We provide an
overview of the state of DR in Indian enterprises By Geetha N.
Other Cover Stories
Part
of a CIO’s strategic focus
With analysts predicting close to 400% data growth in the near future,
a robust DR set-up across locations is at the top of the agenda
for most CIOs By Geetha N
Partial
outsourcing results in reduced services cost
Partially outsourcing a DR set-up has led to a reduction in services
cost and savings on power, cooling and management costs for Bharti
Axa General Insurance By Geetha N.
Data
backup: Virtually making sense
Although virtual backups are picking up, physical backups will continue
to account for the bulk of the average enterprise's requirements
for some time to come By Geetha N.
Hosted
and outsourced
Outsourcing is a popular concept when it comes to IT and DR is no
stranger to it although total outsourcing is still viewed with skepticism
By Geetha N
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Bangalore-based Microland Ltd., is an IT and managed services vendor
that has built robust IT systems to help its customers and employees
leverage changing technology. Jawahar Bekay, COO and Guru Murthy,
Vice President - Information Systems have been instrumental in driving
business efficiencies and growth with IT deployments.
Vertical Focus
IT
driving consumer electronics’ growth
Consumer electronics manufacturers are optimizing their supply chain,
data centers and are using BI to drive growth By Rajendra Chaudhary
UC
and messaging puts LVB on the fast track
From basic telephony to advanced unified communications capabilities,
Lakshmi Vilas Bank made the transition in the blink of an eye By
Rajendra Chaudhary
Five
golden rules for converting data to decisions
According to Sanjay Mehta, CEO, MAIA Intelligence enterprises need
to grow beyond the four walls of spreadsheets and start building
data-warehouses in order to gain enterprise-wise transparency and
a competitive edge
Securing
the cloud with GRC
Sushilkumar Nahar, Varun Kashyap and Malini Rao of Wipro Consulting
Services talked of the importance of having a GRC strategy for cloud
computing
Update
Take
a proactive approach towards GRC
As more organizations contemplate a move to GRC, it can be a tad
difficult for them to identify the right approach. Mukund Surange,
CEO, eGestalt Technologies discussed some essentials of GRC with
Rajendra Chaudhary
‘‘Social
media has a definite future in the enterprise’’
Dhruv Singhal, Senior Director - Fusion Middleware Sales and Consulting,
Oracle India talked about the relevance of social media and Web
2.0 technologies in the enterprise with Rajendra Chaudhary
Too
much hype has hindered DLP’s adoption
Surendra Singh, Regional Director, India & SAARC, Websense argued
that too much hype around DLP has made the customer a bit apprehensive
about it. In conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary
Analyst View
CFO
becoming the top IT decision maker in many organizations
A joint survey conducted by Gartner Research and Financial Executives
Research Foundation (FERF) has revealed that the CFO is increasingly
becoming the top technology investment decision maker in many global
organizations
Internet
Explorer losing ground to competitors
According to a survey conducted by consulting and services firm
Net Applications, Internet Explorer (IE) dropped to a historic market
share low in April
Security Bytes
APEJ
security software market set to grow by 21% in 2010: IDC
According to the latest IDC’s Asia/Pacific Semiannual Security
Software Tracker, the security software market in the Asia-Pacific
excluding Japan (APEJ) region rebounded quickly during the second
half of 2009
Sneaky
worm targets Yahoo Messenger users
According to a Symantec blog post, a new and potentially dangerous
worm managed to sneak into the Yahoo Messenger community earlier
last week, infecting many users by tricking them into clicking on
a link masquerading as ‘foto’ or ‘fotos’ from
someone in their contact list
F5’s
new virtual and hardware-based application delivery controllers
F5 Networks, the global leader in Application Delivery Networking
(ADN), has announced new Application Delivery Controller platforms.
F5 is offering a new high-end appliance series with the BIG-IP 11050
platform and a new 8950 hardware appliance featuring higher throughput
and enhanced layer 4 performances
Lakshmi
Vilas Bank revamps its IT platform to enhance customer service
In an attempt to consolidate all its business databases into one
single platform, Lakshmi Vilas Bank (LVB), a private sector bank,
has acquired an Enterprise Storage Solution which is a centralized
system that the bank will use for managing and protecting vital
customer data
The
ERP Effect
ERP systems have long been touted as transformational. Rajendra
Chaudhary tries to assess the validity of this claim by looking
at some live instances
Other Cover Stories
It's
all about loving your supply chain!
Supply Chain efficiency can often mean the difference between a
leader and a laggard in today's fiercely competitive business climate.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
GRC:
A worthy cause
Global enterprises are looking to protect their interests through
GRC initiatives in an increasingly regulated, competitive and risky
marketplace. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Preventing
customer churn through CRM
Rajendra Chaudhary looks at some examples of companies that have
leveraged CRM tools to better their customer engagements and prevent
churn
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Chennai headquartered, Sify Technologies Limited, has been a pioneer
in the enterprise and consumer Internet services in India with global
delivery capabilities. P.J. Nath, Executive President, Enterprise
Business and P.K. Saji, Chief Information officer have been instrumental
in driving Sify’s growth.
Vertical Focus
IT
spending in BPO is back
BPO’s core focus in 2010 would be to invest in automating workforce
management, analytics and reduce their communication costs as they
expand their businesses. By N Geetha
Case Study
Hosted
e-mail security helps to reduce costs
ACPL deployed Websense’s hosted e-mail security solution to
improve e-mail security and network bandwidth without burdening
its in-house IT staff. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Distance
education made easy with VSATs
Educomp Solutions, a leading education services provider has used
VSAT to provide high quality coaching to students in the remote
areas. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Crossfire
Oracle’s
Exadata dreams
Chris Chelliah, Vice President, Exadata and Strategic Solutions,
Oracle Corporation, Asia Pacific Division talked to Rajendra Chaudhary
about Oracle’s latest, Exadata V2
By Invitation
From
networked expertise to happy customers
Vijay Venugopalan, Head of CRM capability, Asia Pacific, BT said
that customer contact is moving away from handling simple transactional
enquiries, to highly technical and complex questions that demand
expert responses delivered seamlessly through the organizational
network
Update
“Staying
close to the customer pays dividends”
Abhay Sinha, Senior Vice President & Business Head–BFSI,
South Asia, 3i Infotech talked about emerging business trends in
the BFSI space with Rajendra Chaudhary
“Stop
treating DR as optional”
Lakshman Narayanaswamy, Co-Founder and Vice President-Products,
Sanovi Technologies talked about the need for a robust DR and BCP
with Rajendra Chaudhary
“Security
can help you grow”
Jan Valcke, President & COO, VASCO Data Security believed that
enterprises should implement strong authentication tools for online
transactions to win customer confidence. This would help them acquire
new customers and grow their business. By Rajendra Chaudhary
WiMAX
Forum launches initiative to accelerate advanced features
In response to the intensifying demand for 4G WiMAX networks and
services, the WiMAX Forum launched a global initiative to accelerate
advanced WiMAX features that enhance the average performance of
its current Release 1 technology by more than 50% while remaining
compliant with the IEEE Standard 802.16e
Dell
unveils open solutions for the virtual era
Dell announced open, standards-based solutions that let customers
of all sizes integrate new technologies without sacrificing performance
or their existing IT investments
Storage
spending is back in 2010
While the overall external storage disk market declined YoY
in 2009, N Geetha writes that corporate storage buying will
be back in 2010 as companies are investing in new technologies
that help them optimize and increase storage utilization
Other Cover
Story
Economics
of storage investments
Customers are deploying solutions that will help then increase
storage utilization, optimize storage costs and have a robust
solution to dynamically provision storage. By N Geetha
Virtualization
to reduce storage costs
Storage consolidation and virtualization projects have helped
the TVS Group save DC floor space, reduce power & cooling
costs and increase storage SLA. By N Geetha
Storage
virtualization is not just hype
Storage virtualization is real and customers across verticals
are using the technology to increase their storage efficiency
and reduce costs. By N Geetha
Hot
storage technologies
Solid state disks, iSCSI and thin provisioning would be hot
storage technologies in 2010. By N Geetha
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Chennai headquartered, Sify Technologies Limited, has been
a pioneer in the enterprise and consumer Internet services
in India with global delivery capabilities. P.J. Nath, Executive
President, Enterprise Business and P.K. Saji, Chief Information
officer have been instrumental in driving Sify’s growth.
Growth
strategy to attain efficiency
Freightstar, the new entrant in the Indian logistics space
looked to IT to gain an edge over the competition. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Special Feature
ITSM,
calling all CIOs
ITSM despite its benefits still remains a path less traveled
by Indian CIOs. Rajendra Chaudhary tried to find out the reasons
Crossfire
“Indian
firms need to evangelise governance more seriously”
Robert E. Stroud, Vice President, Service Management, CA promoted
a new approach to cost reduction and improving efficiency
in IT organizations through a unique Performance Based Service
Management (PBSM) methodology By Rajendra Chaudhary
By Invitation
Eight
best practices for software testing
Devendra Bhagat, Project Manager, Verification and Validation,
Patni talked about eight best practices for effective software
testing
“WNS
is a better approach to the market”
John Fogarasi, Sales Director, Wireless Networks Solutions
(WNS) division (APAC), Motorola’s Enterprise Mobility
Solutions business discussed the rationale behind the creation
of the dedicated business unit and the opportunities in the
Indian market with Rajendra Chaudhary
Cisco’s
secure borderless network
Cisco is tackling today’s enterprise security challenges
with a new architecture that would help business users to
access information from any device and any location with a
high degree of security
Citrix
debuts XenApp 6
Citrix, a leading virtualization vendor has announced a major
upgrade of its flagship product, XenApp, formerly known as
Citrix MetaFrame and also Presentation Server
Finacle
Trasury-in-a-box
Infosys Technologies Ltd. today announced the launch of Finacle
Treasury-in-a-Box, a rapid implementation framework for an
integrated front, middle and back office treasury system
New
EMC Celerra software cuts VMware storage to half
EMC Corporation, the world leader in information infrastructure
solutions, today extended its leadership in storage for VMware
environments with new software that increases virtual storage
efficiency, automation and management simplicity
F5
improves customers' Agility
F5 Networks, the global leader in Application Delivery Networking
(ADN), today announced availability of a free trial version
of its new virtual appliance, the BIG-IP Local Traffic Manager
(LTM) Virtual Edition (VE)
Beneath
the SOA hype
Despite its presences in the Indian market for a decade, SOA
adoption rates continue to be hampered by issues such as control
and ownership of shared services and bureaucratic opposition
to process reengineering. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Other Cover
Stories
SOA
in practice
To satisfy market demands in today's marketplace, the IT infrastructure
must be able to handle rapid, constant change. Rajendra Chaudhary
put together some interesting proof points for SOA and how
it's transforming businesses to stay competitive
An
SOA project mandates a best practices approach
Kalyan Kolachala provided some insights on successful SOA
projects and cautioned that it should not be pitted against
the measurable returns of ERP or CRM projects
SOA:
please consume it in small doses
Enterprise-wide SOA strategy in its purest form is no longer
valid in today's struggling economy and organizations need
to approach SOA in pockets to better accommodate it in their
IT set-ups, says Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
IndiaFirst Life Insurance, a joint venture between Bank of
Baroda, Andhra Bank and Legal & General, UK. Bank of Baroda
is all set to invade the market with its insurance products
and services while leveraging IT to its maximum advantage.
The company's Managing Director, Dr. P Nandagopal and their
IT Head, Vinayak Khadye wanted to streamline business processes
with automated process to increase the efficiency and ensure
competent deliverables.
Vertical
Focus
Technology
spending continues to rise in banking
CIOs in the banking vertical are focusing on technologies
that would help them reduce OPEX and hence IT projects such
as server-storage consolidation-virtualization, DC optimization
(to reduce power and cooling) and rationalize network connectivity
would be prudent in 2010. By N Geetha
Case Study
Aircel
finds growth with CRM
Siebel CRM has helped this regional service provider to integrate
its internal business and customer facing process to become
a national service provider. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Red
Hat open sources for SPICE
The Linux major announces its return to the Linux desktop
segment by open sourcing the new virtualized desktop protocol
called SPICE. By Rajendra Chaudhary
CIO’s
need to be bilingual
Linda Price, Group Vice-President of Executive Programs, Gartner
said CIO must develop and hold a strategic view and resist
the temptation to return to the area of personal comfort now
correctly occupied by other members of the team
6
keys to real-time analytics
Are you getting all you can out of your analytics initiatives?
Nitin Singhal provided six best practices for data management
professionals to ensure that their performance management
and analytics initiatives meet success
Update
‘‘We
expect ERP adoption to increase post recession’’
Marlabs India, a wholly owned subsidiary of Marlabs Inc, US
has a decade old operation in India. It specializes in a wide
variety of areas including ERP, Data Warehousing, Business
Intelligence (BI), IT consulting and Smart grid solutions.
Raj Menon, Global Marketing Director for Marlabs talked about
the India ERP market and management concerns pertaining to
its implementation with Rajendra Chaudhary
‘‘India
is a perfect market for WAN optimization technology’’
Robert Healey, Marketing Evangelist, Asia Pacific & Japan,
Riverbed Technology stated that the Indian market is ripe
for mobile WAN optimization technology. He shared his views
on the market conditions and emerging trends with Rajendra
Chaudhary
‘‘It
is imperative that IT security is visualized in a holistic
manner’’
Ramnath L Ram, Vice President India and Middle East, Wipro
Infotech talked about how a standards based approach to security
is the only way that organizations can build a strong protective
mechanism to safeguard their IT. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Kobian
iScan IXA40S Portable Scanner
Kobian, a manufacturer of motherboards, casings and other
computer peripherals, has launched the IScan IXA40S A4 Scanner
in the Indian market
Lexmark's
Interpret S405 by Cyberstar
Cyberstar Infocom, an emerging distributor of IT peripherals
and networking products in India has announced the launch
of Lexmark Interpret S405, a wireless, all-in-one printer,
copier, scanner, and fax
Analyst View
SaaS
cannibalizing on-premise software in India: Springboard Research
Traditional software applications are slowly beginning to
yield to SaaS applications, with 32% of SaaS adopters replacing
an on-premise application, said the latest bulletin 'Software-as-a-Service
in India 2009/2010' from Springboard Research
Gartner
reveals five social software predictions for 2010
A lot has happened in 2009within the social software and collaboration
space and the growing use of platforms such as Twitter and
Facebook by business users is prompting enterprises to seriously
consider procuring social software platforms for the business,
claimed Gartner Research
Juniper's
new chip for routers offers high throughput
Juniper Networks announced a new generation of silicon that
will help customers to quickly, efficiently and non-disruptively
upgrade existing T Series Core routers, to a full duplex slot
capacity of 250 Gbps without service interruption
Microsoft
study reveals SMBs using hosted services for better financials
Microsoft's global SMB IT and Hosted IT Index 2010, which
investigates how small and midsize businesses (SMBs) across
multiple segments fared during the recession and how they
use technology has some interesting findings on technology
IBM's
new Power7 servers
IBM showcased its latest generation of its Power-based servers,
the new POWER7 system, which is designed to manage demanding
emerging applications such as smart electrical grids and real
time analytics for financial markets, which rely on processing
an enormous number of concurrent transactions and data while
analyzing that information in real time
Downtime
Ashwin P Rao,IT Group Director, Cadence Design Systems
EXPRESS INTELLIGENT ENTERPRISE
February 2010
Edit
CRM
and the Indian CIO
CRM is something that most CIOs are quite familiar with and
many would have gone in for these solutions. This technology
is available as a module for an existing ERP system or as
a separate product or even as a service
Cover Story
Value
Thy CRM
In these times of grave economic uncertainties, organizations
need to double their customer focus and leverage CRM systems
by engaging more customers to increase profitability By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Profit
from on-demand CRM
Although recent CRM adoption trends suggest a higher uptake
of on-demand CRM, companies must exercise caution with respect
to customization and integration when rolling out a solution
By Rajendra Chaudhary
CRM
would bounce back
While the overall enterprise application software market a
beating, CRM absorbed some shocks despite weak spending. Factors
such as verticalization of CRM as well as faster resolution
of customer and sales cycle time would drive the CRM market
in 2010 By Rajendra Chaudhary
“CRM
witnessed growth despite the slowdown”
Balaka Baruah Aggarwal, Senior Research Manager-Emerging software,
Springboard Research said that the economic slowdown actually
contributed to the growth of CRM as companies become familiar
with its business benefits By Rajendra Chaudhary
Citizen's
CRM
For years CRM has been used as a tool for improving customer
engagements in the private sector but governments have reversed
this trend. Many state governments are doing PoCs to improve
government-to-citizen services & RTI using CRM By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
The Rs 250 crore Super Religare Laboratories Ltd., refer SRL
(Formerly SRL Ranbaxy Ltd), is set to expand into upcountry
markets, while staying focused on extending healthcare to
the rural market
Vertical
Focus
IT
is key in controlling manufacturing costs
The manufacturing industry is expected to bounce back in 2010
riding on the key IT initiatives and new technology spending
it undertook in 2009. By N Geetha
Case Study
Virtualization
brings cost benefits to TBZ
By consolidating and virtutalizing 30 servers to four blade
servers, TBZ is expected to save Rs 40 lakhs annually in its
operational costs over three years. Additionally faster provisioning,
no new hardware purchases and energy saving are additional
riders By N Geetha
Backoffice
safeguards
Security measures to protect customer data boost client confidence
By Aditya Kelekar
A
smart DR plan
Syntel's DR plans make the best use of its existing infrastructure
By Aditya Kelekar
Special Feature
Wanted
entrepreneurial CIOs
According to a Gartner report, organizations that plan to
emerge stronger after the ongoing recession will need to have
entrepreneurial CIOs for it is the spirit that will help pave
the way for organizational growth going forward. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Courting
a view
The video conferencing market in India is growing By Manish
Dixit
A
game-changer
Cloud computing transforms the way business consumes IT, argues
Nandu Pradhan
Update
“Indian
customers need a clear picture of remote infrastructure”
Annand Sarnaaik, Chairman and Managing Director, Glodyne Technoserve
talked to Rajendra Chaudhary on the latest trends and business
opportunities that exists in remote infrastructure management
and technology outsourcing
Cloud
computing is unproven technology in Indian healthcare
Contrary to popular belief that weak economic conditions would
drive cloud adoption, Brian Cohen, Chief Technology Officer,
iSOFT said that Indian healthcare is yet to bite into cloud
computing as it lags behind in basic IT adoption and investments.
He talked about this trend with Rajendra Chaudhary
Indian
logistics SPs are realizing the value of IT enabled operations
The Indian logistics industry is not the most technology savvy
industry out there and it continues to be bedeviled by the
proliferation of non-standard practices and processes. Vineet
Malhotra, Global Head, Marketing, Kale Consultants talked
to Rajendra Chaudhary on how IT has emerged as a key enabler
in that business
Analyst View
Virtualization
will grow bigger: F&S
Although in its nascent stage, the future of virtualization
market in India looks promising, noted Frost & Sullivan
SMBs
in India spent over $45m on hosted applications in 2009: AMI
Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to
999 employees) in India are set to spend more than $45 million
on hosted applications in 2009, according to a new study by
Access Markets International (AMI) Partners
Strongest
growth in PC sales in Q4: Gartner
Worldwide PC shipments surpassed 90 million units in the fourth
quarter of 2009, a 22.1 percent increase from the fourth quarter
of 2008, according to preliminary results by Gartner
Dell's
SaaS-based cloud-based services to simplify IT management
and reduce costs
Dell India's new Services offerings as (SaaS) Software-as-a-Service
applications brings cloud based IT services to the existing
consulting, support and managed service capabilities under
Dell Services [formed by the acquisition of Perot Systems]
to help companies to reduce overall IT costs and automate
IT infrastructure management
Intel
unveils 32 nm Core i7, i5 and i3 processors
Intel Corporation’s all new 2010 Intel Core family of
processors delivers unprecedented integration and smart performance,
including Intel Turbo Boost Technology for laptops, desktops
and embedded devices
Seagate's
BlackArmor USB 3.0 portal hard drive is 3X times faster than
USB 2.0
Seagate's BlackArmor PS110 USB 3.0 portable external hard
drive packs a 500GB 7200RPM 2.5-inch portable hard drive,
which the company cliams to be three times faster than its
USB 2.0 predecessor, making it one of the fastest portable
hard drives available
TAKE
Solutions's multi-tenancy OneSCM solution
TAKE Solutions Ltd., a Supply Chain Management (SCM) and Life
Sciences products company has unveiled a new SaaS based offering,
OneSCM that supports multi-tenenacy and is aimed at delivering
online supplier management to medium and large enterprises
Core
data center spending will be hot in 2010
After a lull, enterprise application software spending is
expected to make a strong come back in 2010 especially ERP
and BI. Server-storage virtualization with DR and cloud services
will be other technologies in the wish list of CIOs during
2010. Rajendra Chaudhary tracked the spending spree
EAS
spending will grow in 2010
After a 18 month long hiatus in EAS spending, enterprises
will be focusing on BI & EAS upgrades in 2010 as large
enterprises have stabilized their ERP investments and have
huge databases that they want to analyze for strategic business
decisions. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Cloud(y)
adoption
As ClOs continue to remain fascinated with cloud computing,
vendors believed that their efforts will start to bear fruit
in 2010. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Aditya Birla Minacs provides customized business process outsourcing
solutions focused around CRM/contact centers, marketing, finance
& accounting and IT
Vertical
Focus
IT
to cement infrastructure growth
The CIOs of the infrastructure vertical are compelled to look
at IT as a business driver. By N Geetha
Case Study
The
holy grail of audit
Emphasis on audits and regular checks helped tighten infosec
at Yes Bank By Aditya Kelekar
Bank
uninterrupted
PNB's business continuity plan springs from a deep desire
to provide uninterrupted service to customers By Aditya Kelekar
Fortifying
IT security
At Wipro, role-based access bolsters the company's IT security
By Aditya Kelekar
Special Feature
Energy
crisis in DC to continue in 2010
A recent Gartner survey found that the current DC challenges
faced by organizations will worsen in 2010 and unless something
is done immediately, those running the facilities will have
their hands full with serious monetary and operational challenges.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
"CIOs
today are now open to converse around data"
Suganthi Shivkumar, MD, South Asia, Informatica said data
has become a life-line for organizations and that the data
quality can often determine the fate of an enterprise in these
uncertain times. Rajendra Chaudhary talked to her about the
importance of data quality
The
SOA story
The adoption Of SOA among Indian enterprises and its impact
By Asheesh Raina
Update
Large
customers want to go beyond basic customer service
Like most other enterprise applications segments, CRM too
has seen some tough times on the adoption front recently.
Rajendra Chaudhary caught up Gerald Prabhu, Executive Director,
Strategic Alliance & Marketing of CDC CRM Solutions and
asked him about the current market scenario, adoption trends
in CRM
Successful
data warehousing projects needs careful planning
Ashok Ekbote, Country Manager, Teradata India said that data
wareshousing (DW) projects don't necessarily have to be exhaustive
and expensive undertakings. A little bit of careful planning
can ensure success. Rajendra Chaudhary, discussed some finer
points of DW implementations
Managing
inboxes give IT managers headaches
Microsoft admited that some aspects of software licensing
policies have not found favor with customers. Amit Mehta,
Director, Unified Communications, Microsoft India talked about
the learning from previous products that went in the making
of Exchange Server 2010. By Aditya Kelekar
Bridging
the technology gap
Jonathan Rende, Vice President and General Manager, Business
Technology Optimization, Applications, Software and Solutions,
HP, spoke to N Geetha on how BTO can help business to bridge
the gaps that exists between IT strategy, applications and
operations
Security
Bytes
First
iPhone worm found
The first iPhone worm, dubbed as Ikee, is now very much here,
according to F-Secure, an antivirus vendor
SMEs
lose $ 40 million to cyberfrauds, phishing attacks on rise
According to Websense's latest security round-up, the security
breaches that made it to the top of the news included FBI's
revelation of losses suffered by SMEs to cyberfrauds amounting
to $ 40 million, a volley of phishing attacks on UK nationals
and the online disclosure of thousands of Hotmail passwords
Indian
IT Act gets a facelift
The long-awaited amendment to the Information Technology Act
(Amendment) Act 2008, which aims at tightening procedures
and safeguards for monitoring and interception of data to
prevent cyber crimes, has come into force
USA's
House Science subcommittee extends NIST's cybersecurity powers
The House Science and Technology Subcommittee on Technology
and Innovation approved a bill giving the National Institute
of Standards and Technology additional responsibilities for
developing cybersecurity standards, including ensuring privacy
protection for electronic health records
IT
industry outlook by Gartner
The IT industry is exiting its worst year ever, as worldwide
IT spending is on pace to decline 5.2 percent, according to
Gartner
3Com
will boost HP portfolio, says Saugatech Research
HP will purchase 3Com, a leading provider of networking switching,
routing and security solutions, at a price of $7.90 per share
in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $2.7 billion
Financial
institutions can save over 50 per cent on networking operational
costs
Financial institutions can achieve over 50 percent of TCO
by moving away from do-it-yourself (DIY) network infrastructures
and using shared managed extranet services, according to a
newly-published whitepaper from an independent research firm
that has been sponsored by BT
VMware
to help Indian business drive efficiency and innovation by
energizing IT
VMware, the global leader in virtualization solutions from
the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, has announced
new initiatives around its core products—VMware View,
the VMware vCenter Product Family, and VMware vSphere-to drive
'business infrastructure virtualization' adoption in India
HDS’
new application and data recovery solutions
Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary
of Hitachi, Ltd has announced the addition of the Hitachi
Dynamic Replicator to its replication and data protection
software portfolio
Cancer
Patients Aid Association adopts IVR and mobile based payments
Many non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are looking for
alternative techniques for garnering donations besides the
traditional ways of raising money for charity, from the corporate
sector and HNIs, which of late have been facing turbulence
CIOs
do a tight-rope walk
Overseeing IT security across global organizations is an enormous
task. Creating a balance between centralized security management
across a large distributed network and localized control over
security is a high-wire act that only a few can pull off successfully.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
The
relevance of security policies
Before weaving a security net to protect the IT organization,
a thorough investigation of policies that define the security
framework is a must. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Security
in the cloud
While most companies are skeptical of the cloud computing
model due to security issues, JSL has puts its IT security
on the cloud triggering a new trend. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Tech Mahindra is a $ 986 million IT service company with a
strong domain expertise in telecom vertical. Having global
footprints across the US, UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia
Pacific, the IT major has turned its focus on the domestic
market having top telecom providers as its customers
Vendor View
Security
compliance is not a choice but a mandate
While CIOs and CISOs get all the glory for handling IT security
matters for their organizations, security vendors too form
an important part of the equation said Amuleek Bijral, Country
Manager-India & SAARC, RSA [EMC Division] and Vishal
Dhupar, Mananging Director, Symantec India
Vertical
Focus
Enterprises
want to see the big picture
An insight into how CIOs in the pharmaceutical vertical are
addressing new business dynamics using IT for growth. By N
Geetha
Going
lean
To see its way through the recessionary economy, Yatra had
to get the biggest bang for its buck By Aditya Kelekar
Help
yourself
Uttarakhand State Power Corporation’s IT department is
trying to empower users to make the most of the department’s
software By Aditya Kelekar
Living
on the Edge
ICSA believes network-attached peripherals can no longer be
ignored by security solution providers and practitioners.
In this whitepaper, ICSA builds a case for its views
Special Feature
GRC:
next stop for CIOs
CIOs are not only applying GRC to manage transactional processes
but on their enterprise-wise risk management to bring efficiency
and reduce costs. By N Geetha
Rationale
behind the Dassault-IBM deal
Dassault Systems recently announced the purchase of IBM sales
and client support operations dedicated to its PLM software
portfolio. Rajendra Chaudhary analyzes the deal
SMBs
would adopt cloud services faster than enterprise
Anand Ramakrishna, General Manager & Head-Cloud Computing
Services, Wipro Infotech talked to Rajendra Chaudary about
the business, current trends and the need to ask the right
questions before using cloud services
Security
software efficacy
David Ferguson, President, APAC, AVG Technologies on the guarantees
offered by infosec software companies, the testing methods
employed by them and the spread of mobile malware, among other
topics
Reliance
announces cloud computing services
Reliance Data Center (a part of Reliance Communications) has
announced the launch of "Reliance Cloud Computing Services"
hosted infrastructure service for its customers
Synaptris’
BI solutions
Chennai-headquartered Synaptris India that providers tools
for reporting, dashboards and analysis has broadened its focus
to include the domestic market. The COO of Synaptris Nagaraj
Bhargava has an ambitious growth plan for the company
Cloud's
computing: a can of worries
Ken Schneider, CTO, Security and Compliance, Symantec talked
to Aditya Kelekar about the evolving infosec threat landscape
Security
Bytes
Major
hacking ring rounded up
International efforts have nabbed the masterminds of cybercrime
who stole over $9.4 million from credit card processor
PhishTank
records one million scams in two years
More than 1 million unique, suspected phishing scams have
been reported on PhishTank's web site in the course of the
last two years of its existence
Technology
news
"Adoption
of cloud storage will be driven by service providers"
Miklos Sandorfi, Chief Strategy Office, File and Content Services,
Hitachi Data Systems Corporation talked to Akhtar Pasha on
why the adoption of cloud storage will be driven by service
providers
L&T
Infotech teams with SEEBURGER to expedite US implementations
L&T Infotech, a global IT services provider, has teamed
with SEEBURGER Inc. for a strategic partnership, in order
to increase the US implementation resources for the latter's
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Business-to-Business
integration (B2B) software
Tata
Communications enters SaaS market
Tata Communications, has announced that Tata's Communications
On-Demand CRM service will be available to organizations of
all sizes in India
Advantage
open source
Vendors are exploring innovative ways to use the open source.
Users are exploring ways to use it in datacenter
The
people issue
Finding the right talent for internal and external skills
to support the adoption of open source is not an easy job.
But this trend is changing fast
At
loggerheads
A pitched battle between open source advocates and closed
source proprietary vendors is brewing
Total
control
Educational institutions want to trim their expenses to a
minimum, but they also want applications that are tailored
to their needs. Open source provides the answer
Head to Head
An
executive conversation
Headquartered in Mumbai, Institute of Technology & Management
(ITM) Business school is on an expansion mode of venturing
into healthcare and engineering fields while stretching its
network of MBA and hospitality schools
Vertical
Focus
Power
crisis
A look how CIOs in the power vertical are addressing their
business challenges using IT. By N Geetha
Case Study
On
the move
Shree Cement's RFID enabled Transport Freight Bidding System
helped it to eliminate discrepancies in its logistics process
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Improving
service levels
After running its IT operations in-house, AFL decided to outsource
to Accenture in late 2008 to trim costs and improve service
levels By Rajendra Chaudhary
Techvisor
BCM
is more than just DR
As Indian organizations attempt to understand Business Continuity,
management, they realize that there's more to enterprise resilience
than just strong IT By Rajendra Chaudhary
Scaling
mount governance
Getting IT governance integrated with business goals is easier
said than done. But the returns are assured. By Dipti Patel
The
next level
Legacy core banking systems must be shown the door if banks
are to remain responsive to customer needs By Gerrit Franzen
- Director FSI, APAC, Hitachi Data Systems
Special Feature
Business
users to port more apps on open source
An IDC survey predicts that the adoption of open source software
by organization will be driven by the mandate to trim operational
expenses going forward By Rajendra Chaudhary
IP
issues are a cause for worry
Intellectual Property (IP) protection awareness and action
has been on the rise among Indian enterprises. Multinational
IP consultancy firms are pitching Indian companies to try
and net new business. Richard Dunham, business development
manager with TAEUS International, which engages in intellectual
property consultancy, was at Interop, Mumbai to meet technology
decision makers. Richard Dunham, in an interaction with Aditya
Kelekar.
Managing
the SMB mindset is the key
In 2005, when the biggest co-operative bank in the country
decided to spin-off its internal IT arm into a full fledged
IT solutions company, not many thought of the move as a much
yielding one. Four years on and Saraswat Infotech today is
ready with two distinct software for the Indian BPO and SMB
market. Manoj Kunkalienkar, CEO of the company discusses the
two offerings and talks about managing SMB clients in a chat
with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Malware
attacks to grow in the future
In the monthly malware statistics for August 2009 compiled
by Kaspersky Lab, India earned the dubious distinction of
being third on the list of countries where cyber criminals
unleash their attacks. Rajendra Chaudhary chats with Alexander
Gostev-Director of Global Research & Analysis Team, Kaspersky
Lab, on this new development.
Industry
News
Verizon
Business and McAfee in strategic alliance
Verizon Business, a global provider of IT, communications,
security and network solutions, and McAfee Inc., a security
technology company, have announced a global strategic alliance
to provide integrated security solutions to businesses and
government agencies worldwide
Finnair
provides online security for its customers
Finnair is teaming up with Internet security specialists F-Secure
- another Finnish company dedicated to reliable service and
providing the best possible customer experience
MindTree
awarded leadership prize
MindTree, a global IT Solutions company, has been awarded
the Asian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) Award by
Teleos, in association with The KNOW Network
Big
news is good news for cybercriminals
Big news has always been great news for cybercriminals. The
death of Michael Jackson and the election of Obama may have
shocked the world in different ways, but for a malware writer
wanting to lure the unsuspecting, they are both golden opportunities
to dangle the bait
Security
Bytes
Microsoft
sues unknown cybercriminals
On the face of it, this seems to be just another case of malvertisements
on the Internet. However, this time around the folks at Redmond
seem to have been greatly annoyed to let the matter pass
Eco Beat
IT
sector leads in carbon disclosure
The response to the Carbon Disclosure Project 2009 (CDP2009)
from Asia ex-Japan has been very encouraging this year. The
number of reporting companies has more than doubled to a total
of 127, up from 61 last year
Analysts
Views
Conferencing
tools in much demand among Indian SMBs
Small and medium businesses (SMBs, or companies with up to
999 employees) in the Indian subcontinent are set to spend
US$48.8 million on Unified Communication (UC) in 2009, up
over 2008, according to a new study by Access Markets International
(AMI) Partners, Inc. Medium businesses (MBs, or companies
with 100-999 employees) will account for over 40% of the country's
total SMB expenditure, while small businesses are increasing
their adoption of basic UC solutions
Companies
adapting to the tough climate, finds McKinsey study
As usual, it's survival of the fittest. Some companies have
moved beyond merely coping with the crisis and are once again
actively planning for the long term, according to a survey
by McKinsey Global Economic Conditions Survey in the field
from September 7th to the 11th
Best
of cloud and on-premise is the new mantra, says Saugatuck
Salesforce.com announced the availability of new, jointly-marketed
Cloud-based CRM solutions from Salesforce.com and Dell Inc.
Dell will offer Salesforce.com's SaaS-based CRM and sales
automation applications to its SMB clients, and will provide
implementation and integration with existing systems and databases
Windows
Mobile based smartphone slows down; new interest in Android
phones slows
According to latest Ovum report, there has been decrease in
the total number of handsets launched during the rolling 12-month
tracking period. Accounting for the seasonality of the handset
market, Ovum counted just 13 new models launched during 2Q09,
compared with 26 for the same period in 2008
SaaS
eating into on-premise application; driven by large enterprise
spending
Springboard's report on 'Software-as-a-Service in APEJ 2009/2010',
revealed that more than 50% of SaaS adopters had evaluated
an on-premise application before ultimately choosing a SaaS
solution, indicating that SaaS applications have begun to
eat into the on-premise applications market across APEJ
What
makes an enterprise intelligent?
Technology Senate 7.0 held in Phuket, Thailand was organized
by the Indian Express Group. Over 150 CIOs attended the event.
Before the Polycom Intelligent Enterprise Awards were presented,
a panel discussion was conducted about the concept, process
and methods behind the awards
Polycom
Intelligent Enterprise Awards
The end of the first day of Technology Senate 2009 saw the
announcement of the Polycom Intelligent Enterprise Awards
after an address by the CIO of Polycom, Inc
RSA
Security Strategist Awards
In the last few decades India Inc, has witnessed increased
IT deployment with an objective to respond to changing business
dynamics while having a competitive edge
Sunil
Dhaka, CISO, ICICI Bank
Sunil Dhaka, the winner of the RSA Security Strategist Award
2009 in the BFSI category believes that a holistic approach
towards ensuring information security within the bank is a
critical game, a strategic initiative in itself
Felix
Mohan, Senior Vice President & CISO, Bharti Airtel Ltd
Given the challenge of having 24x7 network connectivity for
the millions of its subscribers, the demand for a strong and
robust security systems was the top priority for Bharti Airtel
Vijay
S Mahajan, Sr GM-IT Infrastructure & IS, M&M Ltd
The recipient of the RSA Security Strategist Awards 2009 in
the General Industry category, Vijay S Mahajan, Senior General
Manager-IT Infrastructure & information security, Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd., has made a difference with the implementation
of the project 'Suraksha'
Emerson
Uptime Champion Awards
The Emerson Uptime Champion Awards 2009 have been instituted
by the Indian Express Group for organizations and CIOs who
are determinedly working to improve the overall reliability
of their IT infrastructure thereby reducing costs and improving
productivity
Vertical
Focus
Focus
on: Cement
Rajendra Chaudhary examines the IT preparedness of some of
India’s leading cement companies and how CIOs in the
vertical are using IT to address critical business challenges
Geojit
BNP Paribas Financial Services Limited
Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services Limited (formerly known
as Geojit Financial Services Limited) provides a range of
trading and investment products and solutions
Log
sense
At WNS, an incident management application is helping the
infosec team in keeping vigil By Aditya Kelekar
Mission
uptime
High uptime is critical to HDFC Bank's successful operations
By Aditya Kelekar
Crossfire
‘‘As
important as data quality is, it is not a headline problem’’
George Langley, Co-founder and Director, Mastersoft that specializes
in resolving data quality issues for enterprises talked to
Rajendra Chaudhary about data quality challenges faced by
companies and tried to scope out the responsibilities of CIOs
in such endeavors.
By Invitation
Impact
of IT governance on projects
IT governance can have a great impact on the success rate
of projects. Is business listening? By Sunil Mehta
The
future of data protection
The need for data protection technology is well recognized,
but implementation is slow By Anand Naik
Special Feature
Money
matters
The widening threat landscape and a need to make up for lost
time in 2009 will prompt organizations to spend more on IT
security in 2010 says Gartner Research By Rajendra Chaudhary
Motorola’s
enterprise mobility bid
K Subramanian, managing director, Enterprise Mobility Business,
Motorola India speaks about the benefits of using an EMS solutions.
Open
standards in UC
The newly appointed Managing Director for Avaya India, Jangoo
Dalal, replies to issues related to the Nortel acquisition,
the potential of UC and vendor lock-in complaints.
DR
seen only as an insurance policy
With the swine flu scare still raging, concerns related to
Business Continuity Planning and Disaster Recovery have again
come in focus. Lakshman Narayanaswamy, VP Products, Sanovi
Technology India shares his impressions from meeting customers.
Business
applications to move in cloud
Mike Morrissey, Global Operations Manager, Institution of
Engineering and Technology (IET) talks to Rajendra Chaudhary
about trends, issues in cloud computing and its impact in
India
e-waste
management: Policy wanted
Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, Manufacturers Association
for Information Technology (MAIT) talks candidly about the
apathy of the Indian organizations towards the issue of e-waste
management and control in an interview with Rajendra Chaudhary
European
Recycling Platform raps WEEE implementers
In a scathing report on WEEE's Directives, the European Recycling
Platform has said that the directives have failed to get a
grip on all WEEE
streams and to assure prevention of bad treatment
Security
Bytes
DDos
Attack bring social network sites to their knees, reports
Websense
A massive DDoS attack on several major Web 2.0 sites such
as Twitter, Google Blogger, LiveJournal, and Facebook was
among the biggest security attacks in the month that passed,
according to Websense's monthly news roundup
APWG
announces eCrime Congress
The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) has announced it has
opened registration for its eCrime Congress | Tacoma 2009,
a three-day program beginning October 19, 2009
Moily
for more cyber crime legislation
Union Law Minister Dr. M Veerappa Moily has said that he would
like to see more Acts to deal with the increasing volume and
variety of cyber crimes
Microsoft
sues companies accused of aiding malware spread
In what appears to be a frontal attack against those in the
malware chain, Microsoft has filed civil suits against businesses
believed to be responsible for placing advertising that hides
malware
BT
selected for by Siemens for international data network
BT has signed a three-year agreement to provide and operate
the international data network for Siemens Enterprise Communications
(SEN). The contract covers more than 230 locations of SEN
in 45 countries
Free
Antivirus for NGOs
NASSCOM Foundation, the CSR arm of NASSCOM, India's premier
IT industry body, and Quick Heal Technologies, one of India's
leading antivirus solutions providers have partnered to provide
antivirus solutions for free to NGOs under NASSCOM Foundation's
BiGTech.in programme
TCS
to implement SWAN in AP
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an IT services, consulting,
business solutions and outsourcing firm, has won the country's
largest State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project from the government
of Andhra Pradesh on a five year Build, Own, Operate, and
Transfer (BOOT) model
F-Secure
offers backup services
F-Secure Corporation, a provider of security as a service
through ISPs and mobile operators, has announced that it has
extended its Online Backup services to the customers of Tata
Communications
Analyst's
View
Security
Software Market on Pace to Grow 8 Per Cent in 2009, says Gartner
The worldwide security software market will total $14.5 billion
in 2009, an 8 per cent increase from 2008, according to Gartner
In 2008, it grew at 19 per cent, and Gartner anticipates the
market to grow 13 per cent in 2010 as revenue will total $16.3
billion
Sales
of item-level RFID systems to go up, says ABI Research
RFID's ability to help apparel companies do more with less
in the wake of economic downturn is driving an unprecedented
surge in adoption throughout the sector, ABI Research has
reported
The
pit falls of Virtualization
Virtualization may have great potential to improve efficiencies,
simplify management, and enhance agility, and be one of the
hottest technologies to hit the data center in years; however,
it's far from smooth sailing all the way
Asia
Pacific Server Shipments register a dip
In the second quarter of 2009, Asia Pacific continued its
downward trend in server shipments with 17.2 percent year
on year decline, with shipments totaling 323,388 units
Two
sides of the cloud
When it comes to reducing CapEx and speeding project implementation,
IT executives are significantly more positive about the potential
of Cloud infrastructure solutions than are business executives,
are the findings of a study conducted by Saugatuck research
HCL,
BSNL Partner for National Broadband Penetration Program
HCL Infosystems Ltd. and BSNL announced that they will be
working together on the National Broadband Penetration Program
(NBPP), a nationwide initiative to accelerate IT proliferation
in rural India
Service
providers build new cloud services on VMware platform
VMware, the global leader in virtualization solutions from
the desktop through the datacenter and to the cloud, announced
advancements in the VMware vCloud initiative-designed to help
customers safely tap compute capacity for internal and external
clouds-how they want, when they want and as much as they want
BT
selected by SEN for international data network
BT has signed a three-year agreement to provide and operate
the international data network for Siemens Enterprise Communications
(SEN). The contract covers more than 230 locations of SEN
in 45 countries
Almost
Mobile!
Though the concept of mobility is beginning to take root in
the enterprise consciousness, Indian organizations have a
lot of ground to cover before they can be deemed truly mobile
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Mobile
SFA the vendor’s perspective
Remember all those customer relationship management (CRM)
projects that companies invested in not too long ago? How
CIOs bragged about conquering the world through better customer
focus? It was all about attaining competitive advantage by
getting closer to the customer, understanding, selling and
servicing him better that prompted these organizations to
sink money in massive CRM projects; projects that never really
delivered, at least not to the extent that the concerned enterprises
anticipated
SMS
to the rescue!
Marico turns to SMS for streamlining the copra supply chain
and bringing greater transparency To its reverse auction process
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: Healthcare
N Geetha examines the business challenges faced by CIOs in
the healthcare vertical and looks at how technology is being
used as an enabler.
By Invitation
Transformational
CRM
CRM in the pharmaceutical industry has evolved considerably
in the course of the last few decades By Rangin Lahiri
The
right tool for the job
Enterprises could reap big gains by using IT application portfolio
analysis to Accelerate CIO Decisions By George Berelson, Director
Businesses Consulting, Virtusa Corporation
Techvisor
Danger
in the air
Out of sight is not out of mind, when it comes to WLAN security
By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Hinduja
Global Solutions Limited (HGSL)
The $165 million Hinduja Global Solutions Ltd.(HGSL), an outsourcing
arm of the multi-billion dollar Hinduja Group, excels in providing
outsourcing solutions that include Back Office Processing,
Contact Center and Customized IT Services to its global clients
including several Fortune 500 companies
''Azure
forms a very important part of our S+S strategy''
Microsoft has been trying hard to get some momentum going
for its Software-plus-Services (S+S) idea. Moorthy Uppaluri,
General Manager - DPE, Microsoft India talks about S+S and
his company's move to the cloud, in a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Green
IT: not just lip service
R. Ravichandran, Director Sales, Intel South Asia talks about
Green IT and Intel's bid for protecting the environment, in
a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Outsourcing
BC/DR-let experts handle it!
Atul Hemani, MD, Omnitech InfoSolutions, explains why outsourcing
BC/DR makes sense, in a conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Innovations
in HP products
Stephen Bovis, VP & GM, Industry Standard Servers, TSG,
HP Asia Pacific and Japan, is responsible for driving HP's
momentum in the blade server and virtualization market, while
growing HP Proliant portfolio across the region. In a discussion
with N Geetha, Bovis touches upon the innovations that have
gone into HP products.
Security
Bytes
Facebook
platform used for phishing, finds study
The hugely popular social networking sites like Facebook and
Twitter have become attractive targets for phishing and scamming
attacks as online criminals follow the latest Internet trends
that are attracting the most users
Data
breach silences Thunderbird
The mizilla store, an online store run by Mozilla, the maker
of Firefox and Thunderbird, suffered a security breach last
month
Torrent
malware, storming defences and lies
A recent roundup on information security trends by Websense
has found that even the sites of firms synonymous with downloads
are susceptible to security breaches
Indian
teams at Cisco Developer Contest 2009
Cisco has announced the 10 shortlisted teams from Phase 1
of Cisco's global Developer Contest - 'Think Inside the Box'
- which includes two Indian teams
VMware
acquires SpringSource
VMware has announcing its planned acquisition of open source-based
Java development firm SpringSource. SpringSource, formerly
Interface21, is best known as the commercial development firm
leading the Spring portfolio of open source projects
Eco-Beat
Look
again: the e-waste mound is smaller
A study on computer reuse in a developing country has come
up with some good news for green IT advocates: it has found
that the extent of e-waste reuse may not have been correctly
calculated and that it's likely to be more than what was earlier
believed
Dell
firms up its e-waste policy
Dell has banned the export of non-working electronics to developing
countries as part of its global policy on responsible electronics
disposal
SMBs
showing increasing interest in managed services and SaaS
A recent eleven-country study by AMI-Partners highlighted
significant changes in SMBs' IT needs and interests. The study's
focus was to analyze how the economy is impacting SMBs' perceptions,
usage and purchasing behaviors related to IT
Organizations
must unlock potential of existing assets, Butler Group report
In a low capital expenditure climate organizations need to
know how to unlock the financial and intellectual value hidden
in existing assets, advise the authors of A new report by
IT research and advisory organization, Butler Group
Campus
Tech-Reality Bites
Although campuses are known for adopting the latest, greatest
IT products and services abroad the same is not true of the
Indian education sector By N Geetha
Homegrown
apps rule
The Indian Educational fraternity prefers homegrown IT over
branded offerings By N Geetha
Wide
open campuses
Vendors selling proprietary software applications face a tough
task when it comes to getting their products deployed on campuses
as IT heads in this sector are whole-heartedly behind Open
Source software By N Geetha
IT@Education:
Gartner’s Perspective
Gartner observes that there has been a good amount of disparity
in terms of campus adoption of technology. The adoption graphs
are not linear as these go with the funding, culture and need
that determines the deployment structure. In a conversation
with N Geetha, Asheesh Raina, Principal Research Analyst,
Gartner India, shared his thoughts about the challenges faced
by IT heads, the priority technology areas, perceptions about
technology and its use
Networking:
The Backbone
The greatest challenge that IT heads of campuses face is how
to scale up their network infrastructure in providing uninterrupted
transfer of data or uptime By N Geetha
Green
IT in education
While going Green has been the agenda of every CIO or IT head
of every industry vertical, campuses seem to be lackadaisical
as far as moving towards the adoption of this trend By N Geetha
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: Logistics Sector
The Indian environment presents Logistics Service Providers
(LSPs) with some unique challenges, observes Rajendra Chaudhary
The
next leap for wireless
The next generation of high performance wireless is around
the corner in the form of 802.11n. How different will it be?
By Sridevi Koneru
Techvisor
Quality
Checked
Product certifications by competent authorities mean a lot
more to vendors than building credibility By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Datacraft
India
IT services and solutions major Datacraft India has been a
pioneer in deploying IT solutions to drive its own business
and to drive optimum business efficiency for its customers.
Sunil Manglore, CEO of Datacraft India and Shailendra Badoni,
COO and IT head have taken up the mission of driving optimum
utilization of IT as a tool to address business growth
Case Study
Up
and running
To support production systems at MIRC Electronics, a fast
and reliable network was critical By Aditya Kelekar
Crossfire
"SaaS
is not hype"...
...It has become mainstream despite the fear, uncertainty
and doubt from on-premise vendors
‘‘Virtualization
technologies are evolving and need time to mature’’
While there is definitely a place for application virtualization
in the enterprise consciousness, the discipline hasn't found
a firm footing jut yet. In a chat with R. Viswakumar, AVP,
Global Technology Office, Cognizant, Rajendra Chaudhary tries
to find out the reasons.
SaaS
still needs some work
S. Sunderaraj, Senior Vice President - Enterprise Solutions,
Ramco Systems talks about the increasing acceptance of SaaS,
in particularly on-demand ERP in a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Social
Security numbers need reinforcement, finds study
Citizens of USA who thought that committing a social security
number to memory and keeping the social security card on one's
person safeguarded oneself from a possible theft of the card
details might be in for a surprise
Susceptible
bank puts the brakes on hacking demo
Barnaby Jack, a Juniper Networks security researcher was all
set to demonstrate a way to hack the software of an ATM at
the Black Hat Briefings in Las Vegas, when he received a request
to go slow on his wizardry
Cybercrime
continues unabated, Cisco's mid-year report
Internet criminals are increasingly operating like successful
businesses, borrowing some of the best strategies from legitimate
companies and forming partnerships with one another to help
make their illegal activities more lucrative, reports Cisco
in its Cisco 2009 Midyear Security Report
Telecom Space
Broadband
subscriber base crosses 6.2 million, says TRAI
TRAI's latest report on telecom landscape in India, titled
"The Indian Telecom Services Performance Indicators Report",
has shown healthy increases in subscription percentages in
all categories except rural wireline subscriber base, which
has seen a slight decrease and is in keeping with the proliferation
of wireless services
Nokia
Siemens Networks in Vodafone deal
Vodafone Essar has completed a rapid service expansion into
seven new regions across India. People living in or traveling
to Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya
Pradesh, North East and Orissa will now be able to use services
provided by India's second largest GSM operator
BT
and IT Holdings Group sign a MOU
British Telecommunications and IT Holdings Group are collaborating
in providing next-generation IT services. The strategic partnership
aims to support and offer IT services for Japanese enterprises
which have business operations throughout the world, allowing
customers to enjoy the most suitable outsourcing environment
on a global basis
Analysts'
Views
Race
to dominate the future of TV is underway: Gartner
Although the web of players competing to lead the way for
TV 2.0 is starting to have some definition, content providers,
device makers, cloud providers and communications firms will
need to come together to secure the future of next-generation
TV, according to Gartner
NetApp
India invests in green innovation center
NetApp has invested in infrastructure and equipment to build
a n new multi-million (U.S.) dollar innovation center, called
the NetApp Innovation Centre (NIC), which has several energy
efficient features
The
price of loose control
After spending millions on rolling out their branches, enterprises
want to get the biggest bang for their buck. Sensible infrastructure
management may hold the key. By Aditya Kelekar
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: Automotive
Like any other industry, the Indian automotive industry has
also become a victim of the economic slowdown which has impacted
its growth targets. N Geetha does a reality check on the business
challenges that CIOs in this vertical face
By Invitation
Get
that lean look
Application of lean principles to IT can cut waste and trim
cost, working wonders in a recessionary economy. By Peter
Waterhouse
Techvisor
The
CISO’s place
The CISO community remains divided over who should the CISO
report to and which arrangement works the best, observes Rajendra
Chaudhary.
Head to Head
Digital
Media Convergence Limited (DMCL)
The $2.5 m Digital Media Convergence Ltd., an arm of the Essel
Group, has been in the market for just over a year. Ishwar
Jha, CEO, DMCL is a technocrat and DMCL's Head-Technology
& Development, Deepak Chauhan understands the nuances
of Web-based technology.
Case Study
Workforce
Management: Bharat Forge Style
At BFL, automation of the manual system of tracking time and
attendance improves Shop Floor productivity By Rajendra Chaudhary
(Q&A)
Investments
in LTE aren’t a cause for worry
Perry LaForge, Executive Director, CDMA Development Group
(CDG) talks about the cellular technology and the reasons
for its success in a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary
Imposing
security does not work
In a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary, Cyberoam's CEO, Hemal Patel,
talks about the lack of organizational effort towards sensitizing
the users about the importance of security.
The
times they are a changin'
Ashok Krishnamoorthy, CEO, OPD Business Unit, MindTree shares
his thoughts on the OPD business with Rajendra Chaudhary and
talks about recent trends that have come to define the market
globally.
Mere
IAM is not enough
Kaushik Thakkar, Co-founder & VP-Sales, PortWise talks
about the Identity & Access Management (IAM) challenges
in a conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Mumbai
gets its specialized crime cell
The Mumbai Police's specialized cyber crime police station
is now operational. Launched on May 30, this is the first-of-its-kind
facility in the Maharashtra state
Liberal
access to Web 2.0 sites, gaping security holes—Websense
Survey
86 percent of IT managers reported feeling pressured to allow
more access to more types of Web 2.0 sites and technologies,
finds a new global survey by Websense, based on responses
from 1,300 information technology managers across ten countries
Wireless
News
Survey
tracks Wi-Fi-enabled phone users
A survey conducted by ABI Research found that 77 percent of
users of Wi-Fi-enabled mobile phones are completely or very
satisfied with their device
WiMAX
interoperability trials get underway
The WiMAX Forum has announced that 14 ecosystem leaders would
be participating in the first ever commercial WiMAX interoperability
and roaming trials
Juniper
and Nokia-Siemens strike deal on Carrier Ethernet front
Juniper Networks, a networking vendor, and Nokia Siemens Networks,
a global enabler of telecommunications services, have announced
that the two companies plan to form a joint venture to address
the Carrier Ethernet Transport market
Al
Hilal Bank deploys Polaris solution
Polaris Software Lab Limited, a financial technology company,
has announced that Al Hilal, a leading bank in UAE, has gone
live on Polaris' Intellect Collect system
Bharti
Airtel signs managed services deal with Comviva
Bharti Airtel, an integrated telecom services provider, has
announced a managed services deal with Comviva, a provider
of integrated VAS solutions for mobile operators in emerging
markets
Analysts’
View
Gartner's
advisory for cost-cutting in the data center
Gartner has outlined seven practical ways to save costs in
the data center. While responding to contracting budgets,
IT managers are expected to deliver an ever-increasing level
of service to users, and many are charged with showing tangible
financial savings as part of cost-cutting measures,"
said Rakesh Kumar, research vice president at Gartner
Focus
on managed device platforms continues, says Ovum
The latest version of the iPhone marks Apple's continued focus
on the smartphone market, says Adam Leach, Devices principal
analyst with Ovum, a global advisory and consulting firm
Indian
SMEs still slow on online advertising, finds AMI study
For Indian SMEs, online advertising is yet to come of age.
According to an AMI-Partners study, less than 6% of PC-owning
India SMBs (companies with up to 999 employees) advertise
online-indicating a significantly high growth potential
Crossfire
"Government
will adopt APM for different reasons"
When we saw Amit Chatterjee, Managing Director of CA India,
talk about Application Performance Management (APM) with a
group of senior government officials at the recently held
Technology Sabha in Hyderabad, we wondered if he was preaching
to the wrong choir. Rajendra Chaudhary caught up with the
newly appointed MD and tried to figure out his agenda.
Technology
Sabha
Technology Sabha has truly become a pan India event. For the
sixth iteration of this bi-annual event we came to Hyderabad,
the famed city of the Nizams, and what a gathering of bureaucrats
and senior government officials it turned out be
Institutionalizing
IT Governance
When attempting IT Governance the CIO needs to win the confidence
of not only the top brass but also those on the lower rungs
of the organizational hierarchy. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: SWAN progress in individual states
A lot depends on the state-sponsored SWAN. Or does it? Departments
in states that have implemented SWAN are making good use of
the network infrastructure, but some others in states without
a SWAN are doing well too.
By Invitation
Testing
for real gains
A proper assessment of e-Governance projects should include
an evaluation of the utility value of projects. By Mayank
Saxena
Future
of outsourcing
The slowdown is likely to have a positive effect on the LPO
industry in India, the author argues. By Lokendra Tomar
Techvisor
Respecting
the IT guy
When it comes to getting recognition for their efforts, lower
ranked IT workers say they deserve a little bit more. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Head to Head
Reliance
Money
The Rs 352 crore online broking and distribution major, Reliance
Money, believes in being the first mover in deploying technology
tools across its operations
Case Study
Everyone
loves a fair price
MSAMB's computerization drive has helped accomplish many things,
including dissemination of ESSENTIAL information. By Aditya
Kelekar
(Q&A)
There's
more to a CISO's job than just security
Girish Trivedi, Deputy Director, South Asia Middle East, ICT
Practice, Frost & Sullivan, talks about the evolution
of the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in a conversation
with Rajendra Chaudhary.
IT
in logistics: Not there yet
Sumeet Nadkar, CFO & Head-Logistics SBU, Kale Consultants
talks about the tech adoption trends in the Indian logistics
space and discusses in detail the IT savviness of Indian LSPs
with Rajendra Chaudhary.
BI's
growing in importance
Chase Hacker, Director, Business Intelligence, Sybase Asia
Pacific spoke to Nivedan Prakash about the latest trends in
BI and the challenges for Indian enterprises
Wipro's
technology transformation promise
In a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary, Anuj Bhalla, GM & Business
Unit Head-Enterprise Services, Wipro Infotech talks candidly
about Technology Transformation Services, his company's latest
service offering and its viability in the current economic
climate.
Storage
is a strategic discussion for SMBs today
In a chat with Amit Malhotra, Manager Volume Storage, StorageWorks
Division- Asia Pacific & Japan, HP, Rajendra Chaudhary
finds out more about the latest storage trends in the SMB
space.
Vendor Watch
Appetite
for more?
The slowdown may have reduced IT spending in most industries,
but major IT vendors continue to augment their suite of products
by acquisitions. Those acquired include the Pure Digital,
maker of the smart and sleek Flip camcorder and Sun, the name
associated with the omnipresent Java.
Security
Bytes
In
the cloud? Tread with caution!
IT managers who thought a transition to cloud computing would
solve all their teething infrastructure troubles may need
to do a reality check
Many
firms lack fixed IT security budget, F&S report
According to a recent Frost & Sullivan survey based on
responses from CIOs across industries, a significant number
of CIOs in India didn't have any fixed budget for IT security,
the procurement of IT security products in these companies
was purely demand-based and adherence to standards is abysmally
low
Know
thy direction
Discussion in Tech Sabhas have been the fodder for many a
bright idea. Recent participants share their views on what
can keep the event ticking. By Aditya Kelekar
Crossfire
Keep
checking what the business want
How does the successful CIO adapt to the changing economic
conditions? Gartner VP & Distinguished Analyst John Mahoney
spoke to Express Intelligent Enterprise Sr. Correspondent
Aditya Kelekar about CIO’s role in times of turbulence.
Downtime
Vijay Mehra, Global Chief Information Officer, Essar Group
Hard
questions for the fairer sex
Are women CIOs a better match than their male counterparts?
Can women in IT handle stress better?…. We talked to
four women CIOs to get their perspectives on a wide range
of issues that affect them. By Aditya Kelekar and N Geetha
The
IT Woman
It is no secret that women are severely underrepresented in
IT and that there aren't many women CIOs. But with all the
talk about how a greater gender diversity and better gender
dynamics can help the cause of the IT organization, the current
scenario could be in for a change in the days ahead. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: Advertising
An optimistic trend prevails in the advertising sector as
CIOs are bullish about their technology deployments which
are not constrained by the economic downturn. While CIOs face
new business challenges, the investments in IT seem to be
unaffected with the top management relying on IT to drive
growth.
The
two-factor shield
Internet fraud perpetrators have had a field day till now.
With RBI cracking the whip on banks 2-factor authentication,
the scene is set to change. By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Madras
Cements Ltd
Chennai headquartered Madras Cements, a leading player in
that domain, has been a pioneer in many ways, with IT being
no exception
Case Study
HDFC
attempts storage nirvana
HDFC cuts down on its visits to the storage shop and extends
the life of its existing storage through virtualization. By
Rajendra Chaudhary
(Q&A)
HP:
Betting big on information management
In a chat with Jonathan Martin, Worldwide Vice President &
General Manager, Information Management Software & Solutions,
HP, Rajendra Chaudhary finds out more about HP's information
management agenda.
Hosting
an ERP is harder than CRM
Sushant Dwivedy, Director, Microsoft Business Solutions, Microsoft
India, articulates the viability of an on-demand model for
his company's ERP line up, with Rajendra Chaudhary.
Analysts'
Views
Sunny
days ahead for Cloud Computing
Although most analyst firms have predicted that IT spending
will remain flat or decline in most parts of the world in
the coming financial year, interest in cloud computing offerings
continues to rise
Two
more years of recession—KPMG
Mick McLoughlin, Global Head of Restructuring at KPMG, feels
that we will take atleast two more years to come out of the
current economic recession
Outsourcing
“Megadeals” increased in 2008, says Gartner
The number of reported outsourcing "megadeals" awarded
to a single service provider in 2008 was 12, an increase from
10 in 2007, according to Gartner, Inc. Megadeals are characterized
as being worth more than $1 billion
Security
Updates
Is
blocking porn at workplace good for IT security?
Here's another reason IT folks have to limit the Net excursions
of the over-adventurous ones at office. In an analysis of
the links to and from sites associated with topics that enterprises
most often prefer to block, Websense found a rich ecosystem
of bad topics linking to other bad topics
Conficker
dominates malware scene
The devasting trail left behind by Conficker network worm
has earned it the number 1 position of notoreity in F-Secure's
Quarter 1 2009 security roundup
Most
employees leave along with company data, finds survey
In a survey conducted jointly by Ponemon Institute, a US-based
privacy and information management research firm and Symantec,
59 percent of ex-employees admitted to stealing confidential
company information, such as customer contact lists
Eco-Beat
Environment
authority critical of EU's anti-dumping efforts
In a new report on transboundary shipments of waste, the European
Environment Agency has pulled up the EU for its failure to
intelligently track the export of some waste streams, in particular
e-waste
HP
Announces Recycling Program
HP has extended its recycling program in India beyond corporate
customers to include consumers and small and medium-sized
businesses (SMBs)
New
e-waste recycler in Bangalore
Another recycler has started operations in India's silicon
city. According to the e-waste news-tracker site, http://india.ewasteguide.info,
the company's plant located in Bidadi, next to Wonderla is
the first fullly integrated electronic waste recycling plant
and has a capacity of 1.0 ton per hour
The
Mobile Enterprise
The trend of mobile working is starting to catch on in India
and organizations are moving to support this trend. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
All
for one, one for all
UC vendors it seems are finally starting to come around and
They are Now talking about creating open, Interoperable platforms
so enterprises can reap true benefits of Unified communications
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: Online Trading
The release of new products, IT processes and technologies
are on the agenda for 2009, said CIOs in the Online trading
segment. Given the economic meltdown and low trading volumes,
these CIOs are faced with the challenge of using IT effectively
to drive business and profitability finds N Geetha.
By Invitation
Every
cloud has a caution lining
Cloud computing seems to be all the rage, but CIOs are demanding
more management capabilities so as to ease service adoption
barriers. By Stephen Elliot, CA Cloud discussions are hot,
but often the definition of what a "cloud provider"
is creates confusion.
Profit
from criticism
Customers who complain can be a useful resource to the enterprise.
If the enterprise feedback system is able to tap into the
complaints, that is. By Vinod Ganesh Ram, CDC CRM Solutions
Techvisor
Finding
their Webbed feet
Web 2.0 projects are increasingly becoming the lynchpin of
an effective marketing strategy. But getting the project to
work isn’t a simple task. By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Wipro
Infotech
Bangalore headquartered IT major, Wipro Infotech, has been
a pioneer in deploying varied technologies within its organization
to drive growth.
Case Study
Navigating
through turbulence
Most OTAs are in dire straits, but that hasn’t stopped
Cleartrip from innovating By Aditya Kelekar
Cross Fire
Few,
but fast...
At last month's Gartner India CIO Summit, Gartner Analyst
Mark P McDonald delivered a keynote address on Leading the
Challenge, Leading the Change. Express Intelligent Enterprise
Sr Correspondent Aditya Kelekar caught up with him shortly
after that to discuss CIO's role in tiding over difficult
times.
It’s
all about choosing the right security policies
Rajeev Goel, Vice President of iPolicy Networks, Tech Mahindra's
Security Division talks to Rajendra Chaudhary about security
and how organizations can build a consistent security mechanism
across large distributed networks.
Growth
despite the gloom
Sridhar Reddy, CMD, Ctrl S Datacenters talks to Rajendra Chaudhary
about the data center business and the impact of the economic
slump upon it.
From the
regulator
New
QoS parameters issued by TRAI
TRAI has ammended the parameters for measuring the Quality
of Service of Basic Telephone Service (wireline) and Cellular
Mobile Telephone Service
TRAI
goes soft on service providers
Earlier last month TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India)
issued guidelines to all service providers (ISPs, UASLs, CMSPs,
BSOs) providing Internet/ broadband to ensure better service
levels to their subscribers
RBI
mandates two-factor authentication
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has come out with a notice informing
banks that with effect from August 01, 2009, it will be mandatory
on them to have a mechanism that will ensure two –factor
authentication in force
Security
CERT-In’s
vulnerability round up
CERT-In (Indian Computer Emergency Response Team) has posted
information about several vulnerabilities uncovered last month
Beware
of SWF malware, Websense cautions
Websense Security Labs has announced that it has seen a new
SWF (Shockwave Flash, owned by Adobe) threat thriving in the
wild
Online
skepticism still high, says F-Secure
F-Secure’s annual Online Wellbeing survey has found that
the ajority of respondents are still apprehensive about using
their credit cards over the Internet
Semiconductor
Capital Equipment spending to decline, says Gartner
Worldwide capital equipment spending for the semiconductor
industry is forecast to total $16.9 billion in 2009, a 45.2
percent decline from 2008 spending of $30.8 billion, according
to analysts at Gartner
Slowdown’s
pretty side
In a recent blog titled “Can IT Emerge From This Period
In Better Shape Than Ever?” on Forrester’s official
website, analyst Sharyn Leaver comments that the recession’s
had some beneficial effects on the CIO-senior management relations
A
colocation call
In these times when companies are conscious about energy-efficiency,
colocation seems like an attractive option. However, it comes
with its own set of questions. By Aditya Kelekar
Vertical
Focus
Focus
On: POWER
2009 finds CIOs in the power sector having worked out processes
and strategies and a clear road map for deploying technology.
They are anticipating new business challenges in the current
year, given the economic slowdown, where IT's role is enhanced.
By Invitation
Tighter
regulations- to have or not to have
Is there a case for more regulation in the Indian IT and ITES
Industry with respect to customer assurance?. By S Vijay,
Director, IT Advisory practice, KPMG India
Managing
software updates
Dealing with software updates is not as simple as it seems
on the surface and there are several challenges that CIOs
encounter en route to managing it. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
Atria
Convergence Technologies (ACT)
Bangalore headquartered Atria Convergence Technologies (ACT),
a subsidiary of the Bangalore based Atria Group has ambitious
plans to be the leader in providing digital TV and IPTV services.
ACT's Director, C S Sunder Raju and President-Technology Devadas
Menon Pullat believe in the complete automation of their infrastructure
and office to drive growth by providing effective value added
services
Case Study
UTM
saves the day
Marketing communications company Mudra wanted to curb unproductive
Internet surfing without hurting the creative abilities of
its workforce. It found a solution in a UTM box. by Rajendra
Chaudhary
(Q&A)
RoA
is the new RoI
Hubert Yoshida, Vice President and CTO, Hitachi Data Systems
talks to N Geetha about CIO challenges for 2009.
TIBCO
talks the hardware talk
Ram Menon, Executive Vice President, Worldwide Marketing,
TIBCO talks to Rajendra Chaudhary about P-7500 messaging appliance,
the company's first hardware offering and the reasons behind
the strategic move
Outsourcing
business remains firm despite economic gloom
Lemuel Lasher, Global Business Solutions and Services Group
President, CSC talks to Rajendra Chaudhary about the impact
of financial crisis on the global outsourcing industry and
outlines CSC's strategy for the future
New
project to foster Indo-UK technology research
A five-year collaboration between the UK and Indian Governments,
universities and ICT specialists in both countries will work
to develop Next Generation Telecommunications Networks and
ICT services and applications in the two countries, along
with work on wireless sensor networks which could aid healthcare
and early warning weather systems in rural areas
From the
regulator
TRAI's
recommendations on VAS
TRAI has released its recommendations on the growth of Value
Added Services and regulatory issues
The
regulator cracks down on banks with ill-serviced ATMs
In a recent notification (dt: Feb 11, 2009), the RBI has pulled
up banks for faulty ATMs. The regulator said it has taken
cognizance of complaints from bank customers regarding debit
of accounts even when the ATMs have not disbursed cash for
various reasons
Analysts'
Views
KPMG
identifies emerging hotspots for the Indian IT industry
As the existing favorite locations for shared services and
outsourcing start to become saturated, newer cities are emerging,
offering new and improved incentive packages and talent, that
are better geared for the IT / ITeS industry, says KPMG in
its report- ‘Exploring Global Frontiers—the new
Emerging Destinations’
Can't
get a hold over CAPTCHA?
A Websense security alert release says that spammers have
once again chosen to target Microsoft's Live Hotmail services,
by busting Microsoft's latest, redesigned CAPTCHA system
F-Secure
survey: False sense of security
F-Secure's annual Online Wellbeing survey, conducted in December
2008, shows that over 90% of people have security software
installed on their computers
Analysts'
Views
Indian
CIOs' IT spending budgets on the rise
IT spending budgets in India, in contrast to many other regions
of the world, will still grow at 5.52 percent in 2009, according
to results from the 2009 CIO Agenda survey conducted by Gartner
Technology
Sabha
The fifth iteration of Technology Sabha, the premier event
on e-Governance, was held recently at the Goa Marriott Resort
in the beach town of Panaji
Manage
Thy e-Content
Like most other computing disciplines, ECM too has not escaped
the influence of Web 2.0. It has already had a considerable
influence on how people view, distribute and share electronic
documents and other content. By Rajendra Chaudhary
The
DMS wave
The vendor community has shifted gears and has moved to offering
integrated document management solutions and services that
cater to the increasingly complex requirements of the day.
By Rajendra Chaudhary
Vertical Focus
Focus
On: Infrastructure, Pharma, Banking, Insurance, Telecom, Manufacturing
As the New Year dawns, various industry verticals are relooking
at their business strategies and revising their growth targets.
Obviously, the economic recession and financial crisis has
prompted organizations to redo their math. These circumstances
are adding to the business challenges of the CIOs across industry
verticals as IT is expected to bring in operational efficiencies
driving business growth. N Geetha looks at the performance
of various sectors, and the new business challenges of CIOs,
while analyzing the spending patterns and the technological
aspirations of CIOs in 2009.
By Invitation
Think
before you travel
According to carbon trading firm, Climate Care, the average
return flight from London to Washington DC produces 1.64 tonnes
of CO2 per person. But you don't have to fly to meet any more.
By Arun Seth, Chairman, BT India
Techvisor
Hammering
home the law
The legislationto effectively address the e-waste problem
- it's been a-longtime-coming. Until then, a few conscientious
vendors and informal recyclers are trying to get their act
together. By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
ACG
Worldwide
The Rs 1,000 crores ACG Worldwide, a provider of complete
package solutions from empty capsules to granulation and coating,
to capsule filling, packaging films, blister packing and carton
packing has been the leader in its space
Case Study
Bytes
from a Time Wrap
HDO's biggest concern was to save the hundreds of thousands
of drawings from the projects it had done in the past before
it was too late. by Rajendra Chaudhary
Cross Fire
A
moving target
Thanks to the efforts of BSA, using pirated software is no
longer seen as fashionable. However, the software industry
is far from getting a fix on the problem, which is especially
severe in developing economies. Jeffrey Hardee, VP & Regional
Director, Asia Pacific, BSA, in an interview with Express
Intelligent Enterprise’s Senior Correspondent Aditya
Kelekar, talks about the challenges ahead.
(Q&A)
User
is the weakest link
In a chat with Rajendra Chaudhary, Hemal Patel, CEO, Cyberoam,
gives the lowdown on the risks associated with insider security
threats and outlines some guidelines on how to prevent such
instances.
Revisiting
Mainframes
Enterprise application bigwig CA recently announced its new
Big Iron-centric strategy, dubbed Mainframe 2.0. Chris O’Malley,
general manager of CA’s mainframe business unit discusses
the strategic roadmap for Mainframe 2.0 with Rajendra Chaudhary
Listening
to the customers is key for SAS
Ashit Panjwani, Director - Marketing, SAS Institute (India)
discusses the market trends in business analytics domain,
in a tête-à-tête with Rajendra Chaudhary
Sify's
datacenter push
According to P. K. Saji, Senior Vice President, Global Infrastructure
Operations, Technology, Sify, mobility will determine an enterprise’s
ability to compete. In a conversation with Rajendra Chaudhary,
Saji talks about Sify’s datacenter business.
News Analysis
Nortel's
financial tangle
Telecom equipment vendor Nortel has filed for bankruptcy hoping
to pave the way for faster restructuring. But the road to
recovery is likely to be a long and arduous one. by Rajendra
Chaudhary
Locked
and Loaded
Contrary to the Notion that they might still rely on old anti-virus
and porous firewalls for securing IT, Indian organizations
have moved beyond the basics. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Prevention
is better than cure
An ounce of prevention is better than a pound of detection
and correction when it comes to organizational security. By
Ayushman Baruah
A
beast to beat
New! gaping security holes associated with the Web sites of—hold
your breath—infosec vendors! By Aditya Kelekar
Vertical Focus
Focus
On: Telecom
N Geetha looks at how CIOs in the telecom industry are addressing
business challenges by using IT.
By Invitation
IT
security: plug those gaps
When the going gets tough, IT security must get tougher. By
the Technical Advisory Services (TAS) team, Mahindra Special
Services Group
Techvisor
Spamsters
in sight!
A streak of light is exposing the dark underground world of
spammers. By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Biocon
Biocon, a global healthcare company has charted a clear policy
to adhere strictly to regulations be it with regard to product
development, R&D or in terms of deploying IT
Case Study
For
a Better Connection
Revamping its entire IT infrastructure, BSNL is moving towards
a single-view IP-based platform. by Ayushman Baruah
RCC:
Reinforced Customer Confidence
In the slurry of ingredients that go in the making of Maytas
Properties' concrete dreams, a crucial one is paying attention
to customer relationship. By Rajendra Chaudhary
(Q&A)
Drive
towards energy efficient datacenters
David Wesley Plumer, Jr (Dave), President, Asia Pacific &
Japan of APC-Schneider Electric, Critical Power & Cooling
Services talks about energy optimized data centers and discusses
the company’s strategic positioning in driving profitable
data centers with N Geetha at the ‘APC press days 2008’,
Singapore.
Securing
IT through forensics
Neil Campbell, General Manager, Security Global, Dimension
Data, shares his thoughts on the importance of forensic computing.
(Tech Trends)
Xsigo
touts I/O Virtualization
For an enterprise IT professional, there's nothing new about
virtualization. The technology has existed for years, be it
at the OS level, the network level, the storage or at the
server level
Scale-out
storage is the future
Data, perhaps, the most important enterprise asset, is also
extremely difficult and expensive to manage
The
greens have it
With the green movement gaining popularity worldwide, the
pressure is mounting on enterprises to make green initiatives
a priority. The path is far from straightforward. By Aditya
Kelekar
Vertical Focus
Focus
On: Plastics
N Geetha looks at how CIOs in the plastics industry are addressing
business challenges.
By Invitation
It's
a limited world
Organizations must realize their obligations to the environment,
or face the bullet from the green forces. by Ashit Panjwani
Techvisor
The
Usability Challenge
Though usability engineering isn't a direct responsibility
of the CIO, a good CIO can actually help institutionalize
the idea in an enterprise. by Rajendra Chaudhary
Head to Head
Nagarjuna
Fertilizers & Chemicals
Hyderabad-based Nagarjuna Fertilizer and Chemicals (NFCL)
is growing with a focus to reduce dependence on imports and
trying to drive volumes to satisfy domestic consumption requirements
Events
Feeling
the customer's pulse
Satisfying customers has never been more challenging than
in today's highly competitive marketplace. The modern customer
is extremely demanding and insists on being treated as an
individual with specific needs
Case Study
Strategic
Transformation
Godrej has strategically outsourced its entire IT infrastructure
and application development to Hewlett-Packard (HP), Ayushman
Baruah gives an insight.
Wipro:
Last Stop Greenville!
Wipro's approach to ‘green’ is a holistic one, encompassing
IT infrastructure as well as other crucial non-IT assets such
as office buildings and employees. by Rajendra Chaudhary
(Q&A)
Netmagic
adds another data center
The increasing demand for third-party data center services
has prompted Netmagic to introduce a new data center. Sharad
Sanghi, CEO and Founder of Netmagic Solutions shares his views
with Priyanka Akhouri on the recent developments in his company.
Intel's
processor plans
Sanat Rao, Marketing Director, (Emerging Markets) Embedded
and Communications Group, Intel South Asia, discusses the
potential of the Atom processor in the embedded market space
with Ayushman Baruah.
Cisco's
data center 3.0 vision
Sumit Mukhija, National Sales Manager (Data Center) of Cisco
India & SAARC in an interview with Priyanka Akhouri discusses
on how the data center 3.0 initiatives taken by Cisco will
enable the customers to better utilize their data center resources
and enhance data security.
IBM
launches 'IBM Smart Business' for Indian SMBs
IBM has announced the availability of "IBM Smart Business",
a way for small and medium businesses (SMBs) to acquire, use
and manage technology that is radically simple
Mahindra
Group and SAP enter into a strategic alliance
India's Mahindra Group has signed an enterprise agreement
with SAP for consolidation of its systems and strategic transformation
across the company's diversified operational landscape
Hexaware
appoints N Nataraj as CIO
Hexaware Technologies has announced the appointment of N.
Nataraj as Chief Information Officer (CIO). As a member of
the executive management team, Nataraj will be responsible
for managing and strengthening company's global integrated
information technology (IT) systems and processes
Cisco
data leakage study assesses the 'Insider Threat'
Cisco issued the third and final set of findings from its
global security study on data leakage, shedding light on the
employee "insider threat" to corporate information
Hitachi
announces ‘CIO of the Year’ awards
Harish Shetty, Senior Vice President - IT, HDFC Bank received
the CIO of the Year, announced during the IT Inspiration Awards
ceremony, hosted by Hitachi Data Systems
Unisys
to offer hosted revenue accounting service
Unisys Corporation announced that it will be offering the
AMBER Cargo Revenue Accounting solution from Kale Consultants
as part of its air cargo portfolio
Green Bytes
Gartner
and WWF evaluate enterprises for environmental leadership
World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and Gartner presented the
results of an assessment of 24 global information and communication
technology (ICT) providers on their commitment to tackling
climate change within their own company and their capabilities
in innovating and developing solutions that will help them
and their clients thrive in a low carbon economy
Survey
finds green sensibilities make for good cost-cutting
In a recent poll conducted by Hitachi Data Systems Corporation,
a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) and
the only provider of Services Oriented Storage Solutions,
an astounding 83% of the respondents stated that going green
results in cost-savings, while 17% believed that that green
measures are not necessarily cost efficient
News Analysis
Are
the doors closing on open source?
After putting vast sums of money in open source projects for
several consecutive quarters, VCs are displaying restraint.
Is this the end of the dream run for open source? by Rajendra
Chaudhary
Products
Adaptec's
scalable Host Bus Adapters
Adaptec has unveiled the Adaptec series 1 Unified Serial Host
Bus Adapter (HBA) family featuring two low-profile cards that
deliver data storage connectivity solution, supporting up
to 128 SATA or SAS storage devices
Transcend's
128GB SSD in India
Transcend has announced the release of its 128GB high speed
2.5-inch Solid State Disk (SSD) in India
Quick
Heal introduces new antivirus products
Quick Heal Technologies has launched its new 2009 series of
products, the new Quick Heal Antivirus Plus 2009 and Quick
Heal Total Security 2009
Downtime
N P Singh, Sr. Vice President and CIO—Textile and Apparel,
Madura Garments , Aditya Birla Group
Getting
BI Right
India Inc. is going beyond simple analytical tools and historical
reporting to adopt sophisticated BI tools that deliver that
extra 'something' that companies were looking for. By Rajendra
Chaudhary
The
BI Democracy
Business Intelligence is showing signs of moving beyond top-management
dashboards and making inroads into the lower levels of the
organizational hierarchy. By Rajendra Chaudhary
Vertical Focus
Focus
On: Textiles
N Geetha looks at how CIOs in the textiles industry are using
IT to address the business challenges faced by their companies.
By Invitation
On
the BI track
Starting right is winning half the battle on the BI implementation
front. But much more needs to be done. by Sanjay Shah, CEO,
Prosys Infotech Private Limited
Techvisor
Upwardly
Immobile
Visually impaired employees are surmounting their difficulties
with great determination, but the corporate world is constructing
artificial ones for them. By Aditya Kelekar
Head to Head
Bangalore
Metropolitan Transport Corporation
Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) has taken
the lead in implementing various technologies to drive business
growth and increase the comfort of its commuters
Case Study
Small
Car, BIg dreams
Nano is not yet rolled out, but Tata Motors' analytics platform
to service its dealer network is ready By Aditya Kelekar
Confessions
of a fund manager
Fund managers at Reliance Capital Asset Management were used
to twisting and turning their queries. The IT systems had
to handle that. By Aditya Kelekar
(Q&A)
WiMax,
and all that noise
Tulip Telecom is known for its strength in providing wireless
access to rural hinterlands. However, its latest capacity
expansion plans are all about laying fiber. Excerpts from
a dialogue with Col H S Bedi, CMD, Tulip Telecom.
Online
frauds
Anand Naik, Directorm, System Engineering Symantec - India
and SAARC Region, on what's new in online frauds.
A
shift to 'Green IT' strategy
Priyanka Akhouri speaks to Praveen Sahai, Head, Marketing
and Corporate Affairs of EMC on the growing need for adopting
a Green IT approach.
Technology
driving growth for logistics
Amar More, Global Head, Logistics Practice, Kale Consultants
talks to Varun Aggarwal about Kale Consultant's Technology
Survey for the Indian logistics industry in association with
Feedback Business Consulting company.
The
changing role of CIO
Ketan Shah, IT Head of Angel Broking in an interview with
Priyanka Akhouri discusses the importance of IT for the Indian
Industry and how the role of CIO's help in aligning business
with technology
Remote
infrastructure management market
Nasscom-McKinsey reports that RIM market stands at $96-104
billion, out of which $13-15 billion is likely to be contributed
by India by 2013. K S Ganesan, CTO, Microland talks about
the remote infrastructure management in the country.
(Problem Solved)
Tata
Chemicals connects IVR system to its ERP
Tata Chemicals Limited, one of country's leading manufacturers
of inorganic chemicals, fertilizers, and food additives recently
rolled out a small IT initiative which it believes could have
big implications in terms of servicing its customers in the
days ahead
(News Analysis)
Government
guidelines fail to answer the riddle of e-waste
Earlier this year, when the ministry of environment and forests
announced guidelines for the environmentally sound management
of waste, it was hailed as an important milestone in India's
e-waste management history
(Brief)
Gartner's
take on software industry transformation
Software solutions are changing to be user-centric, web-centric,
service-oriented and utilized through new delivery models
and emerging software solutions will transform the software
industry and the way software is used over time, says technology
research firm Gartner
Prof.
Bharat Bhasker bags best IT professor award
Prof. Bharat Bhasker, Professor of Information Technology
and Systems, IIM Lucknow, has been conferred the "Best
Professor of Information Technology" at the recently
concluded AsianBrand Summit and Dewang Mehta Business School
Awards
Microsoft
Security Strategist Awards 2008
The Microsoft SSA awards aim to recognize organizations for
their outstanding leadership in information security (IS).
The award is given to CIOs and CISOs who use IS as a means
to fuel business growth. by Nivedan Prakash
Travel
& Hospitality: VFS Global
The business of servicing visas is one that demands the highest
levels of confidentiality and security. VFS has its work cut
out as it strives to ensure the required levels of security
and privacy of customer data in order to win the confidence
of its clients. by Aditya Kelekar
Banking,
Financial Services & Insurance: HDFC Bank
Vishal Salvi, CISO - Information Security Group, HDFC Bank
won in the BFSI category. Salvi attributed this feat to the
bank's sound strategy and its three-year roadmap. by Nivedan
Prakash
Technology
& Communications: IBM Daksh
Nandita Jain Mahajan, VP - Information Systems and Security,
IBM Daksh won in the Technology & Communications category.
She attributed this feat to the company's strategy and execution
roadmap. by Nivedan Prakash
General
Industry: Ashok Leyland
NSN Pillai, Head - Risk Management and Information Security,
Ashok Leyland won in the General Industry category. Pillai
attributes his success to the involvement and visible support
of the company's top management. by Nivedan Prakash
Health
Sciences: SRL Ranbaxy
Radhakrishna Pillai, CIO, SRL Ranbaxy was the winner in the
Health Sciences category. He attributed the win to the company's
security strategy that has been aligned with its business
requirements. by Nivedan Prakash
Vertical Focus
Focus
On: Government
N Geetha takes a look at the business challenges faced by
the government sector and how IT is being used to address
some of them
Head to Head
Allergan
India
Allergan India Pvt. Ltd., a joint venture between Allergan
Inc., and Nicholas Piramal India Ltd., a specialty pharmaceutical
company catering to the ophthalmic industry supplying eye
care pharmaceutical, surgical and optical products has made
strides towards becoming an IT-savvy company by deploying
business specific solutions to drive growth
Case Study
An
infosec prescription
Max Healthcare attempts to raise the bar for its service levels
and information security practices. By Malabika Sarkar
Cut
to fit
To control its sprawling network infrastructure, the Raymond
team had to choose and select a security solution that best
suited its requirements.
By Priyanka Akhouri
Licensed
to protect
Zensar Technologies must protect its critical data as if its
life depends on it. It's up to Vishwas Pitre, the company's
head of infrastructure to pull off the act. By Aditya Kelekar
(Q&A)
Making
the Most Of Digital IP
Arpinder Singh, Executive Director, KPMG India talks about
effective monetization of digital IP and the urgency for fixing
the leaks in the revenue streams in the fast emerging digital
content space.
Creating
Security Culture is a Must for BFSI
Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director, Symantec India in an interview
with Priyanka Akhouri talks about the security issues faced
by the BFSI sector.
(Problem Solved)
Overcoming
IT Infrastructural Challenge
Hiranandani Group of Companies, one of the largest developers
in the real estate and construction space in the country,
required consistency in their operating environment and trouble-free
functioning of various business divisions
Speech
recognition to help Yes Bank curb identity theft
Yes Bank is currently deploying a speech recognition system
known as Voice Biometric Solution in its contact centre. Ravishankar,
EVP & Country Head, Direct Banking and Cash Management
at YES Bank discusses the business challenges and the rationale
behind the implementation
News Brief
OSPAI
launched
Outsourcing companies like call centers, tele-banking service
providers and other IT-enabled service firms, which use telecom
infrastructure as their business model, have formed an association
to promote the industry
Infinite
Computer to deploy best-of-breed ERP at Arvind Mills
Textile major Arvind has signed on Infinite Computer Solutions
for implementing a best-of-breed ERP project and providing
maintenance and support services for five years after the
ERP goes live
Intel's
made in India product
The Intel India team has designed Intel's first 6-core x86
microprocessor, the Intel Xeon 7400 series processor (formerly
codenamed Dunnington), from Bangalore
IT
security spending on the rise, says Gartner
A recent Gartner survey of IT security professionals in India,
China and Australia has revealed that organizations in the
Asia Pacific region spend a larger proportion of their IT
budget on security than their North American and European
counterparts and most expect their IT security budgets to
remain the same or increase marginally in 2008
Business
users fuel SaaS growth in Asia Pacific
Business users in Asian enterprises have emerged as key influencers
in SaaS purchase decisions, according to the latest research
by Springboard Research, an IT Market Research industry
IBM's
new products for interoperability issues
IBM has announced new software that use IBM's Jazz collaborative
technology to help geographically distributed software delivery
teams work together in an open, real-time and transparent
manner to more effectively deliver and source software solutions
Indian
IT Market to reach US $110 billion in 2012, says Gartner
IT end user spending in India is expected to grow at a compound
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.8 percent from 2007 through
2012 to generate US $110 billion in 2012, according to a recent
study by Gartner. In 2008, IT end user spending is on pace
to reach US $64.7 billion, a 17.2 percent increase from 2007
NASSCOM
supports UK Government's new work permits policy
NASSCOM, has expressed its support to the new UK point based
system (PBS), which, going forward, will govern intra-company
transfers and work permits. NASSCOM also advised its member
companies to register for the new PBS system introduced by
the UK Government, on priority
C-DAC
launches BOSS Linux version 3.0
The Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) has
launched its Bharat Operating Systems Solutions (BOSS) Linux
software version 3.0 developed by the National Resource Center
for Free/Open Source Software (NRCFOSS)
Technology
Senate
The sixth iteration of Technology Senate was held at the Dhow
Palace hotel in Dubai. India's IT leaders gathered here to
spruce up on the latest in IT, network and exchange information
on how to best go about leveraging IT
Cloud
Computing and SaaS
These related concepts have a lot of buzz around them. Of
the two, SaaS seems more likely to hit the big time in India
Cover Story
SaaS
Territory
The SaaS model is gaining currency with enterprises, slowly
but surely. By Aditya Kelekar
Technology Feature
Virtualization:
Next drive for CIOs
Virtualization technology is fast moving into the datacentre
and beyond. While the concept has been around for some time,
only now is everything coming together for CIOs to realize
the true benefits of virtual Infrastructure.
(Q&A)
The
skinny on virtualization
Isn't virtualization something of a contradiction? It's supposed
to simplify your IT infrastructure by reducing the number
of hardware pieces to manage, but itself adds a layer of complexity
to infrastructure management.
Red
signal to speeding mobile payment gateways
It's like one of those stories where the referee who was supposed
to flag off the players was caught napping even as the more
aggressive of the competitors got off the start line
Android:
Google's next race
It's finally out. Like a Web page on a bad-connectivity day
that seems to be taking an eternity to refresh, the company
that's so far seen to be lording over the Internet took ages
to release an SDK (software development kit) update to Android,
the mobile operating system it announced last November
Manufacturing
Excellence
An industry-specific look at business challenges and IT response.
By N Geetha
Head to Head
Philips
Electronics India Ltd.
Philips India, a lighting, consumer lifestyle and healthcare
major, has been a pioneer in the area of technology adoption
as far as its internal IT needs are concerned, with a view
to leveraging IT for maximum impact. Philips' CEO, Murali
Sivaraman and its CIO, Sanjeev Kumar believe in creating a
robust technology platform within the company which acts as
a business enabler and catalyst, ensuring the highest possible
productivity.
Downtime
Arvind Tawde, Senior VP and Chief Information Officer, Mahindra
& Mahindra Ltd.
WiMAX's
eXtreme adventure
Mobile WiMAX operators must tackle spectrum concerns and technology
turbulence if they are to thrive. By Aditya Kelekar
Testing
times
Carriers may be looking at Fixed WiMAX rollouts to test their
preparedness for nationwide rollouts, but for some users it
has tested their patience. By Aditya Kelekar
Case Study
Footsteps
of giants
This kids' apparel-maker was in expansion mode, when it realized
that its current IT systems would not be able to support its
ambitious plans. What followed was a complete overhaul and
an implementation of new ERP systems with able assistance
from Tectura India. Nandini Chhatre reports
(Problem Solved)
Anxious
about security
It's difficult to ignore Glenmark Pharmaceuticals when one
talks about the Indian pharmaceutical industry and its growth.
Up
with Surveillance
Paul Martin, Senior Director, Worldwide Channel Marketing,
Enterprise, Western Digital (WD) elucidates on how and why
WD has decided to target the Surveillance and AV segment in
India.
(Q&A)
The
steady road to DLP
Andy Norton is the Director of Product Management and Product
Marketing, Asia Pacific, IronPort Systems believes that DLP
is a component of Indian CIOs' defense-in-depth architecture.
He elaborates on ways to leverage on the strengths of this
concept.
Focus
on: Pharma
An Industry-specific look at business challenges and IT response
By N Geetha
Idea Exchange
Channelizing
thoughts
Canon India, established in 1997, started off as a company
focusing on the copier business, with only the corporate segment
as its customers, and adopted the culture of B2B direct selling.
It has its presence in 10 product categories, seven customer
segments and nine channels of distribution reaching to over
300 cities in India. Alok Bharadwaj, Senior Vice-president,
Canon India shares his values and vision with Prashant L Rao,
Editor, Express Computer and the Express group's editorial
team
Head to Head
ABB
India
ABB India, a leading power and automation technologies company,
has charted a clear IT strategy and is making every possible
effort to use technology to the fullest extent to achieve
its goals. ABB's managing director Biplab Majumder and its
CIO Vivek Deshpande intend to employ the right technology
for best business results across the company's manufacturing
units including those of power products, power systems, automation
products, process automation and robotics.
Downtime
Sunil Mehta, Senior Vice President & Area Systems Director
- Central Asia, JWT
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