CRN December 15, 2011

nd e a at re er m us alo b Co it ng cem vis , Ba De t PC s Hi - 21 th

innovation for nearly 20 Years

18

At the forefront of Trust Boston have been providing high performance, mission critical server and storage solutions to a diverse client base since 1992, helping customers solve their toughest business challenges.

Innovation Boston design and create innovative solutions that matter to our customers, and our company, delivered with speed and efficiency.

Accuracy Our in-house technical expertise, advanced industry knowledge and technology partnerships enable us to create leading solutions, helping clients in a range of markets all over the world.

Customer Service We are dedicated to the satisfaction and success of every customer, providing them with fast and simple access to industry leading engineering, worldwide on-site warranty and carbon offsetting options.

Guarantee Whether you are looking for high availability storage platforms, super hybrid blade servers or fully bespoke solutions tailored to meet your exact requirements, Boston guarantee the right solution for you.

“

At Boston, we are dedicated to partner success, providing our clients with ďŹ rst to market technology and award-winning, bespoke solutions together with unrivalled expertise that you can trust.

Now entering our 20th year, we are excited about the revolutionary technology that will be at our disposal in the year 2012 and beyond, enabling us to continue helping our customers with success.

Manoj Nayee, Managing Director

CLOUD services

www.bostonindia.in Follow us on

: bostonindia

POWERED BY

December 15, 2011 l Volume 5 Issue 16

Cover Story Key developments in 2011 that will impact IT channels in 2012

28 NEWS Analyses

Channel Chief

NetApp plans aggressive mid-market push

8

Acer targets `625 cr from education 8 RIM’s channel moves

10

Epson eyes 25 percent growth

10

Avaya promises stronger partner focus

12

Cyberoam bets big for Netgenie

12

Jonathan Huberman President, Iomega, speaks about his company’s entry into video surveillance solutions in partnership with MindTree and Tulip Telecom

18 Market Focus 11 trends in the motherboard market The motherboard market in India seems to be growing thanks largely to the system builder segment that just refuses to go away

24 Special Focus

READ More Editorial 14 Opinion

16

Feedback

16

Channel Buzz

43-44

New Products

45

Shadow Ram

50

Get Personal

50

6

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Opportunities in mobile printing solutions Mobile printers and scanners are finding acceptance in the enterprise and SMB segments, but high pricing is a deterrent in the retail market

38 Role Model In search of excellence Path Infotech’s founding directors share their eventful and successful journey so far, and list out their future plans

39

starting line MUST

NetApp plans aggressive mid-market push

Acer targets `625 cr from education

n AMIT SINGH

Read

Acer India expects to earn revenue of `625 crore from the education space in FY2011-12.

Said S Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, “Despite the uncertainty in the market, education is one segment which remains unaffected. The segment has helped us grow manifold because we are one of the steady suppliers of PCs to all the top states such as Gujarat, Assam, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Goa.” Acer’s ambitious plans would be catapulted by the many projects that the company is currently working on. Some of Acer’s recent deals, which are either on the verge of completion or under execution, include the one for Gujarat Informatics to which it will supply desktops for the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan project to computerize 15,000 schools.

Acer will also supply around 2 lakh notebooks (out of the total of 912,000 notebooks) for the tender bid called for by the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu.

S Rajendran Another project for the Assam government will include the supply of 10,000 notebooks for free distribution to meritorious school students.

Added Rajendran, “We have also won a Maharashtra state ICT project to supply 10,000 desktops. Further, we have contracts with Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan.”

“In the private sector, we are closely working with education services providers to offer smart classroom solutions with our entire bouquet of products including PCs, projectors, display and tablets,” added Rajendran.

Acer has beefed up its post-sales support to include a multilingual toll-free support. “We have added two regional languages—Gujarati and Tamil and plan to add more languages for students to get local support,” Rajendran stated.

He said that in the top 15 cities Acer has scaled up its warranty support to 24x7 which is not a norm in the IT industry. n

— Abhijeet Mukherjee

8

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

N

etApp has increased its focus on mid-market businesses in India and has plans to increase its revenue from this segment from the current 21 percent of its turnover to 30 percent in 2012.

The company has also strengthened its entry-level FAS2000 series low-priced storage product and solutions portfolio for midsize businesses.

Through this, NetApp aims to add about 250 mid-market customers in the next 12 months.

The company estimates the total storage market in India at $600 million, and held 13 percent market share in the first half of 2011.

“Looking at the 23 percent of the IT budget of midsize businesses going into storage, they are a huge opportunity for us. However, these businesses are facing unique challenges as a result of increasing business demands and the need to do more with less resources. They demand affordable yet enterprise-class IT solutions that also have the ability to scale rapidly,” said Surajit Sen, Director, Channel, Marketing & Alliances, NetApp India.

With solutions that are priced and packaged to address this growing market, NetApp aims to increase its mid-sized customer base from the present 600 to 850 in the next 12 months. “We are exploring opportunities in verticals such as manufacturing, media and healthcare,” opined Sen. The company intends to expand its channel base in tier-1 and tier-2 cities, and is implementing its 3-pronged channel strategy—Protect, Acquire and Grow. Explained Sen, “Under the Protect strategy, we enable increased revenue of partners by not appointing too many partners in a particular space. Under the Acquire strategy we look for

“We are enabling our partners to offer, at their discretion, special prices to customers for entry-level products without approval from the company” Surajit Sen

Director, Channel, Marketing & Alliances, NetApp India

skilled partners capable of adding value to the offerings. Under the Grow strategy we enhance the skills of partners and enable them with demo equipment and programs such as Get Successful, Partner Academy and NetAppU.” NetApp has also launched an online partner briefing center.

“The center will offer a range of training programs to partners and a platform to chat with NetApp experts anytime. Messaging, blogs, social media, newsletters, etc. are always part of our channel communication strategy,” Sen said. “In addition, we are enabling our channel partners to offer, at their own discretion, special prices to customers for entrylevel products without requiring approval from the company.”

He disclosed that “we are looking for value-added resellers and systems integrators in cities such as Chandigarh, Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Nagpur, Kochi, Vizag and Coimbatore, as well as in neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and Bhutan.”

The company has repositioned the FAS2040 for entry-level storage at under `450,000, and has launched the FAS2240 (scalable to 432 TB) at `950,000. The FAS2000 series runs the latest version of the Data ONTAP operating system. n

starting line MUST

Read

Epson eyes 25 percent growth Epson is targeting a topline of `620 crore in 2012 for a growth of 25 percent.

Said Samba Moorthy, Senior GM, Sales & Marketing, Epson India, “Our strategy focuses on three verticals—education, health care and government. We are aligning our products and channels to seize opportunities in these sectors.

This is to ensure we hit our topline target of `1,000 crore by 2015.”

To achieve this goal Epson is beefing up its partner ecosystem. “We are aligning our 230 Epson Accredited Partners and 6,500 resellers to go after opportunities in these sectors. In 2011 we increased the number of solution partners from 1,000 to 2,000 and our reach from 100 to 150 cities,” added Moorthy.

Products launched during FY2010-11 contributed substantially to its topline. Epson’s Ink Tank technology did overwhelmingly well in the company’s L and K series of inkjet printers. “The Samba Moorthy new print technology is a success because it provides prints at very reasonable rates—a monochrome print at 10 paise and color print at 20 paise,” Moorthy said.

Epson recently launched its LED laser printers which provide higher resolution printouts at higher speeds as compared to the normal laser printers. To its scanners portfolio the company added four more SKUs, increasing the number of products to 10.

Another category Epson focused on in 2011 was projectors. “From 17 SKUs in 2010 we now have 41 SKUs out of which 35 are targeted at the enterprise segment while the rest are for the home segment,” Moorthy explained.

Going forward, Epson plans to launch some more products, one of them being its Moverio BT-100, a 3D display goggle that plays 2D/3D content from the Internet or a wireless external storage device. For the home segment it will launch a range of products that include 3D HD and HD-ready projectors. n

— Abhijeet Mukherjee

10

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

RIM’s channel moves n RAMDAS S

T

he Indian arm of Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of smartphone platform BlackBerry, is betting on Indian enterprise VARs and has roped in close to 40 tier-2 partners to seize the opportunities in the enterprise market in the country.

IDC puts BlackBerry’s market share at 15 percent in 2011.

RIM estimates a million-plus enterprise users, and that it has the lion’s share among India’s C-level executives.

Said Sunil Lalvani, Director, Enterprise Sales, RIM India, “Though it’s difficult to estimate our precise market share among actual enterprise users, we believe we have a prominent chunk.

More importantly, we have been working with Indian enterprises for well over five years on projects in enterprise mobility.”

Till 2008 RIM depended on telco service providers to reach customers. “We first tapped Indian IT and electronic retail channels by appointing Redington. In June this year we appointed Ingram Micro to reach Indian enterprise IT VARs,” Lalvani added.

The RIM IT channel consists of national SIs such as HCL Comnet and Wipro at tier-1, and around 40 partners like the Bengaluru-based Valuepoint Systems and Delhi-based Team Computers at tier-2.

“For us the tier-2 enterprise channels are expected to influence business over the next 12 months. Enterprise mobility is a CIO issue, and IT departments are looking at phones beyond voice, email and short messaging,” said Lalvani.

While competition from Android, Apple and Microsoft is stiff, Lalvani feels that its large installed base, first-mover advantage in enterprise channels, and host of enterprise-class applications that are BlackBerry-

“Enterprise mobility is a CIO issue, and IT departments are looking at phones beyond voice, email and short messaging” Sunil Lalvani

Director Enterprise Sales, RIM, India

ready would help RIM. “We have a 20,000-developer community in the country who are well aware of the BlackBerry platform. We are presently handholding enterprise VARs and training them to build solutions using the vast developer base available to them.”

RIM positions two platforms for partners to build solutions— the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) and BlackBerry Mobile Voice Systems (BMS). BlackBerry smartphones can be integrated into an organization’s email system through BES. Versions of BES are available for Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino and Novell GroupWise, as well as for a connector that allows users to connect to Google Apps. BMS is positioned for building unified messaging solutions.

Apart from these core products, RIM will be making available a wide range of industryspecific solutions for health care, education, government, field services, supply chains and public utilities. Stated Lalvani, “We have ready-to-ship and easy-toconfigure solutions in alliance with IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Cisco, and we’ll be launching some along with Avaya soon.”

Meanwhile, the company has recently appointed Sunil Dutt, former head of HP India’s Personal Systems Group, as the MD for its India operations. n

starting line Avaya promises stronger partner focus n SONAL DESAI

A

vaya is eying more than $2 billion worth of opportunities from the contact center, unified communications (including video) and data center (products) markets in India. “We are looking at an estimated $143 million contact center market, $373 million unified communications (UC) and video market, $848 million data products market and about $1 billion from services,” said Sudhir Nayar, Channel Head, Avaya India.

The company will focus on the BFSI, ITeS, enterprise and government verticals. Under the enterprise vertical, the focus would be on manufacturing, hospitality and the private sector.

“We have put in place a business development team for each vertical.

The BDMs would match our focus with customers, analyze trends and develop joint GTMs with partners.

We have changed the lead-generation

“We have put in place a business development team for each vertical. The BDMs would develop joint GTMs with partners” Sudhir Nayar Channel Head Avaya India

program from a common one to a BDM-enabled one,” said Nayar. “We have also set up COEs at several of our partners such as CS Infocomm, Immunity Networks & Technologies, and Datacom Products in Mumbai; IntecInfonet and Telecraft E Solutions in Delhi; Zener Systems in Bengaluru; and KSBL Information Technologies in Sri Lanka. The COEs will showcase all Avaya UC solutions for SMBs.” Avaya is also banking big on its

services. “We have two services— system support and professional services. From a tier-2 partner perspective, we want them to come up with a USP around our services and GTM. There are also solutions for SPs and managed service opportunities for SIs,” Nayar informed.

The company, which was so far focused on the Platinum Partners of its Avaya Connect Partner Club Partner Program, will involve a large number of its Gold and Silver partners moving ahead. “51 percent of our business comes from new partners,” Nayar said. “Although we have 150 partners in these three tiers, we are focused on 45 partners from India and Saarc to begin with.”

As part of the involvement, the company has earmarked a significant investment for partner training; pre-sales, sales and postsales certification; setting up COE at partner sites; and events and new product launches. n

Cyberoam bets big for Netgenie n amit singh

C

yberoam is formulating a marketing strategy to reach its target of selling 15,000 Netgenie products by March 2012. It has earmarked `50 lakh as the marketing budget; 60-70 percent of this is for Mumbai.

The company launched Netgenie—its brand of security appliances for the home and SOHO segments—in September 2011.

Said Bishwajit Sutradhar, National Sales Manager, Netgenie, “We are ready to storm the market. The aim is to sensationalize Netgenie.”

Over the last two months Cyberoam has signed up Supertron as its national distributor, 12 regional value-added distributors (VADs) and around 800 resellers.

“In the initial phase we are tapping 22 cities,” Sutradhar said.

“We have already activated eight VADs and 488 resellers in Lucknow,

12

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

“We running 6-7 demos per city every week, of which 4-5 are translating into closures. This is benefiting our partners” Bishwajit Sutradhar National Sales Manager Netgenie

Jaipur, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Kolkata, Ranchi, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. We have identified clusters of residential and commercial complexes, and set up demo centers.”

Cyberoam is working with VADs to develop the market and create customer awareness. “We are working with partners who are strong in networking and software. We don’t want box-pushers—we want people

who know how to create a sale and add value,” explained Sutradhar.

Cyberoam is running partner-led demos for Netgenie across six cities.

Sutradhar said that the partners are conducting 6-7 POCs per city every week, of which 4-5 are translating into closures.

The vendor will now focus on resellers. “We will teach resellers how to configure Netgenie in 10 minutes, for 10 users,” Sutradhar informed.

“The trainings will include creating Wi-Fi and setting security policies within those 10 minutes.”

Netgenie is a UTM device specially created for home and SOHO users; it comes with a 3G-ready wireless router. The 10-user SOHO version is priced at an MRP of `10,999; it comes with a 1-year warranty and 3-year subscription for an antivirus, intrusion prevention system and firewall.

The home UTM device is priced at an MRP of `7,999. n

edit opinion Volume 5, Issue 16

Past to future dhaval valia

T

o plan the future one needs to look into the past. That’s what we have done in the current edition where we present some of the biggest happenings of 2011 which will have the most bearing on how the IT industry and channel shape up going ahead.

Everyone would agree that HP PSG has made some strategic mistakes over the past couple of years. As a result, the market and the IT channel have punished it. From a dominant leadership in the PC market a few years back, the company is now trying hard to maintain its second position.

On the other hand Dell, which has had a dream run in the IT channels, is faced with the challenge of sustaining its leadership. The pressure of staying No 1 is forcing it to commit some of the same mistakes its competitors did—mistakes which led to Dell’s rise. Dell also faces competition from Sony in the consumer notebook market where the Japanese vendor has come up with a scintillating performance. Sony’s success validates that the right marketing together with fair and transparent trade policies can work wonders for a brand.

The hard disk drive shortage continues to haunt the industry and will continue to do well into the middle of next year. Three months into the Thailand floods and there is still uncertainty about when the supplies will normalize. The HDD being an essential unit in almost every computer, the shortage could throw the entire industry out of gear.

Tablets are the fastest-growing product in the history of IT. After just two years tablets have clocked sales of 60 million units in 2011 and are projected to grow to 250 million by 2015. With faster processors, a larger number of apps and ever-improving features, tablets will have a significant impact on the fortunes of the PC. The biggest beneficiary of the tablet revolution has been Nvidia, which, with its Tegra processors, has become the preferred choice for almost all brands selling Android phones and tablets. Intel hasn’t been able to make much impact in this market despite being the first to conceptualize the MID and netbook form-factors three years back.

Cloud computing and virtualization will continue to be key themes going forward. However, for cloud computing to gain mass adoption, it is imperative for all cloud companies to create the right delivery and assurance SLAs. So, as we move into 2012, let’s review the past in order to plan for the future.

Here’s wishing all CRN readers a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 14

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Managing Director

Printer & Publisher

Director Associate Publisher & Executive Editor

Group Commercial Director

Contributing Editor

Assistant Editor

Principal Correspondent

Senior Correspondent

: : : : : : : : :

Sanjeev Khaira Sajid Yusuf Desai Kailash Shirodkar Dhaval Valia Salil Warior Ramdas S Sonal Desai Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) Amit Singh (Delhi)

Design Art Director Senior Visualiser Senior Designer Designer

: Deepjyoti Bhowmik

: Yogesh Naik

: Shailesh Vaidya

: Jinal Cheda

Marketing

Advertising Co-ordinator : Jagruti Kudalkar

online

Manager—Product Dev. & Mktg. : Viraj Mehta

Deputy Manager—Online : Nilesh Mungekar

Web Designer : Nitin Lahare

Operations

Head—Finance : Yogesh Mudras Director—Operations & Administration : Satyendra Mehra

Sales

bangalore

Manager—Sales : Satish Kutty satish.krishnankutty@ubm.com

(M) +91 98452 07810

Delhi

Manager—Sales : Sanjay Khandelwal sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com

(M) +91 98117 64515

production

Deputy Manager : Prakash (Sanjay) Adsul

Logistics

Assistant Manager : Bajrang Shinde

Subscriptions & Database

Manager : Manoj Ambardekar manoj.ambardekar@ubm.com

Senior Executive : Deepanjali Chaurasia deepa.chaurasia@ubm.com

Head Office UBM India Pvt Ltd, 1st floor, 119, Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India Tel: 022 6769 2400; Fax: 022 6769 2426 Printed and Published by Sajid Yusuf Desai on behalf of UBM India Pvt Ltd, 6th floor, 615-617 Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India.

Executive Editor: Dhaval Valia Printed at Indigo Press (India) Pvt Ltd, Plot No 1c/716, Off Dadaji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027

Associate Office - Pune Jagdish Khaladkar, Sahayog Apartment 508 Narayan Peth, Patrya Maruti Chowk, Pune 411 030 Tel: 91 (020) 2445 1574 (M) 98230 38315 email: jagdishk@vsnl.com

USA Huson International Media (West) Tiffany DeBie Tiffany.debie@husonmedia.com Tel +1 408 879 6666 Fax +1 408 879 6669 Huson International Media (East) Dan Manioci dan.manioci@husonmedia.com Tel +1 212 268 3344 Fax +1 212 268 3355

Japan Pacific Business (PBI) Shigenori Nagatomo nagatomo-pbi@gol.com Tel: +81 3366 16138 Fax: +81 3366 16139

South Korea Young Media Young Baek ymedia@chol.com Tel: +82 2227 34819 Fax: +82 2227 34866

EMEA Huson International Media Gerry Rhoades Brown, gerry. rhoadesbrown@husonmedia. com Tel: +44 19325 64999 Fax: + 44 19325 64998

Important Every effort has been taken to avoid errors or omissions in this magazine. In spite of this, errors may creep in.

Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice immediately. It is notified that neither the publisher, the editor or the seller will be responsible in respect of anything and the consequence of anything done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance upon the content herein.

This disclaimer applies to all, whether subscriber to the magazine or not.

For binding mistakes, misprints, missing pages, etc, the publisher’s liability is limited to replacement within one month of purchase. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher.

All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only.

While care is taken prior to acceptance of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents. UBM India Pvt Ltd. cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations or individuals advertising in its newspapers or publications. We therefore recommend that readers make necessary inquiries before sending any monies or entering into any agreements with advertisers or otherwise acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.

SURROUND YOURSELF WITH SOUND. NOT WIRES.

Premium 2.1 Wireless Speaker System with Surround Sound • Works with all compatible stereo Bluetooth devices • Fast and easy Bluetooth connection with the included BT-D1 USB Transmitter • Featuring an innovative Swivel-Speaker-Array design, effortlessly switch from

stereo to surround mode by rotating the top portion of each satellite speaker.

• Enjoy realistic surround sound for your favorite 5.1-encoded movies, games or music when you plug the speakers via a USB connection

ble!

a vail A o s

Al

Wireless One-piece Speakers

Creative D80

Creative D100

Creative D200

ZiiSound D5

AMAZINGLY AFFORDABLE — 4 AA batteries

ULTRA PORTABLE — Value Performance Speaker

BEST-IN-CLASS AUDIO — World-Class Speaker

FLAGSHIP ONE-PIECE — Premium Wireless Audio

Multimedia Speakers

SBS A40

SBS A60

Inspire T3130

Inspire T6160

USB Powered Speakers

2.0 Speaker System

2.1 Speaker System

5.1 Speaker System

edit opinion The plight of partner portals Robert Faletra

I

s there a partner portal out there that the channel actually uses to the degree the manufacturers who produced it would like? If there is, I have not seen or heard about it yet.

We are well past a decade of investment in partner portals, and the only thing we have to show for it is a never ending expansion of information that is hard to find, largely useless and, were it not for deal registration on the sites, would be hardly ever visited.

Deal registration, which may have been originally launched with good intentions, has become nothing more than a forecasting tool for vendors.

I am not arguing that partner portals are useless; I am arguing they are mostly useless.

One big problem with portals moving forward is we are moving down a path where increasingly information finds us rather than us it.

The ideal portal should be constructed by the user and return useful information, not clutter. There certainly are some interesting developments happening on the Web that are enabling us to have what we need delivered to us.

I am not referring to social media and other such sites that say things like “We are the Facebook of the channel,” or “We use the power of social media to aggregate information on the portal.” I am referring to offerings like Flipboard and Zyte that are largely being written in the publishing world and build customized offerings based on what an information gatherer wants to see.

Portals could become more relevant to the partners if they are intended to support if they were reconstructed from the ground up with the user in mind. They should only provide what the partner needs, not what the manufacturer believes they want or has a desire to put in front of them.

They also should be built with mobility in mind and optimized for devices other than PCs, such as tablets and smartphones.

In the end, hi-tech suppliers will continue to build out partner portals and cram more information into them every year because that is what they do.

Partners, on the other hand, will continue to access the portals in very narrow ways only because they are forced to.

And they will do so as infrequently as possible because that is what they do.

I, however, will continue to have discussions with suppliers who ask, “How do I get more traffic on my partner portal?” Who said the partner portal is dead? n Email Robert Faletra at robert.faletra@ec.ubm.com 16

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

HDD shortage I wish to bring to your notice, that there are a number of refurbished drives entering the market, following the hard drive shortage. With Digilite announcing IDE ports on their motherboards, it will only encourage more refurbishers to ship older drives into the Indian market.

The HDD shortage is real, but price hikes which are almost 200 percent are unreal. This is a result of distributors and manufacturers forming a cartel.

It is the assemblers and end-users who are suffering. I would urge CRN to highlight the same.

Kuppuswamy Mahalingam KM Traders, Madurai

Is IT channel ready for social media?

‘Social media for Business’ in the previous edition is a good starting point for companies to start leveraging social media.

However from a marketing manager’s perspective he needs to think about the long-term benefits of social media, instead of just being present on Facebook and LinkedIn. My opinion is that while framing a social media strategy, managers should also look at social media monitoring and analyses.

There are several tools available online that can help analyze the traffic, comments and activity patterns on Twitter, feeds, blogs, etc, saving considerable time of the marketing managers.

Charudatta Thute Pune

The cover story titled, Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in

Advertiser Index Company name

Page No Web site

Smartlink 1 www.digilite.co.in Smartlink 2 www.digilite.co.in IBM 4 www.ibm.com Boston 5 www.bostonindia.in Compuage 7 www.compuageindia.com Rashi 9 www.rptechindia.com Schneider 11 www.schneider-electric.com Schneider 13 www.schneider-electric.com Compuage 15 www.in.creative.com Tyco 17 www.tycoelectronics.com Brother 19 www.brother.in HID 21 www.hidcorp.com Acer 23 www.acer.co.in NEC 25 www.necindia.in Seagate 27 www.seagate.com Kaseya 28&29 Supertron 33 www.supertronindia.com Kingston 35 www.kingston.com/india Netgear 46 www.netgear.com Asus 47 www.asus.in MegaNet 48 www.meganet1.com Symantec 48 anupam@fortune-it.com Microworld (escan) 49 www.escanav.com Biz 50 www.indiaantivirus.com Kaspersky 51 www.sakri.in Iomega 52 www.iomega.com

Sales Contact

helpdesk@digilite.co.in helpdesk@digilite.co.in ibm.com/facts/in/platforms sales@bostonindia.in odyssey@compuageindia.com response@rptechindia.com in-care@schneider-electric.com in-care@schneider-electric.com in.netconnect@tycoelectronics.com info@brother.in hidindia@hidcorp.com ailenquiries@acer.co.in enquiries@necindia.in

suptendu@supertronindia.com sales.india@netgear.com reachus@asus.com sales@meganet1.com marketing@escanav.com sales@indiaantivirus.com sales@sakri.in. indiasales@iomega.com

channel chief “We are betting big on video surveillance” Jonathan Huberman, President, Iomega, was recently in India to launch the company’s entry into video surveillance solutions in partnership with MindTree and Tulip Telecom. He took some time off to speak to Dhaval Valia What’s the significance of Iomega’s foray into security surveillance?

Video surveillance has evolved from being just a security tool to becoming a tool for checking on things like quality of service, pilferage, MIS and customer response. According to a Frost & Sullivan report for 2011, the video surveillance equipment market in India is valued at `1,800 crore and is growing at a CAGR of 25-30 percent.

The IP-based surveillance market in India is currently valued at about $50 million-60 million, and is expected to grow at 45 percent YoY for the next 4-5 years. I believe that this solution will be adopted by a large number of SMBs in professional services, retail and manufacturing, as well as by the branch offices of distributed companies. The demand from households is also increasing, not only for peripheral but also for internal surveillance. We see demand from multiple segments across metros and tier-1 cities.

In a typical surveillance solution, storage forms 40 percent of the cost of the solution. For instance, a typical low-end camera requires 300 GB of storage on a monthly basis; when you add other features—including video management software—its share goes up to 50 percent.

Hence, for a typical $60 million IP surveillance market, the storage opportunity is as much as $30 million.

Could you tell us about the nature of your partnership with MindTree?

While in the US and Europe we have partnered with leading global video management system (VMS) players to cater to the IP surveillance market, in India and other similar emerging markets we were keen on finding a more affordable solution because SMBs in India are more cost conscious.

That’s why we decided to work with MindTree to develop a VMS solution that would be affordable and easy to set up and use, and come with all the key features that an SMB would require.

“In a typical surveillance solution, storage forms 40 percent of the cost of the solution.

For instance, a low-end camera requires 300 GB of storage on a monthly basis” 18

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Our R&D team at our Bengaluru Center of Excellence worked closely with MindTree to develop a solution in keeping with the needs of Indian SMBs.

What’s the USP of the IomegaMindTree solution?

The MindTree SecureMind Surveillance Manager VMS application is feature-rich, ONVIFready, easy-to-install and robust, and works seamlessly with our StorCenter range. A StorCenter plus SecureMind combination supports up to 48 cameras and up to 36 TB of storage capacity per device. The solution supports hundreds of different camera manufacturers.

The VMS supports live video from anywhere using a Web browser. It’s primarily a surveillance-in-a-box solution that removes the need for any high-end server, storage and software infrastructure.

For a 4-IPcam set up, the entire solution, including good brand cameras, could cost less than `30,000.

What role will Tulip play in this alliance, and what will be the role of the existing distributors, Neoteric and Redington?

Tulip has a strong network integration and corporate data connectivity presence which allows Iomega to deliver faster and better video surveillance solutions to end-users in the SMB and distributed enterprise space.

The company also has a strong channel which can be leveraged to sell other products and services. Tulip will build special packages based on customer needs to provide optimum bandwidth depending on the number of sites and cameras. What’s more, Tulip has one of the largest data centers in the country, and by using this we plan to launch Surveillance as a Service.

Redington and Neoteric will also be selling this product through Iomega IOClub partners across India, and will leverage Tulip’s strength of integration and data connectivity where needed.

Which are the key trends you see in SMB markets in India and other emerging countries?

Though they don’t realize it, most SMBs have always had the need for storage and information consolidation.

They have bills, book-keeping, IT returns and financial data, and it’s mostly kept on their personal PCs without taking a back-up. But once they’re hit by a crash and lose

channel chief their data they are bound to invest in a storage solution.

The other issue SMBs face is the cost of a storage solution. Most SMBs do not have an IT department or an IT person to manage things, and this becomes a big constraint for them to invest in storage solutions. But with the prices of NAS falling to as low as `9,000, and deployment and management becoming simple, we are seeing increased adoption for our NAS solutions in this space.

The other significant development in the SMB segment is that customers are consolidating their storage set up. SMBs with multiple offices and larger IT set ups are experimenting with technologies such as storage virtualization and trying to see if they can extend the life of their existing storage assets.

Could you specify the three key growth priorities for Iomega India?

Surveillance is big. Not just point solutions but also delivering them as a service. You will see us launching new products with rich back-up and replication features because we believe this is going to be one area of investment for SMBs. Also on the agenda is [a plan] to aggressively push the Unstoppable Computing range which comes with fullfledged virtualization capabilities at low cost.

For the home segment we are pushing our Personal

“Iomega has created a large base of 1,000+ partners who are helping us reach over 40 cities across the country. We are poised to double the partner base this year�

Cloud solution as we see huge traction for digital convergence and the need for sharing digital content across smartphones, tablets, TVs and PCs.

Which are the new channel programs and initiatives Iomega has lined up for partners in 2012?

Iomega has been able to create a large base of 1,000+ partners who are helping us reach over 40 cities across the country. We are poised to double the partner base this year.

We recently launched the IOClub Partner Program in India with certain goals in mind—to simplify the way Iomega channel partners work with us, to make the relationship as productive and profitable as possible, and to provide support for Iomega products and solutions.

In addition to the new partner program, we will be investing in new solutions and architectures, strengthening our post-sales support, [increasing] partner education and training, and enhancing partner breadth and spread. n

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

19

channel chief “We will invest millions of dollars in India” Alexander Chachava, President of the Moscow-headquartered Leta Group, the holding company of ESS Distribution, was recently in India to meet customers and partners. He spoke to Dhaval Valia about Eset’s business in the country Where does India fit into Eset’s overall global strategy?

Globally, Eset has emerged as the fastest-growing antivirus (AV) company. Our worldwide revenue stood at $300 million in 2010, up from a turnover of $50 million in 2005. The US, Japan and Russia are our biggest markets, contributing over 60 percent of our total business.

For us India is a strategic market for multiple reasons—it is one of the fastest-growing GDPs with 7-8 percent annual growth, it has a billion-plus population and it has a large SMB ecosystem.

From an end-point security perspective, it is a market that is highly under-penetrated. Globally, the SMB and consumer markets contribute 80 percent to our topline and hence India logically becomes a key growth market for us. That is why we established a subsidiary presence in India in 2007. Since then we have seen more than 100 percent growth.

Looking at this performance and the future potential we have decided to invest heavily in the Indian market over the next five years. While I cannot put an exact number to the investment, I can easily say that our investment in Eset India will be at least in the range of a couple of million, if not more.

On my current visit, along with my India team, I have finalized the expansion plan for India for 2012. This includes increasing the size of the technical pre-sales and support teams in every region, doubling our channel sales team, and opening offices in Delhi, Bengaluru or Hyderabad.

How big is the Indian AV market, and what is the market share you envisage for Eset?

Our estimate for the Indian AV market is around `1,000 crore per year. Of this consumers and SOHOs contribute 25 percent while SMBs, corporates and the government contribute 75 percent.

“In India Eset has an installed base of 25 lakh nodes; this figure includes pirated software. In terms of licensed end-points, our share is in the range of 4-5 percent” 20

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

This market has the potential to grow by at least 30 percent CAGR because the Indian end-point market is highly under-penetrated while awareness about the need for PC security is on the rise.

In India Eset has a large active installed base of close to 25 lakh nodes; this figure includes pirated software. In terms of licensed endpoints, our share is in the range of 4-5 percent. The opportunity, and also the challenge, is to convert the pirated copies to licenses because many of these customers have been using our products for more than 5-6 years. The fact that they are actively using it and updating their Eset antivirus regularly proves that they are satisfied with our products.

Another interesting fact which endorses the quality and technology edge of our products is that our renewal ratio in India and globally is 85 percent—the highest in the AV segment.

I have set the India team the target of achieving 10 percent market share by the end of 2013.

So what are the growth priorities you have set for the India team?

SMBs will continue to be our focus in India. We are seeing more acceptance of the Eset brand in the SMB segment because of our focused approach to this market and because technology-wise we are ahead of our competition.

In the past couple of years we have signed many large deals of 500-1,000 nodes with mid-market organizations such as Southern Power Distribution Company, BITS Pilani, SA Engineering College, Global Academy of Technology, Kal Publications and Century Communications. The future funnel looks good as well.

With customer adoption of Eset increasing, we are also seeing more partners interested in selling our products.

The second priority for us is mobile security. With growing numbers of smartphones and tablets, India is ripe for mobile security products. We already have a product supporting the Windows Mobile, Symbian and Android platforms.

Does this mean you are not interested in the consumer market?

I wouldn’t say we aren’t targeting the consumer market,

channel chief but to put it aptly I would say we are working to create awareness and mindshare in the consumer segment.

The problem with the consumer market in India is that it’s very fragmented and cut-throat. There are more than 20 AV players, with some selling their products at `100.

Eset will never sell products at such prices because we believe we have cutting-edge AV products and we are proud of our R&D. Right now our focus is on educating customers to differentiate between `100 AV and our AV, and demonstrating to them how technologically-superior our product is. For instance, we recently conducted a 6-day road-show in Mumbai where we interacted with more than 10,000 people to educate them on why they should invest in the right AV. We plan to work closely with Nasscom and DSCI, and conduct special programs on cyber security for children, government officers and law enforcement agencies.

We recently tied up with several R&D organizations in India which specialize in IT security, Internet frauds and cyber forensics. We’ll conduct research and studies on existing and potential cyber threats in India.

You are the head of the Leta Group which has, apart from Eset, several ventures in the IT and allied sectors. Are you looking at having a bigger

“The problem with the consumer market in India is that it is very fragmented and cutthroat. There are more than 20 AV players, with some selling their products at `100” presence for the group? Are you eying any acquisitions?

The Leta Group has several other companies for which India can be a strategic market. For instance, we have a company that specializes in providing cyber forensics; we are market leaders in this segment in Russia. Cyber forensics is one area that is going to be big because the nature of cyber threats has become more sophisticated and complex. After the recent cyber threats to Indian online assets, I am sure the Indian government and the defense sector are looking to beef up their cyber security.

Some of the Russian companies specializing in nanotechnology and solar energy are planning to build data centers in India. Moreover, Russian satellite navigation player NIS Glonass is about to start operations in Mumbai. We have collaborations with these companies in Russia, and are therefore discussing with them various areas for collaboration and investment in India. n

Clear Credible Competent Consistent Compassionate Communicative CRN Creative CRN – the 8th C of Channel Marketing www.crn.in 22

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

market focus

11

trends in the motherboard market

The motherboard market in India seems to be growing thanks largely to the system builder segment that just refuses to go away n RAMDAS S

T

he size of the Indian motherboard market is estimated to be around 3.2-3.5 million units based on projections by IDC and Gartner for the whitebox PC market for 2011; the numbers are expected to be more or less the same next year. The total market is estimated around Rs 1,000 crore in 2012.

While the growth rate in the desktop market is not expected to be on par with that of mobile computers, innovations by motherboard makers are the primary reason for the market growing. In this article we present 11 top trends in the motherboard market in the country.

Upcountry driving growth While in class-A cities customers are increasingly preferring laptops over desktops, white-box PCs are still preferred in smaller cities and towns. This has prompted vendors such as Asus, Gigabyte, Mercury and Intel to scout for partners in these areas.

“Over the past year or so we have been focused on identifying partners in smaller towns because we see huge growth from upcountry markets. PC penetration is very low in D and E class towns, and first-time users as well as other consumers are preferring desktops over laptops. There has been growth in some class A cities too, surprisingly,” says Sunil Grewal, Sales Head, Gigabyte India.

Asus leading the market While no statistics are available from any established research house, most vendors agree that Asus has the highest market share—over 30 percent.

Gigabyte is said to be the second-largest vendor in the

“PC penetration is very low in D and E class towns, and first-time users are preferring desktops over laptops. There has also been growth in some class A cities” Sunil Grewal

Sales Head, Gigabyte India

24

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

country, followed by Intel and Mercury. Partners feel that Digilite, which has a strong network of support centers and partners, could spring a surprise in 2012.

Intel motherboards losing charm Once upon a time most system builders used to push Intel motherboards, upselling the genuine Intel advantage. However, partners feel that because Intel does no real promotion for the assembled PC anymore, the demand for genuine Intel PCs and genuine Intel motherboards has fallen.

“Intel’s service and support was lagging in many parts including Kerala; this has helped other brands. In addition, the schemes from Asus, MSI and others are very aggressive, and they have definitely pushed the case for alternate brands,” says Toshy Mathew, CEO, ABC Computers, Kochi.

However, Intel has gained market share in Q4 2011, through aggressive bundling of processors and motherboards, admits competition.

AMD seeing incremental growth Investments made in channels by AMD are certainly producing results. Nevertheless, according to most motherboard makers, things are still heavily skewed in favor of Intel, with the chip major having around 85 percent market share. Some players such as Mercury and Intel (naturally) do not offer AMD options.

“AMD has certainly seen some momentum over the last 12 months, and their strategy of increasing feet on the street has worked. This should transition to better numbers,” comments Vishal Tripathi, Principal Analyst, Gartner India.

G41 being phased out, H61 going mainstream Over the past few quarters, because of the wide range of CPU platforms which are in vogue, there are multiple chipset-based motherboards which are being positioned by both Intel and AMD. G41, the most popular chipset for a long time, is likely to be phased out by most motherboard makers.

“We are expecting G41 to be obsolete soon. The H61 will be the mainstream chipset, while H67 would be the preferred choice on premium boards,” forecasts Sudhir

market focus S, MD of the Chennai-based Inspan Infotech.

Adds Vinay Shetty, Country Head, Component Business, Asus India, “We see traction for Z68 chipsetbased boards, along with the H67 and H61. Popular AMD chipsets for the next few months would be 990FX, 880G, A50 and A55.”

“We are expecting G41 to be obsolete soon. The H61 will be the mainstream chipset, while H67 would be the preferred choice on premium boards”

SATA 6 Gbps stepping in

Sudhir S

Most motherboard vendors are phasing out models with the older SATA 3 Gbits connectors, and replacing them with the new SATA 3.0 standard connectors that support 6 Gbits speed. However, partners are of the opinion that for customers to make the best use of this new standard they would need to start buying the faster and more expensive enterprise SATA or SSD drives which support the 6 Gbits transfer speed.

USB 3.0, DVI & HDMI becoming standard options Says Sunil Kumar, CEO, Lampo Computers, a system builder based in Bengaluru, “We are increasingly seeing models with USB 3.0 ports that offer speeds—at least in theory—in the range of 5 Gbits ( practical speeds are in range of 270 MBps). We expect that somewhere in 2012 motherboards with just USB 3.0 ports will appear. While USB 3.0 standard has been ratified long back, chipsets from AMD and Intel supporting this standard appeared only in 2011,” Another option that is fast becoming a standard is HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) ports that even entry-level AMD platform boards have as a standard. With DVI also becoming a standard, a new market for home theater PCs is evolving.

Gaming, workstation motherboards showing growth The Indian game user market is finally opening up.

Almost all vendors are increasingly seeing the market for gaming PCs becoming a reality; from less than a couple of thousand units a month, the market size is known to have tripled.

“In future we see two or three segments propping up the assembler market. The gaming market is one of these, with thousands of gamers actively waiting for the launch of new motherboards and GPU models. We estimate gamers to account for between five to eight percent of our sales,” says Grewal of Gigabyte.

For the workstation market vendors have introduced dedicated motherboard SKUs, with more PCI/PCIe slots and memory banks. One of the reasons for the better acceptance has been the drop in the prices of professional graphics cards on both the AMD ATI and Nvidia platforms, thus making it affordable for a system builder to build workstations.

New form factor taking center-stage While mini-ITX motherboards have been around for a long time, the new form factor—thin mini-ITX— is expected to be popular in future. Intel has been promoting this new form factor.

A thin mini-ITX board has the same PCB size as a regular mini-ITX board (170x170 mm) but with

26

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

MD, Inspan Infotech

approximately half the height of the standard IO shield.

This enables a low-profile board that is suitable for AIO integration.

Another feature of such motherboards is low-profile SO-DIMMs (seen in notebooks) instead of the standardsized DIMMs. With IDC forecasting that 38 percent of the desktop market could be on AIO models, the thin mini-ITX is the form factor that motherboard makers will position for system builders.

“This is definitely the future. We will soon have a barebone chassis for AIOs available in the market, and system builders should bank on this opportunity,” says Shetty of Asus. Some system builders (such as the Bengaluru-based Connoisseur Electronics) have already launched AIO models, with touch screens, at less than Rs 25,000.

Motherboards going green ‘Green is in’ became a motto for most IT vendors almost half a decade back. However, only recently have motherboard vendors started shipping boards that have real energy management features. “We are increasingly seeing demand for motherboards which are energy-efficient as customers and partners are showing awareness for such products,” says Sushmita Das, Country Manager, Kobian, India.

However, different brands have different approaches for implementing energy efficiency inside a motherboard.

There are competing designs from MSI, Asus and Gigabyte which vary from being purely software (Gigabyte) to purely hardware (MSI) to mixed (Asus) approaches.

Remarks Sudhir Sankar, CEO of the Bengaluru-based IBS Infotech, “While all vendors claim that their design is superior, there is no clarity on whether energy efficiency is a factor which can be controlled on a motherboard since power usage depends on factors such as the hard drives, CPU TDP and peripherals you attach.”

Server platforms increasing For many years, to build a white-box server, the only option was to rely on Intel for motherboards. Now, with Supermicro appointing more distributors, and Asus throwing its hat in the ring with server motherboards, the options for building servers have increased for system builders.

For the past eight months Asus has been successfully selling the Asus KGPE D-16 motherboards that sport up to dual 12 core Opterons. Adds Sandeep Lodha, Director of the Delhi-based Netweb Technologies, “Supermicro definitely has a bigger range of server platforms, and that’s a reason why we are betting on it so heavily.” n

Key developments in 2011 that will impact IT channels in 2012 n crn network

28

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Lack of leadership O

ne of the biggest talking points in the IT industry has to be HP’s flip-flops with its PC business.

The world’s largest PC maker with $40 billion in annual revenue from this business announced that it would sell off the business because it didn’t fit its core competence anymore.

This led to great confusion in global IT markets, and among HP channels and customers.

However, within two months, the decision was overturned by Meg Whitman, CEO, HP who said the PC

Hard times T

wo developments that changed the dynamics of the hard disk drive (HDD) industry and could have a lasting impact on the overall IT market were the consolidation in the industry and the floods in Thailand.

In March 2011 Western Digital announced its decision to acquire Hitachi’s HDD manufacturing unit for $4.3 billion, and Seagate signed an agreement to acquire Samsung’s HDD business for $1.38 billion. This consoli-

HP’s flip flop on PC business has raised serious questions about the leadership and strategy of the world’s largest IT company business was integral to the company’s future growth strategies.

This bizarre episode raised serious questions about the leadership and strategy of the world’s largest IT company with an aggregate turnover of $126 billion.

Along the way the company also announced an end to its Palm business—which it acquired with great fanfare toward the end of 2010. This raised another question— whether HP has any roadmap, clear or otherwise, for its client device business.

In India, these flip-flops further compounded PSG’s problems because they happened around the time when HP PSG had a leadership change with Rajiv Srivastava taking over—and reversing many of the decisions made by his predecessor Sunil Dutt.

To nobody’s surprise then, HP PSG in India has witnessed a downward spiral in fortunes. Next year we will know whether the new leadership will clear the fog—or whether the company will continue to lose market share. n

The HDD shortage is expected to continue well into the middle of 2012.

As a result, not just PCs but servers and storage business will be impacted dated the HDD market from four players to two major players. The effect of this, analysts believe, would be the customers’ inability to obtain HDDs at competitive prices. The mergers could also reduce the HDD-makers’ incentive to innovate.

Then in October, floods in Thailand (which is the global hub for HDD manufacturing) led to acute shortages. Global prices shot up from $42 for a 500 GB drive to $60. In India, on the back of black marketeering, the price increase has been more than 2.5 times from `1,900 (street price) to `4,800.

According to analysts, the HDD shortage is expected to continue well into the middle of 2012. As a result, global PC shipments will be impacted by 20 percent.

Prices of all hardware (including PCs, storage and servers) are likely to go up significantly.

This will probably affect system builders the most because PC OEMs are going to corner large chunks of the supplies during the next six months. Size does matter. n

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

29

Sustaining leadership

W

hen Dell became the No 1 PC brand in terms of unit sales in Q22011 some dismissed it as a flash in the pan. Some flash. Through the first three quarters Dell has consistently been No 1 in both IDC and Gartner market studies, and has maintained a lead of 1 lakh units per quarter over the No 2 PC OEM. This is no mean achievement for a brand which sold

Hype to realization

T

hough the hype remains bigger than the reality, 2011 saw across-the-industry acceptance of cloud computing as a computing paradigm.

The reputation of the cloud took a hit when Amazon’s cloud outages sent several thousand Web applications crashing and disrupted the services of many enterprises.

Nevertheless, vendors, partners and customers kept betting on the cloud as new models started evolving.

The biggest channel opportunity surrounding the cloud is still setting up private and hybrid clouds for customers. With productivity applications donning the cloud

30

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

It will be interesting to see if Dell can sustain its leadership or whether it will make the same mistakes its competitors made in the past— mistakes which led to Dell’s success less than 1 lakh PCs in 2007. It will end 2011 at around 1.8 million PCs. Dell’s climb to the top has largely been on the back of its success in the consumer channels. Even so, over the past couple of quarters, many of its MSAs have begun grumbling about unnecessary target pressure and margin shrinkage. The aggressive push by Sony is also nibbling into Dell’s market share.

On the commercial PC front Dell is yet to achieve the momentum that HP has in this segment. And many large tier-2 partners continue to complain about the lack of clear named-account and deal registration policies which lead to channel conflict and distrust.

What’s more, in the large enterprise space, where Dell has a dominant market share, Lenovo has made huge inroads.

In 2012 it will be interesting to see if Dell can sustain its market leadership or whether it will make the same mistakes its competitors made in the past— mistakes which led to Dell’s success in India. Time will tell. n

A report by AMI Partners suggests that while the market for the cloud is growing, most vendors have not yet created a compelling revenue-sharing model for channels avatar, new opportunities have started emerging.

High consumerization of infrastructure by vendors such as Rackspace, Amazon and Google has meant little or no opportunity for partners in reselling, so the cloud is forcing partners to move to a consultative business model.

Niche applications (such as software testing) moved to the cloud during the last year. 2011 also saw the evolution of several software-as-a-service vendors in the business applications space.

Microsoft expects 30 percent of its projected revenue of $400 million from its Indian operations in its FY201112 (August-July) to come from the cloud.

A number of vendors (Tata Communications, Net4India, IBM) joined the fray, offering cloud-based services and several off-the-shelf applications.

Vendors such as Tata Communications and Sify ventured into storage-as-a-service delivered through the cloud. A report by AMI Partners however, suggested that while the market for the cloud is growing, most vendors have not yet created a compelling revenue-sharing model for channels. Time they came down to earth. n

V for Vaio O

ne of the biggest success stories of the year was Sony, which, with its Vaio brand of notebooks, demonstrated that the right marketing and channel engagement can work wonders even in a fiercely competitive market like consumer notebooks. The company, which earlier lacked a clear India strategy and had a market share of less than 5 percent in 2009 in the consumer notebook segment saw its share rise to more than

Taking center stage T he virtualization space continued to be the most active in the industry, with acquisitions, new alignments and changes in licensing models.

VMware dropped a bomb in the middle of the year by announcing a consumption-based licensing model, thus moving from the CPU-based licensing model. This was met with a lot of friction from customers and partners, forcing VMware to alter the licensing model.

Server virtualization continued to gain momentum,

32

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Sony, which earlier lacked a clear strategy and had a share of less than 5 percent in 2009 in the consumer notebook segment, saw its share rise to more than 20 percent 20 percent.

Sony’s marketing involved signing up film actress Kareena Kapoor as the brand ambassador and creating a fashion statement around its advertisements, thus luring female buyers to Vaio counters. According to company estimates, 45 percent of its notebooks were purchased by women—a high figure for any technology product.

The company’s strategy to more than double the number of SKUs from 25 to 62 covering all price-points also worked as a masterstroke. This was backed by 360-degree marketing with a budget in excess of `50 crore.

An important contributor to the success of Vaio was the company’s emphasis on controlling the market operating price (MOP) and ensuring consistent margins.

In fact, Sony put in place a strong system to manage the MOP and dissuade any malpractice.

The company also expanded its channel base (from 1,000 to 3,000) and its post-sales support infrastructure.

In 2012 Sony’s biggest challenge will be to sustain this momentum. Moving up the ladder is always easier than staying at the top. n

While the acceptance of desktop virtualization has improved, VDI as a computing approach has not taken off the way vendors had expected it to and with the launch of the Intel Xeon E7 and AMD Opteron 6200 chips server vendors were able to pack more virtual machines per box.

A potential game-changer in the space could be Cisco which has aligned with Citrix for desktop virtualization.

It has also aligned with VMware for virtualized networks in the data center. Through the acquisition of Kaviza, Citrix has launched VDI in a box and is eying opportunities in the SMB space. NComputing announced its entry into the enterprise space with Citrix, and also launched the latest version of its Vspace server which allows users to share one computer with up to 100 users.

While the acceptance of desktop virtualization has improved, VDI as a computing approach has not taken off the way vendors had expected it to.

With tablets and smartphones becoming part of enterprise IT, a number of new partnerships were announced. Notable ones: Apple signed up with VMware, and Google with Citrix and VMware. Some marriages are made in heaven. n

Tablet disruption O

ne big debate in 2011 was whether or not tablets will replace PCs. Market research by leading organizations (including IDC and Gartner) indicates that the exponential growth in media tablets will most certainly eat into PC sales.

Even Meg Whitman, CEO, HP, believes that if tablets are classified under PCs, Apple is set to become the No 1 PC vendor by mid-2012. This seems likely as some research firms (such as Canalys) have started including

The Nano of IT W

hen the country’s largest IT company, TCS, launched its most ambitious cloud computing project, iON, some people dubbed it the Nano of IT. It was expected to transform the IT landscape (just the way the Nano was expected to change the car industry) by making IT affordable to SMBs. TCS also said that it would garner $1 billion from iON in five years.

But just like the Nano, iON too has had a rough beginning. As was the case with the Nano, iON is a great

34

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

Tablet shipments increased from 18 million in 2010 to 60 million during 2011. The figure will reach 250 million in 2015—more than four times what it is today tablet numbers in their PC shipment figures.

Consider this. According to various sources, tablet shipments increased from 18 million in 2010 to 60 million during 2011. The figure will reach 250 million in 2015—more than four times what it is today.

Supporters of PCs argue that a tablet can at best be the second computing device after the notebook which will continue to retain its relevance among consumers and enterprises because of its processing power, stability and user familiarity.

On the other hand, the tablet lovers argue that considering the pace at which the tablet technology and ecosystem is evolving it could become a strong alternate to the PC in the next couple of years.

Most tablets today sport dual-core processors, but models with quad-cores are on their way. Increasing applications for the tablet could also work in its favor, and once users get familiar with the new touch-based form-factor it will most certainly emerge as a strong alternate to the notebook—if not replace it. Food for thought. n

Just like the Nano, iON too has had a rough beginning. As was the case with the Nano, iON is a great transformative concept but the on-ground execution has been an issue transformative concept but the on-ground execution has been an issue.

With iON, TCS has faced issues regarding service delivery and assurance. In fact a few of the 90+ partners who were initially very bullish about iON eventually distanced themselves as TCS was unable to provide services to customers. The issues pertained to bandwidth, customizing and deploying iON services at the customer’s place, and service delivery lags.

To TCS’ credit the iON team has been working hard to address these issues and to a large extent has resolved many of them. However, looking at the initial hiccups, many partners have reduced their business exposure to iON and seem less bullish now.

TCS has said that iON will be a 100 percent channel-driven business and hence in 2012 its main challenge would be to win back channel confidence and deliver on the promise of the Tata brand. It’s yesterday once more. n

Another David rises W ho would have thought that Nvidia would enter the microprocessor market and give Intel a run for its money? That’s exactly what happened with Nvidia’s processor Tegra which has captured 50 percent of the 60 million tablet market globally within a span of 12 months.

With the market expected to cross 250 million tablets by 2015, Nvidia could have hit a goldmine and the perfect opportunity to compete with the market leader.

Nvidia Tegra’s success in the tablet market, which is expected to cross 250 million units by 2015, is the perfect opportunity for the chip-maker to compete with Intel Intel, which in 2008 had announced its mobile Internet device strategy when it launched the Atom processor platform, failed to garner much support for its offering despite its dominant position in the PC processor market.

The company’s Oak Trail and Cedar Trail generation of Atom processors for the tablet market have found little support.

Intel is not giving up, and has announced that in 2012 it will launch a new range with a much lower TDP with an Atom series (codenamed Saltwell) which would be suited for the tablet market.

But analysts feel that with Nvidia already making available the quad-core Kal-El processor, and also unveiling a roadmap called the SuperHero series, there’s a lot of catching up that Intel needs to do.

What could also have Intel worried is that Nvidia is slowly moving Tegra into the PC market. Indeed, Toshiba, Asus, Acer and Samsung have all announced Tegra 3-based notebooks and netbooks, and Toshiba has actually been shipping a model in India since the past six months.

With Tegra inside. n

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

35

AMS in Autopilot

New revolution in IT Infrastructure Management helps Realize the Value and Benefit in record time

AMS in Autopilot, the new solution addresses the challenges faced by of CIOs and Service Providers in automating their IT Infrastructure. AMS in Autopilot pre-automates most of the IT activities and further automates the automation to make AMS processes simpler, responsive and effective.

THE NEED FOR AUTOPILOT

SPs and CIO realized the importance of AMS, but the problem still remained. The same old questions from a Service Provider, how do I use AMS? How can I realize quick revenues. How much time will it take to implement the solution?

Can I customize it? I do not have bandwidth and expertise. I want to show the benefits to my customer in shortest possible time. The familiar questions go on and on.

For CIOs, realizing the value of the automation remained a dream, he is pre-occupied with solving and addressing the tickets reported by Service Desk, organizational requirements of three to four weeks turn around time for showing the value of any solution and finally the absence of knowledge and skill sets in the implementation and Service Delivery configuration.

In both cases they understood the need to automate but did not want to automate.

Kaseya recognized that the Indian market needed pre-automated, pre-configured and pre-implemented solution to suit their business requirement and developed AMS in Autopilot.

THE NEW AGE SOLUTION

The ‘AMS Autopilot Control Center’ gives real time information of all IT activities enabling all levels of an IT Department to automate their

AUTOMATION ACTIVITIES Autopilot has successfully eliminated Bad sectors on 33 Assets 12 Assets with Bad Sectors requires immediate attention; alert (DK4823) has been sent Autopilot has cleaned disk space on 14 Critical Assets ; 12 /33 Assets disk space issue eliminated; 14/33 disk space marked critical; alert (DK4884) has been sent

AUTOMATION STATUS Total Assets

1200

Servers

28

2.33%

Desktops

756

63.00%

Laptops

416

34.6%

Online

1121

93.4%

Offline

79

6.6%

Unused Assets

25

Real time information for informed decisions and take complete control of Enterprise IT Infrastructure

routine and rudimentary IT activities. With this control center, CIOs now can move out of handling crisis management of keeping their IT infrastructure up and focus on the business development and other core enablement activities. This would allow CIOs realize their dream of transforming the IT department into a profit center from a cost center.

It is indeed a radical change which ensures that customers get complete control of IT with minimal effort. It enhances efficiency and productivity with maximum level of automation and least manual intervention. The new AMS service saves time, requires minimum training and ensures optimal benefits in real time.

The moment a customer buys and installs AMS in Autopilot the critical IT activities will immediately enforce pre-configured settings and display results in highly intuitive and clear dashboards through

AMS Autopilot Control Center.

Also, With AMS in Autopilot CIOs will be able to easily comprehend and experience the business benefits and be able to take informed buying decisions.

WHAT THIS MEANS

The moment a customer buys and installs AMS in Autopilot the critical IT activities will immediately enforce pre-configured settings and display results in highly intuitive and clear dashboards through AMS Autopilot Control Center.

A real time display of IT activities done and their results will be continuously displayed. Any critical activity will be flashed so that immediate action can be taken. Complete automation activities and automation status displayed real time in the AMS Autopilot Control Center.

However keeping in mind the different sensibilities AMS in Autopilot offers tremendous flexibility where a customer can customize or change the preconfigured settings to suit their needs.

This unique model is highly intuitive and scalable– pre-configured and fully automated and delivers instant results translating into a highly beneficial and efficient IT environment.

Highlights • Pre-automated and Pre-configured solution.

Girish Krishnamurthy Managing Director Kaseya Software India

“Autopilot has changed the lives of pilots and aviation industry and now AMS in Autopilot, will revolutionize the life of a CIO and IT Infrastructure.

Our Mantra is to render CIOs the complete control of IT”

• Helps realize the Value and Benefit in record time • Instant solution giving the customer complete control of IT environment with minimal effort.

• Ensures maximum utilization of all features resulting in enhanced benefits.

special focus opportunities in mobile printing solutions Mobile printers and scanners are finding acceptance in the enterprise and SMB segments, but high pricing is a deterrent in the retail market n AMIT SINGH

W

ith mobility defining the trend for today’s entrepreneurs and businessmen, the need for portable devices is on an upswing. Mobile printers and scanners are gradually finding a place in various sectors including BFSI, telecom, education, event management, advertising, pharma, travel and law.

Addressable opportunity “The total addressable market of mobile scanners in India is `10 crore and mobile printers `2.5 crore,” says Nitin Hiranandani, Director, Laserjet Enterprise Solutions, IPG, HP. “With potential growth at a CAGR of 15 percent, we see a clear utility of mobile printers and scanners to capture customer information for processing applications and providing quotes or receipts to clients on the spot. At the end-customer front, the mobile printer can act as a photo printer on the go. Executives can print business plans to discuss with their stakeholders. At the same time, they can scan any important document for later reference.”

Rajeev Mehta, CEO, Innovative Enterprise, agrees. “Mobile printers and scanners are mainly adopted by senior executives, lawyers and sales professionals who are traveling. These devices function as an add-on to conventional printers, scanners or MFDs. In FY2010-11 we supplied 90 mobile scanners to one travel company and 50 mobile printers to another. We also sold mobile printers to various pharma companies and law firms. Out of the total of 4,000 printers, scanners and MFDs worth `18 crore we sold in the year, 130 were mobile printers and 90 were mobile scanners.”

“Mobile printers have a niche market, and, with features like Bluetooth, cater to the needs of certain users,” says Rajeev Mehta, Director, Zest Systems. “We sold 21 mobile printers to Eventpro, a Delhi-based event management company. We sell 65 mobile printers in a quarter to various event management and advertising companies as well as educational institutions. Professors

“Mobile printers and scanners are increasingly being used by senior executives, lawyers, professors, and sales professionals on the move” Rajeev Mehta

CEO, Innovative Enterprise

38

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

and project guides use them for print-outs, while traveling and delivering guest lectures. Mobile printers contribute 7-8 percent to the unit-wise sales of our printer portfolio, and may reach 15 percent in the next 2-3 years.”

Mobile vs conventional Though there is acceptance in large enterprises and some SMBs, the high prices of mobile printers and scanners are a major deterrent in the retail market.

“Price-sensitive consumers prefer to buy conventional inkjets, lasers or MFDs which are available at fairly low prices such as `2,300 for inkjet printers and `3,300 for scanners,” says Dere Pramod Prakash, MD, Cyber Peripherals, a sub-distributor based in Aurangabad.

By contrast, HP sells its Officejet 100 mobile printer at an MRP of `17,999 and HP Scanjet Mobile 1000 scanner at an MRP of `10,499. The Canon P-150 mobile scanner is available at `19,000 and Pixma iP100 mobile printer at `15,695. Kodak offers its Scanmate i920 scanner for `12,500.

Scanners imported from countries like China and Taiwan are also available at street price of around `6,500.

Partner play Partners allege that the kind of vendor seriousness seen for regular printers, scanners, and MFDs is missing when it comes to the mobile devices. They want the vendors to lower prices, and increase promotions for these devices.

“While the principals are not much focused on promoting these devices compared to other printers and scanners (that fall under the volume business), partners are also not inclined toward promoting these products due to low [public] awareness and low push from the vendors,” says Pankaj Bandlish, Director, Compro Computers.

“Mobile printers can be a huge success story if the prices of the devices and the cartridges are reduced and made comparable to the other options available,” states Mehta of Innovative Enterprise. “Customer demos must be given in the outlets to explain their usability.”

Comments Mehta of Zest Systems, “Mobile printers and scanners need time to become popular with the masses. Reasonable prices as well as aggressive marketing by vendors would help to increase their penetration in the retail market. These devices can also be offered through the telecom channel as they go well with mobile phones having Bluetooth.” n

Role model In search of excellence Path Infotech is regarded as one of the best software solutions provider in the country. The company’s founding directors share their eventful and successful journey so far, and list out their future plans n Amit Singh

T

o become an IT entrepreneur was more of a dream than a need for Pankaj Ratra and his three friends, Tarun Aggarwal, Aasheesh Garg and Hitesh Arora.

It was during their MCA from IMT Ghaziabad that they planned to start a business in IT after completing the course and getting a year of practical software development experience.

Ratra completed his MCA in 1990; the other three, who happened to be his seniors, finished a year earlier.

Aggarwal joined TCS as a programmer, Garg IFCI as a programmer, Arora Nucleus Software as a systems engineer, and Ratra International Data Management as a systems engineer. After acquiring 1-1.5 years of experience in their respective organizations they left their jobs to start Path Infotech in July 1991.

Path is now a Noida-based public limited company with three branches (Mumbai, Singapore and US), more than 400 employees, and revenue of `84 crore.

The company’s clientele includes Citibank, Maruti Udyog, Kotak Mahindra, EXL Services, LG Electronics, CitiFinancial, Videocon, NIC, Canon India, Amar Ujala and the Comptroller & Auditor General.

Early days Path Infotech began with an investment of `70,000, provided equally by the partners from their savings.

They took up software development projects and provided corporate training in various tools and applications.

Soon after they started, the company faced a lot of hurdles. “In the initial years the perception of software development in India was not favorable. The general attitude was to get software free or at minimal cost. At the same time, the acceptance of young people like us as consultants didn’t come easily—and none of us had any business background,” recalls Ratra.

Adds Tarun Aggarwal, Director, Technology, Path, “We never sought any financial support from our families. However, their unconditional moral support was always there to drive us ahead. Along with finding projects in software development, we also undertook data, claim and application processing projects for the survival of our business.”

“We never sought any financial support from our families. However, their unconditional moral support was always there to drive us ahead”

Pankaj Ratra, Tarun Aggarwal, Aasheesh Garg

The company was not doing well till 1994 but somehow managed to meet its expenses. “At around this time, when business was just not coming our way, we faced a major jolt when one of our partners decided to quit. We however, decided to go ahead and give our business some more time,” Ratra says.

Shortly after, the company won from Citibank a compliance reporting software development project on the Oracle platform worth `15 lakh. It also executed an automation project for Citibank worth `20 lakh; this entailed software development for posting and reconciliation of account transactions.

From 1998 to 2002, Path executed major projects worth `20 crore for Avco Financial Services. The projects entailed the development of applications for the processing of automobile loans, institutional loans, equipment loans, personal loans and loans against property.

The company also transitioned toward systems building and took on various projects for the implementation of Oracle database, ERP and CRM. In 1997 Path executed an ERP project valued at `7 lakh for Punj Lloyd, and in 1998 for Asahi India valued at `10 lakh.

Path started offering Oracle database and middleware management services in 1997, and in 2000 introduced a full-fledged managed services business including application management and infrastructure management. Some of its initial customers included Wipro, Escorts, Ralson and Hero.

Current business Path Infotech is now guided by Ratra handling the

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

39

role model

2011

2010

2008

2002

1998

1994

1991

remotely.” business development, sales and MILESTONES Path is ISO certified since marketing portfolio. Garg, Director 2002, and currently holds ISO looks after finance, HR and 9001-2008 certification. The administration, while Aggarwal is Started Path Infotech as a company also got the SE 1B credit the Director, Technology. software developer rating from Crisil in 2011. “At the During the turn-of-the-decade same time, besides Sugar CRM, recession the company grew 49 Won compliance reporting we have also implemented inpercent from `50 crore in FY2008project from Citibank house automated applications 09 to `74.61 crore in FY2009-10. for financial accounting, billing, In FY2010-11 the company grew Bagged a `20 crore software purchasing and order processing,” 12.8 percent with its revenue development project from Ratra informs. rising to `84 crore. Of its revenue Avco Financial Services in the last fiscal, 74 percent came from systems building, 18 percent Future plans Achieved ISO 9001 quality from solutions, and the rest from Sensing the tough times ahead certification managed services. due to the economic uncertainty, “In FY2010-11 we maintained Path is undergoing transformation Recognized by Oracle as the the momentum gained in the in its business processes. “We are most formidable SI partner for recession during which customers introducing a lot of changes in became inclined toward SMBs our processes to become efficient the north that brought value to solutions at and maintain consistency in the Developed and implemented an quality of our services,” explains reasonable prices. The recession was also beneficial for us as Ratra. “To grow our bottomline affiliate management system during this period we learned to we are taking a product-based for ESPN innovate and put in extra effort approach under which we have to get new products and services developed various software as Secured SE 1B rating from into our portfolio,” explains Garg. standard products to offer. And Crisil “We remain glued to our business to become more efficient we have philosophy to stay committed and developed a library of codes to truthful to our customers and our automate certain processes in employees. We have retained old customers and added software development.” new ones due to our focus on adding value to our The company targets a modest 10 percent growth offerings as well as on providing simple solutions to to attain revenue of `92 crore in FY2011-12. However, complex problems.”

Path is ambitious enough to target revenue of `450 crore In 2009-10 Path executed a software development in FY2015-16 by focusing on BI and analytics, mobility project valued at `1.2 crore for Videocon to develop a applications and managed services. The company has service CRM application for registering, processing and plans to deepen its reach by deep focusing on verticals allocating after-sales-service and AMC calls. such as BFSI, process manufacturing and IT/ITeS. The company also executed a project to develop and implement an affiliate management system for ESPN On a personal note Star Sports in 2010. In the same year, Path completed Ratra considers the late Steve Jobs of Apple to be a project to implement Oracle ERP for the Gold Plus his business role model because of his massive Group in New Delhi. contribution to the IT industry through his innovations In addition, Path developed and implemented which provided simple solutions to complex problems. an innovative payment and receipt system for Kotak Believing in the mantra of living life by example, Mahindra Old Mutual Life Insurance in 2010.

Ratra vows to lead his life in a way that would The company has more than 100 people dedicated motivate others. to IT managed services out of whom over 25 are vendorHe loves to read management books in his free certified; its project managers are ITIL V3 foundationtime or during travel. Some of his favorite books certified. Says Ratra, “We provide managed services include Good to Great by Jim Collins, Chanakya on with both an onsite and remote support model. On Management by Ashok Garde, and The Ultimate the infrastructure front we have three leased lines Question by Fred Reichheld. He is currently reading the for uninterrupted connectivity to support customers online version of Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox. Ratra is fond of the late Jagjit Singh’s ghazals, and loves to spend time with the kids and trying his hand at cooking as well.

“Our focus to add value to our offerings He currently owns a Toyota Innova but aspires to and provide simple solutions to complex buy a BMW convertible—as demanded by his daughter. problems has helped us bag new customers His favorite weekend destination is Dehra Dun, and he wishes to spend a holiday in Leh. n and retain old ones” 40

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

tech focus Competing with MacBook Air The Aspire S3 Ultrabook is a paper-thin laptop that delivers fast performance in a sleek, stylish design and is certain to satisfy mobile pros n Edward J Correia

O

f the major planks of Intel’s Ultrabook platform— fast performance, powerful graphics, efficient energy usage, instant-on responsiveness and always-on synchronization—the Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook fulfills all but one. And to my knowledge, nobody’s doing always-on yet.

With the S3’s paper-thin physique, comparisons to Apple’s MacBook Air are inevitable. The slender beauty is just as thin as the Air at its thickest (0.68 inches); both units taper near the edges and a brushed aluminum exterior protects both units from fingerprints.

Similarities continue inside. The S3’s flat Chicklet-sized keys and trackpad with integrated buttons have the look and feel of a MacBook, though the S3’s trackpad is significantly smaller than Apple’s, by about a half-inch in both directions and is limited to two-finger gestures (Apple’s supports four).

Opening the lid, Acer’s so-called Green Instant On and Instant Connect have the Ultrabook awake and alive in less than 3 seconds, another Mac OS X-like trait. The machine Acer sent the CRN Test Center was equipped with an Intel Core i5 dual-core, 1.6 GHz processor (just like Apple’s base unit) running the 64-bit version of Windows 7 Home Premium on 4 GB of memory. Geekbench 2.0 turned in a respectable top score of 5,657, but only after we removed or disabled McAfee and Microsoft nagware and set Windows for fastest performance.

Part of Intel’s Ultrabook idea was to create machines that not only provides a fast and seamless user

At the MRP of `50,000, including Windows 7 and a one-year warranty, the Acer Aspire S3 is a terrific product that costs several significantly less than a comparably equipped MacBook Air

experience, but that look good doing it. The handsome S3 fills that bill nicely with its simple, uncluttered design. The left edge has but one port; for a headset.

Similarly unencumbered is the right edge, which is home to an SD/MMC reader. The rear is home to a pair of USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port (which can output 1080p resolution) and connector for the right-angle canon plug. We usually prefer a rear edge free of any connectors and the danger of stressing them. Small LEDs for hard drive battery/power status are visible with the 13.3-inch screen is in the open or closed position.

The S3’s Lithium polymer three-cell battery performed better than we expected. With all power saving features turned off and the WiFi radio on and connected, Paramount’s 48 Hours played continuously from the hard drive at full screen and full brightness for five and a half hours. After putting itself to sleep due to low power, the S3 awoke in just a few seconds by reading its state from a 20-GB SSD that’s dedicated to the job. A deep sleep mode preserves battery life for as many as 50 days, according to Acer. A separate 320-GB spinning hard drive stores the operating system, apps and user data. The MacBook Air offers no spinning drive and a maximum of 256 GB of storage, all flash.

The Acer Aspire S3 Ultrabook alone tips the scales at a feather less than three pounds; the power adapter and its 12-foot cord add another 11 ounces. The S3 generates minimal heat, measuring its hottest at 90 degrees along left edge and left side of the keyboard.

Everywhere else on the machine was around between 80 and 85 degrees, slightly warm to the touch. The S3’s work deck measures 12.5 x 8.5 inches.

If the Ultrabook portends the future of mobile computing, then we favor the design for its slim good looks, fast performance, and suitability to task (not to mention similarity to Apple products). At the MRP of `50,000, including Windows 7 and a one-year warranty, the Acer Aspire S3 is a terrific product that costs several hundred dollars less than a comparably equipped MacBook Air. It’s also a recommended product by the CRN Test Center. n

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

41

tech focus 3D scanning to enhance 2D printing The HP TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 sports a novel 3D scanner, but also provides traditional MFP functionality with real value n Edward F Moltzen

O

ne of the consistently reliable units in HewlettPackard’s massive, $100-billion-plus organization has been its Imaging & Printing unit. It’s also been where a good number of innovations have taken place over the past decade—from universal print drivers to WiFI integration.

Now HP has added 3D scanning to its stable of lowerpriced desktop printers—meaning its TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 can now scan just about any shaped object and not just flat documents.

The CRN Test Center had an opportunity to take a look at an early version of the TopShot LaserJet Pro M275, and found it could offer nice value to an organization. Beyond the novel “TopShot” 3D scanner, the printer provides solid wireless networking capability—including wireless integration with a network and wireless printing between devices and the TopShot LaserJet Pro M275.

The scanner itself is, essentially, a camera rather than a more-traditional roller scanner.

This device on the MFP is hinged, and lifts up so the camera and flash can take a positioned snapshot of the object you want copied. For textured objects—like cup, a pen or, say, a screwdriver—TopShot essentially takes a photograph that is scanned to a PC as either a PDF, JPG or PNG file. The images are not reproduced as traditional 3D images, but rather as 2D images like you’d see in a photograph.

Flat documents can be scanned one page at a time, and we found color document scans to be bright, clear and suffered almost no, noticeable degradation from one generation to the next.

As a printer, The TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 is fine for a desktop printer. “First page out” for monochrome documents ran between 17 and 18 seconds. For color, we timed it at 31 seconds. Both were slightly slower

HP has built into this MFP a small color console that provides support for printing directly from the Web, either via services like Gmail or Box.Net, or from online websites and magazines 42

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

than the best possible output times listed in the product specifications, but not so slow as to make it a dealbreaker. Color prints from Macs or PCs offered no noticeable degradation for most office uses.

And, additionally, HP has built into this MFP a small color console that provides support for printing directly from the Web, either via services like Gmail or Box.Net, or from online websites and magazines—no PC necessary.

All of this from a multi-function printer that sets up, out of the box, in about 12 minutes— including integration with a wireless network. Like several other HP printers, The TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 supports wireless printing directly from iOS devices, including iPhones and iPads that support AirPrint. It’s a seamless feature and one that will become more important over time as these devices are more widely deployed on organizations for data capturing or document creation and editing.

It should be noted this MFP also comes with an Ethernet port for wired connection as well.

This device is slated to ship at a starting list price of $399. Street pricing on toner cartridges can run between $75 and $100 each; it uses black, cyan, yellow and magenta cartridges that provide about 1,000 pages of printing each for color and 1,200 for black.

Among other things, HP has positioned this MFP as a device that’s perfect or scanning products or objects so their images can be uploaded to online malls for browsing and sale. But that’s a limited way of looking at the device’s usefulness.

What makes the TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 so worthy of consideration by SMBs or workgroups is that it adapts to the imaging needs of the moment, rather than requiring users to adapt their imaging needs to whatever functionality it provides. While it’s not a “performance” printer, it’s not priced like one, either. It is, however, priced lower than the cost of a 64 GB iPhone 4S or an iPad, while supporting printing from those devices.

The bottom line: The TopShot LaserJet Pro M275 is a very cool multi-function printer that’s priced aggressively and doesn’t get in the way of getting a job done. n

channel buzz Rashi’s CBF VII gets a roaring response

T

connecting with resellers in 600 districts, and every year through this event to move closer to that goal.”

Participating vendors are full of praise for the quality of reseller turnout and the engaging format of the show. Said Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager, Logitech India, “This is the biggest channel campaign in the country. The logistics of the show are incredibly well-managed, and the format is so engaging that participants want to be present for the event. Congratulations to the Rashi team for creating such an effective vehicle for vendors like us to engage with the vast reseller base in the fastgrowing upcountry markets.”

“Rashi surely has an effective vehicle and strategy to communicate with channel partners,” commented Hajinne Ochi, Division Managing Director, Sony Singapore. “The campaign is creatively engaging and provides companies like ours a great way to educate resellers about new technologies and products.”

Added Neeraj Jaiswal, Owner, Boon Computer, Allahabad, who has been attending the CBF for the past four years, “This is one event I always look forward to. Rather than having vendor presentations, Rashi educates the channel about new technologies and products through a very innovative gaming concept.

The technology showcase allows us to experience new products and understand the unique features of each product. This helps us to differentiate the product from the competition and sell smartly to our customers.” n

he seventh edition of Rashi Peripherals’ Channel Business Forum, CBF VII, is proving to be a great hit among the partner community in Class B, C and D cities.

CBF VII has conducted events in 35 cities in the past 20 days, and a total of 3,000 channel partners across the locations have attended the multicity roadshows. Over the next 15 days, the event will travel to 16 more cities, in all covering 51 cities, 5,000 partners and traversing more than 4,500 kms across India in 50 days.

Said Rajesh Goenka, VP, Marketing & Sales, Rashi, “The response to CBF has been above expectations. In many cities resellers have been calling up to register for the event. Partners from Junagarh, Jamnagar and Keshod traveled to Rajkot, and elsewhere partners have traveled 5-6 hours in cold weather to reach the venue for the Shimla event.”

CBF VII is being supported by vendors such as AMD, Asus, LG, Logitech, Sony and ECS. This year’s major attraction, the Rashi Tambola, has been well appreciated by partners. Many partners have already won attractive prizes during the Tambola game, and are eagerly waiting for the biggest prize in the lucky draw, a Tata Nano car.

“The CBF is our vehicle to connect with our large set of partners in upcountry locations,” explained Suresh Pansari, Director, Rashi.

“The fact that it is being held for the seventh year in succession shows how popular it is among the partner community. CBF is a key initiative for us to achieve our stated goal of

n Partners from Bhatinda listen attentively to the proceedings

n CBF VII in progress at Guwahati

n Rashi directors Kishan Choudhary, Suresh Pansari, and Kapal Pansari inaugurating the CBF VII edition in Mumbai

n The technology showcase displaying the latest products from AMD, Asus, LG, Logitech, Sony and ECS

n A partner in Surat receiving the Tambola lucky prize

n Delegates attending the proceedings at the Mysore event

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

43

channel buzz Kaseya launches AMS in Autopilot

W

hen it comes to mission criticality, very few industries can be compared to the aviation industry.

Borrowing some of the best practices from the aviation industry, Kaseya has unveiled a series of solutions called ‘AMS in Autopilot’ which are built on top of the Kaseya automated managed services (AMS) platform.

The new platform was launched at a 2-city event on December 5 & 6 at Bengaluru and Mumbai respectively.

Each launch event was attended by over 120 Kaseya partners as well as existing and prospective customers.

To illustrate the concept of autopilot, Kaseya invited a veteran Indian Airlines pilot, Captain Vivek Shanbhag, to speak about how the autopilot in the aircraft works.

Explained Shanbhag, “Autopilot is the most important invention in the airline industry. It has reduced the chances of accidents tremendously.

It eliminates the risk of human error, and executes tasks with tremendous accuracy. If you need to land an aircraft during a foggy night at Delhi airport when visibility is nearly zero you need an autopilot.”

The biggest advantage of an autopilot is important decisions are left to the pilot, but the execution happens through the autopilot. He cited several examples where the aircraft autopilot system saved hundreds of lives.

According to Girish Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya India, “IT is mission-critical for all organizations, and the fortunes of companies depend on the effective deployment and management of IT infrastructure. Just like autopilot has changed the lives of pilots and crew in terms of monitoring, navigating and guiding an aircraft, AMS on Autopilot will change the lives of CIOs and service providers (SPs).”

He said that “despite creating the ecosystem around AMS, we realized that many of our customers were not able to leverage its true benefits. We decided to study why this was the case and realized that what was miss-

ing was the pre-configuration required to ensure use of best practices.”

Like in an aircraft, the missioncritical functions can be handled

by AMS in Autopilot while the CIO can focus on decision-making based on the status reports he receives.

“During any kind of IT failure, AMS in Autopilot immediately enforces pre-configured settings and displays results in highly intuitive and clear dashboards through the control center,” Krishnamurthy explained.

Said Gerald Blackie, Chairman & CEO, Kaseya, “I would like to congratulate the India team for creating this new platform. The development AMS in Autopilot has been driven completely by Girish and his team. We will be taking this concept to other global markets very soon.”

Kaseya also launched the AMS BOOT–Boost Program to help SPs deliver managed services in a build, own, operate and transfer (BOOT) model. “With AMS in Autopilot, SPs can deploy and provision the platform within 2-3 days for customers and show gains within 2-3 weeks.

This will accelerate the conversion of customers and lead to bigger adoption,” Krishnamurthy stated.

Kaseya also presented awards to its performing partners and their employees for spearheading the transformations to managed services within their organizations and in the marketplace.

The AMS Specialist awards were won by Sarfaraz Dani, National Business Manager, MSO, Valuepoint Systems; Satya Duvvuri, National Product Manager, MS, Choice Solutions; and Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies.

Redington won the Pathbreaker award for showing the AMS value proposition and garnering a value deal. Team Computers, Frontier Business Systems and PCVisor won the Best AMS Company of the Year awards for 2011. Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers, also won the Best AMS Champion 2011 award. n

n Girish Krishnamurthy, MD, Kaseya speaking about the advantages of AMS in Autopilot

n Gerald Blackie, Chairman & CEO, Kaseya addressing partners and CIOs at the event

n Captain Vivek Shanbhag of Indian Airlines, explaining the relevance of Autopilot in aviation

n Ranjan Chopra, CMD, Team Computers, receiving the AMS Champion of the Year Award

n Srivatsan S, GM, Redington receiving the Pathbreaker Award

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 44

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

new products Netgear N600 wireless router

N

Asus Zenbook

A

sus recently launched its ultrabook—the Zenbook. The product is available in 11.6” and 13.3” variants, and weighs 1.3 kg. It has a thickness of 0.11” at the front and 0.67” at the rear. It uses Intel i5 and i7 core processors, SATA revision 3.0 256 GB SSD, Bluetooth V4.0 and USB 3.0. Asus has also added USB Charger Plus technology which uses the USB 3.0 port to recharge the portable device. It utilizes Asus’ patented Super Hybrid Engine II technology to conserve battery life up to 25 percent.

The product is available at an MRP of `89,999, comes with a 3-year warranty, and is available with Asus authorized distributors.

etgear has launched the N600 wireless dual band Gigabit router— the WNDR3800. The features of the product include clear channel selector, ReadySHARE Cloud that allows access and file sharing on an attached USB hard drive through an Internet connection. The ReadySHARE USB allows to wirelessly share a USB hard drive with Macs and PCs. It has simultaneous dual band and runs both 2.4 and 5 GHz bands concurrently.

The product is priced at an MRP of `11,780, comes with a 2-year warranty, and is available with Netgear authorized distributors.

Digisol DG-KB1004 switch Buffalo WZR-HPG450H N router & access point

B

uffalo Technology has launched its AirStation High Power Giga Wireless—N router and access point model WZR-HP-G450H in India.

The wireless LAN router is combined with three highpower 5dBi antennas. It supports the 802.11n standard for data transfers of up to 450 Mbps. The router is equipped with a USB port that allows connecting a USB hard drive and can be used as a NAS for sharing data. It has removable and adjustable antennas.

The product is available at an MRP of `8,000, comes with a limited 2-year warranty, and is available with Buffalo authorized distributors.

D

igisol has launched its 4 port KVM combo USB & PS/2 switch DG-KB1004 under its Breton KVM switching solutions series. DG-KB1004 allows control of up to four computers from a single set of keyboard, monitor and mouse.

When all the PCs connected to the KVM switch are powered down, DG-KB1004 also shuts itself, thus saving power. The switch uses an integrated cable/connector design for PS/2 connectivity. This design eliminates the requirement of individual cables for connecting input device ports from the PC to the KVM switch; this further reduces the cable clutter.

The street price of the product is `8,750 exclusive of taxes, comes with a 1-year warranty, and is available with Digisol authorized distributors.

The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors.

To feature your company’s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011

www.crn.in

45

128 Cores in 2U

64 Cores in 1U

RACK with 8 x AMD Opteron™ 6272 (2.1Ghz) Processor

Rack with 4 x AMD Opteron™ 6272 (2.1Ghz) Processor

4 Nodes in 2U 4 Way Server Key Features (per node) 1. Dual AMD Opteron™ 6000 Series processors (Socket G34) 16/12/8-Core ready 2. Up to 256GB DDR3 Registered ECC 1600/1333/1066 SDRAM in 16 DIMMs 3. 1x Low-profile PCI-E 2.0 in x16 slot (For add-on card up to 5.9"in length) 4. Dual-port GbE LAN Controller, 5x USB 2.0 ports, 1x dedicated LAN for system management (IPMI 2.0) 5. 3x Hot-swap SATA Drive Bays (RAID 0, 1) 6. 1400W High-efficiency Redundant Power Supplies; 80PLUS Gold Certified

Key Features 1. Quad/4-way AMD Opteron™ 6000 series processors (Socket G34) 16/12/8-Core ready 2. Up to 512GB DDR3 Registered ECC 1600/1333/1066 SDRAM in 32 DIMMs 3. 1x PCI-e Gen 2.0 x16 slot 4. Dual-port GbE LAN Controller, 4x USB 2.0 ports, 1x dedicated LAN for system management (IPMI 2.0) 5. 3x Hot-swap SAS/SATA Drive Bays 6. 1400W High-efficiency Power Supply 80Plus Gold Certified

India Authorized Distributor: Mega Networks Pvt. Ltd. India Mega Infosolutions Pvt. Ltd. India Meganet Technologies, Inc. USA

+9122 4155 8282 +9122 2562 8282 +9122 6580 5518 +9122 6580 5519 +1 302 261 5400

e-Mail: info@meganet1.com sales@meganet1.com Web:

www.meganet1.com

Corp. Office : #507-508 Corporate Centre, Nirmal Lifestyle, L.B.S. Marg, Mulund (W),Mumbai - 400 080. India Mumbai

Pune Hyderabad Ahmedabad Chennai Bengaluru

San Francisco

www.meganet1.com

shadow ram GET

Tracking the guilty

Personal

M

any may recall that in November 2010, Punath Computers, a Bengaluru-based reseller promoted by one Khetpal Singh, duped IT resellers at SP Road market off `1.2 crore.

Although a FIR was launched, there has been no progress in recovering the goods or finding Singh.

However, last week, a couple of resellers in Bengaluru traced a few PCs—that were billed to Punath Computers before its owner absconded—to a popular online retailer.

“The products were traced through service tag numbers of the materials, when the customers brought them for servicing. I informed the vendors, and upon enquiry, we found that the products were billed by the said online retailer. Probing deeper, we found that the retailer was billed by a couple of local sub-distributors who had bought the goods from Singh at a 50 percent discount,” said the sub-distributor, seeking anonymity.

He has raised the matter with the local dealers’ association. “I have urged the association to probe the issue, and see why the sub-distributors purchased from Punath, when they very well knew he had duped us.

This may also lead us to finding Singh’s whereabouts,”

“I want to eradicate illiteracy”

Sunil Kripalani

Sunil Kripalani is the Vice President, Global Sales and Marketing at eScan. He has been instrumental in broadening the company’s operations in the global market and today manages the sales & marketing operations. Prior to eScan, he worked with companies such as Elecon Group, Mittal Group, Methodex Infres and Mafatlal Group. He has an experience of 27 years in sales and marketing.

If not in the IT industry: If not in the IT industry: Music industry.

Biggest passion: Sales.

Behind the wheels: BMW. Gadget I can’t live without: Smartphone.

Weekends are for: Family.

Favorite holiday destination: Australia.

Hate the most: Hypocrites.

Favorite movie: Baghban.

Favorite Stars: Amitabh Bachchan.

Role Model: Mother Teresa.

Ultimate Ambition: To make eScan No. 1 brand.

Wildest Thing I have ever done: Convincing the teacher to let me bunk the class.

Thing I most want to do: Listen to music.

If I became the PM: I would focus on eradicating illiteracy.

Celebrity i would like to spend my day with: Amitabh Bachchan.

One person I would like to meet, and why: Bill Gates, to get tips on achieving success.

Deepest and darkest fear: Failure. n

50

Computer Reseller News

15/12/2011 www.crn.in

— CRN Network

RNI NO. MAH ENG/1999/635 Postal Reg. No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/193/2010-2012 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai Due Date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight

`

* Price includes 2TB RAID Storage, Video Management Software - NO need for a server.