contents
July 15, 2013 l Volume 2 Issue 18
Cover Story The next phase of opportunities in network solutions and services will be driven by consumerization of IT and the need for collaboration. We list various opportunities that will help you grow your business
23 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik
NEWS Analyses EMC targets SMBs with BRS
Channel Chief 6
Oracle bets big on engineered systems 6 AOC targets 20 percent monitor market share
8
Cisco transitioning partners to cloud
8
Software AG leveraging Big Memory for growth
10
R&M goes aggressive with channel expansion
10
Epicenter Of Opportunities With less than 10 percent of India’s installed IT infrastructure currently virtualized, this space will continue to be the epicenter of opportunities for partners over the next few years
Less than 10 percent
11% 42%
11% 20-30 percent
Opinion
14
Feedback
14
Channel Buzz
34
New Products
35
Shadow Ram
38
Get Personal
38
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Special Focus
9%
Editorial 12
Computer Reseller News
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Negative growth
READ More
4
Robert Vetter Senior VP, Ecosystem & Channel Partner Solution Management & Enablement, SAP, talks about the company’s channel initiatives and plans for 2013
Above 30 percent
27%
26
10-20 percent
18 Market Focus Swimming against the tide Our IT retailers and sub-distributors are a sturdy lot. Even though the economy slowed down considerably in the last fiscal, 80 percent of them grew by 10 percent or more
Tech Focus 10 emerging security technologies gaining adoption With security threats increasing, customers are adopting new technologies that are proactive and preventive
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starting line EMC targets SMBs with BRS n AMIT SINGH
E
MC is increasing its focus on its backup and recovery solutions (BRS) leveraging its de-duplication technology. The company has 66 percent share in the purposebuilt, backup appliance market worldwide, and wants to replicate this in India as well. EMC projects the BRS market in the country to touch $75 million in 2013, and wants to grab 65 percent marketshare. “The enterprise and mid-market entities presently contribute 55 percent and 35 percent respectively to our BRS business. While they will continue to contribute the majority share, the additional growth will come from SMBs. We want the SMB share to grow from the current 10 percent to 25 percent in the next three years,” said Surajit Sen, Country Manager, BRS, EMC India.
“While we expect enterprise and mid-market entities to contribute the majority share, the additional growth will come from SMBs” Surajit Sen
Country Manager, BRS EMC India
The company is seeing increased acceptance by SMBs for disk-based BRS due to the decreasing price difference between tape and disk-based backup. “SMBs are now moving toward disk-based backup solutions,” Sen explained. “De-duplication has decreased the price differential between
tape and disk-based backup substantially. Moreover, disk offers benefits such as easy storage and accessibility, and saves data loss due to soiled and worn tapes,” he said. Besides its Data Domain and Avamar backup and recovery solutions, with source-based and target-based de-duplication respectively for enterprise and mid-market customers, EMC has recently introduced the DD160 and ABE (Avamar Business Edition) targeting SMBs. The company has 11 focused tier-2 partners for BRS and expects more partners to come on board. EMC has a separate SMB team with 19 people to support partners in presales and implementation. According to the company, it has 1,000 customers for BRS in India, of which 300 are using its de-duplication technology. n
Oracle bets big on engineered systems n RAMDAS S
O
racle is urging its partners to push its engineered systems, pre-integrated solution stacks of Oracle servers, storage, networking and software that offer optimal performance. In June the company updated its entire stack of Exadata, Exalogic, Exalytics and Sparc SuperCluster, and introduced the T5 series of Sparc processors. Said Mitesh Agarwal, CTO & Director, Systems Solution Consulting, Oracle India, “With the launch of the new T5 series of servers, and with the revamp of our engineered systems, the performance leadership is firmly back with Oracle. Our SuperCluster T5 offers 10 times better priceperformance compared to IBM’s top-end Power 7+ servers.” He said that Oracle’s engineered systems grew at a rate of 45 percent in Q12013 while IBM’s P-series declined 32 percent. “Last quarter
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“Last quarter we had 1,200 customer wins for engineered systems in India. Over the 12 months we have had 3,000 wins” mitesh agarwal
CTO & Director Systems Solution Consulting, Oracle
alone we had 1,200 wins for engineered systems in India. Over the past 12 months we have had 3,000 wins for the same.” Quoting IDC’s Q12013 report, he said, even in India the company has grabbed the No 1 spot in Unix servers. Oracle reported that more than one-third of its revenue during Q12013 came from engineered systems.
Agarwal said that the company will continue to support Oracle software stacks across all hardware including proprietary Unix servers of IBM and HP, but added that customers will increasingly prefer to buy engineered systems. “Customers have two choices. They can buy different components from multiple vendors, or they can buy our engineered systems which offer up to 10 times the performance of similarly configured stacks from others. We believe customers will bet on engineered systems.” He emphasized Oracle’s commitment to channels. “We are enhancing our partner engagement through technical resources, joint ISV program memberships, joint ISV-customer references, and PoC centers, among others.” He said the focus in the days ahead will be on empowering partners to sell industry-specific solutions. n
starting line AOC targets 20 percent monitor market share n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE
A
OC has revamped its portfolio with an increased focus on Android-based products for growth. The company has introduced one Android smart monitor and one Android AIO in 2013, besides entering the tablet market with its 7-and 9.7-inch Breeze tablets. “We are bullish about the growth of our monitor business in India and have therefore come up with new and innovative SKUs,” said Saurabh Grover, Director, Monitors & Tablets Business, AOC India. “The Android monitor can work with a Windows-based PC as well as act as a large Android tablet when used alone.” According to AOC, the market size for stand-alone monitors in India is six million, of which it has a 16.9 percent share. The company wants to increase this to 20 percent in FY2013-14. “Our branded monitor business comprises both AOC and Philips monitors. In the current fiscal we want to sell one million AOC monitors and two million Philips monitors. In H22013 we will launch 10 new SKUs of which a majority will have innovative features,” disclosed Grover. The company currently has about 20 monitor SKUs. It recently launched its 22-inch Android-based My Smart AIO priced at `15,500, and has plans to introduce 20- and 24-inch variants in Q32013. More new products such as the Mobile High Definition Link monitors in 21.5- and 23.6inch variants and the Miracast monitors with built-in Wi-Fi are also on the cards. With a diverse product portfolio, the company is now looking at channel expansion. It works with Park Networks in the
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“We are bullish about the growth of our monitor business in India and have therefore come up with new and innovative SKUs” Saurabh Grover
Director, Monitors & Tablets Business, AOC India
north, MBT Infosys in the east, Creative Peripherals in the west and recently appointed Rashi as the RD for south India. Informed Grover, “We want to increase our channel base from the present 2,200 to 3,000 resellers by the end of 2013. We also want to increase our reach in tier-2 cities where we sell 30,000 units per month.” For marketing promotions the company has lined up 70 roadshows across Class A, B and C cities to promote its smart AIOs. AOC has also enhanced its post-sales support by increasing its number of authorized services centers from 80 to 125 in 2013. In the tablets market, AOC is a new entrant, and launched its 7- and 9.7-inch Breeze tablets in April 2013. It plans to sell around one lakh units by 2013-end and three lakh units by 2014. AOC’s GTM for tablets is through its existing monitor channel. Later it will appoint RDs in different regions and have around 150-200 resellers under each of its RDs selling AOC tablets. “At the moment we are only testing the waters,” Grover said. “With increasing sales we plan to add the telecom channel to sell our tablets.”n
MUST
Read
Cisco transitioning partners to cloud Cisco has introduced its Cloud Services Reseller program. It is helping its reseller partners move to a hybrid business model involving cloud services. The vendor offers cloud services such as hosted collaboration solutions (a package of collaboration products for unified communications and collaboration cloud services), infrastructure as a service, and telepresence as a service. “Partners are looking at changing their business model from a product-based or margin-based business to annuity-based, and are exploring opportunities in cloud services for predictable recurring revenue and profitability. With the new program, a clear focus on Cisco architecture, services and verticals, we will help partners to create a sustainable practice,” said Pramodh Menon, MD, Partner Business Group, Cisco, India & Saarc. The company will provide a framework and tool-kit guide, besides learning credits. It has, for the first time, included its Cloud Reseller Partners in its VIP Rebate Program. So far the VIP program Pramodh Menon rewarded Cisco partners with a focused technology practice around security, wireless, LAN and UC. The company also announced three new business transformation certifications. The first, Cisco Transformative Architecture Specialist, gives partners access to resources to enable his transition to the role of a business consultant. The other two certifications—Cisco Business Value Specialist and Cisco Certified Business Value Practitioner are interlinked because they help presales executives to pitch the right solution and align it with Cisco services and architecture. The company is initially eying its large Gold partners. To incentivize partners to obtain the specializations, Cisco is providing learning credits of $3,000 to the first 700 executives who obtain the certifications. Menon expects at least 25-30 partner organizations to take the specializations initially; he believes that other partners will gradually obtain them in the next 3-5 years. n — Sonal Desai
starting line MUST
Software AG leveraging Big Memory for growth
R&M goes aggressive with channel expansion
n SONAL DESAI
Read
R&M has recently gone aggressive with its channel expansion and appointed new regional distributors (RDs) to increase its focus on tier-2 and -3 cities. The company wants to increase its share in the `1,300 crore structured cabling market from the earlier 8 percent to 13 percent in 2013. R&M also expects YoY revenue growth of 20 percent for the next two years. IT-ITeS contributes around 45 percent to the company’s revenue while 25 percent is contributed by the automobile sector, 20 percent by BFSI and 10 percent by hospitality industries. R&M has six RDs for states such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Kerala, AP and TN. In 2013 it has appointed three additional RDs—Comnet Resources stationed in Kolkata to cover the eastern region, TEL Communications in New Delhi and Power Analog Devices in Indore to cover north and central India. “We have increased our focus on smaller cities because we Shailendra Trivedi see huge potential for structured cabling there. In 2013 we plan to increase our overall reach to 12 cities. We see demand trickling in from verticals such as BFSI, BPO, education and SMB,” said Shailendra Trivedi, Director, Operations & Channel Development, R&M India. Through its training program called Qualified Partner Program (QPP) the company plans to recruit new partners and provide all aspects of training. This year the company has so far recruited close to 35 new SIs taking the number to around 100. It intends to conduct at least eight such programs in 2013. The company plans to hold 12 road-shows to educate SIs and customers in different regions. To enhance its post-sales R&M has increased its number of support managers from six to nine and plans to increase the number. This is in addition to its 12 technical persons in each city. n — Abhijeet Mukherjee
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I
n a move to boost the use of open source technology in big data, Software AG is looking at increasing its presence in India. The company is leveraging two products, Enterprise Ehcache and Big Memory, which it acquired in June 2011 through Teracotta, a leader in distributed caching and in-memory computing for Java. Enterprise Ehcache gives business-critical applications the capacity for non-disruptive, costefficient growth and migration to cloud environments. Big Memory builds on and extends the capabilities of open source Ehcache, the most widely-used Java cache. “Our bet is on Big Memory, which is an in-memory data store that works with any commodity server. It resides in the front of a database and provides realtime actionable intelligence from unstructured data in seconds,” said Gagan Mehra, Chief Evangelist, Software AG. Mehra is confident that the product will find takers in the ecommerce, retail, media, online gaming, telecom, government and logistics verticals. “Because it is priced on the number of gigabits used and the number of applications loaded on an architecture, Big Memory is 50 percent cheaper than Oracle and SAP HANA.” He said that Big Memory is not focused on ERP, but is a big draw in CRM environments, and competes aggressively with SAP HANA. “HANA requires certified hardware whereas we are based on Java, and can scale up to hundreds of TB of data.” Mehra believes that Indian enterprises are searching for easy solutions to their big data problems. “The Indian customer is looking at big data from two
“We have signed up 10 tier-2 partners, and are looking at acquiring all the top 10 SIs, as well as 3-4 tier-2 partners in each region” Gagan Mehra Chief Evangelist Software AG
perspectives—to drive SLAs and to transition the approach from reactive to proactive. We are also aware that customer acquisition is channel-driven, and are looking at partners, both tier-1 and tier-2. Our GTM would be to build key customers directly, and work with partners in the SMB and mid-market segments.” Continued Mehra, “We will identify vertically-strong partners, train and certify them, and jointly conduct marketing events. We have signed up 10 tier-2 partners, and are looking at signing up all the national SIs, as well as 3-4 tier-2 partners in each region.” The company is also firming up the presence of channel executives; it has appointed Krishna Shroff as Channel Manager, India & Global, and David Ramsey as Director, Channels, Asia, to drive the partner network. Mehul Rajparia, CEO, ClayLogix, a Software AG partner, is betting on Big Memory. According to him, although the adoption of Big Memory is slow, the company encourages partners to adopt a consultative approach. “The size and scope of projects involving Big Memory could be anywhere between $100,000 and half a million dollars.” n
edit opinion Become business consultants to your customers dhaval valia
R
ecently I happened to chance upon an E&Y survey about the IT investment priorities of Indian CIOs for 2013 which highlighted some interesting trends. The survey of 760 CIOs and IT managers of Indian organizations of all sizes pointed out that the IT priorities of organizations are undergoing a paradigm shift. More and more companies are seeing IT not just as a business enablement tool but also as an engagement tool—a tool that can help organizations to get more customer-centric by engaging more closely with all types of customers including internal employees, external customers, suppliers, channels and so forth. Nearly two-third of the CIOs surveyed said that their key IT (read business) priority is to become customer-centric, and that this includes enhancing their ERP and CRM systems, BI, analytics, enterprise mobility, social media, B2B and B2C mobile apps and much more. Over the years CIOs have been trying hard to free themselves from a delivery-focused IT environment where they spend nearly 80 percent of their time maintaining existing IT systems. They spend only 20 percent of their time on creating strong business-IT alignment and thinking of new areas where IT can help to make their companies more competitive, launch innovative products and differentiated services, and reduce the time-to-market for these innovations. What’s more, the CIO is also increasingly coming under pressure not just from the CFO and the CEO but also the CMO and other line-of-business heads. In fact some studies show that the CMO will have a bigger technology budget than the CIO in the next couple of years. At the pace at which business technologies are changing, the CIO, particularly in the SMB and mid-market space, is also uncertain about which technologies to invest in and are increasingly expecting partners to help them navigate the new maze of technology. For instance, CIOs want partners to consult them and recommend a phased approach to enterprise mobility, BYOD, cloud computing and collaboration. These trends suggest that the role of the partner also needs to change. CIOs see partners as equal stake-holders in their IT transformation journey; this in turn means that the partners need to align themselves with the changing role of the CIO. It also means that partners need to invest more time understanding the key business priorities of their customers, and work closely with the CIOs to help them deliver solutions that will help to meet their business requirements. In short, CIOs want partners to become their business consultants and associates. The question is, are partners ready for the new role? n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 12
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Volume 2, Issue 18
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edit opinion Data centers embark on journey of transformation Srikanth RP
T
his is an era of transformation. Current data centers are the best representation of the sweeping technology changes transforming the IT landscape. Trends like BYOD, social media, and the mobile workforce are reshaping data centers. This is forcing organizations to extend benefits of technologies like virtualization to a larger ecosystem. For example, after transforming the server landscape, they are looking to extend the same benefits to storage and networks. Once data centers become software-defined, every component of IT infrastructure can be granularly controlled and driven by policies. Experts say that policy-driven automation capabilities will help organizations build resilience in their data centers, while lowering costs and improving agility. For example, as every infrastructure component can be monitored using software, organizations can use analytical systems to automatically recognize events and decide appropriate actions. Such is the potential of a SoftwareDefined Data Center (SDDC) that Forrester calls SDDC. Another powerful initiative that could create massive changes in the way data centers will be built in the future is the Open Compute project. This project was initiated by Facebook in April 2011 with the goal of openly sharing data center design and build one of the most efficient computing infrastructures at the lowest possible cost. Facebook’s team started by custom building its own software, servers and data centers from the ground up, and then shared these experiences and technologies as they evolved. Using this concept, the team built a new data center from scratch, and managed to build a data center that was 38 percent more efficient and 24 percent less expensive to build than other similar data centers. Similar to the open source movement in software, the Open Compute project’s goal is to develop servers and data centers the same way as open source software. Today, the Open Compute community has grown to more than 50 official members and thousands of participants. The community has started to contribute open designs for everything from racks to storage boxes to motherboards and even network switches. What is significant and noteworthy is the fact that this has been achieved in a time span of just over 2 years. If Open Compute becomes as main stream as open source software, the economics of the data center market will completely change. Whichever way you look at it, these are truly exciting times for the data center industry, as the industry embarks on an era of transformation. n Srikanth RP is the Editor of InformationWeek. Email him at srikanth.rp@ubm.com
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Most influential channel chiefs The CRN cover story on Most Influential Channel Chiefs was interesting. I hope that these leaders invest time in understanding what the channel wants and also helps them navigate the tough and challenging times. More than ever IT companies require the channel and in turn the channel exepct these companies to help them plan and strategize for the future. These leaders shouldn’t focus on tactical issues like target achievement but rather focus on how to help their partners evolve and transform as the IT ecosystem is changing rapidly.
The IT picture The special feature highlighting the opportunities for partners in the media and entertainment industry was informative. With the media and entertainment industry growing at an exponential rate, it will be one of the biggest consumers of IT in the near future. The proliferation of ultra-mobile devices is accelerating the need for media companies to invest in new consumer technologies. Also the government policies is helping create more opportunities. Bibuthi Sharan via email
Sanjay Shah via email
Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in
Advertiser Index Company name
Page No Web site
Emerson
2
emersonnetworkpower.com
HP-IPG
3 www.hp.com/sbso/product/supplies/
Sales Contact
marketing.india@emerson.com
fraud/_report.html
800 3003 3003
Canon
5
www.canon.co.in
1800 180 3366
Cisco
7 www.cisco.in/tomorrowstartshere www.cisco.in/servers
Rashi
9 www.rptechindia.com
feedback@rptechindia.com
Epson
11
think@eid.epson.co.in
Lenovo
13 www.lenova.com
www.lenova.com/enterprise/in/en/thinkpad
Cisco
15 imspl.net/ciscolead/redington
www.cisco.in/servers
CLS
29 www.crn.in/Isummit
anees.ahmed@ubm.com
Adata
36 www.adata-group.com
adata_in@adata-group.com
Quick Heal
37
info@quickheal.co.in
Biz
38 www.indiaantivirus.com
sales@indiaantivirus.com
IBM
39 www.ibm.com
www.ibm.com/pw-puresystems/in
www.epson.co.in
www.quickheal.com/in/enterprise
channel chief “It is a good time to become a SAP partner” Robert Vetter, Senior VP, Ecosystem & Channel Partner Solution Management & Enablement, SAP, spoke to Sonal Desai about the company’s channel initiatives and its plans for 2013 Compared to other software companies, SAP has a smaller channel engagement. How are you planning to change this? Increasing our partner base and engagement has been a global mandate for us for the past year ever since our co-CEO Bill McDermott publicly declared that by 2015 40 percent of our global revenue will come from partner-led sales. We have already started moving in that direction. One of the most remarkable steps we took last year was to transition our inside sales team to the role of partner development managers. Their KRAs have been aligned with the partners’ growth and profitability. These executives are working with 70-80 partners in India and preparing them for bigger opportunities in database, ERP, mobility, analytics, HANA and cloud. The other big move in that direction is the opening up of our PartnerEdge program which makes it easier for partners to align with SAP if they undergo the requisite certification and specialization. They will get the complete support of and benefits from the SAP team. In addition, we have begun sharing the IP of our software with our partners to allow them to offer greater customization to customers and develop applications around SAP products.
Which partner initiatives have you rolled out in the past 12 months? As we increase our interactions with partners, they too are sharing their growth plans and pain-points. While they want to scale up, learn new technologies and enter new verticals, they are also looking at increased handholding from their vendors. Taking this feedback we have planned our partner enablement. For instance, in the last 12 months we have conducted 400 boot camps in India for partners and their customers. In 2012 we conducted 50 high-touch events in APAC, including India; we flew down senior global executives and conducted more customer and partnerled events to increase awareness about our new solutions and strategies. Besides, eight months back we gave partners access to our Partner Advisory Council which has 3.2 lakh
“We have begun sharing the IP of our software with our partners to allow them to offer greater customization to customers and develop applications around SAP products” 16
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consultants globally. Partners can post their technical challenges to any of these council members, and the queries are responded to either the same day or within a maximum of 48 hours. We have received very positive feedback from partners who said that immediate access to subject matter experts is helping them improve their pre-sales and post-sales support dramatically. Our plan is to increase the number of global consultants to 4.5 lakh by 2015. This will be achieved by training pre-sales executives of partner organizations to become consultants. This year we also plan to invest in partner-led PoCs. We already have full-fledged SAP PoCs at all our offices in India, so this year we will work with select partners to set up PoCs within their premises so they can invite their customers and prospects, and demonstrate SAP solutions to them.
In India the next phase of growth will be driven by SMBs in tier-2 and -3 cities. What are your plans to capitalize on these opportunities? On the SMB front our main focus continues to be the B1 suite. We have identified clusters of industries
channel chief in emerging regions, and are working on partner enablement and customer marketing. We have identified 10 new clusters spread across MP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Kerala, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Surat and Coimbatore, and have appointed regional managers to aggressively target clusters in these places. We have put in place a special lead-gen engine for these areas, will conduct various campaigns for business development, and pass on the leads to partners. We will also conduct SAP-led and partner-led events in these regions. Besides, we have recently launched industryspecific templatized solutions for micro-verticals such as rice mills, tea gardens and cement.
How many partners do you plan to enroll this year? We don’t have a number, but let me tell you that we are looking at partners who want to grow and invest in specialization. We usually do partner mapping based on vertical and solution specialization. With our strong focus on partner-led business, it is a good time to become a SAP partner.
A constant complaint from partners is the high cost of SAP training and certification. We too have got this feedback. While we can’t reduce the cost of some of the certification programs such
“We already have full-fledged SAP PoCs at all our offices in India, so this year we will work with select partners to set up PoCs within their premises” as that of a SAP consultant because the training is very intensive, we are looking at lowering the cost of training and certifying pre-sales and sales staff. We also plan to reduce the fees of many of the technical training courses we provide round the year.
What will be your market focus in 2013? For SMBs our focus will be around increasing the deployments of the B1 suite. For existing and large customers we will be focusing on driving solutions around HANA, cloud offerings and mobility. Besides HANA, our effort will be to promote SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud which will run SAP ERP, SAP CRM and SAP NetWeaver Business Warehouse as a managed cloud service with elastic scale. Mobility is another focus area because more SMB, mid-market and large enterprise customers are allowing their employees to bring their own applications. We have a full suite of mobility solutions which we obtained through the Sybase acquisition, and we have been training select partners in them. n
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special focus Epicenter Of Opportunities With less than 10 percent of India’s installed IT infrastructure currently virtualized, this space will continue to be the epicenter of opportunities for partners over the next few years n amit singh
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he virtualization market in the country has matured significantly over the past few years and is going to be one of the fastest growing segments over the next few years. “According to a recent study by AMI Partners, there will be a major increase in the adoption of server and desktop virtualization among Indian enterprises and SMBs as currently less than 10 percent of the country’s installed IT infrastructure has been virtualized,” says Arun Kumar, General Manager, Red Hat. The need to consolidate data centers (DCs), and save money on hardware, power and cooling is driving the adoption of server virtualization. Manish Bahl, Vice President & Country Manager, Forrester India, says that other drivers include reduced management complexity, faster response time, better management of the mobile workforce, and a reduction in server provisioning time. While the ever-increasing cost of DCs and IT infrastructure has made virtualization a necessity, the technology brings in additional revenue for SIs and VARs, and widens their portfolio of services. Says Haresh Gada, Director, Network Techlab, “For solution providers, virtualization is not a matter of choice, it’s a matter of survival. Enterprises and SMBs want to reduce their carbon footprint and recurring costs. They are going to consolidate their IT architecture and put more applications on fewer servers.” While the IT-ITeS segment has been an early adopter of virtualization, the pharma, telecom and BFSI verticals are following suit. “In India, companies going in for virtualization can be categorized in two phases,” explains Ganesan Arumugam, Senior Director, Partner Channels, VMware. “The majority of SMBs are in Phase One where they create a testing environment and initially virtualize
“There will be a major increase in the adoption of virtualization in India as less than 10 percent of the country’s installed IT infrastructure is currently virtualized” Arun Kumar
General Manager, Red Hat
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their tier-2 or -3 applications. But many enterprises are in the second phase, running mission-critical applications such as ERP and CRM in a virtualized environment. This year we will see more SMBs moving to Phase Two.”
The SMB scope According to AMI, the SMB segment comprises about 30 percent of the Indian virtualization market, and is likely to grow exponentially in the next few years. Paresh Shah, Partner, PH Teknow, says that instead of going for new servers SMBs are opting for virtualization which not only saves space but also helps them to use existing infrastructure. “Virtualization can also reduce the risks of IT outages and data loss for SMBs. Many SMBs have lost critical business data because of an accident, disaster or emergency, and many of these have lost sales or customers as a result. Virtualization increases application availability and can dramatically shorten disaster recovery (DR) time, hence it can significantly improve the SMBs’ business continuity (BC) preparedness,” explains L Ashok, MD, Futurenet Technologies.
Virtualization & cloud The biggest trend in DCs is the demand to virtualize infrastructure and the rush toward the cloud. Remarks Gada, “The cloud is turning out to be the biggest ticket for virtualization.” Virtualization is not just happening in servers. Storage, desktop and networking elements are also getting virtualized. “Virtualization of each of these sets is leading to the cloud. In fact, customers opting for private clouds are essentially going in for virtualization beyond servers. For SIs specialized in different areas of virtualization this means revenue from both consulting services as well as selling new solutions to existing DCs,” observes Amrish Shah, Director, Unified Data-Tech Solutions.
Server virtualization Server virtualization is the forerunner in the adoption of virtualization. Says Manojkummar Garg, CEO, Taashee Linux Services, “It is now a common practice among large enterprises, especially in the automobile, BFSI,
special focus “Enterprises and SMBs are reducing their carbon footprint and recurring costs. They are consolidating their IT architecture and putting more applications on fewer servers”
“Virtualization can dramatically shorten disaster recovery time, hence it can significantly improve the business continuity preparedness of SMBs”
Haresh Gada
L Ashok
Director, Network Techlab
Managing Director, Futurenet Technologies
telecom and media space. While many of the enterprises have already moved their ERP and CRM to a virtualized environment, SMBs are also moving in that direction.” A number of Indian businesses are also deploying server virtualization for DR and BC. According to one source, in CY2008, 24.5 percent of the servers sold were virtualization-enabled. With hypervisors now available at a low cost, and improved management tools available for managing both physical and virtual servers, this figure is expected to grow to 60.2 percent by 2015. Mumbai-based Insight Business Machines is betting big on server virtualization technology for growth. For Just Dial, a Mumbai-based search engine, Insight consolidated more than 200 blade servers across eight locations to less than 100 servers. According to Gunjana Shah, Director, Services & Integration, Insight, the project, valued at `12 crore, also involved consolidating storage, networking and other components of the DC.
Desktop virtualization “In a recent report, Morgan Stanley forecast the desktop virtualization market to grow at 67 percent CAGR to become 50 million virtual desktops by 2014,” notes Ashok Shenoy, Regional Manager, Cloud & Datacenter Sales, Cisco India & Saarc. Desktop virtualization is being adopted by organizations where the cost of maintaining desktops is high; it serves to reduce overall operational expenditure. Parag Arora, Director, Enterprise & Public Sector, India Sub-continent, Citrix, says that the ability to centrally manage desktop infrastructure and meet compliance and security requirements are the key drivers for the adoption of desktop virtualization solutions. “While there is no monetary saving upfront, the running cost becomes cheaper,” says Ashok of Futurenet. The company has implemented more than 2,000 virtual desktops in the last couple of years and has about 750 VDIs under implementation.
Storage virtualization The recent study by AMI suggests that there will be greater focus on storage virtualization. As a matter of fact, server and desktop virtualization will increase the need for enterprises and mid-markets to scale up storage systems. “Storage virtualization is the extension of server virtualization. It is fast becoming a mature concept where customers are consolidating everything into a box which is easy to configure and manage,” comments Ashok.
Adds Arvind Gautam, VP, Sales, Emerging Business & Practices, AGC Networks, “Storage virtualization promises to provide continuous access to data even if there is a hardware failure. It has also emerged as one of the most cost-effective ways to expand existing storage capacity.” Shah of Unified Data-Tech says that storage virtualization is becoming essential for DR and BC solutions because it enables seamless migration of workloads from one location to another. Since 2012 the company has done about 30 storage virtualization projects, the value of which ranged from `30 lakh to `5 crore.
Network virtualization Network virtualization is still at a nascent stage in India. However, with the increasing adoption of virtualization in DCs as well as the ongoing server and storage virtualization, vendors and many partners see network virtualization as a natural step forward. Network virtualization allows network administrators to have programmable central control of network traffic without requiring physical access to the network’s hardware devices. Explains Gada, “Organizations have evolved with the proliferation of DCs, BYOD and mobility; the sizes of networks and branches have also increased, making the network complex.” Network Techlab has implemented three projects in network virtualization for customers from the telecom and BFSI segments.
Challenges One of the complaints that partners have is about licensing. “While desktop virtualization has always been at a disadvantage because of the so-called ‘double virtualization taxation,’ vendors have complicated matters further by choosing a memory entitlement-based licensing model instead of the regular CPU-based pricing model,” Gautam says. Adds Gada, “Vendors need to simplify licensing policies and cut costs further if we need to really amplify the growth of virtualization.”
Conclusion Infrastructure consolidation, followed by virtualization, is a key trend being seen in the market. With capital expenditure control being implemented across the board and virtualization solutions becoming increasingly affordable, virtualization is set to become mainstream in the country. n
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cover story
The next phase of opportunities in network solutions and services will be driven by consumerization of IT and the need for collaboration. We list various opportunities that will help you grow your business n rAMDAS S
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he enterprise networking market has been relatively slow over the past few years primarily because customers have been carefully considering TCO and ROI factors before they have been making buying decisions. While no one expects this trend to change, and on the contrary scrutiny, caution and deliberation around decisions will continue, some of the trends in the Indian market are promising newer business opportunities for partners.
Software defined networking Businesses have started to accept software defined networking (SDN) as a serious investment option. With IDC predicting a market of $2 billion for SDNready products by 2016, this is a trend that enterprise channels cannot afford to miss. SDN offers customers and systems integrators a path
“If there’s an opportunity which I would advise our channels to chase it’s business video. Based on my interaction with other CIOs this remains a top priority for everyone” VC Gopalratnam
VP, IT Globalization & CIO, Cisco India
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to manage networks without being tied to proprietary hardware by using open standards such as OpenFlow. SDN-ready switches and routers utilize simple-to-use APIs that can be integrated to manage and deliver services. Says KP Unnikrishnan, Director, Marketing, Brocade Networks, APAC, “SDN offers a means to reduce the complexities associated with networks, and also trim opex and capex costs. Rather than programming around the network, as is done today, SDN links networks and applications, enabling direct programmatic control of both networks and orchestration layers in line with end-user application needs.”
Enterprise management consoles In a trend closely associated with the emergence of technologies such as SDN, many customers are seeking
“SDN links networks and applications, enabling direct programmatic control of both networks and orchestration layers in line with end-user application needs” KP Unnikrishnan
Director, Marketing, Brocade Networks, APAC
cover story “While bandwidth costs have come down, application acceleration devices can offer a faster ROI than an investment in more bandwidth”
“One of the biggest needs of the CIO is to understand the precise activity on the network so that decisions can be taken very fast”
Anil Batra
Prakash Krishnamoorthy
MD, Riverbed India
Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India
simple management tools to manage and monitor networks. All enterprise vendors are investing in building competencies or are acquiring companies to build next-generation management consoles. While enterprise network consoles have been in existence for the past decade and more, the next generation uses rich heuristics and more flexibility. “One of the biggest needs of the CIO is to understand the precise activity on the network so that decisions can be taken very fast,” says Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India. “Our new HP Intelligent Management Consoles based on the HP Flex Architecture simplifies the network, flattens the network, and provides more agility to the network.” Vendors such as Cisco, Brocade, Juniper and Extreme have also announced the availability of such unified consoles.
Revamp within data centers The biggest transformation is taking place inside data centers. When most modern data centers were built a few years back virtualization was still being discussed for server consolidation. Now with cloud computing emerging as a widespread practice, the demand on network switches and routers inside data centers has increased. “Today, with multiple VMs being hosted on a single server, server-to-server data interchange is much more. This has prompted server vendors to start shipping 10G NICs inside servers, and the network backplane is moving to 40G and 100G,” says S Sridhar, Director, Enterprise Solutions, Dell India. It’s not just about speed. Network virtualization within the data center is today is a reality. Last year VMware acquired NiCira for $1.2 billion for its network virtualization platform. Network virtualization decouples and isolates virtual networks from the underlying network hardware the way server virtualization decouples and isolates virtual machines from the underlying server hardware.
BYOD and mobility The increasing adoption of BYOD with the influx of smart mobile devices and the continued proliferation of higher performance 802.11n networks are driving organizations to upgrades, extensions and replacements of their wireless infrastructure. “Cisco believes that BYOD and mobility initiatives are changing the rules of the game. Customers are forced to rethink every aspect of their network architecture,” says Mahesh Gupta, GeoLead, Borderless Network Sales, Cisco India & Saarc.
Many customers have started pilot projects on BYOD. “We have already enabled our top channel partners to offer our mobile devices management solutions to customers,” says Kaushal Veluri, Director, Channels & Alliances, Citrix India.
Power over Ethernet Power over Ethernet (PoE) essentially allows electrical power along with data on Ethernet cabling. This permits a single cable to provide both a data connection and electrical power to devices such as network hubs or closed-circuit TV cameras. Unlike standards such as Universal Serial Bus which also power devices over data cables, PoE allows long cable lengths. Research agency In-Stat is predicting a YoY growth rate of around 16 percent in PoE shipments. “Many customers are implementing building management solutions, and are investing in video surveillance. PoE products are required for such solutions,” says Krishnamoorthy of HP.
Business video Business video is no more just about face-to-face communication or a tool to reduce travel expenses. Business video now goes beyond, and is being used within enterprises for education, training and digital signage. Says VC Gopalratnam, VP, IT Globalization & CIO, Cisco India, “If there’s an opportunity which I would advise our channels to chase it’s business video. Within Cisco itself we are constantly trying to optimize the various formats from telepresence to unified communications. Based on my interaction with other CIOs in the industry this remains a top priority for everyone.”
Application acceleration So far the WAN optimization and application acceleration market was limited to data centers and large enterprises. But vendors are betting on newer markets opening up in the next 12 months. There are situations where bandwidth alone cannot improve application performance, and latency becomes a key bottleneck on even the largest of links. With traffic moving from within the LAN to WAN, application acceleration remains a great opportunity. “While bandwidth costs have come down, application acceleration devices can offer a faster ROI than an investment in more bandwidth,” says Anil Batra, MD, Riverbed India. n
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cover story Not passive anymore Things are looking good for partners in passive networking. New standards are emerging, the data center market is booming, and customers are demanding more
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assive networking is going through a transition with newer standards emerging and with more greenfield projects being announced. With the data center market booming and customers demanding faster speeds, the market outlook is healthy. Here are five trends which will define the passive networking market in the days ahead.
“The evolution of CAT8 has made CAT7 almost obsolete. There are chances that the industry might skip CAT7 and move totally to CAT8”
Faster speeds
Alamuri Sitaramaiah
The biggest trend in the structured cabling market is the availability of faster speeds. Most vendors are predicting that customers will stop investing in CAT5- and CAT5ebased cabling systems this year and move to CAT6 and CAT6A which support 10 Gbps speeds. “Today, client PCs support 1 Gbps, and servers are moving to 10G, so when a customer is thinking of laying new cables or overhauling existing networks he should be thinking of 10 Gbps speeds,” advises Rajiv Kapoor, Country Director, Leviton. With 40G and 100G switches being used in data centers, many believe that the CAT7 standard, which is still in the draft stage, would be obsolete by the time it reaches standardization. “The evolution of CAT8 has made CAT7 almost obsolete. There are chances that the industry might skip CAT7 and move totally to CAT8,” says Alamuri Sitaramaiah, Director, Channel Sales, CommScope India.
High density cabling The data center boom in the late 2000s triggered a transformation in the passive components. While the adoption of high density cables and components were limited to data centers in the initial years, these products have since penetrated cabling within enterprise campuses. Another reason for the spurt in demand for high density cabling is the growth in IP convergence within the enterprise. With more people using business video, voice and data, there is an overhaul of existing infrastructure, and managers are willing to make investments in high density cabling equipment.
Plug & Play Networks There seems to be increasing demand for plug & play cabling systems which eliminate conventional installa-
“Pre-assembled cables and modules enable system expansion at any time, enabling faster response to market situations and operational requirements” Shailendra Trivedi, Director
Operations & Channel Development, R&M India
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Director, Channel Sales, CommScope India
tion errors and support the objective of fast and flawless network commissioning. “Pre-assembled cables and modules enable system expansion at any time, with little effort, thus enabling a faster response to market situations and operational requirements,” says Shailendra Trivedi, Director, Operations & Channel Development, R&M India. Not everyone is excited. “As of today, plug & play is plug & pay. Current rates are eight times more expensive than existing technologies,” says Sitaramaiah. Loss of revenue is a potential threat for a channel partner who has a structured cabling practice if customers opt for plug & play networks. “Irrespective of the size of the network, the labor and design cost amounts to an average 20 percent of the project cost, which is essentially margin for the network integrator,” explains AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, Hyderabad.
Automation and intelligence The biggest trend which the industry is betting on is the growing demand for intelligent cabling systems and the need to automate cabling support. Traditionally, the physical infrastructure of a local data network is often managed by hand. Excel spreadsheets or labels are written to document the position and the allocation of all cable connections. “You quickly reach your limits if you try to apply these methods to large data centers or complex building cabling systems,” explains Trivedi. “Automated infrastructure management systems can intelligently monitor the installation and detect any disruptions to operations in order to facilitate the management of the passive infrastructure.”
Specialized standards Depending on the vertical, new standards are expected to evolve. There are specific IP67-rated cabling solutions for verticals such as manufacturing or automotive where the cabling components have to be shielded from splashes and foreign dust particles. Similarly, there are cabling solutions with multi-level security features which can be deployed in organizations where network security is a critical factor. n
cover story Fast growing segments Partners selling to SMBs and homes can leverage several opportunities emerging in these segments
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he SMB and home segments are the fastest-growing segments in the networking space. The move to cloud computing, increasing costs of managing IT, and regulatory initiatives in verticals such as BFSI are some of the growth drivers. For partners these trends mean newer opportunities across many technology areas.
“Cloud and inter-branch networking are priorities for SMBs. With customers using apps like Office 365, the need for WAN performance will be key”
Adoption of wireless
Bimal Raj
The biggest trend in the SMB segment is the penetration of wireless. With more users buying tablets and smartphones, the number of devices connecting to the Internet through a wireless network has grown exponentially. Even passive networking vendors note that SMBs are scrapping their existing unstructured cabling, but instead of opting for structured cabling are investing in wireless. “The new 802.11ac at 80 MHz is recommended as it supports up to 1 Gbps. Future products will feature 802.11ac incorporating 160 MHz which should give steady performance in excess of 3.5 Gbps,” says Eric Yang, Country Manager, Edimax India. The home market is seeing lower speeds with 802.11g and 802.11n, but with ADSL street prices dropping to less than `1,000 more home users are buying new wireless routers. Another market growing is mobile 3G or 4G routers targeted at business travelers.
Network security Both home and SMB users are wary of security risks. This has forced security vendors to release scaleddown versions of their products. While Cyberoam had introduced Netgenie, an SMB/SOHO UTM, there are sub `10,000 firewalls available from SMB networking vendors. Says Vishak Raman, Senior Regional Director, Fortinet India, “We have introduced a product called FortiAP which can be used in smaller branches, can connect to corporate UTM, and protect and control network usage.” Raman believes that offering UTM products to the home market is a distant future. He says that UTMs can be sold on a pay-as-you-go basis though telecom partners.
Investment in WAN “The cloud and inter-branch networking are two of the
CEO, Smartlink Systems
top priorities for SMB customers. With customers using applications such as Office 365, the need for faster WAN connectivity and improved performance will be key,” says Bimal Raj, CEO, Smartlink Network Systems. Several of the WAN optimization and application acceleration vendors are exploring opportunities with SMB customers. Informs Shibu Paul, Country Manager, Array Networks. “In the next two quarters we will be introducing more affordable load-balancers and application accelerators targeting the SMB space. The cost should be as low as `1,00,000 per location.” Partners say that while smaller SMB customers are buying load-balancers to optimize and improve uptime of corporate broadband connections, larger SMB customers are investing heavily in SSL VPN. Explains Nacheeket Nilekar, Director, Presales, Cadyce India, “Security, access and authentication are top priorities for even small businesses because all their critical data is available digitally and they do not want to risk access to this data.”
Integrated devices While UTM brought in different aspects of information security into a single device, there is demand in the SOHO market for integrated devices that provide multiple utilities which go beyond traditional networking. D-Link had pioneered a series of devices which acted as a home router and a NAS. While so far such integrated devices remain home networking product lines, there is demand from SMBs for similar products. Says Jason Xu, Director, TP-LINK India, “We expect a great deal more technology integration in the form of Wi-Fi, powerline, storage, multimedia and surveillance.”
Switch to manageability It is estimated that over 95 percent of the switches sold to SMBs are unmanaged switches, and that many of them are on Fast Ethernet. With client devices supporting gigabit speeds, and with the need for features such as VLANs and QoS, the industry expects a number of SMB customers to replace unmanaged switches with gigabit-based managed switches. n
“We see a huge potential for load-balancers and application accelerators in the SMB space. We will soon be launching products at prices affordable for SMBs” Shibu Paul
Country Manager, Array Networks
— With inputs from Sonal Desai
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cover story Building a successful networking practice Here are tips on how you can set up a strong networking solutions and services business
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uilding a successful networking practice is not easy. In a market that is fast evolving, it’s imperative to build a strong set of internal practices to help grow the business. Here are a few recommended ways a channel partner can build a successful networking practice.
“We prefer to work with partners who are good at knowledge sharing, provide longer roadmaps, and present their plans on crisis management clearly”
Estimate the size correctly
Ramkumar Mohan
A challenge which many network integrators face is their inability to size up an opportunity and create the right specifications for a quote. Says Alamuri Sitaramaiah, Director, Channel Sales, CommScope India, “We have seen many partners get some assumptions wrong and end up either underestimating or overestimating the project cost. Several partners have lost money or lost customers because of this.” While getting the bill of materials of a large passive networking project right is often complex, partners admit that things can also go wrong with a large networking project. “One solution is to work backward on no-regret quotes with vendors, and get a pre-sales technical person involved while bidding for the project. In many cases vendors are known to support you through some back-hand rebates or other discounting in case something goes wrong,” says Anoop Krishnan, VP, Quadsel Systems, Chennai. Another option is to use the configuration tools which are provided by vendors. “Schneider offers a number of tools which are usually bundled along with our products; these help a partner to plan a data center project to the finest detail,” informs Gurudutt M, Director, Transaction Business, Schneider IT Business.
Focus on certification Certification works in two ways in a partner’s favor. First, it increases the confidence among customers who consider the certifications of both the partner and the implementation team members as key criteria for awarding large projects. Second, vendors give extra rebates to certified solutions partners. Says K Subrahmanya, Director, Central Data Systems, “Our margins are often enhanced
“Though new technologies have evolved, fundamental rules around the basics remain the same. While hiring our technical team, we give a lot of importance to basics” AL Srinath
CEO, Shell Networks
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Head, IT & CISO, Orbiz
because the various certifications we have gained as a company have helped us to earn better.”
Get the basics right One of the main reasons for the success of several large network integrators has been their focus on some basic technology skills. Explains AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, “Though newer technologies have evolved, the fundamental rules around basic technologies such as Internet Protocol or switching remain the same. When we hire our technical team we give a lot of importance to these basics.” Srinath says that to be a successful networking specialist knowledge of Cisco’s OS is necessary whether or not the partner is a Cisco partner. “Today, two out of three serious candidates aspiring to be networking professionals would have undergone some kind of Cisco certification.”
Understand the customer’s business CIOs and enterprise vendors are scouting for partners who have a strong understanding of how technology can help a customer’s business to grow. “Today, every CIO is aligning his IT strategy with the company’s business goals, so the right partner should also be able to understand this need,” says VC Gopalrathnam, VP, IT Globalization and CIO, Cisco India. KP Unnikrishnan, Director, Marketing, Brocade Networks, APAC, concurs. “A focus for the channel should be on investing in training its people so that they not only understand boxes but also have the ability to deliver business solutions that will help them service the enterprises of today.”
Develop strong processes Many CIOs have said that they look at internal practices and processes within an organization before assigning a work order. The reason is that they do not want to depend on specific people. Other parameters include long tenure, case referrals and vendor authorizations. “We prefer to work with partners who are good at knowledge sharing, provide us with longer road-maps, and present their plans on crisis management clearly,” informs Ramkumar Mohan, Head, IT & CISO, Orbiz, Gurgaon. n
cover story Five networking services to focus on With margins on networking hardware declining partners need to focus more on services. Here’s our pick
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ot all services are profitable. Here are some services that are either in demand or will help a network specialist to grow his business.
Surveillance Surveillance is one of the fastest growing markets today, with both local governance bodies and police departments insisting that businesses set up cameras and store video content. The biggest trend in surveillance is the switch from analog to digital. “Today there’s a shortage of good integrators who understand the Internet Protocol, who know how to lay cables efficiently, and who have knowledge of different aspects of IT such as storage and data archival,” says Sudhindra Holla, Regional Director, Axis Communications. Holla points out that the services component in large surveillance implementation projects is in the high double digits which translates into decent margins for partners.
Network auditing Network audits are one of the most in-demand services. Many enterprises outsource these audits but the market is presently dominated by the large consulting companies. Audit services can be divided into different categories. The most common is the auditing of existing network infrastructure, identifying issues, and suggesting fixes such as firmware upgrades or replacement of devices. Security audits are the most profitable among the different auditing services. “A number of customers are already considering IPv6 seriously, and are looking for IPv6 readiness reports,” says Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, HP Networking, HP India. “Another requirement is Wi-Fi site audits since many enterprises are unsure about both security and performance and need an external consultant to tell them about the state of things.”
Structured cabling While many partners take up structured cabling projects they often end up sub-contracting parts of it. This used to make a lot of sense a few years back because most partners saw more margins in consulting and selling the components and did not want to get themselves involved
“Today there’s a shortage of good integrators who understand the IP, know how to lay cables efficiently, and have knowledge of different aspects of IT” Sudhindra Holla
Regional Director, Axis Communications
“Network penetration testing is also in demand which includes periodic software scans or hacking in order to find vulnerabilities in a technical and logical perimeter” Satheesh Nair
CEO, Stickman Consulting
in the whole project. However, since last year, many IT partners have started recognizing that there exist enough margins in taking up projects and implementing them end-to-end. “We had stopped taking up cabling projects, but for the past one year we have started taking up large projects,” informs Neel Shah, Director, Insight Business Machines, Mumbai. Adds AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, Hyderabad, “We do not outsource any portion of a structured cabling project. We offer customers certification and performance guarantees for the infrastructure set-up, and this usually comes with a 20-year warranty. Customers are willing to pay extra for such efforts.”
Remote Management Of all remote infrastructure management projects the most critical is the management of networking devices. Customers are willing to pay more, especially in cases where 24x7 monitoring is provided. Typically, network device management fetches five times more money than managing end-points. Says Srinivas R, Senior Manager, IT Infrastructure, The Himalaya Drugs Company, “Maintaining uptime is extremely critical for enterprises, and we look for partners who can deliver services backed by strong SLAs.” Vendors such as Juniper and Cisco have been working with channels to help them set up professional practices around network management.
Managed Security The functions of a managed security service include round-the-clock monitoring and management of intrusion detection systems and firewalls, overseeing patch management and upgrades, performing security assessments and security audits, and responding to emergencies. According to Satheesh Nair, CEO, Stickman Consulting, Bengaluru, “Network security assessments and penetration testing are also in demand. These include one-time or periodic software scans or hacking attempts in order to find vulnerabilities in a technical and logical perimeter. Segments such as BFSI, R&D, defense, public sector and IT-ITeS have started showing interest in these services.” n
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market focus CRN Channel Confidence Survey 2013—Retail & Distribution
Swimming against the tide Our IT retailers and sub-distributors are a sturdy lot. Even though the Indian economy slowed down considerably in the last fiscal, 80 percent of them grew by 10 percent or more n Amit Singh
O
MD, Aldous Glare, “We identified the lack of product knowledge and vendor push as major impediments to increased sales, hence we conducted regular dealer meets and education sessions to help partners sell with good product know-how. We also provided demo units in stores for a touch-and-feel experience.” Customer loyalty was also an important strategy to maintain growth. Secant Technologies collaborated with vendors to offer free service camps for existing customers. “We offered free gifts to repeat customers and those who referred their friends to us. We also provided a 50 percent discount on every sixth cartridge bought by a customer,” informs Paramjit Singh Juneja, CEO, Secant. Kishore Makhija, CEO, Priyanka Computers, has a similar tale to tell. “While retaining all our partners we added many new partners and were able to sell additional products by offering 2-3 percent discount for dealers who gave us repeat business. We also offered a two-night trip to nearby tourist spots for performing partners. This contributed about 8-10 percent to our sales.” From the product point of view, notebooks and printers overtook desktops to become growth drivers. According to the respondents, printers are being increasingly bought by students, professionals and SOHO users. Says Juneja, “We have seen a spurt in printer purchases as printer and MFP prices have gone down. Moreover, we highlighted features such as eprint and hot-spot to convince customers.” Informs Kukreja, “We added brands like HP, Dell, Apple and Lenovo, which enabled us to sell about 500 notebooks per month against 300 earlier. We also saw demand for AIOs and ultrabooks, and sold approximately 100 ultrabooks and AIOs put together every month.” Many of the partners opted for cost-cutting to
f the 123 retailers and sub-distributors who participated in the CRN Channel Confidence Survey 2013—Retail & Distribution, 53 percent reported revenue growth of 10-30 percent in the last fiscal while 27 percent reported more than 30 percent growth. Says Ashwin Kukreja, Director, RealTime IT Concepts, “Although customer buying has reduced due to the slowdown, new products and aggressive marketing helped us maintain growth.” While many of the respondents noted that their distribution business was a bit slow, there were some who managed significant growth. Says Sundeep Tambi, Director, NCS Computech, “Our distribution business grew more than 27 percent. While improving ties with existing partners and offering special schemes, we also acquired new partners in states like Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram.”
Business strategy Retailers and sub-distributors focused on customer loyalty and aggressive marketing, and added new products to ward off the effects of the lean period. Informs Kukreja, “Besides weekly newsletters providing information about the latest products and activities at our store, we started marketing through Facebook and currently have about 6,500 fans. We also did canopy activities in malls.” Adds KL Lalani, Chairman, Lalani Infotech, “We ran customer schemes every 45 days with the help of vendors who offered support in terms of sharing 50-60 percent of the marketing and scheme expenses.” Lalani Infotech, which got into the retail business in Q32012, clocked retail revenue of `30 crore in just nine months. Distributors like Aldous Glare focused on developing partners to enable sell-out. Explains George Thomas, Revenue Growth in FY2012-13 Negative growth
Less than 10 percent
9% 11%
20-30 percent
27%
Less than 10 percent
More than 50 percent
42%
11%
Revenue growth expected in FY2013-14
10-20 percent
10-20 percent
32%
34% 10-20 percent
17%
Less than 10 percent
11%
28% 30-50 percent
Above 30 percent
Negative growth
8% 4% 9%
Impact of LFRs on business in FY2012-13
20-30 percent
More than 30 percent
38%
19% 20-30 percent
Base: 123 retailers & sub-distributors
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market focus Retailers are focusing on customer loyalty and aggressive marketing to garner business. Many have added smartphones and tablets to their portfolio
Product categories that boosted growth in FY2012-13 Notebooks
62%
Printers
59%
Desktops
increase their profits. “We linked the targets with our employees’ monthly reimbursements. A salesman will get only 70 percent of his petrol expenses if the achieved target is 60 percent. This brought down our monthly petrol reimbursements by 10-15 percent,” says Naresh Wadhwa, Director, IDM Solutions.
55%
Peripherals like keyboard, mice, Web camera
38%
Options and accessories (USB drives, external HDDs, laptop carry bags, etc)
34% Smartphones and tablets
34%
Growth projections Having braved a difficult last fiscal, 88 percent of the respondents expect more than 10 percent growth in the current fiscal with 26 percent expecting more than 30 percent. Lalani Infotech is targeting 25 percent growth in its retail business in the current fiscal. “Our retail store contributed around `30 crore to our total revenue of `250 crore in FY2012-13. This fiscal we will open three more stores and focus on marketing and introducing schemes to get new customers and retain existing ones,” says Lalani. The company is organizing Game-o-thon, a gaming event, with sponsorships from vendors like Logitech, AMD, Asus, AOC, D-Link and HCL. Adds Lalani, “We expect around 250 gamers and 1,000 nongamers to participate in the event.” During the current school opening season partners are optimistic about increased printer and notebook sales. “We expect increased sales of printers because students go in for printers for their school assignments. Professionals are also buying printers for their day-to-day printing needs,” remarks Kukreja. Besides their focus on regular IT retail products and peripherals, many partners are now focusing on smartphones and tablets. Comments Champakraj Gurjar, MD, Maxtone Electronics, “The trend is to have multiple devices at home. This is pushing the growth of tablets and smartphones. Moreover, consumers in smaller cities are going in for tablets and smartphones rather than notebooks and desktops.” “We expect tablets and smartphones to grow by 20-30 percent and drive our business,” says Makhija. “There is high traction for low-priced and feature-rich products, and we are selling about 800 smartphones and tablets put together every month. We expect around 30-35 percent of our revenue in FY2013-14 to come from these categories.” Meanwhile, many retailers and sub-distributors
Sub-distributors are penetrating deeper into upcountry markets and enabling resellers to sellout by launching innovative marketing schemes to create demand
53%
Retail software (antivirus, Windows OS, PC games)
Business activities that boosted growth in FY2012-13 Aggressive marketing
53% Focused on repeat business
47% Added new products
45% Cost cutting
43% Tied up with new vendors
25% Added new retail stores
13% Product categories that will boost growth in FY2013-14 Printers
51%
Retail software (antivirus, Windows OS, PC games, etc)
49%
Smartphones and tablets
49%
Ultrabooks
47%
Peripherals like keyboard, mice, Web camera
45%
Hybrids (notebook + tablet)
42%
Home networking devices
42%
Services like AMC
42%
LED Monitors
38%
Options and accessories (USB drives, external HDDs, laptop carry bags, etc)
38%
AIOs
34%
Digital cameras and camcorders
23% Base: 123 retailers & sub-distributors
are diversifying into solutions. “We have seen a lot of traction for surveillance and home automation solutions in homes and SOHOs; they contributed about 15 percent to our revenue. We have more than 10 customers for these solutions with the average solution cost of `1 lakh-
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27
market focus Challenges that may hamper growth in FY2013-14 Payment delays by customers
60%
Dollar fluctuation
47% Payment defaults
45%
Increase in cost of components and products
45% Vendors changing their distribution strategies
42%
Customers buying from large format retailers
34%
Lack of customer financing schemes
26%
Vendor support required by partners Maintain market operating price
64% Provide better post-sales support
47% Ensure more profits
36% Offer qualitative incentives, rather than quantity based
34% Introduce customer financing
34%
Consistency in channel strategy and programs
30% Decrease prices of products
25%
Base: 123 retailers & sub-distributors
2 lakh. This fiscal we expect these solutions to contribute more than 20 percent to our turnover,” says Udayan Shah, MD, Crescent Electronics.
Challenges Payment delays and defaults have been the single biggest source of discontent for sub-distributors; 60 percent of the respondents voted for it. “The impact of delayed payments from resellers on capital rotation is huge,” grumbles Makhija. “To make things worse, we are not getting any support from the NDs who have on the contrary become stringent with credit. Currently, many of the resellers are paying in 4560 days, which is impacting our bottom-line.” This trend has also entered the retail market, where end-customers are buying products from retailers on partpayment. “Since there are limited customers and high competition, we have to provide them products on partpayment which delays our payment cycle,” says K Chandan, Director, Kala Communication. The appreciation of the dollar is also an ongoing
Payment delay is the biggest issue for sub-distributors with reseller credit period extending to 45 plus days, while distributors are getting stricter with credit 28
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Many retailers are selling products on part payment which is creating delays, and in turn impacting the capital rotation of sub-distributors challenge which has led to an increase in the prices of components and end-products. This, according to many retailers, lowered sales. Informs Rakesh Pursnani, Proprietor, Jawahar Computer Shopee, “Due to dollar fluctuations during November 2012, most vendors increased the prices of their notebooks by 2-3 percent; this affected our sales. While we sold 30-40 notebooks per month during the JAS quarter, in the OND quarter we sold only 12-15 units per month. Footfalls also dropped by 50 percent during that period.” In 2013 the rupee has fallen by 12-15 percent against the dollar; this has prompted vendors to hike the prices by around 3-5 percent. Pursnani believes that the situation may now become worse than that of OND 2012. Changes in the vendors’ distribution strategy are another major worry. Sixty eight percent partners said that LFRs were impacting their business. “There is a price difference of 5-8 percent and an element of touch-and-feel at LFRs which result in a significant loss of business for us. Many vendors, especially in the accessories segment, have taken the online route which is also impacting our business,” says Gurjar. Further, partners are upset with vendors overcrowding the market by adding more partners. “We lost recurring business of about `5 crore because one of the notebook vendors appointed a new distributor for the Patiala region without even informing us beforehand,” reveals Wadhwa.
Expectations from vendors With such challenges, more than 64 percent of the respondents want vendors to maintain the MOP. “Disturbed MOP is hurting our business badly. Vendors are pushing for increased numbers and dump products to achieve targets. With swelling inventories, partners are compelled to liquidate at lower prices,” complains Ajaya Kumar, CEO, Park Networks. Adds Tambi, “The main problem is that vendors are too aggressive with targets. They just dictate their terms and don’t pay heed to prevailing market conditions.” According to Wadhwa, “Vendors must now work to enable sell-out rather than go in for channel expansion. Most of the vendors are already over-distributing which eventually generates unhealthy competition among partners and decreases their margins. We expect vendors to consolidate their channel base so that partners will have fair chances to grow and be profitable.” Around 44 percent of the respondents want vendors to improve their post-sales support. “Apart from good price, customers also want carefree post-sales support. Most of the time the onus of post-sales support falls on the reseller, and when we fail to satisfy customers they move to a different reseller,” points out Reyaz Farooq, Sales Manager, Unicom Systems. n
5
Reasons why you don’t want to miss 22-24 AUGUST 2013 THE LEELA, KOVALAM
Presented by
1
India’s top 100 Enterprise VARs / System Integrators under one roof
2
CRN Xcellence awards 2013, India’s most coveted recognition in the channel industry
3
Exquisite venue, The Leela, Kovalam on a cliff-top overlooking the beach
4
Networking opportunities over 3 energetic days and 2 entertaining nights
5
Optimum opportunity to exhibit products and showcase technology solutions
For partnership opportunities: Anees Ahmed +91 9845032170 North : Sanjay Khandelwal +91 9811764515
Presented by
South : Kangkan Mahanta +91 89712 32344 West : Ranabir Das +91 98200 97606 Marvin Dalmeida +91 88980 22365
To know about CRN Leadership Summit, log on to www.crn.in/lsummit Platinum Partner
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role model
From Travel T0 It
Starting as a travel agent, G Jayamuni Rao today drives the `300-crore Sogo Group, which is among India’s leading sub-distributors and retailers. He shares his journey, the future, and the business philosophy behind his success n Ramdas S
I
n many ways, G Jayamuni Rao, CEO of the `300 crore Sogo Group of Companies, has acquired legendary status among the channel community not just in Bengaluru but also across the country. Many attribute this to the larger-than-life image which he and his team have built around the Sogo brand, his distinctive approach to business, and the several business risks he has taken over a very colorful two decades in the IT industry. Though Rao is a first-generation entrepreneur, Sogo Computers was not his first venture. When barely out of his teens in the early eighties he was already a successful entrepreneur running a successful travel business. However, things fell apart, and Rao had to start again. Without going into the details he concedes, “I was young, impulsive and perhaps careless. Today I look back at my first business as one major learning curve. The setback taught me several lessons which helped me in later years.”
A fresh start The year was 1991, and with high import duties the Indian PC market was still in its infancy. Rao was advised by a few of his friends to try his luck in the IT industry. His travel business contacts were helpful, and he saw an opportunity to supply components to the nascent assembler market. “The channel market was very small, and there were few genuine suppliers. We started by supplying PC components to smaller resellers who did not get the same attention from the larger distributors. It was the beginning of real sub-distribution in the country.” He also started building newer contacts to source products at better prices. Authorized distribution was years away, and a handful of importers operated out of each metro. Most of them concentrated on sourcing and logistics, and were unsure of expanding outside the large metros. “Though the market in smaller towns was limited it was growing, but there were few suppliers. Many traveled from the smaller towns of Karnataka and Kerala to Bengaluru to buy computer parts. We were willing to work with them, and even give credit, which
“Remember, the real big retail giants have not yet stepped on Indian shores, so once FDI in retail gets fully accepted you will see greater competition” 30
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was perceived as a huge risk during those days. Looking back this helped Sogo to build relations with many upcountry partners who are supporting us even today.” By 1995 Intel had started organized distribution and launched its popular system builder program, Genuine Intel Dealer. Sogo was one of the first few partners to sign up. “From the mid-nineties to 2001 was probably the golden period for selling assembled systems. The higher duties and lower volumes kept the large manufacturers out of India, while the hype around IT kept consumers and businesses interested in acquiring computers. We saw year-on-year growth in the high double-digits,” recalls Rao. By 1997, with more vendors stepping up their operations, and with several new organized national distributors (NDs) expanding their business, Sogo became one of the most-sought-after sub-distributors in Karnataka representing numerous IT brands.
Upcountry focus Rao was quick to realize that with organized NDs mushrooming the competition within city markets would grow; he therefore started investing in
Role model
2013
2013
2010
2004
1999
1995
1991
Rao says that the company will Karnataka’s upcountry markets. MILESTONES slowly move away from brick-andSays Rao, “We already enjoyed good mortar retail. “Globally the trend relations with several partners, and is that smaller retail chains are this was perhaps the best business Set up Sogo Computers as a disappearing, so we need to come decision we took though many sub-distributor to terms with this reality in India. rubbished it as a quirky idea at that Remember, the real big retail giants time.” Signed up for Intel’s Genuine have not yet stepped on Indian He says the timing was perfect. Dealer program shores, so once FDI in retail gets The industry was seeing healthy fully accepted you will see greater double-digit growth while no subSet up Sogo’s first retail competition.” distributor wanted to set up offices The focus is now on online upcountry. No ND was willing to showroom business. In April 2013 Sogo put up branches there, or offer credit launched www.Shopatsogo.com, its to partners in those places. Sogo saw Ventured into the multi-retail first ecommerce store. The portal this as an opportunity and started business under the ICEware is already netting monthly revenue setting up offices across the state. brand of `10 lakh, and Rao is planning With seven branch offices across a bigger campaign specifically Karnataka by 2002, Sogo Computers Set up Sogo Synergy for targeted at netizens in Karnataka. crossed revenue in excess of `100 independent distribution and “We are confident that at least 10 crore. percent of our revenue by 2014-end Sogo set up its first retail reverse logistics will come from online.” showroom in 1999, then in 2004 the company ventured into the multiGroup turnover crossed retail business under the ICEware Philosophy `300 crore brand. However, changing consumer Though Rao admits that he used to patterns, and the influx of LFRs into be a compulsive risk-taker, he says Karnataka, did not work in favor of he has mellowed with age and time. LaunchedShopatsogo.com, the strategy. Despite initial setbacks “We touched the `100 crore mark its ecommerce store Sogo re-grouped on retail front by more than a decade back, and could refocusing on it’s core strengths— have easily built our business to aligning distribution strengths with `1,000 crore or graduated to become retail. an ND. We did not choose that path, but today I have no During the same period Sogo expanded the IT rental regrets because not every ND is on a good wicket, and division offering a very wide range of both consumer the future of IT distribution and enterprise hardware. “The IT rental business is uncertain.” has been one of our biggest strengths in the past few He advises his peers to be passionate about business, years. We offer everything from a laptop to high end and not just about one business. “You will need to servers and storage, and addresses a number of IT-ITES change with the times. You need to have a sense of customers in Bengaluru.” detachment too; you cannot hold on to a business because it gave you good returns some time back but is losing money today. The same applies to some Current business vendor relationships. I give more importance to human In FY2012-13 the Sogo Group’s consolidated unaudited relationships than vendor relationships.” financials crossed `300 crore. Flagship sub-distribution Peers say he is a shrewd investor, whether in IT company Sogo Computers accounted for 80 percent products or in real estate. Rao prefers a humbler view. “I of the revenue. Sogo Synergy, a company which was have been lucky and God has been kind. I started with set up in 2010 to seek opportunities in independent nothing and I am grateful to reach where I am.” distribution and reverse logistics accounted for 7 percent A spiritual man, Rao has built a temple near his of the revenue while retail accounted for another 7 village in Doddabalapur district near Bengaluru. percent. Another profitable unit is the rental division An avid traveler, Rao says he has traveled extensively which nets around `10 crore of annual revenue. across the globe, a passion which started with his travel Over the past three years Sogo has started operations business. A complete family man, his wife and two in Delhi, Mumbai and Kochi, and a logistics office in children often accompany him on his holidays. Singapore. Pushing into his mid-fifties, Rao has not thought about a retirement plan or a succession plan. “I am “You need to have a sense of detachment. not sure whether my children will be interested in the business long-term. My daughter is taking an active You cannot hold on to a business because it interest in the online business, but I will never push gave you good returns some time back but either my son or daughter. They are free to pursue their own dreams.” n is losing money today”
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tech focus
10
Security Technologies Gaining Adoption
From new anti malware technologies designed to identify sophisticated attacks to application containers made to keep threats from gaining access to sensitive business data, a whole new line of technologies are being evaluated and adopted by customers n Robert Westervelt
G
artner forecasts the security technology and services market to reach $67.2 billion in 2013, up 8.7 percent from 61.8 billion in 2012. The market is expected to grow to more than $86 billion by 2016. The growth is partly due to interest in a new set of emerging security technologies and a return of more capable defenses that address mobile security, authentication weaknesses and threats to data in the cloud. At the 2013 Gartner Security and Risk Management Summit, chief security officers and Gartner analysts described new areas gaining interest. From new anti malware technologies designed to identify sophisticated attacks to application containers made to keep threats from gaining access to sensitive business data, a whole new line of technologies are being evaluated and adopted. Here are 10 security areas that are gaining industry interest.
Mobile application wrappers IT teams are rapidly learning that applying controls to an employee’s personally owned device is not easy. To address the bring your own device (BYOD) phenomenon, security is moving to the application level. Several vendors, including Good Technology, Mocana and Apperian offer application containers or wrappers that enable businesses to extend security controls to the individual mobile app.
Virtual desktop containers Browser components are getting their own sandbox, so why shouldn’t browsers or commonly used applications? Fairfax, based Invincea uses virtualization and a lightweight Windows app to move Web browsers, PDF readers, Office suite and executable files into a secure virtual container. Attacks are contained and uploaded
Security experts are recommending businesses consider detection, containment and analysis capabilities when it comes to attacks. Put simply, prevention isn’t working 32
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to either an on-premise appliance or Invincea’s cloudbased service. Cupertino-based Bromium is also gaining interest with its hardware isolation, providing a microvisor that isolates system processes. Although it currently only supports systems running the Intel i3, i5, i7 processor, analysts at the summit were praising the product.
APT detection, analysis Security experts are recommending businesses consider detection, containment and analysis capabilities when it comes to attacks. Put simply, prevention isn’t working. For that reason, Milpitas-based FireEye has been gaining the attention of businesses because its platform no longer relies on signatures to detect attacks. The virtual machine-based security platform sits inline and tests suspicious files in a virtual sandbox. Additionally, Cupertino-based Taasera sells a virtual appliance that looks for early behavioral evidence of malware. Some network appliance makers are making advances as well. Finnish firewall maker Stonesoft,
tech focus recently acquired by McAfee, uses a detection engine that looks for malware using anti-detection techniques.
SaaS device management The mobile device management (MDM) market is predicted to come to an end, according to John Girard, Analyst, Gartner. But, the MDM market is experiencing growth mainly from vendors that sell cloud-based solutions. It’s more cost-effective. A few vendors that deserve a look, according to analysts are Fiberlink, AirWatch, BoxTone and Citrix XenMobile. Gartner recommends that organizations evaluating MDM vendors look to whether they provide mobile application management capabilities or application containers.
Crowdsourced threat protection Crowdsourcing has proven successful for organizations or individuals seeking assistance on a project from a larger group of people. Some technology vendors are applying it to security. Santa Clara-based Palo Alto Networks has been gaining attention with the crowdsourcing capabilities associated with its network security appliances. The company’s Wildfire platform uses a cloud-based malware analysis environment that shares threat information with all subscribers to the service. Sourcefire sells its FireAmp appliance line with crowdsourcing antimalware capabilities.
SaaS software testing
Crowdsourcing which has proven successful for organizations or individuals seeking assistance on a project from a larger group of people is now being applied to security Fingerprinting the adversary Targeted attacks designed to steal intellectual property have been gaining attention of security researchers. Comprehensive risk assessments should give organizations a clearer picture of the attackers that may have an interest in the company’s sensitive business data. Part of the process includes identifying and classifying data within the organization, according to penetration testers and consultants who help businesses with assessments. On the technology front, an emerging vendor set on identifying an organization’s threat actors and taking a more proactive approach is CrowdStrike. The firm is introducing its cloud-based Falcon platform that claims to provide attribution on attackers. Meanwhile, San Francisco-based Mykonos Software offers an appliance to profile attackers, fingerprinting cybercriminals based on their intent and skills and injecting the attack platform used with a token to block future attacks.
Updated Identity, access management systems
The Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report points out that vulnerability management and configuration weaknesses are common targets of attackers. Security software vendors are now offering cloud-based software security scanning services in hopes the message will sink in among small and midsize businesses. To meet those needs, Santa Clara-based WhiteHat offers Sentinel for SaaS-based Web application scanning. Meanwhile, Burlington-based Veracode sells a SaaS-based application code analysis service and is seeking channel partners. Industry analysts say the cloud-based services are increasingly used by businesses that don’t have the deep pockets to invest heavily in a software security program.
In its 2013 Technology Vision document, management consulting firm Accenture said identity and access management systems are being updated to include better ways to authenticate users and authorize them to use systems based on their location, time of day and other factors. Systems that can put login attempts in context and make risk-based decisions based on certain behaviors that could help thwart attackers using stolen account credentials, Accenture said. The systems are more complicated, but can build end-user profiles based on their daily activities. For example, an employee that rarely travels and suddenly attempts to login from a location in India would be challenged by the system.
Multifactor authentication
Decoy tech Or Honeypots 2.0
Account credentials have become more expensive on the black market than credit card numbers, according to security researchers. Employees use weak and duplicate passwords for online services and access to corporate systems. The scourge of password breaches has renewed interest in two-factor authentication. RSA, the security division of EMC, sells hardware tokens used by a range of organizations, from large defense contractors and government agencies to biotechnology firms and pharmaceutical manufacturers. Other popular vendors include Amsterdam-based Gemalto and Belcamp-based SafeNet.
Honeypots have been around for years, but security experts say the technology is being made more widely available in an attempt to thwart attackers. Decoy documents and bogus systems can be set up to make attacks take longer, providing a greater chance detection systems will trigger. Accenture cited two firms, New York City-based Allure Security Technology, which uses decoy documents to track attackers, and Tempe-based DataSoft, which offers a device that denies an attacker access to real network data, instead of revealing bogus network information. n
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33
channel buzz n Kshitij Kotak, President and Chetan
Shah, Chairman, ASIRT, with Subhash Palkar, CIO & Chief Patron, CIO Crown, Anoop Mathur, President, CORE, Meheriar Patel, CIO, Globus, Sanjay Mehta, CEO, MAIA Intelligence and Ajit Inamdar, CFO, Cheminova, posing for a group photo
ASIRT brings SIs, CIOs and CFOs on common platform Association of System Integrators and Retailers in Technology (ASIRT) recently concluded its Techday. During the event ASIRT brought the CIOs and the CFOs on a common platform to connect with its partner members. Kshitij Kotak, President, ASIRT said, “We had organized the event to establish the credibility of ASIRT members with CIOs and also to understand the expectations of CIOs and CFOs from the partner community.” The Techday saw a panel discussion on challenges that CIOs and SIs face during business transactions. The panelists included Anup Mathur, President, Center for Recognition and Excellence (CORE), Subhash
Palkar, CIO & Chief Patron, CIO Crown, Ajit Inamdar, CFO, Cheminova, and Sanjay Mehta, CEO, MAIA Intelligence. Members took back many learnings from CIOs. “The CIOs said that they want partners to solve their business problems and guide them through the technology maze. For them, customer references are an invaluable part. They said that price is never the key consideration to buy from a partner. They shared that they have rejected several vendors who quote very low prices as their SLA delivery is a suspect,” Kotak added. Other highlights of the event included unveiling of the Asus Transformer AIO P1801, and Intel’s fourthgeneration Core processors. n
n Partners attentively listening to the Citrix roadmap
Citrix conducts partner training programs Citrix conducted comprehensive training programs for channel partners in eight cities of Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Kolkata and Colombo. These programs were aimed at apprising about the company’s new mobile cloud computing advancements. Partners were also briefed about the new solutions and technologies from Citrix, sales positioning, market opportunity, prospect identification and the new customer wins. “We are witnessing a strong demand for mobility solutions and these programs are instrumental in helping Citrix partners maximize growth and accelerate sales.” said Kaushal Veluri, Director, Channels and Alliances, Citrix India. n
n From left: Richard Tan, MD and Peiyi Hung, Account Manager, Adata India, Kapal Pansari, Director, Marketing, Gopal Pansari, Branch Manager, Kolkata and Rajesh Goenka, VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, with Chris Chang, Head, Adata Saarc
Rashi wins Adata award Rashi Peripherals recently won the Outstanding Distributor award from Adata. The two companies have been associated since 2010. The award was presented by Adata at the Computex in Taipei in 2013. “This is a wonderful way to appreciate and honor our long association with Adata. On behalf of everyone at Rashi, we would like to thank Adata,” said Kapal Pansari, Director, Marketing, Rashi. n
To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 34
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new products Digisol NAS Cloud Vault
D
igisol has launched a 4-bay NAS called the DG-NS5004 Cloud Vault that supports up to 16 TB of storage with 4 TB at each bay. It comes with 1 GHz RISC processor, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and USB port support for printer and data backup. The DIGINAS search utility detects the NAS in the LAN with a click of a button. The user friendly Web interface and setup wizard configures the NAS with minimal effort. With Digisol NAS Cloud Vault private cloud feature, users can access their data from any hand-held computing device. Cloud Vault supports hardware accelerated RAID levels 0, 1 and 5. The product is priced at an MRP of `25,900, and carries a 1-year warranty. n
AOC My Smart AIO
Asus Transformer Book TX300
A
sus recently launched its Transformer Book TX300—world’s thinnest Windows 8 tablet and detachable notebook which is 3 mm thin at its slimmest point. The Asus Transformer Book TX300 is an Intel Core i7 processor powered device with 13.5-inch FHD display with IPS technology for 178-degree wide viewing angle. In the tablet mode it has 128 GB SSD storage. Connectivity options for the tablet include a microHDMI and a microSD card slot. It is powered by a 5000 mAh battery.
For the ultrabook mode the TX300 has 500 GB hard disk and comes with a 4 GB RAM. Connectivity options for the base unit include Wi-Fi n, Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, a mini display port and SD card slot It also has a 5 MP rear camera and HD front camera and comes with a 3120 mAh battery. TX300 is priced at an MRP of `91,999, and carries a 2-year global warranty. n
LG Optimus G Pro smartphone
L A
OC recently launched its new All-In-One (AIO) device called My Smart AIO—A2258PWH with 21.5-inch FHD multi-touch display. The device sports 1 GHz ARM Cortex A9 dual-core processor with 1 GB RAM and 4 GB internal storage via SDHC card. The device runs on Android Ice Cream Sandwich. The AIO has two 2 watt in-built speakers. Connectivity options include 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, Wi-Fi n, four USB 2.0 ports as well as one HDMI port. It can be connected to the Internet through a USB Wi-Fi dongle bundled with the device. The product is priced at `15,500 and carries a 3-year warranty. n
G Electronics recently launched its Optimus G Pro smartphone which sports a 1.7 GHz Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor and 5.5-inch FHD IPS display. The device boasts of advanced UX features and virtual reality panorama. It comes with a 13 MP rear and 2.1 MP front FHD camera. The smartphone is powered by a 3140 mAh battery. Other features of the smartphone include Q remote, smart video, audio zoom, video wiz, magic remote pad, Rainbow colour LED and colour emoticons. LG’s Optimus G Pro is priced at `42,500, and carries a 1-year warranty. n
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
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35
shadow ram Partner penalized by court for warranty lapses by Sony
R
ecently a reseller from Nagercoil received an arrest warrant for failing to provide warranty support to a customer. As the story goes, R Subramanian, CEO, Surya Infotech, sold a Sony notebook to a lady customer a few months ago. The product developed some issues and the customer got it rectified from a Sony authorized center. But within 10 days of getting the repair done, the notebook again started giving problems. This time when the customer returned to the same service center she was told that her warranty had expired. Discontented, the customer approached the consumer court which ruled in her favour and asked Subramanian to pay a penalty of `50,000 and also issued an arrest warrant. The partner approached Sony for assistance as warranty is the liability of the vendor, however the Japanese vendor was least helpful. The partner has now sought help from Confed-ITA, which is planning to file a review of court order and has also escalated the matter with Sony. This episode raises many questions about who is finally responsible for warranty lapses—the partner who billed the product or the vendor. n
GET
Personal
“Euthanasia should be legalized in India” Guna Sekaran, 40, Country Manager, Quantum, India & Sri Lanka, has more than 20 years of experience in IT sales. Prior to Quantum he worked at Huawei Symantec India as Head, Channels. He has worked in senior positions at Hitachi Data Systems, NetApp, Tandberg Data and Ingram Micro.
Guna Sekaran
If not in the IT industry: I would have been an entrepreneur.
Biggest passion: My family. Behind the wheel: Cars. Gadgets I can’t live without: My iPhone. Weekends are for: Introspection. Favorite holiday destination: Fiji islands. Hate the most: Hypocrisy Favorite movie: A Beautiful Mind. Favorite stars: Russell Crowe, Will Smith, Penelope Cruz and Drew Barrymore. Role model: Warren Buffett. Ultimate ambition: To become a top notch entrepreneur some day. Thing I most want to do in life: Sitting on a couch with books from Oscar Wilde, Paulo Coelho and Dan Brown. If I became the PM: I would legalize euthanasia. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Megan Fox. One person I would like to meet and why: Carlos Slim. I want to know the secret of success, money and philanthropy. Deepest and darkest fear: Lose the ability and interest to shepherd. n — CRN Network
38
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