contents
June 15, 2013 l Volume 3 Issue 04
Cover Story Despite poor economic conditions, the IT enterprise channel is optimistic of achieving strong double-digit growth in FY2013-14, with a clear focus on deep selling, and building new solutions and services capabilities
27 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik
NEWS Analyses
Channel Chief
AMD to take on Nvidia with FirePro
8
Array reinvents itself as ADC provider
8
HID charts aggressive SMB strategy
13
WatchGuard ups SMB focus
13
Krithiwas Neelakantan Director, Channel & Alliances, NetApp India, talks about the company’s future plans and strategies
16 Market Focus The birth of Unity IT Nine retailers have come together to create a single identity in the form of a new company which will launch its own brand of IT stores across the country
19 Special Focus
READ More Editorial 10 Opinion
12
Feedback
12
Channel Buzz
38
New Products
39
Shadow Ram
44
Get Personal
44
6
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
34
Big data security analytics By analyzing and drawing connections between disparate sources of information, big data analytics can completely transform the security landscape
Tech Focus Software steals the show Well-built software and the intuitive interface of its touchsensitive control panel is the icing on the cake for HP’s LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn
37
starting line MUST
AMD to take on Nvidia with FirePro
Array reinvents itself as ADC provider
n RAMDAS S
Read
SSL VPN vendor Array Networks has reinvented itself as an application delivery controller (ADC) company and is wooing more partners to sell its solutions targeting the WAN optimization, enterprise mobility, load balancing, high availability, BYOD and application acceleration markets. “We have had a fabulous start to the year when our revenue grew five-fold in Q12013, with 40 percent of the business generated from the government followed by 30 percent from BFSI. We added 39 enterprise customers last quarter, taking our total customer base in the country to just under 250,” said Shibu Paul, Country Manager, Array Networks India. Array, which started off as an SSL VPN vendor, has transformed itself into an ADC vendor over the past three years. “While we still sell SSL VPNs, the enterprise market for them is not growing. With a more mobile workforce and the exponential growth of web-based apps, we see the ADC market growing,” Paul explained. Array is distributed Shibu Paul by Redington and has nearly 60 tier-2 partners of whom around 45 are very active. Informed Paul, “We plan to double the partner base over the next 12 months as we see the market for ADC growing among SMBs and other segments such as cooperative banks.” Array is also eying Cisco’s channels following the latter’s decision to exit the ADC solutions. Explained Paul, “Cisco has dropped the Ace product line, so we have launched the Ace trade-in for Cisco customers and are trying to tap Cisco channels.” Array is offering its ADC solution as a software appliance which can be hosted on any virtualized server, which Paul believes has helped in breaking price barriers and making the product affordable to SMBs. Array has signed on a training partner, Pragati Software, to train partners and customers on all its products. n — Ramdas S
8
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
A
MD India is all set to roll out channel plans to push its FirePro range of professional graphics cards (PGCs). Though the company has just 20 percent share of the global market in PGCs against Nvidia’s 80 percent, AMD believes that over the next few quarters it can bridge the gap. Said Ed Caracappa, Director, Global Sales & Business Graphics, AMD, “There are just two players in the PGC business, and we want to grab at least 50 percent marketshare over the next few quarters.” Though Caracappa believes that India accounts for just 4 percent of the PGC market which is estimated to be worth $800 million worldwide, he is betting on the Indian market growing. “Globally, the PGC market is stagnating, and except for countries such as India we do not anticipate any major growth. Hence, a market size of $30 million-35 million which is expected to grow further is no small market.” AMD distributes its FirePro graphics cards through Mumbaibased Technology & Gadgets, and works through six sub-distributors across the country. “We currently have around 160 partners selling FirePro cards apart from the hundreds of resellers catered to by the workstation OEMs,” Caracappa informed. A key channel which AMD is exploring is the ISV partner channel which consists of resellers of Adobe, Autodesk, PTC, HP Solidworks and Deschault, among others. Said Caracappa, “Over the past 12 months we have nearly 60 software products that have been ported to the OpenCL standards which we have been promoting instead of the proprietary CUDA promoted by Nvidia. Some of the products—such as PTC’s Creo 2.0—have features that work
“While Nvidia pushes Tesla for compute and Quadro for graphics, Firepro has both compute and graphics engines inside the same die” Ed Caracappa
Director, Global Sales & Business Graphics, AMD
only with FirePro cards. This is prompting the Creo channels to recommend FirePro over the competition.” He informed that AMD will offer reference incentives to ISV channels to increase lead generation through them. “For the next few quarters we have allocated budgets to conduct at least 4-5 events each quarter to educate channels about the advantages of AMD’s professional graphics solutions.” In addition, over the next 12 months, AMD is planning to build awareness about the General GPU (GGPU) computing platforms and build availability of server platforms that take advantage of the compute capabilities of graphics cards. Said Caracappa, “Unlike Nvidia which pushes Tesla for compute and Quadro for graphics, FirePro has both compute and graphics engines built inside the same die. This means customers need to spend half the amount for a GGPU solution from AMD.” The biggest message is the price-performance leadership which he says AMD is enjoying. “Right from our entry-level cards we have anything between 15 and 50 percent price advantage for a similar solution from the competition.” n
edit opinion Volume 3, Issue 04
Showing resilience dhaval valia
I
t is interesting to note that, when the Indian GDP growth has dipped to its lowest in the last decade, the IT channel selling to businesses— SMBs and enterprises—has shown great resilience and done very well. The 156 enterprise VARs who took the latest CRN Channel Confidence 2013 survey have grown in double digits during the last fiscal, FY2012-13. If one takes an average mean of the growth rates registered by these partners, it works out to 19 percent which is fantastic considering that we are going through an extended economic slowdown. Also these partners have a rather optimistic outlook for FY2013-14—an average mean growth rate of 25 percent. The big positive of the extended economic slowdown, which started in 2008, is that it has made partners more solutions and services centric. It has also compelled them to expand their solutions capabilities in order to deep sell to existing customers and thus bag a larger pie of their IT budgets. As things stand now, the current fiscal will continue to be economically challenging and all indicators suggest that India’s GDP growth will not exceed 5 percent. Lack of policy reforms to drive investments, a fluctuating dollar and nongovernance will ensure that overall growth remains muted. The business sentiments are unlikely to improve. This is echoed by many in the private sector who feel resigned to the fact that the current central government, which is weak politically, can provide any economic boosters. Many are praying for early elections in the hope that things would improve. On top of this, partners are facing increasing challenges because of the ongoing churn in the IT ecosystem. The decline in the PC market has been steeper than expected and that is worrisome as the current IT ecosystem revolves around the PC. IBM’s decision to sell its x-series server business, Dell going private, and HP’s integration of printing and PC business is indicative of the things to come. The findings of the CRN Channel Confidence Survey 2013 clearly suggests that many partners anticipating the big churn have reduced their focus on PCs and hardware. Selling solutions and services has become a key priority and they are gearing their internal organization. Many are moving out of their comfort zone to develop new capabilities around physical security, mobility, and business applications. The fiscal FY2013-14 will be a more testing year than the previous one, but the resilient IT channel is not complaining and is instead focused on growth. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 10
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
Managing Director Printer & Publisher Associate Publisher & Director Executive Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Principal Correspondent Senior Correspondent
: : : : : : : :
Design Art Director : Senior Visualiser : Senior Graphic Designer : Graphic Designer : Marketing Marketing Head : online Manager—Product Dev. & Mktg. : Deputy Manager—Online : Web Designer : Sr. User Interface Designer : Operations Head—Finance : Director—Operations & Administration : Management Services : Sales bangalore Manager—Sales :
Joji George Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar Anees Ahmed Dhaval Valia Ramdas S Sonal Desai Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) Amit Singh (Delhi) Deepjyoti Bhowmik Yogesh Naik Shailesh Vaidya Jinal Chheda, Sameer Surve Samta Datta Viraj Mehta Nilesh Mungekar Nitin Lahare Aditi Kanade Yogesh Mudras Satyendra Mehra Jagruti Kudalkar
Sudhir K sudhir.k@ubm.com (M) +91 9740776749
Delhi Senior Project Manager :
Kangkan Mahanta kangkan.mahanta@ubm.com (M) +91 8971232344
mumbai Manager—Sales :
Rajeev Chauhan rajeev.chauhan@ubm.com (M) +91 9811820301
Sanjay Khandelwal sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com (M) +91 98117 64515
Ranabir Das ranabir.das@ubm.com (M) +91 9820097606
Marvin Dalmeida marvin.dalmeida@ubm.com (M) +91 8898022365 production Production Manager : Prakash (Sanjay) Adsul Logistics Deputy Manager : Bajrang Shinde Subscriptions & Database Manager : Manoj Ambardekar manoj.ambardekar@ubm.com Senior Executive : Deepanjali Chaurasia deepa.chaurasia@ubm.com Head Office UBM India Pvt Ltd, 1st floor, 119, Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India Tel: 022 6769 2400; Fax: 022 6769 2426 Printed and Published by Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar on behalf of UBM India Pvt Ltd, 6th floor, 615-617 Sagar Tech Plaza - A, Andheri-Kurla Road, Saki Naka Junction, Andheri (E), Mumbai 400072, India. Executive Editor: Dhaval Valia Printed at Indigo Press (India) Pvt Ltd, Plot No 1c/716, Off Dadaji Konddeo Cross Road, Byculla (E), Mumbai 400027 RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 USA Huson International Media (West) Tiffany DeBie Tiffany.debie@husonmedia.com Tel +1 408 879 6666 Fax +1 408 879 6669 Huson International Media (East) Dan Manioci dan.manioci@husonmedia.com Tel +1 212 268 3344 Fax +1 212 268 3355
Japan Pacific Business (PBI) Shigenori Nagatomo nagatomo-pbi@gol.com Tel: +81 3366 16138 Fax: +81 3366 16139
South Korea Young Media Young Baek ymedia@chol.com Tel: +82 2227 34819 Fax: +82 2227 34866
EMEA Huson International Media Gerry Rhoades Brown, gerry. rhoadesbrown@husonmedia. com Tel: +44 19325 64999 Fax: + 44 19325 64998
Important Every effort has been taken to avoid errors or omissions in this magazine. In spite of this, errors may creep in. Any mistake, error or discrepancy noted may be brought to our notice immediately. It is notified that neither the publisher, the editor or the seller will be responsible in respect of anything and the consequence of anything done or omitted to be done by any person in reliance upon the content herein. This disclaimer applies to all, whether subscriber to the magazine or not. For binding mistakes, misprints, missing pages, etc, the publisher’s liability is limited to replacement within one month of purchase. © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Mumbai only. While care is taken prior to acceptance of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents. UBM India Pvt Ltd. cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations or individuals advertising in its newspapers or publications. We therefore recommend that readers make necessary inquiries before sending any monies or entering into any agreements with advertisers or otherwise acting on an advertisement in any manner whatsoever.
edit opinion HP’s Whitman has the right attitude ROBERT FALETRA
A
few weeks back I had a private lunch with Meg Whitman, CEO, HP, and Henry Gomez, Chief Communications Officer. The agenda was simply to talk about the channel and HP’s position. The discussion was off the record so I am not going to reveal details here, but I will mention attitude, because, in my opinion, attitude is everything in channel growth and management. HP is arguably the most important vendor to the solution provider channel. It’s no secret that HP has had its difficulties over the past few years. But that was then and this is now, and I feel Whitman has the right attitude. What do I mean by this? First and foremost, she is focused on the channel for the right reason—she understands its importance to HP’s success. Whitman has made it clear she wants the HP channel fixed. That type of attitude sets direction. It gives employees a sense of purpose. What’s also clear is that Whitman isn’t blind to the problems. She understands she can’t just say something once and expect it to happen. She clearly isn’t buying everything she is being told, and she is committed to tweaking the program and execution to continually improve it. Again, to me this is the right attitude. I don’t think we in the channel can expect everything to go perfectly. I do think we can expect to see steady improvement as the new partner program rolls out, and as Whitman’s attitude becomes ingrained throughout the organization we should expect that the ease of doing business with HP should improve. Thankfully, Whitman understands the challenges of the channel business better than most CEOs. Her history as former CEO of eBay helps. eBay is the ultimate channel company, built on the concept of taking a fractured channel that had no way of reaching a large customer audience, then giving it a way to publicly put its wares on display. While individual sellers were important to eBay under Whitman’s reign, it was those who made a living on eBay who became most important. The HP channel may be more sophisticated and complex, but Whitman is no stranger to building a large business with partners. In the end, it’s her attitude that is most important. That attitude from a CEO is the fastest way to change an organization. So long as Whitman remains consistent and doesn’t vacillate over time, the HP channel is only going to become better and more lucrative. n Email Robert Faletra at robert.faletra@ec.ubm.com 12
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
Lenovo’s win due to complacency of competitors One has to say that the lack of aggression by Sony, Dell and lack of focus by HP due to its integration process has led to Lenovo winning the Channel Champion 2013 crown in the PC segment. I am not sure if this has anything to do with Lenovo doing anything special for the channel. One needs to see how Lenovo performs in this year considering that HP has now got its act in place. Manikandan via email
WD warranty needs improvement It was surprising to see
that Western Digital’s warranty service was rated better than that of Seagate in the latest CRN Channel Champions survey. Seagate surely has more service points compared to Western Digital. Also Western Digital’s pickup service is challenging. It requires end customers to pack the WD hard drive in a certain way as prescribed by WD otherwise the warranty isn’t accepted. In India having local service center is the best option. WD has started providing services through F1 Services but they need to have more such centers across the country to save customers the hassle of packing the products. Vikas Garg via email
Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in
Advertiser Index Company name
Samsung
Page No Web site
1 & 2 www.samsungindiaestore.com
www.samsungindiaestore.com/laptop-warranty
Emerson
4
HP-IPG
5 www.hp.com/in/MFP
in.contact@hp.com
Canon
7
1800 180 3366
Rashi
9 www.rptechindia.com
feedback@rptechindia.com
Seagate
11 www.seagate.com
www.seagate.com/goflexsatellite
IBM
emersonnetworkpower.com
Sales Contact
www.canon.co.in
14 & 15 www.ibm.com
marketing.india@emerson.com
ibm.com/systems/no_compromise/in
Checkpoint
17 www.checkpoint.com
indiasales@checkpoint.com
Avnet
21
indu.rajeev@avnet.com
Juniper Advetorial
www.ats.avnet.co.in
24 & 25 www.juniper.net
nikhild@juniper.net
CLS
26 www.crn.in/Isummit
anees.ahmed@ubm.com
Interop
33 www.interop.in
salil.warior@ubm.com
Quick Heal
40
www.quickheal.com
info@quickheal.co.in
Asus Systems
41
www.asus.in
reachus@asus.com
Adata
42 www.adata-group.com
adata_in@adata-group.com
Lite On
43
www.liteonodd.com
info@compuageindia.com
Biz
44 www.indiaantivirus.com
sales@indiaantivirus.com
IBM
45 www.ibm.com/in/bp
ibm.com/in/xoffers
EMC
46 www.emc.com
india_mktg@emc.com
starting line HID charts aggressive SMB strategy n Amit Singh
P
hysical access control (PAC) solutions provider HID Global is scouting for IT partners in smaller cities and expanding its distribution coverage. “With metros reaching a demand saturation point we are expecting the next level of growth from tier-2 and -3 cities. Partners will be the growth drivers in these markets. With the PAC market moving from proximity cards to smartcards and biometrics solutions, there are opportunities for IT partners,” said Ranjit Nambiar, Director, Sales, IAM, HID Global, India & Saarc. HID pegs the Indian PAC market at $100 million in 2012, is growing at 25-30 percent CAGR. The company currently has a base of 1,000 tier-2 partners of whom only 15 percent are from IT. It is now looking for partners catering to the oil & gas, transport, energy, healthcare, retail and pharma segments. Informed Nambiar, “We want to double our IT partner base by 2013-end. As PAC solutions are taken up by both small businesses and large enterprises, IT partners can create a new revenue stream by pitching our solutions to their existing customers. IT partners can see about 10 percent or more incremental business by adding PAC to their portfolio.” The company, which currently has five national distributors, is looking to increase the number of its regional distributors (RDs) to widen its coverage in smaller cities. HID has appointed Shani Peripherals as RD for Gujarat, Secure Access Solutions in Kerala, and Eagle Techsec Communications in Indore. It has also signed up RDs in Guwahati and Coimbatore.
“We expect the number of IT partners to increase as the PAC business is a progression for their IT business—with higher margins” Ranjit Nambiar
Director, Sales, IAM, HID Global, India & Saarc
The company is expecting the traction on converged PAC solutions to increase this fiscal. According to Nambiar, the convergence of physical and logical access is an emerging trend to improve security by enabling a single smartcard to support multiple authentication methods. For instance, physical access credentials can be reused for logical access including strong desktop authentication. Conversely, logical access credentials can help drive robust identity authentication at the door. “Enterprises from segments like IT/ITeS, BFSI and pharma, which are highly risk-complaint, will be the early adopters of this technology.” The company is also focused on its recently-introduced NFC (near field communication)enabled access control solutions. “We are spending 4-6 percent of our sales turnover on marketing activities which include a yearly 20-city channel roadshow,” Nambiar informed. Among other products, the company offers the iClass, FlexSmart and SmartID ranges of smartcard-based readers and cards, and HID Prox and Indala ranges of proximity-based readers and cards. n
MUST
Read
WatchGuard ups SMB focus After focusing on large enterprises, WatchGuard now plans to tap SMBs through channels. “For the past two years we had decided to focus on large multi-million dollar deals in sectors like BFSI, power utilities and petrochemicals, and as a result our channel-led business had taken a back-seat. However going forward we plan to revitalize our partner-led GTM and drive it aggressively,” informed Scott Robertson, Vice President, APAC, WatchGuard. WatchGuard, which has a 22 percent share in the APAC UTM market, expects SMB to be the largest and fastest-growing market in the coming years. “Network security demand will be driven by the price-conscious SMB and mid-market segments, especially in India which has a large SMB base,” he said. The company has started on-boarding new partners and plans to sign up 100 new partners to target SMB opportunities. Informed Robertson, “We currently have 40 WatchGuard Channel Partners; our plan is to have 140 by the end of this year. We are in the S Robertson process of training and certifying the new partners. We are also equipping our national distributors—RAH Infotech and iValue InfoSolutions—to enable these partners.” WatchGuard will be adding new products specifically designed for SMBs under its popular XTM range and wireless access portfolio. Informed Robertson, “We plan to do events to engage with SMB customers, and have put in place an inside sales team which will generate leads and share them with partners.” WatchGuard plans to enable select partners who can execute deals worth a million dollars every quarter. “We will handhold and support them to ensure they meet their target,” added Robertson. The company recently launched a channel incentive scheme whereby, on the purchase of the XTM 8 series, partners get a free AP200 which comes bundled with a 1-year subscription of SecurityLive. n — Sonal Desai
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
13
channel chief “Our GTM is around partner profitability” NetApp was recently crowned the CRN Channel Champion in the Enterprise Storage category. Krithiwas Neelakantan, Director, Channel & Alliances, NetApp India, spoke to Ramdas S about what makes the company different, and shares future plans and strategies There has been growing acceptance of NetApp’s products over the past year. What were the steps taken to achieve this? Frankly, except for basic updates of our product lines, we have not done anything substantial. What has changed however is the gradual acceptance by customers of the unified storage architecture. Two years back we faced stiff resistance as the competition was seeing more benefits pushing their monolithic SAN storage solutions, and we had to evangelize unified storage as a concept. Today, most of the competition has stacks, and everyone is doing their bit. Since we are a pioneer in unified storage our partners are able to win better. Having said that there are still domains such as core banking and telecom where SAN storage is selling. One of our goals in the coming days is to make the technology compelling for these domains.
How does your channel model work in the country? We are 100 percent partner-driven. Our focused partners are divided into four categories—Star, Platinum, Gold and Silver. We have just one Star partner, which is Wipro. We have around six Platinum partners, 15 Gold and 20 Silver partners. We have close to 70-odd registered partners. Last year we did transactions through our two distributors, Avnet and Redington, with around 110 unique partners. In 2011 we would have transacted with about 85 partners.
A feedback from partners has been that you lack customer coverage. How are you planning to increase such coverage? Our approach is solution-centric. Over the past six months and going forward through the year we will be working with our different OEM and alliance partners to address their partners as well as customers on the
“Our major competitors get involved at the customer site in pricing negotiations. As a policy we never do that. Many customers are not happy with this policy, but partners are happy” 16
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
advantages of having their platforms on top of our storage. For the first time this year we did roadshows with SAP. We are currently running a multi-city event with Citrix whereby we are providing hands-on training to nearly 300 Citrix partners. Similarly, we have been engaging with IBM, VMware, Microsoft, Oracle and Fujitsu to address opportunities jointly. One of our biggest goals going forward is to increase our customer coverage across all geographies, industry verticals and technology domains. We are on the lookout for partners who can provide us the reach.
But channels say that you prefer to work with a limited set of partners and are not keen to add more partners. We are very protective of our existing partners and their business, so you may not see us actively scouting around to build channel capacity. However, this must not deter anyone from talking to us, especially if they feel we can value-add to their business and customers. Partner registration is a simple two-minute Web procedure, and the only other requirement we have is that the new partner should have a working relationship with one of the distributors. Even registered partners can do a deal registration with distributor support and get all pre-sales support from us.
From a channel engagement perspective, how do you differentiate yourself from other enterprise vendors? The biggest challenge which channels today face is profitability. Our entire go-to-market strategy revolves around profitability. If you consider our major competitors, they all get involved at the customer site in pricing negotiations. As a policy we never do that. Many customers are not happy with this policy, but partners are happy. We do work with the partner in pre-sales, sizing the requirements and evangelizing our technology. But it’s completely the partner’s call when it comes to the price to be quoted to the customer. We offer a transfer price through the distributor. This ensures that most partners make on an average above 15 percent in revenue. In hardware there is a limit to upfront margins and rebates. Almost all our focused partners have been enabled to provide services, and as a principle we limit our professional services revenue to less than 10
channel chief percent of our total revenue. We provide the partner with complete freedom to earn all services-related revenue, and several of our partners make more than 25 percent margins on storage projects.
What is your strategy for public and private cloud computing services? Almost all the other top enterprise storage vendors have announced their public cloud offerings, with the latest being Pivotal from EMC along with VMware. But we are very clear that we will not set up our own cloud services. Instead, we are encouraging our service provider partners to set up public clouds. We are enabling our resellers to work with the service providers so that they can build a ready-to-use hybrid cloud for customers. This is a winwin strategy for all—the service provider, our partner, the customer and NetApp. We will never compete with our channels. Today, eight of the top 17 cloud services providers in the country are having their cloud offering on top of NetApp.
You have also announced your vision of softwaredefined storage. Could you elaborate on it? We have just announced our new version of the core storage operating system whose core is the new softwaredefined strategy. The world over, enterprises are moving to software architectures for networking, data centers and storage. Software-defined storage is starting a
18
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
“We provide the partner with complete freedom to earn all services-related revenue; many partners make more than 25 percent margins on storage projects� transformation where the core functionality and managing storage is shifting from the hardware to the software. The new ONTAP clustering software can truly scale-out seamlessly and linearly with a very large number of nodes. The solution is heterogeneous, and will work with storage hardware from all vendors. We are forecasting a future where the scaling-up of storage can be managed outside the hardware. This would allow systems integrators to deliver native multi-tenant, policy-based storage services via programmable APIs and application integrations.
Other enterprise storage vendors have an MOQ or stock-and-sell business. However, you have stayed away from opting for such models. Why? One of the key features of our business model is zero inventory for our channels. Most of our products are sold as part of a solution and very rarely as a box. Moreover, we carry inventory in Singapore, or with distributors in case it is required, which means that we can assure fast deliveries. n
market focus
The birth of Unity IT Nine retailers have come together to create a single identity in the form of a new company which will launch its own brand of IT stores across the country n Dhaval Valia
N
ine retailers having a total of 26 retail outlets have floated a company called Unity IT Technology which will launch its own brand of IT stores under the name of U & IT across the country. With aggregate annual sales of `150 crore in FY201213, and nearly 15,000 sq ft of retail space in Mumbai, Pune, Aurangabad, Nashik and Satara, they plan to have nearly 50 stores under the new U & IT brand by the end of 2013. “By July 15, 2013 all the nine promoters will convert their stores into U & IT-branded stores. We also plan to roll out at least one U & IT flagship store in all metros, and will be signing up franchisees,” informs Deepak Chadha, Director, Unity IT, and CEO, Cyborg World, the company that runs three HP Worlds in Mumbai. In addition, Unity plans to launch an online shopping portal under the U & IT brand; this will go live by July 15. “We have laid out a comprehensive business plan for the new venture, and if everything goes as per the plan we will have at least 300 U & IT stores across India
by 2015. We will have a team of professionals running this venture,” adds Chadha. The company is projecting a turnover of `225 crore in the current fiscal.
The genesis The idea to form this joint venture originated in April 2012 at an IT meet. It was the growing challenges of the IT business which united these partners who otherwise were competitors. Explains Bimal Singh, Director, Unity, and CEO, Geonet IT, the company with 15 retail stores in Mumbai, Thane, Vashi and Pune, “We were all perturbed by the challenges the IT retail business was facing—frequent changes in vendor policies, increasing competition from large format retailers, over-distribution, the growing adoption of tablets, and the decline in the demand for PCs and peripherals. We deliberated over several meetings and finally arrived at this consortium-led joint venture.” Unity IT has completed all the legal processes
“We have a comprehensive business plan for the new venture, and if everything goes as per plan we will have 300 U & IT stores across India by 2015”
“We have a program which lists the commitments of and benefits to franchise partners. The founding members of Unity will also be treated as franchisees”
Deepak Chadha
Bimal Singh
Director, Unity IT
Director, Unity IT
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
19
market focus retailer can become a U & IT required to float the company. The nine founding partners franchisee.” The founders believe that the The company will soon joint venture will provide the Deepak Chadha, Cyborg World (Retail & Distribution) deploy an ERP system where scale and skills which will help Bimal Kumar Singh, Geonet IT (Retail & Distribution) all franchisees will have to log them compete with large retail Rakesh Shah, Solutions (Retail & Corporate Business) in their requirements. Unity chains and online retailers. Ashish Sawant, Dream Machines (Retail) will have its own incentives Elaborates Chadha, “As per Imtiaz Baxamusa, Amgee Computers (Retail) and rewards systems. the charter of the company, all Kanchan Samat, Wiz World (Retail & Distribution) U & IT will house all nine directors will bill their Nitin Phadtare, Shriram Computers (Retail & Distribution) brands. “We will be vendorproducts from Unity. With high VV Shrinivasan, Astute Systems (Retail & Enterprise Business) neutral, but will be choosy volumes we will get better Yogesh Mudrale, Ankit Computers (Retail) in terms of the brands U & IT terms and prices from vendors retails. They have to be good and distributors which will brands backed by quality enable us to compete with products and strong post-sales,” insists Chadha. big players. We will also leverage each other’s service About its online activity Chadha says, “We expect networks to provide an enhanced post-sales experience nearly `10 crore from online sales by the end of to customers. The creation of a common brand will December 2013. Any online order will be fulfilled by enable us to consolidate our marketing expenses and the franchisee closest to the customer’s location.” channelize them for a unified high-decibel campaign to promote the U & IT brand.” With the nine directors having more than 100 years Industry view of cumulative business experience, there will be a strong Many in the industry have welcomed this initiative. management base for the company. Says Singh, “Each “It’s a good concept and a timely one,” comments one of us has strengths, and when we pool our strengths Ketan Patel, CEO, Creative Peripherals, a leading together it creates an incredible management team.” regional distributor based in Mumbai. “The initiative promises several advantages in terms of economies of scale which will help U & IT to compete against large The charter retail chains.” According to the company charter, all the existing and Chandrahas Panigrahi, Country Manager, Consumer new stores of the individual partners will be operated Business, AMD India, also cheers the formation of under the U & IT brand with its layout and interiors Unity. “It’s a good initiative and in tune with the conforming to the guidelines set by the joint venture maturing retail scenario in the country. Customers company. “They will need to bill all their products today want a seamless buying experience and want to from Unity. In addition, all of them will have to sell the choose the best product between brands.” products at the prices decided by Unity to avoid MOP According to Patel, “The new venture should conflicts. The prices available online and at every U & position itself as a large retail chain and must work out IT store will be the same,” informs Chadha. the same agreement with the IT vendors that the large Unity has aggressive franchising plans, and says it format stores today have. They should not stick to just has received expression of interest from more than 20 selling IT but also sell digital convergence products like partners across the country. Informs Singh, “We have digicams, smart TVs, smartphones and tablets.” formulated a comprehensive partner program which Panigrahi says that the uniqueness of the venture transparently lists the commitments of and benefits to lies in the fact that the buying and selling process will franchise partners. The founding members of Unity will be different. “At present retailers spend 80 percent of also be treated as franchisees and thus will have no their time negotiating prices and maintaining vendor undue advantage over other franchisees.” relationships. With a separate buying arm, each store According to Singh, it is just a coincidence that all owner will now be more focused on the selling process. the nine directors of the new venture are HP World However, to take this venture pan-India, the company partners. “Being exclusive partners of HP we met will need to put transparent systems and processes in regularly at meets and also had common issues. For place. If executed well, this venture could can be a big expanding the franchise we will invite multi-brand success story.” n and exclusive retailers of all brands. Even a telecom
“It’s a good concept and a timely one. The initiative promises advantages in terms of economies of scale which will help U & IT to compete against LFR chains”
“To take this venture panIndia, the company should put transparent processes in place. If executed well, this venture can be a big success story”
Ketan Patel
Chandrahas Panigrahi, Country
CEO, Creative Peripherals
20
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
Manager, Consumer Business, AMD India
LET’S BUILD THE BEST SOFTWARE DEFINED NETWORKING
Exponential growth ahead The worldwide market for software defined networking is set to grow 10 times between now and 2016. Partners need to get ready for it
S
oftware defined networking (SDN) is gaining strong momentum within the broader enterprise and data center networking industry. According to IDC, the worldwide SDN market is expected to jump from $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2016. Analysts and IT vendors believe that SDN has high potential to revolutionize networking because it decouples the network controls from hardware and moves them to a software application called a controller. This is a major shift from the existing networks where the logic and intelligence are distributed across physical switches and routers, each with its own configuration; they also require a fleet of engineers to configure each firewall, router or switch separately when making a network change. By contrast, SDN allows network engineers to support a switching fabric across multi-vendor hardware and applications. “SDN’s ability to decouple network intelligence and policies from the hardware allows
for a more programmable network providing greater levels of flexibility, innovation and control in the network,” explains Rohit Mehra, VP, Network Infrastructure, IDC. Little wonder then that most networking majors including Juniper, Brocade, Cisco and HP have already announced solutions and strategies around SDN. “The needs for software-controlled networks have been accentuated by cloud computing, consumerization of IT, and virtualization. Every organization wants a network that responds dynamically based on business policies, is automated to reduce personnel costs, scales independent of the network devices and allows virtualization and software controls,” says Jitendra Gupta, Director, Channels & Alliances, India & South Asia, Juniper Networks. Adds Prakash Krishnamoorthy, Country Manager, Networking, HP India, “SDN can prove to be a key enabler for public and private clouds. In the cloud era clients need a single point of control for the entire network,
a point which enables them to deploy any application or service directly to the user within minutes.” Meanwhile, even as SDN starts emerging, vendors have started talking about software-defined data centers (SDDCs). “The essential idea of an SDDC is that specialized software will replace specialized hardware throughout the data center, reducing the configuration work on a per-server and per-network-device basis,” explains Arpita Sengupta, Product Manager, Storage, Systems & Technology Group, IBM India. Adds Abhilesh Guleria, Country Head, IT Platforms Group, NEC India, “Data explosion and big data are creating the need to expand and make changes in the data center rapidly. SDDC offers rapid and seamless scaleout expansion which is critical for data centers, hence data centers are expected to be the early adopters of the technology.”
Opportunity for partners Verticals such as telecom, BFSI, media, entertainment and IT-ITeS and
“All verticals will eventually move to SDN” Juniper has announced that SDN will be the key element of its future global strategy. Jitendra Gupta, Director, Channels & Alliances, India & South Asia, Juniper Networks, shares his company’s plans for the SDN market What are the growth projections and drivers for SDN? According to IDC, the SDN market will grow from $360 million in 2013 to $3.7 billion by 2016. SDN will bring about a paradigm shift in the networking market. No customer or vendor is going to be immune to SDNdriven change. The reasons for SDN’s exponential growth are many. Today, all networks, large and small, face challenges ranging from manual and complex configuration to lack of reliability and scalability. Every organization wants a network that responds dynamically based on business policies, is automated to reduce personnel costs, scales
24
COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
independent of the network devices, and allows virtualization and software controls. The need for software-controlled networks has been accentuated by cloud computing, the consumerization of IT, and virtualization. Juniper has taken a lead in defining SDN open standards and has recently joined hands with Cisco, Microsoft, IBM, Ericsson, Citrix, Red Hat, Brocade, and Big Switch as a founding and platinum member of the Open Daylight Project. This is an open source effort to create communities JITENDRA GUPTA around the various technologies of SDN. We have
Authorized Distributor:
government are expected to be early adopters of SDN. Even though it is early days for SDN, vendors believe that partners should start preparing themselves to leverage on the opportunity. “Today, many large enterprises are looking at SDN. The transition will be in a phased manner which will open up new opportunities for top-tier partners including SIs and ISVs because several PoCs will be set up during this year. Partners with customers having complex networks should start educating the customers about the benefits of SDN; this will give them an early-mover advantage,” says Gupta. Partners who have a presence in virtualization solutions should also look at building SDN skill-sets. “Hardware is getting commoditized, and the basic hardware layer is mostly similar across the board, hence the differentiation lies in the software defined layer,” adds Krishnamoorthy. However Gupta believe that to leverage SDN opportunities partners will need to make investments in building their software and services expertise. “The skill sets required for SDN fundamentally different. We are helping our partners transform their hardware-led business model to a software-oriented model,” says Gupta.n
INTEC INFONET BULLISH ON SDN The `130 crore Delhi-based network integrator Intec Infonet is bullish about capitalizing on the opportunities around SDN. Says Rajeev Goel, Director, Intec, “SDN automates, virtualizes and centralizes IT network services with provision for open standards and inter-operable protocols across heterogeneous vendors. It promises to reduce cost and complexity.” Intec has identified SDN as a key growth area. “Telecoms are evaluating SDN or have already started the integration of SDN and OpenFlow technology in a phased manner. There is strong potential in PSUs and among large educational institutes with vast IT infrastructure and campus-wide networks. In addition, we will pitch it to governments for their statewide area networks and data centers,” adds Goel. Intec has deployed some of the largest networks in the country over the past couple of years. For National Knowledge Network, it integrated the country-wide backbone deploying 480 Juniper modular routers. For Airport Authority of India it provided a complete solution including network management at the new airports at Chennai and Kolkata. At NIMHANS, Bengaluru, it deployed a campus-wide network with a 10G backbone comprising Juniper switching and security solutions. One of the leading partners of Juniper since 2010, Intec feels that Juniper has a strong advantage Rajeev Goel over competition in SDN. “It was one of the first vendors to integrate the OpenFlow protocol in its products and have a single, open platform (JUNOS) for all its products. Most products running JUNOS are SDN-ready, and Juniper has a clearly defined roadmap for SDN with the right applications and services already available,” comments Goel.n
contributed our XMPP protocol code—which is part of our JUNOSV Controller—to drive broad adoption of this widely-used protocol for SDN use-cases.
Which verticals will be the early adopters of SDN— and why? All verticals will eventually move to SDN because of its immense benefits. However, the early adopters will be telco service providers, enterprises deploying private clouds, large campus networks and large public infrastructure projects. To deploy a private cloud the static nature of networking presents acute challenges. SDN enables networks to dynamically respond to cloud orchestration systems. With SDN telcos can add new services and scale existing ones dynamically, enabling additional revenue streams.
What are the opportunities for partners? A number of opportunities exist for partners. Initially they have the opportunity to sell Juniper products, all of which come with
The Open Daylight Project is an open source effort to create communities around the various technologies of SDN. We have contributed our XMPP protocol code for SDN use-cases” SDN protocol support. Secondly, they can sell Juniper-built management services and control software applications under our Juniper Software Advantage. Thirdly, they can offer professional services, migration services and assessment services to help customers move to SDN. Finally, in some cases, partners can use the JUNOSV App Engine and develop their own applications for the network. Partners will have to make investments in building their software and services expertise because required skill-sets for SDN are fundamentally different. We are helping partners to transform their hardwareled business model to a software model. We will shortly be announcing our first software pricing and licensing plans. n Special technology feature
COMPUTER RESELLER NEWS
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
25
INDUSTRY LEADING COMPANIES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A PART OF
22-24 AUGUST 2013 THE LEELA, KOVALAM
Presented by
DON’T MISS TO MAKE YOUR MARK. Also witness the most coveted awards in the channel industry.
Presented by
To know about CRN Leadership Summit, log on to www.crn.in/lsummit For partnership opportunities: Anees Ahmed +91 9845032170 North: Sanjay Khandelwal +91 9811764515 | South: Kangkan Mahanta +91 89712 32344 West: Ranabir Das +91 98200 97606 | Marvin Dalmeida +91 88980 22365 Gold Partners
Exhibitor
Powered by
Presented by
Organised by
cover story
Despite poor economic conditions, the IT enterprise channel is optimistic of achieving strong double-digit growth in FY2013-14, with a clear focus on deep selling, and building new solutions and services capabilities n crn network
D
considering that FY2012-13 saw India record its lowest GDP growth rate of 5 percent in the last decade. Nearly 41 percent respondents said that they recorded an annual revenue growth of 20-50 percent or more while 41 percent said that they grew between 1020 percent and the remaining 18 percent respondents witnessed negative growth.
espite a deep economic slowdown, the enterprise VAR channel continued to do relatively well in FY2012-13 and surely has a very optimistic outlook for FY2013-14. The 156 enterprise VARs who took the CRN Channel Confidence Survey 2013 achieved an average revenue growth rate of 19 percent, a healthy growth rate performance in FY2012-13 Below expectation
revenue growth in fy2012-13 > 50 percent
Above expectation
11%
18%
27.5%
Negative growth
6%
13%
30-50 percent
22%
As per expectation
10-20 percent
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
More than 50 percent
Negative growth
5% 13% 26% 33%
10-20 percent
41%
61.5%
revenue growth expected in fy2013-14
23% 20-30 percent
20-30 percent
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
30-50 percent Base: 156 enterprise VARs
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
27
cover story areas that boosted growth in fy2012-13 Services
51%
Networking
40%
Software licensing
37%
Desktops
35% Storage solutions
30%
IT Security
29%
Servers
28%
Notebooks
26%
Business application software UPS and power solutions
21% 19%
Physical security and surveillance
19%
Virtualization
18% Imaging & printing
11%
Thin clients
9%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
industry verticals that boosted growth in fy2012-13 Manufacturing
53%
IT & ITeS
50%
Education
46% Government
34%
Public sector units (PSUs)
25%
Retail
24%
Banking and Financial services Infrastructure and Real estate Healthcare and Wellness
21% 21%
18%
Media and Entertainment
14% Hospitality
12%
Pharma Telecom
11% 8%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
Says Deepak Jadhav, Director, VDA Infosolutions, Mumbai, “The IT spends overall have come down. However, there were certain segments and solutions sets which presented large opportunities which helped us grow above expectations.” VDA closed FY2012-13 with a 45 percent growth rate to cross `65 crore. “At the start of the year, we
28
Deep selling and offering new solutions and services to existing customers was the growth strategy adopted by many partners during FY2012-13
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
decided to focus on deep-selling to existing set of 15-20 large customers as selling to new customers has its own risk of payment issues. We developed core competencies around de-duplication, virtualization, software modernization, cloud computing, backup, archival and DR. The key agenda for us was to help our customers optimize IT,” adds Jadhav. VDA won a very large deal worth `8 crore from a leading private bank for modernizing its core banking applications using the Micro Focus platform, and several multi-crore deals around private cloud, virtualization, storage and security solutions from existing customers. The other thing that helped VDA was the focus on services which grew 35 percent. “Among our 15 key customers, we increased our annual services billing by close to 50 percent by offering new services around managed storage services and advanced support.” Another large SI which also focused on deep selling to its select customers was Locuz Enterprise Solutions. “In the last two years due to the economic slowdown our goal has been to focus on existing large customers. To achieve this, we launched an initiative called FLASH, which stands for ‘Fewer, Larger, Stronger & Happier’ customers,” explains Durganadh Venkata, Senior Vice President, Locuz. The strategy paid off as the company grew 10 percent to record a turnover of `190 crore in FY201213. “The FLASH initiative helped us work closely with customers and understand their needs. We bagged three $2 million-$4 million projects in the science and research segments from existing customers,” informs Venkata. Just like VDA, Locuz too focused on increasing the services pie and its revenue from services grew 50 percent to `25 crore. “We saw an almost 100 percent growth in professional services and the remote management business. Last year, we started the IT transformation consulting practice to help existing customers prepare a roadmap for transforming their IT in keeping with the concepts of cloud and BYOD. We did a couple of interesting projects which have given us the base to take up large assignments,” informs Venkata. Even smaller partners catering to SMBs followed the strategy of deep selling to existing customers and adding new services to register growth. Mumbai-based Compusoft grew 40 percent to record a turnover of `4.5 crore in FY2012-13. “Most customers we spoke to said that they had no budgets for new initiatives. Their key agenda was to save overall operational costs of their IT. Also those who invested in new solutions had a clear mandate of investing in ROI driven solutions,” opines Devesh Aggarwal, CEO, Compusoft.
cover story Due to slowdown, the key agenda for customers is to save overall operational costs of their IT and only invest in new solutions that deliver ROI
solutions and services that boosted growth in fy2012-13 Data center solutions
53%
Cloud computing services
52%
Physical security
As a result, the company decided to focus on deep selling and attained specialization in CRM, cloud and mobility solutions. “For customers wanting to save costs, we proposed cloud services and showed them the real ROI which helped us bag several deals among our existing customers. Paresh Shah, Director, PH Teknow, also witnessed 30 percent growth on the back of deep selling, software upgrades and cloud services to its existing set of SMB customers. “Our strategy was 80:20—80 percent from existing customers and 20 from new customers. Nearly 20 of our key customers went for software refresh and these projects varied from `10 lakh to `1 crore. Ahmedabad based Microlink Solutions which grew 30 percent to record a turnover of `30 crore last fiscal focused on new areas like video conferencing and physical surveillance. “With investments in hardware on the decline, we decided to focus on new solutions set and most of our incremental revenue came from this new solutions practice. Adoption of surveillance security is rapidly increasing in education, government and manufacturing, while even SMBs have begun investing in video conferencing as it cuts down costs and improves business efficiency,” says Ketan Khimani, Director, Microlink Solutions.
Growth projections While most partners don’t expect customer sentiments and priorities to change compared to the last fiscal, they are optimistic about better days ahead. The average growth rate expected in FY2013-14 by the 156 enterprise VAR respondents is 25 percent, six percent higher than the average growth achieved in FY2012-13. The key solutions and services that partners are betting on to provide growth during the current fiscal is data center solutions, cloud computing, physical security, software applications and video conferencing. “Our economic outlook is actually bleaker than last year but we are confident that with our focus on deep selling, technology optimization solutions and services we will grow at 25-30 percent. Our focus will be on application solutions and we have started application testing and in future will attempt to move into application development for customers,” says VDA’s Jadhav. Deep selling, focus on increasing the services pie and adding new products and services continue to be the focus area for partners. Nearly 62 percent said that deep-selling is the best growth strategy for them, while 60 percent said that focus on new technology areas will help their deep-selling strategy. “Deep selling will continue to be the focus for us. We have in fact done an extensive exercise to plot
52%
Software application
43%
Video conferencing
41%
Managed security services
39%
Business continuity and disaster recovery solutions
38% Virtualization
37%
Connectivity and voice solutions
37%
Remote infrastructure services
35% Document management services
17%
Unified communications
17% WAN optimization solutions
17% Business intelligence and analytics
16%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
business activities that boosted growth in fy2012-13 Deep selling to existing customer base
62%
Focus on new technology areas
60%
Tie-up with new vendors
36%
Focus on new industry verticals
34%
Cost cutting
33%
Enhancing operational efficiency company
32%
Geographical expansion in India and Internationally
17%
Inorganic growth
6%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
the future IT roadmap requirements of our existing customers and have formulated our strategy around building solutions and services that help customers save cost and deliver ROI. CRM, mobility and cloud will be the key areas for growth,” says Aggarwal. Partners are hoping that technology refreshes are overdue and many customers will eventually refresh part of their IT infrastructure. Nearly 52 percent are hoping to capitalize on tech refresh opportunities among their existing customers. “Many of our customers want to refresh their software to new Microsoft infrastructure. And when they do they would look at consolidation, virtualization
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
29
cover story factors that will drive growth in fy2013-14 SMBs will drive IT demand
56%
Technology refresh by customers
52%
Customers will invest in solutions that provide strong ROI Customers will invest in consolidation and virtualization
48% 40%
Customers will invest in public cloud computing services
34% Customers will invest in private and hybrid cloud
32%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
key challenges likely to hamper growth in fy2013-14 Low margins as customers bargaining hard
72%
Payment delays by customers
56%
Customer have low IT budgets
48%
Vendors selling more direct to customers Dollar fluctuations
44%
34%
Increase in prices of products
28%
Changes in vendors' channel strategies
23%
Lack of right skill-sets
20%
Cloud to impact hardware and software biz
18%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
changes in customer behavior Customers preferring IT consolidation over expansion Customers investing in ROI driven solutions
70% 55%
Customers are demanding managed services along with products and solutions
45%
Customers moving from IT Capex to Opex
42%
Customers are moving towards cloud computing
33%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
and even moving certain applications to cloud. Our strategy will be to capitalize on tech refresh and while doing so suggest them cost-saving options,” opines Shah.
Top performing vertical and solutions Manufacturing continues to be the top growth segment among the 156 solution providers who took the survey with nearly 52 percent ranking it as the top vertical for their business; followed by IT-ITeS, education, government and PSUs. Says Manish Tandon, MD, Questa Software, “In the past year, we have seen increased deployments of business applications such as inventory management,
30
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
Adoption of physical security and video conferencing is increasing and many partners have seen significant business from these domains supply chain and ERP among our manufacturing customers. For instance, Mahindra & Mahindra is one of our clients, and for two of its ancillaries we have deployed business applications. While doing so they are also consolidating and virtualizing their infrastructure and investing in DR and backup.” Shah of PH Teknow, agrees. “Manufacturing customers are streamlining their IT operations. On the hardware front, instead of going in for new servers they are opting for virtualization which not only saves real estate but also helps them to use existing infrastructure and save on costs. Besides, they are moving their mailing and messaging solutions to the cloud.” Nilesh Kuvadia, CEO, ITCG Group, Vadodara, executed several projects for auto manufacturers during the year, and is bullish about this sector offering strong opportunities in the current year. “After Tata and Maruti set up their car plants in Gujarat we have seen many new auto companies opening up plants. This has created significant demand for all IT products.” For Bengaluru-based Future Businesstech, solutions around ERP have driven growth. “We have seen demand from two sets of customers. Larger manufacturing companies are on the second or third round of ERP implementation, and while doing so they are consolidating, virtualizing and adding DR, backup and info security. Smaller companies are implementing ERP for the first time, and that requires an upgrade of servers and storage,” says Jayessh Mehta, MD, Future Businesstech. Hyderabad-based Choice Solutions is seeing strong demand for power solutions from the manufacturing segment, specifically cement, instrumentation and pharma. In the past 12 months, it has completed nine projects for power solutions ranging from `50 lakh to `1.3 crore. “Customers are demanding power solutions because of frequent power interruptions and to plug wastage. Since power is critical for the manufacturing segment, they demand continuity of power and also demand power audits,” says Hanumanth Reddy, Business Head, Choice. On the IT-ITeS front, as per the survey respondents, demand came from software upgrades, VDI solutions and identity management solutions. Choice Solutions bagged several orders for software upgrades from IT-ITeS companies. “We did a good number of projects where the requirements were for tech refresh driven largely by the upgrade of software. The largest one was a multi-crore project for a large BPO which upgraded its entire Microsoft Exchange, Office and OS infrastructure,” says Reddy. Tandon of Questa too has seen good business for MS upgrades among small IT-ITeS entities. “Windows
cover story While demand for PCs has reduced in education, demand for physical security, campus networking, ERP and smart classroom solutions is driving demand
key business priorities in fy2013-14 Add new solutions and services
70% Deep selling to existing customer base
59% Enhancing your company's efficiency
8 adoption is the largest in the IT-ITeS sector—it hasn’t really caught on with other sectors—and this is usually clubbed with upgrades to the new Exchange server.” Shah of PH Teknow saw his largest deal come from an upgrade opportunity where a 3,000-seat IT company upgraded to new Office, server and Windows versions. “VDI and identity management is another big opportunity in this sector,” adds Venkata of Locuz. “Also, many mature companies have started looking at BYOD.” Agrees S Ramanujam, Director, Archon Consulting Services, Bengaluru, “IT companies are increasingly adopting VDI and in the process upgrading their security posture by implementing data security and identity management.” The other areas where the software services companies are investing money are in bandwidth management and compliance. “We are seeing many of our IT-ITeS customers asking for WAN optimization and application acceleration solutions. Compliance is also driving them to invest in IPS solutions,” says Sandeep Vahi, Director, Compton Computers, Delhi. Education vertical continues to provide growth for many partners. While the business of selling notebooks and desktops to educational institutes has come down, it is networking, physical security, digital classroom solutions and ERP solutions that are driving demand. “From clients and server perspective, demand from education vertical has decreased as many private technical institutes are closing down due to lesser number of admissions. Moreover other institutes are restraining themselves on IT investments. However we have seen a major demand for security surveillance solutions in this sector which is also fuelling the need for Wi-Fi networking,” opines Vahi. Informs Khimani of Microlink Solutions, “We are seeing strong growth in campus networking among schools and colleges. We have completed seven large networking projects which included cabling, Wi-Fi routers and switches. The largest one, worth `2.5 crore, was for Sardar Vallabhbhai National Institute of Technology, Surat.” Physical security is also a fast-growing opportunity. “Educational institutes are concerned about the security of their students, and also want to keep a watch on their activities. Besides, physical security is a tool to monitor any ragging activity on the campus. We have done four surveillance projects in the last fiscal, and have a few in the pipeline,” elaborates Khimani. Mehta of Future Businesstech says that while the demand for PCs in the education segment is no longer as much as it used to be, his company is now focusing on opportunities in e-learning, course management and
52% Focus on new industry verticals
43% Cost cutting
33% Geographical expansion in India and Internationally
24% Inorganic growth through merger and acquisitions
6%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
areas that will drive growth in fy 2013-14 Services
54% Networking
53%
Storage
47% IT Security
46% Software licensing
43% Servers
41%
Managed services
35%
Virtualization
34%
Physical security and surveillance
31% Desktops
28% UPS and power solutions
25% Business application software
25% Notebooks
23% Thin clients
23%
Imaging & printing
15% Enterprise mobility
14%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
ERP. “We have done some small projects, and using those as referrals. We plan to bag some large projects going forward.” Government and PSUs were the other two sectors that drove demand for a majority of partners. The opportunities in these sectors were driven by state and central government projects, and sub-letting by large SIs to regional SIs. For instance, Delhi-based Intec Infotec is one of the network integrators chosen for deploying the National Knowledge Network. It integrated the country-wide backbone deploying 480 Juniper modular routers.
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
31
cover story solutions and services that will drive growth in fy2013-14 Virtualization
56%
Physical security and surveillance
55%
Data center migration and integration
52%
Public cloud computing
49%
Software application like ERP, CRM
48%
Video conferencing
48%
Remote infrastructure management
39%
Disaster recovery and BCP
39%
Mobility solutions
35%
Private cloud solutions
33%
Unified communications
29%
Business Intelligence and analytics
20%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
industry verticals that will drive growth in fy2013-14 Manufacturing
54% Education
54%
IT & ITeS
52%
Government
46%
Healthcare
33%
Retail
31%
Public sector units (PSUs)
31%
Banking and Financial services
30%
Hospitality and Travel
30%
Pharma
24% Infrastructure and Real estate Media and Entertainment
24% 23%
Telecom
13% FMCG and Consumer goods
12%
Transportation and Logistics
12%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
According to Rajeev Goel, Director, Intec, “The Airport Authority of India has also upgraded its entire network with network management.” Locuz won its largest deal—worth `40 crore—
32
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
IT companies are increasingly adopting VDI and in the process upgrading their security infra by implementing data security and identity management from the Indian Navy to set up a countrywide communications and networking backbone. Details Venkata, “This is a massive project for the video surveillance of the country’s coastline. Bharat Electronics is executing the project, and outsourced us a part of the work that involved setting up the core backbone network which connects all remote monitoring stations to the command center in Delhi and deploying HD video across 50 stations.” Venkata points out that another big government-led sector is also investing big in IT. “There is substantial government funding coming for science and research to deploy the latest technologies. Last year alone we won large HPC-led projects ranging from $2 million to $4 million from this segment.” Opportunities also exist at the state level for physical security solutions, departmental ERP solutions, and refresh of state data centers. Informs Yogesh Godbole, Director, Ace Brain Systems, Pune, “In Maharashtra many departments are deploying biometrics solutions for security and attendance. Another project, called eOffice, is for the complete automation of government departments and their several offices. It’s a huge project and we have done eOffice deployments in three districts in the state so far. It ensures that users in districts need not physically move files; instead, all files are moved through digital signatures.” For another Pune-based partner, Nahar Integrated Systems & Services, the PSU business has been fruitful. “Over the past couple of years we have signed up with a process automation giant which deploys SCADA systems, intelligent building management systems, physical security systems and the like,” says Shital Nahar, CEO, Nahar. “We deploy the networks and compute for them, and have done this for some large power generation companies and oil refineries. This has not only helped us to navigate the slowdown but also provided us an opportunity to develop some new skill-sets.” While BFSI was no longer the top-performing segment for enterprise VARs, many partners said their BFSI business did well largely driven by demand for private clouds, compliance, storage, security and public clouds coming from BFSI entities including insurance companies, scheduled banks and stock brokers. For VDA Infosolutions, BFSI emerged as the largest growth contributor during FY2012-13, and the company already has a strong pipeline in the segment. “Last year, we won a large deal worth `8 crore from a leading private bank for modernizing its core banking applications using the Micro Focus platform and tools. There was demand from insurance customers for storage de-duplication, backup, archival and private
cover story The biggest challenge for partners is declining margins. Many said that their margins have reduced by 30-50 percent during the past 12 months
support expected from vendors Ensure better profit margins
64% Improve lead generation
51% Offer qualitative incentives
clouds. Compliance is a big opportunity, and we are building a practice around it now,” informs VDA’s Jadhav. Shah of PH Teknow is seeing increased traction for cloud computing among stock brokers; this in addition to the demand for DR and backup due to regulatory compliance. “We did a few 900 nodes plus projects for two large stock brokerage firms migrating their mail and messaging solution. We see big opportunity in this space. Among smaller banks we are seeing large adoption of compliance security, DR and backup solutions,” he says.
48%
Offer cost-effective certification
44%
Maintain market operating price
37%
Offer better pre-sales support
35%
Help us move to a solution centric path
32%
Provide deeper discount on products and services
26% Offer customer financing/project financing
22% Provide more MDF for customer development
18%
Base: 156 enterprise VARs
Challenges to growth The biggest challenge confronting enterprise VARs is declining margins. Many respondents said that their margins have reduced by 30-50 percent during the past 12 months. The low margins are due to multiple reasons—customers bargaining hard, high cost of capital, payment delays by customers, and vendor interference in customer accounts. Most respondents said that the time-to-payment of customers has risen from 45-60 days to 90-120 days, and in the case of some large accounts, even up to six months. “Even if the invoice mentions 60-day payment term it sometimes takes 90-120 days. To make things worse, we are not getting any support from distributors who have on the contrary become stringent with credit. As a result of such cash-flow issues we could not participate in certain projects while we abstained from others because the customers had poor payment records,” says Shah of PH Teknow. Direct selling by vendors has also increased substantially. “We are seeing increased direct selling by vendors every quarter—and this is across the board. But we cannot blame vendors entirely; even customers are to be blamed because they want to negotiate with the vendor directly as they believe that they can then drive a better bargain. In the end, it compromises our margins,” says Venkata of Locuz. Tandon of Questa Software has been at the receiving end of vendors’ direct selling strategies. “In more than three deals one of my principal software vendors bypassed me to close the deal with the customers. Eventually, I stopped doing software business with that vendor,” he says. Venkata also highlights the issue of vendors getting increasingly involved in partner-led customer deals. “It’s good to have vendors supporting you to close deals, but here they are getting into price discussions with customers, and that is unhealthy. They should let the partners do final price negotiations.” The rupee-dollar fluctuations are another challenge
for partners who have seen vendors increase prices by 10-15 percent during FY2012-13.
Expectation from vendors With such operational and economic challenges, partners expect increased support from their vendors. The top expectation of partners from their vendors is to ensure better profits. Shah concedes, “A few vendors have already made changes to their incentive and rebate structures to ensure that we get some percentage rebate even if we don’t meet the targets.” Another expectation is consistency in partner policies. “In the past 6-12 months several vendors have changed their policies suddenly,” says Aggarwal of Compusoft. “For instance, Adobe recently announced that it will no longer focus on the on-premise license business and only promote its new cloud offering. This was done with little thought being given to whether partners and customers in Class B and C cities are cloud-ready. At least give us a heads-up as to what to expect.” Partners also want vendors to offer incentives based on qualitative parameters. Points out Tandon, “We spend a lot of money and resources in certification and training. However, the incentives we get are based on the numbers we sell and not the skills we have and solutions we sell. Vendors must have differentiated incentive schemes offering more rebates to partners who invest in skills and sell solutions.” In addition, respondents said they want vendors to lower the cost of certification. Argues Jadhav of VDA Infosolutions, “While vendors offer free presales training and provide discounts for some basic technical training, there are few discounts for high-end certifications. In India margins are very low—while customers expect consulting and some of the services totally free. Vendors need to understand this reality and provide deep discounts.” n
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
33
special focus How Big Data security analytics is set to transform the security landscape By using analytics to understand the big picture by analyzing and drawing connections between disparate sources of information, big data security analytics can completely transform the ecosystem of security n Srikanth RP
C
an big data transform the security landscape the same way as it is doing in other sectors such as healthcare, retail and education? Experts believe big data will have a transformative effect on security, due to the sheer volume and complexity of information that security analysts collect from a myriad number of tools and event management systems. Most information security departments have to grapple with huge amount of data collected from a variety of servers, workstations, firewalls, intrusion detection systems and antivirus software. The findings of new American research from the Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG) sponsored by Symantec underline the challenges posed by the growing volume of data and the challenges posed to security researchers. More and more companies are collecting a lot more data than they used to two years ago, predominantly to detect advanced threats and for security incident analysis, as well as to make sure audits and compliance targets are met. ESG data indicates that large organizations are collecting more disparate data feeds, keeping this data online for longer periods of time, and using the data for more types of security analysis and investigations. In spite of all this, internal data collection and analysis is no longer enough. “Large organizations are collecting, processing, storing, and analyzing more and more data in order to address the threat landscape and keep up with changes to the IT infrastructure. As an example, ESG found that 76 percent of enterprises collect data on user activity, 75 percent collect firewall log data, and 74 percent collect data on physical security activity within their organizations,” points out Anand Naik, Managing Director, Sales, India & Saarc, Symantec. In this sea of data, it is extremely challenging for security professionals to weed out real threats. Current security tools are not equipped to detect and prevent sophisticated threats. “Current security solutions rely upon perimeter defense and focus largely
“Large organizations are storing and analyzing more and more data to address the threat landscape and keep up with changes to the IT infrastructure” Anand Naik, Managing Director, Sales, India & Saarc, Symantec
34
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
on blocking attacks. Traditional security technologies lack the sophisticated capabilities and visibility required to detect and protect against such attacks. At best, they solve a single facet of the problem,” opines Vaidyanathan R Iyer, Business Unit Executive, Security Solutions, IBM India and South Asia. With the convergence of technologies like mobile, social and cloud, threats have accelerated to a different level with an exponential increase in volume and complexity. Mobile malware threats in particular, have risen to a new level. “With the use of many Android devices, many malicious applications have started dwelling in the mobile phone space. This is a huge concern for organizations when they see such devices accessing the corporate network,” says Amit Nath, Country Manager, India and Saarc, Trend Micro. This was also highlighted by security vendor, F-Secure, which recently warned that the number of mobile threats increased by nearly 50 percent during the first three months of 2013. Threats have also become more personalized and sophisticated, making their detection extremely difficult. “Each threat is more targeted than before, which means there are very few samples in the wild. This helps evade detection through the traditional fingerprinting method. These complex, multi-vector attacks present CISOs with the challenge of not only
special focus “Traditional security technologies lack the capabilities to detect and protect against sophisticated attacks. At best, they solve a single facet of the problem”
“The practice of unsecured mobile devices coming inside and leaving with critical info is forcing organizations to re-think their security strategies”
Vaidyanathan R Iyer, Business Unit
Srinivasa Boggaram, Team Lead
Executive, Security Solutions, IBM India
Presales, India and Saarc, McAfee India
knowing what the malware is but all its characteristics, such as where did it get in from, is it still on the network, what is its objective? Finding such answers may be like looking for needles in haystacks, but in this world of compressed margins and efficiency savings it will be insight, not information that means power,” explains Naik.
The importance of context To prevent emerging threats, security tools have to go beyond prevention and piece together different sets of information drawn from different events. For example, today, it is essential for event collection programs to go beyond firewall and IDS events, and add context. “Identifying anomalous sequences of events at all layers of the stack is not enough. Understanding anomalous activity requires an understanding of the context—the who, what and why. For example, when valuable data is in play by a user who typically does not access that data and is using an unrecognized application on a mobile device that does not have monitoring software on it and recently communicated with an external server that is known to host malware— that’s really important. But without context, it looks like a user ID is accessing a file. These contextual elements are constantly changing, and this requires a new approach for ensuring their collection,” states Srinivasa Boggaram, Team Lead, Presales, India & Saarc, McAfee, emphasizing the importance of context in security. Big data, hence, is both a challenge and opportunity. Boggaram of McAfee sums this up beautifully when he says, ”As security needs have evolved, so has the need for context, analytics and the time period for which data must be stored. That’s why security today is facing both a big security data challenge and opportunity. It is an opportunity if an organization can collect all this data, intelligently manage and analyze it, and leverage it for investigations. It is also a challenge as most traditional analytic tools today are unable to collect and manage all the contextual data required. The data load and the analytics pressure have grown beyond what these data management systems can handle.” Boggaram says that a traditional analytics tool can take into consideration only traditional context information, and other things like network flow, user identity, locations etc. But this is not enough to understand what is going on. “It gets compelling when we add content. What data was moving? How were applications affected? What databases were targeted?
This is where we get a strong understanding of not only what is going on, but what was exfiltrated from our environment. This is a grand concept for most analytic tools, but more is expected from our environment and bringing in dynamic content. Dynamic content is the ability to understand the changing world that is the threat landscape, the changing risk posture, which encompasses an organization’s IT environment.” Big data security analytics can be useful in providing this context, by analyzing huge volumes of network traffic, understanding the relationship between multiple events and combining this information to prevent an attack from taking place. For example, seemingly innocent actions such as sending or accessing files at unknown times and from unknown locations and devices can be used to piece together the understanding of a threat. Agrees Kartik Shahani, Country Manager, RSA India, “The integration of proven big data platforms and analytic methods into security tools provides a significant advancement to how security is performed. Big data security analytics for real time risk management will provide continuous monitoring for situational awareness, rogue assets, configuration management, and vulnerability detection while asymmetric big data security analytics for risk management will be used for risk management planning, scoring, and investment decisions. Organizations can use asymmetric big data security analytics to develop risk scores that help them better focus resources, investments, and security priorities to where they are needed the most.” Big data security analytics can provide CISOs with real time security intelligence and situational awareness across all layers of the technology stack. This addresses a massive gap in the way security systems analyze threats today.
The opportunity in big data security analytics Understanding the immense opportunity in big data security analytics, almost every vendor has launched a specific offering. IBM, for instance, launched a broad set of security software last year, to help holistically secure data and is among the first to offer data security solutions for Hadoop and other big data environments. Additionally, IBM InfoSphere Guardium provides real time monitoring and automated compliance reporting for Hadoop-based systems such as InfoSphere BigInsights and Cloudera. With federated controls across data sources, clients can understand data and
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
35
special focus application access patterns help prevent data leakage and enforce data change controls. Built-in audit reporting can be used to generate compliance reports on a scheduled basis, distribute them to oversight teams for electronic sign-offs and escalation, and document the results of remediation activities. Organizations can also automate the detection of vulnerabilities and suggest prioritized remedial actions across heterogeneous infrastructures. In addition, IBM offers data masking to de-identify sensitive data as it moves into and out of big data systems. RSA’s Security Analytics platform leverages big data platforms and advanced analytic methods capable of identifying high-risk activities, advanced threat mitigation and meeting compliance objectives. Similarly, Symantec’s Data Insight, provides intelligence into ownership and usage of unstructured data, including files such as documents, presentations, spreadsheets and emails. The tool has the ability to track hundreds of TBs of data with millions of files/ folders and billions of access events generated by high workloads. Understanding the importance of creating user awareness, vendors like McAfee are organizing more awareness campaigns and actively participating in industry forums.
Can India be a big data security analytics hub? With a huge reservoir of talent, and proven expertise in outsourcing, India has the potential to become a big data security analytics hub by offering outsourced security analytics services. “India’s IT expertise and talent pool is one of the key reasons Symantec has such a large pool of talent. In fact, we have a Security Operations Center in Chennai, which offers real time, comprehensive protection from known and emerging threats, enabling business and governments to minimize risk and strengthen their
“Integration of proven big data platforms and analytic methods into security tools provides a significant advancement to how security is performed” Kartik Shahani
Country Manager, RSA India
security posture,” states Naik. Big data security analysts are hard to find and hence, there is huge potential for outsourced services. “Knowledge-based services of this nature comes through experience, and there are only a few vendors who would be able to provide this through managed services. The resources with expertise are limited and therefore are difficult to find, expensive to maintain and difficult to retain by individual organizations,” states Shahani. Indian IT vendors are naturally keen to offer this as a service. “There is an increased interest by IT services customers to offer this as a service to their clients,” says Jagdish Mahapatra, Managing Director, McAfee India & Saarc.
Leveraging big data as an asset for security Done correctly, big data platforms can give CISOs more visibility across thousands of scattered devices and networks. Using advanced algorithms, CISOs can better recognize behavioral anomalies that are cleverly hidden among hundreds of tasks that seem normal. They can also be used to identify fraudulent patterns or traits that are common to some parts of the business. These insights can transform the way the security landscape functions today—from reactive to proactive. n Courtesy: www.informationweek.in
Consistent Credible Clear Competent Compassionate Communicative CRN Creative CRN – the 8th C of Channel Marketing
www.crn.in 36
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
tech focus
Software steals the show
Well-built software and the intuitive interface of its touch-sensitive control panel is the icing on the cake for HP’s LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn, a monochromatic multifunction printer for the small-to-medium office or department n EDWARD J CORREIA
W
ell-built software and the intuitive interface of its touch-sensitive control panel is the icing on the cake for HP’s LaserJet Pro 400 MFP M425dn, a monochromatic multifunction printer for the small-to-medium office or department. For `45,499 list, the unit delivers a capable, two-sided PCL/PostScript laser printer with high-resolution b&w copier, color scanner and fax that’s easy to install, set up and use locally or over a network. HP’s 400-series MFP stands 17 inches tall, but needs almost 10 inches more than that for accessing its scanner and copier bed. Its squarish footprint occupies about 14x16 inches, and all everyday functions are accessible from the front. These include access to its 250-sheet paper cassette (with low-paper indicator gauge) and toner service, which takes place through a large tilt-down door that also helps facilitate the clearing of paper jams. Also in front is a USB 2.0 port for walk-up printing of JPG and PDF formats, and for saving scanned images to JPG, PDF, RTF, TXT, BMP, PNG and TIFF formats. Scanned images can be shipped off to a server, email recipient or the cloud. The scanner’s hardware maxes out at 1,200x1,200 dpi when using the flatbed, and can handle up to 8.5x11.7 inch originals. Maximum resolution when using the auto-document feeder is 300x300 dpi. It’s rated at 20 pages per minute for lettersized b&w, and 9 ppm for color. Though the M425dn has a rated duty cycle of 50,000 pages a month, HP recommends a page volume of 7503,000 pages, placing it in the small office category. The b&w-only copier supports 600x600 dpi and is rated to crank out copies as quickly as the printer can print—35 ppm. Like most copiers, originals are placed in the top-loading (50-sheet) feeder, which wakes the M425dn
HP delivers an excellent utility for Mac OS X and Windows that gives IT or service resellers control from anywhere on the network over nearly every settable feature and function of the M425dn
from power-save mode. Two button presses and 10 seconds later, a perfect duplicate rotated 90 degrees is dumped into the 150-sheet output bin. A multipurpose tray can hold 50 sheets, bringing the unit’s standard capacity to 300 sheets. When you’ve been in the printer game for as long as HP, good software usually goes with the territory. That’s clearly the case here; the M425dn was among the fastest and easiest we’ve seen to set up and configure. Much of the credit goes to well-developed software tools, including its driver and utility installer for Mac OS X and Windows, and its remote management software. Along with the printer, power cable and telephone cord came a multilingual, illustrated quick installation guide (which we didn’t need) and installation disks for Mac OS X and Windows. On the Mac side, we were impressed with the level of integration between the install utility and the operating system. For example, once drivers were installed, the installer optionally launches the Print & Fax preferences tool, displays step-by-step instructions on how to add and configure the new printer for use by the host Mac, and offers to place a copy of the utility in the Dock. During setup the printer acquired an IP address over its gigabit Ethernet automatically and was identified by the software right away. Total setup time not including file copying was about five minutes. The experience on Windows was similar, if perhaps less polished. There’s no Linux driver. Going well beyond consumables monitoring, HP delivers an excellent utility for Mac OS X and Windows that gives IT or service resellers control from anywhere on the network over nearly every settable feature and function of the M425dn. On the Mac, the tool is modeled after Apple’s System Preferences control panel and even pops up printer messages on a designated Mac. As for print speed, the M425dn printed exactly according to HP claims. To vary that old phrase, no one gets fired for buying HP printers. With its solid construction, versatile functionality and utilities, and mobile printing through HP’s ePrint for Android and iOS, or Apple’s AirPrint, the M425dn would be among the safest investments by any small business. n
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
37
channel buzz The transformation of TAIT Mumbai’s Trade Association of Information Technology—India’s oldest channel association—has begun reinventing itself. Initiatives include a new logo, a quarterly newsletter, and a new push toward corporate social responsibility n CRN NETWORK
A
t an event attended by 150 people including its members, and distributor and vendor representatives, Mumbai’s Trade Association of Information Technology (TAIT) recently launched a series of initiatives including a new logo and a quarterly newsletter named TAITbuzz. At the event Rushabh Shah, President, TAIT, talked about the 16-year legacy of TAIT and stressed the need for India’s oldest channel association to reform and transform. “With the convergence of technology, maturing customers, and changing business models, it is imperative for TAIT to transform itself keeping in mind the future. Our new logo represents the changing times and reflects the dynamism which is required in the emerging IT ecosystem. The change in logo is not just symbolic but reflects the number of new and unique initiatives TAIT has outlined for the future.” He listed the initiatives that TAIT will undertake in the coming months; these include a certification exercise for its members, the creation of online groups, the launch of awards, and a new push toward corporate social responsibility (CSR). He also informed that TAIT has opened a new office at Lamington Road (in south-central Mumbai) to ensure closer and regular interaction with its members and carry out various training programs. Pravin Dhoka, Director & Media Spokesperson, TAIT, spoke about TAITbuzz. “The magazine will provide news and information on
n n Rushabh Champakraj Shah, Gurjar, President, Director, TAIT TAIT, explaining sharingthe the new associations’ initiativesplans to members for COM-IT 2013
n TAIT Directors inaugurating the new logo
the latest developments and trends, and highlight the best practices and achievements of TAIT members. It will feature different sections such as technology write-ups, how-to pieces, user productivity tips, case studies, special articles featuring the spouses of TAIT members and their contributions, best practices and bylined articles from industry leaders.” TAIT also announced the institution of an award called Women Power for the spouses of the memberpartners who have contributed equally to the success of their business. The first such award was given to Seema Dalmia, wife of Pramod Dalmia, the CEO of Spur Electronics. Explained Parag Shah, Vice President, TAIT, “Had it not been for the women behind them many of the partners may not have been as successful as they are today. It is the support of their spouses which helped them to grow and prosper.” In addition, TAIT announced
n Seema Dalmia, wife of Pramod Dalmia, CEO, Spur Electronics, receiving the Women Power award
its CSR initiative with the launch of Education First, whereby it will regularly distribute long books to needy students. The initiative is being supported by AMD, Neoteric, Creative Peripherals and Rashi Peripherals. The association has set a target of donating long books to 5,000 school students this year. Champakraj Gurjar, Director, TAIT, shared the association’s plans for Com-IT 2013 scheduled for November 14-17, 2013. “We intend to make Com-IT far bigger with stronger international participation than last year, and have already started marketing the event. I am proud to share that the Taiwan External Trade Development Council has already signed a contract for a 144 sq mt pavilion.” The event ended with fanfare and a lucky draw where several members won exciting gifts which were given away by TAIT directors including Rahul Zaveri, Ajay Parekh, Bimal Jhaveri and Nikesh Sakaria. n
n Champakraj Gurjar, Director, TAIT, sharing the association’s plans for COM-IT 2013
To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 38
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
new products Simmtronics XPAD XQ1 gaming tablet
Stellar Phoenix Windows Data Recovery 6
S
S
immtronics has launched the XPAD XQ1 which is positioned as a gaming tablet. Running on a quad-core 1 GHz processor and Android 4.1, it has a 10.1-inch IPS retina screen with a pixel resolution of 1,280x800. With automatic 4-direction display and a 10-point multi-touch feature, the tablet is built for offering users a good gaming experience. The device comes with 2 GB DDR3, 16 GB of internal memory, and supports up to 32 GB of expandable memory. For connectivity, the tablet has Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and HDMI, and supports 3G via a dongle. It comes with a 2 MP rear camera and 0.3 MP front camera, and has a 3.5 mm stereo earphone jack. The tablet, powered by a 6,000 mAh rechargeable battery, promises 20 hours of Web browsing and six hours of video play. Priced at an MRP of `15,999, the tablet comes with a 1-year warranty. n
tellar has launched its Phoenix Windows Data Recovery version 6 with advanced scanning which improves the recovery capabilities. The new version has an improved find option, enhanced file tree view, and improved engine for NTFS, FAT, exFAT and raw recovery. It can recover files from RAID 0, 5 and 6 storage, and supports the creation of virtual RAID and recovery from software RAID. The software is available in three editions—home, professional and technician. The professional edition comes with all the features of the home edition and also has features such as CD/DVD recovery and email recovery. The technician edition features remote recovery which allows access to and recovery of data from any computer globally. All three editions are available as a try-before-buy software, and can be downloaded from the company’s website. The home edition is priced at $49, the professional version at $99 and the technician version at $299. n
Zoho Pulse, Vault and Leads
Z
oho has launched three products for the Indian market. The first product, Zoho Pulse, is a social networking tool designed to enable enhanced business collaboration within organizations. The second is Zoho Vault, an online password manager which establishes a central repository that offers security and data privacy for companies that want to safely store, organize, manage and share their sensitive information. Finally there’s Zoho Leads, an application designed for the iPhone that can scan attendee badges at events and directly connect to the CRM system. This offers an easy way to assign lead owners, take notes and add tasks instantly even while talking to the lead. Pulse is available in a free edition, professional edition for $2 per user per month, and enterprise edition for $5 per user per month. Zoho Vault personal edition is free and supports one user, while its enterprise edition costs $1 per user per month and supports an unlimited number of users. 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
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013
www.crn.in
39
shadow ram Microsoft gets desperate with Windows 8
M
icrosoft seems to be getting desperate to push Windows 8 which after an initial promise, has seen declining sales. Reportedly worldwide, many customers who had upgraded to the new OS soon after its release, are going back to Windows 7. Resellers and distributors of Microsoft OEM versions, reported a severe shortage of Windows 7 Home edition during the entire month of May 2013 and now when the supplies are restored, the prices have increased by 15 percent. Resellers suspect this could be Microsoft’s strategy to compel customers to buy the new OS. Also, for PC OEMs, Microsoft has removed all incentives around selling Windows 7 and is offering steeper discounts on Windows 8. It is expected that by mid-July 2013, all branded PCs sold through the channels will come pre-loaded with Windows 8. n
GET
Personal
“I would remove the privileges of VIPs” Rakesh Kaul, 39, National Head, Sales, Neoteric Infomatique, joined the company in August 2006, and drives its pan-India channel sales. He has diverse experience in the BFSI industry and started his career in IT with a stint at Ingram Micro, where he worked for five years
Rakesh Kaul
If not in the IT industry: I would be teaching. Biggest passions: Reading and
traveling. Behind the wheel: BMW Roadster. Gadgets I can’t live without: I’m not a gadget freak. A nice book is more than enough. Weekends are for: Sleeping. Favorite holiday destination: Srinagar. Hate the most: Hypocrisy. Favorite movie: Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. Favorite star: Amitabh Bachchan. Role model: Sardar Patel. Ultimate ambition: To head a corporation under challenging circumstances. Wildest thing I have ever done: Jumped from our first-floor flat when I was six. My parents were very angry with me. Thing I most want to do in life: Contribute in some way to resolve the ongoing conflicts in my homeland, Kashmir. If I became the PM: I would remove all the privileges of our so-called VIPs and have them struggle like common people. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Hrithik Roshan. One person I would like to meet and why: Warren Buffett. He’s one person who knows how to make the best use of resources. Deepest and darkest fear: What will happen to the world when I’m not there? n — CRN Network
44
Computer Reseller News
15/06/2013 www.crn.in
Registered with Registrar of Newspapers under RNI No. MAHENG/2011/39915 Published on 15th and 30th Day of Every Month. Postal Registration No. MH/MR/N/252/MBI/13-15 Posted at Patrika Channel Sorting Office, Mumbai-400001. Posting date 2nd, 3rd & 16th, 17th Of Every Fortnight.