CRN 15 october 2013 all pages

Page 1




contents

October 15, 2013 l Volume 2 Issue 24

Cover Story With growth and margins declining in the traditional IT business, we identify solutions and services that can provide partners strong growth and high margins

16 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik

NEWS Analyses

Special Focus

A10 Networks plans aggressive partner GTM

6

Eaton plans swift expansion

6

Top Notch Infotronix targets `270 crore topline

CA targets MSPs with free Nimsoft edition

11

11

Will the rise of digital marketing change CIO’s role? CIOs speak on how they feel about the rising clout of the CMO in making technology decisions and purchases. Does this mean yet another evolution for the CIO?

14 Tech Focus Surface Pro 2 or iPad 4? Does Microsoft’s second-generation tablet offer better value than Apple’s fourth? Find out who wins the Apple iPad 4 vs Microsoft Surface Pro 2 battle

READ More

22 Get Personal

Editorial 08 Opinion

10

Feedback

10

New Products

27

Shadow Ram

30

Get Personal

30

4

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

30

“I would streamline our bureaucracy” Sanjay Zadoo, Director, Channels, Emerson Network Power, India, speaks about his likes, dislikes, passions, hobbies, aims and ambitions



starting line MUST

A10 Networks plans aggressive partner GTM

Eaton plans swift expansion

n SONAL DESAI

Read

Eaton Power Quality is increasing its focus on its channel business and has robust plans for channel expansion in smaller cities. The company, which has a presence in 90 cities, wants to expand to 140 cities in the next one year. Eaton’s channel business, which includes UPSs from 0-40 kVA, is addressed by national distributors Redington and Lipi Data Systems. “Currently, the enterprise team contributes about 60 percent to our revenue and the rest comes from the channel business. With an increasing focus on mid-market and SMB customers, we expect our channel business to increase to at least 50 percent within a year,” informed Sushil Virmani, Director, Sales & Service, South Asia, Eaton. The company has recently expanded its portfolio targeting SMB and mid-market customers by introducing Eaton 9145, a doubleconversion online UPS. Said Virmani, “This is a product customized for the Indian market. It offers 28 percent more power than competitive products.” To expand its presence Easton is scouting for partners in smaller Sushil Virmani cities. “We want to add 80 partners to the current base of 350 partners. We are looking for systems integrators and valueadded resellers having a customer base in verticals such as IT-ITeS, BFSI, telecom, manufacturing, healthcare and hospitality,” Virmani informed. In addition, Eaton wants to upgrade its registered partners to the authorized partner level. “We currently have 122 authorized partners and 158 registered partners,” Virmani said. “Our aim is to enable many of the registered partners to become authorized partners. Graduating to the authorized partner level brings additional benefits such as services revenue, lead generation, and marketing & sales tools. The deal size at this level may range from `30 lakh-`80 lakh.” To target partners the company has organized road-shows in cities such as Surat, Ludhiana, Noida and Mumbai, and will soon target cities like Lucknow, Pune and Gurgaon. n — Amit Singh

6

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

A

10 Networks, a provider of application delivery controllers (ADCs) and application delivery networking (ADN), which entered India in January 2012, is eying opportunities in IPv6 migration, mobility, social media and cloud computing for growth. According to industry estimates, the Indian ADC market is pegged at $35 million. A10 says it has acquired more than 20 customers in the past 12 months. “We have had a strong start in the Indian market and have had several customer wins for deals varying from $5,000 to $1 million,” informed Shalendra Singh, Country Sales Manager, A10 Networks, India. “This is because of the strong priceperformance we bring to the table. Unlike our competitors we don’t charge licensing fees and annual maintenance fees for our platform and tools. This makes our products more cost-effective by 30-50 percent compared to our competitors. It also saves our customers 20 percent on AMC in subsequent years. This has helped us to bag good business in India.” Singh expects the demand for ADCs to grow at a CAGR of more than 15 percent. “Enterprise, midmarket and SMB customers want to scale and optimize their mission-critical applications to meet demand from their customers to use applications over the Internet through public, private or hybrid clouds. Couple this with advances in mobile technology, BYOD and social media. IPv6 migrations are also increasing the load.” The company is focusing on key verticals such as IT-ITeS, media, entertainment, cloud and data center providers, BFSI and telcos, and is looking for regional SIs who have a strong presence in these sectors. A10 already has two national

“Unlike our competitors we don’t charge licensing fees for our platform and tools. This makes our products costeffective by 30-50 percent” Shalendra Singh

Country Sales Manager A10 Networks, India

distributors—iValue InfoSolutions and RAH Infotech—and has onboarded 20 partners including Embee Software, ACPL Systems, Pentagon Systems, VSM Agencies, Accel Frontline and F1 Infotech. “Over the last one year we have trained the partners and they are now ready to take on WAN acceleration projects for mail applications, SharePoint, ebanking and IPv6 migration. The partners will have access to all the technical resources, the partner portal and the incentives listed in our A10 Partner Program,” Singh said. Last month the company flew 30 partner representatives to Kuala Lumpur for technical training. While the company has rolled out the A10 Partner Program in India, it is fine-tuning the global program to suit Indian needs. “Our main focus is to train partners and certify them,” said Singh. A10 recently raised $115 million in capital through an equity financing and revolving credit facility. Summit Partners led the round with an $80 million equity investment, while a $35 million revolving credit facility was obtained through leading banks. “The additional capital will help us to invest in R&D, customer support, sales and marketing, and ramp up our global footprint,” Singh explained. n



edit opinion Volume 2, Issue 24

Low-hanging fruit dhaval valia

W

ith the traditional IT business slowing, it is imperative for partners to identify new areas of growth which are growing at more than 20 percent and re-align their business strategies accordingly. In the current edition of CRN we have identified 10 such growth areas which not only promise a 20+ percent growth rate but also strong double-digit margins. The first is physical security (PS) and surveillance. This segment is expected to grow at 22 percent CAGR over the next three years. It is a logical progression from the networking solutions that most IT partners offer today. For instance, Mumbai-based Nirmal Datacomm ventured into PS in 2011; now the company is expecting the business to contribute `22 crore to its turnover in the current fiscal. The intelligent building management system (IBMS) is another high-growth area. According to MarketsandMarkets, the Indian IBMS market is expected to reach $1,891 million by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 25 percent from $621 million in 2011. Surat-based Innovative Systems identified IBMS as a growth area in 2010 and since then has executed 15 projects. In the last fiscal alone it has done eight projects which contributed `23 crore to its topline. Another niche but high-growth and high-margin opportunity is network optimization services. This exists because several organizations which have invested heavily in IT infrastructure on the network side are keen to optimize this infrastructure instead of buying new hardware. Further, many organizations which are investing in UC, collaboration and BYOD are optimizing networks. Concepts like SDN are also expected to increase the demand for such services. Cisco estimates a market size of `250 crore annually for optimization services among its own customer set in India. And while it’s not a toplineboosting opportunity, the margins are the best—30-45 percent depending on the type of service provided. CRN also believes that the market is now ripe for VDI. According to IDC, the Indian hosted desktop market will be worth $300 million in 2013. AMI Partners has predicted that in the SMB segment alone desktop virtualization will see growth in excess of 30 percent YoY for the next three years, while Gartner says that from 2 percent in 2012 nearly 40 percent of worldwide corporate desktops will be virtualized by 2015. Enterprise mobility is yet another high growth area, and many partners after running pilots or smaller projects are seeing large orders come their way. According to the Symantec State of Mobility Survey, 72 percent of Indian enterprises are considering investments in mobility over the next 12 months. But you’ve got my point by now: these and other highgrowth opportunities are real and present—and are already being seized by many partners. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 8

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

Managing Director Printer & Publisher Associate Publisher & Director Executive Editor Contributing Editor Assistant Editor Assistant Editor Principal 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 : Delhi Senior Project Manager : mumbai Manager—Sales :

Joji George Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar Anees Ahmed Dhaval Valia Ramdas S Sonal Desai Amit Singh (Delhi) Abhijeet Mukherjee (Mumbai) 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

Kangkan Mahanta kangkan.mahanta@ubm.com (M) +91 8971232344 Sanjay Khandelwal sanjay.khandelwal@ubm.com (M) +91 98117 64515 Rajeev Chauhan rajeev.chauhan@ubm.com (M) +91 9811820301 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, Times Square, Unit No. 1 & 2, B Wing, 5th Floor, Andheri-Kurla Road, Marol, Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 059, India Tel: 022 6172 7272; Fax: 022 6172 7273 Printed and Published by Kailash Pandurang Shirodkar on behalf of UBM India Pvt Ltd, Times Square, Unit No. 1 & 2, B Wing, 5th Floor, Andheri-Kurla Road, Marol, Andheri (E), Mumbai - 400 059, 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.


business visitors have already registered.

have you INTEROP is building up to be India’s most awaited conference and exhibition. And that’s not only evident in the event agenda but also in the rising interest amongst the audience. With approximately seven weeks to go, the show already has over thousand pre-registered visitors which is 3 times more than what we saw last year at the same time. A majority of the entire IT fraternity has already registered!

Register now!

Spread the knowledge & stand a chance to win a

Branded Tablet!

*Conditions Apply

Visit

www.interop.in or call us on

+91 22 6172 7427

Platinum Partner

Gold & Badge Partner

Gold & Industry Association Partner

CIO Engagement Partner

Silver Partners

Bronze & Lanyard Partner

Instruments

Bronze Partners

Delegate Kit Bag Partner

Secure Wi-Fi Access Partner

Industry Association Partners

Organised by


edit opinion Dell’s battle has just begun Robert Faletra

W

ith the yearlong battle behind him to take Dell private, Michael Dell now faces the biggest business challenge of his lifetime. The iconic entrepreneur now has to turn a battleship and redirect it toward growth. While I certainly would not bet against him, it is not an easy task to turn around a company that is steeped in selling products used in on-premise infrastructure into one that can play in the new world of cloud deployments. So what are the challenges Michael must stare down, and what are his chances of success? First and foremost, while he has done a remarkable job building out a viable indirect channel, it’s not one that is as robust and ingrained in the company’s strategy as it needs to be. Sure there is a partner program and a recruitment initiative, but Dell needs a better go-to-market strategy. It needs a process and an understanding throughout its ranks that going to market with partners is different than selling to them as part of an infrastructure sale—a subtle but significant difference. Secondly, Dell needs to shift away from a perception that it is a hardware-only supplier and convince the world of its a full-solutions play—not an easy task for a brand that defined low-cost infrastructure hardware. Dell’s journey to a solutions sale rather than a hardware sale positioning will be made easier as a result of going private. Investments will need to be made and costs will need to be cut, and those are best done without having to take into account how the public market will react. It’s why Michael told stockholders Dell needs to transform quickly. All this is happening at a point in time when the PC market is undergoing a major upheaval. Research firm IDC is predicting tablet sales worldwide will outpace PCs in the fourth quarter. While it’s easy to argue Dell could be squeezed, it still has a number of fundamental advantages. One of those is Michael himself, who is a relentless competitor and is anything but the type of executive to sit in the ivory tower and manage from behind the desk. He is completely engaged and touches down at levels that one would never expect. He is not afraid to pick up the phone and call a journalist that he believes needs to understand his position—something that was routine in the early days of the industry but is unheard of today. In the end, I think Michael will pull it off because he knows what needs to be done. Three to five years from now, Dell will be considering another public offering with a position that looks nothing like its legacy of being a lowcost PC supplier. n Email Robert Faletra at robert.faletra@ec.ubm.com 10

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

OpenBravo to strengthen presence It is good news to hear that OpenBravo is finally extending its wings in India. My only suggestion to them is to concentrate more on the strong community of channel partners rather just add more number of partners. In the recent years the buzz for OpenBravo has been reducing compared to other open source ERP software available in the market. We wish the company the best of luck, and look forward to a new product line in the open source category for our business.

scenario when the rupee is tumbling down. Sectors like IT-ITeS, which are dependent on dollar revenue, are likely to spend more money on IT infrastructure because they are gaining extra profits due to higher dollar prices. We also expect sectors such as textiles, agroproducts and engineering goods to increase their spending due to higher profits from exports. Education, manufacturing, retail will be another sector to bet on. Diwakar Harbhajan Singh Pune

Globalteckz via online post

Shrinking rupee It is informative to learn about the sectors we can bet on in the current

CORRIGENDUM In the September 15, 2013 edition, due to a mistake, the name of Emerson Network Power was wrongly mentioned as Emerson Power Network. We regret the error. —CRN Team

Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in

Advertiser Index Company name

Page No Web site

Sales Contact

Emerson

2 emersonnetworkpower.com

marketing.india@emerson.com

HP

3

www.hp.com

1800 3003 3003

Canon

5

www.canon.co.in

1800 180 3366

Rashi

7 www.rptechindia.com

feedback@rptechindia.com

Interop

9 www.interop.in

salil.warior@ubm.com

Juniper Advetorial

12 & 13 www.juniper.net www.quickheal.com/in/enterprise

nikhild@juniper.net

Quick Heal

28

info@quickheal.co.in

Intex

29 www.intextechnologies.com

publicity@intextechnologies.com

Biz

30 www.indiaantivirus.com

sales@indiaantivirus.com

Schneider

31 www.schneider-electric.com

in-care@schneider-electric.com

EMC

32 www.emc.com

india_mktg@emc.com


starting line Top Notch Infotronix targets `270 crore topline n ABHIJEET MUKHERJEE

O

n the back of its entry into new product categories such as tablets and accessories, as well as its geographical expansion, Top Notch Infotronix, makers of the Zebronics brand of components and digital gadgets, is expecting topline growth of 35 percent from `200 crore in FY2012-13 to `270 crore in FY2013-14. The company, which recently ventured into the fast-growing tablet market, expects to sell 80,000 units over the next four quarters. “We have launched 7- and 9-inch tablets under a new brand called Zebpad. Each one has two SKUs—one with 2G voice calling and one without. We have priced them attractively, and are targeting school-going kids and first-time users in small cities. Over the next two months we plan to launch three new high-end models with 3G voice calling and quad-core processors,” said Rajesh Doshi, Director, Top Notch. The company plans to leverage its existing IT channel of more than 12,000 resellers and retailers across 30 cities in India. “We will also sell our tablets through alternative channels like telecom after launching more SKUs,” Doshi disclosed. “Our channel and sales teams are currently forming strategies to develop the telecom channel.” The company, whose core business has been selling PC cabinets and allied peripherals, believes that in the long run the PC business will shrink and hence it needs to put its bets on new product categories. Explained Doshi, “Our PC components and peripherals business is growing in doubledigits despite the decline in the sales of desktops. We have benefited due to the consolidation among players in this segment.

“Our business is growing in double-digits despite the decline in the sales of desktops. We have benefited due to the consolidation in this segment” Rajesh Doshi

Director Top Notch Infotronix

However, over the next 3-5 years, the desktop category will shrink, and that’s why we need to enter fast-growing categories.” Top Notch is also expecting its geographical expansion in the past couple of years to bring in growth. “We have traditionally been strong in the south because we are headquartered in Chennai. However, now the western region has also started contributing substantially. Our focus in the coming year is to strengthen our business in the north and east,” Doshi said. Top Notch also has plans to venture into home security products like CCTVs, DVRs, and networking and secured access devices. “The potential in the home security space is growing exponentially and we are in the process of planning our foray in this market,” said Doshi. To support its geographical expansion the company intends to increase the number of its service centers. “We currently have service centers in 90 locations, of which 40 are owned by us while 50 are franchiseeled,” Doshi informed. “Based on the volumes we achieve in the north and east, we will strengthen our support infrastructure in those regions.” n

MUST

Read

CA targets MSPs with free Nimsoft edition With the launch of Nimsoft Monitor SNAP, a free version of the enterprise tool Nimsoft Monitor, enterprise software vendor CA Technologies is seeking a share of the SMB and mid-market IT management software pie. The company will be competing with players such as Kaseya, ManageEngine, Microsoft, Saphire, Solarwind, Nagios and Zenoss in the space. The freemium tool is limited to monitoring up to 30 devices, and does not come with technical support. “The 30-device free version had a list price of $18,000 till recently. Now we want both partners and customers to deploy it freely and see the benefits. We are sure a significant user base will come for upgrades,” said Abhilash Purushothaman, Head, Service Assurance Business, India & Saarc, CA Technologies. He explained the move. “We have never played in the midmarket or SMB space before, and have been traditionally focused only on the enterprise space, so this is a strategy to grow our footprint across all segments.” A Purushothaman According to Purushothaman, for customers in the SMB segment who are looking at upgrading, CA is working on special prices. “I can assure partners that we will be competitive in pricing compared to Microsoft, Kaseya and ManageEngine.” Meanwhile, the vendor is planning a channel education drive to inform partners about the benefits of the Nimsoft platform. “We will target MSPs focused on the global market in the first phase. We will start targeting MSPs addressing the local market in the next phase,” Purushothaman said. Partners can scale up the free version by running multiple copies simultaneously to monitor more devices, but this would not allow them the benefit of the single view. Purushothaman informed that partners can also avail of a pay-as-you-go licensing price for SNAP upgrades. n — Ramdas S

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

11


let’s build the best next-generation campus networking

Building the anytime, anywhere network Mobile technologies are opening enormous new business opportunities. Capitalizing on them needs a new approach to networking

I

n the span of just a few years, smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices have redefined the technological mainstream. Practically everyone now relies on them to stay connected with people, applications and information everywhere and all the time. For corporate IT, capitalizing on mobility’s potential means exchanging control over access and devices for a more flexible approach. IT must balance firm administrative oversight with the freedom today’s knowledge workers need. Making that transition without compromising on security requires nothing less than embracing a totally new approach to building and managing networks. Says Jitendra Gupta, DirectorPartner Sales, India & South Asia, Juniper Networks, “Enterprise networks which were originally architected for wired clients are now being asked to support more wireless devices than wired ones; this requires a rethinking of the legacy approach to enterprise networks. The challenge for IT is

to strike the right balance between wired and wireless networks and ensure that they are reliable, scalable and secure.”

Rethinking legacy architecture According to Gupta, among the core qualities that next-generation networks must share are robust security, resilience and device administration functionality, including features that defend against virulent malware. In addition, networks must ensure that mobile-device security mechanisms are used, protect communications from interception, and remotely locate, track, lock and wipe clean lost and stolen devices to protect sensitive data. “The ability to enable consistently strong performance and nonstop seamless roaming while supporting a wide range of applications, devices, manufacturers and operating systems over Wi-Fi as well as mobile networks is another imperative,” explains Gupta. This applies as much to wired infrastructures as it does to wireless

networks since the wired network is the mobile network’s backbone. Though people often assume that adding bandwidth will enable them to meet application and device connectivity needs, this is usually a costly, cumbersome and inflexible solution. “What’s needed is a wired network architecture flexible enough to scale smoothly while delivering reliable connectivity and high performance,” says Gupta. “It must also be simple and powerful enough to pool and allocate network resources efficiently so that organizations can virtualize devices and manage growing environments with existing personnel. This in turn enables them to optimize their IT investments.” Further, administrators need the ability to define security policies centrally yet enforce them at the point of network access or directly on mobile devices.

Mobile-ready networks Building a network capable of delivering all these capabilities takes

“Adoption of next-gen campus networking growing” Juniper has been a leader in next-generation network technologies. We spoke to Jitendra Gupta, Director-Partner Sales, India & South Asia, Juniper Networks, about the company’s offerings, partner programs and market strategy Juniper has been leading the way in redefining technologies for the new enterprise network. What are the various technologies you offer? We offer a comprehensive set of network products and services as part of our Simply Connected portfolio. The EX Series Ethernet switches, MX Series 3D Universal Edge routers, and Wireless LAN solutions provide the basic connectivity building blocks within the campus network. Our firewalls, unified access control, IDP Series intrusion detection and prevention appliances, Juniper SRX Series services gateways, Juniper Networks SA Series SSL VPN appliances, and Junos Pulse mobile security suite combine to provide a comprehensive set of security

12

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

services for the campus network. Virtually all campus network products run the Junos operating system and can be managed by the network and security management application. Juniper is approaching the campus environment with its Junos Space Network Director, a single-pane-of-glass network management solution for wired and wireless LANs and data centers.

What types of customers are deploying next-gen campus and branch networking technologies? As organizations look to implement private cloud data centers, the static nature of networking presents acute security challenges. These threats are


Authorized Distributor:

Enterprise networks which were originally architected for wired clients are now being asked to support more wireless devices than wired ones; this requires a rethinking of the legacy approach to enterprise networks a series of technologies designed from the ground up for the needs of the mobilized enterprise: l Coordinated, granular, contextbased security software that enforces policies at the connection level across wired, wireless and remote access networks anywhere and anytime while providing remote data wiping and access rights management capabilities. l Network systems that provide a consistent experience for both users and IT across voice, video, data, presence and service-oriented architecture by ensuring wired-like performance and seamless scalability across wired and wireless networks. l Network management solutions that utilize a single client application for mobile device management, mobile security, SSL VPN, wireless provisioning and network access. l Comprehensive access technologies with real-time automation that provide a foundation for fast, secure and

reliable application delivery not only to all users but to all their devices. l Network device virtualization technologies that simplify a network architecture sufficiently to manage device proliferation without inflating personnel resources, enhance device performance enough to support rich media and mobility applications, and scale to enable architecture flexibility and support an explosion in mobile devices and applications on the network. Equipping the network with these kinds of solutions won’t be an overnight process for most companies, but those that invest the time and effort are likely to find the rewards worthwhile. “Opportunities to create new services and disrupt existing business models by using mobile devices are appearing every day,” Gupta says. “It will be companies with truly mobile-ready networks which will capitalize on them first—and profit from them the most.” n

Juniper is approaching the campus environment with its Junos Space Network Director, a single-pane-of-glass network management solution for wired and wireless LANs and data centers” valid for any customer or vertical that is utilizing web applications within its business. The continual onslaught of high-profile cyber security incidents are testament to this. Since the proliferation of devices places more strain on enterprise networks, those customers who have a need to support high-density wireless LAN environments have understood the need for next-generation campus and branch networking technologies.

What initiatives have you rolled out to enable partners to capitalize on this opportunity?

Axcenta bets Big on Juniper

K

ochi-based Axcenta, a pure-play network solutions and services provider, has been a partner of Juniper Networks since 2007. Its Juniper business currently accounts for `2 crore per annum and is growing at a CAGR of 35 percent. Due to its outstanding performance, Axcenta was adjudged the best Juniper Networks Reseller Partner for 2012 for the southern region. The company, which also has branches in Calicut, Trivandrum and Coimbatore, decided to work with Juniper after it was impressed with its focused partner policy and engagement. “Juniper has a policy of working with select partners and enabling them to grow profitably. Also it has excellent pre- and post-sales support. With its R&D center in Bengaluru, its TAC support is industry best. Customer issues, when escalated, get resolved in no time, and their solutions consultants have deep knowledge of not just their own technology but also of competing platforms; this allows us to offer robust solutions to customers,” says Philip George, CEO, Axcenta. George says that in the past 24 months Juniper has launched several new solutions and services which has helped Axcenta to bag many large and innovative projects. For a financial company, it set up the entire backhaul network for its data center in Kochi and branch networks across India in a project worth `2 crore. Another big project came its way from Mathrubhumi Newspaper Group. This involved setting up a campus networking solution using Juniper’s products. The size of the project exceeded `1.5 crore. For a consultancy firm it set up their enterprise network with SSL VPN for a project worth `30 lakh. George believes that with its next-gen networking platform, Juniper Networks is best poised to capitalize on the opportunities arising out of new concepts. “We are seeing great traction for enterprise mobility in IT-ITeS, and expect sectors like BFSI to follow suit. Juniper is in an enviable position with its SDN and enterprise mobility platforms, and we are working with the company to educate our customers about these concepts,” says George. n

In addition to our Partner Advantage Program, we recently launched the Partner Advantage Cloud (PAC) that recognizes the role and importance of software defined network (SDN) technologies in creating advanced cloud solutions; it incentivizes partners to adopt SDN products such as our Contrail solution. With the launch of PAC we are defining our GTM for the cloud and the opportunity it represents for partners. This program delivers the relevant elements to help partners build cloud practices and services that will better support their end-users in deploying our cloud solutions. n

Philip George Special Technology Feature

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

13


special focus Will the rise of

digital marketing change CIO’s role? CIOs speak on how they feel about the rising clout of the CMO in making technology decisions and purchases. Does this mean yet another evolution for the CIO? n Varun Haran

M

uch has been said about the changing role of the CIO over the last few years, especially recent in times when technology has become so pervasive that it has permeated every aspect of business. With technology being used more and more for marketing across digital mediums, concerns have been raised regarding the growing clout of the CMO as a technology decision maker and influencer. According to a recent report by Gartner, “Marketing is purchasing significant marketing-related technology and services from their own capital and expense budgets— both outside the control of the internal IT organization and in conjunction with them.” The research firm estimates that by 2017 the CMO will spend more on IT than CIOs. In this context, InformationWeek spoke to CIOs of organizations who boast of mature digital marketing practices to get their views on how this trend is evolving in India. While there is no denying that the CMO is beginning to use technology extensively, a unanimous consensus among the CIOs is that if anything, the CIO is the essential cog in the wheel that is digital marketing.

Partnering with the CMOs Increasing focus on customer centricity and personalized interaction is compelling CMOs to go digital. This in turn is necessitating a culture of collaboration between CMOs and CIOs within the organization. “CIO is an enabler who collaborates with the CMO to understand how to make use of the media and advices the CMO on the tools and the processes that will aid the organization to achieve its digital marketing goals,” asserts Ranjit Satyanath, Senior GM, Solutions and Technology, Shoppers Stop. According to him, the whole argument around the dynamics of the CMO-CIO relationship has been misinterpreted. This is so because a super-enabled CTO or CMO is trying to leverage technologies that weren’t around until a few years ago. Elaborating his role at Shoppers Stop, Satyanath says that he helps the marketing function identify tools that can help make their campaign more effective and updates them about the technology available and cost details. Further, the CIO’s team helps marketing identify

14

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

personnel who can be embedded within marketing itself to help them operate the solutions used. In addition, the team helps train the technology-enabled team members in the marketing team to use the tools by arranging training programs. As far as Shoppers Stop is concerned, there is no significant change in the CIO role, says Satyanath. Sharing his opinion on the CIO-CMO dichotomy, Mehriar Patel, CIO, Globus, says the reason the CMO is moving to the forefront of these arguments is because he is only doing his job. “The CMO is the primary stakeholder for these initiatives, so from a practical point of view, while the CIO is available to guide the CMO if needed, the CMO should of course be the owner and driver of technology for digital marketing.” Stressing on the importance of CIO-CMO partnership for digital marketing initiatives Patel adds, “Working in isolation from IT, the CMO runs the risk of failure and bad investments. Collaboration is therefore a must and is the way forward. Both are equally important to drive one clear value, which is to grow the business. So, building communication is key to forge a joint ownership of this domain.” Satyanath too agrees that an effective digital marketing campaign is a result of collaboration between the two departments. “IT departments and marketing are wired to think differently, and rightly so. While marketing is concerned with quickly leveraging market situations and getting the customer into the store, IT by nature of its vocation needs to necessarily look at the process in its entirety, document it and ensure that it works in all situations. This is a crucial reason for understanding both sides of the coin in order to deliver what the customer really requires.”

Not threat but opportunity With CMO slated to be a major buyer, owner, manager and decision maker in the technology domain, some industry observers believe that the traditional role of the CIO as a translator of technology for the business may be threatened by this development. On the other hand, some others believe that this is a perfect opportunity that CIOs can leverage to make IT even more relevant to the enterprise and its various business units.


special focus “CIO is an enabler who collaborates with the CMO and advices him on the tools that will aid the organization to achieve its digital marketing goals”

“Working in isolation from IT, the CMO runs the risk of failure and bad investments. Collaboration is therefore a must and is the way forward”

Ranjit Satyanath, Senior GM

Mehriar Patel

Solutions and Technology, Shoppers Stop

CIO, Globus

Satyanath has an interesting opinion to offer in this context. He believes that digital marketing is a blessing from a CIO perspective since he needn’t be concerned with things he cannot add value to; like responding to angry customers, running social media campaigns and so forth. “The beautiful part about the digital marketing story is that social media is democratized to such an extent that CMO has all the resources he needs to run digital marketing operations without the CIO having to be involved in the day-to-day operations.” He believes that the CIO position has not been weakened by these developments since the CIO will always have more than enough to do to meet the business requirements. In fact, he says, a CIO would be more than happy to let the use of technology in marketing be handled by the CMO. “A CIO will always be needed to handle, at the very least, the business complexity that the use of these solutions will bring about—something the CMO or CFO would not be able to address. Even as a result of all these business deployments, the CIO will have enough to do, not to mention automation, process and efficiency improvements that the CIO will need to bring,” he adds. A second school of thought does exist, where given that these services are now available on the cloud, CMOs can directly bypass the CIOs and use these tools as required. Patel, however, rejects any such concerns saying that CIO role will not be weakened in such a scenario too. “Decisions will happen outside the CIO’s purview, so what? While it is made into a big thing, a conservative belief in enterprises is that technology decisions are the sole prerogative of the CIO. In a sense, an analogy may be made here akin to the concept of BYOD. Many technology products may be in use in an organization; the CIO will never necessarily own or procure all of them. But it stands to reason that he will definitely be consulted for guidance,” says Patel.

Factors that will decide CIO’s role All the CIOs InformationWeek spoke with unanimously agree that regardless of whether an organization is using cloud or not, the culture of an organization has a huge role to play in the context of CMOs bypassing CIOs. Culture might dictate that the MD instruct the CMO to go ahead and make a technology purchase, but consult the IT department. “Every organization has a certain kind of culture and if this were ever so simple, even ERP customizations would not be needed. For some time to come, at least, there will always be a need of skilled technical resources to roll out

an application or implementation, usually the preserve of the IT department,” asserts Satyanath. Agrees Patel, “An input from technology is a must in most organizations, given that from a technical point of view, the domain expertise lies with the CIO. The technology is not really the bone of contention here. It is actually the channels of communication and the culture of the organization that have a big part to play.” Likewise, Nilesh Sangoi, CIO, Meru Cabs, too says that the dichotomy in the CIO-CMO argument is going to differ from an organization to organization—whether IT is more of a support function or a key business enabler. He does not agree that the CIO stands to get delegated to a purely IT role. “Every role is getting IT enabled, whether it is CMO, CFO, COO or CEO, if by technology enabled you mean device savvy, data driven, social savvy and so forth. This however in no way suggests that any one role can supersede others.” Giving an example of his role at Meru, Sangoi says that he also manages the customer servicing and social media functions. He adds that on areas of customer service and campaigns, the CIO in his organization drives these functions and works hand in hand with marketing. As other functions familiarize themselves with technology, it is becoming increasingly crucial for the CIOs to change as far as awareness of other business functions is concerned. “Just as other CXO roles get tech-savvy, the CIO needs to understand other business functions in order to operate effectively as a translator of technology for the business,” asserts Sangoi. Going forward, he sees multiple points where these roles will meet. “If a CIO insists on limiting himself to technology, a support role is all he can expect himself to be shunted into. The end result of all these forces is that each role understands the other better, and ultimately, the business synergy in an enterprise improves,” Sangoi adds. All said and done, this is a fresh playing field, and for the most part, each organization has its own story. Besides culture, many other factors come into play like size, budget, and how much influence the prospective owner has in the organization to overrule a CIO, an intangible often overlooked. Going forward, the CIO needs to explore ways in which he can assist marketing, and the two functions need to cooperate not compete. There is definitely a need for more synergistic dynamic between IT and marketing. n Courtesy: www.informationweek.in

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

15


cover story

With growth and margins declining in the traditional IT business, we identify solutions and services that can provide partners strong growth and high margins n crn network

16

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in


cover story BI and analytics

A

ccording to Gartner, the Indian BI software market will grow from $81.5 million in 2012 to $94 million in 2013, while a joint report by Nasscom and Crisil says that the Indian big data industry is expected to grow from $200 million in 2012 to $1 billion in 2015. Delhi-based Team Computers is banking big on BI and analytics. The company has set up a separate BI practice and has 125 consultants on board working with customers in the automotive, BFSI, IT-ITeS, manufacturing and other industries. Last year the company’s BI-led business grew more than 100 percent and contributed nearly `65 crore to its turnover. It executed 60 BI projects ranging from `30 lakh to `1.5 crore. One of the largest BI projects executed during the last fiscal was for Videocon Telecom for CRM and financial management. Another major project was for Parle Industries to plot and analyze the real-time data of its entire value chain. Team has also implemented many analytics projects for existing customers. Says Ranjan Chopra, Manging Director, Team, “These were a natural progression from our BI business. We have implemented more than 300 analytics projects in the last nine years enabling existing customers to organize their structured data, and have also done 30-40 projects for unstructured data.” Similarly, Neel Shah, Managing Director, Insight

Converged infrastructure

A

s per IDC, the overall global spending on converged systems will grow at a CAGR of 54.7 percent from $2 billion in 2011 to $17.8 billion in 2016. With IBM, Dell, HP and Hitachi launching their own converged infrastructure (CI) solutions over the past 18 months, every major vendor now has certified, preconfigured and pre-tested CI solutions. Partners are already witnessing the acceptance of unified compute platforms where the management and orchestration of server, storage and network resources is done through a single pane of glass. “The demand is coming from enterprise customers who see value in unified infrastructure that leads to operational efficiency. In fact, CI is finding higher acceptance among customers who are looking for fresh infrastructure,” observes Deepak Jadhav, Director, VDA Infosolutions, Mumbai. Seconds Prarthana Gupta, CEO of the Delhi-based Cache Technologies, “Currently the demand is from enterprise customers but soon we will see higher demand coming from SMB customers due to operational benefits. It will be the standard infrastructure of tomorrow.” Jadhav says that while CI solutions are more expensive than non-CI, the TCO is 10-15 percent lower due to operational efficiency. The need is to explain the benefits and show the TCO. “While large enterprises may be open to a pre-configured integrated system such as PureFlex from IBM or Vblock from VCE, mid-market customers

“We have implemented more than 300 analytics projects enabling customers to organize their structured data, and 30-40 projects for unstructured data” Ranjan Chopra

Managing Director, Team Computers

Business Machine, Mumbai, has deployed storage and servers for large media, entertainment, BFSI, IT-ITeS and retail customers who have deployed big data. Informs Shah, “We have aligned with ISVs who provide the application for big data projects, both physical and cloud-based. For instance, we have tied up with PrimeFocus which completed the big data project for reality TV show Satyamev Jayate on Star Plus. We have also bagged the hardware pie for a big data project deployed by Just Dial—which is our existing client.” Besides, Insight is exploring opportunities in the cloud. “The ISV can port all the data either to his own data center or to a third-party data center provider such as Amazon or NetMagic. We can earn a huge service revenue in the form of ORC for consultancy,” Shah says. Mumbai-based Lauren Information Technologies, has deployed forecasting and budgeting BI solutions for three very large customers in the BFSI and manufacturing segments for deal values ranging from `35 lakh to `75 lakh. n

“We started our CI business in Q32012 and it contributed `7 crore to our revenue. In the current fiscal we are targeting at least `15 crore from CI” Prarthana Gupta

CEO, Cache Technologies

might opt for reference architecture like VSPEX from EMC and FlexPod from NetApp which give the flexibility to go for any compatible component.” VDA doubled its CI business from `5 crore in FY201112 to `10 crore in FY2012-13. The company implemented a CI solution worth `3 crore on PureFlex with SVC to virtualize all existing storage for a private bank. It also executed a couple of CI projects on reference architecture for customers in manufacturing and insurance. Partners already in the CI business expect exponential growth. “We started our CI business in Q32012 and it contributed `7 crore to our revenue. In the current fiscal we are targeting at least `15 crore from CI,” informs Gupta. Cache executed four large projects in the last fiscal. It implemented SAP infrastructure worth `2.5 crore on PureFlex for Bhushan Steel. For Dalmia Cements it implemented a SAP migration project worth `1.8 crore, again on PureFlex. It also completed similar projects in CI worth `1 crore-`2 crore for Green Ply and Radius Infratel. n

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

17


cover story Desktop virtualization

D

esktop virtualization services—including implementation, re-architecting, migration and security—are the most profitable services for IT systems integrators at least over the next couple of years. According to IDC, the Indian hosted desktop market is estimated to be worth $300 million in 2013. AMI Partners has predicted that in the SMB segment alone desktop virtualization will see growth in excess of 30 percent YoY for the next three years, while Gartner says that from 2 percent in 2012 nearly 40 percent of worldwide corporate desktops will be virtualized by 2015. One of the key business drivers for VDI is the promise of better manageability and security, and less downtime, without compromising heavily on user experience. Virtualization vendors say that the minimum guaranteed services revenue would equal licensing costs for even small projects. “Apart from implementation and deployment, migrating individual desktops and ensuring that users adhere to corporate policies are also services that customers pay for. In addition, we generate revenue for migrating the architecture and securing the servers and storage. We do have a customer case where we billed twoand-half times the license revenue for services associated with a VDI project,” informs Neel Shah, Managing Director of the Mumbai-based Insight Business Machines. Last year Insight bagged 15 projects worth between `10 lakh and `2.5 crore, and it is currently working on several VDI projects that involve migrating different

Enterprise mobility

W

ith the proliferation of mobile devices that are being accessed by corporate workers, IT organizations are increasingly looking for ways to improve employee productivity without compromising enterprise security. With the concept of BYOD also gaining momentum, the Symantec State of Mobility Survey 2013 says that 72 percent of Indian enterprises are considering investments in enterprise mobility. Says Durganadh Venkata, Senior VP, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Hyderabad, “We have built a home-grown delivery framework for identity and access management which is central to our enterprise mobility strategy, and have bagged about 12 deals from enterprise and PSUs.” Bengaluru-based Archon Consulting recently picked up a $300,000 order to implement BYOD for an IT-ITeS company. “A key challenge is data security, and we see a convergence of existing VDI protocols evolve to handle issues such as data leak prevention. BYOD reduces the cost of client device maintenance because the responsibility shifts to the end user,” says Sachin Rao, CEO, Archon. Mobile device management (MDM) is also seen as a lucrative business by managed service providers. “We have already bagged a few orders from existing customers to manage their smartphones and tablets. The average billing in MDM per node is around 30-100 percent more than for regular PCs because of the complexities,” says Ganesh Mahabala, Senior VP, ValuePoint Systems, Bengaluru.

18

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

“The Citrix VDI-in-box solution ends up saving for a customer around `8,000 per node compared to regular PCs in the first year itself” L Ashok

CEO, Futurenet

customers with more than 2,000 PCs. Chennai-based Futurenet Technologies has set up a sixmember team for VDI opportunities. It has also invested `10 lakh in certification and POCs. Last year Futurenet closed a large 800-seat order from an engineering firm, and 100-200 node deals from six customers. “We see a case for VDI implementation with any customer planning to refresh more than 100 desktops. The Citrix VDI-in-box solution ends up saving for a customer around `8,000 per node compared to regular PCs in the first year itself,” says L Ashok, CEO, Futurenet. A major obstacle for partners and customers has been the prohibitive cost of acquiring licenses. “However, with Microsoft updating the new Microsoft Services Provider License Agreement in late 2012 and VMware offering a pay-as-you-go model for its View suite, partners can bring down their upfront investment for VDI implementation,” says Ashok Kumar, Director, Sales, Chennai-based Kryptos India. “A few partners are offering virtual desktop-as-a-service completely on an opex model since last two years.” n

“We have a home-grown delivery framework for IAM which is central to our enterprise mobility strategy. We have bagged around 12 deals from enterprise and PSUs” Durganadh Venkata

Senior VP, Locuz Enterprise Solutions

Several niche partners who are enabling enterprises to migrate their classic desktop- and Web-based applications to the smartphone and tablet have emerged. Pune-based Mobien Technologies garnered `13 crore revenue and acquired 52 customers during the last fiscal. “We are platform-agnostic, and have signed on with Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Nokia, Microsoft and Samsung. Our focus is to provide a mobility face-lift to existing enterprise applications,” said Ajit Gokhale, CEO, Mobien. Many partners such as Team Computers, Shell Networks, Omnitech, Spaneos and Enjay have set up mobile application development teams. The biggest opportunities are seen in sales and service force automation. Says Amit Rambhia, Director, Vardhaman Technology, Mumbai, “We have been the hardware partner in many solution deals. We see opportunity in every organization with a reasonable-sized mobile workforce that is distributed over a large territory. Some of the emerging verticals include retail, distribution, finance, pharma and manufacturing.” n


cover story Intelligent building management

A

ccording to MarketsandMarkets, the Indian intelligent building management system (IBMS) market is expected to reach $1,891 million by 2016 at a CAGR of 25 percent from $621 million in 2011. Many IT partners have identified IBMS solutions as a big opportunity because of a strong trend to integrate once-separate systems such as access control, fire safety, video surveillance, rodent control and incident response. Says Manoj Bisht, CEO of the Delhi-based MK Infosystems, “Many corporate hubs in metro cities are going in for IBMS solutions. We are also seeing demand from segments like PSUs, hospitality and real-estate.” Partners who have ventured into IBMS says it’s a natural progression and is very profitable compared to the IT business. “While the IT systems integration business offers about 15 percent margins, IBMS solutions provide 25 percent margins or more,” reveals Moin Shaikh, Director of the Surat-based Innovative Telecom & Softwares. He says that partners can leverage their systems integration skills to target existing large customers demanding centralized control to enter the IBMS space. “Partners need to gain skills to develop software interfaces to integrate various components of IBMS. It’s essential to add skills around electrical systems, instrumentation and process control. Also, it’s better to target customers before they execute their building plans.” During the last fiscal, Innovative implemented eight IBMS projects which contributed about 20 percent to its

Network optimization

N

etwork optimization services help an organization to optimize its network and IT infrastructure, applications and service management by identifying gaps, delivering recommendations, and providing advanced support. Cisco India has estimated a potential market size of `250 crore annually for its partners in optimization services over the next three years. Explains AL Srinath, CEO, Shell Networks, Hyderabad, “Organizations that have invested on networking infrastructure want to optimize it instead of buying new hardware.” Shell has delivered six projects ranging from `5 lakh to `20 lakh for its existing customers. Srinath says that while the bills are smaller, they provide a better bottomline. While most network optimization projects start with network audit services, some of the value added services include asset discovery and management, mitigation or management of security threats, firmware updates, and generation of reports for CIOs to take decisions. Bengaluru-based Central Data Systems (CDS), has bagged several large projects around UC and collaboration where post-deployment optimization services have assured healthy double-digit margins. Explains K Subrahmanya, Director, CDS. “We provide audit reports with suggestions, and have proved to them that by optimizing infrastructure, they can save millions.” Both Shell and CDS have invested in certifications

“We are working with an SI partner on a large IBMS and data center project for UIDAI in Bengaluru where the installation services revenue is `2.5 crore” Manoj Bisht

CEO, MK Infosystems

`115 crore revenue in FY2012-13. While most customers were from the gems & jewelry vertical, some were from manufacturing and infrastructure companies. “In the last two years large gems & jewelry exporters have been compelled to deploy IBMS solutions for Kimberley Process compliance,” explains Shaikh. For MK Infosystems, the IBMS business is expected to grow manifold. “Our IBMS business has grown 100 percent YoY in the last fiscal. This fiscal too we expect 100 percent growth,” says Bisht. MK Infosystems executed four large IBMS projects in the last fiscal including one for C-DOT and another for ONGC. “We have partnered with a large SI to do the installation and integration work for their IBMS projects,” informs Bisht. “We are also doing projects for our own customers. In the current fiscal we are working with the SI partner on a large IBMS and data center project for UIDAI in Bengaluru where the installation services revenue is `2.5 crore. We are also implementing IBMS for Duet Hotels and a large real-estate player.” n

“We have built a team of six with skills in writing applications interfacing with the Cisco IOS. This is critical if you want to excel in delivering optimized services” AL Srinath

CEO, Shell Networks

which is critical for winning optimization-related projects. Adds Srinath, “We have built a team of six engineers with skillsets in writing applications interfacing with the Cisco IOS. This is the most critical asset to excel in delivering optimized services because 80 percent of existing WAN and managed LAN backbones are on Cisco.” Delhi-based Targus Technologies, which bagged projects from telecom, government and mid-market entities last year, is betting on its relationship with Juniper to deliver optimization services. The company has already set up an NOC with 10 certified engineers. With SDN gaining momentum, partners see opportunity in projects around OpenFlow. Raunaq Singh, Director, Targus, says, “While SDN-based projects are still in pilot mode, customers are looking at projects using OpenFlow to deliver optimized network services.” MSPs such as the Bengaluru-based ValuePoint Systems and Hyderabad-based Choice Solutions have also jumped into network optimization services. n

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

19


cover story Physical security

T

he physical security (PS) market is an opportunity for IT partners facing declining margins. According to F&S, the `3,250 crore Indian PS market is expected to see 20-22 percent CAGR till 2016. Many partners are identifying PS as a natural progression of their IT infrastructure business. “Being a solution-based business which is not yet commoditized, it offers twice the margins (or even more) compared to IT. In my opinion, IT partners must begin focusing on this market, start with their existing customers, and leverage their skills in networking,” says Kedar Shah, CEO of the Mumbai-based Nirmal Datacomm. Several partners are witnessing high growth in IP surveillance, with high-resolution cameras and analytics in big demand. “PS contributed more than 25 percent to our overall revenue of `115 crore in the last fiscal,” informs Moin Shaikh, Director of the Surat-based Innovative Telecom & Softwares. “For us, the contribution from PS has grown almost 100 percent from `15 crore in FY2011-12 to `29 crore in FY2012-13. There is large demand for video analytics such as face recognition, people counting, and motion and sound detection from enterprises and customers in verticals such as IT-ITeS, manufacturing, government, and gems & jewelry.” Despite the slow economic conditions, partners present in the PS segment are expecting high growth. “We are observing high demand from the government and PSU segments, and already have a few large projects under

Software-defined networking

I

ndian businesses are accepting software-defined networking (SDN) as a serious investment option. Remarks Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies, Mumbai, “We have seen increased acceptance of and executed several projects in SDN for enterprise and mid-market customers with branches or those focusing on BYOD. At the same time, software-defined storage (SDS) and software-defined data center (SDDC) will gain traction with increasing inquiries coming in from customers focusing on scalable data centers and mobility.” “The future is in software controlled infrastructure,” forecasts Amarjeet Singh Walia, Director of the Gurgaonbased Targus Technologies. “Customers are currently readying their networking piece, and soon we will see rapid uptake of SDS and SDDC as well.” With IDC predicting a global market of $2 billion for SDN-ready products by 2016, this is a trend which enterprise channels cannot afford to miss. Organizations are recognizing the benefits of softwaredefined infrastructure as a path to manage networks, storage and data center, and to have programmable central control, and have started partial implementations. In the last fiscal, Orient executed 12 networking projects, where the SDN component was 10-15 percent of the project value. “Currently customers are implementing the technology in a phased manner. But the SDN component will increase significently this year

20

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

“Being a solution-based business which is not yet commoditized, PS offers twice the margins compared to IT. IT partners must focus on this segment” Kedar Shah

CEO, Nirmal Datacomm

implementation. While PS contributed about 10 percent to our business three years back, it accounted for 35 percent of the turnover in the last fiscal. In the current fiscal we expect it to contribute almost 50 percent,” details Manoj Bisht, CEO of the Delhi-based MK Infosystems. Adds Shah, “We are implementing a large PS project worth `10 crore for India’s largest oil company across all its refineries and so expect PS to contribute 30 percent of our targeted revenue of `75 crore in the current fiscal.” Besides the commercial segment, which is leading the PS market with 30 percent YoY growth, PS solutions are also being adopted in the SOHO and home segments. “The PS market is not only for large partners but also for small players targeting the home and SOHO segments,” comments Parag Shah, CEO of the Mumbai-based Futech Computers. “The home segment has seen the adoption of fire safety and access control measures, and video surveillance has become mandatory in certain housing societies. Moreover, SOHO customers are adopting video surveillance for benefits like remote monitoring.” n

“SDN will be a high growth area for us. We already have a couple of SDN projects in hand and are also discussing projects in SDS and SDDC” Neel Shah

Managing Director, Insight Business Machines

onward,” says Shah. Adds Walia of Targus, “Last fiscal, we executed five projects in the range of `15 lakh to `25 lakh where the SDN component was 5-10 percent. This fiscal we expect the SDN component to increase to about 35-40 percent due to increased awareness and acceptance among customers.” Mumbai-based Insight Business Machine, which executed an SDN project worth $300,000 for Sahara Crescenzo in the last fiscal, is enthusiastic about the technology and expects the business to grow manifold. Says Neel Shah, Managing Director, Insight, “Right now the technology is new and awareness is low, but it is is an opportunity for us to make high margins.” In the current fiscal Insight has already executed an SDN project worth $500,000 for IIT-Mumbai, and is targeting revenue of `9 crore from SDN. “SDN will be a high growth area for us. We already have a couple of SDN projects in hand and are also discussing projects in SDS and SDDC,” adds Shah. n


cover story Storage migration

T

he advent of hybrid clouds, VDI and big data analytics, and the availability of a number of multitiered enterprise applications are forcing customers to migrate to or upgrade their storage architectures. According to a study conducted by EMC across APAC, this is resulting in additional services revenue of 25-30 percent for channel partners. Chennai-based Veeras Infotek has bagged several large projects ranging from `15 lakh to `2 crore for migrations from legacy siloed systems to virtualized storage. Informs Sudarshan Ranganathan, CEO, Veeras, “Last fiscal we bagged an order from a software services customer in Chennai for whom we had migrated legacy storage to a private cloud on top of NetApp Flexpod. The service opportunities were in data migration, re-architecting of server and storage infrastructure, storage virtualization implementation and consulting.” The acceptance of VDI is also driving new storage architectures. In 2012, Mumbai-based VDA Infosolutions bagged an order to migrate 800 users at the Pune-based KPIT Cummins to a VMware View-based VDI platform. KPIT had to completely revamp its existing storage system and move to the VMware VCE platform. Says Deepak Jadhav, CEO, VDA, “The customer saw 75 percent reduction in desktop management costs and the number of assets managed reduced by 80 percent.” Many customers prefer to invest in unified storage and are moving away from traditional SAN; this is another

WAN acceleration

T

he market for WAN solutions is increasing. Gartner estimates that the Indian enterprise WAN market will grow from $266 million in 2012 to $373 million by 2017. Developments such as branch network IT consolidation, the data center boom, business continuity, disaster recovery, virtualization, cloud computing and mobility have increased the demand for WAN optimization. Delhi-based ACPL Systems has a dedicated team of four people for its WAN optimization business. “We have been working with Riverbed, and are offering WAN optimization solutions to enterprises which understand that increasing the WAN bandwidth is not helping them to increase the performance and reliability due to the inherent problems of WAN protocols. The solution is to address the multiple aspects of WAN traffic like quality of service, traffic optimizing and improving the WAN performance,” says Vishal Bindra, CEO, ACPL. The company has implemented six large WAN optimization projects ranging from 2,000 user to 20,000 user set-ups in the last one year. Hyderabad-based Shell Networks is also banking on WAN optimization for growth in the next 2-3 years. “Last year we deployed 7-8 link load balancing projects for our existing customers at an average deal size of `18 lakh-`20 lakh. While WAN added `2 crore to our topline, it contributed 18-20 percent to our bottomline,” said AL Srinath, CEO, Shell.

“There is a limit to spinning drives to deliver IOPS. By migrating to flash-based storage we are able to deliver 3-4 times the performance” Vasudevan Subramanyam

Managing Director, New Wave Computing

factor driving data migration projects. “Except for verticals such as telecom and core banking, most segments are comfortable with unified storage architecture,” comments Sanjiv Khushu, CEO, e Micro Data Technologies, New Delhi. “Also driving the demand is the need for features such as multi-tiered storage, snapshots and de-duplication which some of the older hardware did not possess.” Another trend which partners are betting on is migration from traditional SAS-and SATA-based storage to flash-based storage. Bengaluru-based New Wave Computing has already bagged a couple of orders worth $100,000 for migrations from traditional SAS-based storage. “There’s a limit to spinning drives to deliver input output processes per second (IOPS). Modern mission-critical applications need very high IOPS, and the traditional approach has been to use a large number of SAS drives to achieve that. By migrating to flash-based storage we are able to deliver 3-4 times the performance and also save on operational costs,” explains Vasudevan Subramanyam, Managing Director, New Wave Computing. n

“We offer WAN optimization to enterprises which understand that increasing the WAN bandwidth is not helping them to improve performance and reliability” Vishal Bindra CEO, ACPL

For a large university Shell integrated the bandwidth of two different service providers on a single WAN application, thus enabling the university to allocate the freed-up bandwidth for conducting online examinations. The company is also eying opportunities in the BFSI, manufacturing, retail and automotive sectors for growth. Similarly, Hyderabad-based Locuz Enterprise Solutions has connected the Indian branch offices of its MNC customers with their headquarters abroad by WAN optimization. “We have implemented 20-25 such projects in the last five years, each project valued at about $18,000$20,000. However, Indian customers are also demanding WAN optimization solutions and the deal sizes are getting larger,” informs Durganadh Venkata, Senior VP, Locuz. Bindra of ACPL sums up the opportunities for WAN optimization. “WAN optimization practice will remain one of our focus areas in FY2013-14 because new initiatives being adopted by large enterprises are forcing their CIOs to seriously look at their WAN strategy.” n

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

21


tech focus Surface Pro 2 or iPad 4? Does Microsoft’s second-generation tablet offer better value than Apple’s fourth? Find out who wins the Apple iPad 4 vs Microsoft Surface Pro 2 battle n Edward J Correia

L

ast month Microsoft unveiled Surface 2 and Surface Pro 2, placing its bets on a market that so far has been lukewarm toward Windows 8 and Microsoftbranded tablets. Scratch that latter problem off the list— the company’s second-generation tablets now carry only the Surface name. There’s no Windows 8 logo, and the maker’s name is nowhere in sight. Meanwhile, Apple and its fruity logo continue to be gobbled up by more people than ever. Though its global marketshare has dropped according to an IDC report, the company still sold 19.5 million tablets worldwide in the first quarter of this year, a 65 percent increase from the year-ago period. While Microsoft remains barely a blip on that global radar screen, the CRN Test Center takes a look at the specs of Surface Pro 2 versus Apple’s fourth-generation iPad specs.

CPU, GPU, memory The Surface Pro 2 will contain a fourth-generation Intel Core i5-4200U dual-core 1.6 GHz processor with 4 or 8 GB of RAM. Thanks to Intel’s Haswell, Microsoft’s high-end tablet will have all possible power-efficiency advantages plus the display horsepower of the Intel HD Graphics 4400 GPU (also known as Intel Iris) running at 200 MHz. More on Surface Pro 2’s graphics and display capabilities later. Apple’s dual-core A6X ARM-based SoC runs at 1.4

For an already-stretched enterprise IT department, the addition of security challenges for deploying non-Windows devices might seal the deal for Surface 2 22

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

GHz with 1 GB. The new chip includes four PowerVP SGX 554MP4 GPUs clocked at 300 MHz. Surface and iPad are available with 64 or 128 GB of solid-state storage. With Surface Pro 2, Microsoft adds 256 GB and 512 GB options. However, Microsoft warns that Windows can occupy as much as 43 GB of device storage.

The display Surface Pro 2 is built around the same 10.6-inch HD display as its predecessor. It’s a 1,920x1,080 10-point multi-touch IPS panel with Microsoft ClearType subpixel rendering software at its back. At that size, the pixel count converts to just shy of 208 pixels per inch, well shy of Apple’s retina spec. Apple’s 9.7-inch retina IPS display cranks out 2,048x1,536 pixels, or 264 ppi. But when held at arm’s length, which Redmond puts at 17-inch, it’s impossible for the human eye to discern individual pixels anyway. By the way, Microsoft claims that thanks to some calibration and jiggering, its display is 46 percent more accurate than before. We will have to take its word for it.

Dimensions and ports Both tablets are too large and heavy to hold for long periods. The Surface Pro 2’s dark gray metal case is 10.8inch long by 6.8-inch wide and slightly more than a halfinch thick. The iPad’s black or white plastic and metal case measures 9.5- by 7.3-inch, and is about a third of an inch thick. At a full two pounds, Surface Pro is more than a half-pound heavier than iPad’s 1.44 pounds. External device controls are about the same. Both have power and volume buttons, a headphone jack, mic and speakers, and a dedicated ‘home’ button. Apple adds a combo mute and rotation-lock button. Microsoft


tech focus adds a magnetic power connector which mimics the technology that Apple developed and uses only on its laptops. For iPhones and iPads, Apple opts for the alldigital lightning port which handles charging, syncing, video output and other communication duties. Microsoft employs a Micro SDXC card reader, one full-size USB 3.0 port, and a Mini DisplayPort output that requires one of Microsoft’s $40 adapters to use.

Wireless and sensors The Surface Pro 2 comes with Wi-Fi a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0. To these Apple adds cellular and LTE with service from AT&T, Sprint or Verizon (in the US). Both products include two cameras which can capture HD video at 720p. Apple’s rear-facing iSight camera can also record 1080p video, and its five-element lens with f/2.4 aperture and autofocus takes great snapshots. Both include the usual array of additional sensors for ambient light, movement, orientation and acceleration. Apple adds a GPS receiver; Microsoft includes a stylus.

Software is the bottomline Cost aside, choosing between Surface Pro 2 and iPad 4 comes down to the applications they can run and whether these will perform adequately and reliably. Sure, it’s possible to run Windows apps on an iPad, but they rely on network connectivity and remotely

Apple delivers iPad with retina display, 128 GB storage, Wi-Fi and cellular capabilities. So unless you have to absolutely run Windows, Apple still offers better value for a tablet controlling an app running elsewhere. Then there are group policies to consider. For an already-stretched enterprise IT department, the addition of security challenges for deploying nonWindows devices might seal the deal. Such worries evaporate with Windows 8 Pro. Alternatively, the stability of iOS and the volume of apps make the platform desirable.

The verdict Apple starts iPad 4 pricing at $499 for Wi-Fi-only models with 16 GB of memory. Available on October 22, Microsoft’s 64 GB entry-level SKU costs $899 but includes only 28 GB of available user storage. For $929, just $30 more than Microsoft’s entry-level Surface Pro 2, Apple delivers its top-end iPad with retina display, 128 GB storage memory, and Wi-Fi and cellular capabilities. So unless you absolutely, positively have to be running Windows, Apple still offers a better overall value for a tablet product. n

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

23


channel buzz Rich content and new formats to drive INTEROP Mumbai conference

T

he IT industry and consumers of enterprise technology get their technology updates at the INTEROP Conference and Expo held in different regions around the world. The fifth edition of INTEROP Mumbai will be held between November 20-22, 2013, at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center, Goregaon. This year, INTEROP Mumbai will have at least six keynotes, business sessions, industry-specific panel discussions, an exclusive CIO program, and a technical workshop. The conference agenda includes 40 general sessions presented by renowned industry speakers with diverse topics ranging from cloud, security, big data, mobility, connectivity, BCP/DR, data center, social & collaboration, telemedicine, technology inclusion, and business strategy. There will be certain mini-tracks and sessions exclusively for CIOs.

Keynotes

eradicate this situation.

Business sessions The introduction of new sessions like Down to Business and CIO Specialist Master Class is sure to attract technology leaders and decision makers to INTEROP. The Down to Business sessions are one hour capsules featuring speakers from both the business side, and heads of the IT organization. The business heads will talk about the business challenges, strategies, and plans—and the expectations from IT to fulfill business objectives. And the IT heads will speak about some of the latest initiatives s/he has introduced, that are leading to efficiency and profitability. There are two Down to Business sessions planned at INTEROP—one by the Essar Group and the other by the FMCG major Marico. CIO Specialist, a group of experienced CIOs and industry specialists, has partnered with INTEROP for the CIO Specialist Master Class. In this exclusive, byinvitation session, 40 CIOs will discuss burning business issues ranging from challenges to strategy and technology implementation. This session is scheduled for November 21, 2013. CIOs can register online at http://www.ciospecialist.com/interop-mumbai.html

The line-up of keynote speakers includes Sean Narayanan, EVP and Chief Delivery Officer, iGATE, and Jay Bavisi, Co-founder and President, EC-Council, with more keynote speakers to be announced very soon. In his keynote titled, Technology led Business Outcomes, Narayanan will speak about how iGATE is re-engineering its offshore business to adopt a business outcomes based model. And this is the first step that his organization is taking to prepare for a world that will see Panel discussions fast changes in businesses and business cycles on one There are three industry specific panels lined up. This hand, and technology innovations on the other. year, the key verticals identified are BFSI, healthcare, The keynote by Bavisi is titled, The manufacturing and education. Advent of Cyber Plaque: Finding the Panelists will discuss challenges Vaccine. His keynote aims to elucidate INTEROP Mumbai will have and innovations in their respective the information security industry’s verticals. at least six keynotes, successes, failures, and next steps. The panel ‘IT innovation in Bavisi will address the audience on the business sessions, industry- Healthcare’ will be moderated by Dr. situation on cyber plague, relating it specific panel discussions, Pervez Ahmed, Chairman & Managing to the current cyber security scenario, Director, Aapka Urgicare, Dr. Ahmed an exclusive CIO program, and will provide the steps and issues is Board Certified by the American and a technical workshop that need to be addressed to control or Board of Internal Medicine and

Sean Narayanan, EVP and Chief Delivery Officer, iGATE, will speak about how iGATE is re-engineering its offshore business to adopt a business outcomes

24

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in

Jay Bavisi, Co-founder and President, ECCouncil, will address the audience on the situation on cyber plague, relating it to the current cyber security scenario

Alpna J Doshi, CIO, Reliance Group, will allude to key operational challenges at RCOM and its strategy for harnessing the power of its information assets


channel buzz

Dr. Pervez Ahmed, Chairman & Managing Director, Aapka Urgicare, will moderate a panel discussion on IT innovation in healthcare

Dr. Pavan Kumar, Head, Department of Telemedicine, Nanavati Hospital will present a session titled Telehealth on the Mobile platform

Dinesh Pillai, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group, will tell delegates how to address evolving risks, which impact their organization’s financials and brand

Head, Department of Telemedicine, Cardiovascular diseases, as well as a The introduction of new Nanavati Hospital, Mumbai; Dr. S Certified Medical Director. He has been sessions like Down to Chandrasekhar, Professor | Director, an academics enthusiast in the field of medicine for more than three decades. Business and CIO Specialist International School Of Information Management, Aarsh Management He has contributed immensely to the Master Class is sure to Solutions; Vipin Tyagi, Director, development of critical care medicine C-DOT; Kashyap Kompella, Industry in New York, and was on the faculty of attract technology leaders Analyst, Real Story Group; Manoj SUNY Downstate since 1976. He was and decision makers to Chugh, Global Head, Business also responsible for a startup extended INTEROP Development, Tech Mahindra; Sameer care rehabilitation facility in New Saxena, Head, IAHS Academy, York and has extensive experience in Mahindra Special Services Group; and healthcare management. Mohit Pande, Country Manager, Google Enterprise. The other panelists are Sandeep Khurana, Vice IT Heads (CTOs and CIOs) from India will also be President, International Business & Corp Dev, making presentations at INTEROP. They include Jayantha UnitedHealth Group, GSD; Venkat Iyer, CIO, Wockhardt; Prabhu, CTO, ESSAR Group; Girish Rao, Head, IT, Marico; and Dr. Cliff Bluestein, Global Head, Healthcare Alpna J Doshi, CIO, Reliance Group; Bala Meshram, Vice Consulting, Dell. President, IT, The Shipping Corporation of India.

Technology workshop

OpenStack has taken the world of open source software by storm. The cloud computing project for Infrastructureas-a-Service has caught the attention and investments of technology majors like IBM, Dell, Microsoft, HP, Cisco, Amazon, Rackspace, Red Hat, eBay, Sony, NASA, Yahoo! and many others. INTEROP will see two speakers from the OpenStack India User Group— Sajid Akhtar, Organizer, OpenStack India User Group, and Kavit Munshi, Organizer and Cofounder, OpenStack India User Group—do a technical workshop. Both are staunch OpenStack evangelists and they have spoken at international forums. The workshop will begin with the historical aspects and then go into the structure of OpenStack and its various projects. Participants will engage in a practical demo of OpenStack using DevStack. Therefore, participants will need to have a laptop with VMware workstation installed.

General sessions Apart from these exciting introductions, there will also be 50+ speakers. Included in the speaker list are Dr. Pavan Kumar, Head, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery, and

Partnership INTEROP India has also forged partnerships with industry leading organizations such as NASSCOM, DSCI, ISACA, BICSI and others. The conference program will soon include thought leaders from these institutions.

About Interop INTEROP, which expands to Interoperability, was conceived 30 years ago in the US, as a platform for network engineers and computer scientists to meet and discuss standards, protocols, and to resolve issues for making disparate networks interoperable. The Indian edition of INTEROP is held at the Bombay Convention and Exhibition Center, Goregaon. The enterprise technology conference and expo is attended by CIOs, CTOs, CISOs and other technology leaders—all buyers of technology. The other part of the audience are the solutions providers, consultants, system integrators, VARs and other entities in the ecosystem. INTEROP Mumbai is produced by UBM India, which is a live media company in the business of building communities. With a presence in 30 countries, the UBM Group brings together buyers and sellers of products and services. n

For updates and to register for INTEROP visit www.interop.in

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

25


channel buzz

n Deepak Chadha, Director, Unity IT; Biren Selarka, Director, Acma Computers; Satish Pokhriyal, Legal Head, Microsoft; , Manish Lahoti, Head, Sales & OEM, Mumbai Region, Microsoft India; Jiten Mehta, Director, Magnanimous IT Systems and Vikram Seth, CEO, Software@Work, in a disucssion on impact of software piracy

ASIRT discusses software piracy ASIRT recently concluded its 16th Techday themed around the issue of software piracy. The event was attended by 75 members. The highlight of the event was the panel discussion on the topic Cracking the software chakravyuha in India – a 360 degree perspective. The panelists included Satish Pokhriyal, Legal Manager, Microsoft; Manish Lahoti, Regional Sales Manager, West, Microsoft; Biren Selarka, MD, Acma Computers; Jiten Mehta, Director, Magnamious Computers; Vikram Seth, CEO, Software@ Work; and Deepak Chadha, Director, U&IT. Pokhriyal took the center-stage, explaining the

benefits of selling genuine software and the need for change in the attitude of software resellers. He addressed various concerns of the channel partners related to the company’s channel plans, roadmap and support-related issues. Lahoti indicated his team’s willingness to work with partners and help them grow their business. Mehta shared with members his experience of selling genuine software. According to him, “For every dollar of software you sell you can earn $5 in services revenue.” Seth of Software@Work compared genuine software with the pirated version. “While genuine software comes with training and support, pirated software users get no help from the vendor or the partner, and eventually land the company in a soup.” Chadha of U&IT said that there are only two shops selling genuine software on Lamington Road (a commerial hub in Mumbai), and one of those is his. “We have set up a ‘No Piracy Zone’ billboard outside our shop. We have a large number of loyal customers because they know that the software will be genuine and that they won’t be cheated.” Selarka of Acma said that Microsoft should address the piracy issue by helping partners to change the mindset of their customers by organizing events to explain licensing issues and the benefits of genuine products. n

iValue concludes partner conclave iValue InfoSolutions celebrated fifth anniversary with its key partners and OEMs at a partner conclave, iRishtey 2013, in Sri Lanka. 100 delegates comprising partners, consultants and OEMs attended the 3-day event. The key objective of iRishtey was to review the market, identify new growth opportunities for partners, and arrive at a collaborative GTM for profitable growth. iValue awarded national and regional partners who contributed to its growth of 80 percent CAGR since inception. TCS won the Best National Partner award, Secure Network Systems won the Best Regional Partner award. It also honored channel veteran M Prabhakar Kini and Peter Theobald, MD, Secure IT Networks, for their outstanding contributions to the IT industry. As part of the celebrations, the distributor launched its iRishtey Partner Scheme for regional partners. The scheme will reward partners with prizes such as Renault Duster SUV, Renault Scala Car and Harley-Davidson bike. The scheme has two variations. While the first is for all categories of iValue offerings, the second is focused on niche products with multiple rewards at various slabs starting at `50 lakh of annual business done with iValue. The scheme is valid till March 2014. n

n Partners inaugurating iRishtey by lighting the traditional lamp

n Sriram S, CEO, iValue InfoSolutions, Peter Theobald, Managing Director, Secure IT Networks, Prabhakar Kini, former MD, Kinfotech and Sunil Pillai, Founder and Managing Director, iValue InfoSolutions, in a group photo after the awards ceremony

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com 26

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 www.crn.in


new products AOC full HD IPS monitor series

Eaton 9145 UPS series

A

E

OC has launched its full HD IPS monitor 69 ID series featuring mobile high-definition link (MHL) technology. MHL allows users to connect Android gadgets to the monitors and directly display the content. The monitors are equipped with the Clear Vision image performance engine and feature an ultra-high dynamic contrast ratio of 20M:1. Key features include a 2 mm ultra-narrow bezel for a virtually borderless appearance, nonreflective matte anti-glare coating that does not leave smudges or fingerprints on the screen, and 5 ms response time for smooth motion playback. The connectivity options include VGA, HDMI and DisplayPort inputs. The monitors are available in three sizes of 22-, 23- and 27-inch which are priced at `10,990, `13,590 and `20,490 respectively. They carry a 3-year onsite warranty. n

Digisol bullet cameras

U

nder its Digisol brand, Smartlink Network Systems recently launched its bullet cameras, the DGCC3620 and DG-CC3641, for surveillance. The cameras comply with the IP66 standard and have a 1/3-inch color CMOS sensor and resolution support of 600 TVL. The infrared (IR) cut filter blocks the IR light in the day and presents the true colors of the captured images. The DG-CC3620 has an array of 24 IR LEDs which can cover a range of about 20 m. The 3.6 mm fixed lens gives a wideangle view of the area under surveillance. The DG-CC3641 is a weather-proof camera and can withstand temperatures from -20 to 60 degree Celsius. It has an array of 36 IR LEDs which can cover a range of about 40 m, and also has a 6 mm fixed lens which gives a wideangle view of the area under surveillance. The DG-CC3620 and DG-CC3641 are priced at an MRP of `2,800 and `3,100 respectively, and carry a 1-year warranty. n

aton recently launched its 9145 UPS series with 1-20 kVA capacities. The UPSs are targeted at branch offices of BFSI, IT and SMB organizations. The 9145 UPS comes with a built-in over-voltage cut-off device in all its 1–3 kVA models. It offers an output power factor of up to 0.9 on the 6-20 kVA models. The UPSs of 1-3 kVA capacity provide up to four hours of power backup while the UPSs of 4-6 kVA capacity provide power backup of up to 15 minutes on full load. The power backup for 6-20 kVA is up to two hours. The 9145 UPS is optimized to operate in a very wide input voltage range thus reducing the number of transfers to battery power and is compatible with generator sets. The UPS can withstand difficult climatic conditions and is resistant to temperatures up to 45 degree Celsius. Some of the other features of the UPS include efficiency of up to 98 percent in the eco mode and 94 percent in the online mode. The 9145 allows users to track capacity and monitor power usage via a graphic LCD. The product price ranges from `18,000 to `1,10,000 depending on the kVA rating and accessories included. The UPS comes with a 2-year warranty on the UPS and 1-year on the internal battery. n

SanDisk 256 GB flash card

S

anDisk recently launched its 256 GB flash card called Extreme Pro CompactFlash. The company says the card is the world’s fastest, that it’s the first high-performance 256 GB CompactFlash card, and that it comes with the latest Video Performance Guarantee (VPG-65) 2 specification. The card is targeted at professional photographers and videographers. The flash card provides minimum write speeds of 65 Mbps optimized to capture 4K and full HD video with write speeds of up to 160 Mbps. The SanDisk Extreme Pro CompactFlash 256 GB card is available at `1,19,500 and carries a limited lifetime warranty. n

The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors. To feature your company’s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013

www.crn.in

27




shadow ram TAIT fights BIS compliance

T

he Trade Association of IT (TAIT) is lobbying hard to ensure that BIS compliance is not made mandatory for IT products. The premier channel association recently met Arun Sachdeva, Senior Director, Department of Electronics and IT for the same. It also met Milind Deora, State of Minister for IT and Communications to explain why BIS compliance shouldn’t be made compulsory. “We explained to them how BIS compliance will lead to monopoly of MNCs and kill local players. Small local manufacturers will not be able to cope with the hefty cost of BIS certification. Most IT products are already tested under stringent international standards like UL/ TUV/CE/FCC,” said Champak Raj Gurjar, Executive Member, TAIT. TAIT also questioned the government motive for not including mobile phones for BIS compliance. “Instances of IT products causing harm to customers are rare, but mobile phones are known to cause harm. Yet they are not included for compulsory testing list?” questioned Gurjar. Based on assurances given by Deora, TAIT is confident of changes in the CRO very soon. n

GET

Personal

“I would streamline our bureaucracy”

Sanjay Zadoo

Sanjay Zadoo, Director, Channels, Emerson Network Power, India, earlier served as Sales Director, Grainger Industrial Supply. He has close to 20 years of experience in the IT, industrial and electrical distribution businesses, and has held key sales positions in companies such as Ingram Micro, Neoteric and Godrej Pacific.

If not in the IT industry: I would have been a cricketer. Biggest passion: My work. Behind the wheel: Mercedes S-class. Gadget I can’t live without: My latest Nokia smartphone. Weekends are for: My family—and preparing for the week ahead. Favorite holiday destinations: Kashmir in India, and Europe abroad. Hate the most: Insincerity, which is the flip-side of being passionate. Favorite movies: Sholay, 3 Idiots, Die Hard. Favorite star: Amitabh Bachchan. Role model: Ratan Tata, for his lead-from-the-front style of leadership. Ultimate ambition: I would like to start my own business one day. Wildest thing I have ever done: None so far. Thing I most want to do in life: Act in a movie. If I became the PM: I would streamline our bureaucracy and cut down corruption. Celebrity I would like to spend a day with: Sachin Tendulkar. One person I would like to meet and why: Barack Obama. I want to experience how it feels to be one of the most powerful people in the world. Deepest and darkest fear: To wake up to a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by global warming—something similar to the movie Waterworld. n — CRN Network

30

Computer Reseller News

15/10/2013 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.


Turn static files into dynamic content formats.

Create a flipbook
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.