July Issue 2021

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“WE AT IVALUE, HAVE ALWAYS STRIVED TO ENSURE BRINGING THE RIGHT MIX OF BLEEDING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY” Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions

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Stay informed & mitigate your risk

With the expanding attack surface and the growing sophistication of threats, just reacting to an incident is not enough. The only way to keep up with these changes is to build an effective Threat Intelligence program.

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CONTENT VOL - 12 , I SS UE -0 7 , JULY 2 0 2 1

26 COVER STORY- BRANDS

08 LAPPY CORNER

How Second Wave of Pandemic Impacted The Market Growth in India

ASUS Launches Six New Chromebook Laptops in India

10 FACE 2 FACE “We at iValue, have always strived to ensure bringing the right mix of bleeding-edge technology” Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions

32 COVER STORY- CHANNEL Brand Support Has Been Really Commendable: Channel

18 INTERVIEW “We Have The Right Mix Of Partners Who Addresses Various Industry Segments” Kishore GB, General Manager, Tata Teleservices

24 GUEST ARTICLE New Ryuk Ransomware Sample Targets Webservers

CORRIGENDUM The contact number of Rx Infotech Pvt. Ltd. which was carried in the DT Year Book 2021 in Section ‘India’s Top 25 Fastest Growing Distributor’ page no. 184, was unintentionally printed incorrect. We have rectified this error in the digital edition. You can contact Rx Infotech @ 9810119853. We at DT, really regret this error.

Authored by Marc Elias, Security Researcher, McAfee Advanced Threat Research

Editorial & Marketing Office

Publisher & Editor : Rajeev Ranjan Executive Editor : Jyoti Janda Assistant Content Manager : Jai Prakash Consulting Art Direction : Vikas Sharma Visualiser : Akriti Arora Graphic Designer : Shubham Tomar Editdesk : Anoop Singh Bhandari Content Desk : Daraksha Khan Production Head : Rajiv Singh Marketing Executive : Balvinder Singh Circulation: Ashok & Raju 4

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Printed, Published and Owned by Rajeev Ranjan from S-560, IInd Floor, School Block-2, Shakarpur, Delhi-92. Magazine printed at Sangat Printers Pvt. Ltd. C-105, Naraina Industrial Area, Phase I, New Delhi. Editor Brajesh Kumar. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner, in whole or in part, is prohibited. Every possible care has been taken to print this magazine as the content have been sourced from in house writers, as well from other reliable sources including freelancers and content writers. We can not be held responsible for any mistakes or errors. We do not take responsibility for its absolute accuracy. All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only. While care is taken prior to acceptence of advertising copy, it is not possible to verify its contents, Digital Terminal cannot be held responsible for such contents, nor for any loss or damages incurred as a result of transactions with companies, associations for 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

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For feedback, email reachus@asus.com or info_india@asus.com 5 JULY 2021 I

BIG BYTE

SOPHOS ACQUIRED CAPSULE8 FOR LINUX SERVER AND CLOUD CONTAINER SECURITY

Sophos announced that it has acquired Capsule8, a pioneer and market leader of runtime visibility, detection and response for Linux production servers and containers covering on-premise and cloud workloads.

Founded in 2016, Capsule8 is privately held and headquartered in New York, NY. “Sophos already protects more than two million servers for over 85,000 customers worldwide, and the Sophos server security business is growing at more than 20% per year,” said Dan Schiappa, chief product officer, Sophos. “Comprehensive server protection is a crucial component of any effective cybersecurity strategy that organizations of all sizes are increasingly focused on, especially as more workloads move to the cloud. With Capsule8, Sophos is delivering advanced, differentiated solutions to protect server environments, and expanding its position as a leading global cybersecurity provider.”

Capsule8 is dedicated solely to the development of Linux security and has established itself as a technology and thought leader in the market, with marquis customer wins and billings growth of 77% in the year to March 31, 2021. Driven by the dramatic growth in cloud platforms, Linux has become the dominant operating system for server workloads. Capsule8’s high-performance, low-impact design is ideal for Linux servers, especially those used for high-scale workloads, production infrastructure and storing critical business data.

“The main idea behind Capsule8 is that providing enterprise-grade security for Linux systems requires deploying components that are designed specifically for that 6

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environment. These components are more adept at making the trade-offs between security and performance when needed, to achieve the desired levels of resilience and protection,” said Fernando Montenegro, principal research analyst with 451 Research, part of S&P Global Market Intelligence, in reference to Capsule8’s solutions.

“As organizations move to embrace concepts such as cloud-based delivery and DevOps, the underlying compute environments shift noticeably toward Linux as a frequent execution environment. For security teams, often more familiar with Windows-centric concepts, this represents a potential challenge – there are different demands, concepts and practices for Linux. This is the space that Capsule8 aims to address with its endpoint security offering, combining an architecture optimized for Linux with more features aimed at enterprise security and IT operations teams.”

Sophos is integrating Capsule8 technology into its recently launched Adaptive Cybersecurity Ecosystem (ACE), providing powerful and lightweight Linux server and cloud container security within this open platform. Sophos will also feature Capsule8 technology in its Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solutions, Intercept X server protection products, and Sophos Managed Threat Response (MTR) and Rapid Response services. This will further expand and enhance Sophos’ data lake and deliver continuous, fresh intelligence for advanced threat hunting, security operations and customer protection practices.

“Capsule8 is the premiere purpose-built detection and response platform for Linux.

We provide security teams with the crucial visibility they need to protect Linux production infrastructure against unwanted behavior, while at the same time addressing cost, performance and reliability concerns,”

said John Viega, CEO, Capsule8. “We’ve innovated new approaches to deliver runtime security in a much safer and more cost-effective way than anyone else in the industry.

With Capsule8’s technology, organizations are no longer forced to choose between system stability and security risk. Given the growth and mission-critical nature of Linux environments, and the fast-changing, targeted threat landscape, organizations must be confident that their Linux environments are both performant and secure.”

Adversaries use compromised Linux servers as cryptomining botnets or as a high-end infrastructure for launching attacks on other platforms, such as hosting malicious websites or sending malicious emails. Given that Linux servers often hold valuable data, attackers also target them for data theft and ransomware.

“Attackers today are incredibly aggressive and nimble as they adapt their TTPs to focus on the easiest, largest or fastest-growing opportunities. As more organizations shift to Linux servers, adversaries have noticed, and they are adapting and customizing their approaches to attack these systems. To stay protected, organizations must factor in a strong, but lightweight layer of Linux security that automatically integrates and shares intelligence with endpoint, network and other security layers and platforms within an estate,” said Schiappa.

Sophos expects to begin early access programs with its products and services leveraging the Capsule8 technology later this fiscal year.

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ASUS LAUNCHES SIX NEW CHROMEBOOK LAPTOPS IN INDIA

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productivity — so they can see and do more, while carrying less. ASUS Chromebook purchase enables access to Google Play Store.

ASUS’ new lineup includes the Chromebook Flip C214, Chromebook C223, Chromebook C423 (touch and non-touch variants) and Chromebook C523 (touch and non-touch variants).

Powered by Intel® Dual-core 64-bit processors and 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM, Chromebooks give consumers the freedom of up to 10-11 hours’ battery life for productivity and multi-tasking.

Commenting on the new Chromebook launch, Leon Yu, Regional Director, India and South Asia, ASUS said, “At ASUS, we take lead in introducing latest technology to our Indian Fans.

To meet the needs of current times, we are happy to introduce a new range of ASUS Chromebooks that are fast, intuitive, easy to use and highly affordable.

We strongly believe, Indian consumers now have reliable range of Asus laptops with their preferred OS to choose from, across affordable price points.

ASUS Chromebooks will immensely benefit students, home makers and new age cloud focused enterprises.”

The new range of laptops embody the best of ASUS’ design thinking aimed to transform consumer’s lives, democratize digital education and make using a laptop as simple as using your Android Smartphone. The result is a laptop with up to an impressive 80% screento-body ratio that minimizes size while helping the consumers maximize

Commenting at the launch, Dinesh Sharma, Business Head, Commercial PC and Smartphone, System Business Group, ASUS in India said, “We are excited to introduce our ‘Thoughtfully Simple’ yet ‘Transformative’ ASUS Chromebook series, which is designed to ensure extremely intuitive and user friendly computing experience for

SUS announced the launch of six new Chromebooks in India, a series of simple to use, fast and highly affordable laptops, to enable millions of Indian consumers to adopt digital learning, work and entertainment experience. The new range of Chromebooks will be available on Flipkart from July 22nd onwards to customers across the country.

modern day learners and modern day cloud focused enterprises.” He further added, “We will be also announcing a range of community support activities for ASUS Chromebook users and share a range of resources that will help consumers make use of their Chromebook Thoughtfully Simple.”

Rakesh Krishnan, Senior Director, Electronics at Flipkart said, “As the country’s homegrown e-commerce marketplace, we have been the preferred destination for millions of customers across the country by meeting their evolving requirements. With 40-45% of our demand for computing devices coming from the student community, we have been working closely with our partners to make available student-friendly, affordable products at their doorstep. We are happy to make available ASUS’ new range of Chromebooks on our platform which will play a key role in shaping students’ academic journey with its cutting-edge technologies”.

ASUS CHROMEBOOK OVERVIEW – Everyday learning simplified Experience high productivity and smart learning with ChromeOS, a lightweight operating system from Google for fast and simplified computing. The OS provides support for Android apps and Google Play store letting you experience your favorite Android apps with extended support such as keyboard input along with touchscreen. Productivity and learning are a seamless experience on the cloud thanks to the G Suite apps that are fast and simple to use.

Immersive and Vivid display The ASUS Chromebooks feature stunningly slim display panels that exhibit beautiful colors along with optional

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LAPPY CORNER

touch-screen, anti-glare panels up to 15.6 inches with NanoEdge Slim bezels and Full-HD picture that lets you binge-watch media content, learn or be productive all day long with minimal distractions.

Fast and Efficient performance all day long With Intel’s 64-bit dual-core processors, the ASUS Chromebooks lets you experience power-efficient performance whether you’re learning or getting things done more. 4GB of RAM and inbuilt solid-state storage across all variants ensures that you experience superfast boot times along with extensive multitasking on Android apps and even Linux apps. The fast storage along with USB Super-speed 3.1 (USB Type-C and Type-A) you can transfer files between devices at blazing fast speeds and, the storage can be further upgraded up to 2TB with a micro SD card. To ensure all-day long learning and productivity, the ASUS Chromebooks come with high-quality Lithium-ion batteries up to 50Wh and fast USB-C charging, thus ensuring you are topped up quickly for super long hours of effortless and worry-free mobility.

Super-fast and Simplified connectivity To ensure a superior mobile experience, the ASUS Chromebooks come with super-fast dual-bad Wi-Fi 5 (2x2) for wireless data and up to Bluetooth 5.0 for low-latency peripheral connectivity. On its side, the ASUS Chromebooks feature 2 USB-C (3.1) ports that support charging, super-fast data transfers, digital audio over USB-C and external display output with relative ease. The devices also feature up to 2 USB-A (3.1) ports that too allow for fast data transfer speeds.

ASUS CHROMEBOOK RANGE ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 The new ASUS Chromebook C214 is a ruggedized laptop convertible, designed specifically to meet the rigorous www.digitalterminal.in

demands of educational users. The tough built 11.6-inch ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 with its military-grade durability certification is constructed to withstand the everyday knocks, bumps and rough handling commonly encountered in classrooms and homes. The Flip C214 also features additional safety features such as spill and tamper resistant keyboard that’s rated for 10 million keystroke lifespan. The device is powered by Intel® 64-bit dual-core processor and a 50Wh battery that lets you stay productive or learning up to 11 hours, and features 64GB of onboard storage that can be further upgraded up to 2TB using a MicroSD card. 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM allows students and consumers to experience seamless multi-tasking on Chrome apps, Android apps, and even Linux apps. A key feature of the laptop is the thoughtful school-focused design details, incorporating ergonomic design and easy serviceability.

ASUS Chromebook C223, C423, C523 Designed for all-day computing and on-the-go lifestyles, ASUS Chromebooks C223, C423 (touch and nontouch variants) and C523 (touch and non-touch variants) can last up to a full productive 10 hours on a full charge with the help its long-life lithium-ion battery pack. The combination of durability and productivity is a defining feature of the ASUS Chromebook C223, C423 and C523. Users can explore new ways of learning with the

optional touch-screen on the C423 and C523. ASUS Chromebook C423 and C523 can be opened to 180° to lay flat on a desk for easy collaboration. With displays up to a full-HD resolution, the ASUS Chromebooks offer clear colors for day-long computing. The device is powered by Intel® 64-bit dual-core processor that lets you stay productive or learning up to 10 hours, and features 32GB of onboard storage on the C223 and 64GB on C423 and C523, that can be further upgraded up to 2TB using a MicroSD card. 4GB of LPDDR4 RAM allows users to experience seamless multi-tasking on Chrome apps, Android apps, and even Linux apps.

PRICING: Consumers can avail ASUS Chromebooks at below mentioned introductory pricing • ASUS Chromebook Flip C214 – 23,999 • ASUS Chromebook C223 – 17,999 • ASUS Chromebook C423 (Non-Touch) – 19,999 • ASUS Chromebook C523 (Non-Touch) – 20,999 • ASUS Chromebook C423 (Touch) – 23,999 • ASUS Chromebook C523 (Touch) – 24,999.

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“WE AT iVALUE, HAVE ALWAYS STRIVED TO ENSURE BRINGING THE RIGHT MIX OF BLEEDING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY” The Indian IT distribution market has grown rapidly in the last one decade and has gone through a massive transition. The wide adoption of technology products and solutions by SMBs has provided a boost to the distribution houses catering to this market. Nowadays, distributors are emphasizing on improving their profitability and expanding the product portfolio to build growth opportunities. The competition in the distribution business has also risen exponentially due to emerging opportunities and increasing market size. But the companies who have well planned GTM strategy, are doing extremely well. iValue InfoSolutions is one of the major distributors in the Indian market currently. They have a large suite of advanced technology solutions to meet the growing demand of various segment. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently spoke to Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions. He shared his thoughts about the distribution market landscape and their market plans to grow in the new normal. Read below the excerpts: RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU SEE THE CURRENT MARKET SCENARIO FOR DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS IN INDIA? KRISHNA RAJ: In today’s parlance, most enterprises are experiencing a phase of digital transformation. Investments in emerging technologies have increased substantially, helping companies to bring in operational effectiveness and deliver the growing customer demands. While each of these technologies has brought in a competitive edge among businesses, the concern around digital security has increased manifold.

In such scenario, IT distribution business in India has experienced enormous transformation and has become more matured and structured over a period as compared to being largely disorganized in the past. Both, Distributors and Valueadded distributors (VADs) are a very important part of the overall growth strategy of every corporate, as they are and have always been an extended family of the OEMs, and part of the Eco-system of every corporate’s go-to-market strategy for delivering an excellent customer experience.

We at iValue, have always strived to ensure bringing the right mix of bleedingedge technology for both channel 10

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partners and end customer and in this pursuit, we have ensured to segregate our solution portfolio under 4 major pillars namely – Network & Infrastructure Management, Next-Gen Technologies, Cloud & Datacentre Stack and Core Cybersecurity. This bifurcation would help us in taking a consultative driven approach keeping our customer business and IT objective, and with our proven capabilities to convert their business needs to IT offerings with designed, deployment and integration.

RAJEEV: PLEASE BRIEF US ABOUT THE OVERALL PRESENCE OF IVALUE INFOSOLUTIONS. HOW ARE YOU PLANNING TO EXPAND YOUR PRESENCE IN TOP-TIER CITIES? KRISHNA RAJ: iValue InfoSolutions has been on top of its game, accessing the current market and we are proud to say that we have been fantastic in our performance during 2020 PAN India. iValue takes pride in setting new benchmarks for the technology aggregation with service backing space. Despite the uncertain times, our planned approach towards newer, necessary and niche technologies and the OEMs have helped us in being the best. As a testament for this statement, we received an award

‘Best Vertical Partner 2020, APAC’ from Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise at Connex21. This award is a reflection of the determination and consistency with which iValue InfoSolutions has delivered valuable services in India for Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. This award is also recognition of the achievement of iValue being a strong distribution and project management partner in the implementation of the ambitious WIFI Choupal village digitalization project, part of the ‘Digital India’ initiative. We are also on the lookout for expanding on the geography presence across East Asia and MEA regions.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU KEEP MOTIVATED YOUR PARTNERS TO PERFORM WELL DESPITE EXISTING CHALLENGES? HOW DO YOU SUPPORT THEM? KRISHNA RAJ: The challenges of the pandemic time can be broadly split into 3 phases - Survival, Ramp-up and Transformation. Thanks to our offerings which are relevant in all the 3 phases, we have been able to keep up the business momentum for our OEMs and partners with 20% growth in the 1st two months of 2020 than previous years. Thanks to our practice teams, we continuously engage 600+ enterprise customers in www.digitalterminal.in

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a focused way and are involved with many of them in all the 3 phases. We continue to evolve to meet the emerging needs of our customers and partners.

We focus on a few solutions which complement partner key offerings and are relevant to their customer base. We help our partners to do focused market development, activity leveraging on our customer analytics. The AI-driven CRM also helps both iValue and its partners to monitor and optimize efforts across all the opportunities to maximize win rates.

This alignment helps in expediting results with a joint market effort in the market between iValue and Partner teams. Our measure is not how many partners we work with but how many solutions we have been able to see existing customers and how many new customers we are able to win through our unique solutions.

RAJEEV: WHAT OPPORTUNITIES DO YOU SEE CURRENTLY IN THE MARKET AS DIGITAL IS THE ONLY MEDIUM TO GROW IN NEW NORMAL? KRISHNA RAJ: In 2020 the extent of the pandemic took everyone by surprise, unprepared organizations had to scramble to function for weeks if not months. This was to an extent where employees had to make do with PCs from office due to lack of right infrastructure. But now the companies are better prepared. WFA has been the way of an employee’s life for more than a year. Technology has been upgraded with many opting for non-in-house based infrastructure and getting the support from DCs, cloud along with edge, intelligent computing, AI/ML, etc. We are also adding offerings on empowerment area which is a key missing element in the fight to stay ahead of threats with most surveys highlighting people to be the weakest link amongst process and technology dimensions.

We are building organic and inorganic expertise in the area of consulting and services around GRC with new / niche cybersecurity services relevant to the heightened risk due to WFA. iValue also successfully managed key Digital Smart Cities, delivering excellent performance with a high level of service and quality.

With such encouragement from our partners and OEMs iValue has stood the test of time. With a prepared plan of action, vaccines announced from May 1st to anyone above the age of 18 and strong www.digitalterminal.in

Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO, iValue InfoSolutions

WFA facilities letting operations run smoothly. Also with Gartner predicting that 2021 IT spending will increase especially due to digital transformation, and this is certainly a good sign for IT companies and the current market that the trend is on the right path.

RAJEEV: PLEASE HIGHLIGHT FEW MAJOR BRANDS AND THEIR SOLUTION WITH WHOM YOU ARE ASSOCIATED CURRENTLY. CAN WE SEE NEW PARTNERSHIP IN THE COMING DAYS? IS THERE ANY SPECIFIC SEGMENT / DOMAIN YOU ARE TARGETING TO BRING ON BOARD? KRISHNA RAJ: In Q1 & Q2 of 2021 alone, we backed some of the bleeding-edge technology solutions around protection and management of Data, Network and Application such as Advanced Analytics Platform with Integrated Security, Next-Gen SIEM, Cloud Data Protection, Application Performance, Visibility, and Security, Modern Data Management Solutions, Next-Gen Secure SD-WAN and Data Security.

But, iValue’s measure is not how many partners we work with instead how many solutions we have been able to provide to existing customers and how

many new customers we are able to win through our unique solutions. We focus on a few solutions which complement’s partner key offerings and are relevant to their customer base. We are India’s fastest-growing technology aggregator and a premium technology enabler making us one of the most trusted service integrators. This alignment helps in expediting results with a joint market effort in the market between iValue and Partner teams. We address 700+ partners across global, national and regional profiles. Despite the pandemic, this has allowed us to do multiple signups.

We are building focused story around cloud-born OEMs / technology providers, who have a dedicated and strong offering covering all technologies in DNA space, which could be alternative option for both partners and customers in the part of Cloud-adaption happening in the market.

Also, Identity & Access Management and Performance Management are 2 distinct categories where we are finding great traction in the current pandemic scenario.

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CHANNEL FOCUS

iVALUE PARTNERS WITH COSOSYS FOR DLP SOLUTIONS the development of applications for portable storage device encryption and enhancement. iValue InfoSolutions announced their teaming up with CoSoSys a globally recognized IT security company which has been named as one of the fastest growing companies in the IT security market. Established in 2004, CoSoSys has grown multi-fold currently boasting 11 million users worldwide using their rich portfolio of security products and features for device control, data loss prevention (DLP), and eDiscovery for Windows, macOS and Linux, as well as

“A couple of trends that have evolved in the last few years, and now, accelerated with the onset of Corona Pandemic are - Diminishing Network Controls and Evolving Controls around Endpoints and associated Data. Every single enterprise is concerned & keen to protect organization’s critical data residing on employee’s endpoints against intentional theft or unintentional loss, with comprehensive support for operating systems - Windows, Mac and Linux. iValue is excited to partner with

CoSoSys, an excellence award winner in Endpoint DLP and Device control space, and recognized leader by Gartner, to effectively support partners and customers,” said Harsh Marwah, Chief Growth Officer, iValue InfoSolutions. iValue’s focused partner network pan-India has helped to target specific partners of relevance based on his top customers and top brands. Being a premier enabler iValue has endured to consistently partner with the right mix of widespread and niche technology providers to help customers in their transformational journey.

NVIDIA APPOINTS INGRAM MICRO AS ITS DISTRIBUTION PARTNER FOR SAARC REGION

Ingram Micro has announced its distribution agreement with NVIDIA for the India and The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) region. With this agreement, Ingram Micro India will be one of the key distributors in the region providing its channel partners access to the complete portfolio

of NVIDIA high-performance cloud, & data center GPUs and embedded system solutions targeting the telecom, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and other major enterprise markets.

Navdeep Narula, Executive Director, Mobility & Compute at Ingram Micro India, said, “Digital transformation is driving unprecedented demand for data-driven applications, AI and ML within

the enterprise ecosystem in India. The NVIDIA portfolio of accelerated compute solutions enable organizations to more quickly harness capabilities like data analytics, AI and HPC, allowing them to gain deeper insights, accelerate enterprise workloads and stay ahead of competition. We are excited about our collaboration with NVIDIA and the immense opportunities it will open up for our partners.”

TECH DATA AND IBM PARTNERED TO ENABLE PARTNERS ACCELERATE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY IN APAC

Tech Data announced the launch of Tech Data’s Digital Transformation Series along with IBM, a go-to-market initiative tailored to fast track transformation journeys for APAC partners. The Series is designed to meet the growing demand for big data and business analytics (BDA) solutions in the region, which is expected to reach over US$43.4 million by 2024, according to IDC. The initiative will expand and grow the region’s ecosystem of

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partners in the area of data and artificial intelligence (AI), supported by subject matter expertise via Tech Data’s Center of Excellence (COE). As the first solution offering in the Digital Transformation Series built on IBM Cloud® Pak for Data, the initiative will provide partners with enablement and marketing tools, as well as technical knowledge to empower data warehousing capabilities. The Series will also be further expanded to include other solutions portfolios, such as business intelligence and data governance.

The joint initiative will allow small and

medium businesses (SMBs) to scale, simplify, and accelerate deployment of pre-designed data warehousing and advanced analytics capabilities that were previously mainly available to large enterprises. To further drive the joint initiative, Tech Data will leverage its regional ecosystem of partners with a specialized focus on data and AI competencies. Channel partners will also be supported by Tech Data’s subject matter experts through its COE, which provides technical training and best practices to improve cost efficiencies and implementation time for solutions from the Digital Transformation Series. www.digitalterminal.in

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION

EDGE COMPUTING: WHERE AI MEETS THE INTERNET-OF-THINGS The market dynamics have evolved rapidly over the past few months owing to the circumstances created by the pandemic. There is no denying that businesses have started their digital transformation journeys, however, the explosive growth and increased utilization of connected devices have resulted in unprecedented volumes of data.

Moreover, this volume will continue to grow with the adoption of AI and IoT devices as well as with the coming up of 5G networks.

One important consideration for these technologies is where they overlap or can be used in conjunction to achieve business outcomes. For example, where AI meets IoT, sometimes referred to as the Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIoT), provides for capabilities beyond the individual adoption of either technology. AIoT delivers an avenue for networks of connected devices to gather vast amounts of data from the physical world, and with programmable intelligence, learn to reason and process this data into information and insights, then act on it the way humans do.

• The link between the physical and digital world- The intersection point of the physical and digital worlds is what I call the ‘Edge’. It is the point where data is generated, gathered, and processed to create new value. The Edge presents new challenges to the way the IT industry approaches computing. Where there earlier was a sense of reliance on traditional data centers and cloud computing to process data generated outside of data centers, there is now a need to derive real time value at the point of generation necessitates the presence of computing resources at the Edge. This has led to the emergence of Edge Computing. It drives value for organizations by accelerating both the discovery of insights from data and the digitization of key business processes.

It also allows businesses to redefine their end customer’s experiences.

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Image source: innovationatwork.ieee.org

• Designing your Edge- An interesting consequence of Edge Computing as it pertains to the Artificial Intelligence of Things, is that it becomes the vehicle which brings intelligence (AI) closer to the source of data generation (interconnected things). In the new age of Edge computing, compute platforms at the Edge will provide lightweight designs that can be successfully deployed despite spatial, environmental, power, and connectivity constraints. These designs can be secured and can support applications that require insights at the speed of real time and in the near future, organizational strategies for Edge can be expected to differ greatly with no two deployments being the same.

• Defining Edge- Defining the Edge in terms of business outcomes will bring a level of clarity. For example, wind farmers who need to monitor the health of windmills will define Edge much differently than the dairy farmer who wants to monitor the health of their cows. Even though the use case is similar, subtle differences around ‘what’ is being monitored will affect how the technology deployments will occur; down to data architectures, platform of choice, data processing and security at the Edge. As with most adoptions of new technology, deploying at the Edge should have measurable mile-

stones and quick wins on the journey to success.

• The Impact of Edge- Organisations need solutions, which will support their entire data lifecycle management via consistent ecosystems that scale at the Edge and span on-prem and off-prem clouds. This is extremely crucial while keeping in mind the costs that are incurred when capturing, analyzing and extracting value from untapped data sources. They will also need solutions that are built to meet the demands of operational and physical constraints that define their ‘Edge.’

The Edge is now being reinvented with technologies like AI, IoT, and 5G, which brings added value to business outcomes. Harnessing the value of data with edge computing will not only reduce workloads, but at the same time can optimize their networks and services to offer flexible offerings to customers. And as we move ahead in the new data era, the dependence on internet- connected devices will be increasing day by day, hence making edge a master-stroke for businesses to excel ahead in this competitive environment.

Authored by Dell Technologies

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BRAND CONNECT

LAPCARE LAUNCHES ITS MOST ADVANCED NVME AND M.2 SSDs UNDER THE LAPDISC RANGE IN INDIA Lapcare has announced the availability of its latest SSDs- NVME and M.2 under its Lapdisc range in India. The delivery of blazing fast speeds up to 550 MB/s and 2100 MB/S for M.2 and NVME respectively, make them suitable for anyone aiming at blazing high speeds and system performance.

The range is highly compatible with new age laptops and desktops, providing data safety and reliability with high quality materials and shock proof design.

Talking to DT on the new product range, Atul Gupta, Chairman, Rx Infotech, said, “ We are very happy to bring most advanced and cost-effective SSDs for the Indian customers.

These new products will cater to the emerging demand from people who are nowadays looking forward to enhance their PC performance. We have introduced Lapdisc SSDs in various capacities which will help buyers in choosing as per their requirement.”

Additionally, they come with many advance features for excellent performance and reliability. The SSDs have low power consumption that results in a superior energy efficiency.

Lapdisc SSDs are built with long-term performance in mind offering greater user experience.

patible with desktops and laptops and can transfer data at up to 550MB/s read and 450 MB/s write speed. This is an ideal replacement for a hard disk as it is very cost-effective.

These SSDs have been developed to be resistant to any kind of shock, thus it perfectly protects your data, and it doesn’t even make noise and runs silently. The SSD allows you to move the content effortlessly and without limitations. You can simply run it with Windows, Mac OS, gaming consoles and Android. These high-performance SSDs from the house of Lapcare are available in 128GB, 240GB, 256GB, 480GB, 512GB and 1TB variants.

Atul Gupta, Chairman, Rx Infotech

Lapcare already has the presence of ‘The Lapdisc SSD SATA 2.5’ range in Indian markets. These are highly com-

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IT CHANNEL

NEW NORMAL ADDS BALANCE BETWEEN PROFESSIONAL & PERSONAL LIFE FOR CHANNEL PARTNERS INCREASED WORK HOURS Since physical gatherings are halted for an indefinite time, most channel events and training happen virtually. Also, partners leverage digital mediums to reach out to potential buyers. Excessive online meetings have increased their working hours and screen time. Therefore, many partners face health issues like eyes, neck and spine-related disorders etc.

Rajesh Goenka,Director, Sales Markeing, RP tech India

The COVID-19 global pandemic and nationwide lockdown brought many drastic changes in our lives. The physical meetings were replaced by virtual conferences, online shopping became the preferred mode over in-shop shopping and now virtual learning is the way ahead. It’s been almost two years since people have accustomed to this new normal of WFH and LFH. However, as we have entered into a digitally-enabled lifestyle; it has brought a host of physical and mental health-related issues. In times when the lines between office space and home are blurring with an increase in working hours and screen times, people are facing anxiety, insecurity, depression and other stress-related disorders.

According to the latest survey conducted

by SCIKEY Market Network in major metro cities, with WFH and increased workload, people are facing a fear of job loss, which is taking a toll on their mental health and personal lives. Further, the survey states that the common symptoms of stress are aggression, mood swings, headaches, and physical ailments.

In unprecedented times, people must emphasize physical and mental well-being.

RP tech India has been organizing many motivational events and fun activities for its channel fraternity to ensure their emotional wellbeing. We reached out to channel partners across India to understand how they are striking a balance between their professional and personal life while ensuring the safety of their loved ones.

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Partners also say that there are limitations of online means and they are not able to their customer’s queries. This leads to stress due to fear of losing potential customers and business. “We are not able to address customers queries properly due to limited access. Also, product availability and price issues make it difficult for us to do the business. We are already facing stiff competition from E-Commerce and the current scenario is not encouraging for us. We are already under pressure due to a lack of business and pilling expenditure.

This leads to anxiety and stress and also affects our family relations”, said Mr. Girish Gupta, owner of Bhopal based Computer Planet.

While many channel partners are adjusting to the new lifestyle post lockdown, some do not see significant changes in their daily routines. “We are into the retail business and we were up and running even during the lockdown. Initially, there were certain hiccups as this was a very unique situation but we have gradually adjusted to the situation. I don’t think any major change in my routine but I am taking extra precautions and trying to lead a healthy lifestyle”, said Mr. Dixit Gupta, Owner of Jammu based Source peripherals.

FUTURE UNCERTAINTY Uncertainty about future business prospects is the main reason for stress and anxiety among channel partners. The demand for IT products shot up exponentially in 2020 due to huge demand for WFH and LFH solutions, however, there was a decline in the demand in 2021. Partners say such steep fluctuations are not in favour of small dealers and retailers. Mr. Vivek Madathil, owner of Calicut based Accord Systems said, “Since business has to happen at a very limited scale, I have

reduced my expenditure and cut spending on many things. I have family responsibility and sometimes it is very difficult to manage the budget. My family requires to compromise on many things because of reduced earning. I hope the situation will improve soon and we all will get back to our normal life.”

PRIORITIZING FAMILY AND HEALTH While an increase in stress is a reality, partners admit that the new normal allowed them to focus on their family and health and bring discipline to their routine.

“Earlier, I would spend hours in the office and physical fitness was zero. Now as we all are forced to operate from home, I have made significant corrections in my daily schedule. I emphasise health & fitness and spend quality time with my family. I am prioritizing family needs and this has helped me improve my bond with my kids and wife”, Mr. Chetan Seksaria, owner of Kolkata based Clarion.

HEALTH IS WEALTH RP tech India has been at the forefront in giving extra support to partners through value-added programs such as motivational sessions, fun activities for partners’ kids and so on. The objective is to help partners cope up with their stress and help them to maintain a positive outlook towards life.

Talking about these initiatives, Mr. Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales & Marketing said, “The Corona crisis has taught us to health is the biggest wealth and we should not neglect it. Being the leading value-added distributor, we endeavour to assist our channel partners in every possible way.”

“We believe when talking about the health and well-being of our partners, we cannot ignore their family members. Hence, our activities target families of partners and ensure their active participation in the events. We recently organised RP tech Quiz Master Junior for children of partners.

3000+ children participated in the virtual quiz competition and 700+ kids won exciting prizes. Partners highly appreciated the event and thanked us for organizing the quiz on such a giant scale. We will continue to organise such events at a bigger scale in upcoming months”, he added.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

ASUS TO ROLL OUT WINDOWS 11 UPDATE FOR ITS PCS THIS YEAR

ASUS announced that it is partnering with Microsoft to ensure users of new and existing ASUS PCs are primed for the launch of Windows 11 after it is available. As an internationally-respected and trusted manufacturer of Windows PCs, ASUS is proud to be a leading proponent of Windows 11 — the forthcoming latest version of the world’s most popular operating system. In preparation for this exciting launch, ASUS is readying a raft of new and existing devices for a free upgrade to Windows 11. From today, all newly-purchased ASUS Windows 10 devices that are featured on our upgrade list, along with many existing eligible ASUS Windows 10 devices, will qualify for an upgrade after Windows 11 is released. As an example, both existing users and new purchasers of Zenbook Pro Duo 15 OLED (UX582), Zenbook Duo 14 (UX482), Zenbook Flip 13 OLED (UX363) and Zenbook 13 OLED (UX325) models will all be eligible for an upgrade to Windows 11 — so prospective buyers can buy today safe in the knowledge that a free upgrade is just around the corner.

ACER INDIA SUCCESSFULLY VACCINATED ITS 100% EMPLOYEES Acer India is pleased to announce the successful vaccination of 100% of eligible employees and their family members as part of the nationwide vaccine drive to fight against COVID-19 pandemic. Acer India partnered with reputed hospitals to facilitate vaccination camps across cities. All eligible Acer 16

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employees and their family members have taken both doses of vaccination and are now safe and protected from COVID-19. Speaking on the completion of vaccination Harish Kohli, President and Managing Director, Acer India said, “Our highest priority is the health and well-being of our employees. Hence, the completion of the vaccination process was a top priority for the company.

We are continuously keeping a tab on the current pandemic situation and working with experts to ensure that our employees get the best support at every stage and vaccination drive was one of the many initiatives we have done.”

EPSON RANKED NO. 1 BRAND IN INDIAN PROJECTOR MARKET

Epson has once again ranked No. 1 in the Indian Projector market, maintaining its leadership position for the sixth consecutive year. This is as per the latest data published by Futuresource Consulting for FY20. The Futuresource Market Insight Report is accepted as the worldwide projector industry standard. According to the report, Epson sold 25,239 projectors out of the overall 97,251 sold in India in FY20, capturing a 25.95% ^ share of the market and reinforcing its position as the leading projector brand in the country. The Indian projector market faced headwinds due to the prevailing conditions with education and corpo-

rate sales declining steeply. However, the pandemic has fueled the demand for projectors for entertainment, work and learn from home needs. Futuresource Consulting, market specialists in visual displays, confirms that Epson has also been the worldwide market leader for 20 straight years, from calendar year 2001 onwards, with a worldwide market share of 41.3% in the calendar year 2020.

CISCO PROMOTES DAISY CHITTILAPILLY AS PRESIDENT OF INDIA & SAARC

Cisco announced the appointment of Daisy Chittilapilly as the new President of its India & SAARC theatre. Daisy is taking over from Sameer Garde, who recently announced his decision to join the social sector after four years at Cisco. With over 25 years of experience in the technology industry, including 17 years of leadership experience at Cisco, Daisy has a proven track record of transforming operations and cultures to drive growth at scale. As President of the India & SAARC theater, she will be responsible for strategy and sales, operations, and investments to drive long-term growth in the region. Daisy will start her new role from 1 August 2021, which also marks the beginning of Cisco’s new financial year. Daisy most recently held the position of Managing Director for Cisco’s Digital Transformation Office, where she worked with customers to capture and scale opportunities emerging in the digital world.

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NEWS IN BRIEF

ESET RESEARCH DETECTED BANDIDOS SPYING CAMPAIGN

ESET Research has recently uncovered a new and still active campaign that uses more advanced versions of the old crimeware Bandook to spy on its victims. The ongoing campaign is targeting corporate networks in Spanish-speaking countries, with 90% of ESET telemetry detections in Venezuela. ESET researchers have found new functionality and changes to Bandook.

Because of the malware used and the targeted locale, ESET chose to name this campaign Bandidos. ESET has seen more than 200 detections for the malware droppers in Venezuela in 2021; however, a specific vertical targeted by this malicious campaign could not be identified. According to telemetry data, the main interests of the attackers are corporate networks in Venezuela: some in manufacturing companies, and others in construction, healthcare, software services, and even retail. Given the capabilities of the malware and the kind of information that is exfiltrated, it seems that the main purpose of Bandidos is espionage.

MSI SOLD 3M GAMING MONITORS WITHIN 3 YEARS MSI has re-affirmed its commitment to quality and delivered value to gamers time and again. And over the years, it has learned more about what gamers love and have focused on designing the best display products on the market.

MSI is proud to announce a groundbreaking milestone for its Gaming Monitors – 3 million Gaming Monitors sold in just 3 years! As a relatively fresh entrant to display technology, this is an www.digitalterminal.in

Windows experience. The announcement represents a groundbreaking development as organizations around the world grapple with the best ways to facilitate hybrid work models where employees are both on-site and distributed across the globe.

honor for the company that has spent considerable time and effort to really understand what gamers want out of a Gaming Monitor. A focused goal of delivering the ultimate gaming experience still drives MSI to achieve. A never-ending pursuit of perfection. However, it all began in November of 2016 with the launch of the MSI Optix G27C Gaming Monitor.

LENOVO MAINTAINS ITS LEADERSHIP POSITION IN THE GLOBAL PC MARKET

MICROSOFT LAUNCHES WINDOWS 365 CLOUD PC SERVICE

Microsoft Corporation announced Windows 365 – a cloud service that introduces a new way to experience Windows 10 or Windows 11 to businesses of all sizes. Windows 365 takes the operating system to the Microsoft Cloud, streaming the full Windows experience – apps, data, and settings – to personal or corporate devices. Secure by design and built with the principles of Zero Trust, Windows 365 secures and stores information in the cloud, not on the device, providing a secure, productive experience for workers from interns and contractors to software developers and industrial designers.

Windows 365 also creates a new hybrid personal computing category called Cloud PC, which uses both the power of the cloud and the capabilities of the device to provide a full, personalized

Worldwide PC shipments totaled 71.6 million units in the second quarter of 2021, an increase of 4.6% from the second quarter of 2020, according to preliminary results by Gartner, Inc. While PC demand remained above pre-pandemic levels, this was a marked deceleration in growth compared to the record year over year growth of 35.7% in the first quarter of 2021, due in part to the impact of ongoing component shortages. The top three vendors in the worldwide PC market remained unchanged year over year, with Lenovo maintaining the No. 1 spot in shipments. Lenovo recorded its fifth straight quarter of year over year growth, although its 3.6% growth trailed that of the overall PC market. Lenovo’s consistent growth can be attributed in part to its in-house manufacturing operation, which enables Lenovo to be in better control of component shortages, in contrast to its competitors that rely primarily on outsourcing.

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INTERVIEW

“WE HAVE THE RIGHT MIX OF PARTNERS WHO ADDRESSES VARIOUS INDUSTRY SEGMENTS” In today’s digital era, the next-gen technologies like IoT, AI and Cloud are being deployed to boost efficiency by most of the companies. In recent times or post-pandemic, we saw an increase in the demand for such solutions across all size of companies. SMBs and enterprises are the core fuelling factor for the growth of these markets in India. As a result, we see huge opportunities for such companies who are playing into this domain.

The CIOs and CTOs are willing than ever to adopt the latest technology solutions to get leading-edge upon their counterparts. Tata Teleservices is one of the leading and trusted market players offering the best suite of advanced technology solutions for these companies. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently held an insightful interaction with Kishore GB, General Manager, Tata Teleservices. Mr. Kishore elaborated about the current IT market, new evolving technologies and their offerings. Read below the excerpts:

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU SEE THE IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC ON BUSINESSES ACROSS THE INDUSTRIES? HOW IS CLOUD TECHNOLOGY PLAYING A DEFINING ROLE IN THEIR BUSINESS CONTINUITY? KISHORE: We have witnessed an enormous scale of digital transformation that has happened in the past one year. There is tremendous scope and potential as most of the small and medium businesses have just begun their digital journey.

But a lot more companies are now more digitally agile and equipped to counter any workforce disruption due to COVID-19 waves. Compared to last year, enterprises are now using extensive digital tools to collaborate better with their internal and external stakeholders, and this has also helped them to maintain business continuity without affecting their efficiency and productivity.

The requirements of collaboration tools such as video conferencing, VPN(s) for enhanced enterprise security, cloud hosted solutions – cloud telephony, etc has seen increased demand over the last year. Covid-19 has accelerated Cloud adoption as enterprises are seeing benefits like reduced costs, faster customer resolutions and increased productivity. Indian SMB(s) and enterprises are constantly evolving

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with these new generation costeffective cloud platforms. According to Nasscom, India’s Public Cloud market stands at Rs 170 billion in FY2020 and is growing at ~30 % CAGRtill FY2025 to reach Rs 630 billion. SMBs can account for 28-30% of the cloud market by 2025.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU MANAGE THE RISKS RELATED TO HOSTING DATA OVER CLOUD? HOW DO YOU ENSURE OPTIMUM DATA SECURITY FOR ENTERPRISES OR SMBS? KISHORE: We believe in providing robust solutions for enterprise processes, and response time becomes one of the crucial element while your company’s critical data is on the stake. Cloud-infrastructure provide utmost level of accessibility and ease to the employees, however it has some standard practices that needs to be followed to maintain the digital hygiene and ensure safety of data. In order to prevent data breaches, regular cybersecurity system audits should be in place, and we ensure quick response time on priority during any attempt of potential breach, ensuring all the precautionary measures in place.

Our partnership with FirstWave brings a comprehensive set of portfolio of next-gen security solutions to our enterprise customers in India. Having a demonstrated global expertise and

deep understanding in cybersecurity management, TTBS is leveraging FirstWave’s unique SaaS (Software as a Service) orchestration technology platform - Cloud Content Security Provider (CCSP) that provides a full catalogue of security services including email, web, next generation firewall, endpoint and multi-factor authentication (MFA).

The platform-based security solutions apply machine learning techniques and integrates with security offerings from Cisco, Palo Alto Networks, Trend Micro and Fortinet. It provides security for the enterprises while using public and private cloud business applications for long-term operational efficiencies. This partnership is enabling our enterprise customers an access to a world class comprehensive smart perimeter security proposition that is robust, scalable and can be rapidly deployed at an affordable cost.

RAJEEV: WHAT ARE THE OPPORTUNITIES FOR TECHNOLOGY PARTNERS/CHANNEL WITH RESPECT TO THE ADOPTION OF NEXT-GEN TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS CLOUD, IOT, BIG DATA AND AI ACROSS DIFFERENT BUSINESS VERTICALS? KISHORE: IoT, AI and Cloud along with security overlay, being scalable solutions have witnessed a massive boost, driven by new use cases to www.digitalterminal.in

INTERVIEW

demand during the pandemic. Our highly flexible and scalable cloud communication suite - Smartflo, has been innovatively designed to boost business communication on cloud and support their hybrid work force working from office and remote locations. Since data analytics is going to be a major draw for digital enterprises to enhance business intelligence, cloud’s strategic support in scaling small business gives them a rationale to leverage this technology.

Kishore GB, General Manager, Tata Teleservices accelerate automation of processes and systems, and reduce human interactions for long term benefits of the enterprises. TTBS has an IoT practice focused on Location Based Services (LBS) like Fleet Management, Asset Tracking, Workforce Tracking, Fuel Monitoring, among others. We believe the IoT market will grow exponentially, and we will continue to strengthen our IoT services as per our customers’ requirements.

Tele Business Services has an extensive and perhaps the largest Channel Partner ecosystem across the country in over 60 cities to support our customers with their ICT needs. We have the right mix of partners who addresses various industry segments.

We have pure telecom partners, system integrators, data security experts, software selling partners and even non-ICT partners who have better reach across traditional SMB segments.

We will continue to enhance our channel network in every part of the addressable market wherever SMBs are based. www.digitalterminal.in

RAJEEV: PLEASE BRIEF ABOUT YOUR KEY CLOUD SOLUTIONS SUPPORT ENTERPRISES/SMBS DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY? KISHORE: The pandemic has resulted in quick adoption of cloud services in India in the past year and the rate is higher than anywhere in the world.

According to a report by IDC, 60 per cent of the Indian organisations plan to leverage Cloud platforms for digital innovation. The cross-over to hybrid and remote working has catalysed the digital enablement of business environments and workplace transformation. Applications such as CRM, analytics, retail, Voice and Data etc. are moving to the cloud to build resilience and make their workforce more secure and collaborate in more meaningful ways.

We have also expanded our portfolio of Cloud services - cloud security, application, and infrastructure solutions to address the increasing customer

We partner with enterprises as a subject matter expert to chart their journey from traditional to digital and enable them to run their operations seamlessly. We have been providing the enterprises with a comprehensive portfolio of ICT solutions that are scalable, easy to deploy, and are available in an asset/CAPEX light model. We have also been hosting various sessions with the MSMEs and our Channel partners, demonstrating how to mitigate post-pandemic challenges by accessing Data, Voice and ICS from various access points without compromising on security, efficiency and productivity.

RAJEEV: WHAT IS YOUR GROWTH PLAN FOR THE REST OF YEAR 2021?

HOW DO YOU LOOK AT MEETING YOUR SET TARGETS? KISHORE: We are continuously in a process to build digital highways and bring in solutions for transforming the MSMEs, SMB, and Start-up segments in India. We are planning to bring more strategic partnerships this year to provide our customers a level of holistic cloud support with full-graded cybersecurity solutions, advance level of connectivity and initiatives for our Channel partners. We believe in measuring our success rate by ensuring to be a major contributor in digital transformation of businesses in India, and to continue providing them support across their life cycle. We believe in delivering the best customer support backed by and optimum level of SLA(s) as our key growth drivers.

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BRAND FOCUS

KASPERSKY AND OWNCLOUD JOIN HANDS TO SAFEGUARD FILE COLLABORATION PLATFORM FOR ENTERPRISES Kaspersky and ownCloud announce the start of their technology partnership to integrate Kaspersky Scan Engine with the ownCloud Enterprise collaboration platform. The integration is made through open-standard ICAP protocol.

This offloads scanning to a separate server to maintain performance of the platform, as well as to allow scalability, easy set-up and maintenance.

Data protection remains the most concerning cybersecurity issue for 59% of organizations globally.

File collaboration platforms allow enterprises to work on their documents within a single protected environment and to keep sensitive data under control. But it is also necessary to ensure that no malicious objects squeeze into the environment from the outside, with which anti-malware scanning can help.

The partnership of ownCloud and Kaspersky delivers scanning integration

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with an emphasis on performance and usability. Kaspersky Scan Engine ensures comprehensive protection from malware, Trojans, worms, rootkits, spyware, and adware. It also provides HTTP traffic scanning, and file and URL reputation checking. Scanning is performed on server-side and can be swiftly scaled to match shifting demands. At the same time, integration is easier for admins to set up and maintain.

“Cybersecurity is a trust issue. Our partnership with Kaspersky allows our enterprise customers to do their antivirus scanning themselves onpremise, without compromising sensitive data by sending it to thirdparty scanning services. Using the ICAP protocol underscores our conviction that open standards are the way to go towards digital sovereignty,” explains Holger Dyroff, COO at ownCloud.

completing their cloud migration, adversaries are stepping up their game and seeking to exploit new opportunities. By partnering with ownCloud, we want to make sure that all the advantages of private cloud technologies come together with the safety and security that can only be provided by a first-class anti-malware solution such as Kaspersky Scan Engine. I am honored to welcome ownCloud to our growing community of Kaspersky Technology Partners,” says Alexander Karpitsky, Head of Technology Alliances at Kaspersky.

The open-standards integration extends the existing functionality of ownCloud’s Antivirus App. The joint solution is ready and available for all interested ownCloud Enterprise customers and also makes ownCloud easily accessible to Kaspersky customers.

“Even as hundreds of enterprises are

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IN-FOCUS

MICRON RECOGNIZED AS BEST WORKPLACE IN ASIA Micron Technology, Inc. announced that the Great Place to Work Institute has named the technology innovator and leader one of the Best Workplaces in Asia™. Micron was recognized on the list for the first time as a company providing best-in-class engagement, compensation, benefits, training and growth opportunities across its diverse populations of employees.

Micron ranks as the world’s fourth-largest semiconductor company, developing and delivering innovative memory and storage products for the world. The company employs approximately 40,000 people at 13 manufacturing sites and 14 customer labs in 17 countries.

The recognition follows recent placements on Great Place to Work® lists of Best WorkplacesTM in Micron China, Germany, Japan, Italy, Singapore, and Taiwan.

“The multiple Great Place to Work recognitions that Micron has received since last July are a testament to Micron’s consistent focus on employee growth, well-being, and culture of diversity, equality and inclusion,” said April Arnzen, senior vice president and chief people officer at Micron.

“At Micron, our people fuel our success. We

are proud to be named on this year’s list and are humbled by our team members feedback from the surveys.”

Micron’s values of people, innovation, tenacity, collaboration and customer focus act as the foundation for how the company operates and contributes to a culture of creativity and respect for all.

The Great Place to Work Institute, which ranks workplaces around the world, surveyed more than 3.3 million employees from 16 countries in Asia and the Middle East to assess their experiences of trust, innovation, company values and leadership.

To qualify for the Best Workplaces in Asia list, companies must be ranked high on the Great Place to Work’s Best Workplaces national lists across the region.

Companies are also evaluated on how well they are creating a For All™ workplace experience that is inclusive of all employees, no matter who they are or what they do.

This year, COVID-19 brought physical and mental well-being to the forefront for both employers and employees.

On average, companies ranked among the

Best Workplaces in Asia scored 10% better than those that made it to the national list level — an incredibly high bar as such workplaces are the best of the best in their own countries. The Best Workplaces in Asia had 15% more employees report: Feeling that management involves people in its decision-making Receiving special and unique benefits Receiving a fair share of the profits made by the organization How Great Place to Work determines the Best Workplaces in Asia To be considered, companies must first be identified as outstanding in their local region by appearing on one or more of our Best Workplaces lists in Greater China (including China, Hong Kong and Taiwan), India, Japan, Philippines, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sri Lanka or UAE during 2020 or early 2021.

TP-LINK RANKED AS WORLD’S NO.1 BRAND IN GLOBAL WLAN MARKET TP-Link has been consistently ranked as the No. 1 global provider of WLAN devices for 10 years, according to the IDC Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker, Q4 2020.

“Reliably Smart,” we thank you for being together with us, bridging the world through fast and responsive networks.

Source: IDC Worldwide Quarterly WLAN Tracker, Q4 2020 (claim based on worldwide shipments).

The latest IDC WLAN Tracker revealed that TP-Link shipped 18 million WLAN products in Q4 2020, occupying a global market share of 17.8%. In the last decade, apart from retaining the first position in shipping SOHO WLAN products, TP-Link has witnessed phenomenal growth of its Business WLAN products in the European and South East Asian markets. TP-Link iterates its innovation of the latest technologies including Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi 6E, SDN, and more.

10 years of leading the WLAN market encourages us at TP-Link to keep our focus on bringing the connected lifestyle to more people. Adhering to TP-Link’s motto,

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NEW ARRIVALS COLORFUL X15-AT GAMING LAPTOP

Colorful Technology Company Limited is proud to announce the launch of the COLORFUL X15-AT gaming laptop powered by the latest 11th generation Intel Core processor and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 graphics.

The gaming laptop comes equipped with a 15.6” display with 144Hz refresh rate and 100% sRGB coverage for fluid gameplays and vivid colors. It also features Thunderbolt 4 connectivity and fast Wi-Fi 6. It comes with 16GB of DDR4 3200MHz memory – upgradeable up to 64GB memory. It also packs high-speed storage with a 512GB NVMe SSD rated with up to 2400MB/s speeds. It also features a Thunderbolt 4 port with up to 40Gbps transfer speed. The COLORFUL X15AT is fitted with a 15.6” display with 144Hz refresh rate for fluid gameplays.

The display also has 100% sRGB coverage and 300 nits peak brightness for accurate colors and sharp images.

It features a micro-edge screen design with an 86% screen-to-body ratio.

DAIWA 4K SMART TV

Daiwa proudly becomes the first Indian brand, to announce its range of UHD Smart TV’s powered by webOS TV. The 22

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first in the lineup includes D50U1WOS, 50inch(126cm) 4K UHD Smart TV powered by webOS TV, with ThinQ AI voice assistance and Magic Remote.

Bringing theatre like experience home, the Smart TV supports 4K visuals with 1.07 billion colors & ultra-high-definition picture quality.

Daiwa’s deep learning AI and Quantum Luminit+ Technology, upscales and reproduces low-resolution images to offer 4K-quality visuals. The UHD Smart TV brings augmented audio experience with its 20W Surround Sound Box speakers coupled with Dolby Audio sound technology. The UHD Smart TV supports multi-HDR format that includes HDR10 and HLG (Hybrid Log Gamma). The Smart TV is powered by ARM CA55 1.1 GHz Quad core processor, four time faster than conventional TVs. It is equipped with High RAM of 1.5 GB with an internal storage of 8GB. The 4K UHD Smart TV shall be priced for Rs. 43990/-

and responsive experience. boAt Xtend features a range of sensors and fitness trackers capable of tracking Heart rate, Stress, SPo2, and Sleeping patterns automatically as well as manually. The stress monitor reads HRV (Heart Rate Variabilities) to indicate stress levels. boAt Xtend packs a 300mAh battery to power through for up to a week on a single full charge. A 5ATM water resistance ensures durability and allows the watch to survive a depth of up to 50 metres for 30 minutes. The boAt XTEND will be available at an introductory price of Rs 2999.

LENOVO IDEAPAD DUET 3

BOAT ‘XTEND’ SMARTWATCH

boAt announces their latest Smartwatch called Xtend. The new smartwatch boasts built-in Alexa voice assistant for a smart and touch-free experience. boAt smartwatch Xtend features a plethora of onboard sensors and health monitors such as Stress monitor, SPo2 monitor, Heart-rate monitor, Step Counter, Sleep monitor as well as a daily activity tracker that work in tandem to collect all necessary health and fitness data to provide an easy-to-understand summary via the boAt Wave app. It sports a 1.69inch square capacitive display for a smooth

Lenovo announced the launch of its premium detachable PC - IdeaPad Duet 3. Equipped with classroom essentials, the IdeaPad Duet 3 is Lenovo’s first ever IdeaPad PC with a detachable Bluetooth (5.0) keyboard, and a folio kickstand supporting Lenovo Digital Pen for seamless note-taking. Its small size and lightweightedness (just 0.86 kg) makes it ideal for students and go-getters who need a full-function PC but want to travel light. It is powered

by Intel Celeron® processors and Intel UHD graphics, with up to 10.3-inch Full HD IPS panel display at 330 nits bright, up to 4GB solid memory, and up to 7 hours of battery life. The IdeaPad Duet 3 makes hands-free communication easier with Cortana digital assistant plus dual 360-degree mics, while the clever privacy shutter on the webcam helps users safeguard themselves from unwanted onlookers. Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 3 will be available at INR 29,999.

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NEW ARRIVALS BOSE SLEEPBUDS II

Bose announced Sleepbuds™ II, the next generation of its revolutionary bedtime wearable with technology now clinically proven to help people fall asleep faster. Sleepbuds II feature demonstrably better noise-masking than their predecessor and introduce new categories of content to combat the other barrier to rest: the inability to relax. Bose Sleepbuds II will be available at a price of Rs. 22900 (INR). Bose Sleepbuds II feature advancements in noise management, acoustics, psychoacoustics, and electronic miniaturization. Sleepbuds II come with an improved anodized aluminum case that stabilizes each bud while they’re stored and charged and provides up to 30 additional hours of battery life. For convenience, they’re equally compatible with iOS and Android devices. For durability, they’re sweatand water-resistant with an IPX4 rating. For control and updates, the free Bose Sleep App lets you set an alarm, change volume, and now includes three categories of content — all precisely developed, engineered, and mixed to overcome what keeps you up or wakes you up.

UBON SP-40 BLUETOOTH SPEAKER

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UBON has launched SP-40, equipped with impeccable features like USB Charging, dual torch with solar charging panel, control button, FM Radio, Support TF card and high-quality sound.

It comes with multiple connectivity options USB Port, Micro TF/SD Card Powered True Wireless Speaker (TWS).

With this addition, the company has expanded its wireless portfolio. This new speaker comes with the latest built-in TWS feature via Wireless V5.0 and can be paired via Bluetooth to the soundtrack for up to 10 meters of operating range. This speaker offers a power backup with the support of an inbuilt 1200 mAh battery. Also, when you get bored of your playlist, you can easily switch to the FM mode and tune into your favourite FM stations.

UBON SP – 40 Solar Bluetooth speaker comes in stylish colours priced at INR 2,499/- and can be bought from all the leading retail stores and e-commerce platforms.

The Boult Audio Freepods Pro is equipped with mammoth battery life so that you can travel those extra miles without having to worry about charging them frequently. The Freepods Pro also sports a Type-C ultra-fast charging technology to gives you 100 minutes of playback time with just a 10-minute charge. The Boult Audio Freepods Pro TWS earbuds will be available in three colours – Black, White and Blue for an exclusive price of Rs 1,299 on Flipkart. com

SENNHEISER IE 100 PRO WIRED AND IE 100 PRO WIRELESS

BOULT AUDIO ‘FREEPODS PRO’

Boult Audio announces the launch of its exquisitely-designed TWS earbuds ‘Freepods Pro’. The Boult Audio Freepods Pro is a pair of highly compact and exquisitely designed TWS earbuds, and a huge upgrade to the earlier Freepods. It features an ultra-durable IPX5 waterproof enclosure that prevents damage from rain, water, sweat and dust. The Boult Audio Freepods Pro is designed using the best-in-class and latest upgraded Bluetooth v5.0 chip for faster pairing and seamless connectivity even at longer distances of up to 10 metres.

Sennheiser has announced the launch of IE 100 PRO BT in India. IE 100 Pro wired is priced at INR 9,900 and IE 100 Pro Wireless is priced at INR 11,900 available from 26 July onwards exclusively on Amazon. The IE 100 BT Connecter comes separately which is priced at INR 7,900. When making music, more control means a better performance: As successor to the IE 40 PRO, the IE 100 PRO in-ears offer a natural, warm and utterly precise monitoring sound that allows you to fine-tune your performance with ease.

Thanks to the included silicone and memory foam ear tips, the in-ears adapt perfectly to your ear canals, coming as close as possible to custom ear moulds. This snug, comfortable fit is supported by a low-profile mould.

A reinforced ear-hook and detachable cable with patent-pending, break-proof connector give you the reliability you need during your performance. The package is rounded off by a cleaning tool and a soft pouch.

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GUEST ARTICLE

NEW RYUK RANSOMWARE SAMPLE TARGETS WEBSERVERS Authored by Marc Elias, Security Researcher, McAfee Advanced Threat Research

Ryuk is a ransomware that encrypts a victim’s files and requests payment in Bitcoin cryptocurrency to release the keys used for encryption. Ryuk is used exclusively in targeted ransomware attacks.

Ryuk was first observed in August 2018 during a campaign that targeted several enterprises. Analysis of the initial versions of the ransomware revealed similarities and shared source code with the Hermes ransomware. Hermes ransomware is a commodity malware for sale on underground forums and has been used by multiple threat actors.

To encrypt files Ryuk utilizes a combination of symmetric AES (256-bit) encryption and asymmetric RSA (2048bit or 4096-bit) encryption. The symmetric key is used to encrypt the file contents, while the asymmetric public key is used to encrypt the symmetric key. Upon payment of the ransom the corresponding asymmetric private key is released, allowing the encrypted files to be decrypted.

Because of the targeted nature of Ryuk infections, the initial infection vectors are tailored to the victim. Often seen initial vectors are spear-phishing emails, exploitation of compromised credentials to remote access systems and the use of previous commodity malware infections. As an example of the latter, the combination of Emotet and TrickBot, have frequently been observed in Ryuk attacks.

COVERAGE AND PROTECTION ADVICE Ryuk is detected as Ransom-Ryuk! [partial-hash].

Defenders should be on the lookout for traces and behaviours that correlate to open source pen test tools such as win PEAS, Lazagne, Bloodhound and Sharp Hound, or hacking frameworks like Cobalt Strike, Metasploit, Empire or Covenant, as well as abnormal behav24

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ior of non-malicious tools that have a dual use. These seemingly legitimate tools (e.g., ADfind, PSExec, PowerShell, etc.) can be used for things like enumeration and execution. Subsequently, be on the lookout for abnormal usage of Windows Management Instrumentation WMIC (T1047). We advise everyone to check out the following blogs on evidence indicators for a targeted ransomware attack (Part1, Part2).

• Looking at other similar Ransomware-as-a-Service families we have seen that certain entry vectors are quite common among ransomware criminals: • E-mail Spear phishing (T1566.001) often used to directly engage and/ or gain an initial foothold. The initial phishing email can also be linked to a different malware strain, which acts as a loader and entry point for the attackers to continue completely compromising a victim’s network. We have observed this in the past with the likes of Trickbot & Ryuk or Qakbot & Prolock, etc.

• Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) is another common entry vector, given cyber criminals are often avid consumers of security news and are always on the lookout for a good exploit. We therefore encourage organizations to be fast and diligent when it comes to applying patches. There are numerous examples in the past where vulnerabilities concerning remote access software, webservers, network edge equipment and firewalls have been used as an entry point.

• Using valid accounts (T1078) is and has been a proven method for cybercriminals to gain a foothold. After all, why break the door down if you already have the keys? Weakly protected RDP access is a prime example of this entry method.

• Valid accounts can also be obtained via commodity malware such as infostealers that are designed to steal credentials from a victim’s computer. Infostealer logs containing thousands of credentials can be purchased by ransomware criminals to search for VPN and corporate logins. For organizations, having a robust credential management and MFA on user accounts is an absolute must have.

When it comes to the actual ransomware binary, we strongly advise updating and upgrading endpoint protection, as well as enabling options like tamper protection and Rollback. Please read our blog on how to best configure ENS 10.7 to protect against ransomware for more details.

SUMMARY OF THE THREAT • Ryuk ransomware is used exclusively in targeted attacks • Latest sample now targets webservers • New ransom note prompts victims to install Tor browser to facilitate contact with the actors • After file encryption, the ransomware will print 50 copies of the ransom note on the default printer.

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ENTERPRISE FOCUS

HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE EXPANDS HPE GREENLAKE CLOUD PLATFORM INNOVATIONS Hewlett Packard Enterprise announced at HPE Discover that it is extending its leadership in hybrid cloud with a comprehensive set of innovations to the HPE GreenLake edge to cloud platform, the industry’s most robust and proven platform for cloud services in the data center, in a colocation center and at the edge. Innovations span applications, security, silicon and software with automated, cloud-native capabilities that can be performed in just a few clicks and managed in a unified platform.

These innovations enable customers to transform and modernize their workloads to a cloud operating model, optimize and secure applications from edge to cloud, and achieve a future-ready position capable of addressing and leveraging all forms of data, regardless of location.

Additionally, HPE announced new HPE GreenLake cloud services to support critical applications across industries, such as for 5G, electronic medical records, financial services, data and risk analytics, and high performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI).

Pioneeringcloud services for on-premises with the HPE GreenLake edge to cloud platform HPE was the first to market four years ago in delivering an as-a-service cloud experience on premises and at the edge with the HPE GreenLake cloud platform, which provides cloud services for servers, storage, networking and a robust catalogue of software and workload applications, including container management and machine learning operations. Customers benefit from the agility and simplicity of the cloud and the governance, compliance, and visibility that comes with on-premises. This winning combination is appealing to customers, and HPE continues to accelerate momentum in cloud services. In HPE’s most recent quarter, HPE GreenLake grew annual recurring revenue 30 percent and grew orders 41 percent year-over-year.

“Organizations today know that to succeed in their industries, they must pursue a cloud everywhere mandate, which enables them to collect, analyze, and act on data, wherever it resides,” said Antonio Neri, president and CEO at HPE. “The HPE GreenLake edge to cloud platform empowers organizations to harness the power of all their data,

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regardless of location, and today’s announcements further extend HPE’s leadership in this hybrid cloud market.

From silicon, software, and security, to workloads that organizations rely on to run their businesses, HPE continues to extend the reach of the HPE GreenLake cloud platform, to help customers accelerate digital transformation and generate tremendous business outcomes.”

At HPE Discover, HPE unveiled the following set of innovations to the HPE GreenLake cloud platform: HPE GreenLake Lighthouse: Agile, cloud-native solution removes configuration complexity to rapidly deliver multiple cloud services on-demand Customers today require agility and flexibility to rapidly configure and provision different workloads based on dynamic business demands. To address these dynamic IT and business needs, HPE is introducing HPE GreenLake Lighthouse, which provides a seamless, intelligent operational experience to easily run and manage different workload-optimized solutions. HPE GreenLake Lighthouse is a secure, cloud-native platform that removes the entire process of having to order and await for a new configuration by allowing customers to add new cloud services in just a few clicks in HPE GreenLake Central and run them simultaneously in just minutes. Cloud-native and intelligent, the platform is built on HPE Ezmeral software to autonomously optimize different cloud services and workloads by composing resources to deliver the best performance, lowest cost or a balance of both, depending on business priorities. Customers can use HPE GreenLake Lighthouse to run a variety of cloud services in any location, whether it is in their data center, with a colocation provider of their choice, or at the edge.

Project Aurora: A foundation for HPE GreenLake’s zero-trust architecture Securing edge-to-cloud is becoming more complex as organizations evolve their architectures to run dynamically scaled applications spanning data centers to edge locations. In addition, attackers increasingly

employ advanced exploitation techniques, giving them long-term persistence within an enterprise that enables them to inflict damage at will. HPE is addressing this challenge with Project Aurora to deliver a cloud-native, zero-trust security to HPE’s edge-to-cloud architecture. Project Aurora will embed within the HPE GreenLake cloud platform building blocks to automatically and continuously verify the integrity of the hardware, firmware, operating systems, platforms, and workloads, including security workloads.

Silicon on-demand: Gaining processor core capacity in just a few clicks HPE is unveiling an innovative pay-per-use, consumption-based pricing model that will optimize at the silicon level to offer a more granular cloud experience with better metering, reduced buffering time and faster deployment. Available first via the HPE GreenLake cloud platform, HPE will offer flexible consumption capabilities with silicon on-demand, a first-of-its-kind feature, developed in partnership with Intel, to add new capacity at a processor core and persistent memory level using Intel® Optane™ technology. HPE is removing the need to order or install new processors by allowing customers to instantly activate and pay for more capacity with just a click.

“As the world becomes increasingly digital, harnessing insights from unprocessed data will depend on technology solutions that take advantage of four key superpowers: cloud, connectivity, artificial intelligence and the intelligent edge. Together with HPE, we innovate from edge to cloud on technology solutions, including Silicon on-Demand, that drive the next wave of digital transformation and improve the life of every human on the planet,” said Pat Gelsinger, CEO of Intel.

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HOW SECOND WAVE OF PANDEMIC IMPACTED THE MARKET GROWTH IN INDIA The second wave of pandemic has drastically impacted the Indian economy and brought big challenges for businesses across India. It has slowed down the pace of growth and hampered the overall business operations of the market players. However, the partial lockdowns imposed by the government helped the organizations to some extent. The pandemic has also impacted the consumer demands and buying trends but this time market players were much aware about the outcome. They quickly adapted in the situations and took all major steps to work efficiently. Now as the market has open up across all major cities, brands and partners have geared up to align strategies for further growth. In line with getting crucial insights about the market scenario and growth opportunities, DT spoke to the key IT industry leaders recently. Check out this exclusive DT story to know more about market sentiments across India.

Image Source : www.freepik.com

BUSINESS AFFECTED The markets across the country remained close which ultimately affected the performance of tech brands. According to Sudhir Goel, Chief Business Officer, Acer India, “While the demand for consumer PCs has been at an all-time high ever since the onset of the pandemic, the first quarter of FY 2122 was affected by supply challenges which were imposed as a result of nation-wide lockdowns and restrictions implemented

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by state government authorities on both retail stores as well as online deliveries.

Thankfully, things are finally starting to look better, and we at Acer have multiple measures in place to ensure business continuity. From what it looks like, the next quarter seems very promising for us, and also for our channel partners.”

ESET feels first quarter was highly challenging due to the surge in cases in India. “However, we already had last year’s experiences to help us better prepare for this year.

Business activities such as operations and product launches had already been shifted online, and this is likely to continue given the current situation,” added by Pamela Ong, Sales Director – APAC, ESET. “For instance, our first virtual launch in India was the ESET Enterprise Inspector, our Endpoint Detection and Response security solution, which took place last year. Since then, all www.digitalterminal.in

COVER STORY-BRANDS

of our major product announcements have been done online. We also took on several initiatives to boost our digital presence, offered through digital channels and our reseller network. These include offering online training to help businesses and consumers boost their cybersecurity awareness as they work remotely, and free trials to businesses and consumers. These initiatives benefited many businesses and home users across India to cope with the pandemic. All of these digital initiatives and measures also helped us to register double digits positive growth in Q1 2021 in India amidst the lockdowns.”

“The year 2020 was experimental making, WFH the new normal. We as a brand, have picked up on the loose thread & understood the importance of changing needs with remote working. While we focus on innovating technology that aid remote working like WIFI 6E, noise cancellation, we also needed to focus on servicing our users. The big question was how to make the process easy for our end users while travelling restrictions still prevailed. To create a seamless flow, we tapped into various touchpoints.

We have created a dedicated service FAQ page that provides a step by step guide on how to diagnose & resolve issues at the comfort of our end-user. Social Media was our next tap. We routinely take out technical articles that provide more information about our technology & product. For all queries, we make sure they are addressed within 24hrs. In all, the year 2021 has been a smooth sail considering we were one step ahead in planning,” said Shivangi Bhadauria, PR & Marketing Executive, MSI. Commenting about the business operations during the second wave, Bijoy Alaylo, VP – Channel Sales, TP-Link stated, “The second wave was a more horrifying one due to the mass spread of Covid-19. This gripped the complete nation and stricter lockdowns were imposed. Hence most of the business owners had to keep their www.digitalterminal.in

offices completely non-operational and business was very low as compared to last year’s lockdown. The major challenge was that many of the partners and colleague’s own family or close friends were affected which mentally got them not being able to concentrate more on business. Hence the whole cycle of business was affected for the traditional market.”

Rajesh Doshi, Co-founder & Director, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd commented, “The lockdowns due to the second wave are not nationwide and it was upon the states to make the decision to have no lockdown, partial lockdown or go for a full lockdown.

We introduced many new health products during the first lockdown and continued to upgrade our healthcare segment in the 2nd lockdown, our initial insight after the first lockdown was to introduce our healthcare range of products like PPE kits, Oximeter, IR Thermometers, Atomizers, fogging machines and more.

Between the two lockdowns the market had recovered but then the market sentiments again went down when partial 2nd lockdown started. This made people become a lot more careful in their spending as there is a fear among everyone due to uncertainty. People are buying only the essentials and things which are absolutely needed.

The first quarter was lower than what we expected but the lockdown changed the buying trends from offline to online.”

Unlike last year, the impact of lockdown 2.0 was not that appalling, with on-going demands for home based IT networking products Digisol observed decent consistency in their business. Talking about the challenges, Sarvesh Mishra, Head of Sales & Marketing, Digisol Systems Ltd said, “I believe there has been challenges with regards to short term demand-supply synchronization however, each one of us- manufactures, distributors and resellers are trying our level best to manage it efficiently. We are optimistic that situation will be back on track with many cities unlocked in various states across India.”

“Our major challenge was in the initial phase of the pandemic, as the offline market was not active and there were no experience

centres for our customers, but with the new WFH and LFH culture, a newfound demand for laptops has emerged across the country.

New technological advancements are surfacing in the industry and intriguing more and more people day by the day. Gradually a setup has been created for people to stay connected through technology, wherein, people have recognized AVITA as a brand where they get to fulfil their requirements at an affordable cost, helping us stay afloat and cater to our customers to the best of our abilities. Keeping last year’s journey in consideration, we look forward to an upward spiral of growth in 2021 as well,” commented Seema Bhatnagar, Regional Business Director (South Asia) and Country General Manager (India), Nexstgo Company Ltd. Talking about the challenges on business front during pandemic, Rajshekhar Bhatt, Country Manager India, ECS said, “Yes Q1 was tough and bad as we lost few friends and few key people from ICT partners, frankly speaking this is a big loss for all of us. Whereas on the same time business for us was good especially since we were working on projects with SIs, coupled with global shortage of ICT components fueling the demand but thankfully we planned in advance hence we didn’t face much of supply issues.”

The first quarter brought big challenges that hampered the business performance of market players. Avneet Singh Marwah, Director and CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee stated, “Q1 was really challenging for all of us, as state government had banned sales of non-essential goods. 80% of the pin codes were affected and most of states had made restriction on online sales as well. There was a major decline in the sales, there was a revenue loss of more than $1billion in Q1 for CE. The biggest challenge has been the fear in consumers mind especially after the second wave. There are avoiding to move out of there household, along with that due to panel price increase JULY 2021 I

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on MOM basis. There has been constant price increase of Led TV, which is causing slowdown in the demand.”

While when we asked Anker about challenges, Gopal Jeyaraj, Country Head & SAARC, Anker Innovations, said “The first quarter has been a very challenging period especially the offline channel due to lockdown, which has been one of the major support in operations for us in India. We didn’t face much of the challenges except the few weeks where the entire country was under lockdown”.

These times also disturbed project cycles impacting entire business operations. Sharing more on such issue, RK Bansal, Founder & MD, Uniline, said, “The second pandemic wave that hit India during the first quarter ultimately affected the regular business delaying procurements and certain projects by about 45 to 60 days. But we saw a pick up in the overall demand for Work From Home Power Solutions and Mission Critical Power Solutions for various healthcare & laboratory units. The lockdown and delayed relaxations has created a void in the general market which should normalise in the coming 6-8 weeks,” “The covid-19 pandemic had a severe impact across the globe, particularly in India.

Muneer Ahmad, Business Head, ViewSonic India commented, “With the second wave hitting the country in the first quarter of the year itself, the reinforcement of lockdown in certain areas by the government posed multiple obstacles in terms of the availability and delivery of materials. However, during these difficult times, we managed to sustain ourselves. With the provision of several previous orders from the last quarter of 2020, regarding the sales, we didn’t face much difficulty and our interactive flat panels witnessed significant growth.”

Lalit Arora, Co- Founder & CEO, VingaJoy said, “It is needless to mention the past few months have been tough for businesses across all sectors as the effect of the second wave of the pandemic had led to volatility in the market. Businesses came to standstill affecting each and every industry. However, 28

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it has created new challenges, new opportunities for survival viz. working from home, offering convenience to the customer through online selling. This has helped us to continue to experience a good market response via online stores. Also, as consumers are avoiding stepping out of their homes, online buying has witnessed a massive growth. This has immensely boosted the traffic on our e-commerce channels resulting in increase in market revenue in the last 4 months.”

EMERGING OPPORTUNITIES Thanks to the pandemic, a larger focus for various businesses has been towards shifting to online channels. Sharing about initiatives for strong digital approach, Sudhir Goel, Acer India revealed, “At Acer we introduced an Omni-Channel experience for our partners, to provide a seamless path to shopping. This experience has been designed to cater to the needs of our Acer Exclusive retail partners in the current COVID-19 scenario, while also ensuring ease of purchase, the safety of partners and customers, and promotion of business continuity. Yet another opportunity for tech businesses is to bank on ‘Flash Sales’, as they entail multiple benefits such as cost reduction, increased brand awareness. All of this in shorter windows can additionally help tap specific geographies where lockdown restrictions have been eased. The third opportunity may lie in how businesses adapt ‘Novel Marketing Ideas in COVID Times’. While every business will have a distinct take on this, the new marketing strategies, if implemented correctly, can open some exciting doors to increased sales and enhanced profitability!”

The pandemic brought enormous opportunities for the market players that seek to accelerate their growth. Pamela Ong, ESET said, “The pandemic has drastically changed the way we work, live and play. As we navigate the new normal, some emerging technology opportunities that can be focused like Rising adoption of cloud productivity suites, Growth in cloud computing and Accelerated need for cybersecurity.”

“Technology as space and sector has been a world for innovation & opportunity, it’s about co-creating value with the society.

Therefore, there need not be a specific

trend but how a brand utilises technology to create a smarter overall experience. Artificial Intelligence & Machine Learning have permeated business processes & life as we speak of it,” added by Shivangi Bhadauria, MSI. “MSI has always been a driver of innovation & technology, we push our limits to bring the best for our end users. Talking about AI, MSI’s audio system has reached an all-time high. Driven by intelligent AI acoustic algorithms, the exclusive “Speaker Tuning Engine” is the smartest engine that monitors the audio in real-time. It eliminates distortions and vibrations while maintaining the same audio quality. Furthermore, to create that immersive & seamless experience, we have integrated the cross-device experience with MSI App Player. Be it gaming or editing with our app player, users can easily focus on the details on a bigger screen with no compromise on performance.”

The networking market has got a boost due to pandemic as the demand from WFH and LFH segments grew significantly.

Bijoy Alaylo, TP-Link commented, “Fintech investments, Online gaming and WFH & LFH are the biggest emerging opportunities right now in India. We are already in midst of orders from clients relating to these industries. TP-Link has the overall basket of products ready to cater to these types of clients and this is where we will be focusing on with our marketing and GTM strategies.”

“The three emerging opportunities for technology in the audio space we saw an increasing demand for individual soundbars and soundbars with advanced technology like Dolby took the lead for home entertainment as people wanted a theatre-like audio experience at home while theatres remained shut. Zebronics is known as a homegrown IT Peripherals brand,” stated Rajesh Doshi, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd. He further adds,“We would say that with the pandemic and work from home routine and the demand for products IT peripherals found a fresh lease of life. Since everyone stayed at home people shopped more online and especially in terms of work from home there was a need for devices that would help setting up a workplace set up at homes. Many understood that to comfortably work from home they need a personal computer. There was a constant requirement for webcams, mic, keyboards, mouse, cable and more. We also launched fitness band that were built for the new normal like for instance our ZEB-FIT4220CH fitness watch has Sp02, blood pressure monitor and also comes with a dialing feature and more.”

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COVER STORY-BRANDS

“I believe 5G, Wi-Fi 6 and FTTH are emerging opportunities for technology business.

The fifth generation of mobile wireless communications promises to bring opportunities to businesses across all industries with greater ability to connect many more devices at once and move more data with its faster speed. Wi-Fi-6 is another emerging opportunity, as it offers up to four times the speed of 802.11ac and it is more efficient, faster and thus user experience will be significantly improved. Lastly, FTTH has been emerging opportunity since past few years and Fiber holds immense opportunities and ensures future consistency with faster data speeds over limitless distances. The ‘New Normal’ environment, has led to a massive surge in the use of the internet across India.

Lockdowns, social distancing and working from home pushed users to explore new scenarios to maintain business continuity and made internet connection our basic need. This led to driving demands for home based FTTH products. We plan offer new products under our wireless & FTTH product to fulfil the customers’ requirements of tomorrow,” said Sarvesh Mishra, Digisol Systems Ltd. Commenting about the growth opportunities in the market, Seema Bhatnagar, Nexstgo Company Ltd named three emerging opportunities for technology business in India. Ease of business – The rise in WFH has created a space for gadgets and we can see the growth especially in the laptop category.

Rise in online education – In the unprecedented times as these, there has been a noticeable growth in the online education.

AVITA has introduced new collections in the market that are fit to all pockets.

Dependency on the E-comms – As people are getting more comfortable with the social distancing norms and the offline stores has been mostly in active past year, people have become more dependent towards e-com websites.”

Kodak TV is already working from last 2 years. Kodak has already investing 150 cr in AI technology, voice will be the new UI for the TV. So with the help of our strategic partner google android, Kodak will be integrating more Indian regional languages.

IOT is another big disruption in technology space, your smart TV will be the biggest screen to connect all your smart homes devices like smart bulb, security camera, smart phone, appliances. Everyone is waiting for long when will 5G services launched in India, this will completely change the whole ecosystem of smart tv. As higher resolution picture need more internet speed, there will be more Content produce in 4k and 8k resolution. Customer will experience real time picture.”

Gopal Jeyaraj, Anker Innovations said, “We are a technology company and we have been focusing majorly on AI-ML, Robotics and the Internet of Things, which is the need of the hour. All our products are inline to create things which makes people’s life smart & easy. We have been launching our new products in terms of understanding the requirement of the customers through AI-ML on the way people use the products.

A recent such product is Liberty Air 2 Pro, which has the best 3 mode feature i.e.

Transport Mode, Indoor Mode & Outdoor Mode which was the need of the hour. From the Robotics segment our Eufy Robovacs have some great products especially the recent launch i.e. G10 & G30 Hybrid are the smartest products in our portfolio which sweeps, mops and uses ‘Smart Dynamic Navigation technology’ enabling accurate route planning across an area and more such features inbuilt in the product. We have some amazing products like smart home security cameras and conference speakers which are lined to be launched in Indian market soon.”

hybrid learning models in which both online and offline teaching take place concurrently.

The government has been open to spending resources on education and telepresence because there were no physical movements during the pandemic, and it is expected to remain the same for one year and more,” said Muneer Ahmad, ViewSonic India. “Secondly, since the corporate companies have created a work-from-home atmosphere for their employees, there has been a requirement of bigger screen size, like a portable projector. With ViewSonic, one can have a wide range of work-from-home solutions.

Finally, because the means of entertainment have been limited, the pandemic has created a sense of fear, and people have become more cautious while stepping out. They would rather prefer to set up a theatre-like scenario at their comfortable homes and enjoy movies/series than step out, and therefore, create a ‘Netflix-and-chill environment’.”

Lalit Arora, VingaJoy said, “The opportunities for technology companies are to encourage the foreign investment in the Indian Market, Promote local manufacturers to expand their existing business, Innovation of research development and upgradation of technology, Generate more employment opportunities and Work towards the objective of economic growth. At VingaJoy, our endeavor is to utilize all available opportunities for the growth of the company, the industry and the country as well. The bigger motive apart from business growth is definitely our contribution towards economic growth.”

SERVICE COMMITMENT

According to Rajshekhar Bhatt, ECS, “WFH & LFH is going to stay for long, plus few years back people were not appreciating PC industry and moving to handheld devices.

But now the same set of people now prefer a larger display monitor against handheld devices. We know that now PC has become integral part of every individual. What I mean is before every individual had one handheld device now they also need one Computing device too.

“Along with EV Technology picking up, Lithium Ion Batteries for UPS and Work From Home Power Solutions are emerging in the Indian Market currently. Uniline India has been supplying UPS systems coupled with Lithium Ion batteries since the past few years even for large projects and is a technology our team has become absolutely comfortable with. Furthermore, As more and more companies are shifting to WFH, Our Work From Home Range is picking up in the market through our team of Channel Partners and Dealers across India,” added RK Bansal, Uniline.

The pandemic has caused serious challenging on the service support front and customers are facing trouble owing to the closed service centers. Sudhir Goel, Acer India said, “Owing to the pandemic, we have devised a remote servicing facility for our customers across the country. We have also enabled WhatsApp customer support, and have a dedicated customer support team who are available from Monday to Saturday from 9 AM to 6 PM excluding public holidays. For any unresolved service related issue or grievance redressal, we have also enabled an email address whereby we look at these cases very carefully and ensure a thorough resolution.”

Avneet Singh Marwah, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee commented, “The three emerging technology in India are AI, IOT and 5G. In all the three technology

“With the country trying to return to its normalcy and restrictions being lifted, there’s been a tremendous growth in the education sector, generating a demand for

“It’s essential for businesses today to have a stronger online presence where possible.

The pandemic has accelerated the wave of digitalisation, which was already underway

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before, and this is no exception for cybersecurity companies. Since we’ve successfully pivoted our operations online, our customers can still get assistance without visiting a physical outlet,” said Pamela Ong, ESET. “We work closely with our tech team and partners to ensure our customer support channels remain fully in operation during the pandemic. Our support service consists of a suite of options for our customers to troubleshoot issues. This includes a hotline, email support and a repository of user guides and setup documentation called Knowledgebase. Beyond this, we have also seen an increased demand in tech support as migration to cloud-based solutions from on-premise solutions became a priority for many resellers and customers. To address this, our team has extended support after business hours and on non-business days.”

While travelling restrictions prevail throughout the country, we aim to simplify the service process to the next level. Shivangi Bhadauria, MSI commented, “Our strong tech support ensures all customers are contacted within 24hrs. To further create a hassle-free process, we now have a user-friendly service FAQ page that servers as a step by step guide to help resolve software issues sitting at home. A major leap forward for MSI would be the new onsite service program that will commence from next quarter. This will ensure higher customer satisfaction at the comfort of their home. We believe customer service is not only restricted to our service centres but also social media has become an easy go to means for many to touch base with the brand. We strive to keep our response rate high & ensure these are addressed by our tech support team within 24hrs.”

“Though it was a tough time for us to manage the physical service points due to the lockdown we tried to keep the customers informed about the restrictive time slots through our partner community and website updates. We have increased the number of tech support personnel to facilitate the consumers to reach us faster and get better solutions,” stated Bijoy Alaylo, TP-Link.

Rajesh Doshi, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd said, “Most service centers are functioning according to the government guidelines, we have also ramped up the online support for customers in multiple languages. A decision we took post pandemic and we had more multilingual support to help customers easily solve their queries on phone especially with the dialect they’re comfortable with.”

Sarvesh Mishra, Digisol Systems Ltd said, “DIGICARE is a service and support division

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of Digisol. It aims to offer first-rate integrated service and support, which consists of RMA centres, DIGICARE Technical Assistance Centre (DTAC) and Direct Service Department (DSD). DIGICARE has most efficient and highly skilled professionals with state of service infrastructure. It has 3 DIRECT RMA / SERVICE CENTRES (Goa, Bangalore & Kolkata) and 46 Service Partners across the country. During COVID-19 pandemic, our entire service team proved that “Tough times don’t last, but tough people do”. During these situations Digicare’s team swiftly adapted the situation worked from home and resolved each and every customer query. Since internet and IT Networking products like Routers, Wi-Fi extenders was the basic requirements during pandemic, our team made sure that not a single customer query remained unanswered. Even during complete lockdown, our team repaired, collected and delivered the products which customers faced challenges with and ensured that they get best connectivity experience ever.”

this, we try to troubleshoot the product over a call, and still, there seems to have issues that cannot be solved over a call we arrange a pick & drop service (All serviceable pin-codes in India). We shall continue the same even in the New Normal which is the safest route for the customer & employees as well.”

Seema Bhatnagar, Nexstgo Company Ltd added, “We give two years of onsite warranty in our laptops for the convenience of our customers in case of any initial issues.

The customers are not required to visit the service centre. Our service team and service partner F1 Info Solutions and Services Pvt Ltd is always active and just a call away with our toll-free number 1800 103 9635. The tech support is given via call and if need be our team has gone overboard by visiting the customers’ location, be it in any pin code of India.”

Muneer Ahmad, ViewSonic India said, “We have set up an online support system as the first line of response for service issues. If the issue cannot be fixed remotely, ViewSonic’s service team appoints a professional engineer to the customer’s home, taking all necessary precautions to resolve the problem.”

Rajshekhar Bhatt, ECS said, “We offer whatever telephonic support what we can offer we do that but if device need repairs than need to be brought to service center. Once it’s reaches to our support center, we assure to resolve the issue at the earliest.”

“Today Kodak is delivering in more than 17500 pin codes in India, you will be surprise to know we are proving door to door service in more than 17650 pin codes. Most of our engineers are getting vaccinated, as we provide door to door service. Kodak TV was one of the few TV brands which didn’t stop there service during Pandemic as well,” added Avneet Singh Marwah, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee.

Gopal Jeyaraj, Anker Innovations stated, “Anker has a centralised service centre for all its brands i.e. Anker, Eufy, Soundcore & Nebula right from the inception of the brand in India. For all the customer complaints they could reach out to a service executive through a toll-free number (during business hours) or through an email. Through

“Uniline has a well-established Service Excellence Assured approach which has helped our team manoeuvre themselves through the complications presented by the pandemic. Having installations across the length & breadth of India in critical and prestigious Healthcare, Industrial & Defence Institutions, our teams had pro-actively contacted the institutions and asked them to provide letters in case a lockdown was to come into picture. Our team of engineers in tandem with a strong backend support were well equipped this time round and have successfully handled all issues to the satisfaction of the customers,” commented RK Bansal, Uniline.

Lalit Arora, VingaJoy said, “Our ultimate goal is customer satisfaction. Keeping this in mind, we have accepted the New Normal and thus we have started offering convenience to our customers by providing home delivery and support services at reasonable pricing. We hope to make our home support service experience the same as the one at the stores.”

SUPPORT FOR PARTNERS Channel partners are considered as an integral part of an organization as it helps company to grow despite every challenge.

Sudhir Goel, Acer India commented, “At Acer, partners are the foundation of our success today and tomorrow, and it is the passion and drive of Acer’s channel team that ensures best-in-class transformational solutions and a digital-first customer experience. As a channel-friendly organization, we are always trying to bring innovative programs for our channel partners. This helps them get a better understanding of our products and technologies, and further grow the business.”

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“As a channel-focused business, our partners are an extended family of ESET. Ensuring the safety of our partners and customers has been paramount during this time. We have minimised or stopped physical interactions wherever possible and have strengthened our remote support capabilities in order to better support our partners and customers online,” said by Pamela Ong, ESET. She added further,“We have also continued to provide them with one-to-one online training sessions, various cybersecurity resources as well as our experts’ insights on the latest cybersecurity landscape through WeLiveSecurity. ESET believes businesses should be more empathetic as we navigate the uncertain market environment and changes. Sectors such as travel and tourism have been hit hard by the pandemic and we are working closely with our partners to support them whenever we can, including giving extensions to license renewals, to help them go through this difficult period.”

“After a year into the pandemic, we see a drastic change in human buying behaviour & work-life, to say the least. Ecommerce is booming, encouraging more businesses to go digital. MSI has stepped up to adopt a more holistic approach where Omni channel solution is the way forward. We make sure product inquires that come in through Social Media are shared with our channel partners to make sure customers get a seamless & premium shopping experience. We also aid our partners by integrating their business online to help eliminate location as a barrier.

To ensure our stores create that premium shopping experience, in shop decorations are quarterly renovated with sufficient merchandise,” said Shivangi Bhadauria, MSI. Bijoy Alaylo, TP-Link added, “Regular incentive schemes, making the stocks available has been our top priority at this times.

Currently due to the global chipset shortage there has been an uncalled hike in the price of the products. We are trying to reduce the burden of the channel with regular schemes or channel support programs that would give the partners some breather to cover up the losses due to lockdowns.”

“We are making sure that products are available pan India while following up the local lockdown protocols for different regions.

We are giving our partners more opportunities with different health care related products in these testing times and are also extending our support in the best possible ways. Zebronics has wonderful and loyal channel partners across India, they play an important role in the success of the company. We understand that this is a difficult www.digitalterminal.in

and challenging time for everyone and we’re trying our best to help everyone,” stated Rajesh Doshi, Zebronics India Pvt Ltd. Adding more on channel commitment, Rajesh Said, “We want to give an assurance to the channel partners that together we will emerge back even stronger from this situation. We need to be patient and stay strong throughout the pandemic. As a brand we have taken many steps to keep the business running smoothly, while following the guidelines from govt. and the health officials. Our team is continuously working with customers and partners, providing uninterrupted support. We are also simultaneously working on the development of many new Made in India products. We extend our sympathy to everyone who is impacted by this pandemic and offer our gratitude to the front line workers, health workers and organizations who are battling these challenging times.”

Sarvesh Mishra, Digisol Systems Ltd stated, “We have introduced various schemes for Channel Partners and System Integrators on our various products and solutions. We have launched the ‘Bundle of Connections’ Schemes for Partners and various offers under our Digisol Cash Karo Loyalty program for Electrician & Installers. Apart from offers, our focus is around empowering our partners, System Integrators, and ISPs by educating them on IT Networking trends, our products, and future technologies like FTTH, Wi-Fi 6, 5G, etc through Digisol Institute of Technical Training. Thus, we have been conducting various online training under DITT- Digisol Institution of Technical Training. Going forward, we will continue to align SI programs with the sales strategy and work closely with Partners, System Integrators, and ISPs in order to acquire new customers, and drive sales.”

“As the OEM brand, AVITA provides laptops with best suitable price for their customers.

We tend to innovate and bring technological advancement and provide the latest technology to our customers. Our top-quality laptops create an appealing effect on their customers, especially as the brand offers laptops with 18 different colours, and 6 patterns, they are reliable, durable and most importantly affordable, and along with it the brand also offers an additional 2yrs onsite / carry-in warranty,” said Seema Bhatnagar, Nexstgo Company Ltd. Rajshekhar Bhatt, ECS added, “We always stood with our partners and has extended all support for the business continuity.

And most important, we make a point to check for wellbeing of all partners and stay in touch with them over phone. On

the engagement part, we keep them busy as we do product training on case to case basis for them to prepare for biz boom post COVID-19 settles, once vaccination and herd immunity achieved.”

Avneet Singh Marwah, Super Plastronics Pvt Ltd, a Kodak brand Licensee said, “Kodak TV always believe in supporting their partners, during these difficult times. I’m happy to inform just to back our partners Kodak TV didn’t increase the price despite massive increase in panel pricing. In fact we had given them price support scheme structure, which have been appreciated across trade.

We always wanted to assure our partners, in coming months we will be proving free vaccines to our channel partners and there support staff.”

“Our focus has primarily been on empowering our channel partners and consumers.

In these unprecedented times, we are trying to support our channel partners with more margins and credit support. We are using the current lockdown time effectively by stepping up with Marketing activities which shall directly or indirectly support our channel partners as well” commented Gopal Jeyaraj, Anker Innovations.

RK Bansal, Uniline said, “At Uniline there has been a major shift in our strategy to aid & inspire our Partners all across. We have introduced a Partners First Policy where we have started to approach and route even direct leads through channel along with holding regular sessions online to enhance the partners knowledge and even learn from them. These are extra ordinary times and we strongly believe that supporting each other is the way ahead.”

“We have been assisting our partners with the finest solutions possible throughout this difficult time. We’ve been generating and passing market inquiries to our partners, as well as giving them with online demos and scheme assistance to keep them motivated,” stated Muneer Ahmad, ViewSonic India.

“With the onset of the pandemic, the first task in front of us was to motivate all our channel partners in seeing the challenge with the opportunity that lie ahead. An opportunity to put in their best for survival in the industry,” commented Lalit Arora, VingaJoy. “We started by encouraging them to initiate changes in the infrastructure in order to give their customer seamless online selling experience as it would not only bring them closer to their customers but work as a referral to enhance their business. As a company, we strongly believe that motivation and support to our partners through this difficult phase is our responsibility.”

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BRAND SUPPORT HAS BEEN REALLY COMMENDABLE: CHANNEL One thing which we all agree that traditional partners have really clapped the brands efforts during the lockdown.

Though channel saw toughest time in the history of their business during both lockdowns, but brands successfully managed to support partners on all front.

Image Source : www.freepik.com

VENDOR SUPPORT The distribution houses are seeking the best possible support from their vendors to meet the market demand and fulfill the orders.

Commented about the support they are getting from vendors, Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales & Marketing, RP tech India said, “While there is a global shortage of stocks, vendors are doing their best to get 32

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maximum stock allocation for India. Even if we do may not get 100 allocations, we are garnering reasonable stock to fulfil technology needs of Indian customers.”

“The support from our vendors is excellent, we have better understanding with every vendor on the stocking norms which is always in sync with market demand and this help us in keeping our Supply Chain Management (SCM) smooth. Likewise we have base margins understanding with every vendor while signing our distribution

agreement. We plan our SCM & pricing structure periodically so that base margin is taken care off,” said by Ketan Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Creative Peripherals.

“TAG have been quite fortunate to have Vendors like GALAX, TEAMGROUP, FRACTAL who has been very much supportive toward us and our channel partners during www.digitalterminal.in

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this difficult time. I would like to mention one of our vendor saying “The situation is BAD, We don’t push sales for now. Please take care of yourselves and family at priority and do what is Best in your Business interest.” For TAG and its Vendors, Priority was to keep the wheels going and protect our Channel partners,” stated by Hanuman Rajpurohit, General Manager, Technology And Gadgets (TAG).

Whereas Prashanth G J, TechnoBind commented, “Support from vendors is always there. Some of our Tech alliances really supported us very well in these pandemic times and it goes a long way in showing the spirit of partnership. As long as we are mutually adding value to each other sporadic issues like margins or inventory or credit days become a nonevent.”

“When a brand, an organisation keeps it’s associates first for 2 decades, they get to observe the equal force being reciprocated.

All our vendors had been really supportive with our fluid model and concept. Be it fluctuating supply, stocking or burst supply, they had been all hand in hand with our vision and requirements,” added Atul Gupta, CEO & Chairman, RX Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Vinesh Pulse, National Sales Manager for India, element14 stated, “element14 has a comprehensive portfolio of the world’s leading suppliers and has been working closely with them to access additional stock to fulfil orders and support customers as they move to produce products/equipment’s at scale, either for completely new designs or to ramp up existing production.”

“The ability to continue to operate, and support element14’s customers, has been assured by the efforts of many individuals – our vendors, those coming onto site each day to work in our distribution centres, and our sales and product teams at home, working together as one. element14, as part of the global Farnell group, and an Avnet company, has leveraged its strong relationships with the leading manufacturers across the globe to support customers throughout www.digitalterminal.in

this period. The strength of these relationships have enabled the business to support customers with essential components for medical equipment in the early days of the pandemic, and to continue to support customers with shipments of semiconductors from stock today,” added further by Vinesh Pulse.

Vendors have been very prompt in recent times to extend all possible support to their partners. All major distributors express their happiness about brand’s initiatives during this unprecedented times. DP Sinha, Graphline Computers stated, “We are quite happy with the brand’s support to us especially in last one year. I feel margin is not an issue currently but real issue is supply. Venders are not able to fulfil demand more than 25% currently. I expect brands to work on to make a balance between demand and supply for Indian market.”

CHANNEL ENGAGEMENT “We have been running various partner-centric programs to support the business since the first phase of lockdown was announced in 2020. This value-added support to the channel helped us to keep the business up and running. We launched Green Zone and Orange Zone offers to help channel partners kick start their business,” said Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales & Marketing, RP tech India. “We also launched an intensive marketing campaign to promote Work from Home (WFH) and Learn from Home (LFH) solutions among customers. All these consistent efforts enabled us to ensure business continuity and profitability during the past 2 years.”

“With the start of new year, we started with a bang by organizing a virtual roadshow for our partners - Creative Connect 2021, it’s a legacy we continued from 2019-20, basically a multi city roadshow to showcase our product offerings to our business partners, due to lockdown we went live and experienced overwhelming response from more than 500 partners & entire fraternity across India” Ketan Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Creative Peripherals. These tough times is an eye opener for every organization to think out of the way for better opportunities that we could not even think about during normal times, so we launched

our own brand called BSafe with all essential products at very competitive price with quick turnaround. Every months & quarters we have been trying in these trying times, to think and add value irrespective of business, to add value for employees, partners, friends, family & society to stay safe against Covid-19, thus we organized a vaccination drive on 10th June 2021 and 449 people were vaccinated including employees, near and dear.”

“Unlike during the last year, this year the lockdowns were in a phased manner. Most of the time some or the other markets were operating. The Companies like TAG operating at National level, had scope for keep supplying to the markets which were open under restrictions. Hanuman Rajpurohit, General Manager, Technology And Gadgets (TAG) commented, “As the transportation was working, managed to keep the supply ON. We tried supporting the channel partners by delivering the material directly to the End customer on behalf of the Dealers.

This helped the channel partners to keep taking orders. E-tail partners who sell via their own websites were under advantage in this critical time. Also we at TAG run schemes and incentives for our offline partners for making some extra margins to keep going in this tough time.”

“We were actually prepared. Ever since the first lockdown last April we were more of a hybrid work environment and for us when the lockdowns hit us it was pretty smooth adjusting ourselves. Having promoted collaboration tools in the market over the last year we had ourselves invested in these tools and the effect of this lockdown was not really felt at all,” stated Prashanth G J, CEO, TechnoBind.

“Optimism and positivity are our core operating values, and we used the last lockdown as a business training ground. As soon as restrictions started sprouting in the market this year, we modified our model and shifted the focal point to digital spectrum. Moreover, we used the time to engage and create PR with our partners, refining our threads and training the sales force in order to get them ready for the new market reality” added Atul Gupta, CEO & Chairman, RX Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Vinesh Pulse, National Sales Manager for India, element14 said, “Right at the beginning of the pandemic we worked quickly to ensure that the teams had the technology to work from home, and this has supported the business as the situation continued to JULY 2021 I

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change. Although some of our people did begin to return into the office at certain stages, the majority of our office-based teams continue to work from home for the majority of their working week.”

Vinesh Pulse, element14 further added, “Yet alongside the challenge of the pandemic we have also more recently been working in a market with under-capacity of semiconductors – which has created its own challenges for many. As a High Service Distributor, we typically deal in much lower volumes than broad line distributors and hold high levels of stock to fulfil these smaller orders. This means that when high-volume distributors struggle to meet large orders due to increased demand on a model that is largely “buy to lead time”, we have still been busy fulfilling customer orders from stock, leveraging our global warehouse network. We have also been investing heavily in inventory over the last 18 months and are well prepared to support our customers, wjt extensive orders with suppliers placed in advance.

Our priority throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and today is to ensure that we are supporting existing customers and those who seek to have a long term relationship with us. More recently, we have put in place some inventory controls to ensure that we can do this, and are watchful of resellers coming to clear out stock which they will then hold customers to ransom for.”

The lockdown during 2nd wave hampered the business operations on a huge basis.

Distributors were struggling to deliver the orders on time. Speaking about the challenges during the lockdowns, DP Sinha, Managing Director, Graphline Computers Pvt. Ltd. said, “We were also closed during lockdown to support government efforts in fight against pandemic. Still we managed to grab some opportunities and delivered few boxes on better margin.”

OPPORTUNITIES TO GRAB “The pandemic has brought several opportunities for the distribution market as different consumer segments present huge demand for technology products. Elaborating about the opportunities in the region, Rajesh Goenka, RP tech India said, “WFH and LFH will continue to drive the business as more people and organizations shift to virtual platforms. Apart from that networking and storage segments will contribute to the growth of the IT hardware industry due

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to the increase in demand for connectivity and storage solutions. Computer peripherals and accessories segments will also have growth potentials in the next 1-2 years.

“Every challenge opens the door for better opportunity, last year on 5th Aug we launched India’s first B2B e-Commerce platform for partners. This platform is for all the partners of different segment like IT, Imaging, Lifestyle, Gaming & Security.

CKart is not classified based on brands we do, it’s an open platform for partners to list their brands & products with more brownie points like product training material, marketing collaterals just a click away.

There are more modules that ease daily business but Seller module, E-Commerce Platform (White Labelling) & Drop shipment is like cherry on the cake” said Ketan Patel, Creative Peripherals. “To share with you some quick numbers of CKart success, rounding off in one year we have recorded 180 Crores with more than 13.5K orders, so far 800+ partners are doing business with on monthly basis and to add more monthly average of 80 partner are getting associated with CKart.”

After the first Lockdown in 2020, the market saw a huge potential due to WFH culture.

Hanuman Rajpurohit, TAG added, “The requirement for a basic system setup at home become a necessity. The demand for High-End PC’s increased exponentially. Also due to rise in the Crypto Currency mining trend in the start of 2021, the requirements for High-End Graphic Cards, PSU, HDD and SSD went up. The Gamers who traditionally used to play in Gaming Café’s felt need for a Gaming PC setup at Home. Due to all these factors, the demand for components was on growth pattern. Taking forward this growth trend, TAG has been successful in signing New Distribution Brands, which will be announced shortly.”

“Market opportunities are on the rise and all-around – one should be just aware of how to dig for these opportunities. The legacy way of selling will not help in generating more opportunities. In today’s context more than ever a seller needs to be tuned to the business pain points of the customer including the hidden ones. And if he is able to match his technology offering to help the customer solve this pain point then there is an opportunity to play and these are abundant if rightly done. The opportunities range from the themes of WFH (collaboration tools, remote support, secured access, and endpoint backup) to Cyber Security (Data Encryption, Cloud Security, Zero Trust, and

Access Management) just to name a few.

The cloud as a play itself has innumerable opportunities that we are TechnoBind are helping partners with. Right from migrating to the cloud to manage the data on the cloud to securing it and finally protecting that data – TechnoBind has a solid stack play which is helping partners leverage this opportunity,” stated Prashanth G J, TechnoBind.

Atul Gupta, RX Infotech Pvt. Ltd. commented, “For a brand like Lapcare with its huge product portfolio, the possibilities and opportunities are vast. We move ahead with a ‘room for improvement’ attitude, be it our supply chain, sales model, marketing tactics or other segments of the working model.

The market is evolving more than ever now across the market segments based on Demographic, Psychographic and Behavioural grounds. Keeping the product development, business strategy and marketing approach aligned to it with a dynamic mindset is what we focus on.”

“As the world begins to manage the virus better, supported by the recent rollout of vaccination programmes, we are expecting the industry to turn the corner and anticipate increased demand in sectors such as medical, IoT and Industrial IoT as well as 5G technologies, smart energy and automotive which would include electric vehicles (EVs) as people look to get moving again while avoiding the increased risk of infection associated with public transport” stated Vinesh Pulse, element14. “The rise in demand for EVs will also cause a knock-on increase in the demand for charging stations and greater investment in battery technologies. Alongside this, we don’t expect that increased demand for work-from-home and entertain-at-home technologies will decrease. This demand surged in the early days of the pandemic and filled a gap in demand for semiconductors as the traditional market paused in the face of lockdowns.

More recently we have seen traditional demand bounce back, creating challenges in the market for semiconductors and the extension of lead times.”

As now the market is picking up but still the organizations are on remote work model which will stay here for longer. Ultimately this brings huge growth opportunities for the channel partners. Commenting on the growth opportunities, DP Sinha, Graphline Computers added, “I see good business opportunities for laptop segment because even after lockdown corporates are follow-

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ing WFH mode and they are buying laptop for their employees to support work from Home model amid current pandemic.”

CURRENT CHALLENGES IN THE DISTRIBUTION BUSINESS The pandemic has caused numerious challenges on the front of business continuity.

The business operations have become complex and the channel partners are making all possible efforts to surpass the challenges. Rajesh Goenka, RP tech India said, “The restrictions on physical movement and transportation will continue to be a challenge till the pandemic situation comes under control. Apart from that products scarcity and subsequent price rise are adversely hampering the business. We are closely monitoring the situation and external factors that influence the product availability and price.”

“Distribution of products seems to be a simple business however its quite complex when it comes to execution and day to day operations, one has to be pro & quick decision maker in solving these daily challenges, this comes from experience, being into distribution from past 30 years is an advantage for us to overcome. However there are few challenges that are well known like product shortage, imports, transportation & freight cost” added Ketan Patel, Creative Peripherals. “We are sure that this is just a journey and lesson for lifetime. We have also experienced that brand & product promotional activities has gone drastically from physical activity to digital event, and now these digital events turnout is less compared to activities in 1st lockdown in 2020 due to lost their interest, it seems like people are also looking forward for normal norms or back to normalcy.”

Despite all the positives, the major challenge is the Covid19 itself, It is not something which will end so soon. Some Channel partners and Sales executives are not with us anymore, which is permanent loss. Hanuman Rajpurohit, TAG commented, “Physical connect with the partners is going to be a challenge in the near future.

We have to prepare ourselves. The way of doing business will change substantially.

www.digitalterminal.in

Maintaining a healthy balance of stocks and sales is very important. On a Positive note – I would say only one thing, we have been into one of the most fortunate Industries around. Many industries have seen a major crackdown during this period. We have to be positive and keep going helping our customers, employees and the ecosystem to maintain sustainability.”

“WFH has changed the dynamics of business continuity completely. All these years’ customers were happy protecting the data within their DC and building an alternate DC for access in times of disaster. But with WFH the data is literally spread everywhere and the need to access the data is again spread out – so along with tech solutions, also needed is a re-look at the process of business continuity” stated Prashanth G J, TechnoBind.

“With such an explosive business landscape, come opportunities and come challenges in equal ratio. Neither could be neglected. The market focus is continuously fluctuating in accordance with the govt. restrictions, lockdowns, and reforms. For one, it is very hard to keep logistics and supply-demand balance in check. The gap between the two can increase the variable cost. Same applies to marketing focus and other departments. The only way to go ahead is developing a fluid and elastic business model which could mould into the ever-changing business scenario, quickly and efficiently” added Atul Gupta, RX Infotech Pvt. Ltd. Vinesh Pulse, element14 said, “The last eighteen months have been unlike any other and without doubt, COVID-19 has presented purchasers with a major challenge in sourcing electronic components and products when they want them. Most supply chains are well founded and usually work effectively, however, COVID-19 exposed weaknesses and the need for greater flexibility. The COVID-19 virus introduced significant unpredictability and the lessons of COVID-19 will live with us long beyond the virus itself, highlighting the need for multi-sourcing with a diversified supply chain.”

Electronic Manufacturers (CEMs) pausing or reducing production, uncertain of what lay ahead. As the pandemic swept across the globe, the general consensus at the time was of a slowdown in the semiconductor market – but as events have since shown, this opposite was actually happening as “new demands” sucked up already stretched component production capacity.

The impact of the universal instruction to “stay at home” led to rapid digitisation driven by the need for high-end products relating to remote working and home entertainment. This in turn, led to an increase in demand for reliable connectivity, adding greater pressure on the need for delivering 5G and its associated infrastructure.

Surplus component stock was swept up by manufacturers of high-end products and uncertainty within semiconductor markets was replaced by buoyancy and expansion in demand.”

“There is discussion at very senior levels in governments across the globe to address current semiconductor capacity challenges.

There is a need to build a geographically spread supply chain that provides resilience to events such as the pandemic, but also additional supply to address the current demand. Unfortunately building capacity takes time, and current challenges will continue for some time but element14’s policy of investing heavily in stock availability has enabled its customers to mitigate many of these unforeseen issues. element14 has more stock available in its warehouses than ever before, enabling customers to have better access to products. As element14 is a fully authorised and fully franchised distributor, customers can be confident that only genuine manufacturer products are supplied,” concluded by Vinesh.

The distribution market landscape has become very challenging post COVID. DP Sinha, Graphline Computers said, “Currently we see huge demand of laptops in the market but at the same time there is shortage of laptop supply from OEM. This all is because of component shortage especially Intel Processor.”

Vinesh Pulse further added, “More recently we have seen further challenges in the supply of semiconductors. Early in the pandemic, we saw Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Contract JULY 2021 I

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EXCLUSIVE CHAT

“TODAY THOMSON SMART TV IS AVAILABLE IN MORE THAN 17000 PIN CODES” In the past few years, the Indian smart TV market has registered robust growth owing to the increasing demand for entertainment.

The rising subscriber base of leading OTT platforms led to an increased demand for smart TVs. Moreover, the high-speed broadband connection has also played a significant role in boosting the growth of smart TV market. Apart from it, Indian households are at the cusp of the transition from traditional TVs sets to smart TVs for a greater viewing experience. This shift is backed by the affordable smart TVs brought by the leading Indian brands who seek to cater to this enormous opportunity across Indian market. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal recently talked to Avneet Singh Marwah, CEO, Super Plastronics Pvt. Ltd. (India Brand Licensee, Thomson).

Mr. Marwah gave insight about the latest trends in the Indian smart TV market, new evolving technologies and plans to grow in the region. Read below the excerpts:

RAJEEV: WHAT ARE THE LATEST TRENDS IN INDIAN SMART TV MARKET? MR. MARWAH: We witnessed that the screen time increased as more and more people started working from home due to which there is a pent up demand for larger screens. We also saw a massive jump in the OTT viewership. We have seen almost 70 percent growth on a year-onyear basis and by 2024, I think 95 percent of the market share will be of Smart TVs, with android being one of the topmost operating systems in this category.

RAJEEV: WHAT COULD BE THE NEXT BIG THING IN THE SMART TV SPACE THAT WOULD DRIVE NEW OPPORTUNITIES FOR TV MAKERS? MR. MARWAH: The next big trend is A.I, which will be your new UI. TV now, will no longer be the large screen at home, but the screen which will be connected to various other smart devices. There are more than 300,000 products or consumer appliances that are already available, ranging from washing machines, refrigerator, smart lights, home safety & security systems and other electric devices, which can be connected to a smart TV. While watching your smart TV, one can access Safety & security alarms, lighting solutions, temperature control, wash settings etc., We feel young and enthusiastic consumer will experiment and adopt to many contactless and AI lead technology solutions in the years to come.

RAJEEV: HOW DID YOU MANAGE BUSINESS CONTINUITY DURING THE 2ND WAVE OF PANDEMIC? MR. MARWAH: The second wave has been more fatal, it was one of the most challenging job to decide whether to continue operations in this kind of situation.

But I’m glad to inform that our front line workers took this decision to continue 36

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our manufacturing plant, despite our top management give them alternative day options. That gave lot of strength to your team, in spite of that fear everyone contributed. We got huge support from those states Govt which allowed sales of non-essential goods.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU PLAN TO TAKE THE BUSINESS FORWARD FROM HERE? MR. MARWAH: This is the best opportunity for us to grow in India, as per survey

by Local circle there has been decline of 40% of Chinese goods. We have seen that as well, Thomson grew exponentially after the first wave. Therefore we have decide to invest about 150 CR in R&D to develop more technology led smart TV’s. We are expanding our infrastructure to counter at top three online brands in India.

RAJEEV: WHAT ARE THE GROWTH PROSPECTS FOR BRAND THOMSON IN THIS CROWDED AND COMPETITIVE INDIAN MARKET? WHAT IS YOUR GTM STRATEGY FOR UPCOMING MONTHS ESPECIALLY FOR THE FESTIVE QUARTER? MR. MARWAH: Thomson is seeing a clear pattern of growth and next three years we are expected to grow more than 50% one of the major factor would be the kind of investments we are doing in technology space. We are proud to be one the strategic partners for Google android TV, today we have an advantage to launch same specs android TV with any global brand.

We have a clear GTM strategy that we will be countering any price drop from Chinese brand. We will not let them take that scape of burning money and acquiring market share. Thomson will always remains the best affordable brand for its happy customers.

RAJEEV: WHAT ARE YOUR OUTREACH AND EXPANSION PLANS FOR TIER II AND III CITIES? HOW DO YOU PLAN TO REVAMP YOUR DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM? MR. MARWAH: Today Thomson is available in more than 17000 pin codes, most of our growth is coming from tier 2 and 3.

We are targeting lot of new and potential customer’s online customers. We have already started setting up last mile delivery from there cities and towns.

RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU ASSURE TO PROVIDE EXCELLENT SERVICE SUPPORT IN CURRENT SITUATION? MR. MARWAH: Our insight and experience of selling for the last 30 years helped us understand the market dynamics and study consumer behaviour. Keeping the ongoing situation in mind we offered an honest & fair pricing without trying to burden our customers, Presently we have 3 factories in India, 550 service centres across India, and about 28 warehouses in India. Currently, we are the #2 online selling brand in India. www.digitalterminal.in

SMARTPHONE SHELF

Vivo Y72 5G Vivo expanded its 5G portfolio in India with the launch of powerful vivo Y72. The smartphone delivers superior smartphone experience through its robust features while sporting a clearly differentiated design in its category.

OS: Funtouch OS 11.1 (Based on Android 11) RAM: 8GB+4GB Extended RAM Storage: 128GB Display: 6.58” FHD+ Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 480 5G Rear Camera: 48MP+2MP Rear Camera Front Camera: 8MP Selfie Camera Battery Capacity: 5000 mAh The smartphone is priced at INR 20,990. Vivo Y72 will be available in two attractive colour options— Prism Magic and Slate Gray.

OPPO Reno6 Pro 5G

OPPO announced the launch of the most awaited Reno6 Pro 5G smartphone in India.

The OPPO smartphone with its other pathbreaking features like 65W SuperVOOC flash charging, Color OS 11.3, the slim design amongst others will empower consumers to experience the best.

OS: ColorOS 11.3 RAM: 12GB Storage: 256GB Display: 6.5” OLED 3D Curved Display Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 1200 Rear Camera: 64MP AI Quad Camera Front Camera: 32MP Selfie Camera Battery Capacity: 4500mAh The Reno6 Pro 5G is available in 12GB + 256GB (RAM+ROM) priced at INR 39,990.

TECNO CAMON 17 Pro TECNO has launched CAMON 17 Pro smartphone in India. The introduction of TECNO CAMON 17 Pro will further redefine the mid-range smartphone segment photography and videography capabilities.

The smartphone flaunts many segment-first innovations.

OS: HiO7.6 Based on Android 11 RAM: 8GB Storage: 128GB Display: 6.8” FHD+ Display Processor: MediaTek G95 Octa-Core Processor Rear Camera: 64MP AI Quad Rear Camera Front Camera: 48MP Selfie Camera Battery Capacity: 5000 mAh TECNO CAMON 17 Pro is priced at INR 16999.

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