February issue 2021 by Enterprise IT World

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FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs. FEBRUARY 2021

TOP 5 TECHNOLOGY CYBERSECURITY AND INDUSTRY 4.0: STRATEGIES FOR SECURING 5G

SECURITY P-24

P-22

EDITOR’S LETTER

TIME TO TAKE THE RPA IN A BIG WAY

Hello Friends.

Post covid scenario is opening up with a lot of learning for the CIOs and CISOs. The best learning from the situation is how to make work hybrid way. This opens up opportunity and provides compiling reasons for the enterprises to go hybrid in their infrastructure too. So the infra shift from on-prem to hybrid and cloud is happening on the one side and on the other side, RPA gaining huge grounds. The same social distancing is also applicable to the infra too. In the business process side including SAP, Oracle or Microsoft environment a big shift is happening towards robotic process automation. Management of various organizations are seeing the benefits of the low hanging fruits of database automation. Now this process automation can be huge benefits to other process too which can not only save cost to the company but also eliminate a lot of manual errors. The question comes whether there will be job loss. The answer is certainly yes. Imagine these are the regular roles that some workforce was managing for them the growth was nothing and incentives were

NEXT MONTH SPECIAL

nothing. These people have to go on an alternative path and they would do better in some creative and technical work. Business Intelligence and AI are two other technologies that CIOs are finding very attractive, though cyber security is the paramount one. We are not discussing about cyber security as it has been repeatedly discussed and its importance has been communicated with clarity. But BI and AI tools are what supports business and impact is visible quickly. Now social listening is the trend. Every company is active and invested in this so the data collated because of social listening or from existing customers’ engagement are otherwise of no use if BI tools are not used to churn some usable data, which global companies are doing. Indian companies need to adopt the best practices to turn their business into profitable entities. So post covid is going to be very interesting from the IT landscape point of view.

S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M

COVER STORY

SUPPLEMENT

HYBRID CLOUD

QUOTES FROM TOP CIOS

The next issue is dedicated to Hybrid Journey of the CIOs through hybrid strategy. We would like to take feedback from the CIOs and OEMs and create our judgment on the same.

The supplement story of the magazine would have relevant quotes from the top CIOs in India.

PLUS

Interviews and Case Studies

Catch interviews, guest articles and case studies of recent applications from the Industry stakeholders, IT/ITES Vendors and IT leaders and CIOs from the Enterprise IT World CIO Community.

Send in your inputs to sanjay@accentinfomedia.com 4

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

CONTENTS

FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs.

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Chief Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra

V O L U M E 0 5 | I S S U E 1 1 | FEBRUARY 2021 | W W W . E N T E R P R I S E I T W O R L D . C O M

Managing Editor: Anisha Nayar Dhawan Sub Editor: Nidhi Shail Designer: Shadab Khan Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi, Sangeet Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Vaishali Shukla SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 E-mail: info@accentinfomedia.com EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New

SECURITY

Delhi-110016,

16 6WORKFORCE WAYS TO SECURE YOUR HYBRID IN THE NEW NORMAL SECURITY: /18 Why Trust in Zero Trust is Growing

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Editorial~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 04 News~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06

TECH TREND 2020

SECURITY

NETWORKING

CIO TOYS

ANDREW HOLLISTER

RANDEEP SEKHON

SUDHAKAR CHILUKURI

“Top 5 technology infrastructure that every company needs to invest, in the new financial year”

“Cybersecurity and Industry 4.0: Strategies for Securing 5G”

“Airtel and Qualcomm to Accelerate 5G in India”

“Seagate Unveils Storage as a Service”

SUMANA IYENGAR

FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

ITWORLD

ROUND UP

Microsoft to Establish First Datacenter Region in Indonesia B Y S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M

Microsoft announced its Berdayakan Ekonomi Digital Indonesia initiative, which marks a significant commitment to advancing growth and digital transformation for Indonesia, its vibrant developer and startup ecosystem, enterprises, and the public sector. As part of the plan, Microsoft will establish its first datacenter region in Indonesia to deliver trusted cloud services locally, with world-class data security, privacy, and the ability to store data in country. Microsoft also announced plans to skill an additional 3 million Indonesians to achieve its goal of empowering over 24 million Indonesians by the end of 2021, through its long-established skills programs designed to create inclusive economic opportunities in the digital era. Today’s announcement will play a pivotal role in 6

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

accelerating the country’s digital transformation, toward its vision of becoming Southeast Asia’s leading digital economy. According to research from IDC, Microsoft’s investment in Indonesia is expected to generate up to USD $6.3 billion in new revenues from the country’s ecosystem of local customers and partners. In addition, its cloud-consuming businesses are expected to contribute 60,000 jobs to the local economy, over the next four years*. “As a leading global provider of advanced cloud solutions, Microsoft’s investment to establish local datacenters, digital skilling and collaboration with the Government of Indonesia will support local innovation, economic recovery, and digital transformation.

D ATA SCIENCE

Only 23% of B2B sales reps believe they are equally effective selling virtually as they are in a live, onsite setting, according to Gartner, Inc.

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

Cloudera Cloud-Native Operational Database Accelerates Application Development

Cloudera, the enterprise data cloud company, announced the availability of the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP) Operational Database on both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure CDP Operational Database is a fully managed cloud-native operational database with unparalleled scale, performance, and reliability. Optimized to be deployed anywhere, on any cloud platform, CDP Operational Database aligns with the cloud infrastructure strategy best suited for the business. Organizations are increasingly working with multiple cloud providers. A recent Gartner survey of public cloud users found that 81% of respondents are using two or more providers in order to avoid vendor lock-in. Additionally, IDC predicts that 2021 will be the year of multi-cloud with over 90% of enterprises worldwide relying on a mix of on-premises/ dedicated private clouds, multiple public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their

CIO

infrastructure needs. CDP Operational Database works across public and private cloud environments, including on-premises. It enables application developers to deliver prototypes in under an hour on their choice of cloud, with the power to effortlessly scale to petabytes of data. Application developers can deliver missioncritical applications with speed because CDP Operational Database auto-scales, auto-heals and auto-tunes based on workload needs. “CDP Operational Database enabled us to move one of our main datasets into the new database on AWS in record time,” said Briglal Kattamaparambil, Director of Development at Epsilon. “We no longer have to worry about infrastructure planning as it is fully self-managed and allows us the flexibility to choose the cloud platform that works best for our business.”

Across the space domain, Lockheed Martin is applying AI technology to provide proactive insights during production and for operational mission requirements Lockheed Martin and NEC Corporation have signed a joint collaboration agreement to extend their partnership utilizing NEC’s System Invariant Analysis Technology (SIAT). The companies are also finalizing a licensing agreement with a multi-year option. With a focus on driving speed and efficiency of system diagnostics, this partnership will continue to provide proven artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities across product lifecycles. This positively impacts design and production phases of spacecraft development, including applications on NASA’s Orion vehicle for the Artemis mission. “The power of AI is leveraged across our entire enterprise, and with a trusted partner like NEC, we gain the resources to expand its abilities at scale across our internal operations,” said Rick Ambrose, executive vice president of Lockheed Martin Space. “By proactively analyzing telemetry data we are able to deliver our systems even faster and streamline the work that our employees do every day.”

EVENTS

24-26 MAR 2021

19-20 JUL 2021

10 MAR 2021

28th Convergence India exp

International Conference on IT & Computer Science

Veeam Webinar

PRAGATI MAIDAN NEW DELHI, DELHI

Lockheed Martin and NEC Put AI to Work on Programs like NASA’s Artemis Mission

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

THE SUNCOURT HOTEL YATRI 8A/33, CHANNA MARKET, BLOCK 8A, WEA, KAROL BAGH, DELHI

VIRTUAL

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

Druva Teams with Leidos on NASA NEST Contract

S/HE SAID IT

NICLAS SVENNINGSEN

MANAGER FOR GLOBAL CLIMATE ACTION AT UN CLIMATE CHANGE OF THE INITIATIVE

“Climate action is more urgent than ever. Consumers’ awareness about the issue is at an all-time high and leading companies have been preparing for this, and are responding to it.’’

Druva has teamed with Leidos, a FORTUNE 500 science and technology leader, on NASA’s End-user Services & Technologies (NEST) contract. As a subcontractor, Druva will protect more than 60,000 endpoint workloads. This enables NASA to seamlessly protect, backup and restore files across the organization, regardless of device or location, utilizing AWS GovCloud (US). The NASA NEST team is moving the agency from a traditional PC model to a more device-agnostic, mobile-friendly model with built-in security and cloud-based resources for better addressing workforce needs. As the only FedRamp-certified SaaS-based data protection offering with comprehensive protection certified for use by government agencies via AWS GovCloud, Druva is able to support NASA’s dispersed team with centralized, compliant, and secure storage. “Our goal through NASA NEST has been

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to transform NASA IT systems and, above all else, continuously enhance the end-user experience,” said Nate Apodaca, Leidos program manager for NASA NEST. “We selected Druva for its global accessibility and robust security architecture. This will help meet the stringent security standards our customer demands.” “Over the last 50 years, no single entity has introduced more significant technological advancements than NASA, creating much of the technology we now rely on daily,” said Jaspreet Singh, founder and CEO, Druva. “The agency’s continued focus on pushing the boundaries of science requires the best our industry has to offer, and by leveraging cloud, NASA can now tap into the full potential of its data. Our partnership and support of NASA dates back more than five years, and we are both humbled and excited to expand our collaboration through NASA NEST.”

“For more than three decades, Citrix has been a leader in providing digital workspace infrastructure that empowers IT organizations to securely deliver the apps, content and business services employees need to do their jobs.” D AV I D H E N S H A L L , P R E S I D E N T A N D C E O , CITRIX.

SECURITY

Juniper Networks Combines Mist AI with Session Smart SD-WAN and SRX Secure Branch Gateway for Optimal User Experiences from Client-to-Cloud “Juniper Networks announced several new solutions that further execute on the company’s vision of end-to-end AI-driven automation, insight and actions from client-to-cloud. Less than two months after closing the acquisition of 128 Technology, Juniper has added WAN Assurance and the Marvis Virtual Network Assistant (both driven by Mist AI) to the Session Smart networks portfolio, as well as enhanced the deployment and management of the SRX secure branch gateway using Mist AI. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

DigitalOcean Launches Premium Droplets

BD Soft Introduces Affordable, Secure Email Service “Supermails” for Indian Markets BD Software Distribution introduces Super Mails for businesses – that comes with three levels of security protection along with a premium tier offering more storage and bigger message sizes. Powered by Yukthi Systems, the Supermails services reinvents mailing solution, that focuses on privacy and security while also running on green energy. When it comes to email, SMBs suffer due to a dearth of choice in the market. On the one hand are the big players, with their enterprise level offerings with matching prices, and

EXECUTIVE

at the low end are the website hosting providers – not email specialists at all. In this scenario, BD Software Distribution Pvt. Ltd. (BD Soft), one of the largest distributor of IT solutions, introduces Super Mails for businesses – that comes with multiple levels of security protection, a good set of necessary features, and most importantly full support. Powered by Yukthi Systems, the Supermails service reinvents mailing solution, that focuses on affordability and security.

DigitalOcean announced new Premium Droplets plans with processors from Intel and AMD. The new Droplet types expand DigitalOcean’s Basic Droplet tier to offer faster performance and give customers the flexibility to choose the underlying hardware for their workloads. “As our customers grow their businesses and test ideas with new applications, they need a variety of compute options to meet their needs,” said Apurva Joshi, VP of Product, DigitalOcean. “For those who want more power and control over their infrastructure, Premium Droplets offer a highly performant, faster central processing unit (CPU) option without having to upgrade to one of our dedicated compute plans. This is the perfect solution for startups and SMBs who are launching new products and want to keep costs down without compromising performance.” DigitalOcean provides two types of Premium Droplets: Premium Intel Droplets, powered by second generation Intel Xeon Scalable processors, built-in AI acceleration and Intel mesh architecture to deliver consistent high performance. These Intel Xeon Scalable processors operate at a base frequency of 2.50 GHz and max turbo frequency of 3.90 GHz and have a memory frequency of 2933 MHz. Premium AMD Droplets, powered by 2nd Gen AMD EPYC™ processors based upon the “Zen 2” architecture. These AMD EPYC processors operate at a base frequency of 2.0 GHz and a max boost frequency of 3.35 GHz and support memory speeds of up to 3200 MHz.

MOVEMENT

Aspire Systems appoints Krishnan Jayaraman as new Business Unit Head for Enterprise. Analytics

AVEVA Accelerates Commitment to Invest in People and Sustainability

10 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

Cashinvoice strengthens Board of Directors with Govind Sankaranarayanan, former CFO and COO of Tata Capital

Vehere appoints Sunil Kalia as Director, Professional Services and Customer Support

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

BOOK

SHELF

Cracking the Sales Management Code

GLOBAL UPDATE

JASON JORDAN WITH MICHELLE VAZZANA

Smart Dubai Announces Latest Updates On the Progress Of The Dubai Paperless Strategy Smart Dubai revealed the progress 41 government entities have made in implementing the Dubai Paperless Strategy, where they sought to reduce their paper consumption by half within the first six months of joining the effort, and continue moving forward towards 100% digitization by the end of 2021. The figures were announced during a virtual session Smart Dubai organized, with His Excellency Abdulla Al Basti, Secretary General of The Executive Council of Dubai; H.E. Younus Al Nasser, Assistant Director General of Smart Dubai, CEO of the Dubai Data Establishment, and H.E. Wesam Lootah, CEO of the Smart Dubai Government Establishment, in attendance, along with Director Generals and officials from government entities that are taking part in implementing the Dubai Paperless Strategy. Collectively, Large Entities successfully cut their paper consumption by 83.86% by December 2020, which is equivalent to 232.07 million sheets of paper. Meanwhile, Medium Entities reduced their consumption by 76.23% or 10.64 million sheets,

whereas Small Entities achieved a 77.3% reduction in consumption, equivalent to more than 27.17 million sheets of paper. Smart Dubai awarded the 100% Digital Stamp to the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), Dubai Municipality, Dubai Sports Council, and the Dubai Statistics Center. The Stamp recognizes the government entities that have fully implemented the Dubai Paperless Strategy, marking their transition to 100% paperless entities when executing internal transactions or when delivering customer services. DEWA saved 22.63 million sheets of paper it normally uses every year, while Dubai Municipality saved 20.9 million sheets, the Dubai Sports Council 408,623, and the Dubai Statistics Center eliminated the use of 172,129 sheets of paper used annually, edging closer to the goal of 100% digital transformation of the city.

PRICE

RS. 1963.00 (HARDCOVER) About The Book There are literally thousands of books on selling, coaching, and leadership, but what about the particulars of managing a sales force? Where are the frameworks, metrics, and best practices to help you succeed?

About the Author Based on extensive research into how world-class companies measure and manage their sales forces, Cracking the Sales Management Code is the first operating manual for sales management. In it you will discover: • The five critical processes that drive sales performance • How to choose the right processes for your own team • The three levels of sales metrics you must collect

env0 Introduces First Remote Run SaaS Solution for the Automation of env0, a provider of automated, collaborative remote-run workflow management for cloud deployments, announced the first remote run SaaS solution for the automation of Terragrunt workloads across multiple Terraform modules. The integration of Terragrunt and env0 optimizes IaC deployments to ensure greater efficiency, control, visibility and governance. With env0’s automated, collaborative remote-run workflow management

platform for Terragrunt, the company addresses the need for provisioning and compliance of changing cloud resources. Now, DevOps engineers avoid points of failure with out-of-thebox control and governance tools and improve operations with the product’s remote state and operations backend. Built for scale, env0 enables users and teams to streamline workflow in the deployment of infrastructure as code. With env0, visibility into infrastructure changes is provided with

detailed plans directly on the pull requests in GitHub and other SCM. Policy-as-a-code guardrails can be set up based on the Open Policy Agent (OPA) framework and RBAC models built upon rich context like users and teams, Git Repos, cloud accounts and environments — quickly and easily. With env0, the practitioner simply sets up templates with existing Terragrunt repos in the same way as Terraform repos, then clicks “Create New Template” and selects Terragrunt.

FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

L&T Technology Services selected by Airbus for Skywise Partner Programme L&T Technology Services, a leading global pure-play engineering services company, has been selected by Airbus to provide technology and digital engineering solutions for Airbus’ Skywise platform as part of the ‘Skywise Partner Programme’. With more than 130 airlines around the world already connected to Skywise, the platform is playing a very important part in enabling and accelerating digital transformation of the aviation sector as a whole. LTTS will support the airlines in the development of complex workflows, creation of new interfaces between their existing information systems and Skywise and also provide assistance in their digital transformation with Skywise. LTTS has a set of highly experienced engineers and data scientists who will work exclusively on the Skywise platform and build solutions to address the digital transformation needs of airlines and the fast-expanding Skywise ecosystem. LTTS’ demonstrated experience in building digital engineering platforms based on strong domain knowledge help strengthen the interdependencies these digital technologies are enabling.

IntSights Report: The Cyber Threat Landscape of the Telecommunications Industry IntSights, the threat intelligence company focused on enabling enterprises to Defend Forward, released a research report on their findings of the telecommunications industry cyber threat landscape. The recent incident on enterprise content firewall provider, Accellion, has shed light on the utmost importance for information security. Organizations that used Accellion as a third-party vendor, including a bank in New Zealand and a telecommunications provider in Singapore, were affected with their customers’ data stolen in a breach. Especially for the telecommunications industry, such cyberattacks can potentially result in large repercussions beyond the industry because of the pervasive use of telecommunications services, and can impact other companies’ external internet traffic and customer relationships. Personally identifiable information (PII) possessed by telecommunications companies are highly valuable. Once the information is obtained, criminals can use this PII for various fraudulent purposes, whereas government intelligence services can use it to support human intelligence operations or facilitate the collection of signals intelligence. In Asia, the report indicated that IntSights’ coverage of underground criminal forums found that a cybercriminal offered to sell network access for what was described as the largest telecommunications service provider in Asia for 5 bitcoins (equivalent of approximately USD 95,000 at that time) in late 2020. The report also analyses the evolving tactics that threat actors use to breach telecommunications companies, and the steps that can be taken to mitigate top risks in the industry.

Veeam announces a Single Platform for Modern Data Protection with the New V11 offering 200+ Veeam Software announced general availability of NEW Veeam Backup & Replication v11, enabling the most advanced data protection solution for Cloud, Virtual, Physical and Enterprise workloads. With more than 200 new features and enhancements, the single solution for comprehensive data management is powerful and flexible enough to protect each phase of the data life cycle, while handling all the complexities of a multi-cloud environment for AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform. “Veeam released V10 with more than 150 12 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

new enhancements just 12 months ago, and now has more than 700,000 downloads. Being able to launch the next version — Veeam Backup & Replication v11 — with an additional 200 new and powerful backup, cloud, DR, security and automation enhancements speaks volumes to Veeam’s speed of innovation, as well as our strong commitment to the needs and data reliability demands of our customers and partners,” said Danny Allan, Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of Product Strategy at Veeam.

DIGEST HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE ADVANCES EDGE LEADERSHIP WITH HPE SIMPLIVITY HPE announced enhancements to HPE SimpliVity for the enterprise edge, including advancements in data protection with native backup to cloud and centralized backup for compliance. Additionally, HPE is announcing support for containers to run cloud-native applications at the edge, and drive business transformation. New capabilities include: n Kubernetes CSI Plugin for HPE SimpliVity provides streamlined management and resilient, all-in-one hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) to run both container and virtual machine (VM) workloads on a unified platform at the edge n HPE SimpliVity enhanced integration with HPE StoreOnce protects distributed edge sites with automated, app-aware policies to easily and efficiently replicate apps and data directly to a centralized HPE StoreOnce appliance for compliance and long-term retention. HCL TECHNOLOGIES RECOGNIZED AS A LEADER IN IDC MARKETSCAPE HCL Technologies announced that it has been recognized as a leader in the IDC MarketScape: Canadian Cloud Professional Services 2021 Vendor Assessment (doc #CA46215320, January 2021). HCL was recognized for its strategy for cloud professional services driven by its robust delivery model, functionality, and innovation. “In the post-pandemic recovery world, organizations like HCL are helping enterprises to accelerate their cloud adoption capabilities in their digital transformation journeys. HCL’s cloud professional services strategy, coupled with its innovation and delivery model, were some factors that placed it in the IDC’s ‘Leaders’ category’,” said Jason Bremner, Research Vice President, IDC Canada. YUWAAH, UNICEF, CAPGEMINI AND UNGCNI COLLABORATE TO PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR YOUNG PEOPLE YuWaah, UNICEF, Capgemini and United Nations Global Compact Network India (UNGCNI) entered into a collaboration to work together on providing India’s young people with skillsets that will help empower them for creating their career pathways and enabling them as active changemakers. This initiative will offer a range of opportunities like local demand-based skilling with job matching through quality internships and apprenticeships and promote entrepreneurship.

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

MANAGEMENT

MANTRA

Good management consists in showing average people how to do the work of superior people John D. Rockefeller

Airtel and Qualcomm to Accelerate 5G in India

CrowdStrike Global Threat Report Highlights Key Trends in eCrime and Nation-State Activity

become viable players in the deployment of 5G networks. In addition, Airtel and Qualcomm Technologies will collaborate to enable a wide array of use cases, including 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) that is designed to deliver broadband connectivity at Gigabit speeds to homes and businesses. This collaboration also aims to allow a faster rollout of broadband services in a cost effective and expeditious manner across India for “last mile” connectivity challenges that are becoming increasingly important in today’s remote, mobile-first society. Airtel 5G solutions including FWA services will be able to deliver multi-gigabit internet speeds wirelessly to customers and open up a wide range of innovations. For customers, the ultra-fast and low latency of 5G will unlock a digital world of limitless possibilities – gigabit size file downloads in seconds and 4K video streaming on the go across smartphones and computing devices, Immersive Technologies such as Virtual Reality and SMART Homes with connected things. Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel has been a pioneer of new technologies and our networks are fully ready for 5G.

CrowdStrike’s 2021 Global Threat Report suggests supply chain attacks, ransomware, data extortion and nation-state threats prove to be more prolific than ever. On the heels of unprecedented growth in eCrime, CrowdStrike has introduced a new eCrime index (ECX) in this year’s report. The ECX displays the strength, volume and sophistication of the cybercriminal market, and is updated weekly in real-time based on 18 unique indicators of criminal activity. The 2021 Global Threat Report highlights that eCrime attacks made up 79% of all intrusions (via hands-on-keyboard activity) uncovered by CrowdStrike Falcon OverWatch, the organization’s expert team of threat hunters. Among a popular vector for cyber criminals is the supply chain as it allows malicious actors to propagate multiple downstream targets from a single intrusion. Additionally, the report spotlights how nation-state adversaries infiltrated networks to steal valuable data seeking COVID-19 vaccine research, whereby threat actors have improved strategies to evade detection and camouflage in networks, many times deceiving their targets.

Citrix Completes Acquisition of Wrike Citrix Systems has completed its acquisition of Wrike, a leading provider of SaaS collaborative work management solutions, for approximately $2.25 billion in cash. Through the acquisition, Citrix will deliver the industry’s most comprehensive cloud-based work platform to empower all employees and teams to securely access, collaborate and execute all work types in the most efficient and effective way possible — across any work channel, device, or location. Delivering the Future of Work “For more than three decades, Citrix has been a

leader in providing digital workspace infrastructure that empowers IT organizations to securely deliver the apps, content and business services employees need to do their jobs,” said David Henshall, President and CEO, Citrix. “With the addition of Wrike’s collaborative work management capabilities, which leading companies like Walmart, Fitbit, Siemens Smart Infrastructure, Chosen Foods, and many others rely on to foster more efficient and collaborative work execution, we can take things to the next level and enable people, teams, and organizations to perform at their best.”

Transforming the Employee Experience Digitization and the adoption of flexible and hybrid work models continues to accelerate. But complex and distributed work environments are cluttered with a heterogeneous array of applications, communication channels and devices that disrupt employees and get in the way of efficient and meaningful work. “The need to provide a secure and simplified work experience for employees has never been more critical,” said Mark Bowker, senior analyst for Enterprise Strategy Group.

FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

Nutanix Extends Ransomware Protections to Help Secure Customers’ IT Environments Arcserve and Storagecraft Sign Definitive Agreement to Merge Arcserve, the world’s most experienced data and ransomware protection provider, and StorageCraft, whose mission is to protect all data and ensure its constant availability, today announced that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge. Once completed, the merger of two highly complementary companies will form the most comprehensive global provider of data management and protection solutions for organizations spanning SMB to the Fortune 50. The merger will solve the growing market need for a single source to manage and protect workloads throughout the data center, cloud, SaaS applications, and at the edge. With expanded geographic reach, the industry’s broadest product portfolio, flexible business models, and magnified innovation footprint, the merged companies will bring extensive market and revenue opportunities for MSPs, VARs, and distributors. Addressing challenges facing endusers in every size organization Combining capabilities will create a comprehensive product suite that

addresses the vast majority of use cases and business continuity challenges. With total global data storage projected to exceed 200 zettabytes by 2025 and cybercriminals expected to attack a new business every 11 seconds in 2021, organizations will be able to choose one vendor for a single, agile ecosystem to manage data workloads in all environments and to protect and recover data in the event of cyberthreats, human error, and natural disasters. Organizations of all sizes will be able to rely on a single partner to protect current and evolving data infrastructures with a solutions-based portfolio that spans DRaaS, BaaS, SaaS protection, hybrid and converged data management, direct to cloud data protection, and workload migration to the cloud – or any other infrastructure. Significant value for MSPs, VARs, and distributors As two 100% channel-focused organizations come together, the merger will create meaningful new revenue opportunities for partners worldwide.

Nutanix announced additional ransomware protections in the company’s cloud platform. These include new threat monitoring and detection, as well as more granular data replication and robust access controlsall natively built into the Nutanix stack. These new capabilities build on Nutanix’s rich data services for network security, files and objects storage, virtualization, and business continuity to help enterprises prevent, detect and recover against ransomware attacks across multiple cloud environments. At a time when attacks are becoming even more common due to the rise of remote work, these capabilities make it easier to implement security and business continuity best practices at the infrastructure level, rather than rely on a complex matrix of bolt-on security products. A recent Gartner report¹ shared that, “in 2020, in particular, there have been swift changes to threats with increased remote work and targeted malware campaigns that take advantage of worldwide events, such as COVID-19. Ransomware has evolved beyond the commodity, widespread attacks intended to infect a single endpoint to include more advanced techniques, such as fileless malware and data exfiltration […]. These new strains of ransomware make prevention and planning more important than ever to prevent ransomware attacks.” Organizations, especially those with large remote user populations or hybrid work environments, can no longer rely on a single action or tool to protect themselves.

Belden’s HiOS Software Upgrade Designed to Meet the Needs of Industry 4.0

Belden released the latest version of its Hirschmann Operating System (HiOS). 14 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

Complete with an embedded Open Platform Communications Unified Architecture (OPC UA) server, the software provides a seamless, brand-agnostic solution as industrial automation moves towards Industry 4.0. Belden is the only manufacturer to offer switches that can natively run this communication protocol. Now with universal communication capability, customers can reap the benefits of a more tightly integrated network within the factory automation system, including openness, interoperability and scalability. As the de-facto communications standard for Industry 4.0, OPC provides a communi-

cation bridge between all levels of the automation architecture, from embedded components on the factory floor to the enterprise. “Industrial communication is extremely fragmented with various manufacturers or user groups promoting proprietary solutions,” said Mark Cooksley, product line manager at Belden. “We’ve embedded OPC UA directly into our HiOS software to promote interoperability between manufacturers. Now, our hardware speaks a common communication language and can be managed directly within existing industrial applications.”

CROWDSTRIKE // SECURITY

CROWDSTRIKE GLOBAL THREAT REPORT HIGHLIGHTS KEY TRENDS IN ECRIME AND NATIONSTATE ACTIVITY ADAM MEYERS, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT OF INTELLIGENCE CROWDSTRIKE

nation-state adversaries infiltrated networks to steal valuable data seeking COVID-19 vaccine research, whereby threat actors have improved strategies to evade detection and camouflage in networks, many times deceiving their targets. “There is a human being behind every attack, and cyber actors are getting bolder and more astute day-to-day. As such, it’s critical to employ comprehensive cloud-native technology for increased visibility and prevention capabilities including threat intelligence and expert threat hunting to stay one step ahead of modern day attacks. Additionally, today’s rapidly changing remote work environment highlights that identity protection is central to the defense of any enteprise’s infrastructure. Organizations must take decisive action to control access and protect data in order to outmaneuver adversaries,” said Adam Meyers, senior vice president of intelligence at CrowdStrike. Other key findings from the 2021 Global Threat Report include: l The healthcare industry will continue to face significant threats from criminal groups as CrowdStrike Intelligence confirmed 18 Big Game Hunting enterprise ransomware families infected 104 healthcare organizations in 2020. l Adversaries from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) will be motivated to enhance cyber operations in 2021 due to COVID-19 and a resulting food shortage. l Data extortion techniques will continue to accelerate through the introduction of Dedicated Leak Sites (DLS). l China will focus on supply chain compromises and the targeting of key western verticals in support of the 14th Five Year Plan and the COVID-19 vaccine including academic, healthcare, technology, manufacturing and aerospace. The Global Threat Report analyzes comprehensive threat data from CrowdStrike Falcon Intelligence, CrowdStrike Falcon OverWatch, the company’s industry-leading managed hunting team, the CrowdStrike Threat Graph, a massively scalable, cloud-native graph database technology processing5 trillion events per week across 176 countries and CrowdStrike Services, providing readers with deep insights on modern adversaries and their tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs). Through innovative, crowd and cloud-enabled technology, CrowdStrike is able to leverage machine learning, mine data-atscale and distill threat telemetry to customers, helping them to make more informed decisions. CrowdStrike’s infinitely scalable and agile Security Cloud™ provides customers with the necessary threat identification, assessment and mitigation to secure both endpoints and workloads. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

SECURITY // HYBRID WORKFORCE

6 WAYS TO SECURE YOUR HYBRID WORKFORCE IN THE NEW NORMAL For many of us, home has become the new office and for a few, traveling to the office has begun. We all have adjusted well to the new normal where the hybrid working model has taken center stage. There is also an on-going concern especially when it comes to the security of confidential organizational data and information when working outside of your company’s secure networks. From a cybersecurity perspective, the year 2020 was buzzing for all the wrong reasons. Over the 16 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

last couple of months, the country has witnessed a tremendous rise in ransomware attacks by over 39 percent, making it the second most impacted country across the globe. While the world was focused on the health and economic threats posed by the pandemic, cyber criminals around the world were capitalizing on this very crisis. In fact, we can anticipate that cybersecurity attacks on various sectors in India will continue to rise well into this year, hence there is a need to keep

pace with trends that will shape how we address and handle cybersecurity. In such a scenario, how do you ensure data/ system security while working from home? Here are some simple steps that can help you keep your data secure. Preventing unauthorized system access Cybercriminals and hackers are everywhere, looking for an opportunity to hack into your

HYBRID WORKFORCE // SECURITY

DEVASHISH SHARMA, CTO, FLOCK

Time Password). Also, the hacker wouldn’t have access to a fingerprint, which is used in not all but some systems. Adding one additional layer to the login process could make a lot of difference in keeping hackers out. Two-factor authentication systems can also serve as a type of alert when an unauthorized user is attempting to log in to an account. This will help know when you need to change your password or contact your IT team about a potential threat. Beware of phishing emails and messages If you receive an email around anything not related to work, jackpots, etc., think before clicking on the link. There are a rising number of cases where employees receive such emails, which once clicked on provide an inroad to hackers with malicious intent. Securing home networks Even though you may have a separate work laptop provided by your office, while working from home, you’d be using your home Wi-Fi. And your organization’s IT team has no control over it. Changing passwords to something more complex than just birthdays is the simplest step in securing the home network. If the IT team of your organisation has not installed a VPN client, one can always secure the WiFi network or their own devices, by subscribing for a paid VPN service. Using a virtual private network (VPN) on your work device before connecting it to your home network is another security practice that must be followed. Ensure to avoid free VPN’s as they are not completely safe.

system and gather a significant amount of confidential data. The terror of unauthorized access is increased during such times as hackers know a large portion of the population is still working from home. Most of the data breaches happen due to weak or old passwords. (Some people barely change their passwords regularly). Use unique and strong passwords and change them at regular intervals. Never write down your passwords on your working systems.

Employ two-factor /multi-factor authentication A large number of organisations are making sure they have two-factor authentication when employees log in to their devices/accounts. It adds a sheet of security to ensure that only the actual account owner can access their account. A hacker could steal an employee’s password, but they probably won’t have a phone that receives the verification code commonly known as OTP (One

Lastly, be proactive! It only takes one bad click to corrupt and breach your system. Cyber risks are here to stay and this phenomenon is set to rise. In 2020, we saw an increase of threat attackers pick on protocols that were used for meaningful exploitation. While this is likely to continue in 2021, attacks on Windowstime service and Network Time Protocol (NTP) may be next in line. Even with the constant increase in awareness around the importance of cybersecurity, it is expected that in 2021, there could be one attack every 11 seconds! Therefore, the need of the hour today is to be alert and proactive in order to secure your hybrid workforce from a cyberattack. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

SECURITY // ZERO TRUST

WHY TRUST IN ZERO TRUST IS GROWING IRINA GHOSE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR – CLOUD SOLUTIONS, MICROSOFT INDIA

verify.” The Zero Trust model assumes breach and verifies each request as though it originates from an open network, instead of assuming that everything behind the corporate firewall is safe. Every access request is fully authenticated, authorized, and encrypted before granting access. Digital transformation across organizations has progressed at warp speed in the past year, whether it has been for enabling employees to work remotely or reimagining business operations in the evolving new normal. At the heart of this is digital security with relentless efforts to keep environments not just secure but also make them resilient and future-proof. Securing users, data and devices in context of work from anywhere has become absolutely critical. The number of personal devices accessing corporate networks is spiking and subsequently, the corporate network perimeter has been redefined. Identity-based attacks have significantly increased using tactics like password spraying, phishing, and breach replays and it is the need of the hour for organizations to implement real-time, AIbased protections that prevent identity compromise. At the same time, security professionals are looking for effective ways to better manage alerts and proactively prevent attackers. A Zero Trust security model where identities form the foundation of modern cybersecurity strategy is becoming inevitable. Slowly but surely, trust in Zero Trust is growing. When the pandemic hit last year, organizations that were already on their Zero Trust journey found it easier to transition to remote work and came out stronger in their ability to deflect sophisticated cyber-attacks. So what exactly is the Zero Trust security model? Zero Trust teaches us to “Never trust, Always 18 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

Zero Trust is based on three simple principles: l Verify explicitly: Authenticate and authorize based on all available data points, including user identity, location, device health, service or workload, data classification, and anomalies. l Use least privileged access: Limit user access with just-in-time and just-enough-access, risk-based adaptive polices, and data protection to help secure both data and productivity. l Assume breach: Minimize blast radius for breaches and prevent lateral movement by segmenting access by network, user, devices, and app awareness. Verify all sessions are encrypted end to end. Use analytics to get visibility, drive threat detection, and improve defenses. Having a strong identity is the critical first step to the success of a Zero Trust security approach. Identities—whether they represent people, services, or IoT devices—define the control plane in which access decisions are made. The Zero Trust mindset is the foundation for organizational resilience, the cornerstone of effective protection, and the future of security. Security, compliance, identity, and management are not standalone elements in an organization’s digital armor but are interdependent. For instance, a highly successful Zero Trust Security Model runs on the foundation of Extended Detection & Response (XDR) defined as an integrated suite of security products spanning hybrid IT architectures, designed to interoperate and coordinate enterprise-wide threat prevention, detection, and response. XDR unifies control points, security telemetry, analytics, and opera-

tions into one enterprise system and accelerates the adoption of Zero Trust security model. Using a multi-vendor approach with zero trust security creates complexity, which can lead to data silos and delayed detection times. Such a siloed approach can be an opportunity for the adversary to slip in through the cracks. Microsoft has an end-to-end approach to security, starting from Identity & Access Management, through Endpoint, Email, and Application security, to Data loss prevention and into MultiCloud security and Security information and event management (SIEM). When this integrated outlook combines forces with the amazing ingenuities of artificial intelligence, it’s nothing less than a superpower for organizations. Many organizations today are realizing the urgent need of integrated and contextual security to reshape their security posture for tomorrow. Technology consulting and services company Mindtree embraced integrated security with Microsoft for its global workforce. This has helped accelerate Mindtree’s vision of enhanced employee productivity, mobility and security. Through a simplified, familiar, and productive user experience, Mindtree security team is able to deliver intelligent, automated, and integrated security across their enterprise. All organizations today, irrespective of scale, vertical or complexity, need a security model that protects people, devices, apps, and data wherever they are, empowers a remote or hybrid workforce and continually adapts to evolving business needs. And organizations will have to design their modern security strategies to deliver simplicity in the face of complexity. The fundamental aim of all security efforts is to make the world a safer place for all. In the end, security is about people – the need to protect people, the desire to bring people together, and the collective efforts to strengthen our defense.

PANDEMIC // SECURITY

THREE WAYS THE WORLD OF WORK HAS IMPROVED DUE TO THE PANDEMIC RANGA POTHULA, MD INDIA SUB-CONTINENT & SVP GLOBAL DELIVERY SERVICES, INFOR

While it would be easy to reflect on 2020 as a disastrous dumpster fire of a year, the reality is that the pandemic has changed the workplace for the better. And many of these modifications are likely to be permanent. This is undoubtedly difficult to appreciate from our current vantage point, but by the end of 2021 we will likely witness the seeds sown during the crisis begin to bear sustainable fruit. In fact, you can already observe alterations that have had almost universal impact regardless of industry or geography. Redefining workplace norms The last 50 years of work have been defined by predictable patterns involving who is doing the work, where it occurs and when it happens. While these standards have been impacted by technological advancements, demographic shifts and emerging social norms, COVID-19 has accelerated the arrival of new ways of working.

While most organizations initially resisted the inevitable reforms that accompanied the crisis, virtually all of them eventually accepted that work can be done anywhere, anytime and by almost anyone. REI, an outdoor gear retailer, announced earlier this year [i] that they were selling their brand new, never used corporate headquarters. The reason was simple: it was no longer necessary and would save them significant money as they looked for ways to endure the economic impact of the Coronavirus. According to a recent Gartner survey [ii], this is not a temporary shift that will revert back to “normal” post pandemic, as 82% of company leaders plan to allow employees to work remotely at least part time going forward. These same leaders understand that it will be the elastic enterprise that withstands the inexorable disruptions of the future. While it is easy to point to technology as the enabler of the new work-from-home environment, the truth is our mental mindset is the crucial component for long-term acceptance of this new model. The visceral reaction that normally accompanies the request to allow people to work remotely is based on the assumption that they will be less productive and more prone to laziness. The reality is quite different according

to Natalia Emanuel and Emma Harrington [iii], PhD candidates in economics at Harvard. They evaluated call-center workers in a Fortune 500 retailer and found that productivity increased 8% to 10% in remote workers versus on-site. And while our attitudes about the evolving world of work are important, technology may hold the key to the long-term future of work. Humanity at work Prior to the pandemic, the topic du jour was how technology (particularly artificial intelligence and machine learning) was destroying our economic livelihood. A study by Pew Research [iv] found that 82% of US adults say that by 2050, robots and computers will likely do much of the work currently done by humans. While this platitude has been wielded by politicians and prognosticators for decades, recent advancements in computing and automation have given it fresh fuel. Research by economists Daron Acemoglu and Pascual Restrepo [v] seems to corroborate this point of view as they predict a reduction in both employment and wages resulting from industrial robots. Others suggest that technology has historically created more jobs than it destroyed, and that workers have benefited from improvements in quality of life and even income. It may sound counter-intuitive, but could technology be the key to creating a more human experience at work? As work has emerged from industrial roots to more of a services orientation, the number of jobs that require manual labor have declined. Even as those jobs shifted to ones requiring more administrative and transactional work, new forms of automation have replaced those positions as well. What is left is work that requires a truly human skill set including critical-thinking, problem-solving, creativity, communication and even compassion. This is the reason that Amazon announced last year that it was spending $700M to retrain their employees. They recognized that eventually their operations will be comprised mostly of machinery, and that their people will need to upskill and reskill in order to remain relevant. As we migrate to these new roles and responsibilities, ubiquitous cloud technologies have enabled us to maintain uninterrupted connectivity. 5G has arrived and is enabling mobile devices, IOT sensors and video platforms while work/ life balance transforms into work/life integration. We get to peer into our colleagues’ personal lives through Zoom calls and we realise that they have kids and pets and a decorating style we would not have guessed. Click the link to access the article: https://www.enterpriseitworld.com/ FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

SECURITY // SOPHOS

SOPHOS SHOWS HOW A FIVE-DAY CONTI RANSOMWARE ATTACK UNFOLDS DAY-BY-DAY In a new three-part series of articles, Sophos (global leader in next-generation cybersecurity) researchers and incident responders unveil what really happens when attackers break into an organization’s network with the intention of stealing data and launching a Conti ransomware attack. Conti is a human-operated “double extortion” ransomware. The attackers steal data from their targets before encrypting it, and then threaten to expose the stolen information on the “Conti News” site if the organization doesn’t pay the ransom. Sophos’ 24/7 incident response team, Sophos Rapid Response, was called in to contain, neutralize and investigate the incident, which unfolded over five days from the initial compromise to the recovery of work operations. The series of articles from Sophos reconstructs the attack as it happened day-by-day and provides technical information on Conti’s attack behavior as well as advice for defenders. The three-part series, The Realities of Conti Ransomware, includes: l A Conti Ransomware Attack Day-By-Day – Analysis of a Conti attack, including Indicators of Compromise (IoCs) and tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) l Conti Ransomware: Evasive By Nature – A technical overview by SophosLabs researchers l What to Expect When You’ve Been Hit with Conti Ransomware – An essential guide for IT admins facing the impact of a Conti attack, with advice on what to do immediately and a 12-point 20 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

checklist to help investigate the attack. The checklist walks IT admins through everything the Conti attackers could do while on the network and the main TTPs they are likely to use. The article includes recommendations for action “In attacks where humans are at the controls, adversaries can adapt and react to changing situations in real time,” said Peter Mackenzie, manager, Sophos Rapid Response. “In this case, the attackers had simultaneously gained access to two servers, so when the target detected and disabled one of these – and believed they’d stopped the

attack in time – the attackers simply switched and continued their attack using the second server. Having a ‘Plan B’ is a common approach for human-led attacks and a reminder that just because some suspicious activity on the network has stopped, it doesn’t mean the attack is over.” The “Conti News” site has published data stolen from at least 180 victims to date. Sophos has created a victimology profile based on the data published on Conti News (covering around 150 organizations whose data had been published at the time of analysis).

“In companies without access to a designated IT security team, it’s often IT admins who are in the direct line of fire for a ransomware attack,” said Mackenzie. “They’re the ones who come into work one morning to find everything locked and a threatening ransom note on the screen, sometimes followed by threatening emails and even phone calls. Based on our first-hand threat hunting experiences, we’ve developed an action list that will help IT admins through the deeply challenging and stressful first few hours and days after a Conti ransomware attack, understand where they can get help, and lay the foundations for a more secure future.”

DATA SECURITY // SECURITY

DATA SECURITY TOP CRITERION TO CHOOSE CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDER, SAY INDIAN TECHNOLOGISTS, 55% UPSKILL IN CLOUD FOR BETTER CAREER PROSPECTS: TECHGIG SURVEY SANJAY GOYAL, TIMESJOBS AND TECHGIG

“Data Security cited as top reason for choosing Cloud service provider,

outshining other reasons as cost or compliance in the latest TechGig survey.”

Most Indian technologists prefer to upskill in cloud technologies believing that its proficiency promises better career prospects. Enhanced job prospects were voted as the top reason for Cloud preference by most (55%) technologists. Other prominent aspects like the rapid adoption of Cloud (voted second by 28% respondents) in different sectors and hefty salary earned by Cloud professionals ranked lower, found a new TechGig survey. India’s largest technology community of 3.8 million developers - TechGig - surveyed over 1,750+ tech professionals to understand their views on Cloud computing. About 78% of the surveyed respondents belonged to the 25-30 years

age bracket. More than 82% of respondents were working with IT firms and the rest were the tech undergraduates. The pandemic year has seen many companies - big and small - from all sectors switching to Cloud for business ease and continuity. Here are the other key findings of this surveyCloud preferred for the ease of availability: Cloud is undoubtedly the best solution for accessing information from anywhere, anytime. Around 68% of the respondents said the biggest advantage of using Cloud services was its ease of availability. While 14% of respondents said Cloud

was preferred for offering reduced costs, 13% of the survey takers found that easy data recovery was its best usability. Data Security biggest reason to choose Cloud service providers: There are several factors that impact tech professionals’ decision to choose a Cloud service provider. In the TechGig survey more than 50% professionals said that they would choose Cloud service basis strong data security. The second and third priorities were better customer support and manageability, respectively. Surprisingly, the cost (of a Cloud provider) is the least important factor among technologists while choosing a service. Here is the breakdown: Google Cloud tops the preference list of techies: The jobs of the future would require expertise in new-age skills, and upskilling is the only resolve for a long term career. Hence upskilling in Cloud technology is of utmost importance for forwardlooking IT professionals. When asked about their favourite Cloud technology to learn, Google Cloud Platform (GCP) was named as the top choice followed by Amazon Web Services (AWS). Online mode named as top medium for learning Cloud With the unprecedented COVID-19 outbreak, our world was forced to move to remote working culture faster than ever before. When techies were asked about their preferred method of upskilling in the Cloud, more than 47% respondents chose online live training from qualified personnel as the best way to upskill. Physical books, whitepapers, and offline resources have lost their charm in recent years and were named as the leastpreferred way of upskilling by the developers. Technology domain is transforming faster than ever with the emergence of new-age technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Blockchain, Robotics, and AR/VR etc. Cloud computing is relatively older than these technologies but still has its relevance as a mostin-demand skill among developers. When asked about their budget for Cloud learning, over 73% said that they would spend INR 10,000 - 20,000 annually. The complete breakdown is available here: Commenting on the findings of this survey, Sanjay Goyal, TimesJobs and TechGig said, “Cloud is a dominant technology and refining processes in many domains. Owing to this, technologists are keenly learning Cloud computing, and willing to upskill as well. This is a healthy trend because upskilling ensures career longevity, which is particularly required in tech careers”. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

TECH TREND 2020 // TOP 5 TECHNOLOGY

22 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

TOP 5 TECHNOLOGY // TECH TREND 2020

S U M A N A

I Y E N G A R

CEO & CO-FOUNDER GOAVEGA SOFTWARE INDIA PVT LTD

TOP 5 TECHNOLOGY INFRASTRUCTURE THAT EVERY COMPANY NEEDS TO INVEST, IN THE NEW FINANCIAL YEAR

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

020 has been the year driven by accelerated tech adoption across public and private sectors, and the only enabler that helped combat the economic and business inertia, otherwise inflicted upon by the restrictions on physical movement. Some key technology innovations that helped change the business scenario for key sectors, including healthcare, education, and BFSI, were a mix of emerging smart tech and essential SAAS components vital to ensure smooth functioning. While AI, ML, AR, and VR found multiple innovative applications, services like cloud computing, cybersecurity, and data analytics witnessed sophisticated upgrades. As e-commerce boomed, digital payments and last-mile deliveries enabled by smart logistics became the norm. In 2021, technology adoption is no longer just about survival and competition but more about staying relevant and managing to tide over the impact of the past year. Further, among a lot of other factors that are now part of the new normal, work from home remains one of the more lucrative and thus a motivator for technology innovations in the coming years, for businesses across sectors. Encapsulated below are the top five technology adoptions that every firm

needs to adopt, in the new financial year, so as to stay relevant and survive: 1. Cloud Computing: Cloud computing has become an integral part of the digital transformation of any business, especially after the global pandemic made work from home the new normal. Cloud computing, along with mobile technology, provides the ability to work from any location that has internet access, via a virtual desktop or remote infrastructure. Apart from creating a seamless and flexible working experience for employees to work out of remote locations, cloud computing also ensures data protection, secure and selective access to information, and smoother engagement among employees. If remote working has to be a norm, it has to be with a secure cloud infrastructure! 2. Cyber Security: Data security goes hand in hand with cloud computing. With the increased digitization and cyber activities, security on the internet and cloud have also become increasingly vulnerable. Instances like ransomware, data theft, identity theft, etc., have become rampant. As remote working shifts from a temporary solution to common practice, enterprises need to reconsider and revisit their cybersecurity risk. As many people are still working

from home, a large number of devices are being used from home- mainly desktops, laptops, and smartphones, thus giving hackers opportunities to target these vulnerable points. This is why organizations should take cybersecurity seriously and make employees aware of the security protocols they need to adhere to. For instance, enterprises should encourage professionals to use encrypted, enterprise-driven services like VPN (Virtual Private Network) to avoid becoming prey to cybercriminals. 3. Business Automation: Even as the world wakes up to the many possibilities of leveraging AI and smart technology, business process automation remains one of the core applications that are transforming modern economies. From capturing and assessing data, storage, and analytics, AI-enabled automation is driving both core operational areas like manufacturing and packaging as well as strategic aspects like sales and marketing, customer service, accounting, and human resources. 4. Training and Skill Up-Gradation: As tech adoption grows dramatically, the need to fill the digital literacy and skill gap becomes increasingly important. From training workforce to efficiently leverage the tech applications and driving performance, tech tools are also increasingly coming in handy to deliver online training sessions, workshops, and classroom lectures on both, core competency and tech adoption, both of which, when combined perfectly, can help turn around an organization drastically, putting it firmly on its path to success. 5. Data Analytics: Last but not the least, data, which is already touted as the new ‘oil’, is becoming an increasingly valuable business currency and leveraging effective means to collect, store and analyze this data could mean the difference between success and failure, for businesses. From creating impactful consumer engagement, designing marketing campaigns, product development, and design to enhancing employee performance indicators, better customer experience, predictive analysis and problem solving, Data analytics, and AI is the future of the global economy and this is the time to jump the bandwagon if one wants to keep up. Technology has significant effects on business operations. No matter the size of the enterprise, technology has both tangible and intangible benefits that will help businesses make profits and enable efficient operation. Technological infrastructure affects the culture, efficiency, and relationships of a business. This is the reason why businesses irrespective of their size should invest in technology to operate in a smart and more innovative way. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 23

SECURITY // CYBERSECURITY

CYBERSECURITY AND INDUSTRY 4.0: STRATEGIES FOR SECURING 5G The successful growth of Industry 4.0 is dependent on a secure and trusted telecoms ecosystem. As 5G adoption increases and B2B organisations deploy 5G-dependent solutions, attack surfaces are growing while telcos face an increasingly complex operational environment. The challenge for telcos is that the network is the foundation for the fourth industrial revolution and at growing risk of cyber-attack. Performance, Reliability & Security While 5G means faster speeds across personal devices, home security systems and other con24 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

sumer applications, the real opportunity for telcos is B2B. This however puts greater demands on the network in terms of performance, reliability, and security. Consumers may be predominantly focused on the performance benefits of 5G – how fast they can download or upload content is often the primary, if not sole measure of success. Those same performance benefits are inherent enablers for Industry 4.0, but whilst manufacturing and other industry will adopt 5G for performance reasons they will be equally occupied with both reliability and security. For example, leveraging

5G as the networking foundation for healthcare devices, or autonomous robot processes is highly dependent on a network that is both performant and reliable. Research firm IDC estimates that 152,200 IoT devices will connect every minute by 2025. This is far different from serving a finite number of subscribers and addressing their potential vulnerabilities. The entire telecoms ecosystem, from global carriers through to local service providers, needs to prevent unauthorised access, ensure secure and reliable data transmissions, and monitor a much larger and more dynamic attack

CYBERSECURITY // SECURITY

ANDREW HOLLISTER, SENIOR DIRECTOR, LABS R&D AND ADVISOR TO THE CSO, LOGRHYTHM

compared to previous, but the onus remains on the network operators to implement those measures. The next step is to address vulnerabilities and emerging threats with new technologies. Over the years, we’ve seen telcos impacted by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware and a growing number of cases of SIM Swap fraud. The adoption of 5G does not remove these threats, and will no doubt add more vectors for attack, not least in the form of 5G’s heavy reliance on Software Defined Networks (SDN). They will need to demonstrate how they can effectively manage today’s risks whilst at the same time keeping abreast of new threats, as well as implementing the security features provided by the 5G specification.

surface. Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have an opportunity to play a critical role in Industry 4.0 if they can provide a secure foundation for new applications and services. The expectation is growing that the underlying network should be secured by the telco provider. If not, they risk being side-lined and reduced to basic infrastructure providers rather than core digital enablers. Focus on Security The first step for many telcos will be to shift their thinking about cybersecurity to match

new enterprise expectations. They really need to be “security-first” and plan solutions from the ground up with security being central to every solution. Their enterprise customers will demand and need to see proven reliability and security capabilities before investing in a transformation journey with a telco. Previous broadband cellular network standards have suffered from security as an afterthought – perhaps in common with many other technologies – other features, or time to market has been prioritised over security. The 5G specification was designed with additional security measures

Detection and Response When we consider the variety of scenarios that Industry 4.0 makes possible and combine that with the rollout of 5G as the networking foundation for those scenarios, it signals a step-change in both management complexity and potential opportunities for bad actors. Continual monitoring, together with rapid detection and response will become essential in these mission-critical environments. Reducing the mean time to detect and respond to attacks in these environments will require Telcos to scale-up their application of machine-based analytics that use scenario modelling, behavioural modelling, and machine learning. Whilst there is nothing such as a silver bullet for these challenges, wide visibility throughout the network remains an important part of an overall defensive strategy. A Secure Foundation for Innovation The global 5G services market size is estimated to reach $414.50 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 43.9% from 2021 to 2027, according to Grand View Research. For telcos, this is a massive opportunity to create new value from their network assets if they can offer a secure foundation to some of the most demanding industry segments. If they are able to deploy and secure 5G solutions, they will play a crucial role in the transformation of how entire industries operate. FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 25

NETWORKING // AIRTEL AND QUALCOMM

AIRTEL AND QUALCOMM TO ACCELERATE 5G IN INDIA RANDEEP SEKHON, CTO, BHARTI AIRTEL

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) and Qualcomm Technologies announced collaboration for accelerating 5G in India. Recently, Airtel became India’s first telco to demonstrate 5G over a LIVE commercial network in the city of Hyderabad. Through Airtel’s network vendors and device partners, Airtel will utilize the Qualcomm® 5G RAN Platforms to roll-out virtualized and Open RAN-based 5G networks. Airtel, as a board member of the O-RAN Alliance, is committed to driving the success of O-RAN and is working with Qualcomm Technologies to explore and implement the O-RAN approach for India. The flexible and scalable architecture of O-RAN will create new opportunities for small and mediumsized businesses to become viable players in the deployment of 5G networks. In addition, Airtel and Qualcomm Technologies will collaborate to enable a wide array of use cases, including 5G Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) that is designed to deliver broadband connectivity at Gigabit speeds to homes and businesses. This collaboration also aims to allow a faster rollout of broadband services in a cost effective and expeditious manner across India for “last mile” connectivity challenges that are becoming increasingly important in today’s remote, mobilefirst society. Airtel 5G solutions including FWA services will be able to deliver multi-gigabit internet speeds wirelessly to customers and open up a wide range of innovations. For customers, the ultra-fast and low latency of 5G will unlock a digital world of limitless possibilities – gigabit size file downloads in seconds and 4K video streaming on the go across smartphones and computing devices, Immersive Technologies such as Virtual Reality and SMART Homes with connected things. Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel has been a pioneer of new technologies and our networks are fully ready for 5G. We are 26 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

delighted to have Qualcomm Technologies as a key technology provider in our journey to roll-out world-class 5G in India. With Airtel’s integrated service portfolio and Qualcomm Technologies’ 5G leadership, we will be well placed to usher India into the next era of hyper-fast and ultra-low latency digital connectivity.” Rajen Vagadia, Vice President, QUALCOMM India Private Limited and President, Qualcomm

India said, “There is a compelling case to accelerate the roll-out of 5G networks in India, as it will help fast-track the country’s socio-economic growth and development. We are pleased to be working with Airtel, and we are excited by the opportunity ahead. This collaboration is expected to play a critical role in Airtel’s plans to add 5G network coverage and capacity where and when it is needed the most.”

5G DEPLOYMENTS // POWER SOLUTIONS

Dinesh Dhut,

SR. DIRECTOR, TELECOM PRODUCTS AND SOLUTIONS, VERTIV INDIA.

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

RESEARCH FROM STL PARTNERS AND VERTIV REVEALS TELCOS SHOULD PRIORITIZE EFFICIENCY AND SUSTAINABILITY IN 5G DEPLOYMENTS 5G will be the most transformative communications technology in a generation and enable a universe of new services, including advanced energy management capabilities that will be critical to solving growing energy and sustainability challenges. But new research highlights the practical challenges of 5G energy management facing telecommunications operators. Estimates suggest 5G networks can be up to 90% more efficient per traffic unit than their 4G predecessors, but they still require far more energy due to increased network density, heavy reliance on IT systems and infrastructure, and increased network use and accelerated traffic growth. The report from telecommunications consultancy STL Partners and Vertiv (NYSE: VRT), a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, concludes telecom operators should address these challenges in two ways: By adopting energy efficiency best practices across their networks, and by encouraging their customers to adopt 5G-enabled services to reduce consumption and emissions in all walks of life. STL Partners estimates global 5G traffic will overtake 3G/4G as soon as 2025, making sustainability an urgent priority for operators. In fact, 40% of enterprises surveyed for the report indicated energy efficiency should be the first or second priority for telecom operators when deploying 5G networks. The report, Why Energy Management Is Critical To 5G Success, uses research including a survey of 500 enterprises globally to outline the challenges telcos face as they wrestle with the increased energy use and costs associated with 5G. The paper identifies several best practices aimed at mitigating those increases and costs, organized across five categories:

1. Network technology: Deploying hardware and software designed and operated for efficiency 2. Facilities infrastructure: Including new edge data centers to support cloud native IT 3. Infrastructure management: Deploying the appropriate hardware and software to measure, monitor, manage, improve and automate the network 4. Organization and evaluation: Taking a holistic, full lifecycle view of costs and investments across the network 5. Working with others: Embracing innovative and non-traditional commercial models, standards and collaboration “Telecom operators making meaningful energy and cost reductions are doing so by evaluating the entire ecosystems around their network operations – people, objectives, infrastructure and partners,” said Scott Armul, vice president for global DC power and outside plant at Vertiv. “Because of the reliance on IT to enable 5G applications, a high degree of collaboration will be required across operators, OEMs and infrastructure providers, and customers to ensure deployments are optimized and every possible efficiency is pursued. 5G as a Tool for Sustainability The report makes clear that network efficiency improvements and best practices, while important, are only one piece of the energy puzzle that comes with 5G. Those efforts must be paired with a more holistic, societal approach to curbing energy use and emissions that leverages 5G capabilities in ways far beyond the control of the telco operator. “Operators are deploying 5G networks to grow new revenues. This growth will come from new connectivity and applications enabling operators’

customers’ own transformation jouneys,” said Phil Laidler, director at STL Partners. “To be credible, informed partners for their customers, operators must lead by example. Energy strategy is a great place to start.” Opportunities for Progress In terms of influencing customer behaviors in order to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions, the report identified three industries with the potential for significant improvement through the use of 5G services. The manufacturing sector could achieve up to $730 billion worth of benefits by 2030 through the use of 5G to enable advanced predictive maintenance and automation. Transportation and logistics could get up to $280 billion in benefits by 2030 through advanced driver assistance, connected traffic infrastructure, and automated home deliveries. And, finally, the report suggests 5G could allow the healthcare sector to provide improved access to healthcare services for up to 1 billion patients by 2030 while simultaneously reducing emissions through higher asset utilization, reduced patient and clinician travel, and higher clinician productivity. Influencing such behaviors is critical to operators’ efforts to mitigate the environmental impact of 5G, but there is work to do in order to build the partnerships needed. Just 37% of those surveyed said they see operators as credible partners in reducing carbon emissions today, but 56% said they believed telcos could be credible partners in the future.

Click the link to access the article: https://www.enterpriseitworld.com/ FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 27

CASE STUDY // MATRIX

DOMINO’S RELIED ON MATRIX SEAMLESS AND EFFICIENT CO

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Company Profile Domino’s Pizza is the largest and fastest growing food service company in India with a network of 850+ restaurants in more than 200 cities. The Pizza delivery expert is the market leader in the organized pizza market with 70% market share in India. With its most famous half an hour delivery strive, Domino’s Pizza marks the importance of communication and time growing towards its vision of exceptional people on a mission to be the best pizza delivery company in the world. Challenges Today’s retail supply chain executives are moving more products farther and faster than ever before. Communication is a critical parameter when it comes to the Pizza industry as it directly affects, delivery on time, order noting, supply chain relationship and most importantly food management process. In the era of fast life, demanding consumers putting pressure on the supply chain process, Domino’s Pizza required all its branches to work in synchronization managing food delivery on time. The major challenge was to connect multiple branch offices with headquarters for day-to-day communication. Following it, Domino’s Pizza also required 30+ lines as a trunking solution for voice 28 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

calling at all the branch offices with minimum infrastructure cost. Products And Solutions Offered Matrix and its channel partner Sun Line Communications Systems worked together and provided an IP enabled PBX solution – ETERNITY GE for all multi-site telephony needs of Domino’s Pizza. ETERNITY GE ETERNITY GE is an advanced communication system offering convenient features and flexible functionalities in line with the changing needs of organizations. The reliable architecture and easy to use platform delivers the unmatched performance to meet the needs of controlling costs and

managing operational expenses. ETERNITY GE supports any combination of TDM, IP, GSM PRI trunks and subscribers along with networking of multiple systems across locations. Peer-to-Peer connectivity over IP between IP-PBX at HO and 15+ ETERNITY GE located in branch offices for seamless connectivity. With installation of 15+ ETERNITY GE at branch offices, Matrix connected all the locations with head office over IP to provide seamless integration all over India for Domino’s employees for quick connectivity. Branch-to-branch intercom over IP

MATRIX // CASE STUDY

RIX TELECOM SOLUTIONS FOR COMMUNICATION

Delivered on-the-move mobility for Admin and IT staff Innovative SPARS M2S – Mobile Softphone application enables supervisors to carry office extensions wherever they go. They can reach each other by simply dialing an extension number or browsing through the corporate directory. Enhanced collaboration with video calling, instant messaging and presence sharing, voice mail features.

telephony With IP telephony, Domino’s Pizza saves telecom costs by any call placed between head office and branch offices. IP telephony feature of Eternity GE provides simple 3-digit dialing, call transfer, conference, voice mail access and other call management features for inter-branch communications High scalability offered with PRI trunks With the requirement of 30+ trunks at every

branch location for voice calling, PRI acts as a perfect network to not only save telephony cost but also saves cabling cost as 30 channels are offered on a single line. Control with Centralized Management of IP-PBX System With the web based Remote Management feature, all the systems can be centrally managed by the IT administrators from a single location without visiting any branch offices.

Results Unified Communication for workforce collaboration and better customer responsiveness n Low terminating cost of PRI lines as compared to analog lines for each user n Reduced call traffic as high as 40% n Future-proof solution with scalability for further expansion plans

For further information, please contact: 394-GIDC, Makarpura, Vadodara-390010, India Toll Free – 1800-258-7747 E-Mail: inquiry@matrixcomsec.com https://www.matrixtelesol.com/ FEBRUARY 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 29

THE STUFF // PRODUCTS & SERVICES

CIO TOYS

B Y S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M

SEAGATE UNVEILS STORAGE AS A SERVICE

Seagate Technology introduced Lyve Cloud storage-as-a-service platform, an S3-compatible storage-only cloud. Lyve Cloud enables always-on mass capacity data storage and activation. It is designed as a simple, trusted, and efficient service allowing enterprises to unlock the value of their massive unstructured datasets. Seagate is collaborating with Equinix, the world’s digital infrastructure company, to make Lyve Cloud accessible to more customers. This collaboration will provide extensive interconnect opportunities for additional cloud services and geographical expansion. “Lyve Cloud is a natural extension of Seagate’s leadership in mass data solutions, combining our mass capacity HDD innovation with deep storage industry knowledge to help customers activate more of their valuable data,” said Ravi Naik, executive vice president, storage services, and chief information officer at Seagate. “According to Seagate’s Rethink Data report, as much as 68% of data available to enterprises goes unused. By providing a reliable and cost-efficient cloud storage solution at the metro edge, closer to where their data is generated, Lyve Cloud lets enterprises store and activate their data at scale, securely and efficiently.” By locating Lyve Cloud infrastructure in close proximity to Equinix Metal™ within Equinix International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers, customers can consume the scale and efficiency of object storage as a service at the metro edge, while leveraging Equinix Fabric™ to interconnect sources of data to a variety of edge and cloud-based applications for hybrid and multicloud architectures. Placing Lyve Cloud infrastructure in metro edge colocation data centers also enables reduced latency because data is stored and processed closer to where it is generated. “We see a lot of synergy in collaborating with Seagate to help our customers increase their digital advantage,” stated Eric Schwartz, chief strategy officer of Equinix. “Leveraging Lyve Cloud and Platform Equinix, customers have an optimized, cost-effective object storage option to make their cloud truly composable. Equinix’s position at the Metro Edge enables Lyve Cloud to 30 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD FEBRUARY 2021

address use cases that demand data storage and activation, accelerating digital transformation initiatives such as disaster recovery, hybrid and multi-cloud, storage for bare metal services, AI and Machine Learning.” Lyve Cloud offers privacy, no lock-in, and no egress fees, allowing customers to retain full control of their data while lowering TCO for storing massive datasets. Lyve Cloud’s ISO27001 and SOC2 certifications meet the data security needs of enterprise customers and provide always-on encryption for data in motion and at rest. “Enterprises are increasingly recognizing the need to store more of their business-critical data for longer periods of time, not only for business continuity, but also to harness its potential for analytics and deep learning,” said Wenceslao Lada, vice president, technical alliances, Commvault. “With Commvault’s seamless integration and full compatibility with Seagate Lyve Cloud,

end-users now have a compelling new option for cloud storage that enables worry-free, longer term data retention with predictable cost economics and simple recovery capabilities.” “As CIO, three things I most seek for from any solution are predictability, security, and no lock-ins,” said Sudhakar Chilukuri, CIO Lattice Semiconductor. “Lyve Cloud features fit these needs very well. We don’t have to replace anything but can add Lyve Cloud for certain data workloads. It’s critical to choose a cloud storage strategy that has transparent pricing, no ingress, and egress fees, and is reliable and performant.” Seagate’s Lyve Cloud and Lyve Solutions are built with mass data in mind. These solutions, including modular hardware and software, deliver a portfolio that streamlines data access, transport, and management for today’s enterprise. Lyve Cloud is offered at multiple locations in the United States and in other countries in the future.

Transforming telecommunications enriching the customer experience atos.net

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