ChannelWorld April 2014 Issue 1 by Sreekanth Sastry

FOCAL POINT: Should you really invest in an antivirus for your tablet or your smartphone? Is it worth investing in one? PAGE 57

ChannelWorld STRATEGIC INSIGHTS FOR SOLUTION PROVIDERS | COVER PRICE Rs.50

Col. Balwinder Singh, MD, Targus Technologies, is optimistic about big data, security, and cloud.

7th

Anniversary Special

AVENUES

TO SUCCESS The new fiscal has plenty of opportunities for enterprise channel partners. Make it count. >>> Page 30

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n EDITOR’S NOTE

Vijay Ramachandran Crocodile Chronicle When you ask people, ‘What’s the opposite of fragile?,’ they tend to say robust, resilient, adaptable, solid, strong. That’s not it. The opposite of fragile is something that gains from disorder.

—Nassim Nicholas Taleb (author and statistician)

IXTY-SIX MILLION years ago, a comet or an as-

teroid slammed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula with such catastrophic impact on the global environment that three-quarters of all plant and animal life on Earth was destroyed. Yet, it survived. It survived the calamity that killed off the dinosaurs, its distant relatives. It can grow to a length of 20 feet, weighing in at a tad over 1,300 kilos. It can survive serious injuries and has a superb immune system that helps it live for up to 60 years. It’s very nurturing of its young. Its eyesight rivals that of an owl. It can swim at a creditable bursts of 30 kilometers an hour. It is one of the most efficient hunters on earth and can eat up to half its body weight in one meal. It is the crocodile. With negligible natural predators, a resolute armor covering most of its body and strong jaws that can crush bones and even cast iron, the crocodile is without doubt a tough creature. Most of us may not like them, but I find crocs fascinating. Apart from all the statistics that I

reeled in the beginning of this edit, there’s another thing that is quite unique about crocodiles. They keep growing through their lives. It’s also a most adaptable animal. The loss of a limb or even a tail doesn’t phase it. It will literally eat anything within reach—fish, birds, deer, antelope, hippos, zebras, jackals, and, even other crocodiles—and, still can go without food for up to a year if none comes its way.They are so adaptable that its size is proportionate to the wa-

n Fact is that

growth is directly related to the size of the field you are playing in; to resource pipeline that you can tap into.

ter body where it’s based. In fact, if you take two crocodile eggs from the same clutch and put one near a river and the other near a pond. The one near the river could grow into a 16-foot reptile, while its pond-based sibling would not grow more than onefourth that size. The simple lesson from that last fact is that growth, of either a crocodile or even yours, is directly related to the size of the field you are playing in; to resource pipeline that you can tap into. The other lessons are harsh as nature often is. First, that adaptability has consequences. For all the advice that comes your way asking you to change your gameplan based on the external situation. Pause. Ponder. Ask yourself how the proposed change fits in with

your competencies. Then Plan. Changing paths is tough on an organization, regardless of size. When they reach that fork in their path, many organizations tend to rush in to seize an opportunity, not caring that they’re spreading assets and resources thin—choosing short-term gain over long term doom. And, second, that pedigree only indicates the direction but not the velocity or quantum of growth. The best of corporate values and the smartest of managements are not proof against improper, bad, and downright stupid desicions. The choices you make keep you growing, but are those years that you are marking as milestones real achievements? Have your employees grown as individuals, as professionals or have your strategies eroded their capacity to think? Have you added muscle to your portfolio or in doing so have you actually accumulated non-performing flab? The choices are yours to make. Choose. And, choose wisely. Unlike the crocodile you don’t have millions of years to adapt into.  Vijay Ramachandran is the Editor-in-Chief of ChannelWorld. Contact him at vijay_ramachandran@ idgindia.com

APRIL 2014

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Inside INDIAN CHANNELWORLD n APRIL 2014

■ NEWS ANALYSIS 16 Blue-Eyed Destination | India based technology companies are a favored investment route for Japanese firms.

■ NEWS DIGEST 11 Taking the Fight to the End | Juniper Networks’ legal battle

against Palo Alto Networks claiming infringement of application-firewall patents ended in a mistrial being declared, but Juniper says it intends to haul Palo Alto back into court again. 12 SAP Adds Subscription Pricing for Hana Cloud | SAP is

■ OPINION

05 Editorial: Vijay Ramachandran

believes that the growth is directly related to the size of the field you are playing in; to resource pipeline that you can tap into. 62 PlainSpeak: Yogesh Gupta says technology and the associated demand landscape changes so often that it becomes problematic to project revenue numbers or profit margins in advance. 56 Preston Gralla: It would be great for IT companies if they can put patents to better use, rather than deploying it as a means of bludgeoning competitors.

■ THE GRILL

introducing a set of new subscription pricing options for its Hana in-memory cloud computing platform, in a move that falls in step with the pay-as-you-go model common in the industry.

27 Henry Hsu, VP, Global Power Architecture, Raritan, deciphers the emergent popularity of DCIM solutions across organizations.

■ SPECIAL REPORT

7 Avenues

to Success

ChannelWorld’s Seventh Anniversary issue highlights the strategies adopted by channel players in the enterprise segment across seven areas of interest to survive, grow, and succeed in 2013-14. And they are well on course to repeat success this fiscal too. Here’s how partners can help their organization grow fast.

15 Lighting Up Data Transfers |

Cover Photograph by: SUMEET Cover Design by UNNIKRISHNAN A.V

After more than a decade of research, Intel’s new connector that uses light as a speedy way to shuffle data between computers is ready.

■ ON RECORD

22 Mike Piech, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Red Hat, talks about the strong position India holds in the company’s vision for the future and the big opportunities here.

200mm

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Inside

■ FOCAL POINT

■ FAST TRACK

MDM: In terms of a threat presence, there’s no shortage of mobile malware

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD n APRIL 2014

26 K. Balakrishnan, CEO and MD, Servion, says

57 A Case for an Antivirus

that IP around contact-center optimization is their big strength. The company believes that the bigger piece

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Publisher, President & CEO Louis D’Mello n EDITORIAL

Editor-in-Chief Vijay Ramachandran Managing Editor T.M. Arun Kumar Executive Editor Gunjan Trivedi Associate Editors Sunil Shah,Yogesh Gupta Features Editor Shardha Subramanian Special Correspondents Gopal Kishore, Radhika Nallayam, Shantheri Mallaya Principal Correspondents Anup Varier, Debarati Roy, Sneha Jha, Varsha Chidambaram Senior Correspondents Aritra Sarkhel, Eric Ernest, Ershad Kaleebullah, Shubhra Rishi, Shweta Rao Senior Copy Editors Shreehari Paliath, Vinay Kumaar Lead Designers Jinan K.V., Pradeep Gulur, Suresh Nair, Vikas Kapoor Senior Designers Sabrina Naresh, Unnikrishnan A.V. n SALES

it offers to customers is in differentiation around customer experience management. 54 Nandita Singgha, MD, Total Presentation

Devices, says that the company commands a first mover advantage in video conferencing.

floating around out there, at least according to antivirus vendors. It’s no secret, or at least not anymore: People generally do not use any sort of antivirus or malware protection on their mobile device. So, in such circumstances, should you really invest in an antivirus for your smartphone or tablet?

61 Taking the Fun Outta BYOD

MDM: Only two years ago, BYOD flooded the

enterprise, in part thanks to new-fangled mobile device management software that struck a balance between letting employees enjoy the convenience of work and personal apps on a single device while providing a security blanket for companies. But now signs point to companies taking advantage of advanced MDM capabilities, thus threatening to ruin the user experience. ADVERTISERS’ INDEX Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

HP IPG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

Dell India Pvt. Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 & 14

Mcafee India Sales Pvt. Ltd . . . . . . . Cover on Cover

D-Link India Ltd . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Polycom Unified Communications Pvt. Ltd 20 & 21

Emerson Network Power India Pvt. Ltd . . . . . . . . BC

Schneider Electric India Pvt. Ltd . . . . . . . . 24 & 25

Grass Roots India . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 This index is provided as an additional service. The publisher does not assume any liability for errors or omissions.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced by any means without prior written permission from the publisher. Address requests for customized reprints to IDG Media Private Limited, Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore - 560 027, India. IDG Media Private Limited is an IDG (International Data Group) company. Printed and Published by Louis D’Mello on behalf of IDG Media Private Limited, Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore - 560 027, India. Editor: Louis D’Mello, Printed At Manipal Press Ltd, Press Corner, Manipal-576104, Karnataka, India.

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Vice President HR & Operations Rupesh Sreedharan Financial Controller Sivaramakrishnan T.P. CIO Pavan Mehra Senior Manager Operations: Ajay Adhikari, Chetan Acharya, Pooja Chhabra Senior Manager Accounts Sasi Kumar V. Senior Manager Production T.K. Karunakaran Senior Manager IT Satish Apagundi Manager Operations Dinesh P., Tharuna Paul Manager Credit Control Prachi Gupta Sr. Accounts Executive Poornima n OFFICES

Bangalore IDG Media Pvt. Ltd. Geetha Building, 49, 3rd Cross, Mission Road, Bangalore 560 027, Karnataka Tel: 080-30530300. Fax: 080-30586065 Delhi IDG Media Pvt. Ltd. DLF Corporate Park, Tower 4 B, 3rd Floor, Room 301, MG Road, DLF Phase 3, Gurgaon- 122001, Haryana Tel: 0124- 3881015 Mumbai IDG Media Pvt. Ltd. 201, Madhava, Bandra Kurla Complex, Bandra East, Mumbai 400051, Maharashtra Tel: 022-30685000. Fax: 022-30685023

News

WHAT’S WITHIN PAGE 12: PC Market Fell Hardest in 2013: IDC PAGE 12: SAP Adds Subscription Pricing for Hana Cloud PAGE 15: Lighting Up Data Transfers PAGE 16: Blue-Eyed Destination

F I N D M O R E A R T I C L E S AT CHANNELWORLD.IN

LEGAL

Taking the Fight to the End

UNIPER NETWORKS’

legal battle against Palo Alto Networks claiming infringement of application-firewall patents ended in a mistrial being declared in a Delaware court, but Juniper says it intends to haul Palo Alto back into court again. Juniper claims Palo Alto’s application firewalls infringe on a number of Juniper’s technical patents, and if Juniper ultimately wins this case, it could even stop Palo Alto from selling its nextgeneration firewalls. The jury in the US District Court

in Delaware that heard the arguments from both sides last week couldn’t reach a unanimous verdict. That led Judge Sue Robinson to declare a mistrial and dismiss the jury. That left Palo Alto exultant, but Juniper says it doesn’t consider the matter settled and will pursue its right to go back to court to argue the matter again. “Juniper brought the suit in order to protect our intellectual property and investment in innovation; while we wish this jury had been able to reach a unanimous conclusion, we look forward

to presenting our case to a new jury in the near future,” Juniper said in a statement. Sources at Juniper couldn’t say exactly when the next court fight would begin. The Juniper vs. Palo Alto court case is widely viewed as extremely important in resolving patent ownership of key firewall-application technologies, and if Palo Alto loses this battle, its very business could be threatened. According to how the court battle was recorded by patent attorney Daniel Ravicher on behalf of SeekingAlpha, the technical expert witnesses who were heard on Juniper’s side included Avi Rubin, professor of computer science at Johns Hopkins University, while on Palo Alto’s side, the expert witness was Michael Mitzenmacher, professor of computer science at Harvard. Neither of these dueling computer science professors was able to sway the jury completely. However, the result of a hung jury was enough to leave Palo Alto feeling upbeat about what had happened in court. “From the outset, we said we would vigorously defend the Company against Juniper’s lawsuit,” said CEO Mark McLaughlin, adding Palo Alto would continue to stand by its position it does not infringe on Juniper patents.

APRIL 2014

—Ellen Messmer INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

MALWARE

Beware says McAfee Report The McAfee Labs Threats Report: Fourth Quarter 2013 has found the number of digitally signed malware samples tripled over the course of 2013. This growth was largely attributed to misuse of automated Content Distribution Networks (CDNs) that wrap malicious code within digitally signed installers. McAfee Labs senior

vice president, Vincent Weafer, said point-of-sale (POS) attacks and data breaches in the fall of 2013 were carried out by the “dark web” malware industry. “The ‘off the shelf’ genesis of some of these crime campaigns, the scale of operations, and the ease of digitally monetising stolen customer data all represent a coming of age for both Cybercrime-as-aService and the ‘dark web’ overall,” he said. —Patrick Budmar

PC SHIPMENTS

PC Market Fell Hardest in 2013: IDC

its projections are actuPC industry saw ally rosier than originally its sharpest decline predicted—but that’s small ever in 2013, and the consolation to companies sales drought is expected to that have banked their continue through 2018, IDC fortunes on selling PCs. reported. Overall, 2013 PC sales were The firm said that PC expected to decline by 10.1 shipments fell by 9.8 perpercent. cent overall last year, the “Emerging markets used sharpest drop on to be a core driver record. While the of the PC market, fourth quarter as rising penactually peretration among was the PC shipment drop reported overall formed better large populations in 2013. This is the than expected, boosted overall sharpest drop on IDC said that growth,” said Lorecord. sales dried up in ren Loverde, vice Source: IDC emerging marpresident of IDC’s kets, dipping 11.3 percent. worldwide PC tracker serThis is evidence that tabvice, in a statement. “At the lets and phones are cutting moment, however, we’re seeinto sales all across the ing emerging regions more world, IDC said. affected by a weak economic In total, IDC reported environment as well as sigthat 315.1 million PCs nificant shifts in technology shipped in 2013, and that buying priorities. We do ex295.9 million are expected pect these regions to recover to be sold in 2014, a 6 perin the medium term and cent dip. By 2018, IDC said, perform better than mature the PC market should drop regions, but growth is exto annual sales of 291.7 milpected to stabilize near zero lion units. IDC said that percent, rather than driving HE TRADITIONAL

9.8%

increasing volumes as we saw in the past.” Interestingly, Microsoft chief financial officer Amy Hood told analysts that for the fourth quarter, PC sales for emerging markets actually out-paced so-called mature markets like North America. Stacy Smith, Intel’s chief financial officer, said at the time that most mature market sales were coming from desktop PCs. Those markets have reached “saturation points on tablet penetration,” but that this point hasn’t been reached in emerging markets, Smith said. In making its projections, IDC said it factored in a number of variables, including concerns about the impact of slower economic growth; the culmination of some large projects; and conservative expectations for factors like touch capability, migration off of Windows XP, and continued pressure from tablets and smartphones. IDC’s definition of a PC includes desktop, notebooks such as ultrabooks, and other portable PCs that include non-detachable hardware keyboards. —Mark Hachman

CLOUD COMPUTING

SAP Adds Subscription Pricing for Hana Cloud SAP is introducing a set of new subscription pricing options for its Hana in-memory cloud computing platform, in a move that falls in step with the pay-as-you-go model common in the cloud computing industry. Customers were already able to bring their existing on-premises Hana in-memory database licenses to SAP’s infrastructure 12

service. Now it’s possible to buy Hana software via subscription there as well, SAP said. A third cloud subscription option adds a series of development tools and services to the infrastructure and Hana software components. Cloud computing has dramatically changed the way enterprise software can be obtained, SAP technology chief Vishal Sikka said.

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

PAY-AS-YOU-GO: The new model will give more flexibility.

“We’ve gone from a high-touch sales process where a bus full of people shows up and sells you something, to where you buy things everywhere,” he said.

Short Takes  Avaya has appointed Priyadarshi Mohapatra as Managing Director, India and SAARC. He replaces Rajeev Mittal who quit the company few weeks ago. He is a 17 year veteran of the industry, joins Avaya from SAP.  Citrix announced a revamp of its GTM strategy in India in line with the realignment of its India sales team. The India business is now divided into two divisions with separate focus areas namely, enterprise business and emerging business-partner led.  ComGuard Infosol and GFI Software announced that they have signed a distribution agreement to distribute GFI’s IT security solutions for SMBs across the region. This agreement will enable GFI to grow its business and strengthen its position in the Indian IT market, whereas, ComGuard Infosol will be able to provide new services and support to channel partners and customers.

He demonstrated how a prospective customer can easily click through SAP’s cloud marketplace to price and size a Hana instance. The site also features a breakdown of hardware pricing to the component level, which is meant to give customers better “transparency” , Sikka said. A subscription that includes a similar infrastructure footprint plus Hana platform edition software and support costs $83,295 per month, according to the marketplace site. —Chris Kanaracus

CABLING

Lighting Up Data Transfers

FTER MORE than a decade of research, Intel’s new connector that uses light as a speedy way to shuffle data between computers is finally ready to replace slower copper cables. The MXC optical cables will be first implemented at the rack level and use light and lasers to move data between servers, storage, networking and other computing resources. The cables will transfer data at speeds of up to 1.6Tbps (bits per second), outpacing the throughput on copper cables used for networking in datacenters. The cables are based on Intel’s silicon photonics technology, which combines optical networking with silicon components. Component company U.S. Conec is now shipping MXC parts, paving the way for distributors to sell cables to server makers and datacenter companies. Corning, Tyco Electronics and Molex will sell MXC cables. MXC makes the “connector wars non-existent,” said Mario Paniccia, Intel fellow and general manager of silicon photonics operations. The cables are smaller, more durable and have a range of up to 300 meters, compared to copper, which can cover only a limited distance, Paniccia said. Ethernet is slower per lane and signals could degrade on cables that are longer than tens of meters, Paniccia said. “It really drives the ability for bandwidth and distance separation,” Paniccia said.

“We believe the transition’s happening to move to fiber.” Pricing for the cables was not provided by Corning, which said it would start making cables for end customers in the third quarter. An MXC installation could be cheaper when accounting for the number of copper wires it replaces, said Claudio Mazzali, vice president of technology in the optical connectivity solutions group at Corning. An MXC cable can have up to 64 fibers, with each fiber transferring data at 25Gbps. The fastest cable that can transfer data at 1.6Tbps will have 64 fibers. The pricing will depend on the number of fibers in

Around

a cable and the distance, Mazzali said. Scaling copper wires in a datacenter is challenging, Intel’s Paniccia said. “It’s going to be big, bulky, expensive, power hungry and limited in reach,” Paniccia said. MXC

TheWorld

webcam, microphones and speakers for voice and video communications. —Peter Sayer

Fujitsu Helping Cut Power

IBM Workers in China on Strike

Unifying communications by replacing separate PCs and telephones with a PC equipped with a headset and some telephony software can sound like a great idea until the first electricity bill for those always-on PCs comes in. Fujitsu hopes to end that bill shock with an always-on multimedia PC for businesses that features a special powersaving mode. The Esprimo X923 allin-one business PCs Fujitsu revealed at the Cebit show in Hanover on Sunday include a headset, a handset, a APRIL 2014

Not all are fans of Lenovo’s recent plan to buy IBM’s x86 server business. Close to 1,000 workers at an IBM factory in China have been protesting the proposed acquisition, fearing they may lose their jobs if the deal goes through. IBM’s x86 server factory in Shenzhen, China stopped production after most of its workers went on strike. The factory has about 1,200 employees, and many of them have been at the facility for years, according to one worker, surnamed Zhang. INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

could also change the way servers are designed, Paniccia said. The throughput provided by optical connections will allow the disaggregation of memory, storage and processing subsystems into separate boxes. —Agam Shah

Over 500 employees have worked there for over five years, and some have even been at the plant for over a decade, he said. —Michael Kan

Yahoo Acquires Vizify

Yahoo has acquired Vizify, a company that turns social media data into interactive visual aids such as infographics and videos. “We have found in Vizify a company that shares our passion for visualization technology and the user experience,” Yahoo said in a statement. —John Ribeiro

n NEWS ANALYSIS

Blue-Eyed Destination

Indian technology companies are a favored investment route for Japanese firms. By Shantheri Mallaya

HE ACQUISITION of India bred services company Micro Clinic India by Hitachi Systems, a few weeks ago, signaled the continuation of a certain trend in the acquisition space. Indian companies are being eyed by Japanese technology giants, the criteria being the profitability of the acquired company. The Micro Clinic-Hitachi deal was tailor-made to suit the need of the hour. A deal that, experts expect, will trigger more such business moves during the course of this fiscal year. Against this backdrop, Hitachi Systems with a 76

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

percent stake in the Indian company, shall convert Micro Clinic into a group company, and work towards building markets for the Japanese SI. Hitachi envisages India as an important region in its global strategy and reportedly aims to grow revenues in India by 3x through strategic acquisitions. Tarun Seth, managing director , Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic says, “This is a very strategic buy out for Micro Clinic as it elevates us straight away into the league of global systems integrator. We become a tier-I systems integrator and now we have all the ammunition

to bid for large projects, government deals, and take end-to-end system integration contracts.” While Japanese auto giants have eyed India since the economic reforms of 1991, the momentum has picked up only post the first decade of the millennium. Famous examples of acquisitions, particularly in IT, over the last few years are that of NTT Communications acquiring Managed Services Company, Netmagic Solutions in 2012. In 2010, NTT Group also invested in Dimension Data (earlier Datacraft), a systems integrator and services Company. Japan-based IT Solution provider Nomura Research Institute (NRI) acquired Kolkata-based IT consultant Anshin Software to expand global sales of its computer systems for financial transactions in January 2012. Earlier in 2011, Ricoh India, a subsidiary of Ricoh Japan, a player in imaging solutions announced the acquisition of Noida-based IT company Momentum Infocare. This was reportedly Ricoh India’s first business acquisition in the IT sector. It entailed that Ricoh would acquire the competency knowledge and skills of the 100-employee Momentum Infocare with last reported annual revenue of Rs 311 million at that time.

ONUS ON INDIA The primary reason attributed to the Japanese companies’ Indian journey is the need to have a new, cost-effective destination for growth markets. The stagnation in the Japanese GDP around 2011-12, and the ensuing effects en-

MAJOR ‘INDO-JAPAN’ DEALS IN TECHNOLOGY Year

Indian Company

Key Business

Acquired by

2010

Dimension Data

Systems Integration & Services

NTT Data

2011

Momentum Infocare

Systems Integration & Services

Ricoh

2012

Netmagic

Datacenter Services, Managed Services

NTT

2014

Micro Clinic India

Systems Integration & Services

Hitachi Systems

sured that Japanese companies across automotive, retail, engineering and IT, amongst others, made a speedy headway to India. Arup Roy, research director at Gartner comments, “If you keenly observe the Japanese market, it is saturated. The IT service providers there see little room for growth. Besides there is a sentiment dogging the major Japanese IT service providers that they are local players. Hence, the need to move to North America, Europe. and in Asia, head towards India.” Sanjay Agarwal, formerfounder-director of Momentum Infocare (now a Ricoh company) says, “India is a superior destination compared to China or Phillipines in terms of political climate, language, and competence skills and also labour to an extent. The Japanese firms are investing here as India the country’s expected to become the third largest super power by 2030. (Read full interview with Sanjay Agarwal on why Ricoh bought Momentum on Page 18). Roy of Gartner says, “The Japanese companies see tremendous potential in India and want to leverage the domestic market for offshore delivery.”

Next, the Thailand floods rattled most automotive manufacturers as they searched for safer pockets to establish their alternative manufacturing units. India offers competence, knowledge, skill sets, cost effectiveness of labor, and capital and so, has become the new acquisition capital for Japanese firms.

Besides, with the impending general elections in India, greater sops are expected for foreign, particularly Japanese firms investing in India. Tarun Seth agrees, “There are a lot of initiatives by the Indian government at present to encourage Japanese companies to invest in India”.

On India as a favored destination for Japanese companies, Kiran Bhagwanani, CEO Dimension Data India, says, “India, besides having a fast growing market, has a vast talent pool that can be leveraged for servicing clients globally. Also with the local currency depreciation, Indian assets are available at attractive valuations to Japanese companies that are looking at expanding their global footprint.” Japan’s ties with the other super power in Asia, China, have always been on-off over the last century, with several political stand-offs and even wars between the two. Comparatively India has enjoyed equitable diplomatic relations with Japan and provides the advantage of

The strategic buy out by Hitachi Systems elevates Micro Clinic into the league of global systems integrator. We now have all the ammunition to bid for large projects, government deals, and take end-toend systems integration contracts. TARUN SETH, MANAGING DIRECTOR, HITACHI SYSTEMS MICRO CLINIC

Japan market is saturated as IT service providers there see little room for growth. Japanese companies see tremendous potential in countries like India and want to leverage the domestic market for offshore delivery. ARUP ROY, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, GARTNER

NTT is known for large global footprint, strong engineering capabilities, value systems, and strong financial position in telecommunications, DC services, and software services. Dimension Data’s proven expertise in IT infrastructure and cloud services augments NTT’s core capabilities. KIRAN BHAGWANANI, CEO, DIMENSION DATA INDIA APRIL 2014

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

n NEWS ANALYSIS a larger English speaking population too.

Ricoh’s Buy-Out of Momentum Infocare was a Win-Win Deal

THE MUTUAL BENEFIT What Japanese companies essentially get from an acquisition of an Indian technology company is the strategic competence and the clientele of the acquired local company. With the acquisition of Micro Clinic, Hitachi Systems stands to benefit from the 15 odd business sites across major cities, and 150 satellite offices of the Indian IT services company. The acquired companies too are not far behind in assessing what is in it for them. Micro Clinic has its post- Hitachi Systems buy-out plan in place. Micro Clinic also plans to get into newer areas of managed services and datacenter services according to Seth. With a significant investment by Hitachi Systems, erstwhile Micro Clinic will spread its wings beyond India market and expand geographically in Asia and the Middle-East. Dimension Data, a global solution provider with operations in India, was acquired by Japanese Telecom giant, NTT four years ago. The buy-out has multiple benefits for the companies. Bhagwanani of Dimension Data India explains, “NTT is a global leader in telecommunications, data center services, and software services known for its large global footprint, its strong engineering capabilities, its value systems and of course its strong financial position. Dimension Data’s proven expertise on IT infrastructure and cloud 18

us on the best course of action. They put forward a plan to buy out Momentum. The thought was completely novel for us but we evaluated the idea thoroughly. Sanjay Agarwal, former director of Momentum Infocare and now FounderDirector of Umbrella Infocare, explains why it was a worthy idea to be acquired by Japanese conglomerate, Ricoh. Momentum Infocare was an established SI company. What was the rationale behind the sale to Ricoh? Ricoh was a longtime customer of Momentum, having sought our expertise for several projects, during their datacenter solutions. They are a huge technology company in Japan and they wanted to explore newer markets. When they expressed their desire to expand in India, they consulted services augments NTT’s core capabilities.” With the integration of Dimension Data into the NTT family, the two companies are jointly able to offer turnkey ICT solutions to clients., which Dimension Data, believes, adds value for clients and expand its wallet share in the client’s ICT spend. “India is a very strategic market for major Japanese IT companies who have invested across major businesses including systems integration, cloud, datacenters, telecommu-

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

Any chief concerns you encountered during the buy-out? We had loyal enterprise customers of over 14 years since the company’s inception besides other internal stakeholders, employees, whose interests had to be safeguarded. Business continuity without loss of goodwill was the other concern. We discussed all the concerns threadbare with Ricoh representatives before we signed on the dotted line. Why do you think it turned out to be a great deal for both sides?From a Ricoh perspective, they got the benefit of our several years of experience in system integration space with powerful vendor alliances with nications and software services. They have made a significant presence in all these areas and continue to invest to grow these businesses,” says Kiran Bhagwanani of Dimension Data India. Transaction Advisory Service Division of major consulting companies such as KPMG, PwC, and Ernst & Young are getting mandates from the Japanese companies to start due diligence for potential acquisitions. The capital markets and FIIs are looking forward to the boost

IBM and HP, to name a few. We had offices across the country, with established work force and processes in place. In turn, from a Momentum perspective, our employees became a part of an international brand. How was the hand over process of imparting complete control to Ricoh? We had an understanding that we would have a contract period, during which time, we would help them to settle in, integrate the two entities and help them run the show as part of Ricoh. When the contract ended, there was a hand-over, which we believe was smooth. We hear from the market sources that Ricoh has exceeded its targets in the India market, with a growth rate in the range of 10x. This was possibly Ricoh’s best way to grow in India. So, the buy-out was a win-win deal. —Shantheri Mallaya that will happen with the rise of the Indo-Nippon M&As. Roy at Gartner remarks, “Yes, while due diligence part of it is not directly what we are privy to, we can cite examples of at least three Japanese conglomerates approaching us for counsel on the India market landscape, competition, and the potential buy-out candidates they can look for.” The investments from ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ seem to be far from being over. 

Birds fly in a V formation to increase the flock’s flight efficiency. In a V formation, all birds, except the first, fly in the upwash of the wingtip vortices of the bird right ahead. The upwash helps each bird support its own weight. Each bird can achieve a reduction of induced drag of up to 65 percent—thereby increasing their flight range by 71 percent. The birds flying at the tips and at the front are rotated in a cyclical fashion to spread flight fatigue equally among the flock members.

Ingenious!

HOW INGENIOUS ARE YOU? This year, the ChannelWorld Premier 100 Awards will recognize enterprise channel partners who have implemented ingenious strategies to overcome business challenges. If you are a solution provider with an extraordinary story to tell—of how you did things differently—we would like to hear from you. File your nomination for India’s ultimate recognition in the IT Channel Business. Join the Ingenious 100. Log on to www.premier100.in/Ingenious100 Applications close on April 30, 2014.

5-6 JUNE, 2014 l JW MARRIOTT, PUNE

VIDEO - THE FUTURE OF COLLABORATION Experts say video collaboration is expected to become necessary for organizations in driving business in the future. Minhaj Zia, Managing Director â&#x20AC;&#x201C; India and SAARC, Polycom, explains how video collaboration is way ahead of e-mail and voice calls as the topmost method of enterprise communication strategy.

CUSTOM FEATURE POLYCOM

What are some of the trends that you have been witnessing in the video conferencing space? In 2013, we saw a rise in the uptake of video conferencing by individuals, business functions, and departments not traditionally associated with this technology. The use of video in the enterprise, to some extent, still struggles with the stigma of being limited to use for management meetings. We believe that as the potential of the technology is realized across organizations, video will move on from being viewed as just a management communication tool to a resource positioned at the heart of organizational culture that positively impacts productivity and efficiency. While the large enterprises were early adopters, the mid-market segment now seems to be driving growth. We also see significant movements in the SMB segment for the obvious business benefits of visual collaboration. How does video conferencing integrate with some of the latest trends in enterprise technology? Face-to-face collaboration has moved far beyond the office, and Polycom continues to actively transform the ways in which work is done. Mobility and mobile workforce strategies, BYOD policies, and cloud-based technologies are some of the technologies that spur the use of video conferencing beyond traditional room-based systems. Polycom is committed to enabling tablets and mobile devices with secure, enterprise-grade video technology software. We also realize that users on a video call want to do much more than just show a static presentation and we have solutions that deliver a much richer collaboration experience. What are Polycom’s key differentiators with respect to the video conferencing market in India? In every industry and across each sector in India, video conferencing is increasingly being recognized as a mission-critical business solution. Video collaboration is reducing time-to-market, improving customer service, accelerating emergency responses in government, and streamlining decision-making. We believe our key achievements in India have been to grow

the video collaboration market by creating competitive solutions that continue to cater to the emerging trends in the market and we will continue on the same route in terms of developing future-ready solutions. Polycom has emerged as a preferred partner across sectors including Government (for projects in the space of tele-justice), Manufacturing, Education (in collaboration with international universities), and Healthcare (enabling tele-medicine solutions). Additionally, we have a strong suite of solutions powered by the Polycom RealPresence Platform that delivers collaboration tools to large, medium, and small enterprises. With the shifts in the technology landscape, where mobility has

“We believe our key achievements in India have been growing the video-collaboration market, by creating competitive solutions that continue to cater to the emerging trends in the market.” -Minhaj Zia,

MD-India and SAARC, Polycom

become a key, Polycom’s key focus areas will be industry verticals such as IT/ITeS, which are early adopters of technology. Despite its apparent benefits, there are roadblocks to adoption of video conferencing. How do you plan to overcome these? Our partner community helps in positioning the true value proposition of deploying Polycom solutions. Visual collaboration tools from Polycom can help solve many issues that our customers are struggling with in their business. While the competition is focused on pushing products at cheaper

prices, we have been trying to outpace the competition by innovating faster, bringing in new experiences, and reducing the TCO of our solution. Also, our new products support higher resolution images at 50 percent lower bandwidth; our new virtualized infrastructure products bring down costs; and our new service offerings help increase user adoption by providing valuable and timely insights on how these products are being used within the organization. What are your channel initiatives towards making Polycom India more partner-friendly? Polycom is a partner-led organization and the channel forms the backbone of our business. We have the “Choice Program for Partners” that helps us classify our partner base into three broad categories: Platinum, Gold, and Authorized. Each category has well-defined criteria such as training and certification of sales, presales and post sales staff, revenue target, and demo capability. The central idea is to empower and support partners to be able to do business independently. To bring sharper focus, we have segmented the market into four divisions to simplify our GTM strategy. Large enterprises are led by the Polycom sales team, mid-market is partner-led, and SMB is distributor-led. The public sector uses a combination of Polycom and partner-led efforts. We have also aligned our customer accounts with our channel partners to avoid any conflicts. This allows them to focus on business development activities in their territory. How would you define the future of collaboration? Our aim is to make video and voice collaboration simple to use and available to everyone through open, standards-based software that connects people securely across any network, protocol, application or device they want to use. This could be delivered on-premises or from the cloud.

This interview is brought to you by IDG Services in association with Polycom

ON RECORD n

Mike Piech, Senior Director, Product Marketing, Red Hat, talks about the strong position India holds in the company’s vision for the future. By Shantheri Mallaya

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

Last year, Red Hat made significant announcements to its middleware strategy, particularly around JBoss. What do these announcements entail? PIECH: Setting the context, I joined Red Hat last year, and headed the product marketing team for the JBoss Middleware Business Unit—the team that generates the white papers, training materials, etcetera around the whole product line. There are over a dozen products around Red Hat JBoss Middleware. Middleware has been around for a while and there is a lot of pre-cloud work already being done. Since cloud is the future of middleware, in the years prior to my getting to Red Hat, there was recognition of this fact, and so there is a strategy that

is being built around the cloud. I think the piece really came together in terms of how we are going to package our middleware services in the cloud context late last year when we announced JBoss xPaaS service for OpenShift. So, we are showing the synergy between JBoss and OpenShift through xPaas, as we call it. xPaas is our open and unified Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering for enterprises. What we gave was a vision and a roadmap for xPaaS. The idea in a nutshell is that we have already incorporated JBoss running into Open Shift. We will now take most of the rest of middleware, package those on OpenShift as well. This allows users to install, deploy adapt, expand, and scale the other middleware offerings within the OpenShift context in a way that fulfills the Red Hat Open Hybrid Cloud vision. We are basically creating that seamlessness that satisfies the tenets of the open hybrid cloud model. So, with these announcements, Red Hat has attempted to show the way forward. So, Open Hybrid Cloud is the new message in environments that can still find huge value in the public cloud, particularly in North America. Isn’t that bit of a dichotomy? PIECH: I have been keenly watching early adoption patterns in cloud computing. Alternately for Red Hat, we foresee in the medium-term, a lot of the investments from customers might get diverted

to the private cloud to technologies such as OpenShift Enterprise or Red Hat OpenStack. They might look at OpenShift online, but when they invest significant money, they are more likely to look at the on-premise model. The market has a strange ability to surprise. The good news is, the way we are building our stack, we are prepared for both. If the enterprise software space looks towards private cloud adoption, we are well set up for that as well. It is quite interesting in that the early adoption of public cloud in North America was not in the enterprise but more in

SOURCE: RED HAT, ANNUAL REPORT 2013

MIKE PIECH | ON RECORD n

17.3% is the year-onyear revenue growth at Red Hat

oper and the architect community. While the OS, virtualization pieces were centered on the datacenter ecosystem, middleware, particularly at the higher level, technologies such as the business rules management systems, are offerings more for the developers—the people who are going to build the software for an enterprise. This

ISV partner in India who is serving a multinational company with offices and operation in several geographies around the world to carry out development or prototyping for the OpenShift public environment will find great value in xPaaS, when his teams fulfill the testing, the final phase of going to production. Also, when the integration of the public cloud offering into the client’s own on-premise environment happens, the value proposition for the customer and the partner are constant. xPaaS is an example of marrying technology with business. What is interesting is that the Indian outsourcing movement coincided

PIECH: For one, it is

the JBoss Middleware which is pitted against proprietary middleware; if you look at it, it straight away gives the cost edge to a customer. Having said that, middleware cloud helps to arrive at just that. With the cloud model, you know the customer gets more confidence that if capacity doesn’t get used or if he needs more, he doesn’t have to pay through his nose or have to scramble for capacity; the cloud takes care of that. If the service or the application gets the customer revenue, it is a trade-off. So, the promise of the cloud is all about

India has stayed loyal to its JAVA roots. Now that the enterprise IT market is seeing a shift, the possibilities are tremendous—the knowledge of JAVA, using the tools in new ways to do enterprise applications or to catalyze the cloud. the start-ups such as online and web services such as Pinterest, which got started and went straight to the public cloud. Enterprises across the board, not just North America, function differently. They want to keep their processes a little closer to them. Essentially who are the main audiences for the middleware story, partners or developers? PIECH: As a representative of the middleware business, I can assert that the middleware story touches almost all the stakeholders, be it customers or partners, but it really resonates with the devel-

could be the developer or a partner building the software on behalf of the enterprise. A lot of the JBoss xPaaS messaging is essentially going to be about developing projects and the ease of use in a cloud environment. How will the xPaaS vision pan out in India? PIECH: India is an interesting market. Having said that, it remains that the value of the approach such as easier set up, configuration, integration, and deployment are benefits which are universal, apply to any market; they further help break down barriers of geography. Say, for example, an

with the rise of JAVA. In the early days of cloud adoption, the non-JAVA languages such as Ruby, PHP, seemed more of a North America phenomenon. India has stayed loyal to its JAVA roots. Now that the enterprise IT market is seeing a shift, the possibilities are tremendous—the knowledge of JAVA, using the tools in new ways to do enterprise applications or to catalyze the cloud. India really stands out in terms of the knowledge base, which it can build upon effectively. xPaaS promises huge savings in licensing costs. How do you quantify or qualify this claim? APRIL 2014

the economies of scale. Different types of software in a stack lend themselves to different types of pricing. In a usage based model, the trial and error mechanism helps the customer to take more risks without fear of over shooting his costs. Bringing it all together, among all the offerings, JBoss middleware is really the offering for innovation—faster, better, smarter. It is not just about commoditizing things and making them less expensive in the absolute sense, it is also about delivering innovation in a more cost effective manner.  INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

Partner Panel Discussion

STRONG TIES, STRONGER BUSINESS Schneider Electric IT Business’ recently concluded partner conclave served as an effective platform for channel partners to gain insights on growth strategies and the organization’s offerings aimed at augmenting partners’ sales.

ynergy is the cornerstone of the channel space. It is, thus, important for technology partners to forge strong ties with systems integrators (SIs) and resellers to chalk out effective business strategies and translate the same into reality. On that vein, Schneider Electric IT Business (SEITB) India, which includes APC by Schneider Electric, Schneider Electric President Systems, and Uniflair, recently held its channel partner meet in Colombo. Attended by SEITB’s top 100 partners, the premier event was entirely based on the theme “Together We Can.” Nikhil Pathak, Business VP and Country GM-India and SAARC, SEITB, initiated the proceedings by thanking partners for making 2013 an immensely successful year for the organization. He then spoke in detail about SEITB’s “ONE IT Business” approach and requested partners to tap into its potential by leveraging the varied product portfolios of the three entities: APC by Schneider Electric’s critical power solutions, Uniflair’s cooling solutions, and President’s racks and accessories. He also

SPECIAL EVENT COVERAGE

spoke to partners about leveraging SEITB’s Software and Services portfolio, which will help them achieve unimaginable growth. The other main attractions at the event were the interactive sessions on business trends such as cloud, co-location, Internet of Things (IoT), Machine to Machine (M2M) interface, and Data Center Infrastructure Management (DCIM) which are poised to leave a profound impact on businesses in 2014-15 and how partners can re-align to the market with the new offerings. Apart from these sessions, there was also a showcase of solutions for non-IT space, through which partners were made aware of SEITB’s various power, cooling, and software solutions for critical processes in verticals such as healthcare, marine, manufacturing, and aviation among others. In the IT space, modular and scalable datacenters was the hot topic. While the aforementioned sessions delivered technological insights, a panel discussion titled “Three Aces to Succeed in Customer Business - Retention > Acquisition > Growth“ delivered business insights to the delegates. The panelists’

success stories in customer business brought out some interesting lessons on customer retention, acquisition, and growth in the channel ecosystem. Following this, a small workshop was conducted to stimulate ideas on improving partner relationships and profitability. This was highly appreciated by the partners. SEITB, also, acknowledged and honored its partners’ support by felicitating them with Excellence Awards. The awards were categorized based on overall highest achievement to regional highest contribution to best distribution. Additionally, SEITB also presented its channel roadmap for 2014 at the event. SEITB’s M. Gurudutt, Director - Channel and Midmarket Business, spoke about the organization’s channel landscape and listed the partner certification structure and its offerings to partners. Talking about the insight gained through the event, Narayan Rao Khade of Matrix Technologies said, “It was a wonderful experience as the event provided an insight into SEITB’s offerings and growth strategies. We look forward to working

Nikhil Pathak, Business VP and Country GM-India and SAARC, SEITB, sheds light on the company’s “One IT Business” approach.

M. Gurudutt, Director - Channel & Mid-market Business, SEITB, speaks about the organization’s channel roadmap for 2014.

The delegates brainstorm for ideas during the workshop on ways to improve retention, acquisition, and growth.

Rohith Balakrishnan, GM-Enterprise Channels, SEITB, addresses the channel partners at the event. together towards the shared vision of “Growth through Solutions” in the coming year.” AB Controls’ Shailesh Dubhashi echoed the same opinion when he said, “We are proud to be associated with SEITB and wish them the best in their endeavor to bring best-in-class solutions to the market, which will help both partners and customers. We are happy to attend this event”.

This event report is brought to you by IDG Services in association with Schneider Electric

Partners were recognized and felicitated by Nikhil Pathak and Gurudutt with Excellence Awards for their contribution towards making 2013 a successful year for SEITB.

IDG SERVICES

n FAST TRACK

Servion Global Solutions Snapshot Founded: 1995

Headquarters: Chennai Branches: Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, US, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, UK Revenue 2011-12: Rs 180 crore Revenue2012-13: Rs 230 crore Revenue 2013-14 (Expected): Rs 350 crore Key Executives: M. Rangarajan, Executive Director, Strategic Business Development; G. Shankaran Nair, President and Chief Strategy Officer Key Principals: Acqueon Technologies, Avaya, Calabrio, Cisco, ClickFox, Nuance, Voxeo, Nice Knoahsoft , Verint, BT, Cisco, HP, IBM, Nuance, Tata Consultancy services

The IP around contact-center optimization is our big strength, says K. Balakrishnan , CEO and MD, Servion.

HENNAI’S SERVION

Global Solutions has an impeccable 17-year-old story to tell. Having built its name in the Customer Interaction Management (CIM) space, this company boasts of a clientele of large service providers, banks, amongst others. Servion’s tryst with banks began when most banks didn’t know what automation really meant. K. Balakrishnan, MD and CEO, Servion Global Solutions, recalls, “ Starting out early in this space, we now have customers for almost 15 years; some of the earliest private banks are on our clientele. About 120-130 large banks across the world, including in India, are our favored customers”. Servion’s greatest strength, it believes, lies in its IP around contact26

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

center optimization, where the company has evolved customized modules. The company believes that the bigger piece it offers to customers is in differentiation around customer experience management. Servion has positioned itself as a

REVENUE GROWTH Rs 350 cr* Rs 230 cr

Rs 180 cr

2011-12 SOURCE: Servion Global Solutions

2012-13

2013-14 *Expected

Photograph by R.CHANDROO

Website: www.servion.com global and local player. While the company does service overseas clients, it foresees certain trends in the Indian banking scenario that will boost its domestic plans in equal measure for the coming fiscal. The most important ones being the landscape of technology investments reaching the next level among the larger banks. The impending new banking licenses to be issued by the government, along with the fact that there is tremendous potential still left in India as far as the length and breadth of banking penetration is concerned. Balakrishnan says, “Our Indian business is seeing a healthy growth of 25-30 percent year-on-year.” Going forward, the Servion strategy would be to consolidate the gains as one of the early and larger players in CIM, continuing to make investments in the domain. Also, consulting, being one of the specialist competencies of the company, will continue to go hand –in-hand with Servion’s overall offerings. Says Balakrishnan, “We have several models in consulting to help customers leverage our offerings optimally.”  —Shantheri Mallaya

Dossier Name: Henry Hsu Designation: Vice President, Global Power Architecture Company: Raritan Present Role: As head of Raritan’s power management consulting practice, he collaborates with datacenter teams to assess, plan, recommend, and implement optimal power distribution and monitoring systems. Hsu has been instrumental in helping businesses around the globe transform how they manage and monitor power in datacenters.

P h o t o g r a p h b y D E LT R I M E D I A

Career Graph: Since joining Raritan 10 years ago, he has visited and surveyed scores of different raised-floor infrastructures in all types of industry verticals. Well versed on today’s foremost datacenter topics, from highvoltage power strips to smart and resource–efficient DCIM strategies, he has a track record in helping customers succeed. Hsu has a Master’s degree in Industrial Engineering and a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Stanford University.

n THE GRILL

Henry Hsu Vice President, Global Power Architecture, Raritan, deciphers the emergent popularity of DCIM solutions across organizations.

DCIM (datacenter infrastructure management) is the new software category engaging analysts to identify big and small players. But its adoption even in mature markets like US and Europe is much less than expected. DCIM space has witnessed a huge uptick in past three years from the industry analyst perspective. Universally, vendor companies, end-users, and consultants admit it is essentially a process management problem that needs a competent software. The actual end-users who implemented DCIM are less bullish. And that’s the major disconnect. Competent software is easy to develop but the human process change is more difficult to implement at the customer-end. What is pulling back the trend to move from hype into the realm of reality for organizations? The typical roadblocks of DCIM are the expectation capacity and articulating the problem. It’s a classic industry problem wherein you don’t want to have a solution without a problem. In APRIL 2014

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

n THE GRILL | HENRY HSU each vendor’s product feature sets, you will be hard pressed to understand what the software does and does not do. It is more of a practical difference and not so much on a technology or software front. For every client that bought DCIM from any vendor, Raritan or Emerson, in past five years, nearly 40 to 60 percent of them have literally not used the software at all. They had an IT budget, got influenced by analyst and invested in DCIM. Raritan is engaged with every client who previously bought Raritan software. We formulate best practices from technology, implementation, and change management perspective to evangelize towards utilising the software on dayto-day basis. Vendors making tall claims about their solution is inherent. The difference is the practical experience to get software implemented.

Nearly 40 to 60 percent of the clients that bought DCIM from Raritan, Emerson or any vendor in past five years have literally not used the software at all.

datacentre industry, everyone is aware that either technology or vendor can explicitly voice the real problems. High ROI and good success rate are the prerequisites for DCIM. To deeply understand the problem and articulate clear solutions has resulted in the tide turning in past eighteen months. DCIM is now becoming a key priority for CIOs. Raritan Capacity Management through DCIM software helps organizations increase the efficiency of their datacentres by 25-50 percent. Schneider Electric and Emerson Network Power echo similar claims. Where’s the difference? If you compare 28

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

Many companies specialize in cooling optimisation or power management but claim to be true DCIM players managing the entire infrastructure of a datacenter. Isn’t this misleading?Absolutely. In our client engagement we pivot away from the term at the earliest. It has evolved more as a marketing term because every datacenter vendor into infrastructure management has DCIM offering today because of the term’s broad definition. And that’s a problem. The modern day datacenter expect six major offerings from vendors like Raritan which are asset management, capacity management, change management, power management, energy management, and environment management. We specialize more in power management and energy management. Asset capacity and change management too forms the foundation for DC platform. And here lies our industry experience as asset management then becomes a norm in the organization. Raritan was named “Cool Vendor” in Gartner 2012 DCIM report and a “major DCIM player worldwide” in IDC’s MarketScape Report. But 451 Research’s recent report cites Emerson, Nlyte Software, and Schneider Electric to collectively earn 45 percent of $621million in DCIM revenue for 2013. Why such varied reports amidst a wide universe of competitors? Analyst firms like Gartner, IDC, and 451 group follow DCIM regularly but it’s still an evolving

space. Many companies (our competitors) are on the brink of extinction as they estimated DCIM market to take off quickly and make big money. However, Raritan has built a long-term vision by understanding client’s problems and this will help us to take advantage when DCIM curve moves northwards. The different competitors operate in monitoring, asset and change management and the entire suite. The smaller and niche vendors in first two categories do bits and pieces of datacentre solutions. Big vendors like Emerson, Eaton, Schneider, and Raritan with broader portfolio compete more with each other. With a not-so-fast adoption of DCIM, can enterprise channels make money with Raritan? Raritan has evolved beyond selling KVM to power solutions to DCIM. These management tools require indepth understanding of solution sales. Our engagement model is working with the end-customer directly through channels including VARs, systems integrators, and datacenter partners. The most valuable asset for the partners is leveraging relationships with their customers. Raritan’s energy management and DCIM positions them as a trusted advisor. The initial conversation around energy management - in nonsales manner – naturally shift to other problems in the datacenter. The business opportunity is huge with upsell once the partner gets the ‘foot in the door’. Datacenter strategy is complex and often long drawn that often leads to wrong investments by organizations. Any vendor-agnostic advice for channels and their customers to reap maximum ROI? Raritan and industry peers are helping clients optimize the datacenter capacity to utilize every dollar capacity spent to an optimal extent without evoking any business risks at their end. Despite adequate planning the client often needs to build at times say two rows or a cabinet and almost universally they err in every case. Vendors follow that logical defense for the organizations to build additional capacity when they do not need it. One can delay this expense by a year by utilizing the existing capacity in optimized manner to avoid the extra built now till they actually need it. The ROI becomes high.  —Yogesh Gupta

Dolphins are able to recognize the calls of specific individuals, ‘signature whistles’, from up to 25 kilometers away, demonstrating their ability to network—despite being under water. By employing several frequencies in each transmission, dolphins have found a way to cope with the sound-scattering behavior of their high-frequency, rapid transmissions, and get their messages transmitted reliably.

Ingenious!

Log on to www.premier100.in/Ingenious100

5-6 JUNE, 2014 l JW MARRIOTT, PUNE

n SPECIAL REPORT

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Col. Balwinder Singh, Managing Director, Targus Technologies, is keen to boost the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s growth in big data, security, and cloud during this fiscal.

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

Cover Photograph by: SUMEET

Page 41

7th

Anniversary Special

AVENUES

TO SUCCESS

The new fiscal has plenty of opportunities for enterprise channel partners. Make it count.

By Team ChannelWorld

N a year that was beset by difficult market conditions, Targus Technologies has stood tall. The solution provider, that has a big and small pie in security, information management, big data analytics, cloud computing, social media, collaboration, and mobility, is on a growth curve, which will well spill over into the coming fiscal. The Delhi headquartered solution provider will continue its focus on its top business earners – security (15 percent) and information management (15 percent), besides also looking to boost its initiatives in big data analytics with a plethora of projects in the pipeline both at the project as well as the application development level. Col.Balwinder Singh, MD of Targus Technologies remarks, “We have tided over rough times, and grown at a good pace despite mar-

ket challenges .We are actively looking at possible opportunities across newer technologies too that will augment company’s growth curve in the coming year too.” The partner organization has promising overseas business too, with customers in Nepal, Dubai, UK, Singapore, and China, amongst others. Targus Technologies has also restructured internally in order to control internal costs and maintain profitability in external business. In the coming fiscal year, when the government that will be elected stabilizes, Targus hopes to give fruition to its plans. ChannelWorld’s 7th Anniversary special report highlights the strategies adopted by channel players in the enterprise segment across the seven areas of interest to survive, grow, and succeed in 2013-14. And they are well on course to repeat success in this fiscal too. APRIL 2014

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD

Analytics

Big Data, Big Growth Strategic consulting is the way forward for solution providers to excel in big data and in order to create differentiation for their customers.

IG DATA, along with cloud services, social media and mobile computing, are transforming IT and the way companies do business. As a result, they are also impacting the products and services IT channel companies offer their customers.

Big data is seeing the bright days, if we have to believe the numbers. IDC pegs the big data technology and services market will grow at a CAGR of 27 percent $32.4 billion through 2017. So, has big data truly come out of the hype cycle? Says Suchit Bachalli, President of Bangalore’s Unilog

Content Solutions, a product data management and analytics solutions provider, remarks “Big data has been around for a while. It is, often times, a term used out of context. I think the hype is more to do with the financial jugglery around it. There are many start-ups which start off with buzz words, but then only the older players such as IBM, SAP or an Oracle have been doing serious work in this space. The hype may wane and wax depending on the financials.”

CONSULTING MAKES MONEY Given these numbers and indications, for the coming fiscal, systems integrators, VARs, and service providers are in a good position to capitalize on the growth wave in big data with big data consulting services and hardware resale. Managing the big data ecosystem and integrating it is both

Big Data is on the Rise

27%

Consolidating existing gains and furthering these gains with the right alliances and customer approach will be our focus for the next fiscal. SUCHIT BACHALLI, PRESIDENT, UNILOG CONTENT SOLUTIONS

is the estimated CAGR through 2017 of the big data technology and services market. SOURCE: IDC

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

7th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL n at the computation models, the pera challenge for businesses and an opBangalore’s Unilog Content Solumutations and combinations availportunity for channel companies. tions is one such case. The company, able for transactional data on the Experts have agreed that the more which specializes in big data analytB2B side are a million factorial plus. significant big data-related business ics in the B2B space, is of the opinion Lucien and MapReduce are our Big opportunities reside in strategic conthat the concept remains constant, sulting. It is believed that the really what changes is the availability of the Data tools, and based on that alone, we are able to do the computation exciting opportunity is on the servictools, and what it can do for each vermuch quicker. The questions that we es side, where IT channel companies tical specific customer. ask of the data and the answers we ought to approach big data as solution Says Bachalli at Unilog Content get remain the same.” Unilog enjoys providers. That’s where the business Solutions, comments “When we look value is. To illustrate, New Delhi’s Targus Data Discovery to Become Main Focus of BI Vendors Technologies, is looking at exploring and expanding its analytics foALF of all BI (business intelligence) implementations will incorporate machine cus through specific work done for data streams by 2017, according to a new report Business intelligence and telecom providers such as Bharti. analytics will remain a top investment priority for CIOs, but by 2015 BI vendors will Targus is helping them implement make ad-hoc data discovery, rather than report generation, the prime focus of their lawful interception, as per governproduct development efforts, according to a new Gartner report. ment of India mandates, wherein During the past 10 years, the BI industry has grown based on “IT-centric BI data going in SMS forms should platforms for large-scale systems of record,” Gartner said. “These have tended to be captured in real-time, and that be highly governed and centralized, where IT production reports were pushed out data, which is not done so, should to managers and knowledge workers.” be stored. Targus has already done While ad-hoc querying and other analytic tools have been available, “they were work across 6 circles of Bharti. Col never really fully embraced by the business analyst masses, primarily because they Balwinder Singh, MD, Targus Techare perceived by most as being too difficult to use,” the report adds. nologies, opines, “We want to be a As it stands, only about 30 percent of potential BI users have adopted their part of the growth wave that will company’s standard BI tools, according to Gartner. impact Big Data Analytics. We will In recent years, demand for user-friendly BI tools sparked the “meteoric rise” watch and make appropriof vendors such as Tibco Spotfire and Tableau, Gartner said. ate investments. ” As a result, “the majority of current IT-centric vendors will shift the Another area that Targus focus of new product investment and platform emphasis from IT-authored has set its eyes on is in makANALYST production reporting, to governed, business-user-driven data discovery and ing applications and posiDIRECTION analysis,” the report adds. tioning solutions in search BI vendors and customers will also embrace the “Internet of Things” based interfaces for its custrend, with more than 50 percent of implementations using “event data tomers. The company has streams generated from instrumented machines, applications and/or indiits own coders to develop viduals” by 2017, Gartner said. the applications. Says Singh, “We “Sensor and other forms of instrumentation (for example, video/sound monitorhave the people; all that is needed is ing, system and usage log data, GPS, weather) comprising the Internet of Things the right business direction to derive can provide a more direct and immediate representation of an object’s, system’s or maximum results.” For any third individual’s behavior,” the report adds. party applications that the company Gartner is also predicting competition will heat up between BI platform vendors might use, it has or will get the necand the systems integrators who have created specialized analytic applications for essary training or skill sets, it says. various industries and business processes. Targus’s analytics focused business BI vendors “recognize that in order to expand their reach beyond traditional approximately contributes to about 5 power users, they must deliver packaged domain expertise and applications to percent of the toplines. enable self-service by a wider range of users,” Gartner said. As a result, by 2017 packaged analytics applications from vendors and systems integrators will be “inVERTICAL APPROACH distinguishable” from one another, according to the report. Also, specializing in vertical indus—Chris Kanaracus tries can bring a lot of value to these engagements. Service and solution “In order to expand their (BI vendors) reach beyond providers can approach their clients traditional power users, they must deliver packaged domain and suggest ways in which big data analytics can help them solve legitimate expertise and applications to enable self-service by a wider business problems. Once the business range of users.” problem is identified, solution provid—Gartner ers can help their customers select and deploy the proper technologies.

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clientele in India and abroad, with customers across verticals such as retail, telecom, manufacturing and electronics, amongst others, and has grown three fold in the last couple of years. Some of Unilog’s customers are Fortune 500 entities spread over North and South America, Europe and APAC regions. Unilog plans to continue and enhance its Analytics strategy into the coming fiscal by capitalizing further on its strong CIMM2 XRF2, a SaaS based data analytics platform. With an R&D facility in Mysore, the company intends to leverage its competencies and expand its talent pool in the city to accelerate growth. Says Bachalli, “Consolidating existing gains and furthering these gains with the right alliances and customer approach will be our focus for the fiscal.” The company recently joined hands with Thanx Media, a product content and master data management company; such strategic ties, it believes, will take its existing business to the next level.

Reader RoI 2 Big Data services and solutions can be monetized through consulting 2 Channel players have to specialize in verticals to thicken customer engagement pp development should be 2A an integral part of the big data strategy

OPPORTUNITY UNTAPPED What is stopping the growth mode afforded by big data analytics are is the lack of channel companies seizing them. A lot of companies are looking to conduct big data projects and some of them are looking for help, but it is taking a while for the companies conducting the consulting to develop and mature, and it’s taking a while for the service providers to develop as well. Says V S Varadharajan, Director and CTO of Chennai’s Mukesh Infoserve, “Analytics has a lot more capabilities than what it is used for.

Analytics is helping move beyond the product sale and taking advantage of the service and consulting opportunities to monetize its offerings. V S VARADHARAJAN, DIRECTOR AND CTO, MUKESH INFOSERVE 34

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For many IT channel companies, this means moving beyond the product sale and taking advantage of the service and consulting opportunities to monetize its offerings”. Mukesh Infoserve is just about looking at taking baby steps in BI and Analytics - which right now, contributes next to negligible to the overall business- and help this business grow. The idea is to watch as the market matures and approach existing customers or verticals, by deep selling and making customer engagement thick with new area offerings. He comments, “No two customers are going to look at the data in the same way. Hence, we have to step in to address the divergent requirements.” However, Varadarajan hesitates to put a definite number to the growth prospects for next year, saying that business dynamics change every 90 days and putting a percentage would be pre-empting too much. As any other business, Mukesh Infoserve believes in a result-oriented approach, and will be making more investments in analytics only if growth indicators are encouraging. Currently, the analytics core team, part of its software business unit, has about 5 people, and will increase based on demand. Will Big Data Analytics be a focus area in the future? Varadharajan replies, “That would be too forward looking a statement to make at the moment.” To conclude, it is felt that there is demand, but the channel providers have to look beyond the product sale mode. Bachalli at Unilog Content Solutions, remarks, “Service providers must push to the next realm, which is to say, provoke thinking and make sure customers understand they can do this work.” So, fiscal 2014-15 demands upscaling of skills, mindsets and also thought leadership from the solution provider community. Until this behavioral change doesn’t come about, change won’t happen. But the demand is there for analytics, in whatsoever form, big or small .And the growth, if achieved can take channel players to the next level.  —Shantheri Mallaya

Cloud

Sky’s the Limit The cloud is growing each passing year. That trend is here to stay, and its benefits are trickling down to all involved.

HE CLOUD is ubiquitous and there is no denying that fact. There is hardly a bit of technology—enterprise or consumer—that cloud computing has not touched. And if there at all exists one, then it is bound to be within the cloud’s realm sooner than later. Cloud computing, according to IDC, was an estimated $47.4 billion industry in 2013 and is expected to more than double to $107 billion by 2017. Similar stats by a majority of analysts and industry folks point towards the strong demand of cloud over next couple of years. That alone is sufficient to define the span of opportunities for tech-

nology vendor companies, cloud providers, and enterprise channel partners. “There are plenty of new opportunities in cloud infrastructure like software-as-a-service, managed business continuity services (MBCS), managed on demand DR services and cloud storage.” says Pawan Khurana,

CEO, QuantM Net Technologies. The company has worked out a model where they have resources across most of the infrastructure technologies with accreditations. We have a customer feedback process in place, and are focusing more on more feedback to enhance our service levels

The Cloud is on Firm Ground In the next five years cloud computing will outpace current growth.

$ 107 bn* $ 47 bn

Mature organizations want to benefit through deliverables like security, SLAs, etc., but for the small customers it is about price. 2013 SOURCE: IDC

KAMAL VAHI, DIRECTOR, COMPTON COMPUTERS

2017 *Expected

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and work on product redesigning, he adds.

PUBLIC CLOUD Cloud has been talked about in great detail in the last three years, and the popular perception is that private and hybrid clouds are the most popular, compared to the public one. That remains true for most part but there is a feeble echo of change. Delhi-based Compton Computers offers cloud services around storage and back up amidst good response from their customers. “Within large enterprises there is a realization that some aspects of technology are not needed. Once a public cloud is used, the cost is reduced immensely. The companies can invest in other areas of their business and not only in processes to enable their business. But that’s in a transition phase,” says Kamal Vahi, director, Compton Computers. According to Gartner, nearly half of large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments by the end of 2017. In the past three years, private cloud computing has moved from an aspiration to a tentative reality for nearly half

Reader RoI 2C loud computing offers agility, speed, and innovation, not just the benefit of cost savings 2 Expectations of SMBs from cloud can be very different from those at large organizations 2 Hybrid and private are mainstream models and public cloud is gaining acceptance at decent pace of large enterprises. Hybrid cloud computing is at the same place today that private cloud was three years ago; as actual deployments are low, but aspirations are high. Says Arnab Basu, executive director, Technology Consulting, PwC India, “Public clouds especially have given businesses the freedom to rapidly provision resources to provide a platform to view failure as a means to an end to achieve high-impact innovations in less time and at lower cost. PwC’s 5th Annual Digital IQ survey suggests that while 57 percent of the Indian organisations are investing in private cloud, 40 percent are investing

RainQloud is delivering managed business continuity services, managed on demand DR services, and cloud storage innovatively. PAWAN KHURANA, CEO, QUANTM NET TECHNOLOGIES 36

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in public cloud infrastructure and 48 percent are investing in public cloud applications. Businesses are exploring public clouds for hosting e-business application, general business applications such as customer relationship management, collaboration software or subscribing to SaaS-based applications like e-mail, says Basu. There is a 23.5 percent compound annual growth rate of the cloud which is five times faster than that of the broader technology market. For partners this has prompted them to push for more cloud technology in the new fiscal. “Besides providing IaaS, Paas, SaaS we work closely with our business partners to provide many other services through cloud,” says Khurana at QuantM. QuantM has partnered with Google to provide a suite of communication and collaboration solutions through cloud. “We are also providing innovative DR on cloud solutions which are flexible and cost effective. These innovative solutions gives us an edge in the market and adds up to our revenue growth,” says Khurana.

MAKING IT COUNT At Compton, which has nearly 50,000 endpoints registered with it, services around cloud storage and back up are big opportunities. “Large enterprises have their own cloud. But SMEs are a huge segment that need hosting which offers lot of opportunities for us,” says Vahi. Basu believes that the system integrators market has rapidly evolved in developing specialist knowledge to meet the changing needs of the IT department. System integrators need to develop depth and breadth of capabilities across their portfolio to support customers and which will enable them to solve complex business problems, he says. Key skills required by them to grow cloud business are business assessment, financial modelling, cloud infrastructure, enterprise architecture, project management, data management, vendor management, application management, and development according to Basu. The all pervasiveness of the cloud has meant that SMBs—a price sensi-

tive lot—are evincing more interest in the cloud. “Mature organisations know the challenges with cloud. They want to be sure to benefit through deDD Mishra, research director, Gartner, talks liverables like security, SLAs but for about how partners can strengthen their cloud the small customers it is about price,” business by making timely transitions. says Vahi. This provides a lot of flexibility and does not straitjacket them Cloud computing is believed to be out of the into solutions as per him. hype cycle. How can channel partners ride “Traditionally cost has been a prime the wave? As aspects of the cloud move focus for creating justification used by into mainstream adoption, each technolproviders for cloud computing. This ogy needs to be looked at separately. Many need to accommodate other aspects misconceptions exist around potential of agility and flexibility as cost alone benefits, pitfalls and, of course, cost savcannot always drive justification in ings. Cloud is often part of cost-cutting business case. The focus should be discussions, even though its ability to cut towards creating a larger value using costs is not a given. We have seen greater cloud as an enabler by combining nexadoption of cloud advertising, sales force us of forces of social, mobile and anaautomation, SaaS, and virtualization, which are at a fairly matured stage tolytics can yield a better outcome,” says wards adoption. Some trends expected to see higher growth rates are cloud DD Mishra, research director, Gartner. based DBMS (PaaS), office suites (SaaS), cloud based operations and security To stay relevant in today’s rapidly management and cloud printing technologies. changing technology landscape, the SIs will need to transform to the next What skillsets should partners augment to build their business, grow profitability, level where they will not only and increase engagement with customers in cloud computing? The maract as a system integrator keting messages must align to the spending priorities as one size does but also a trusted advisor to not fit all. Expectations of SMBs from cloud can be very different from the customer enabling them ANALYST large ones. Focus on promoting outcome will have better buy in then to makes informed decision DIRECTION promoting technology. The skillset to drive multiple constituencies on the deployment model, in client organization and engage with different groups can also yield service model, security, risk, better credibility. Providers who continue to transform their core sercompliance, data managevice offerings, partnering to be more competitive and actively revise ment, migration approach, marketing messages will be more successful. application integration and business or IT process reengineering, believes In your opinion, are tier-2 channel partners competent in this aspect? Tier-2 Basu. SIs need to leverage their deep companies will have to work towards improving their capabilities in justifyexpertise and vast knowledge built ing larger value from nexus of forces (mobile, social, cloud and analytics) over the years to make this leap. and building partnership and delivery mechanism towards execution and Partners have to be innovative innovation. The skills shortages around cloud or cloud enabled technologies and positive about investments too are an opportunity. to ensure that new avenues are helping boost revenue and profit. Like innovation, sourcing management in the past two years has grown so QuantM who invested in a Delhiquickly that now adoption has started and technical skills required based business application software for promoting cloud computing to outpace education. company ‘TeamworQ’ and built their and engagement with customers SI’s have acknowledged the skill own Tier-3 datacenter ‘RainQlod’. according to Mishra at Gartner. gap and this should augur well for “Collaborating these two sides gives Conducting segmentation based on IT staffs that have traditionally seen us the opportunity to capitalize on maturity related to cloud adoption shrinking if not minimal budgets for the SaaS market share. Through and size of buyers can help providers developing competencies. RainQloud we are delivering manalign their strategies. We see a higher SIs across tier-1 and tier-2 channels aged business continuity services, trend towards expectation of buyers need to partner with established managed on demand DR services and on overall effectiveness of IT and education service partners or develop cloud storage in an innovative manimproving business processes, he says. an internal competency enablement ner to our customers,” says Khurana. With cloud gaining more strategy which would identify the With a transition from emerging to acceptance in the market, partners roles, courses and technologies that a mainstream technology, cloud has associated with this technology are are required to deliver the service brought about a change in the way in bound to reap rich dividends.  offerings. Providers should focus on which businesses perceive and adopt marketing and sales skills, consultative, these technologies. Cloud computing —Shreehari Paliath

Skill Shortages are an Opportunity

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Collaboration

Connecting All Collaboration is the need of the hour. And enterprises—big and small— see business benefits in making significant investments in this domain. UC Goes Mainstream

$38bn is the expected size of the UC market in 2016.

SOURCE: IDC

Firms initially faced issues while moving from traditional PBX system to IP-based UC. But they can’t deny the benefits of collaboration tools. TEJAS MEHTA, DIRECTOR, PARTH TECHNOCOMM SOLUTIONS.

OMMUNICATION HAS brought

the world close, and collaboration techniques has got it even closer. As collaboration technologies have evolved, they have facilitated a shrinkage. Collaboration which includes an advanced grade of communication like IP telephony, video, enterprise social software, etcetera, 38

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has ensured that reaching out is just a click away for businesses big or small. According to Nishchal Khorana, head-Consulting, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, the definition of collaboration software and platform varies significantly and is largely contextual encompassing a plethora of core technologies and emerging solutions. Depending

on the process maturity, IT landscape and business vision, enterprises are deploying collaborative solutions ranging from conferencing to enterprise social media as well as innovative applications to support the sales force and other customer facing functions. The need for collaboration has offered and will continue to offer big growth avenues for channel partners working in diverse verticals. “Unified Communications (UC) offers endusers the chance to broadcast the best way to contact them, avoid the embarrassment of overstuffed voicemail, and maybe get rid of fax machine once and for all,” says Tejas Mehta, director of Kolkata-based Parth Technocomm Solutions. It’s evident that in the new fiscal partners across the country who offer collaboration will see ample opportunities to raise their game. “We see huge green field opportunities where

7th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL n collaborative platform, by maximising the usage of their present infrastructure,” says Srinath. “Many firms had initially faced isNishchal Khorana, head-Consulting, ICT sues while moving from traditional Practice, Frost & Sullivan, highlights the big PBX system to IP-based unified comopportunities and market trends driving the munication. But they can’t deny the collaboration space. benefits and the cost reduction through collaboration tools,” comments Mehta What is accelerating the utilization of colat Parth Technocomm. laboration in the enterprise space? ChangAnother option is to upgrade orgaing business dynamics are pushing large nizations that are utilizing traditional and emerging enterprises to leverage technologies to the latest IP-based platcollaboration tools. Although, the key forms. “We are ready to demonstrate drivers, outlook and value from these POCs and TCOs to organizations technologies is different across industry looking for this change. Also, reference segments, the need for solutions enabling sites and demos can help organizations greater internal and external collaboratake corrective decisions on the right tion is well recognized by business and technology. Further support of parttechnology stakeholders. ners like us is available to customers to The definition of collaboration software and platform varies significanthelp them decide on the right ly and is largely contextual encompassing a plethora of core technoltechnology,” says Mehta. ogies and emerging solutions. Depending on the process maturity, IT The organizations who sadlandscape and business vision, enterprises are deploying collaboradle old technologies are bound tive solutions ranging from conferencing to enterprise social media ANALYST as well as innovative applications to support the sales force and other DIRECTION to open up their doors to costeffective measures which is customer facing functions. exactly what collaboration offers through the different What in particular are the enabling factors in the market that will help components. Additionally, systems integrators? Significant hardware advancements enabling vertical solutions with application integrated voice, data, video in an integrated environment and at affordable vendors will further increase the costs has accelerated the adoption of collaboration offerings. Coupled with value proposition to the organisations. that, the social, mobile, analytics, and cloud (SMAC) forces are playing a piv“We would like to offer completed otal role in the technology adoption of collaborative platforms. Enterprises collaboration solution to our customrecognize the potential value that can be unlocked from the social media ers that includes, IPT, UC, video, platforms. Sophisticated analytics, visualization and big data tools are further WebEx, etcetera. We plan to work creating a more visible impact on investments in collaboration applications. with couple of application vendor to Maturing cloud models and delivery ecosystem comprising of IT and target ITES and healthcare segment telecom players will be a major driving force in enabling ubiquity of collabwith vertical solutions approach. We oration technologies. Collaboration solutions offered on the ‘pay-as-you-go’ are exploring this option via opex model are gaining rapid traction amongst large enterprises as well as small model instead of capex model,” says and medium businesses. K. Subrahmanya, director, Central Data Systems. How will the shift help vendor companies, system integrators and their enterprise customers? The paradigm shift in outlook towards collaboration solutions also marks significant opportunity for ICT providers. New opportunities BE THE CHANGE are getting created for product vendors. System integrators are offering The internal adjustments will make consulting and technology implementation aligned to business objectives the difference between a good fiscal as well as solution hosting opportunities for telecom players and third parand an average one. And collaboration ty hosting services providers. Cohesive ‘go-to-market’ efforts in the service focused partners will have to cover provider ecosystem will drive the next phase of adoption and growth. this aspect well. At Shell Networks the approach is a bottom up one as far as advocating any new technology to the customers is concerned. “We have This helps the Hyderabad-based we collaborate with the customer to always believed that having a strong solution provider to position it difunderstand their requirement, edufoundation not only benefits our cusferently from competition wherein cate them on the options available, tomers, but more importantly enables it addresses the customer’s requireand aid in designing solutions that us to understand our customers’ issues ments on a turnkey basis. “We also cater to their collaborative requirehelp customers who already have built and offer them appropriate solutions. ments, “says A.L. Srinath, CEO, We first work with our vendors to uninfrastructure, to migrate to IP-based Shell Networks.

SMAC to Accelerate Collaborative Platforms

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derstand on positioning the technology for our customers. This is followed by vendor and internal training for our pre-Sales and sales team,” says Srinath. The SI company has a mini-lab where the engineers inculcate and develop an attitude of continuous learning on technology. Partners believe that with customers now looking to change from legacy systems conferencing is something that they would want to deploy because it cuts traveling and other related costs. “This is where we play our role to ensure ‘right technology at right prices’. To achieve this training is a constant endeavour. We are trying to have at least five people certified from Cisco on UC and collaboration nationally to help end-customers in pre-sales and implementation needs smoothly,” says Mehta of Parth Technocomm. Even Subrahmanya at CDS has similar motives. He says that his organization’s investing in the technology it is offering customers at its own office so that they do not have to issues while implementing at customer locations. Some of the companies are geared up

Reader RoI 2H uge opportunity around customer’s transition from legacy systems to new ones 2 Verticals like ITES, healthcare, government, and education are benefiting from collaboration tools nified communication in the cloud 2U offers a new business area for systems integrators to meet customer’s needs in as any technology apart from video and voice; be it instant messaging, presence, or mobility, he says.

TWEAKING WORKS With the new fiscal upon partners the strategy tweaks are being made. “Our vendors are telling us that the adoption of collaboration is growing in the SMB and in the mid-sized enterprises. It has been our observation as well and will look towards consolidating our position,” says Srinath. Subrahmanya is looking at geographical expansion with. An office

We help customers migrate to IP-based collaborative platform by maximizing the usage of their present infrastructure. A.L. SRINATH, CEO, SHELL NETWORKS. 40

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in New Delhi is in the pipeline. Additionally, he predicts, there will an increased focus on workspace collaboration which will increase revenue two-fold and provide greater services opportunities for partner companies like CDS. “Customer are looking at cutting cost and increase productivity, and for these requisites the collaboration becomes the right fit. This can save energy and real estate costs substantially, “he says. Both Srinath and Subrahmanya agree that with greater exposure and constantly changing atmosphere of the industry has made customers move to the opex route increasingly. “Customers are parking their IT budgets on the opex models rather than capex. The customer at times demanding an extended credit terms beyond 45 and 60 days which compels us to bear the interest burden,” states Srinath. Subrahmanya adds, “Customers look for outcome-based solutions rather than the initial investment and waiting for ROI. We are offering both on-premise and off-premise solution to cater to customers’ needs though most of the new projects are converting from capex - to - opex model.” For Parth, both VOIP and conferencing (video and audio) are key focus areas from revenue prospective in the next fiscal. Large corporates who have already experienced video conferencing are willing to upgrade to telepresence solutions, which also give us the opportunity to look at larger deployments of such kind, says Mehta. The company will also look to expand to West and North India for greater coverage by Q2. Additionally new domains like unified communications in the cloud holds great promise. UC-as-a-service has the potential to bring about a paradigm shift in the market which partners here in India will look to exploit. The paradigm shift in outlook towards collaboration solutions marks significant opportunity for ICT providers. Cohesive ‘go-to-market’ efforts in the service provider ecosystem will further drive the next phase of adoption and growth, says Khorana of Frost & Sullivan.  —Shreehari Paliath

Information Management

Innovate and Evolve Information management will never go out of style. Partners need to innovate fast to meet market realities and technology trends, including SDx. On a Robust Trajectory

$6.9bn

is the worldwide revenues in Q4’13 of external controllerbased storage (hard-drive and flash arrays) SOURCE: IDC

Backup and software-defined storage will be priority. We are going forward with a focus on software-based deployments. ATUL GOSAR, DIRECTOR, NETWORK TECHLAB

NFORMATION MANAGEMENT

(storage, flash, backup etcetera) has been an important part for any organization, and now, with evolving technologies like SDx taking hold of the market, there is plenty to look ahead. According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Disk Storage Systems

Tracker external disk storage systems factory revenues increased year-overyear by 2.4 percent, totalling $6.9 billion, during the fourth quarter of 2013. For the quarter, the total (internal plus external) disk storage systems market generated $8.8 billion in revenue, representing a 1.3 percent increase from the prior year’s fourth quarter.

Additionally, total disk storage systems capacity shipped surpassed 10.2 exabytes, growing 26.2 percent year over year. “There are requirements for primary storage (SAN & Unified) and the entry level / low cost storage for disk to disk backup from both SMB & enterprise segments. Enterprise segment looking at consolidating the storage and SMB is looking for entry level solution for primary storage,” says S.T. Muneer Ahamed, MD of Chennai-based Digital Track Solutions. Backup requirements exists across all segments and the disk to disk backup is the solution everyone is looking for, and the backup replication to the DR or remote site to BCP,” he says. The market may not have been great during the last fiscal in the storage industry world-wide due to various economic constraints, but this year is exAPRIL 2014

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solution, which suites their requirement and it is also affordable. “We had a tie up with in backup and recovery with storage management NTERPRISES finally started opening their pocketbooks for external storage software companies. This year we will systems in the final quarter of last year, but economic uncertainty and the focus more on these solutions,” says appeal of public cloud services continue to hold back the market, according to reRajesh Mathkar, director of Wysetek search company Gartner. Systems Technologists. Wysetek has Revenue from external controller-based storage, which includes both harddatacenter background since its founddrive and flash arrays but not components for unique platforms such as the ing and over the years has focused Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google clouds, rose to US$6.3 billion on virtualization through which the worldwide in the fourth quarter. That was up 5 percent from a year earlier, but it company extensively fulfils storage recame at the end of a dismal year for the industry, Gartner said. quirements for customers. “We are not Buyers held back on buying storage systems for most of the year because some worried much about stability. In any economies remained fragile, especially in Europe, analyst Roger Cox said. The case we do not have much of a choice. shutdown of the U.S. government in the third quarter also cut into sales, he said. We are utilizing our expertise and At the same time, some enterprises are avoiding purchases of controller-based resources in the best possible manner, storage systems altogether, turning instead to service providers such as Amazon especially considering most organiand Microsoft that offer storage through cloud-based services. Gartner doesn’t zations are utilising the cloud which include the pure disk capacity that these so-called webscale companies buy in its means the market is getting tougher controller-based storage results. for the likes of us,” he says. Such services are becoming increasingly acceptable as alternatives to New Delhi-based Targus premises-based storage, Cox said. Though enterprises are still fast accumuTechnologies has a focused lating data, spending growth won’t return to the double-digit rates of a few information management years ago, he said. ANALYST “When we look more and more out into the future, it’s the impact of DIRECTION business, which contributes to about 15 percent of its these webscale public clouds,” Cox said. toplines. The company has a The result of all those factors was a weak 1.4 percent revenue growth separate business practice for for the full year, to $22.5 billion. This year, Gartner expects the market to Information Management and speed up but still remain at a relatively slow 3 percent growth. The rebound has built, over the years, tech alliances in last year’s fourth quarter came partly from pent-up demand and so-called budwith the likes of HP, EMC, VMware, get flushing, or spending what’s left in an organization’s annual budget. and Citrix to boost its portfolio ofHewlett-Packard was the biggest gainer in the fourth quarter, logging a revferings to customers. Says Balwinder enue boost of 25.3 percent from a year earlier and taking 9.6 percent of the marSingh, MD of Targus Technologies, ket, up from 8 percent a year earlier. EMC also gained, and it remained the biggest “We believe that within our existing vendor, growing to 36 percent of the market, Gartner said. Dell saw its revenue fall business pie, if we have a 10 percent 14.4 percent and lost market share. Dell’s controller-based storage gear declined, increase in the information manageapart from its Compellent line, and sales may also have been hurt by organizational ment business in the coming fiscal issues caused by the leveraged buyout of the company last year, Cox said. that, in itself, will be phenomenal.” —Stephen Lawson

Storage Spending Growing Again, But Not Quickly

“Though enterprises are still fast accumulating data, spending growth won’t return to the double-digit rates of a few years ago.” —Roger Cox, Analyst, Gartner pected to be different. As per Gartner, the revenues from external controllerbased storage, which includes both hard-drive and flash arrays rose to $6.3 billion worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2013. That was up 5 percent from a year earlier, but it came at the end of a dismal year for the industry. IT costs are spiralling and budgets areshrinking or declining. That hasn’t changed much—and may not either. 42

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So, what you invest in and do not becomes paramount. Flash storage has come into the fold as a preferred choice. Few years ago, the cost for an organization to invest in flash storage was high. This becomes an opportunity now for partners to move in and meet the demands with flash storage with their enterprise customers. But overall priorities for partners would be to approach customers with a complete

SDx IS IN The time for software-defined everything is here. Although it is at a nascent stage, slowly picking up pace, software-defined storage is gathering steam across India enterprise market. Gartner has software-defined anything (SDx) as the top 10 strategic technology trends for 2014. The report says that while openness will always be a claimed vendor objective, different interpretations of SDx definitions may be anything but open. “Backup and software-defined storage will be priority. We are going forward in information management with a focus on software based deployment, independent of the hardware,” says Atul Gosar, director of Network

Techlab. “Virtualization and cloud (private, public and hybrid) are driving data storage and backup solution requirements. We see enough growth potential in SMB and mid-market segments where customers are looking at consolidation of their IT infrastructure by using private cloud or public cloud for some of the applications,” he adds. “Software-based storage will slowly but surely become a dominant part of every datacenter, either as a component of a software-defined datacenter or simply as a means to store data more efficiently and cost-effectively,” said Ashish Nadkarni, research director, Storage Systems, IDC in a report last year. With a consistent and coherent set of definitions, suppliers can collectively help buyers realize the vision for SBS platforms, he says Virtualization is an aspect that has come within the realm of information and data management over the years. To consolidate its virtualization/datacenter emergence Wysetek in the last three years has built a strong storage practise by partnering with a major vendor. This has helped the company

Reader RoI 2 SDx offers big opportunities for partners to innovate and increase their revenues 2F lash drives are fast gaining acceptance across enterprises of all sizes including SMBs 2 Skilled team on new technologies like cloud and virtualization to propel storage business

to hit a revenue of over $2 million last year. “Despite the talk of slowdown in the market, we expect the storage revenues for us grow by fifty percent,” says Mathkar. “Virtualization always has a data storage requirement and now SDx is catching the fancy of the CIO. It is gaining interest with more vendors getting aggressive on this technology,” he adds. A big part of software-defined storage is the capability to expand i.e. it can include and accommodate the cloud’s benefits. Considering that the cloud market has always seen an up-

Virtualization always requires a data storage requirement and now SDX is fast catching the fancy of the CIO. RAJESH MATHKAR, DIRECTOR, WYSETEK SYSTEMS TECHNOLOGISTS

tick since its genesis there are massive gains to be had even in the virtualization market. Essentially softwaredefined storage is a part of an industry trend that includes software-defined networking and software defined datacenter. For partners engaging these new technologies there is help at hand from vendors as they will lean the vendor alliances to do their bit too. Wysetek like other channel partners depend a lot on support from vendor companies to enable the right training and certification for its resources within the organization. “We heavily depend on vendor T&C and skillset updates. Speciality programs help us to qualify for rebates and it also keeps our employees motivated and empowered. We don’t have programs of this nature that we run independently at present,” says Mathkar at Wysetek. Gosar at Network Techlab Gosar too believes that singing up with right vendor and getting the team on training and certification is a very important for a successful fiscal year for a channel partner like theirs. Ahamed is ready to collaborate with non-focused partners on the data management domain and increase the revenue for both sides. Mathkar says, “As technology progresses ahead across IT infrastructure, cloud is eating into the datacenter/virtualization pie. But as far as cloud goes, there is a proportional growth opportunities in the rest of the remaining market. This is where we will look to consolidate and expand our focus on the information management domain.” The opex trend is prevalent across all segments of technology as organisations are facing budget issues with upfront capex investment. The information management space of storage and back up is no different. “Customers too are adopting opex models and often look for service based model. “We are upgrading our strategy to offer flexible OPEX model to help customers manage their service model,” says Gosar at Network Techlab. Going ahead the path is clear for enterprise partners who want to excel in information management: Evolve or perish.  —Shreehari Paliath APRIL 2014

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Mobility

Beyond Devices Building a sound enterprise mobility strategy is vital for a solution provider. And the proliferation of mobile devices will fuel this trend across organizations.

OBILITY SOLUTIONS are not exactly new to the Indian enterprise. But since last year or so, mobile computing is transforming IT and the way companies do business on a large scale. As a result, they are also impacting the products and services IT channel companies offer their customers.

For the IT channel, the movement toward enterprise mobility solutions cannot be ignored. It is becoming evident that the VARs that focus only on a hardware resale model will miss most of the opportunity around mobility. Those VARs that put resources into helping customers explore mobile strategy, set

policies, integrate systems and build services around mobile apps will find the greatest returns. The path to higher-margin work around enterprise mobility exists more in consulting and integration. The mobility journey has its own set of issues and pitfalls, cautions Venu Reddy, Research Director, IDC. “Some key questions that organizations are grappling with are on data security, device management, and seamless integration (or extension) of mobile applications to the enterprise application suite. These issues require some specialty tools and skilled partners to ensure that they are designed, deployed and managed properly,” says Reddy.

GEARING UP Indian solution providers have geared up or are fast gearing for the big action

Upwardly Mobile

$1.8bn

Enterprise solutions require us to present a strong business case else we will never be able to get the mindshare of the customer.

is the estimated enterprise mobility market in India by 2017

VASUDEVAN SUBRAMANIAN, MD, NEWWAVE COMPUTING SOURCE: IDC

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7th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL n tency and practice internally over the in the mobility space, evolving their in endpoint mobility management, last 18 months or so, and believes that own success strategies in the bargain. which is part of its Business Solutions enterprise mobility solutions is will For Bangalore’s New Wave Computing, Business Unit, and which is already be an integral part of its overall pitch mobility has always a focus area – be it contributing to about 15 percent of to existing and prospective customat the end point or non-end point soluGOAPL’s overall business. Patodia ers in 2014 and onwards. The solution tions. The end–point mobility business comments, “The contribution will see provider is creating CoE for PoC and is more of a volume commoditized a rise in the coming fiscal.” methodologies that will render the game and transactional in nature with knowledge base independent of people devices being sold through setting up SHARPENING SKILLSETS and make it process driven. of stalls and through various corpoNew Wave has moved beyond ‘device’ From a business stand point, New rate campaigns at attractive discount selling and ‘skillset’ management and Wave is positioning itself across verpoints, while the enterprise mobility has astutely been working towards ticals quite aggressively – messaging solutions are a longer play for this solu- building an efficient mobility competion provider, who works with the likes of Citrix, VMware to pitch its ware to its enterprise customers. Vasudevan Subramanian, MD of New Wave Computing opines, “With Venu Reddy, research director, IDC, speaks the Gen-Y workforce now dominaton the changes in mobility trends and how ing the Indian enterprise, corporates partners can ride this wave. are looking at implementing BYOD policies every seriously. Enterprise Are large and medium enterprises adopting solutions require us to present a a BYOD policy in large numbers? Organizastrong business case else we will tions who have embraced mobility as a never be able to get the mindshare of key tool to drive productivity have also the customer. It’s an opportunity to used this to reach out to their customers get on the side of the customer and and drive faster, better, and fruitful engagehelp them find the best fit for their ments. This has sparked the new age of objectives while navigating through mobility adoption where mobility is being all the vendors.” aligned, and embedded into the business It is felt, for mobility to make sense, processes, thus making the need to emfiguring out how these devices intebrace mobility an absolute requirement. grate in with the business is the key. As companies adopt mobility they are aware of the large volume of Integration will be highly personalsmart devices adopted by both employees and customers. Hence the breath ized and take a specialized of devices that can support sophisticated mobile applications is fast skill set that’s not abundant increasing for BYOD or CYOD to become a more realistic solution. on the market right now. “MAM and MDM is where ANALYST Where are the challenges to use mobile applications to enable their emthe business and financial op- DIRECTION ployers? Companies that are keen to start (or continue) their mobility portunity tends to be,” says journey need to carefully evaluate the vendor for both their internal Subramanian. capability and also their partner ecosystem. The vendor should be Mumbai headquartered able to showcase their successful implementation(s) for other clients Galaxy Office Automation or ability to deliver on a POC before the full implementation of the (GOAPL) believes that mobility solumobility solution. In most cases the mobility aspect of the solution should tions cannot be looked at in isolabe an extension to the core business process where employees and customtion, and GOAPL has evolved its own ers can benefit from the elastic nature of the mobility. strategy to go-to-customers. Sanjay Patodia, CEO of GOAPL explains, Are the opportunities huge enough for solution providers and ISVs during this fis“Data resides everywhere – be it at the cal? As organizations start seeing the benefit of mobility in their respective device level or otherwise and securorganizations, they will inevitably look to mobilize many more business aping the data is a very big concern for plications and business processes. This creates an immense opportunity. businesses.” Companies will need to consider issues around data security, and data GOAPL is working towards securcontrol in situations when employees might have lost the device or even ing the ‘endpoint’ as they term it. This when the employee leaves the company. These though seemingly trivial is not a term that merely talks about issues are immensely complicated by the ownership (or lack) of the device devices, but includes desktops as well, by the company. Companies are advised to work with a trusted partner that which brings the enterprise in the understand the unique aspects of their industry and can bring the technoloambit. The solution provider is workgy competency to address these issues in a planned and systematic manner. ing on building its internal practice

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is the key, says Subramanian. The company organizes webinars to tell customers through use-cases, how to leverage the technologies around mobility. Also, New Wave is also actively working on joint marketing activities with its technology alliance vendors to organize road shows etc. New Wave also welcomes competition within the channel space as well as among the technology vendors. For example, the entry of VMware into mobility with the acquisition of AirWatch. It is expected that commercially, from next quarter, AirWatch would be active. Subramaniam says, “It is obvious competition will increase market size for all players.” The entry of new players would make the existing players vigilant and increase collaborative efforts to a greater extent in areas such as lead generation assistance (to monetize the offerings in the best possible manner), PoCs, where New Wave believes the vendors can do a little more work to set the pace for partners.

RIDING THE WAVE New Delhi based Umbrella Infocare, a mobility and cloud solutions company is also reaping the benefits of

Reader RoI 2E nterprises are implementing BYOD policies in a big way 2 Lot of business and financial opportunities exist in MAM and MDM 2 A strong business case around mobility will help get the mindshare of the customer sensing the wave. Founder-Director, Sanjay Agarwal is very upbeat about his decision to jump into the fray and move away from traditional businesses and to start this venture in February 2013. This company, just about a year old, is proof of Agarwal’s confidence and his success strategy gained from previous entrepreneurial ventures such as Momentum Infocare, which got acquired by Japanese firm Ricoh in 2011 for its competencies in information access, storage, security and other enterprise IT solutions . Over the last year, Umbrella has targeted customers in retail, legal services and manufacturing, amongst others, around Delhi-NCR region, and

Being an early player (in cloud based endpoint mobility management) is advantageous for us as there are very few players at the moment. SANJAY PATODIA, CEO, GALAXY OFFICE AUTOMATION 46

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has helped customers to migrate from Blackberry to Citrix XenMobile solutions. In the next phase, the solution provider is now supporting two Citrix customers – one in Dubai and the other in Canada. Envisaging a growth of 100 percent year-on-year, Agarwal also believes that a healthy bottom-line will ensure sustained interest in the levels of growth. He remarks, “In the spaces we operate in, a 10-15 percent bottomline makes it worth the while.” Capitalizing on its two and half decades of experience in the IT world, GOAPL’s winning score for the coming year and thereon will be what it terms as its own IP – a cloud based endpoint management solution for customers, which it will offer across the board no matter whatever type of model the customer prefers to go with – on premise or hybrid. The rationale behind the cloud offering is to help customers cut down on license costs per endpoint per month. Patodia remarks, “Being an early player will be an advantage since not too many solution providers are playing in this particular space at the moment. This will be our USP and also complements our strategy as well.” Going forward, GOAPL also plans to reduce its dependence on very large deals and also keep its vertical focused business stable. The company’s overall customer acquisition rate has been increasing by 30 percent year-on-year, and no change is foreseen. More focused on building a healthy bottom-line, Subramanian insists that any deal with a gross margin less than 15 percent is not worth looking at. At the same time, he advises caution that it is better to be cognizant of the fact these kind of deals don’t come along every other day. However, the company is clear about its vision, and hopes that smaller volume businesses will keep the fires burning while cracking the big ones. Given the pace at which solution providers are placing their bets and preparing themselves strategically for the mobility game, it seems highly likely 2014 will be the year of opportunities and growth for the industry.  —Shantheri Mallaya

Security

Threats Unlimited Increasing frequency of multi-vector threats across mobile, cloud, and the Web provide enough business opportunities for partner companies.

NFORMATION SECURITY is the

concern area for all organizations today. But the never ending threat landscape has further transformed the demand for security solutions. There is a clear transition from traditional security solutions to more sophisticated technologies needed by the organizations. Security has been a sweet-spot for enterprise partners for years and companies with a well sketched roadmap can expect a good fiscal year with this domain. Raksha Technologies continues to keep focusing on essential security things like End Point, Gateway security solutions which comprises of end point anti malware solutions and gateway e security solutions like UTM/NG firewalls, exclusive email and web security solutions. The Chennai-based partner organi-

zation registered major revenues to the tune of 65 percent from security last fiscal. We expect 25â&#x20AC;&#x201C;30 percent growth based on the new segments and the geography we plan to address in future. Apart from the essential solutions we would focus on APT, MDM, DLP, SIEM going forward, says V.Anand,

CEO, Raksha Technologies. PwC also views the next growth of phase for partners from the new emerging technologies and solutions in the security domain. SIs need to evolve solutions targeted at the high end of the security spectrum, says Sivarama Krishnan, Executive Director,

Security Marketâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Safe and Sound

$86bn is the expected size of the security market in 2016.

New roles have been assigned to executives for more structured focus maximise the big opportunities in APT, MDM, DLP and SIEM. V.ANAND, CEO, RAKSHA TECHNOLOGIES

SOURCE: Gartner

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IT Risks & Controls, PwC India. Jitesh Chauhan, Director, Rubik Infotech agrees, “This fiscal year would bring in more opportunity for Next Generation Firewall, DLP and SIEM. IRM is yet to pick up from the end customer prospective.” Krishnan at PwC views two distinct waves of development for SIs. “They need to develop and market independent offerings to meet the new emerging threats. The second revolves around SIs creating integrated offerings covering the traditional and the new. Interestingly, the ‘new’ is a moving target for information security.” And the dynamics of the security market require that both the waves are in quick succession, he says Ahmedabad-based solution provider Rubik has been aggressive on promoting DLP since last year. We have many customers—large and small sized organisations—who want an upgrade to Next Generation Firewall from the existing UTM/Firewall, he adds. Delhi headquartered CCS Computers is also riding on the security domain. “We are providing information security solutions to not only to big enterprises,

Reader RoI 2 Focus on security solutions around next-gen firewalls, APT, DLP, MDM, SIEM, and IRM

2 More verticalised as firms demand security solutions with higher degree of specialization

2 Acquire skills focused on

business outcomes rather than technology outcomes

but there are many opportunities in SMB segment also,” says Rajesh Bhatia, Rajesh Bhatia, MD, CCS Computers. Information security division contributed around 10- 12 percent of our service revenue and we are expecting a doubledigit growth in this domain, he adds. We are also providing turnkey solutions in the domain of information security i.e. providing single window solution to customers starting from the gap analysis to certification to international standards according to Bhatia. Information Assurance Services offered by CCS are offering lot of value adds to our customers and adding to the profitability of CCS as well as its customers, he says.

SCALING THE TEAM A dedicated team at CCS Computers works on product based information security solutions and a separate team for information security services. Periodic technical enhancement is the key to any service company and there is sufficient investment in this area. “We have a fully furnished in-house lab to meet scalable training needs. CCS is planning to offer our remote management services in the domain of servers, network and information security for off-shore market,” informs Pradeep Johri, vice president-Sales and Marketing, CCS Computers. Raksha Technologies has commenced with initiatives of internal changes (training and certification) in the new fiscal. “New roles have been assigned to executives for more structured focus as we realise that skill development in certain areas will help maximise the big opportunities in APT, MDM, DLP, and SIEM,” says Anand. We live in a perception based market feels Anand. “Even though we have skills and ability to execute certain things, customer perceive us in the way they saw us years back. To convince them to work with us for various new solutions, we added new members in our organization with experience in MNC and who have executed larger projects,” says Anand. With this new stream of professionals along with existing team members, Raksha Technologies is confident on achieving new milestones in emerging technology solutions. Rubik has also planned the team management and training schedule few months ago for this fiscal year. “All sales and pre-sales teams will undergo training on the focus security product. We plan to certify our existing support champs on the new technologies. We would like to expand more offices across Gujarat and reach to maximum customer in short time,” says Chauhan at Rubik Infotech.

CHANGING TRENDS

We are providing single window solution to customers, starting from gap analysis to certification to international standards. RAJESH BHATIA, MD, CCS COMPUTERS 48

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Are there changes in terms of security trends from a customer’s perspective? “Earlier customers used to talk about IT availability, whereas nowadays requirement is about business availabil-

ity. Our teams are geared up to meet these changing market demands,” says Johri at CCS Computers. “The customers have started moving Sivarama Krishnan, executive director, IT their critical applications to cloud serRisks & Controls, PwC India, talks on the sevice provider datacenter, without takcurity market trends over the next 12 months. ing enough security measures. These changes are inevitable and we do see What is the market demand for newer secuan opportunity here of taking adequate rity solutions in 2014 and onwards for India? precautions and just not rely on the The market for security solutions in the shared services being provided by the country has evolved rapidly. Increase in cloud service vendor,” says Anand. regulatory requirements and threat inciThere has been only a slight change dences coupled with the proliferation of in the customer perspective for setechnologies has resulted in a rapid shift curity products according to Chaufrom reactive solutions to proactive soluhan. “Customers are now curious to tions. Consequently, solutions focused hear in-depth details of the security on (1) mobile devices (BYOD included), products to be with the technology. social media and cloud (2) information life However, major IT heads are not able cycle management (3) data privacy (4) governance and compliance will find to convince the management for the greater uptake with the organizations operating in India. dire need of new security technologies to the emergent threats, Any significant trends for SIs to keep a close track in the security space? he says. There are three major shifts or changes that SI partners will need to Another important trend factor in their strategies. Firstly, the security space is becoming inis the proliferation of tablets ANALYST creasingly verticalised which means that the clients expect security DIRECTION with higher degree of specialization by sectors. Clients have stopped and mobile devices (and BYOD) which will definitely buying the ‘one size fits all’ approach to information security. Secondly, help us weave a security organizations are looking at stronger solutions to predict threats. The layer consisting of various focus is on ‘nipping them in the bud’. Thirdly, organizations have widtools to protect and securely manage ened the ambit of security to encompass information assets beyond or exterthe data which is wide spread across nal to the company. This implies that there is a distinct requirement for soluvarious devices, says Anand. tions and services to secure information assets in this external environment. With 50 percent of revenues from security, Rubik Infotech aims to scale What skills they need to augment their position, business, profitability, and enthe revenue to 80 percent in the next gagement with customers? SIs will need to acquire skills that are focused on two to three years. “We see a huge business outcomes rather than technology outcomes for increasing market potential in the security domain if we share. Impact of security investments need to be assessed in terms of busifocus heavily on DLP, encryption, and ness benefits and the case for these investments needs to be created in terms next generation firewall. The bottom of business drivers. line and the profitability will definiteTier-2 channel will need to evolve and improve on competencies to meet ly be much better,” says Chauhan. the changing customer requirements and continue to be relevant in the marCCS has tied up with many ket. Tier 2 channel will have to innovate not only in products and offerings OEM’s for security products who but also in overall delivery. are providing assistance not only for training of their internal teams, now a days. We have various internal programme for our sales team.” OEMs but they are conduct joint POC at teams working on storage, Information at large have now realised more that many customer sites as per Johri. Security and availability and business there is a huge market in the security Anand at Raksha Technologies domain and everyone wants to capture continuity solutions,” says Bhatia at agrees, “If we are serious and invest CCS Computers. the market share before it becomes in their (OEMs) product lines, they Last year Raksha Technologies more of commodity products, he says. reciprocate and take joint ownership formed two new practices on Information management (data in accomplishing the mutual goal. storage backup DR/archival and storage, back up, software-defined They help in skill development, client management tools especially storage, flash drives, etcetera) is also joint marketing efforts, and provide from IBM. This helped us to acquire a key domain for security focused assistance in sales closures.” new clients and infuse new skill partner companies. “Information is According to Chauhan, “Principal sets in our company, says Anand at now the lifeline of every business companies are supporting in all forms Raksha Technologies.  to pick up the deal in security portfolio and proper handling of business information is the biggest challenge including running many incentive —Yogesh Gupta

Days Of ‘One Size Fits All’ Is Over

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Social Media

A Mixed Bag The social media onslaught makes it necessary for solution providers to rethink their strategies to engage with customers more effectively. Engaging Organizations

42%

of Indian organizations are investing in social media for external communications SOURCE: Digital IQ Survey, PwC India

Customers want a lot of customization on social media tools to be an add-on, and not a value-add to pay for. That makes monetization a barrier. MANOJ GUPTA, FOUNDER-CEO, GRID INFOCOM

HE ADVENT of social me-

dia coupled with its access across devices has made the proliferation of data and the management of social media networks extremely critical. Leading companies in India are realizing that participation 50

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in social media is no longer an option, but a requirement. According to a Digital IQ Survey conducted by PwC India last year, 42% of Indian organizations are presently investing in social media for external communications with customers and

suppliers. Says Arnab Basu, Executive Director, Technology Consulting, PwC India, â&#x20AC;&#x153;This is more than the global average of 33%. They also expect the use of social media to increase substantially over the next 12 months. Facebook seems to be the most preferred platform followed by LinkedIn and Twitter. Most of the companies have been using social media tools for mining social media sites, blogs, consumer reviews and other such data sources to find out what individual customers think and wantâ&#x20AC;?. Effectively, PwC findings clearly point out that this trend is expected to intensify further in 2014 and the focus is expected to be more on adding value to the business through social business transformation to identify new forms for revenue generation.

7th ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL n Waves of change are hitting critical verticals such as telecom and BFSI as well. K Balakrishnan, CEO of Chennai’s Servion Global Solutions also observes Arnab Basu, executive director, Technology that banks, especially the newer ones, Consulting, PwC India, is of the opinion that are acknowledging social media as social media skillsets are integral to an SI’s a means to reach customers, and are overall business approach actively tracking perceptions through the use of social media tools. Certain What is the market feel about the growth in demographics are being touched, such demand for social media solutions in India in as loans of a certain kind, say housing 2014 and onwards? Social media is bound loans, auto loans, amongst others. He to grow in India in 2014. This will primarsays, “However, there is a rider to this: ily be driven by increase in internet and Banks won’t garner business using social smartphone users and a young populamedia beyond a point for various securition. This growing user base provides an ty and privacy restrictions and reasons.” ideal platform for enterprises for targeted Chennai’s Kaar Technologies is proof marketing and customer engagement of this. The solution provider strongly through collaborative conversations. believes that ‘SMAC’ (Social- Mobile -Analytics- Cloud) should be the busiWhat are the changes in the social media space that SI partners would have to ness agenda of every CXO for watch out for? Social media can be classified into two categories: the next five years. Karthik An enterprise platform for collaboration with multiple stakeholders Manoharan, head – Strategic by leveraging a social platform, and secondly a solution or tool for Marketing, Kaar Technologies generating insights from data collected from multiple social media ANALYST sources. We see the role of a SI primarily in the first category. DIRECTION says,“We blend social media in our marketing-mix and drive The social media platforms are also unique in the sense that our numbers. We are yet to see they leverage multiple emerging technologies like data analysis and business results, but quite opmanagement, big data analytics, stream computing, content managetimistic on our social media efment, mobility, cloud computing etc. SI’s will have to develop skills forts. Now, we are eager to even extend to educate end-customers on how to manage change and effectively address our social learning to our customers issues of information integration, process re-engineering, governance, risk, through SAP’s social media tools.” and compliances. Kaar Technologies also believes that the SMAC phenomenon is revoIn your opinion, are there enough competencies in the Indian tier-2 channel lutionizing the entire business landtowards this end? We see social media as a subset of the bigger piece—the scape. Among SMAC, Social Media digital enterprise. There are multiple players in this space from bigger takes the front seat, as it stands for consulting players focussing on enterprise digital transformation strategy the voice of consumer/customers. to advertising companies providing social analytics services with a brand Manoharan explains, “Today’s busiand marketing perspective to niche players providing specific social media ness world is driven by consumers and solutions. As iterated in previous questions the role of SIs in social media their sentiments. Businesses cannot is limited to developing enterprise platforms and helping customers to efafford to miss out the likes and dislikes fectively integrate these platforms into its DNA. There is a shortage of skills of their customers. Organizations, iramong SIs today in helping or advising client on how to manage this change respective of business type and size, and in turn emerge as a digital enterprise. have started listening, engaging and influencing their customers using social media channels.” terprise platforms have an impact on CHANNEL OPPORTUNITY This emerging trend is opening the customer expectations, employee In this fast changing scenario where up new business opportunities for expectations and business processes there is a distinct social media onsoftware solution providers. At Kaar, which in turn change the way the slaught, it is imperative for the partner plans are afoot to extend the service companies do business and engage ecosystem to keep pace. Along with portfolio to Social Media during this with markets. SI partners need to take knowledge of the particular social enfiscal year. The service will be a piva note of this and develop the required terprise platforms, the SI’s will have to otal cross selling opportunity for the skills to employ social co-creation build competencies on the emerging solution provider. Manoharan states, techniques. They will also have to technologies like data science, big data “Few of our existing customers have develop skills that can help customers analytics, stream computing, content already shown their interest towards to effectively integrate the social enmanagement, mobility, cloud computthis planned-to-offer service. It is a terprise platforms into the traditional ing etc. motivating sign for us to move ahead.” enterprise fabric”. Says Basu of PwC India, “Social en-

Right Partnerships

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Sanjay Agarwal, Founder-Director of New Delhi’s Umbrella Infocare concurs with this belief that social networking solutions are the next area of growth for its business. The company, which is about a year old, has made plans to look at social media through SaaS. Says Agarwal, “We are also evaluating internal portals to give to corporate customers as our offering.”

STRATEGIZE FOR BENEFIT Chennai’s Kaartech’s strategy is to help customers implement SAP Social Media Analytics by Netbase and SAP Cloud for Social Engagement through its service offering. From a business perspective, this is distinctly a cross selling opportunity for the company. Further on, Kaar is also exploring service package that integrates Social Media and CRM as a one single entity. The package will help customers to improve customer service and engagement index using social media channels. Says Manoharan, “Our team is getting trained on both SAP Social Media Analytics by Netbase and SAP Cloud for Social Engagement tools. In addition, trainings and workshops are planned on topics such as consumer

Reader RoI 2C ustomer segments such as BFSI, telecom, and education are seeking social media solutions 2 Social media solutions need to be monetized to be profitable 2C reating a strong value proposition for customers with social media offerings is key to success behavior, trend analysis, insight mining etc to help our team to maximize business output from these tools during implementation”. Kaar is also aggressively interacting with its customer community via blogs, forums, email questionnaire, amongst other means, to understand their business pain points which can be addressed using Social Media. Besides, the company has a full –fledged 10-12 members comprising marketers, analysts and technologists who possess experience in deploying and managing SAP Social Media Analytics and SAP Cloud for Social Engagement tools. On the vendor support front, Kaar Technologies says it is leveraging all

Organizations have started listening, engaging, and influencing their customers using social media channels. KARTHIK MANOHARAN, HEAD-STRATEGIC MARKETING, KAAR TECHNOLOGIES 52

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assistance that comes its way from its technology partner, SAP in the form of periodic trend reports, research findings, expert sessions, thought workshops and best practices on social media tools. Any business opportunity that promises close to 5% of revenue slab is definitely a good avenue for business for this solution provider. Manoharan states, “We look at this number right at the beginning which we expect to go up. Social media is definitely a promising business opportunity”.

LESSONS LEARNT A good social media business plan doesn’t always guarantee sustained growth. Monetizing the offerings is the bigger challenge faced by solution providers. Gurgaon based Grid Infocom, which gives out walled-community Social Media solutions to its customers through a platform called Ukuya, discovered to its dismay that despite an excellent offering for B2B customers, there wasn’t enough money coming in. Says Manoj Gupta, Founder -CEO of Grid Infocom, “Customers want a lot of customization on social media tools to be an add-on, and not a value-add to pay for. That makes monetization a barrier.” Grid Infocom’s social media business didn’t show the desired outcomes during the fiscal. Gupta’s skepticism stems from the fact that the domestic markets for Grid’s offerings have not seen the kind of impact that was expected, while its overseas partner Ukuya is still garnering good business in places such as Malaysia and Australia. All said and done, Gupta also states that there is a definite market for social engine analytics, that needs to be tapped by the solution provider community. Agarwal of Umbrella Infocare, however, is more optimistic, about the business plan that he has been mulling for the fiscal 2013-14. He states, “We do see potential in HR modules going social in an effective manner.” Given the mood and the interest from the customers about going social, it becomes imperative for the channel to scale up and ‘go social’ too in 2014.  —Shantheri Mallaya

The sociable weaver birds are skilled nest builders that boast of the most elaborate community nests. These are divided using walls of grass placed atop a base of large sticks. A single communal site can measure up to two meters in height and eight meters in width. At the entrance to the nest, sharp sticks are placed to ward off intruders.

Ingenious!

5-6 JUNE, 2014 l JW MARRIOTT, PUNE

n FAST TRACK

Snapshot

Total Presentation Devices

Founded: 1995 Headquarters: Mumbai Branches: Bangalore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad, Ranchi, Gurgaon,Noida, Lucknow,Chandigarh, Kolkata, Bhopal, Indore Revenue 2013-14: Rs 234 crore Revenues 2012-13: Rs 202 crore Revenue2011-12: Rs 181 crore Key Executives: Sanjay Sarkar, VP; Naveen Gupta, DGM; Ira Sengupta, Sr. Manager; Patitapaban, Finance head Key Principals : Own IP-based solutions, Cisco, Lifesize, Vu Key Business Activities: Video conferencing solutions, AV system integration, IP surveillance, Bridge videoconferencing applications

We command a first mover advantage in video conferencing says Nandita Singgha, MD, Total Presentation Devices.

N INDUSTRY pioneer to introduce videoconferencing(VC) in India in 2001, Nandita Singgha is a prodigious entrepreneur with a strong belief in futuristic solutions. Total presentation Devices is the first and only company to be ISO 9001-2008 certified for quality services in VC and AV Systems Integration in India. “We aspire to be listed on the NASDAQ ,” says Nandita Singgha, Founder and MD, Total Presentation Devices. A part of $62 million group company; the parent company Total Presentation Devices ( VC, hardware and software-based applications, cloud and data centre) registered 30 percent CAGR last fiscal despite heavy fluctuation in dollar rates. “The expansion plan in thirty countries and

a revolutionary roadmap will help register 1000 crore rupee revenues by 2016,” she says. “The subdued demand amongst enterprises in 2013 compelled OEMs to cut operational expenses,” she re-

TECHNOLOGY SPLIT 14%

Enterprise applications

Networking

22%

Services

UC and collaboration

54%

Video conferencing

Photograph by KAPIL SHROFF

Website: www.totalacs.co.in calls. Singgha, however, sensed a colossal opportunity across SMBs. The innovative offering of in-house ‘VC in a box’ solutions at affordable price (Rs 10-15 lakh) targeted niche segments like schools, multiplexes and manufacturing units in India. It pays to be more practical than a technical solution provider as the ‘buyback with lease’ option was a godsend, reasons Singgha. SMBs contribute half of the company’s revenues. We have serviced 1 lakh clients till date, she says proudly. India contributing only 3 percent to VC market as per her is a huge untapped market. “The major vendors’ foray in 2006 challenged our monopoly and we ventured into software based application solutions for first mover advantage,” she says. With 54 percent revenues from VC, one-third are cloud-based deployments. Most solutions focus on visual aspect but our solutions have DTS, DOLBY, 4K as new audio protocol, she adds. The company does not have a sales team. The client interface is empowered by relationship managers through a new skillset designed and registered as proprietary skillset for first time in the world, adds Singgha.  —Yogesh Gupta

SOURCE: TOTAL PRESENTATION DEVICES

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A honey bee performs a carefully choreographed ‘waggle’ that instructs the rest of the hive where to find a food source. This dance communicates the precise direction, the exact distance, and the type of flower. A successful presentation will see several sisters return with her to forage in the field. They, in turn, bring back more pollen and spread the word until the hive is finally full.

Ingenious!

5-6 JUNE, 2014 l JW MARRIOTT, PUNE

n OPINION

PRESTON GRALLA

Putting IT to Good Use It would be great for IT companies if they can put patents to better use, rather than deploying it as a means of bludgeoning competitors.

Preston Gralla is a Computerworld.com contributing editor and the author of more than 35 books, including How the Internet Works (Que, 2006). 56

NYONE LOOKING at the list of companies receiving

the most patents in 2013 might think that Microsoft has been releasing some of the world’s most innovative products, that BlackBerry is one of the most innovative companies on the planet, and that Apple and Google are embarking on new innovation agendas. But they’d be wrong, of course, because patents don’t necessarily equal innovation. In January, IFI Claims Patent Services

released its annual list of companies with the most patents issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and Microsoft, perennially on the list, was ranked No. 5, up from No. 6 in 2012. (IBM was No. 1, retaining its spot as the top patent-getter for the 21st year in a row.) Microsoft’s patent portfolio might lead you to believe that it was churning out innovative products. But that’s far from the case. Windows 8 underwhelmed analysts and consumers in 2013. The company had to take a $900 million writedown on unsold inventory of Surface RT tablets, and it continues to lag far behind in the smartphone and tablet markets, where innovation matters most. As for No. 20 BlackBerry, it broke into the top 20 for the first time in 2013, jumping from No. 29. But no one would argue that 2013 was an innovative year for BlackBerry. Its Z10 and Q10 smartphones did so poorly the company had to take a $960 million inventory writedown, and by the third quarter, its market share had plummeted to a lowly 1.5 percent, according to ABI Research. Apple also jumped into the top 20 for the first time, at No. 13, yet 2013 was a year in which the shine was off the company, as it introduced no new major innovations and focused primarily on shoring up existing businesses. Similarly, Google entered the top 20 at No. 11, yet one can’t point to any

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major, groundbreaking new products the company released. It’s that patents don’t necessarily equal innovation. That’s not even their ultimate purpose for some companies. Today, lawyers at times have as much influence as engineers, if not more, and patents are used to fend off competitors and to force them to pay licensing fees that can run to billions of dollars annually. Microsoft is a prime example. It has targeted manufacturers of Android devices, claiming that they are violating its patents, in order to get them to sign licensing agreements. Those agreements bring in $2 billion a year in royalties, according to financial analyst Rick Sherlund. Microsoft isn’t alone. Apple has used patents in a similar manner, notably in its suit against Samsung. And the people who believed that Google purchased Motorola in 2011, not for its manufacturing prowess but for its sizable patent war chest, have been vindicated by the news that Google is selling Motorola but keeping its patents. That doesn’t mean that companies like Microsoft, Apple and Google should cut back on research and stop pursuing patents. It’s good that US companies are on the list of the biggest patent holders. But it would be better if those patents were put to their best use, developing innovative products, rather than being deployed as a means of bludgeoning competitors. 

Focal Point EVERYTHING ABOUT MDM

at Gartner, BYOD adoption can range anywhere from 15 percent to upwards of 50 percent within a company depending on various factors like security requirements, form factor, industry, and risk appetite. There’s no question that a significant chunk of these devices that are free of any sort of anti-virus protection are being used in enterprise scenarios. The first question, then, is why that’s the case.

DETERMINING THREAT LEVELS

A Case for an

Antivirus Should you really invest in an antivirus for your smartphone or tablet? By Grant Hatchimonji

T’S NO secret,

or at least not anymore: People generally do not use any sort of antivirus or malware protection on their mobile device. Recent IDC research has indicated that only 5 percent of all smartphones and tablets have some sort of security tools installed on

them, raising the question of whether or not that kind of software is even necessary. While it’s true that this statistic included both enterprise and consumer audiences, they are often one in the same. According to Dionisio Zumerle, a principal research analyst

In terms of a threat presence, there’s no shortage of mobile malware floating around out there, at least according to anti-virus vendors. McAfee numbers, for example, indicate that 377,000 unique pieces of mobile malware were blocked in the month of July this year. But whether or not this kind of commercial software is even the right approach is a point of contention. “Antivirus is not the right answer to malware,” said Zumerle. “It’s more of a reaction than a solution.” He went on to acknowledge that cases of malware pop up occasionally for consumers (particularly in scenarios involving financial transactions or repackaging attacks), like a couple of high profile Trojans in 2012 called Operation High Roller and Eurograbber, which resulted in $16 million and 36 million Euros being stolen, respectively. But generally that kind of malware really isn’t a concern for enterprise users right now. In fact, as it stands now, anti-virus could hurt more than it can help. “You shouldn’t include [antivirus software]

just because you can, said Zumerle. “Software that is continuously scanning or patching will drain the battery. And besides, this malware is very quick in evolving and changing, and a lot of this antivirus software is signature based. If you have new viruses, what are you going to do? At a certain point you won’t be able to catch up and it will essentially be ineffective.” Tyler Shields, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, shared similar sentiments, though he also maintained that many users aren’t using antivirus simply because there s no incentive. In fact, Forrester numbers from Q2 2012 Forrsights Security Survey indicated that only 28 percent of 692 firms surveyed were “very concerned” about mobile security issues. “It’s like living in a nice community with high walls, so you don’t have to lock your door. That’s fine until you get robbed,” said Shields. “Until there’s a huge [virus] that hits and makes it into the media, people just won’t do it. They aren’t incentivized to do it.” As for fighting off any future threats, Shields also agreed that the traditional style of largely signaturebased software will be completely ineffective at stopping unknown viruses. It can stop known ones, he said, but it doesn’t stop the original outbreak. Software developers have to work anomaly behavioral-based detection into their engines, and only then will they have a chance of staying ahead of the mobile players. “We have to start looking at the game differently and

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n FOCAL POINT | MDM stop with the arms race approach,” he said. But the vendors say this is already the case. Mike Fey, McAfee’s Worldwide chief technology officer, insists that his company’s software works off of both signatures and anomalous behavior. “You have to try to build into your scheme as much as possible,” he said. “We use signatures to ensure speed. If you know something is inherently bad, you might as well block it.” Fey did add, however, that there will continue to be changes to McAfee’s approach further down the road, even if the threat remains the same. Its software may be scrubbing apps as they download, he said, it may make sure that they’re actually from the right store. But the attackers’ motives and capabilities won t change simply because of a device format change. “In terms of how the software works, it’s not always going to be handled the same way,” he said. “Our protection schemes will change.” As for fighting off any future threats, Shields also agreed that the traditional style of largely signaturebased software will be completely ineffective at stopping unknown viruses. It can stop known ones, he said, but it doesn’t stop the original outbreak. Software developers have to work anomaly behavioral-based detection into their engines, and only then will they have a chance of staying ahead of the mobile players. “We have to start looking at the game differently and stop with the arms race approach,” he said. 58

Management Vendors Show Windows Phone Some Love

BM-owned Fiberlink and BlackBerry are adding Windows Phone to the list of platforms they can manage and protect, as enterprise interest for the smartphone OS is increasing. Microsoft has always had a strong position in the enterprise, but has struggled to keep up with Apple and the Android camp as they have stepped up competition with Blackberry over the enterprise smartphone market. But with an upcoming enterprise update and wider support from MDM (vendors, Microsoft will soon be in a better position. “Of course it’s really important that the MDM platforms enterprises use have support for the OS. Many have already chosen and purchased a product, and they will hardly throw it out and buy a new one to get support for Windows Phone,” said Leif-Olof Wallin, research vice president at Gartner, via email. Blackberry has recently started pushing cross-platform management functionality more But the vendors say this is already the case. Mike Fey, McAfee’s Worldwide Chief Technology Officer, insists that his company’s software works off of both signatures and anomalous behavior. “You have to try to build into your scheme as much as possible,” he said. “We use signatures to ensure speed. If you know something is inherently bad, you might as well block it.” Mark Birmingham and Greg Sabey, director of product marketing and senior technology PR manager for Kaspersky, agreed that antivirus companies can no longer get away with just signature-based

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aggressively as it tries to turn around its fortunes. “What we have said in conjunction with that is that as we hear from customers that they really want to support a platform we don’t currently support, we’ll add it. So the requests from customers got sufficient enough for Windows Phone that it was time to step up to that. BES 12 seemed to be the logical time for us to look at that capability,” said John Sims, president, global enterprise solutions at BlackBerry. BES (Blackberry Enterprise Server) 12 will start shipping at the end of the year, and can be used manage devices running Blackberry’s own OSes, Android and iOS, as well. A broader adoption of Windows Phone 8 in the U.S. and Europe was also enough for Fiberlink to launch the MaaS360 Secure Productivity Suite for Windows Phone 8, which includes secure email, calendar, contacts and browser. To protect enterprise assets, the IT department can use enterprise detection. Rather, they need to make their protection as close to real-time as possible. “Signatures are reactive,” said Birmingham. “We need to have proactive technologies or it’s not enough. They talk about having zero day threats... we’re closing in on zero minute.”

IS THE STORM HERE? Everyone, whether they’re a vendor or part of a security firm, appears to be on the same page regarding the necessity of proactive protection. Where the narratives tend to clash, however, is over whether or not there is an immediate threat.

app containers to prevent data leaks and block the forwarding of documents, according to Fiberlink. Microsoft is also taking matters into its own hands with a long-awaited enterprise feature pack that was first announced in July last year. The update will arrive “later this spring” and improve security with signed and encrypted S/MIME (Secure/ Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) and a virtual private network client that automatically is triggered when an enterprise resource is accessed, said Joe Belfiore, who runs Microsoft’s Windows Phone platform. “Microsoft must put out the feature pack during the first half of the year like it promised to show the company is serious about the enterprise market. Surprisingly, there were a number of small things missing from Windows Phone 8 that when put together showed a lack of focus on enterprise needs,” Wallin said. —Mikael Ricknäs

“Malware comes later on in the pantheon of risks,” said Zumerle, who explained that if users follow certain measures like MDM, jailbreak protection, and not accessing third party app stores, they can greatly reduce the risk of malware for the time being. Losing your device and not having data protection, a complex or long password, or the ability to remotely wipe the device, he said, is a greater concern. “Forward looking, there’s no doubt that mobile devices will eventually account for a significant part of enterprise breaches,” added Zumerle. “But if we’re looking at it right now, the

numbers are not there yet. And part of that is because we’re still shifting from workstations to mobile devices, and that takes time.” But the numbers are there, according to Birmingham and Sabey, who pointed to statistics that Kaspersky analysts had pulled together that said over 100,000 samples of mobile malware had been added to the company’s library as of June 30 of last year (the majority of which were backdoor, Trojan, and Trojan SMS viruses). Likewise, McAfee’s Q2 2013 threat report indicated that by halfway through this year, the company had already collected about as many malware threats as it did in all of 2012, adding more than 17,000 samples to its database in Q2 alone. “There’s that hockey stick growth in malware in general, and an even steeper pitch in mobile malware,” said Birmingham. “It’s the easiest target. I don t think people in general understand that smartphones are nothing more than small, really smart computers. They’re great targets for malware.” More specifically, Birmingham said the biggest growth rate for mobile malware is on the Android platform. The open nature of Google’s operating system makes it easy for anybody to develop for it, including malware developers; according to Kaspersky research, in 2012, 99 percent of total mobile malware detections were targeting Android. McAfee’s research indicated that this statistic was also true as recently as Q2 of this year. “We’ve seen plenty of malicious apps making it into the Google Play store

and only after the fact is Google realizing what it is,” said Sabey. “That s the real telltale sign that there’s a problem: that you can go into this supposedly legitimate place and still get infected.” While Apple has a more thorough vetting process for its applications, iOS is not invulnerable either. Fewer mobile security agents are available on iOS—ikely a contributor to the low numbers discovered by the IDC surve— and the very process that makes the platform safe results in a slow response time in terms of approving and rolling out patches. Either way, said Birmingham, users need to be safer. “These devices are computers and I would ask people if they would operate their computers at home without an anti-virus solution,” said Birmingham. He went on to point out that malware has gone from nuisance-based to malware for profit, and that attackers are going to go where it’s easiest to go. The industry is partially to blame, which Birmingham says hasn’t drawn enough attention to the fact that mobile devices require protection. Sabey added, “The value of the data on the device is much more valuable than the device itself. And these malware developers are reading the same stats you are. They see that nobody s protected on their mobile devices and say, ‘Okay, let’s go after that.’” But even the vendors don’t appear to be in agreement over whether the threat is here, or simply on its way. Fey admitted that while there is plenty of mobile malware in existence,

there has yet to be a significant, large-scale attack. It’s coming though, he said, because the growth of mobile malware is exponential; it’s just a matter of when. “Our data shows that every month, [cases of mobile malware] are higher and higher. It’s escalating faster than it did in the PC world,” said Fey. “It’s coming our way. The timing is up for the debate, the inevitability is not.” Shields was more or less on the same page, saying that a storm is definitely brewing, but it has yet to arrive because right now most businesses are in a

but if I had to guess, I’d say somewhere in the next three years.” But he, like Zumerle, maintained that malware isn’t as much of a concern right at this moment. “What’s holding [malware programmers] off is that it’s still so easy to do it on the PC side, so why bother? Right now there’s no need for them to move into the mobile space. [PCs are] the path of least resistance. But they’ll have something to move to eventually.” He went on to add that if anything, attackers are likely to start with targeted attacks first after the ma-

Those considering allowing BYOD or generally wanting their workforce to be more flexible need to containerize important apps. state of flux in terms of making the shift to mobile. “Once the mobile population takes over the PC population, they’ll shift,” said Shields of attackers’ targets. He admitted that he’s been bracing himself for a high-profile infection to break onto the scene, though it has yet to come. “I wrote the first piece of BlackBerry spyware in 2010 [for white hat reasons] and I’ve been saying it’s coming and it still hasn’t come. But the stars are beginning to align.” If you look at the trends across the board, he said – including the increasing percentage of BYOD users and those with multiple devices, as well as the gradually decreasing number of people who travel with laptops—it’s telling. “It’s an eventual convergence, Shields continued. “I can’t say when a major attack is going to strike,

jority of users make the shift to mobile. “What you will you see before the massive quantity attacks are the targeted attacks. Advanced persistent threats will happen first as they target specific peoples’ phones.” This is, of course, so the attackers can test the waters while also ensuring that they pinpoint highprofile, person-of-interest type targets where money stands to be made off of the attacks. “Once the attackers are comfortable, they’ll move over to mass attacks,” he said. Fey was in accordance, saying that in the case of targeted attacks, attackers can exploit any platform they choose, but a largescale attack is another story. “When you look at things en masse...we just haven’t seen these mass shifts to mobile yet,” he said. “But you’re seeing the concern from companies

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Oracle Introduces Mobile Security Suite for Android and iOS

FTER acquiring mobile application management company Bitzer Mobile late last year, Oracle announced that it has taken Bitzer’s basic “container” technology for Apple ioS and Google Android and linked it to identity management. In introducing Oracle Mobile Security Suite, Amit Jasuja, senior vice president of Java and identity management at Oracle, said the underlying Bitzer technology was extended so that the enterprise can establish authentication and use policies for iOS and Android devices via Oracle’s identity-management gateway. This eliminates the need to set up a separate management component solely for mobile devices, and ties iden-

like Samsung to make sure that their devices are more secure than everyone else’s.”

MALWARE FIGHTING ALTERNATIVES Those who are concerned about mobile malware, said Zumerle, should be less focused on anti-virus software and more focused on countering it at the source. “Have an enterprise app store for your users, or use tools like secure web gateway,” he said. “Clean the networks or the app store or both. These are much more efficient solutions and are aligned to the model that you get from the mobile device ecosystem in general.” Zumerle also suggested that IT not allow users to jailbreak or root their phones. “If you break the sandboxing mechanism, there are a whole lot of other vulnerabilities,” he said. 60

tity and access management into mobile, Jasuja says. Mobility “should be a feature of identity management,” he says. Oracle Mobile Security Suite presents the means to set up a “secure workspace” for Android and iOS so that the enterprise can separate out corporate and personal apps, making it suitable for BYOD. The enterprise can enforce policies while allowing the user privacy in the personal space. In terms of security controls, the enterprise can enforce single sign-on, per application tunneling, encryption for stored data and integration with Microsoft Active Directory for shared-drive access. The product comes with a corporate application catalog and “wrapping” tool to include

“Don’t allow privilege escalation. You can do this with an MDM suite with jailbreak detection.” Essentially, the idea is that IT should ensure that security controls on a device are enabled before they’re even connected into a company’s environment. This, of course, includes encryption, secure passwords, and the original version of the OS. “You want to set a bar of entry,” said Fey. “You can get additional security with mobile security solutions, but at a bare minimum, you want to confirm a viable configuration before you let a connection back to your servers.” But some say that MDM, at least some aspects of it, isn’t a perfect solution either. It can aid in detecting viruses, Shields said, such as noticing if a phone has been rooted. As a form of secondary detection MDM

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apps into this secure workspace. No software-development kit is needed for this, says Jasuja. In terms of mobile security controls, the Oracle Mobile Security Suite software can limit access or restrict functionality based on location, application-policy control, and limiting copy/paste/print as a data-loss prevention feature. It also supports remote wipe for when an employee exits the job. For those that want to pull out the stops on the identity management side, the mobile software can be made to function with the fraud detection, governance and compliance controls found in Oracle Identity & Access Management. —Ellen Messmer

is serviceable, but it can’t generally be considered a security solution in the traditional sense. “MDM in the traditional sense won’t stop anything,” added Shields. Shields did agree, however, that controlling the software that ends up on the device is key. Envisioning security as a stack – with the network carrier at the bottom, then the hardware, then the OS, and finally the applications ndash; Shields says that none of these aspects can be controlled or secured by enterprise security teams except the applications/data itself. “So to prevent infection, you need to limit the applications put on the device to the only the ones that have been properly vetted for security and privacy.” Perhaps the most the important step in preventing infection is awareness and changing the mentality

of both users and security teams. When it comes to mobile security, said Zumerle, the way it’s approached needs to be a radical change from the way workstations have been secured in the past. “You need to protect data in different ways. You need to focus on apps,” he said. This is why, said Zumerle, MDM focus has generally been shifting toward apps. Encryption, passwords, etc. are good, but those considering allowing BYOD or generally wanting their workforce to be more flexible need to containerize important apps. Birmingham added that while Kaspersky can containerize and wall off corporate data on phones, there are other important security measures to take. “Another thing you’re going to want to do is to wipe just the corporate side remotely if the phone is lost,” he said. “You also want to make sure the data container is encrypted, that way that data is ambiguous if you can’t wipe it in time.” So with these other options, does this mean that anti-virus software isn’t necessary? When asked directly if his company’s software was essential to enterprise users right now, Fey was adamant in his response, suggesting that even if there isn’t an immediate threat of a widespread attack, the types of existing threats are no less dangerous. “Without a doubt, yes [it’s necessary]. We have seen actual attacks, and these are safe guards that will help protect users from hundreds of thousands of different types of attacks,” he said. “As we look at mobile security in the future, it will be measured in damages, not the damaged.”

MDM | FOCAL POINT n

Taking the Fun Outta BYOD

whereby app developers and MDM vendors must scramble to make changes to their software.

LESS AGILE BIG BOYS

BYOD has been a hit with employees. But some MDM softwares threaten to send them screaming. By Tom Kaneshige

TOP ME if you’ve seen this sci-fi movie before: Humans develop software to make life more convenient, but the software does its job too well and ultimately turns on its creators. Well, we’re not there yet. But an echo of this theme is emerging in the fast-evolving BYOD (or Bring Your Own Device) market. Only two years ago, BYOD flooded the enterprise, in part thanks to new-fangled mobile device management (MDM) software that struck a balance between letting employees enjoy the convenience of work and personal apps on a single device while providing a security blanket for companies. But now signs point to companies taking advantage of advanced MDM capabilities, thus threatening to ruin the user experience. “We think some IT organizations that are used to having strong controls in place on mobile devices are going to implement MDM policies that are just too onerous,” says Gartner analyst Van Baker.

IS IT THE END? The mobile consumer device in the enterprise owes its rise to the great user experience that Apple and,

later, Android brought to market—if usability suffers, user revolt will surely follow. By 2016, one out of five BYOD programs will fail due to enterprise deployment of MDM measures that are too restrictive, Baker predicts. Gartner also surveyed workers late last year and found that one in five won’t have anything to do with BYOD because of privacy concerns. Taken together, poor usability and privacy violations can derail the BYOD movement. Baker isn’t making his dire prediction on mere guess work. He says he is already seeing MDM’s degradation of the user experience on mobile devices. For instance, some IT departments are turning on MDM controls that force users to jump through multiple passwords. In one scenario, a user with an open Facebook app in the personal space of a BYOD tablet who wants to check work email has to log out of Facebook, log out of the personal space, log in to the work space, and log in to the corporate e-mail. If she wants to return to Facebook, she must do it all again in reverse order. Baker says another company issued tablets with GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular

disabled. The tablets came in cradles that require a secure ID card. The tablets essentially became useless paper weights. Other all-too-common tactics that wreck the user experience: Forcing employees to use corporate mobile apps only while on company premises and making them use a clunky mail client instead of the native mail client.

So far, pure-play MDM companies have been pretty nimble, but this is changing as enterprise heavyweights wade into the market. Microsoft expanded its management tools into the MDM space. Citrix bought Zenprise a year ago. IBM bought Fiberlink in November last year. Most recently, VMware bought AirWatch. Yet tech giants catering to the enterprise haven’t fared well keeping up with the frenetic, whimsical pace of the consumer. “It’s hard to imagine a Microsoft, Oracle, SAP or IBM being agile enough to keep up,” Baker says. “The

Signs point to companies taking advantage of advanced MDM capabilities, thus threatening to ruin “That kind of usability is just not going to be tolerated,” Baker says. “It’s going to drive employees away from BYOD programs.” Another way usability suffers is with the lack of access to new features. Consumer-focused device makers such as Apple and Android are always one-upping each other to deliver the latest cool features. It’s a whitehot space with lots of changes, fixes, patches, additional capabilities all coming to market in rapid succession. Apple, for instance, is on iOS 7.4, its fourth release. Each unannounced release sets off a chain reaction

same has to be said about the VMware acquisition of AirWatch and the Citrix acquisition of Zenprise. Is Zenprise as agile as they were beforehand? I don’t think so.” If the MDM doesn’t support the latest upgrade, then employees won’t be able to get the latest features on their personally owned BYOD. If the MDM forces users to jump through hoops, then employees will opt out of the BYOD program. If the MDM appears too controlling, then employees will revolt. If sci-fi scripts have taught us anything, in the end, humans always win. 

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n PLAINSPEAK

YOGESH GUPTA

Seven GOs, One Fiscal The technology and the associated demand landscape changes so often that it becomes problematic to project revenue numbers or profit margins twelve months in advance.

Yogesh Gupta is associate editor at ChannelWorld. He is a computer engineer from Mumbai University. You can contact him at yogesh_ gupta@idgindia.com 62

HE FIRST day of April is unequivocally not ‘a

fool’s day’ for the corporates. And I would seriously believe so. It’s more often than not a dreaded month commencing weeks in advance amidst a line-up of back-to-back meetings. Ask the senior executives and stakeholders of an organisation who have a solitary objective: Prepare the all-important, sustainable and profitable ’12 month’ fiscal plan. Top-lines, strong pipeline, net profits, cash

flow, marketing spend, and all the jargons of MBA curriculum pop out. But none can be blamed for the bustle. It’s a serious business to play the numbers game. Unfortunately there is no silver bullet to success as some win and some will lose. But the fiscal plan is a light house for the organisation to stay on course. For technology companies, there is an additional challenge unlike manufacturing, logistics or healthcare where the market factors are fairly static. The technology and the associated demand landscape changes so often that is becomes problematic to project revenue numbers or profit margins twelve months in advance. For this year’s plan, do factor in the new influences too: Dollar fluctuations, delayed payments, cloud model. Also keep it little flexible to upscale (or God forbid) downscale operations with the upcoming general elections in India. A stable government will undeniably accelerate investments for IT but a fractured mandate might delay or abort the big deals in government sector. Have a balanced mix of customer sets - government and private - to stay safe. Here are seven GOs (short for ‘Go to Market’ routes) in strictly random order for technology companies and enterprise channels for a profitable FY14/15. Go Hybrid: With hybrid cloud (private + public) gaining popularity, pursue the hybrid approach with ‘hardware and software’ too. Hardware appliances will not extinct soon across enterprises. Go Research: Distinguish between ‘hype’

INDIAN CHANNELWORLD APR IL 2014

and ‘reality ‘of a technology through reports by research agencies and ‘vendor-agnostic’ consultants. Ride the ‘next big tech wave’ but do not be ‘too early to the market’. Go Specialised: Be a master of few emerging technologies like Big Data, SDx, MDM. Invest in initiatives like T&C to build a specialised team (pre-and –post sales ,technical, consultants) as per areas of interest. Go Lean: Cloud and Managed services helps the implementation partners to optimise their staff. Explore technologies offering worthy margins and customer stickiness besides helping to keep ‘minimal’ manpower. Go Glocal: Move beyond India. US, Europe, Africa, and other countries seek competent solution providers from India. Be open to MNC companies acquiring India companies to enter SI space. Go Vertical: The rapid changing IT infrastructure around Apps and software demands a ‘verticalised’ approach. Hand-pick your favourite verticals to develop solutions and weave services around it. Go Hire: Invest in specialized job roles like relationship managers, consultants than only in sales folks. Hire executives selling ‘business based’ outcomes than only technology benefits to CIOs/CFOs. Technology companies pitching ‘do more with less’ for their solutions are themselves keen to execute more business with less resources. What matters to CFOs and the stakeholders are great top-lines and more importantly greater bottom-lines in the fiscal plan. GO for the blockbuster year! 

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