Express Computer (Vol.26, No.5) May, 2015 by Indian Express

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WAITING FOR CLOUD NINE T

IN FEW YEARS WE MAY SEE GROWTH IN THE IMPORTANCE OF SDDC,WHICH WILL LEAD TO NEW LEVELS OF AUTOMATION AND FLEXIBILITY IN IT SERVICES

he cloud is marvellous, but it isn’t perfect. Mobile apps, collaboration services, relationship management systems, document storing and editing solutions, are changing the way we live and work, but it is clear that the tech-edifice of cloud computing is far from perfect. If the speed at which we access our data is slow, the cloud is not useful. In case the data is less secure than when it is stored in our own servers, then it is quite useless. The enterprises need a cloud that is secure, reliable, fast, scalable, compliant with all the regulations and free of data sovereignty related issues. More and more consumers are realising that they can’t totally rely on public cloud systems and the private cloud is not only costlier, it also makes it difficult to deliver innovations at better value. The hybrid cloud has been developed by combining the best features of public and private clouds. With hybrid environment, you can quickly explore new technology, at much lower cost. There is the option of efficient scalability, as you can rent extra computing power during the periods of higher demands. For business continuity and disaster recovery, hybrid cloud is commonly being put to use. Most CIOs agree that a hybrid environment is a necessity. A recent report from Gartner says that 2016 will be the defining year for cloud computing in India, as private cloud will begin to give way to the hybrid cloud. By 2017, the report predicts, nearly half of the large enterprises will have hybrid cloud deployments. However, even in the hybrid cloud space, things are not peachykeen. The downside is that the hybrid systems inherit many of the problems that beset both public and private clouds. Hybrid clouds are also difficult to design and unless the workloads are properly understood and monitored, friction can develop between IT groups functioning from their own silos. The security related concerns and the data sovereignty related issues are still there. In few years we may see growth in the importance of SDDC (Software-Defined Data Center), which will lead to new levels of automation and flexibility in IT services. With the SDDC, the customers may not migrate entire data centres to the cloud, essentially they will be migrating their applications—an application can be an array of 5, 10, or 50 computer servers, which collectively perform a business function. Regardless of the combination of cloud infrastructure, platform or software that is being used, what is important is that the access to the system should be fast, secure and available from any device. Someday we will have technology to achieve this. Today, we don’t. anoop.verma@expressindia.com

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contents

GETGOING WITH HYBRID As the enterprises move their operations to the public cloud, they continue to store their critical data and run their vital applications in their own infrastructureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;this phenomenon has led to the emergence of a middle ground, know as the Hybrid Cloud

Case Study

feature

SNAPDEAL DEPLOYS BIG DATA FOR BETTER CONSUMER EXPERIENCE

Big Data capabilities empower the e-tailer to achieve scale, speed and real time information.

SECURITY IN THE AGE OF CLOUD

IN ANY BUSINESS IT IS THE SUPERHERO

One of the biggest impediments to cloud adoption is the threat of data breaches and cloud service abuse. There are no easy ways of managing such threats

Vijay Sethi implements the IT solutions for the smooth production and distribution of the lean-meanspeed-machines that Hero MotoCorp is famous for

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THE SUVIDHA OF CAPTURING DATA ON THE GO

Suvidha cuts farmer data collection cost by close to Rs 5 lakh per project by deployment of the SourceTrace platform

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feature 24

interviews

VIRTUALIZATION SPREADS ITROOTS

Infrastructure for Digital India

With enterprises exploring a ‘software defined’ approach, there is scope for high growth in the Virtualization sector in 2015

SMARTCITIES: EXECUTION HOLDS THE KEY

No dearth of ideas and concepts to make a city smart, but challenge lies in executing a city-wide master blueprint

OPENING UPTO OPEN SOURCE Enterprises are warming up to open source technologies to boost efficiency and reduce the cost of operations

CLOUD VIDEO MADE EASY

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Taking Governance to the Cloud Technology in a Nutshell ALOK SHRIVASTAVA

The CIOs must present themselves as business leaders 58

SMARTCITIES,SMARTER CITIES,SMARTESTCITIES With the objective of encouraging vigorous exchange of thoughts on Smart Cities ,The Indian Express Group organised the Digital India Dialogue.The Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu was the Chief Guest

DR. NEETA SHAH

BERND LEUKERT

A cloud based VC solution is cost efficient, easy to set-up, use and maintain

event

SHRIDAR JAYAKUMAR

Analytics in Cloud

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DR RAJENDRA KUMAR

DR NEETAVERMA

The Benefits of Sharing and Publishing Data

ANIL CHAWLA

Optimising Customer Experience MAY, 2015

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EXPRESS COMPUTER

MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW DR RAJENDRA KUMAR JOINT SECRETARY, DIETY

Infrastructure for Digital India “To implement various projects under Digital India, all feasible models are being considered, with the active participation of industry, including PPP models,” says Dr Rajendra Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India. In conversation with Express Computer It has been estimated that in the Digital India programme, government of India will spend up to Rs. 1,13,000 crore in the next three to five years. What are the key features of the programme? In order to reform and improve the ecosystem of public services in the country, the government of India has initiated the ‘Digital India’ programme. The vision of this programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. There are three key vision areas in the overall ‘Digital India’ Programme—Digital infrastructure as an utility to every citizen; Governance and services on demand; Digital empowerment of citizens. The ‘Digital India’ programme will lead to the building of holistic capabilities in ICT infrastructure; electronics manufacturing; software services and delivery platforms; IT skill-sets and job creation; and many other areas. These capabilities will lead to the rise of a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. The focus is on ensuring that the citizens in all parts of the country have easy access of a range of necessary services. Digital India will also make it much easier for businesses to do their work. Most of the initiatives under ‘Digital India’ programme will be completed in the next three years. To make this initiative successful, active participation of industry is very crucial. The Department of Electronics & IT (DeitY) has conducted several consultations and workshops with the industry and experts to discuss the implementation of the vision areas of Digital India. To implement various projects under Digital India, all feasible modes of implementation are being considered, with the active participation of industry, including PPP models. What steps are being taken to ensure that broadband is rolled out to all the villages and the task of digitising government records is completed in a time-bound manner? “Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen” is one of the 8

EXPRESS COMPUTER

MAY, 2015

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three vision areas of Digital India. A key component of this vision is the “availability of high speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens”. Through the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, highspeed connectivity will be provided to every gram panchayat. The optical fibre cable will be taken to each of the 2,50,000 gram panchayats in the country, for providing high speed connectivity. Another element in the third vision area of the digital empowerment of citizens is“Universally accessible digital resources”. This is aimed at digitisation of government records. Citizens will not be asked to present government documents or certificates, which are already available with some department or institution of the government, in physical form. For instance, the educational institutions will ensure that all their degrees and certificates are digitised and kept in online repositories with appropriate protocols for secure access through Internet. We are planning to provide broadband in rural areas, but even in urban areas the broadband penetration is low. What steps are being taken to ensure that there is high quality broadband for all at reasonable rates? To bring high speed broadband connectivity at panchayat level, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project is being implemented by the Department of Telecommunications. 2,50,000 village Panchayats will be covered under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project. This network, with provision for last mile connectivity through appropriate mechanisms, including the involvement of telecom service providers, will enable rural India to become an active participant in the digital revolution. A range of innovative electronic services will become available in rural India. In urban areas also, the communication infrastructure and service delivery will be improved to ensure that there is ubiquitous high speed connectivity. What steps are being taken to integrate the identification of individuals with their Aadhaar number? EXPRESS COMPUTER

The three vision areas of ‘Digital India’ Vision Area 1

Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen ◗ Availability of high speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens ◗ Cradle to grave digital identity that is unique,lifelong,online and authenticable to every citizen ◗ Mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space ◗ Easy access to a Common Service Centre ◗ Shareable private space on a public cloud ◗ Safe and secure cyber-space

Vision Area 2

Governance & Services on Demand ◗ Seamlessly integrated services across departments or jurisdictions ◗ Availability of services in real time from online & mobile platforms ◗ All citizen entitlements to be portable and available on the cloud ◗ Digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business ◗ Making financial transactions electronic & cashless ◗ Leveraging Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development

Vision Area 3

Digital Empowerment of Citizens ◗ Universal digital literacy ◗ Universally accessible digital resources ◗ Availability of digital resources / services in Indian languages ◗ Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance ◗ Citizens not required to physically submit Govt. documents / certificates

The cloud platform can lead to significant reduction in the operational costs,by enabling government organisations to share infrastructure,platform and services. The Aadhaar based identification and authentication and Aadhaar integration into various government databases are the integral parts of Digital India. The government databases will be in the standardised form, leaving additional features to add if required, with provisions for Aadhaar numbers for

each individual in the database. Aadhaar platform may also be used as eKYC under various schemes; for instance, the Aadhaar numbers can be used to open bank accounts under the Jan Dhan Yojana. What is your view on using cloud for storing and managing government data? The cloud platform can lead to significant reduction in the operational costs, by enabling government organisations to share infrastructure, platform and services. In order to utilise and harness the benefits of cloud computing, the government of India has embarked upon an ambitious initiative called GI Cloud, which has now been renamed as ‘Meghraj’. Currently 61 departments are using the services of Meghraj national cloud, which uses the best in class norms for ensuring security of the platform, applications and data. MAY, 2015

FEATURE

HYBRID CLOUD

GETGOING WITH HYBRID As the enterprises move their operations to the public cloud, they continue to store their critical data and run their vital applications in their own infrastructure—this phenomenon has led to the emergence of a middle ground, know as the Hybrid Cloud

BY JASMINE DESAI

“I

n today’s business landscape, a hybrid cloud environment makes sense. The most alluring thing about hybrid environment is its capacity for combining the power of public cloud with the power of onpremise infrastructure,” said David Campbell, CTO, Cloud & Enterprise, STB 12

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Management- R&D, Microsoft, at the recently concluded Microsoft Azure event. Microsoft is a major cloud services provider in the country; recently the company announced its plans to build several new data centres in the country to serve the needs of its cloud computing clients. According to Gartner, 50% of the large

enterprises will be on hybrid cloud by 2017. IDC predicts that the global cloud market, including private, public and hybrid clouds, will reach $118 billion in 2015 and peak at $200 billion by 2018. Presently, only 20-25% of cloud deployments are hybrid. In a VMware-sponsored study, IDC reports that the number of businesses MAY, 2015

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Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Rackspace, GoGrid, and the like. Lot of interest is being generated by hybrid cloud environments. The traditional hardware vendors are bundling their private cloud offerings with those from public cloud providers to create a new range of innovative hybrid cloud services. Hybrid cloud environments have been generating much interest, and traditional hardware vendors are bundling their private cloud offerings with those from public cloud providers to create hybrid cloud services.

A Case for Hybrid Cloud

using hybrid cloud strategies is up to 71% in the USA and 63% in Europe and Asia. The results, which were published in a white paper, proclaimed that 70% of the respondents reported that the hybrid cloud is very important and critical for the success of their business, while 64% stated that their future revenue growth is directly tied to their hybrid cloud. EXPRESS COMPUTER

The hybrid cloud is reality for the foreseeable future and enterprise IT will be a hybrid mix of on-and-off premise services. According to Dave Bartoletti of Forrester Research, 45% of the companies rely on at least one Softwareas-a-Service application, and a third of companies use some form of Infrastructure-as-a-Service at Amazon

Sarvesh Goorha, CIO, iYogi says, “Large numbers of organisations are opting for the hybrid model to maintain some control and visibility while tapping the benefits of increased flexibility that cloud has to offer.” There is high interest in hybrid cloud today, but many organisations continue to be unclear about the roadmap on which they can start their journey. Kalyan Kumar, SVP & Chief Technologist at HCL ISD, says,” A journey to hybrid cloud for an organisation can start from multiple aspects: it can be an extension of existing workloads to cloud or a new workload development or deployment on cloud. It is important to analyse the workloads in order to select and decide what can be moved to the cloud. This ideally should be the starting point.” A S Rajgopal, MD and CEO, NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies Pvt. Ltd mentions, “A true hybrid model is a combination of existing investments in physical hardware, private and public clouds. In typical cases, customers have a private cloud on their premise, along with other physical servers. For running specific web-facing applications, they opt for the public cloud. New businesses may start their cloud journey in a public environment without owning any IT infrastructure and later decide to build their private cloud infrastructure.” Hybrid model is much nuanced, complicated and is impacted by myriad factors—the enterprises are transforming and so is our definition of what the hybrid cloud is. The hybrid MAY, 2015

FEATURE

HYBRID CLOUD

The hybrid cloud is designed to maximise the responsiveness and efficiency of the infrastructure Santhosh D'Souza, Director- Systems Engineer,NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt.Ltd.,India

By going hybrid,the organisations can incur opportunities to better balance CAPEXand OPEX investments Bill Ting, Market Evangelist, Riverbed Technology 14

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cloud is evolving with the appearance of what we call the hybrid enterprise. According to Bill Ting, Market Evangelist, Riverbed Technology, application performance is a major success factor in every major IT project. What many organisations fail to consider is that for achieving superior application performance in this hybrid model, you need optimal IT infrastructure. But infrastructure is changing dramatically as it moves to the cloud as well. He is of the view that it is the combination of private and public assets delivering essential business services that define the hybrid enterprise. The hybrid enterprise is the new normal.

The Importance of Hybrid Cloud Shree Parthasarathy, Senior Director, Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte, says, “Hybrid cloud is important to essentially manage between security, risk and compliance of high risk infrastructure or applications.” Hybrid cloud can be applied to many critical business scenarios. In a hybrid cloud environment, enterprises can aspire to focus only on their businesses, with IT assuming the role of a true enabler. Campbell of Microsoft explains that Microsoft wants to connect every onpremise server to the cloud. Storage, back-up, DR, identity are different business aspects being dealt within the hybrid environment. He asserts that with an appliance like StorSimple, one has the snapshot of the cloud, and even if the facility goes down, there continues to be a clear backup in the cloud. Santhosh D’ Souza, Director- Systems Engineer, NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd., India, says, “With the hybrid cloud model, organisations have the ability of choosing between different cost and deployment models for backup and archive, between on-premise, hosted and public cloud models. The hybrid cloud is designed to maximise the responsiveness and efficiency of the infrastructure.” Ting of Riverbed Technology elaborates further on this aspect. He says, “By going hybrid, the organisations can incur opportunities to better balance CAPEX and OPEX investments, and to leverage the combined capabilities of

private and public clouds and networks to gradually develop toward a locationindependent computing model.” He further goes on to say that the locationindependent computing is a step forward, beyond the software-defined networking (SDN) and software-defined data centres (SDDC). While SDNs and SDDCs are logically separate applications and services from the underlying hardware, location-independent computing physically separates those elements. This advancement allows an enterprise to make the placement of hardware and software a business decision instead of a technical decision. With location-independent computing, a hybrid enterprise has the flexibility to host applications and data in the locations that best serve the business while ensuring seamless application delivery to better leverage global resources, thus radically reducing the cost of running business, while escalating employee productivity. According to Goorha of iYgoi, Hybrid cloud provides flexibility and scalability—it eliminates the need for an organisation to make massive capital expenditures and also helps in accommodating short-term spikes and seasonal demand. The public cloud provider supplies compute resources, and the business only pays for the resources it consumes. He says that hybrid cloud computing can improve resilience and disaster recovery by using multiple providers, it can also improve performance as the active content is cached on-premises. It allows the moving of some of the storage resources to a pay-as-you-go model and help an enterprise build an exit strategy. High levels of data resiliency can be achieved through hybrid cloud model, particularly since the entire gamut of customer data is not dependent upon a single set of providers. Kumar of HCL ISD explains, “Splitting environments across clouds may bring in some resiliency in terms of uptime and other factors. This can be achieved by having Hot, Cold or stand by environments across the in-premise and the public clouds.” He says that with cloud services maturing in features and MAY, 2015

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Critical data should reside in a private environment,while applications can be hosted and run from a cloud service provider Sarvesh Goorha, CIO,iYogi

The customers should adopt a strategy of keeping long-term compliance enabling data in on-premises infrastructure and they can move the dynamic data into the cloud. reach, an important aspect is user experience while working with clouds. One of these aspects is also the visibility that the cloud provider enables using reporting and dashboard. The features that enable elasticity and reporting/usage/dashboard may help in maximum utilisation of assets. Workloads that require high elasticity and are periodic in nature can be best suited for public cloud environments, whereas critical and sensitive workloads can be put in-premise.

Hybrid Cloud Complexities One of the biggest challenges in going hybrid is that it adds architectural complexity and blind spots for support, management and security. In the hybrid enterprise, people, apps, and data are everywhere. The added complexity exacerbates the challenges of delivering and managing apps and data. In a world where application performance drives business performance, organisations EXPRESS COMPUTER

need to take a holistic approach to both. Biswajeet Mahapatra, Research Director, Gartner, mentions, “Security levels have to be negotiated with public cloud providers. There has to be contractual agreements with public cloud providers in terms of auditing capabilities, certifications required, etc. If there is a breach in public cloud, then repercussions will be felt in private cloud also.” He also says that there must be a synchronisation when it comes to patch updates. Another aspect to take care will be of network risk. Rajgopal of NxtGen Datacenter & Cloud Technologies Pvt. Ltd., says, “The customers should adopt a strategy of keeping long-term compliance enabling data in on-premises infrastructure and they can move the dynamic data into the cloud. Alternatively, they can also use a service provider to hold the data for the long-term.” Ting of Riverbed Technologies suggests, “Enterprises should shift

It is important to analyse the workloads in order to select and decide what can be moved to the cloud Kalyan Kumar, SVP & Chief Technologist at HCL ISD MAY, 2015

FEATURE

HYBRID CLOUD

» www.expresscomputeronline.com

According to Gartner,50% of the large enterprises will be on hybrid cloud by 2017.IDC predicts that the global cloud market, will reach $118 billion in 2015 and peak at $200 billion by 2018.

Storage,back-up, DR,identity,are different business aspects being dealt within the hybrid environment Dave Campbell, CTO,Cloud & Enterprise,STB Management- R&D,Microsoft

Vendors need to introduce open solutions.VMware has come up with open APIs,which allowcustomers to connect with Amazon Biswajeet Mahapatra, Research Director Gartner 16

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investments and spend more on detection and response. Visibility across all applications, networks, and devices is the first critical step towards improving overall security postures. Establishing a baseline of what is “normal” helps to better isolate actual threats and respond accordingly.” He further says that the improved detection capabilities can help limit how far an attacker might penetrate a network. A well-tuned response process guides the organisation to recover quickly in a controlled fashion, minimising errors and returning to profitability as soon as possible.

Points to Ponder A move to hybrid cloud is a big step for an organisation. The risk involved has to do with the data that is residing on the cloud. According to Goorha of iYogi, With a hybrid IT model, organisations can mitigate security and privacy concerns while enabling scale and ensuring greater reliability and data availability. Critical data should reside in a private environment, while applications can be hosted and run from a cloud service provider. Pricing can be a confusing issue in hybrid cloud. One has to take into account the workloads, fail-overs etc., and get a dynamic costing. Determining perfect SLAs is very crucial. According to Kumar of HCL ISD, overall service implementation like overall cost of procurement, implementation, operating management, etc., are important for deciding what type of cloud must be used. Some of the public cloud providers do not provide Service Level Agreements, which limits the cloud adoption especially for critical or business-facing applications.” “SIAM (Service Integration and Management) is an important part of the service experience that is extended to

users. The SIAM principles are applied to hybrid cloud deployment to ensure that the entire service integration and management is as per user expectation and as per the SLAs,” he adds. There are certain areas that particularly need attention for a successful hybrid cloud deployment. For instance, governance, risk and compliance, performance and delivery of cloud services, vendor management, licence management, integration, aggregation, service management and assurance. These services add value to any cloud implementation, and help organisations in building an agile and compliant environment. To overcome challenges during transition, the restructuring of the organisation is critical. Mentions Dsouza of NetApp, “Process and workflow changes are crucial to achieving the promise of a hybrid cloud infrastructure. Hybrid cloud approach enables the gradual transition of people and processes, and the enterprise can dictate the pace at which applications and lines of businesses move into the cloud to align it with appropriate changes in workflows.” Mahapatra of Gartner states, “Vendors need to introduce open solutions. For instance, VMware has come up with open APIs, which allow customers to connect with Amazon. As our broadband network improves, providers will guarantee uptime. There has to be a brokerage platform, which solution provider or SIs can provide to customers to ease way for hybrid cloud.” The future of enterprise will be hybrid, however its precocious success depends on various factors, especially the collaboration between vendors to inject more open solutions in the market that work seamlessly with each other. jasmine.desai@expressindia.com

MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW SHRIDAR JAYAKUMAR PROGRAM DIRECTOR, ORACLE

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“The primary concern among IT executives, while moving their data to cloud, revolves around privacy, security and data sovereignty,” says Shridar Jayakumar, Program Director, EPM, BI & Exalytics, APAC, Oracle

Analytics in Cloud Some analysts believe that analytics on cloud can be a game changer in the industry.What is your view on that? Analytics on cloud is not a new concept. Oracle already has two million users who use cloud analytics as part of our Oracle Fusion Applications on cloud for CX, HR or financial management. They are automatically given access to analytics applications, as part of the suite, and leading companies like Panasonic, Make My Trip and Kalpataru are using these solutions and also our pre-built analytics solutions. While this is not a new technology, the market is ramping up with rapid adoption of SaaS applications; accumulation of data at unprecedented rates and growing preference for cloud-based IT deployments.

The second challenge is on the issue of integration of applications and disparate sets of data from multiple databases, which could be on cloud or on premise, for doing effective analysis. We need to be cognisant of end user flexibility while deciding on a cloud analytics solution. There could be significant latency if BI applications exist in the cloud, but the data exists at a client site. This is especially the case when analytics involves processing terabytes of data. Hence IT managers should ensure the cloud BI vendor has sophisticated integration capabilities of on-premise and off-premise database and applications. What are the challenges do you see in the growth of BI in cloud? In the market there are plenty of cloud BI vendors. With the option of abundance and multiple vendors offering various solutions and services, CIO’s tend to get confused which vendor would offer optimum services and prove right for their company. Enterprises are also concerned about what will happen to their data if the cloud-supplier goes out of business. Many CIO’s are finding it difficult to secure the SLA’s from cloud providers. Data control and data ownership, reliability of service etc., are some other concerns for CIO’s.

What are the main advantages of cloud analytics? Cloud analytics, like other cloud applications, makes it easier for end-users to set-up and operate. It reduces IT involvement and costs. It is scalable and elastic. You don’t have to worry about or invest in network, servers, operating systems, storage or the BI application. The cloud vendor takes care of all the back-end infrastructure and the power is really transferred to the hands of end business users. The client can access BI applications from any authorised device from any client site through a web interface. Lack of control (data control and data ownership) and integration have been cited as the issues that hinder pick up of BI in cloud. How can we deal with this problem? The primary concern among IT executives, while moving their data to cloud, revolves around privacy, security and data sovereignty. Data sovereignty is the concept of having the data in the same country either because of preference or because of regulatory considerations or government is a primary concern. CIOs looking at cloud for analytics need to carefully consider how much of risk they are taking by moving critical data for analysis beyond company firewall to a third party platform. Sending out data on products that customers surfed to a cloud based Big Data analysis site to get pattern recognition will put sensitive organisation data at risk. EXPRESS COMPUTER

Oracle already has two million users who use cloud analytics as part of Oracle Fusion Applications on cloud

Do you think that there is scope for growth in the cloud BI market? Most IT organisations are exploring the benefits of cloud computing, so there is scope for growth. Whether it is faster provisioning, on demand access, agile resource scheduling based on policies, or chargeback rules to ensure business accountability and more control over the environment, IT must move from reactive to a proactive and predictive approach for data center management. We also need to keep in mind that cloud BI is not a simple self-service layer on top of existing IT automation. The selfservice aspect must be backed by mechanisms for managing integration of on-premise and offpremise data and application. Resources must also be metered, to enable a pay-per-user paradigm. The existing approaches to analytics on cloud often focus on the self-service aspect without paying any attention to the resource modelling, elasticity and metering aspects. MAY, 2015

FEATURE

CLOUD SECURITY

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SECURITY I N

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CLOUD One of the biggest impediments to cloud adoption is the threat of data breaches and cloud service abuse. There are no easy ways of managing such threats, the measures that you put in place for managing one threat can lead to an exacerbation of another issue BY MOHD UJALEY

hen you talk to the CIOs about cloud, the conversation will inevitably move to the subject of security. The truth is that today most enterprises are wary of adopting cloud due to security related 18

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concerns. These concerns are based on hard facts窶馬owadays security breaches are a regular feature. Recently the insurance giant Aetna Inc. announced that the company was going to approach cyber security as one more business risk that needs to be managed, in the same

way that they manage fluctuating currency prices or the threats of lawsuits. Companies like Aetna Inc. have started realising that security is no longer just a tech issue, it is a business problem that needs to be managed. Despite all the risks that are there, the MAY, 2015

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movement towards cloud computing is inevitable. The CIOs realise this and efforts are on for developing better systems through which security can be maintained while also taking advantage of the plethora of cloud applications that have exploded during the last few years. The ability to setup a virtual office in which enterprises have the flexibility to connect with vital applications anywhere and anytime is one of the factors driving cloud adoption on a massive scale. But the security concerns continue to be the major area of concern, whenever vital information belonging to the enterprise gets stored on cloud based hosted systems. EXPRESS COMPUTER

Quest for Secure Cloud According to a recent report from Gartner, the Indian cloud computing sector is seeing impressive growth and by 2016 cloud based technologies will attract bulk of the new IT spend in the country. The Gartner report also says that cloud adoption is “troubled with security risks” and has special “characteristics” that need a thorough “risk assessment”. The report predicts that by 2018, more than half of organisations will use some form of third party security to help manage their network infrastructure. The security concerns are the

primary reason due to which the enterprises are refraining from putting their vital data on the cloud. The current trend indicates that the enterprises are only putting their non-critical data such as HR and talent management on the cloud. Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation, says “You may see companies first putting HR and talent management to the cloud and then there could be gradual move to put sales, marketing and other parts of the business.” “There is inevitable concern around security with cloud based platform as your data is no longer down the hall but MAY, 2015

FEATURE

CLOUD SECURITY

Companies mayfirst put HR tools to the cloud and then there could be gradual move to put sales, marketing and other parts of the business Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE,Products & Innovation

Securityconcerns are not enough to stop cloud from becoming the preferred consumption model because utility based paradigm has strong economic case Stephen DuBravac, Executive Vice President Marketing, SecurityWeaver 20

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that is unable to stop cloud becoming the preferred consumption model because utility based paradigm offered by cloud has strong economic case,” says Stephen DuBravac, Executive Vice President, Marketing, Security Weaver. For companies such as FireEye, which deals in the modern day persistent threats, cloud is as an emerging opportunity. “Who could have thought few years ago that the enterprises will put their email into cloud!” says Julie Cullivan, Senior Vice President of Business Operations and Chief Information Officer, FireEye. She points out that the enterprises must develop a holistic strategy for managing their data centre, cloud and security related issues. “The enterprises must decide in advance what they want to share and put in the cloud,” she adds. A recent survey by security giant Symantec shows that 89 percent of Indian businesses experience rogue cloud situations, or unauthorised use of cloud services, and over 57% of the businesses have experienced the exposure of confidential information. “It is important for organisations to choose their security frameworks judiciously and work with partners that understand best practices of cloud security,” says Tarun Kaura, Director – Technology Sales, India, Symantec. Sasha Pavlovic, Director of Cloud & Datacenter Security, Asia Pacific, Trend Micro asserts that security is of critical concern. Security is readily provided by cloud vendors like Amazon Web Services. When you put data into cloud, there is shift of responsibility and pertinent question arises about where to draw the line about the ownership of responsibility. “Sharing security is part and parcel of the industry,” says Pavlovic. Sajan Paul, Director Systems Engineering, India & SAARC, Juniper Networks, is of the view that the benefits that can be derived from the cloud must always be evaluated in comparison with the security related concerns. “For some organisations giving physical control over to a third party is sometimes challenging – especially in the context of security, but the other way to look at it is that now one has access to the best in

class security framework as the capex is shifted to cloud operators,” says Paul. “Since cloud adoption is inevitable, we have to settle to the fact that it is part of the overall design. One needs to really classify the information to address the impact and risk associated to it. This will allow one to put the right level of security attached to each domain. One must also look at some of the best practices followed in this domain to be above the curve,” adds Paul.

How to Manage Security? To the question, ‘how to manage security in the age of cloud?’ there is still no clear answer. But that should not come as a surprise if we consider the views of someone like Bruce Schneier, the American cryptographer—“Security is not a product, but a process.” Installing applications and buying security products is not enough, the enterprises must also ensure that there is a clear policy on data sharing and security. The enterprises cannot afford to rely only on AV systems, Firewalls and other traditional security products to protect their networks. They have to take measures to have the policies and regulations in place to ensure that the movement of data is controlled across the entire chain. “Companies require unified content security solution that incorporates unified content analysis, a unified platform, and unified management,” points out, Surendra Singh, Regional Director, SAARC and India, Websense. Singh is of the view that the fastevolving malware, blended threats, internally initiated data leakage, and an increasingly borderless enterprise have rendered traditional point product approaches less effective while driving up the cost and complexity system. This ultimately defeats the purpose for which we are having a deployment in the cloud. With the rise of cloud and integrated infrastructure, there is also change in the way security is viewed. The world is moving beyond firewall to pattern, network perimeter to application perimeter. The old rule of inside-good and outside-bad, and network as a perimeter is diminishing. Pekka Usva, MAY, 2015

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CLOUD & SECURITY The upsurge of cloud computing has transformed the information technology landscape more than any trend or innovation since the first commercial use of the Internet

$838 MILLION

With the rise of cloud, even the security challenges have risen because the organisation's confidential information including IP and customer data is stored and accessed over vast networks With about 15% grows in the IT market year over year, India is already a global player and will continue to grow in this space

Public cloud services revenue in India will reach USD 838 million by the end of 2015, an increase of almost 33 percent

Enterprises must develop a holistic strategy for their data centre,cloud and security related issues Julie Cullivan, Senior Vice President of Business Operations and CIO,FireEye

By 2016 cloud growth is likely to become the bulk of new IT spend (Gartner)

$56.7 MILLION

$84.6 MILLION

HOLISTIC APPROACH TO CLOUD SECURITY MANAGE ACCESS

Spending on Cloud management/Security will grow 35.4% to USD 56.7million during 2015 (Gartner)

Spending on PaaS will grow 35.4% to USD 84.6 million during 2015 (Gartner)

PROTECT DATA GAIN VISIBILITY

With cloudification, data is moving from own premise to cloud,so security must evolve and should follow the data Pekka Usva, Vice President,Corporate Security Business,F-Secure

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MAY, 2015

FEATURE

CLOUD SECURITY

It is important to drawthe line about the ownership of responsibility when you put data into cloud Sasha Pavlovic, Director of Cloud & Datacenter Security,Asia Pacific,Trend Micro

Vice President, Corporate Security Business, F-Secure, says, “With cloudification, data is moving from own premise to cloud, so security must evolve and should follow the data.” He goes on to say that the IP address based reputation is not effective, signatures are not able to stop new attack vectors and there is no coherent intelligence sharing.

No Silver Bullet, Follow the Data

With BYOD gaining momentum,CIOs are nowrealising that theyneed to invest into security to make their organisaton more secure Tim Alsop, Managing Director and CEO, CyberSafe 22

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The enterprise mobility trend has created multiple endpoints. In order to account for the large volumes of data storing and transferring through multiple control points, security solution providers have to redesign their offerings to thwart the advanced persistent threats—they must manage the access points. DuBravac of Security Weaver says that people now need to take broader look at identity management than they had in the past; they need to look at the access to Big Data rather than looking at predefined access route stranded in the static. While the promise of network security-based security solutions as the answer to advanced threats gains increasing attention, IT departments are still left grappling with massive amounts of incidents, with too many false positives and a laundry list of manual processes to be tackled without the staffing and skill sets needed to win. This often leaves the organisations exposed and vulnerable.

Integrated security solution backed with intelligence is necessary for enabling the organisations to keep up with the incoming attacks. LNV Samy, Vice President, Engineering, Global Technology Centers – India, China, and Australia, Technology Products Group Unisys, says, “Ultimately, organisations must move to a more holistic approach to security that takes into account multiple and mobile endpoints using a combination of technology, policies, and education, and which secures the data itself. It is no longer sufficient to focus on securing the perimeter.” He is of the view that from a security standpoint, multi-factor authentication is the way to go while taking measured strides towards an integrated digital footprint across the spectrum. With BYOD gaining momentum, organisations are struggling for strategies to protect their vital data and address compliance without disrupting employee productivity. The system administrators are compelled to deal with diversity of devices and operating systems. Dirk Kollberg, Senior Security Researcher at GReAT, Kaspersky Lab points out that most often companies approach IT security as an egg shell concept. The egg shell is hard on the outside and it keeps the contents of the egg isolated from the outside, but once there’s a crack, even a very little crack or MAY, 2015

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hole punched in the shell, all the contents will get leaked on the outside. The way corporate networks are secured is mostly the same. Even though it’s hard to penetrate such networks from the outside, it is not impossible. He further adds that there will always be vulnerabilities and no system is 100% secure. He recommends use of proven security solutions and regular security audit of the IT infrastructure. Most of enterprises are using hybrid cloud systems, where they have few applications running in the hosted cloud and few in their on-premise systems. This creates another unique set of challenges for the enterprise and the security vendors. Tim Alsop, Managing Director of CyberSafe, a UK based company, which provides authentication key for SAP applications, says, “Enterprise needs to know what is going inside and outside of their data center or cloud.” He further adds that one way out is to bridge the gap between cloud security and on premise system security. On the other hand, Murli Mohan, Director & General Manager, Dell Software Group, says, “We can’t regard any particular solution as the silver bullet.” He recommends that the enterprises should develop a data security plan, which addresses every possible security related concern.

Growth Expected in Cloud Security Companies are realising that they can’t do without putting their operations on the cloud, but If an attacker gains access to your credentials, he or she can eavesdrop on activities and transactions, manipulate data, return falsified information, and redirect clients to illegitimate sites. It is the need of the hour to invest in cloud security. In the report titled “Global Cloud Security Market till 2018” by Research Fox Consulting, an international market research company, the global cloud security market was valued at USD 3.47 billion in 2013 and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 16.8% till 2018. According to Gartner, the Indian public cloud services revenue will reach USD 838 million by the end of 2015—this is an increase of almost 33%. Spending on EXPRESS COMPUTER

cloud management/security and PaaS will both grow 35.4% to USD 56.7 and USD 84.6 million respectively during the same period. The Gartner report also states that the Indian players are investing thousands of crores to improve their infrastructure as well as niche services capabilities to meet the rising demand while the international players too are investing in data centers in India. “We expect the adoption of cloud to continue to drive growth in the Indian IT space. The increase in the number of companies adopting cloud is a clear indication that they have begun to understand the significance of cloud for business growth. While security will be a constant challenge, that will play a minimal role in accepting cloud provided companies understand their needs to move to cloud and implement efficient and updated security policies to protect the data. Cloud is here to stay and the adoption will only see exponential growth,” says Samy of Unisys. Symantec sees healthy growth in the Indian cloud security market. Kaura of Symatec says, “From Symantec’s point of view, in 2015, we expect to see more and more data hosted in the cloud but as this move occurs, businesses will need to take a closer look at data governance to ensure that their data is cleaned before it is hosted on the cloud. Legacy data left unmanaged will continue to accumulate and present a persistent challenge for businesses.” “The internet connects with billions of customers around the globe and if you have a new idea, it doesn’t take long to make an app. The way we use the internet changes all the time. Mobile phones become more and more powerful and we start to connect everything – think about fridge, Smart-TV, Voice Over IP Phone and more. While this offers new business opportunities, we need to think about our assets and those of customers. Security is not a profit center, but it is crucial for preserving reputation, protecting customers’ data and ensuring growth,” says Kollberg of Kaspersky Lab. mohd.ujaley @expressindia.com

Security is not a profit centre,but it is crucial for preserving reputation, protecting customers’data and ensuring growth Dirk Kollberg, Senior Security Researcher, GReAT,Kaspersky Lab

Enterprise must move to a more holistic approach to security to ensure that their data is secure LNV Samy, Director – Vice President, Engineering,Global Technology Centers – India,China,and Australia, Technology Products Group Unisys MAY, 2015

FEATURE

VIRTUALIZATION

VIRTUALIZATION spreads IT roots

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MAY, 2015

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The ever increasing cost of data centres and installed infrastructure makes Virtualization a necessity. With enterprises exploring a ‘software defined’ approach, and only 10% of the installed infrastructure in the country being Virtualized, there is scope for high growth in the Virtualization sector in 2015 BY JASMINE DESAI

or the highly competitive travel industry, it is critical to deploy flexible IT solutions, which can meet the growing demands of consumers looking for easy to use online research and purchase options. The travel industry is highly competitive and busy travel portals such as MakeMyTrip need to develop efficient infrastructure. It is also important for them to have easy to use online interface. “When customers are searching for a particular travel package, they want highly targeted, quick results or they will go elsewhere," says Sanjay Kharb, Vice President of IT, MakeMyTrip.com. MakeMyTrip has consolidated its data centre on high-performance servers to outpace market growth within the expanding online travel sector in India. In this case virtualization was an obvious answer. The organisation has deployed Dell PowerEdge servers to consolidate its data centre infrastructure running the company’s private cloud. MakeMyTrip has experienced significant energy efficiency and space saving by maximising its compute power on Dell PowerEdge R910 and R610 servers. This efficiency is contributing significantly to the bottom line. The volume of traffic that the site can now support has increased manifold. This enables the company to proactively pursue several new customers.

Virtualization's high impact According to IDC, the economic impact of server virtualization in India will reach $3.89 billion by 2020. The report from Gartner says that in 2015, 20% of the EXPRESS COMPUTER

VPN/Firewall market will be deployed using virtual infrastructure and 100% of the IT security product capabilities will be delivered from the cloud. The Gartner report also states that virtualization has already surpassed 50% of all server workloads, and it will reach 86% in 2016. In 2013, many organisations adopted virtualization and cloud computing technologies. In 2015, there is better realisation of the economic benefits of these technologies and now there is more interest from the customers. Sajan Paul, Director, Systems Engineering, India & SAARC, Juniper Networks, says, “In 2015, software defined networking will move from niche technology to one that creates real business value. SDN will reach new levels of deployment as organisations embrace the technology and concepts to create agility in their cloud and data center environments. SDN will enjoy widespread adoption.” He is of the view that as much of the application deployment stack has already been automated, the network layer is an outlier in many organisations. SDN enables automation and orchestration to remove the repetitive nature of deploying applications in the data center. A study done by Juniper, earlier this year, found an aggressive appetite for adopting SDN. A key use will be that SDN (coupled with analytics) provides the agility to provision (demanded) services before they are asked for rather than waiting until customers ask. Paul is of the view that the market will see higher numbers of companies and MAY, 2015

FEATURE

VIRTUALIZATION

Those in area of IT are constantly facing the issue of developing solutions that support the changes that are happening in the business environment BS Nagarajan, Director-Systems Engineering, VMware India & SAARC

In 2015,software defined networking will move from niche technologyto one that creates real business value Sajan Paul, Director Systems Engineering India & SAARC,Juniper Networks. 26

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organisations across a range of industries turn to the technology in 2015 to give them a business edge. Paul talks about SDN's impending role in India, which is one of the world’s fastest growing mobile markets and will remain so through 2020. Indian service providers (SPs) are investing heavily in 4G network, which is set to become critical for driving efficiency in enterprises. Customers like UBS, AT&T, Nike are already seeing the benefits of it. According to the Forrsights survey in a Forrester report by Dave Bartoletti, improving business continuity and disaster recovery now tops the list of customer motivations for adopting virtualization. However, a simple exercise of virtualizing the infrastructure does not mean that it will be more resilient. Enterprises must also invest in new processes and tools to make virtual infrastructure always on and always available. As the Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), Software-defined networking, storage and security starts to mature, virtualization will witness a new upsurge. According to B S Nagarajan, "We are witnessing a pretty significant business transformation, where businesses are digitising, and their products and go-tomarket strategies are changing. For IT, it is a question of how do all of the things they do to support their businesses change to keep up with and help drive the transformation." VMware rolled out significant announcements in the region this year — the launch of EVO:RAIL at VMworld 2014 with Inspur in China and NOS in Japan; the expansion of vCloud Air in Australia and Japan. An IDC whitepaper commissioned by VMware in October 2014, titled Empowering Organisations in a Software Defined World, says that the businesses in India have already avoided US$1.5 billion in CAPEX and will be able to avoid a further US$4 billion by 2020. Simply being able to virtualize some servers has a limited value, but when combined with a highly automated infrastructure, IT departments can deliver a degree of IT agility that the businesses require. According to IDC, integrated infrastructure and platforms will grow 26% and reach US$1.47 billion in 2015.

Virtualization explores more Surendra Singh, Regional Director, SAARC and India, Websense, says, ”Organisations are now not only looking at desktop virtualization from the point of cost requirement, they are also questing for benefits such as full data backup, bring-your-own-device (BYOD) support, extended hardware life cycles, security, compliance and anytime-anywhere access." He says that India is going through an explosive growth in terms of virtual technology. In sectors like PSUs, banking, and finance there is widespread adoption of modern-day technology. According to him an interesting trend is the Web-Scale IT, in which the companies mimic the infrastructure of cloud computing giants in their own data centres. Within the software-defined networking (SDN) trend, cloud services that are software-configurable through API calls, and applications with rich APIs to access their function and content programmatically, are becoming more prominent. In today’s enterprise environment, security is a key issue. It becomes a key issue especially when workloads of different trust levels are consolidated onto a single physical server without sufficient separation. A growing number of employees are bringing their smart devices into the office. Unlike the corporate-issued laptops, many IT departments have no idea how many are accessing the network, what apps are being used and how much bandwidth is being consumed by these mobile devices, which have access to the highly vulnerable corporate data. Paul of Juniper Networks says, "Architected for cloud computing, these new data centres are a combination of physical servers and virtual workloads. But virtualization also introduces a completely new set of security challenges, and this means that the data centre requires an even more pervasive range of security options." He adds that traditional network security appliances are blind to any communications between Virtual Machines (VMs) within a single host. This opens the potential for security attacks such as inter VM attacks; an MAY, 2015

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IMPACT OF VIRTUALIZATION IN INDIA (2003-2020) Hardware Spending Avoided

$771mn

(2003-13)

$2086mn

Organisations are nowlooking at desktop virtualization from the perspective of cost requirement, and other benefits like full data backup, bring-your-owndevice (BYOD) support,extended hardware life cycles

(2014-20)

Server Admin Costs Avoided

$456mn

$1385mn

(2003-13)

(2014-20)

Power & Cooling Avoided

$301mn

$504mn

(2003-13)

(2014-20)

Surendra Singh, Regional Director,SAARC and India, Websense.

Real Estate Avoided

$15mn

$50mn

(2003-13)

(2014-20)

attacker may compromise one virtual machine and then leverage that VM as a springboard to attack other VMs on the same host. The more VMs resident on a host, the more effective the potential attack. The attacker can also use a compromised VM to launch an attack on the hypervisor itselfâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; this technique is known as hyper jacking. As the hypervisor is the critical piece of software that controls all of the VMs running on a single piece of hardware, it is a natural attack target. Singh of Websense mentions, "Another key scenario is that the virtual EXPRESS COMPUTER

environment is not as transparent as it claims to be. The user has no clue about how the information is being processed and stored. Also, there is no direct control over the flow of data/information storage and processing." In a scenario where IoT, BYOD and cloud have become mature and are being warmly welcomed by the enterprises, virtualization has a truly dynamic role to play. It is a technology whose time has now come, as the enterprises are eager to go the virtualized way. jasmine.desai@expressindia.com

According to Gartner, by 2015,20% of overall VPN / Firewall market will be deployed using virtual infrastructure MAY, 2015

FEATURE

VIRTUALIZATION

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BUSINESS EFFICIENCYTHROUGH VIRTUALIZATION

he Himalaya Drug Company implemented VMware vSphere and vCenter Operations Manager to consolidate and better manage the infrastructure in which their SAP applications were deployed. Since its inception in 1930, the Himalaya Drug Company has been focused on developing safe and natural remedies that help people lead healthier lives. Today consumers in over 82 countries rely on Himalaya for their health and personal care needs. The Himalaya Drug Company’s business grew, the reliability and availability of its mission critical SAP applications became a priority for the IT team. Peak-load performance issues and frequent maintenance led to downtime that further impacted the business.This was a growing cause of concern for the IT team at Himalaya.

Decision to virtualize In face of the problem, the team at Himalaya decided to virtualize its IT environment to address their internal requirements. Many vendors were evaluated,The IT team at Himalaya identified VMware vSphere solution as the best fit for their requirement after experiencing VMware vSphere solutions scalability, reliability, ease of management and other advanced features.VMware also provided a simpler and seamless management of resources, such as memory and storage.VMware’s close partnership with IBM and compelling features helped make the decision easy. “We were very impressed during the POC with VMware when our users noticed a significant improvement in the responsiveness of systems,”

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says Vijay Kumar, Chief Manager – IT, Himalaya Drug Company.

The backbone for Himalaya’s SAP environment The Himalaya Drug Company has now deployed VMware vSphere 5.0 and has 11 IBM HS22 Blade servers hosting 23 VMs.All business critical SAP applications, including Quality Assurance, production and development servers are hosted on VMware.The Citrix connect servers were also migrated to the virtual environment.The agility and ease of management that the solution provided was a key factor that influenced in the decision in favour of VMware.Administrators can allocate resources for critical applications quickly and efficiently. “With the help of VMware vCenter and vCenter Operations Manager, we are now able to manage the entire infrastructure with minimal administrative resources. vCenter

Operations Manager actively monitors the infrastructure in real time and warns us of performance issues or capacity shortfalls by pinpointing root causes for us to address before if affects end users.We are also able to make better informed decisions regarding our hardware and storage investments,”says R.Srinivas, Senior Manager -IT Infrastructure. “Before going live, a number of physical servers were intentionally brought down to check the fault tolerance capabilities of VMware and vMotion. vMotion seamlessly moved the virtual servers to our backup servers with zero-downtime,” says Kumar. Inspired by the success of their SAP environment on VMware, Himalaya’s IT team intends to work with VMware to virtualize all physical servers in the data centre and also strengthen their disaster recovery solution to ultimately have a 100% virtualized infrastructure model.

MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW DR. NEETA SHAH FORMER DIRECTOR - eGOV, GIL

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“The government environment being very complex and diverse, the cloud deployments must be customised and tested for interoperability and other issues that can lead to future problems,” says Dr. Neeta Shah, Former Director - eGovernance, Gujarat Informatics Limited, Government of Gujarat

Taking Governance to the Cloud Why do the government departments shy away from deploying cloud based solutions? What are the key technological factors that need to be overcome? Lack of awareness about cloud computing and its benefits is one of the key reasons behind the lack of cloud deployments in the government sector. People are by nature skeptic towards new technology solutions—this is because they don’t want to take risks on behalf of a new technology which is not yet fully tested and proven in the government sector. They prefer to wait for the technology to be tested in the market before making their own deployments. Also, the government environment being very complex and diverse, the cloud deployments must be customised and tested for interoperability and any issues that can lead to future problems. This is a major reason behind the low level of cloud deployments in the government. Another major factor is that it is difficult to quantify the tangible benefits that cloud can bring to the existing IT environment of the government. The states have developed their state data centre, but many departments continue to have their own infrastructure for hosting their applications and data. What steps can be taken to ensure that all the departments in any state use the state data centre? The key policy decision that we need to take is changing the IT Procurement system of the states. Currently IT Procurement is carried out on an individual project basis by different government departments. Instead of utilising the shared common IT Infrastructure available in the state data centres, various departments are having their own IT Procurement for each project. This results in a massive pile up of hardware silos, most of which are redundant and under-utilised. These silos have piled up to such an extent that most of the state data centres are running out of data centre floor space and have already started to look for new avenues of expansion or co-location in another data centre. This problem can only be solved when there is a policy directive from the government to EXPRESS COMPUTER

centralise all IT procurements through the state IT department. What kind of reduction in operational costs is expected from cloud implementations? Investment in the cloud is for the long-term. If one invests the CAPEX on the cloud and expects it to break-even and also get RoI within months, then the cloud strategy is flawed. In the long term cloud implementation will definitely bring down the OPEX cost compared with the traditional silo based IT Hardwares. Also, the inbuilt automation in cloud makes it more easy to handle and manage, thereby requiring a small team to manage and hence saving manpower related costs. Cloud can also help governments to save on electricity bills, by increasing the Virtual Machine density on the physical servers and by making sure every square feet of data centre floor space is optimally utilised. The only recurring cost in case of the cloud will be the licensing cost, which is incurred only if one goes for the proprietary cloud implementations. What are the ways by which IoT can have an impact on governance? IoT is one among the new breed of technology trios, which I refer to as CBI: C-Cloud, B-Big Data, I – Internet of Things. This troika are the potential game changers for eGovernance. These three technologies can play a key role in enabling eGovernance to mature from the traditional transactional based systems to more interactive solutions.

IoTis one among the new breed of technology trios, which I refer to as CBI: C-Cloud,B-Big Data,I – Internet of Things

What is your view of using Big Data analytics by government departments? The government sector can be the biggest consumer of Big Data analytics. The massive amounts of data collected by the government departments through various means have led to the piling up of many petabytes of data in our data centres. However, the government continues to struggle to derive a meaningful analysis out of this datdue to centralisation and standardisation of the different databases and lack of interoperability. Also, there is the problem of duplication of data sets across the government machinery. MAY, 2015

COLUMN JITESH SHAH CEO INTERCALL INDIA

CLOUD VIDEO MADE EASY: 6 QUESTIONS TO HELPYOU MAKE THE CALL F A cloud based video conferencing solution can be a great way of increasing productivity and staying connected with colleagues, customers and partners. It is cost efficient and easy to set-up, use and maintain

All video conferencing systems require an investment, but a cloud-based solution eliminates the need for significant capital infrastructure expenditure and installation costs 30

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or enterprises operating in a highlyglobalised environment with employees based in various geographical locations, effective collaboration is vital for maintaining healthy operations, driving innovation and achieving desired business outcomes. While there are a number of communication platforms available today, many companies are looking at video conferencing to enhance collaboration and knowledge sharing among dispersed teams. In Asia Pacific, enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in video conferencing, with those in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Korea leading the way in the adoption of the technology. While video conferencing solutions can be deployed on-premise, on cloud or as a hybrid system, the operational and cost efficiencies delivered by keeping these in the cloud only show that this is a smart option for enterprises, which want the best of both worlds—being able to visually communicate with colleagues and business partners from almost anywhere in the world and at the same time get rid of infrastructure, management and maintenance costs. Video can still be a technically challenging environment with a very high profile. It requires a certain level of specialist expertise not widely available in APAC, making the cloud a good option for organisational IT risk reduction.

Six steps to cloud Making the decision to move to a cloudbased video conferencing solution can be difficult to make, so to help you call the shots, here are the answers to the six important questions:

Is your video environment under-utilised or not meeting the organisational requirements? In many organisations, we see instances of small videoconference pilot projects of room based video systems being deployed and never used. The reason for this is that people have not understood the factors for a successful video conferencing deployment. Some tips that could help: 1. People don’t change the way they work easily and video is a workplace transformational technology that requires the same care and change management as any major system deployment. Have a change management plan. 2. The video technology used must be exceptionally easy to use, reliable (also read interoperable) and available from anywhere and on any device, else it may fail to meet expectations and ROI. 3. It needs to be widely deployed and usage must be driven from the top, assuring a change in organisational work culture to ensure success. Top management buy in. 4. It must be tracked and measured continually, as well as integrated in every area of the business and its systems. It should over time move from a cost saving measure to a revenue generating one as the usage of the technology matures. Will your organisation benefit from an immediate system upgrade? Whether your organisation is already in need of a system upgrade or would be needing one soon, cloud-based video conferencing can deliver your organisation’s requirement for a communication solution that can be MAY, 2015

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deployed immediately and cost effectively. One of the advantages of having a cloud-based video conferencing solution is that you can get it up and running in no time. This is because the bulk of the process of getting it operational, which includes setting up the infrastructure and provisioning users, is done by the cloud provider. Another good thing about going cloud is that your new platform will always be updated as your cloud provider will take care of the necessary application updates for your organisation, which also includes all the managed services required to maintain and operate the environment ongoing. Do you need to cut down costs? Sure, all video conferencing systems require an investment, but a cloud-based solution eliminates the need for significant capital infrastructure expenditure and installation costs. There really is nothing to install because the bulk of the infrastructure is based on the cloud. In addition, going cloud also means your organisation only pays for the services and features you need, which lessens the demand on your budget while delivering on the organisational benefits required. Does your business require greater flexibility? In this dynamic business environment, chances are that your organisation’s communication needs will change from time to time, so you need a solution that is easily scalable. Whether you need to add new users or support multiple video conferences, with a cloud-based solution, you can easily handover the bulk of the responsibilities to the cloud provider who can handle these ever changing business video requirements. All you need to do is contact your cloud provider telling them what needs to be done and they will take care of it. This not only saves you time and effort, but also allows you to focus on more important core business projects that can help boost your company’s bottom line. Do you need an interoperable solution? More often than not, traditional onpremise video conferencing services are EXPRESS COMPUTER

not interoperable, tricky and require specialist skills to operate and manage the environment. This means they are having trouble communicating with each other due to differences in manufacturer, protocols and network infrastructure, among others, which result in unproductive meetings and delays. Since there’s no denying that a seamless video conference with colleagues, customers and business partners, who may be using different platforms, is the name of the game, solutions have to be interoperable. Cloud is the best way to go as cloud-based video conferencing solutions tend to have spent significant R&D investment in ensuring interoperability as a key value proposition of the service. The added bonus of having your cloud provider ensure that you have a solution that

In Asia Pacific,enterprises are becoming increasingly interested in video conferencing,with those in Australia,NewZealand,Japan and Korea leading the way in the adoption of the technology

works well with other platforms can be a significant time and resource saver. Is BYOD implemented in your workplace? A recent study by the International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) market in Asia Pacific will continue to grow in the coming years as more enterprises across the region are looking at implementing BYOD to increase mobility in their organisations. What all these boil down to is that your video conferencing platform must be able to support a wide range of devices with varying operating systems. With cloudbased video conferencing, your colleagues can easily connect with each other using any device, no matter where they are. Plus, you do not have to worry about ensuring that all your users’ devices are integrated into and supported by your system because your cloud provider will do this for you. If you answer yes to these questions, then it’s likely that your organisation would be better off with a cloud-based video conferencing solution. It is great way to increase productivity and stay connected with colleagues, customers and partners. It is cost efficient and easy to set-up, use and maintain. Now the more important question – is your organisation ready for cloud-based video conferencing? Jitesh Shah is the CEO of InterCall India

MAY, 2015

FEATURE

HERO MOTOCORP

IN ANY BUSINESS

IT is the SUPERHERO Widely recognised as one of the most forward-thinking CIOs in the country, Vijay Sethi implements the Information Technology solutions that are critical for the smooth production and distribution of the lean-mean-speed-machines that Hero MotoCorp is famous for BY ANOOP VERMA

he position of CIO originated during the Jurassic era of Information Technology—that is, about two decades ago. Those were the days when many companies were being forced to have something or the other to do with those frighteningly smart machines - computers - and they needed a new breed of smart executives to shield them from the fast approaching technology-tsunami, which was determined to make computers omnipresent. “The tech-tsunami has already hit our world,” says Vijay Sethi. “Information Technology infiltrates every aspect of our business, from the plotting of the grand strategy to the logistics of frontline operations.” “I am glad that I entered the field

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when IT was in its Jurassic era; today I find myself at the forefront of the technology revolution,” he adds with a smile. Currently serving as the Vice President and Chief Information Officer and Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at the world’s largest twowheeler company, Hero MotoCorp Ltd., Sethi leads the innovation efforts at the organisation. He is also on the board of a group company – HMCMM Auto Ltd. He takes pride in the fact that every aspect of almost every operation at Hero MotoCorp is IT enabled. “We use IT to enable Asia’s largest loyalty programme, Asia’s most automated warehouse and India’s largest dealer management programmes,” he says, “We make

extensive use of mobility, social media, cloud, analytics, to bring efficiency to our operations and ensure better business outcomes.” “Today we are having a huge focus on IT enablement and saving paper,” Vijay Sethi adds. He is also leading the largest industry wide initiative in automotive industry for EDI enabling data exchange between OEMs and auto component manufacturers.

Education is Power A believer in the adage - education is power - Sethi prefers to go the extra mile for equipping himself with knowledge of the latest trends and technologies. He is also an avid reader, and maintains a wellstocked personal library. “Quite early in MAY, 2015

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life, the realisation dawned on me that education is power,” he says. “You must not be under the impression that once you have passed from college, you don’t need to educate yourself further. If you end your education, the power to manage your life will immediately desert you. If you want to keep growing in life, you must ensure that your education is a continuous process. I always share my insights with the young trainees who join Hero.” For most of us, a pen and a watch would be de rigueur, but not for Sethi. If you know him well enough, then you would surely know that he does not carry a pen or a watch. “When you have a smartphone with you, then you really don’t need to carry such addendum of modern attire,” he explains. You have to concede him the point because despite being watch-free for more than 17 years, he is known for his punctuality. Despite being pen-free for around the same number of years, he has a voracious appetite for knowledge. He writes a lot— on his computer. The Sethi family believes in a life of simplicity. They (Sethi and his wife Manisha and daughters Vaishali and Vidhi) have not watched a movie during the last 20 years. Their favourite place to visit in Delhi is Gurudwara Bangla Sahib in Central Delhi. The programme that they prefer to watch every morning is the Satsang. The family also enjoys listening to Gurbaani.

The Making of a CIO In 1982, when the 15 year old Sethi joined the NIT, Kurukshetra, which was then called the Regional Engineering College or REC, the idea of computers was still in infancy. A purely computer engineering course was not being offered by most colleges and, in any case, the vertical was not being regarded as a viable career option. Sethi decided to pursue a degree course in Mechanical Engineering. He was one of the youngest students in his batch, having joined the course right after passing the 11th standard examination. When he passed in 1987 after completing the five year course, he EXPRESS COMPUTER

MAY, 2015

FEATURE

HERO MOTOCORP

was ranked second in his class. Sethi’s academic success was immediately noticed by the industry and three job offers came his way—from oil, power and machine tools companies. But he was in no hurry to embark on a career, preferring to spend some more time in educating himself further. With the idea of enrolling for M.Tech course, he appeared for Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE). He topped the GATE at his college, with 99.3 percentage percentile marks. The road to being an M.Tech was now open for him. But before he could take the final plunge into the M.Tech course, he had to make a difficult choice—should he opt for doing a computer science course in one of the IITs, or should be go in for Industrial Engineering at NITIE! He decided to go for Industrial Engineering, primarily because “I was inclined towards management,” as he says. Finally in July 1987, he found himself in the NITIE campus in Mumbai, a part of 40 eager students embarking on the 18month long Industrial Engineering course. Reminiscing of those days, Sethi says, “I think that was the most enriching period of my life. I learned about various aspects of management.” In 1988, he cleared the examination for entry into the much coveted Indian Engineering Services (IES). At the end of 1988, when the recruitment season at NITIE was in full swing, Sethi was faced with a difficult choice—should he opt for the security of a government job, or should he join a private organisation! “Those were the days when a government job was considered to be the best possible option,” reminisces Sethi. Eventually he was able to overcome his concerns regarding security and he opted for a career in a private sector company—TCS.

Journey From TCS to Hero It was not the affection for IT that bade Sethi to join TCS. He joined the organisation because he believed that the work that he would be doing at TCS would be similar to what he had learned in the Industrial Engineering course. He says, “I joined TCS because the work there did not involve IT, they expected 34

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While cloud computing, be it private,public and hybrid,does playa key role,another area that is about to pickup is Software-Defined Data Center

me to do management consulting. Having never studied IT in my B.Tech or M.Tech, I was not trained as an IT professional. I had done a few IT courses, but I did not have any IT background at all.” 14th February, 1989 — Sethi’s first day at TCS! He has fond memories of the days that he spent at this organisation. “TCS provided me with ample opportunities for learning and professional growth. While I worked here, I could take up several professional courses and enhance my skills and knowledge.” He got enrolled in a distance learning MBA programme, which was being conducted by the Indian Institute of Materials Management, Bengaluru. He also took up several short term courses. In 1996, he joined Ranbaxy, where he continued his educational journey and did a course on Business Process Reengineering (BPR) at IIM Ahmedabad, and a Benchmarking course under the tutelage of Robert Camp, the worldrenowned authority on the subject followed by another one in UK. While he was at Ranbaxy, Sethi also participated in a 6-week residential programme on IT Leadership at ISB, Hyderabad. MAY, 2015

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After moving to Hero in 2010, he did a course at Harvard Business School in India. “Having done so many courses, now I am left wondering what I should study next,” he smiles.

Making IT the Superhero When Sethi joined Hero, the organisation was in a transitionary phase, it was moving towards becoming a global organisation from one where the manufacturing set-up was primarily centred around the Indian market. But Sethi had no problems in settling into his new job as the CIO. He immediately developed a close bond with the familylike setup at Hero. On the very first day when he joined Hero, Sethi found himself being inducted into the Enterprise Management Team. The work environment at Hero was really vast and there was ample scope for implementing new ideas and drive change through IT implementations. For almost two years, before Sethi’s joining, Hero didn't have a dedicated person to head the IT vertical. “With little attention being paid to IT, we were left behind in implementing IT for modernising various operations at the organisation.” Only a month into his new role, Sethi made a detailed presentation before the leadership team at Hero on the subject of all the benefits that could come from IT implementations. He pointed out to the management that it was necessary to have a significant hike in the IT budget to fund all the IT solutions and infrastructure that was critically required. Sethi says that the company’s CEO, Pawan Munjal, gave him a patient hearing and accepted the need for having a clear IT roadmap for the organisation. “Mr. Munjal said that his vision was to have the best IT in Hero, and he told me that your job is to ensure that this vision becomes a reality. From that day, all the budget-related constraints vanished. The truth is that our IT budget has grown 20 times since the day when I joined Hero,” informs Sethi. The five-year IT roadmap that Sethi developed has created significant value at Hero MotoCorp. The company has rolled out initiatives such as the state-of-art Warehouse at Neemrana, a top notch IT enabled loyalty programme, which is also EXPRESS COMPUTER

L to R: Pawan Munjal,Vice Chairman,CEO & Managing Director, and Vijay Sethi watching the FIFA World Cup in Brazil

The companies have no alternative except to adopt SMAC,which offers many advantages.Ultimately the CIOs have to deploy the technology that makes business sense.The CIOs can’t buck the trend

Asia’s largest such programme, Governance and Risk Compliance system, Legal Compliance System, India’s largest Dealer Management System (DMS), Product Lifecycle Management (PLM). A number of landmark technologies – be it social, mobile, analytics, cloud or shop floor automation - have been implemented to make the operations at Hero as technologically advanced as other leading two-wheeler companies. Sethi is also leading one of the most ambitious IT projects in Indian Automotive Industry – an EDI based integration of OEMs (Original Equipment manufacturers) and suppliers.

Role of a CIO in the Age of Innovation Vijay Sethi is of the view that today the role of the CIO is quite different from what it was few years back. “There is so much change in technology, user requirements, user perception, and user expectation that the role that IT plays in the companies is undergoing a huge shift. When the technology is changing, the role of the CIOs must also change,” says Sethi. He says that SMAC is leading to a significant transformation in the way that MAY, 2015

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the major organisations conduct their business. “Social, Mobile, Analytics, Cloud—these are not buzz words, they are forces of innovation capable of transforming the entire IT landscape.” He says that it is not just the CIOs and the IT teams that are taking notice of SMAC, the CEOs, and other business leaders and the end users are are also becoming aware of the whole range of benefits that SMAC can bring to the organisation. Are Indian companies ready to adopt SMAC? Answering this question, Sethi says, “It is not a question of “if”, but “what all”. The companies have no alternative except to adopt SMAC, which offers many advantages. Ultimately the CIOs have to deploy the technology that makes business sense. The CIOs can’t buck the trend.” But how does a company that already has legacy systems in place adopt SMAC? Sethi says, “The need of the hour is to look at the culture of the organisation, analyse the business case, and consider other aspects before creating a detailed roadmap for adoption.” The other areas of technology that are now picking up are M2M Communication and IoT. “People are now exploring M2M space,” says Sethi. “This will be a space to watch out for in the automotive sector as we move forward.” He is of the view that MDM (Mobile Device Management) and MAM (Mobile Application Management) are two key areas for one to exploit the power of mobility. “Traditionally most of the IT departments have been mainly focussed on setting up the IT policies and restrictions, but now with consumerisation of IT, and a very IT savvy and young workforce in most organisations, the CIOs need to be more collaborative while setting up these of policies. The IT policies must be contemporary and should to be constantly updated to keep pace with new innovations.” On the issue of data centre, which is at the heart of any IT setup, Sethi says, “The way the data centre is designed, operated, managed will have significant impact on not just the cost but also the overall efficiency and effectiveness of 36

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VIJAYSETHI Current Designation

: Vice President and Chief Information Officer and Head CSR Current Organisation : Hero MotoCorp Ltd Reporting to : Mr. Pawan Munjal - Vice Chairman, Managing Director and CEO Favourite Gadget : Smartphone Favourite Books : Great by Choice – Jim Collins How the mighty fall – Jim Collins The Goal – by E Goldratt Who Moved my Cheese – Spencer Johnson Straight from the Gut – Jack Welch Connect The Dots — Rashmi Bansal Number of Countries Traveled : More than 30 Favourite Destination : Heidelberg, Germany Favourite Quote : If you want to change the world, first change yourself

organisation.” He says that in case of data centres, one needs to increase focus on reducing energy consumption, having greener data centre, which means reducing the footprint by virtualization or other means, efficient cooling, etc. What areas of technology does Sethi see picking up in the next few years? He says, “While cloud computing,

be it private, public and hybrid, does play a key role, another area that is about to pick up is SDDC (SoftwareDefined Data Center). As of now SDDC is a new concept, but in the next 2-3 years will definitely be part of the technology mainstream.” anoop.verma@expressindia.com

MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW BERND LEUKERT MEMBER OF THE EXECUTIVE BOARD OF SAP SE

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“India is better placed than other BRIC nations for driving the new wave of business innovation which can translate data into new service opportunity with the help of next generation software,” says Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board of SAP SE, Products & Innovation. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley

Technology in a Nutshell With companies like SAP working to develop a new line of innovative solutions, can we expect a decisive change in the business environment? Earlier business and technology were two separate areas for the organisation, but that trend is now fading. Technology is now an inextricable part of the system, which enables different organs of the business to come together for ensuring productivity and efficiency. The next wave of business innovation is only possible through partnership and collaboration. We have the competency and technology to drive this—we have the platform that can translate big data into smart data. We have a mobile platform that not only focuses on application, it also takes care of security. But enabling business with better infrastructure is not enough, the platforms must also drive the business. As a technology company, we can’t accomplish this on our own. When it comes to business innovation, you need to engage with the leaders in retail, manufacturing, healthcare, PSU, government, etc. Do you find any different pattern when it comes to adoption of cloud based solutions by the governments across the globe? The pace of cloud deployment will essentially depend on the government policies. We consider public sector units to be a huge opportunity for us. In government, you may not see that they opt for cloud based solution for financial application, but there could be significant adoption of cloud services for government service delivery to the people. In some countries, districts have their own IT system. The government spends huge amount of money on the operation and security of silos IT system. In my opinion, the more better proposition would be to have an integrated big data center run by government—this data centre may function like a government cloud and offer all kinds of critical services to the people. Where do you see India when it comes to partnership and new wave of business innovation that is translating data into services opportunity? India is better placed than other BRIC nations for driving the new wave of business innovation, which can translate raw data into critical information. Brazil, Russia and China are mired EXPRESS COMPUTER

with situational issues. There is unfavourable political situation in Russia; Latin America is going through difficult economic environment; China is not having the same growth rate as they had 2-3 years ago. However, in India, since the new government took over, we see a rise in optimism. The country has outlined the digital programme for delivery of services to the citizens. Government support and stakeholders engagement is key for converting the data into a new service opportunity. India with its conducive economic, political and pro-digital environment provides all that is needed to make it happen. A new company may take some time, but we already have the competency, capacity and maturity to help the government of India. There is growth in the adoption of platform as service and software as a service through the cloud. How is SAP addressing the new trend? In terms of users, we are the biggest cloud company in the world. By revenue, we are the second biggest. You are absolutely right in saying that the revenue coming from on premise solution is higher than that from the cloud. However, going forward, we see higher growth from cloud. We believe that by 2017-18, the revenue from cloud will come to parity with our on premise solutions and thereafter cloud will take the lead. However, this does not mean that companies will immediately bring their modules and processes into the cloud. You may see companies first putting HR and talent management to the cloud and then there could be gradual move to put sales, marketing and other parts of business.

We believe that by 2017-18, the revenue from cloud will come to parity with our on premise solutions and thereafter cloud will take the lead

SAP is providing its SAP HANA platform for flood management in India.What is the stage of the project? The solution is the outcome of a co-development between SAP and Bangalore based Arteria Technologies. Currently it is in pilot stage with the government of Uttar Pradesh. The idea is to equip canals and the dams with sensors so that whenever there is overflow, leakage and risk of flood, people can be alerted. In the second phase, we plan to build an auto-monitor tool to fix small problems automatically. mohd.ujaley@expressindia.com

MAY, 2015

CASE STUDY

SNAPDEAL

Snapdeal DEPLOYS BIG DATA FOR BETTER CONSUMER EXPERIENCE A move from RDBM to NoSQL DB with Big Data capabilities empower the Snapdeal portal to achieve the crucial aspects of scale, speed and real time information BY ABHISHEK RAVAL

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ctober 6, 2014—the day when India’s online retail market saw one of the biggest sales and the Indian consumers got the opportunity to buy a range of exciting products at unbelievable prices! Lakhs of products got sold in a single day. It was an action packed day at the popular online retailer, Snapdeal: a smartphone got sold every 6 seconds; laptop every 20 seconds; tablet every 30 seconds; sari every 30 seconds; footwear every 10 seconds. With such high sales happening for the first time in the history of India’s online retail, few glitches were expected. Some consumers complained that they could not buy their favourite products because of technical issues. But overall, October 6, 2014, was a highly successful day—it can be seen as a coming of age day for India’s online retail industry. A November 2013 report from CLSA indicates that e-commerce will grow to as much as $22 billion (excluding travel) in five years from $ 3.1 billion currently. Such high growth can only happen on a secure online platform that uses cutting edge technology to provide real time information to the customers and suppliers.

Building the infrastructure Snapdeal could service so many customers in a single day because of the innovative technology that the website has deployed. Before the big sales day, the company had moved its systems from Relational Database Management System (RDBM) to a real time In-Memory NoSQL DB, which has Big Data processing capabilities. This new system enabled the Snapdeal website to handle massive amounts of traffic and continue to serve its customers with seamless efficiency. Initially the website was using 10 MongoDB servers to process the data, but as the number of transactions continued to rise, the servers saw a performance degrade. This resulted in an unsatisfactory buying experience for some of the consumers. Few customers were unable to get the latest price related information. Apart from the customer based MAY, 2015

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interactions on the e-commerce portal, there is also the activity from sellers, who are listing new products, updating their catalogues, changing the nature of their offerings based on the fluid demandsupply dynamics. Considering that the approximate seller base on Snapdeal is one lakh, it is obvious that the site sees a lot of action from the seller side. In the database world, these activities on the website are expressed as “Writes” and “Reads”–“Writes” are the changes made in the inventory and pricing management system and “Reads” are the webpage loading time with all the latest changes being made on the site in real time. When Snapdeal started encountering a drag on the website due to the growing business volume, the need was felt to have a re-look at the database model.

Tech for Serving Exponential Growth As Snapdeal continues to grow exponentially, there is a massive amount of rise in the data from consumers, resellers and other partners in the ecosystem. The website is also prone to sharp spikes in consumer and supplier traffic during the big sales days. Thus there was need to upgrade the systems to ensure that the transactions are conducted without any delay. “Only when the systems fail to cope up that you realise that you need to have Big Data technology and a team in place within the company,” says Ankit Khanna, Senior VP, Product Management, Snapdeal. The company began to explore for solutions that could help it handle the regular load as well as the sharp spikes in traffic during the holiday seasons. The IT team at Snapdeal was clear from the beginning that they wanted a solution that could provide efficient real-time service to its consumers as well as sellers. Thus the quest began for a DB. The company looked at solutions like Couchbase, Hazelcast, Cassandra, Redis and few others. After a lot of deliberation and comparative evaluation, Snapdeal finally signed up with Aerospike. The In-Memory NoSQL DB player was capable of meeting the exact requirements from Snapdeal. The implementation had to be done EXPRESS COMPUTER

quickly as the online retail market in India is growing at an exponential pace. At the time of festivals like Diwali there is sudden explosion in the consumer and supplier traffic. “Snapdeal had the goal of thirty thousand TPS. The system that can reach that level was good enough for them,” says Sunil Sayyaparaju, Tech Lead, Aerospike. After the incorporation of Aerospike, there has been a significant improvement in the transaction process at Snapdeal. On October 6, 2014, Snapdeal was expecting that there will be a maximum of thirty thousand TPS, but the demand went up to seventy thousand TPS. The good thing is that the system from Aerospike was able to withstand the spike. Thus Snapdeal was able to serve maximum number of consumers on that day. “Aerospike is helping us to serve real time data in large volume. The Snapdeal applications and the resellers can now make real time updates in inventory, catalogue etc. This in turn is enabling us to serve billions of records to the consumers in real time,” says Khanna. The other technology that has been implemented at Snapdeal is the recommendation engine. The Big Data element of the engine provides intelligent recommendations to the frequent visitors.

Only when the systems fail to cope up that you realise that you need to have Big Data technology and a team in place Ankit Khanna, Senior VP,Product Management, Snapdeal

Real time updates Currently, the Java enabled marketplace platform used by Snapdeal, includes subsystems for order and catalogue management, inventory and pricing management, fulfilment centre management, shipping, delivery and tracking management and TrustPay, a buyer-seller protection platform. Snapdeal is now capable of ensuring that its sellers are able to constantly update their products and services. The consumers are having a seamless and efficient buying experience. They are also able to rate the sellers on the basis of price, time for delivery and the overall consumer-satisfaction. After every page click, the website combines the updates from shoppers and sellers to display the most relevant products.

Snapdeal had the goal of thirty thousand TPS. The system that can reach that level was good enough for them Sunil Sayyaparaju,

abhishek.raval@expressindia.com

Tech Lead,Aerospike MAY, 2015

FEATURE

SMART CITIES

EXECUTION HOLDS THE KEY W hat exactly is a smart city? It is difficult to strictly define a smart city. Generally speaking, a smart city is a city that deploys technology to make its functioning as efficient as possible, enhancing wellbeing through reduced costs and resource consumption and active engagement of the resident population, all in an ecologically sensitive manner. However, there is no fixed template, no one-size-fits all plan along the lines of which a smart city is built. The concept of a smart city is fluid, one which adapts to fit itself to the different needs of the citizens of different cities according to their different priorities. Yet, just as it is possible to broadly define a smart city, there are certain common structures that need to be implemented to make a city ‘smart.’

What makes a city smart? So what goes into making a city smarter? A patchwork of different technologies and infrastructure, which seamlessly mesh together to make all aspects of a city’s functioning as efficient as possible. It is a complex system of processes. But it is possible for us to break it down into two broad parameters that form the framework on which a smart city is built – 40

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“So what goes into making a city smarter? A patchwork of different technologies and infrastructure, which seamlessly mesh together to make all aspects of a city’s functioning as efficient as possible,” says Chandrashekar Kakal

vertical elements and horizontal elements. The vertical elements are the projects in areas like surveillance, healthcare, transport, utilities, education, governance that need to be implemented to make a city smart. The horizontal elements are the capabilities that enable these projects to be implemented. To simplify it further, the horizontal elements form the foundation on which the vertical elements are built.

Examples of vertical and horizontal elements

Vertical elements ● Smart Surveillance: This is an important element of a smart city, as it is about ensuring the safety and security of its citizens. It involves placing cameras and sensors at critical points enabling authorities to monitor the movement of people via a central control room. Smart surveillance projects are gaining steam in India and Surat has already commissioned a city surveillance project. Larsen & Toubro has bagged a contract to install 6000 cameras in Mumbai, while the Aam Admi Party has also laid out the placement of 1.5 million cameras in Delhi as a key item in their manifesto. ● Smart Governance: Smart governance takes the process of administration online, simplifying it to enable swift resolution of issues and deepening the engagement of citizens with the decision-making process. It is not a new concept and is being applied by several state governments in the country, with the eventual goal of moving every citizen-government transaction online. ● Smart Transport: Smart Transport encompasses several aspects - from toll road simplification via automatic deduction of charges to the use of technology to help MAY, 2015

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reduce congestion. Smart cards that enable multi-modal transport, capturing traffic offences via cameras, on-line inquiries and schedules of public transport are all examples of smart transport. The concept has been further extended to include online taxi reservations, real time car pooling and identification of vacant spots in a parking lot. ● Smart Utilities: Deploying technology to efficiently manage water and electricity usage are absolutely critical elements of a smart city. Smart meters and sensors that analyse a city’s consumption pattern and regulate the supply of water and electricity as per demand go a long way in conserving a city’s resources. Creation of smart grids by electricity distribution companies to minimise power outages, load balancing, smart metering and payment collections are examples of electricity distribution management in a smart way. Leakage detection in water pipelines, better metering and billing to monitor consumption accurately are essential towards smart water management. ● Smart Communication: High-speed internet connectivity, city-wide WiFi and uninterrupted network availability on a 24X7 basis make cities smart in all respects. Public address systems in case of a mass communication need, alert messaging by linking mobile phone numbers of citizens to a centralised database and a command centre to coordinate efforts in case of any disaster will require an intelligently designed communication system across the city. The above list of vertical elements is by no means exhaustive. It can be expanded to include smart environment, smart education, smart health care, smart buildings, smart parking and so on. But all of these verticals would collapse unless supported by the foundation provided by the horizontal elements.

Horizontal elements ● Infrastructure: All smart programmes require basic, physical infrastructure like civil, electrical, temperature control, fire and safety and communication. In addition, all the data required for the ‘verticals’ to function

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There is no dearth of ideas and concepts to make a city smart,but the real challenge lies in executing a city-wide master blueprint Chandrashekar Kakal, Chief Operating Officer,L&TInfotech

effectively has to reside in data centres equipped with IT infrastructure for storage, back-up and recovery. In case of a greenfield smart city, it is possible to create common infrastructure that can support different programs but in an evolving city where different government departments are at different levels of ‘smartness maturity’, coexistence of various kinds of physical and IT infrastructure is unavoidable. ● Communication: The physical IT hardware needs to be supplemented by communication infrastructure — communication lines, routers, switches, modems, antennae — which are an essential part of a smart city’s IT backbone. Open lines of communication need to be maintained at all points - from the source of data, to data centres where the data resides, to command centres where it is monitored until it reaches individuals who can then act on that data. ● Sensors and Edge equipment: The data has to be collected from the source using sensors. CCTV cameras, for instance, in the case of a surveillance project and meters in the case of electricity and water management. ● Command centres: The collected data needs to be viewed, monitored, analysed and actioned on. Central command centres would need to be constructed to fulfil these functions. In case of a city surveillance project, it may be located at police headquarters with localised viewing centres in different parts of the

city for quick responses. ● Common Software: Transaction processing systems such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, selfservice portals, business intelligence and analytics software may cater to one or more areas of smart programs. Standardisation of some of these would result in lower upgrade and maintenance costs in the long run. ● Domain applications: This refers to specialised and domain specific software which is tailor-made for a specific smart project and supplied by specialised software product vendors. In case of a surveillance project for example, video monitoring and analysis software is at the heart of that specific program. ● IT Services: These refer to the various services required at different stages of implementation of smart systems—from consulting services to conceptualisation, to operation and maintenance. Services from one or more companies may be required to design, build, test, install and operate the systems.

Execution challenges There is no dearth of ideas and concepts to make a city smart today. Several departments, states and central government agencies are already implementing smart projects. But the real challenge lies in executing a city-wide master blueprint. A smart city is a fluid concept that goes beyond just the mere incorporation of technology to run a city. It needs to be adapted to the specific needs and priorities of the city it’s being implemented in. What works for Paris or London may not necessarily serve as the ideal template for Mumbai. The priorities are different for Indian cities and they need to be defined by the government. We need to do is deploy smart technology in our cities to make them liveable. Essentially, the smart cities are liveable cities. The government’s target of establishing 100 smart cities in India is laudable and achievable. But the challenge in implementing this vision and the scale of the task should not be underestimated. Chandrashekar Kakal is the Chief Operating Officer of L&TInfotech

MAY, 2015

CASE STUDY

SUVIDHA

THE SUVIDHAOF CAPTURING DATA ON THE GO

Suvidha cuts farmer data collection cost by close to Rs 5 lakh per project by deployment of the SourceTrace platform

BY EXPRESS COMPUTER TEAM

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MAY, 2015

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ociety for Upliftment of Villagers & Development of Himalayan Areas (Suvidha) is engaged in the promotion of organic and sustainable agriculture in the states of Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Odisha. The organisation has facilitated establishment of around 250 organised grower groups in it’s endeavour to promote regular, sustainable livelihood opportunities for the marginalised tribal and rural farmers, who are engaged in organic farming projects in Odisha. By the development of innovative ways of farming, Suvidha has been contributing towards the improvement of the socioeconomic conditions of the farmers. It lends a helping hand to the farmers for minimising uncertainty and to maximising revenue by use of innovative ways of farming and by providing support resources offered by the government. Suvidha also creates value for the farmer’s produce through certification. It enables market linkages, both nationally and globally, to ensure premium prices. Since organic farming is currently undergoing vast changes for becoming more organised, working with marginal farmers, who are located in remote areas, can be difficult.

Technology for more transparency Hirdesh Kumar, General ManagerProjects, Suvidha, says that the organisation was motivated by the aim of ensuring higher levels of transparency, visibility and accountability within the Organic Farmers Enterprise. There should be a more transparent way of recording member-level transactions. “In the past all operations concerning the farmers were being done manually. The field staff used to visit the farmers and record the relevant data on paper. In such a scenario, there were greater chances of errors,” he says. “As the data collection process was manual, the management had to wait for days before they could get reports about transactions with the farmers. In the absence of a centralised real time information system, the management could not take decision or share information with the policy makers and EXPRESS COMPUTER

the government,” he adds. Kumar says that in order to address the problem, Suvidha decided to deploy an IT system that could facilitate the system of data collection in the field, while also generating management reports and being a data source for further research and development.

SourceTrace way

Designed for emerging markets with narrowband communications, ESE is optimised to use small data packets and wireless transactions to reduce costs and maximise speed Venkat Maroju, CEO, SourceTrace

SOURCETRACE ESE PLATFORM OFFERS FOLLOWING BENEFITS TO THE ENTERPRISES ◗ Mobility solution for capturing farmer, farm and crop related data in remote areas (enrolment process) ◗ Mobility solution to digitise agriculture input distribution, internal control system, procurement of the produce and processing of the payment in remote areas ◗ Field staff/agent management capability ◗ Easy-to-generate business reporting capability

Kumar says, it was back in 2013 that Suvidha started working with SourceTrace to conduct a pilot for its field staff in Odisha. The project covered 4850 farmers. Suvidha tested the SourceTrace ESE (eServices Everywhere) platform that leverages existing mobile and wireless data networks to allow companies to capture transactional information at the source — even in remote locations where telecommunication infrastructure is minimal or even non-existent. Venkat Maroju, CEO of SourceTrace, says, “With this platform we have set an industry standard for remote data transaction systems with robust applications that have been deployed in lowbandwidth environments in three continents. Designed for emerging markets with narrowband communications, ESE is optimised to use small data packets and wireless transactions to reduce costs and maximise speed.” Maroju claims that the ESE platform is easily integrated with most of the standard "Backend Systems". The ESE platform is designed to meet the serverside security demands of MNCs offering unequaled reliability, real time processing and accurate data recording with a clear audit trail. He informs that the platform comprises of ESE Remote for flexibility to transmit data using Java-phones, Tablets and Smartphones, ESE Server to manage the visibility and management of global data and remote devices, and ESE Adapter, the middleware for interconnection with existing 'backend systems' of the customers. Kumar says that Suvidha found the SourceTrace ESE Platform to be a perfect fit for its requirements of digitisation of various processes involved in the farmer engagement. MAY, 2015

CASE STUDY

SUVIDHA

» www.expresscomputeronline.com

“Through mobile technology that can facilitate transactions and transmission of data from remote areas in real time, the platform has the capability of streamlining the data collection from remote areas. It provides the necessary support for management reporting, administrative functions and communication,” Kumar says. He adds that the application allows the staff to capture field-level information of the critical data thus keep the management informed of the status in real time. “Since the platform is device agnostic, any device can plug and play. In Odisha, we are using the solutions with about six different models of user devices,” Kumar informs. “The solution supports offline documentation, which means that data can be captured even in case of poor or ill network availability. Once the network becomes available the devices can be 44

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connected to the network. The users can work seamlessly in both online and offline mode. Stressing on the security features of the solution, Maroju, points out that the users need not bother about the device as each device is mapped to its user. The users need to login for secure access, which is role based.

Ease to Suvidha Kumar says that it took them about two weeks to deploy the SourceTrace solution, and they could experience the difference soon after that. Enhanced visibility of the transaction in real time, improving productivity of field staff and their supported organisation was an immediate benefit. “The solution has helped us reduce the cost of access to farmer information and delivery of services, in terms of time and monetary costs of traveling.. In fact, we are

able to reduce cost incurred per project to the tune of Rs 5 lakh,” Kumar says. He says, “We are now able to obtain timely, accurate farmers information for procurement and disbursement of payments, and trace the produce from the field to market.” “The solution is designed to meet our specific needs through which we can record and access information of the farm land, number of farmers involved, caste, gender, landholder type, field officer, field assistants, site officer, soil type, climatic conditions, irrigation and all the relevant information required as per the benchmarks.” Kumar says, Suvidha has been using the solution in five states now and they plan to further their relationship with SourceTrace by using the solution for the CDM (Clean Development Management) project in Uttarakhand. MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW ALOK SHRIVASTAVA SENIOR DIRECTOR, EMC GLOBAL EDUCATION SERVICES

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“IT has traditionally been run in silos with different people looking at different areas—networking, databases, storage, etc., but with cloud, these silos come down,” says Alok Shrivastava, Senior Director, EMC Global Education Services

“The CIOs must present themselves as business leaders” Tell us about EMC’s Global Education Services. EMC’s Global Education Services is responsible for internal training, as well as the technical training of EMC’s customers, channel partners, their employees and the industry in general. I am personally responsible for technical content and the programmes of certification and academic alliance.

a successful data scientist, he will say that it is something that you grow with and we have learnt that if you have the right education then you can be a productive member of a data science team. Here I would like to stress that the Indian workforce now has global relevance. How do you see the role of a CIO evolve in Cloud environments? There is a vast improvement in cloud deployments in India. The CIOs have to expand their role and look at newer areas and opportunity. IT has traditionally been run in silos with different people looking at different areas—networking, databases, storage, etc., but with cloud, these silos come down and the CIOs need to have skill-sets that cut across different technology areas, because one decision can impact the strategic component of the cloud. The second piece, about the CIOs is that they have traditionally been the technical and operational folks, but in the cloud world you are looking at them as business leaders. They have to now provide services in a way that they are always on. They are now expected to take care of the cloud infrastructure. To stay relevant the CIOs will have to present themselves as business leaders; the CIO at times might have marketing teams reporting to them.

What are the areas of focus for Global Education Services? Being part of EMC, we align with the company’s direction, and the company in turn aligns with the industry's momentum. We are working with VMware on virtualization and also getting into cloud and converged infrastructure. We are also working on Big Data, Data Analytics and Data Science, but essentially the EMC education services address the needs in areas where IT transition is happening. We came up with the concept of open curriculum to make sure that we not only talk about EMC’s products, we also create knowledgeable workforce in the industry by focusing on the context, principles right through the design of the products and how they work, and it is something that has become very popular and powerful in all the areas. So we have that for storage, back up recovery, cloud and Big Data Analytics. What is your view of the demand for data scientist in India? According to EMC digital universe 2014 study by IDC, the data growth was from 4.4 Zetabytes in 2013 to 44 Zetabytes in 2020. As per the industry reports, Big Data will generate 4.4 million jobs globally by 2015. However, the industry is still at the stage where the transformation is getting redefined. The workforce available in the industry must learn about the lab facilities, the transformation and then move on to levelling their technologies. What is your view of the quality of skill pool available in India to take up data science jobs? The field of data sciences will take sometime to mature. Hiring of the right skill-sets and gaining the right knowledge will be critical. If you talk to EXPRESS COMPUTER

There is vast improvement in cloud deployments in India.The CIOs have to expand their role and look at newer areas and opportunity

What kind of engagements do you have with the educational institutions in India? About 2500 universities worldwide are part of EMC’s educational services worldwide. We provide curriculum around storage (traditional, virtualized and cloud) similarly we have programmes for backup recovery, disaster recovery, and we also have an offering around cloud infrastructure and services. Finally we have an offering around data science and big data analytics, which provides an end-to-end data life cycle approach to the students, starting from the very basic to analysing real time data to create a business case. In India we have more than 300 institutions that are academic alliance partners, and more than 150,000 students have been benefitted till date. MAY, 2015

FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

OPENING UP TO OPEN SOURCE Indian enterprises are warming up to open source technologies, which are now being recognised for their ability to boost efficiency and reduce the cost of operations BY EXPRESS COMPUTER TEAM

he era of proprietary software may be far from over, but its dominance is being challenged by open source technologies. Many large enterprises and mid-size organisations are making a shift towards open source. This is revealed by Black Duck Software’s Future of Open Source Survey 2014. Over 50% of the respondents in the survey said that they were planning to use open source for managing their their internal operations. “Open source has proven its quality and security, and reached the point of

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democratisation and proliferation,” says Lou Shipley, President and CEO – Black Duck Software. The survey findings are inline with the assessment of some of the top open source software vendors in enterprise software market today. “In last few years, we have seen enterprise customers across industry segments implement open source solutions. This trend is leading to the generation of interest in other players in the industry,” says Dirk-Peter Van Leeuwen, Senior Vice President & General Manager - Asia Pacific Region, Red Hat.

99%

of Forbes’ Global 2000 companies will be using some form of open source software. (Gartner)

According to Gartner, most software makers will have some open source applications or code in their portfolio by 2016.

MAY, 2015

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“Even conventional enterprises are beginning to adopt open source and their past queries around business criticality have now changed to how open source can be used for middleware, databases and other areas,” Leeuwen adds.

Open Source in Vogue The enterprise customers are getting

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inclined towards open source technologies because they are confident that they can get more productivity from such solutions. Some open source technologies are as efficient as proprietary software. “It is good to see that enterprises are getting involved in the IT decision making process and are now open to

change, and are looking for alternatives,” opines Leeuwen. The global movement towards open source is also palpable in the Indian market. Several large and midsize businesses in India are exploring solutions crafted from open source technologies. The list of enterprise customers for RedHat in India has names like - Center

MAY, 2015

FEATURE

OPEN SOURCE

Enterprises are adopting open source in a bigger way than ever before,reveals a Black Duck Software’s Future of Open Source Survey 2014.

In last few years,we have seen enterprise customers across industry segments implement open source solutions Dirk-Peter Van Leeuwen, Senior Vice President & General Manager - Asia Pacific Region, Red Hat

Open Source technology is a cost effective way of doing proof of concept (PoC) Lalit Popli, Head – IT,ICICI Prudential Asset Management Company (AMC) 48

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for Railway Information Systems (CRIS), Credit Information Bureau (India) Limited (CIBIL), National Commodities & Derivatives Exchange Limited (NCDEX), Uttam Energy Tech Limited, Enhancesys, Hungama, Marico and Bilcare Research. “The open source Linux market is growing at about 18% year-on-year as compared to there being 4-5% growth in Windows; this clearly shows the shift in the market preference. SUSE has been seeing 23-24% yearly growth,” says Venkatesh Swaminathan, Country Head The Attachmate Group India. Attachmate serves several Indian enterprises, including the national carrier Air India, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), Dimension Data and Cafe Coffee Day. “The open source adoption rate has been increasing in the last few years and we have some of our critical applications running on open source technology,” says Thomson Thomas, Senior Vice President –IT (Business Systems and Technology), HDFC Standard Life Insurance. “We have a Point of Sale (PoS) system, which is used by the sales team and their partners. We have opted for open source for our new applications. These are based on different open source technologies,” adds Thomas. Like HDFC Standard Life Insurance, most large organisations deploy diverse open-source technologies and applications for unique business and operational needs. “Large portals with Java-based development environments are known to use Red Hat’s middleware to provide quick system access to users, the insurers rely on JBoss Rules engine and telcos prefer data-pro technology to support customers’ portal for instant access to mobile bills,” says Leeuwen. “Evidently the solutions that are currently being used in India are

technologies that require huge scalability and are very new to this industry,” he adds. He points out that scalability is the key requirement of technology solutions for businesses in India.

The Open Ecosystem While it is primarily the cost factor that is driving the adoption of open source technologies, there are other reasons also for the growth of this vertical. Thomas stresses that the ecosystem of open source has evolved to support an entire enterprise. The open source ecosystem has been continuously maturing and expanding over a period of many years. The Commercial Open Source Software (COSS) is a segment that purely caters to enterprises. That is where the open source software vendors provide Enterprise Edition (EE) software or applications to customers. Software vendors, including Red Hat, SUSE, Black Duck Software, Kitware and others operating in the COSS domain are offering EE software to enterprise customers under a licence/subscription or a support fees. A growing community of Open Source Software (OSS) users, makes use of the freely available Community Edition (CE) software. Mostly known as freeware, this software does not carry any licence fees. The development of open source technologies is actually driven by diverse groups or communities of individual developers, coders and programmers who collaborate on various projects to build distinct software products and tools. These communities have their own unique focus areas like software, hardware, mobile, scientific research, etc. This community based software development involves product development teams from vendors that at MAY, 2015

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times contribute number of codes and modules back into the community projects. Hence the software development in open source does not stop at any point, changes are made constantly. On the COSS side, it is the vendors along with their product teams that actually put the required effort for creating software that has high performance, security, quality, scalability and all the technical support that enterprise customers need. According to a Gartner study, most software makers will have some open source applications or code in their portfolio by 2016. The study also reaches the conclusion that 99% of Forbes’ Global 2000 companies will be using some form of open source software. Even businesses and companies operating in the non-IT and technical domains will take benefit of OSS to support and drive business plans, as per the research firm. Today the open source ecosystem is highly active and vibrant on the enterprise front as Thomas from HDFC Standard Life Insurance has pointed out earlier. So it wouldn’t be wrong to say that open source technology has actually come a long way to win the trust and confidence of enterprises and their respective IT heads and CIOs.

Concerns Around Openness There are certain criteria that organisations and their top management need to evaluate before stepping into the open source territory and moving away from traditional or proprietary software. Yateen Chodnekar, Group CIO Writer Corporation, says that a right balance and detailed due diligence is essential to make a choice between open source and proprietary software. “Of the two, which one will best meet the organisation’s needs and at what cost? How much reliability, flexibility and sustainability will it offer to the organisation?” “There are levels involved in these decisions that can’t be resolved in terms of black and white thinking. The choice between open-source and proprietary software is usually a false dilemma. The reality being that they are not mutually EXPRESS COMPUTER

exclusive,” says Chodnekar. Since the evolution of proprietary software models, enterprises and organisations in general have been widely objecting to the software license fee or charges and subsequent annual fees for upgrades and newer versions. Besides the license cost, inter-compatibility of one software application with the other is a contentious issue. “Customers are looking at nontraditional ways of doing business. We have seen many wins in India on SUSE and the biggest concern that got highlighted is the over-dependability on one single vendor. Such over-dependence often leads to lock-ins, rigidity and high costs. Post engagement with us many vendors have achieved flexibility, heterogeneity and reduced costs,” informs Swaminathan of Attachmate Group.

Managing security Are open source technologies as secure as the proprietary software? Thomas from HDFC Standard Life Insurance says, “Currently we don’t have any foolproof assurance from proprietary software makers. Hence the security aspect in both open source and proprietary must be similar.” “We implement only those solutions that have stood the test of time and have proved to be efficient, versatile and secure,” he informs. Attachmate Group’s Swaminathan believes that open source technology offers affordable performance, greater agility and reduced risk. He says that enterprises are using Linux because it delivers the performance and security they need, but at a more affordable price. “Linux allows greater efficiencies, it helps organisations become agile. It reduces their risk – risk of vendor lock in, technology obsolescence, etc,” he adds. “I believe that open source is a better solution for modern enterprises. We work hard to stay a step ahead in our response to emerging security threats. Red Hat has a Security Response Team, which is a dedicated unit for quickly addressing software security and vulnerabilities related issues,” says Leeuwen of Red Hat.

Some of our critical applications are running on open source technology Thomson Thomas, Senior Vice President – IT(Business Systems and Technology),HDFC Standard Life Insurance

Aright approach and detailed due diligence is essential to make a decision between an open source and proprietary software Yateen Chodnekar, Group CIO - Writer Corporation MAY, 2015

presents

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Hospitality Partner

Knowledge Partner

EVENT DIGITAL INDIA DIALOGUE

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SMART CITIES SMARTER CITIES SMARTEST CITIES With the objective of encouraging vigorous exchange of thoughts and taking the discussion on Smart Cities to a new level, The Indian Express Group organised the Digital India Dialogue. The Union Minister of Urban Development, M Venkaiah Naidu, was the Chief Guest at the conference that was attended by a galaxy of select flag-bearers and thought-leaders representing the bureaucracy, academia and corporate institutions and the media.

PPPP for Smart Cities: Naidu

I Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu addressing the gathering at Digital India Dialogue 52

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n his address, M Venkaiah Naidu presented the government’s vision for development of smart cities in India. He was of the view that the smart cities can come up only when the people of the country are ready for the transformation, since they are the ones who would be building it. “Some of us have a misconception that the government alone will build smart cities and hand it over ready-made. That is not feasible. The only model that can work here is PPPP—public private partnership with people’s cooperation,” Naidu said. MAY, 2015

EVENT DIGITAL INDIA DIALOGUE

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Candid Talk With Minister

Union Minister for Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu in conversation with Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director & Head - New Media, The Indian Express Limited

aidu said that with large numbers of Indians migrating to the cities, the time has now come to give more importance

to the development of better urban infrastructure. “New initiatives and innovations are important in the creation of smart cities so that the country can

benefit from urbanisation. We are moving fast towards urbanisation. Today, 31% of the population are in urban habitats and we are moving towards 40%. It is estimated that we can even reach 50%. It is a unstoppable process that has already started,” the minister explained. Naidu informed the guests at the conference that the government will soon be announcing two complementary schemes on urban development in the country—the smart city scheme and New Urban Development Mission. The brownfield projects will be completed by “retrofitting, redevelopment and pan-city initiatives promoting eGovernance platforms for enabling increased citizenry participation,” Naidu said, while explaining the ministry’s plans. He also revealed that about 14 countries have approached the government to help in the smart city initiatives in the country. “The mayor of New York has offered us help to create the city challenge where we will be able to choose cities for transformation to smart cities,” Naidu said.

Release of Smart Cities Report

T The report—How smart are our cities? — was released at the event by M Venkaiah Naidu, Anant Goenka and Neel Ratan, Partner and Leader of PwC India. EXPRESS COMPUTER

he report, put together by Express Computer and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), conceptualises the models for future smart cities in the country. The report assesses the transformation of Indian cities into smart cities and analyses the extent to which Indian cities are using technology to make administration more efficient and empower their citizens. Report also makes a competitive assessment of the existing infrastructure and various social factors for creating smart cities and evaluate areas where green-field smart cities can come up.

MAY, 2015

EVENT DIGITAL INDIA DIALOGUE

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Smart Cities: Sustainable & Flexible Models

(From L-R) Piyush Somani, founder, MD & CEO, ESDS Software Solution; Amitabh Kant, Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP), Government of India; Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, Deputy Editor, The Indian Express; Bibek Debroy, Full Time Member, NITI Aayog; Onno Ruhl, India Country Director, The World Bank

n this enlightening session moderated by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee, the panelists and the guests took stock of the complexities and challenges that must be tackled for achieving the government’s vision of modernising the existing cities and developing greenfield smart cities. Bibek Debroy observed, “I am happy that this particular government has recognised this fact. Under the earlier government, there was a suggestion that urban was bad and government must keep people in rural areas.” Responding to a query from Subhomoy Bhattacharjee on whether we are starting urbanisation programme a bit too late, Onno Ruhl said that there has been tradition in India to look at urbanisation as a bad thing rather than a lever for change. “It is great that the country has realised it now. India has the 54

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potential to develop a planned Gurgaon next to Patna but right planning is needed. The plan must focus on all the basic amenities which a smart city should require. Today, Gurgaon faces huge challenges because it was not planned as a smart city. The government also needs to bring regulation which facilitates these initiatives rather that get into the way. The country has become credible from business perspective,” he said. Amitabh Kant was of the view that while it is true that India is a very late starter for smart city, but there is a huge advantage of being a late starter. “We have the best global practices before us. Today we can learn from the experience of Atlanta and Barcelona and use modern technology to leapfrog. The concept of smart city is all about embedding the city with solid public transportation system. If you are able to do that, you have won the

half battle. Second key is building a system for proper and efficient way of recycling the water. It has been huge challenge for India to utilise rain water, so the success would also depend on how well we are able to do dual piping. Third key thing is that how well we manage our waste.” Piyush Somani felt that while smart cities are a necessity, their development was being stymied due to lack of proper policy. “I feel that presently right policies are not in place to spearhead the smart city projects. The smart cities we are talking about will generate lot of data because you will have a high number of connected devices, but today we do not have the proper policy on data. And since we do not have right policy on data, how the country is going to make good sense of that (data) which countries such as USA have beautifully used for their benefits,” he said. MAY, 2015

EVENT DIGITAL INDIA DIALOGUE

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‘Make in India’Technologies for ‘Digital India’

(From R-L) Piyush Somani and Dr. Rajeev Papneja of ESDS Software Solution with government officials at the roundtable discussion

n the sidelines of the Digital India Dialogue, a roundtable on data center and data management was organised. Piyush Somani, MD & CEO, ESDS Software Solution Pvt Ltd., and Dr. Rajeev Papneja, COO & Executive Vice President, ESDS Software Solution Pvt Ltd., were the key speakers at the roundtable, which was attended by 14 senior officials from the IT wings of various government departments and PSUs. Dr. Rajeev Papneja began the discussion by informing the guests that today 80% of Indian data is being stored abroad. Many government officials and organisations use Gmail. And there is every possibility that this data is being used and analysed. “Should there be a policy to ensure that the data belonging to Indian businesses and citizens be stored in India itself?” Dr. Papneja asked. There was overwhelming consensus at 56

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the roundtable that the government needs to develop appropriate policies to ensure that a significant part of the data being generated in India is stored in data centres located within the country. Taking the discussion forward, Piyush Somani said, “EU countries have ensured that much of the data belonging to their businesses and citizens are stored in data centres located in EU itself. But in India, we are yet to develop the policy for ensuring that the Indian data is kept in India. When our crucial data is with foreign countries, then there is greater risk.” In context of the data that was being generated in the country, the subject of Digital India, Smart Cities and Make in India came up. “Digital India, Smart Cities and Make in India programmes will lead to the generation of huge amounts of data,” said Somani. “In fact, these initiatives can only lead to the best results when the data storage and

privacy policies evolve at the same pace with which the electronics and IT industry is growing.” Dr Papneja, gave a broad overview of the solutions for data management that ESDS has developed. He said, “The core focus at ESDS is to enable scalability, dependability and security with next generation cloud technology for our customers. We have fully conceptualised and developed enterprise products and solutions, which include auto-scalable eNlight Cloud Hosting Platform, eMagic Datacenter Management Suite and MTvScan - Web Vulnerability Scanner.” The one hour long roundtable ended with guests being of the view that when so much is being done to ensure that India is transformed into a knowledge society, we must also address the critical need for developing policies and regulations that can lead to efficiency and safety in our system of data storage and management. MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW DR NEETA VERMA DDG, NIC

THE BENEFITS OF SHARING AND PUBLISHING DATA “Eventually most of the open data initiatives in developing countries will ride on the technology developed by India,” says Dr Neeta Verma, Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre, Government of India. In conversation with Mohd Ujaley Government of India has released its National Data Sharing and Accessibility Policy (NDSAP). In what ways will this policy be of help in realising the potential of the vast amounts of data that is owned by the government? There has been growing demand from academics, researchers, techcommunity, policy makers and thinkers that the data generated by various organisations and institutions in the country should be made openly available so that the information can be extracted and used for public benefit. Also, Right to Information Act, 2005, says that public authority shall provide information suo motu to the public through various means including the internet. Therefore the NDSAP was developed by the Government of India. National Informatics Centre (NIC) is mandated to create a platform for enabling data sharing. So we developed the www.data.gov.in as a platform where all the government organisations can share data. What steps are you taking to ensure that the platform for providing data is robust? At NIC we have set-up a special group for driving the Open Data initiative. We are taking a four-pronged approach—setting up the mechanism, defining the guidelines and standards, creating the platform, training and spreading awareness. We have requested all the departments to nominate a data controller, who will drive the open data initiative in their respective departments by taking the decision on what data is to be published in open format at what point 58

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of time. Today we have more than 96 data controllers, most of them are of senior rank of Joint Secretary, DG, DDG. Some departments have established the NDSAP Cell, comprising of domain experts, to assist the data controllers. To ensure the robustness of the platform and easy availability of the data, we have ensured that the platform is generic enough to allow different departments to publish with ease. We have defined the standard for vocabulary and data. Initially, we were getting the data in a packaged form, now even the raw data is being incorporated. Also, in government there can be frequent postings, so we have created an easy to understand template for the officers. In what ways has the Open Government Data (OGD) platform evolved over the years? What new innovations are you adding to it? When we began, the data was a new

We have now started building connectors and APIs,which will help us in getting data from organisations where massive amounts of data is being generated on a daily basis

thing. Information was available from government departments, but in a packaged form. We conducted series of workshops to explain to the officers about the type of the data and the potential of the data. We have also created a task force, which provides suggestions and helps departments in understanding the nuances of data science. Open Government Data (OGD) platform is a completely open source based platform. As I said earlier, it is a very generic platform, any department can login and submit the data instantly. To take the initiative to a new level, we have now started building connectors and APIs, which will help us in getting data from organisations where massive amounts of data is being generated regularly. In fact, the AGMARKNET portal is already distributing daily market information on various commodities in open data format. With the help of APIs, we are ensuring the sustainability of the data. Even in the absence of data controller, we get data through APIs. The truth is that the citizen wants to have real-time access to accurate data; they are interested in data that has a direct effect on their life. For instance, a farmer will be more interested in knowing about the Mandi prices within the 5 Kms vicinity. Hence we have created APIs and apps that can provide such specific information. How has the global open data community responded to India's OGD platform? Has there been any replication of OGD platform outside India? India has played leadership role in MAY, 2015

developing OGD platform with India.gov.in. USA, which started open data portal (data.gov), has partnered with us. We have created a set of basic tools required to build open data portals in a plug and play mode. Our open government data platform code is also available in open source such as GitHub for global implementation. Some countries are developing their open data portal with the help of our platform. This platform has been acclaimed world over as it does not make use of any commercial application. Eventually most of the open data initiatives in developing countries will ride on the technology developed by India. Government of India has launched programmes like Digital India and Smart Cities that will lead to the generation of massive amounts of data. Does the Open Data Platform have the capability of managing such large amounts of data? It is indeed true that the amount of data â&#x20AC;&#x201D; structured and unstructured â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that is being generated is accelerating at a very high pace. The government of India's digital initiative is aimed at digital inclusion of all the people across the country. The question, whether we can handle such large amount of data or not, is not important. Obviously, we can. The important things is to ensure that the country benefits from the data. People must be able to use the data for driving productivity. This can only happen when we provide the open data in format that is easily accessible. Capacity and manpower are being improved with time. What specific steps are being taken to create more awareness about the data science? We are trying to build an ecosystem consisting of all the data controllers and the community at large. We conduct frequent workshops for them. From them we also receive feedback on their expectations from the initiative. Also, on the portal, we have created a citizen engagement platform. We encourage our users to tell us about the data that they would like to have on this platform. mohd.ujaley @expressindia.com

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MAY, 2015

EVENT WEB RATNA AWARDS

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3 WEB RATNA AWARDS rd

he third edition of Web Ratna Awards was held on March 25, 2014 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The Award ceremony was organised by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the ambit of National Portal of India (india.gov.in). Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad graced the occasion and conferred the awards in the presence of Secretary DeitY, Ram Sewak Sharma, and other senior officers of DeitY & NIC. Over the years, Web Ratna Awards has emerged as one of the most credible platform for recognising not only the government initiatives in the cyberdomain, but also the various eGovernance initiatives launched by the centre and various state governments. The awards were instituted in the year 2009, to serve as a medium for recognising outstanding work done in the area of providing government services through the medium of the World Wide Web. 60

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MAY, 2015

EVENT WEB RATNA AWARDS

www.expresscomputeronline.com

In his address to the event, Minister for Communications & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad, said that with the changing scenario where technology is taking leaps at an unprecedented rate it was imperative that the governance mechanisms also keep track of the transformations and accordingly made changes in their approach. He identified three major components of efficient governance â&#x20AC;&#x201C; transparency, responsibility and engagement. The minister congratulated all the awardees who had travelled from different states and cities to receive the award for their exemplary initiatives. EXPRESS COMPUTER

MAY, 2015

INTERVIEW ANIL CHAWLA MANAGING DIRECTOR, VERINT SYSTEMS

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“There is now wider acceptance of the value that analytics can bring to enterprises across different verticals,” says Anil Chawla, Managing Director, Verint Systems

Optimising Customer Experience Tell us about Verint Systems. We are a listed company on Nasdaq. This year we are celebrating 20 years of global operations. In India, we have been present for almost a decade. We are a close to 5,000 employees; we have recently acquired KANA, a leader in CRM (customer relation management) space. Together, we have come up with a customer engagement optimisation solution. Our joint go to market has been appreciated by the market and since the acquisition in February 2014, our stocks have moved upwards by 40%.

before a customer calls the company. With an effective engagement, the customer becomes more loyal, more willing to participate, not only in purchasing, but also on the feedback side of it, and today customer loyalty has become the key. You talked about India market gaining IT maturity. What kind of shift you see in deployment patterns in the market? There are certain trends that you always observe in a matured market. At the inception level, enterprises like to control everything from the operations and infrastructure point of view, but that would entail a certain cost and lead to higher TCO. The flexibility can also get restricted because so much of investment has already gone into it. The organisations are looking at options like managed services and cloud services. All these initiatives bring the cost down and give greater flexibility to the enterprise. Today operational challenges are more difficult to handle than infrastructure issues, which can be taken care of with the help cloud and managed services. Many enterprises find it difficult to gain a regional perspective. But we have an answer to this problem. We have a language model available for ten local languages in India. We can do analysis on those and provide emotion-based analysis, which never existed before. Today the options are abundant and customers demand instant gratification. To manage all these internally, enterprises are looking at solutions that offer a complete picture.

What are your plans for expanding in India? Every market goes through a maturity curve. In India the BPM, the erstwhile BPO industry has reached a certain level of maturity and research agencies are now putting India at par with Australia. When you look at most of the voice engagements, you realise that these are largely happening at the BPO where you service the customer. Over the last decade there have been huge investments and up scale in this segment, which started with pure play voice and is now witnessing a significant shift. In India, it is perhaps 50% voice and 50% non-voice processes, which means that these BPOs have now increased the value added business, and they are capturing lot of insights also. The market has realised that they need to provide seamless experience across multiple channels. For instance, e-Commerce companies have to keep in mind, multi-channel, personalisation. Is there a need for more personalised form of communication between businesses and consumers? Currently, about 80% of processes are IVR based, but such systems lack personalisation and compel people to look at web or email for more personalisation. So, businesses like the etailers and banks are working on developing new models for serving their customers. But the companies usually have information stored in silos, and when a customer tries to contact the company using different channels, the context is lost. To avoid that we have an offering in the market called the Customer Engagement Optimisation (CEO), the difference here is not about interaction or experience, but engagement. An engagement necessarily starts 62

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“Every market goes through a maturity curve. In India the BPM, the erstwhile BPO industry has reached a certain level of maturity and research agencies are now putting India at par with Australia”

What kind of response are you seeing in various segments of Indian market? Of the 10 cellular operators, 8 are on Verint. Of the top 5 banks, 4 are using our solution. Our share in the market is quite high in terms of spread. New market trends are evolving, and we have identified some of the key growth verticals. A lot of investment is happening in Telecom and BPO. The BPOs are offering new services like speech and text analytics, which we can optimise and analyse. They also have text-based interactions through emails, webchats, and social media. The companies are trying to mine all this information, run analytics on it and provide to their end-customers a comprehensive compilation of trends and opportunities. MAY, 2015

REGD.NO.MCS/066/2015-17, PUBLISHED ON 28TH OF EVERY PERVIOUS MONTH & POSTED AT MUMBAI PATRIKA CHANNEL SORTING OFFICE, DUE DATE 29 & 30 OF EVERY PREVIOUS MONTH, REGD. WITH RNI UNDER NO. 49926/90