IT Next July 2012 by Manan Mushtaq

it next

JULY 2012 / ` 100 Volume 03 / Issue 06

sTRATEGY: Next100 Winnersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Next Goal

boss Talk: Treating the Entrepreneurial bug

42 bIG Q

feature: Dream Teams: InterCorporate IT team challenge

Calculated cloud risks Pg 65

Strategic MOVERS volume 03 | Issue 06

IT managers employ innovative strategies to design robust IT frameworks of the future Pg 16

Rajesh Verma Head-IT, Cafe Coffee Day

Editorial

Is IT Planning a Thing of the Past? Many industry experts and researchers argue that IT planning and strategy is history now, belonging to a bygone era and is all broken up. The thought really does not resonate well with IT heads and their teams. I disagree with the analysts and the so-called experts who say that the discussion around planning and strategising no longer takes centre stage in management institutions. Even today, most management institutes do focus on planning and strategy related subjects and Information Technology is not an exception to the rule. Industry gatherings do debate the best practices around various technologies and try to define effective ways to absorb new technologies. While some research studies indicate that over 70 per cent of IT teams work without a clear roadmap and absorb whatever comes their way, IT Next’s cover story disproves this statement. The cover feature in this edition of IT Next provides insights into the effective ways of conducting IT planning, while using the best strategies to extract the best benefits from the technological deployments. The industry players, from technology vendors, CIOs, senior IT managers to service providers, reiterate the fact that it is critical to define a clear technology roadmap to measure the real value of any technology deployment or solution implementation. The new trend shows that IT teams do not necessarily confine themselves to IT alone during the planning and strategising stage, but involve the business groups as well. The roadmap is no longer restricted to which technology to deploy or how to allocate IT resources or how much to spend on this or even worry if the project will be approved by the CFO, CEO, and others. In fact, the whole planning strategy revolves around how to optimise business value using a particular technology, and ways to increase the stakeholders in the projects, from the user and business groups. This is how and when, the story delves into the realm of making tactical moves and putting the best foot forward to derive best value from technologies such as cloud computing, virtualisation and information security.

“As part of the new trend IT managers are involving business groups at planning and strategy stage” Geetha Nandikotkur

Blogs To Watch! The Future Data Center Is… Part II http://timcrawford.org/ List of Cloud Computing Outages 2012 – Businesses not prepared for outages http://analysiscasestudy. blogspot.in/2012/06/list-ofcloud-computing-outages-2012. html CISO Information Security Strategy and Roadmap for 2012 – Avoid Thrashing http://rafeeqrehman. com/2012/03/03/ ciso-informationsecurity-strategy-and-roadmapfor-2012-avoid-thrashing/ Insights from the 2012 Data Integration Strategy Survey http://data-virtualization.com/ tag/strategy/ The Role of Data Virtualization in a World of Big Data http://data-virtualization.com/ tag/big-data/ http://timcrawford.org/

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2012 Volume 03 | Issue 06

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The Right

Strategic Mo v e s

Page

Cover Story

boss talk

interview

20 G etting Ready for the Cloud | Effective

planning and best cloud practicees to improve business fluidity

22 P ublic Cloud is not for Large Firms | Cloud case study around the pros and cons of migrating to cloud

24 S mart Steps to Virtualisation | Tailored approach to drive maximum benefits from virtualisation

26 T ight Plan Means More Security |

Sophisticated tools combined with intelligent strategies to combat security risks from an interconnected world

28 U nified to Secure | Security case study around BFW needing a robust security solution, with UTM fitting the bill

IT NEXT

JULY 2012 / ` 100 VOLUME 03 / ISSUE 06

STRATEGY: Next100 Winners Next Goal

BOSS TALK: Treating Entrepreneurial bug

42 BIG Q

FEATURE: Dream TeamsInterCorporate IT team challenge

Calculated cloud risks Pg 65

STRATEGIC MOVERS VOLUME 03 | ISSUE 06

IT managers employ innovative strategies to design robust IT frameworks of the future Pg 16

Rajesh Verma Head-IT, Cafe Coffee Day

cover Photography: S Radhakrishna Design: Anil VK Imaging: Shigil N

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06 Entrepreneurship Challenges | Dr Swami Manohar, MD, JED I, on aspects to consider in a own venture

56 Mobile is driving cloud testing | David Taylor, Presdient-APAC, Micro Focus on how mobile is driving cloud testing

itnext.in

MANAGEMENT Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj Sinha Printer & Publisher: Vikas Gupta

EDITORIAL Group Editor: R Giridhar Executive Editor: Geetha Nandikotkur Consulting Editor(Online): Sanjay Gupta Senior Assistant Editor: Manu Sharma Managing Editor (Desk): sangita Thakur Sub Editors: Radhika Haswani

Page Next100 Winners’ Next Goal

Inspired by their win, the Next100 winners’ have set passionate goals for themselves and their teams

feature

42 TPL2012-Dream Teams India’s first and biggest InterCorporate IT team contest

opinion 08 Mobile Wallet: : Easy to Transact | Kalaivani Chittaran-

DESIGN

the big Q

Sr Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan Art Director: Anil VK Associate Art Director: Atul Deshmukh Sr Visualiser: Manav Sachdev Visualisers: Prasanth TR, Anil T & Shokeen Saifi Sr Designers: Sristi Maurya & NV Baiju Designers: Suneesh K, Shigil N, Charu Dwivedi Raj Verma, Prince Antony, Peterson Prameesh Purushothaman C & Midhun Mohan Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Sr Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

65 Cloud Security | Experts

says that one should take calculated risks while not compromising on deploying effective security tools

cube chat 60 Faith & Focus Pays off |

jan, ED & CEO, eMudra Consumer Services Ltd., on importance and improvement in mobile technologies for easy transaction

Bhavani Prasad, Senior IT Manager, Fifth Avenue believes that focused work will pay off

15-Minute manager

69 Galaxy S III In India | Simple with intelligent features

sales & marketing Brand Manager: Siddhant Raizada (09873555231) Senior Vice President: Krishna Kumar (09810206034) National Manager-Events & Special Projects: Mahantesh Godi (09880436623) National Manager -Print , Online & Events: Sachin Mhashilkar (09920348755) South: Satish K Kutty (09845207810) North: Deepak Sharma (09811791110) West: Saurabh Anand +91 9833608089 Assistant Brand Manager: Swati Sharma Ad co-ordination/Scheduling: Kishan Singh

off the shelf

49 Finance Management | Importance of knowing the numbers and teaming with finance 50 Tips & Tricks | Tips to keep your eyes healthy 53 AppSec | Security Chiefs

find application security tools not bailing out the risks

RegulArs

Production & Logistics Sr. GM. Operations: Shivshankar M Hiremath Manager Operations: Rakesh upadhyay Asst. Manager - Logistics: Vijay Menon Executive Logistics: Nilesh Shiravadekar Production Executive: Vilas Mhatre Logistics: MP Singh & Mohd. Ansari

Editorial _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 01 Inbox _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 04 Industry Update _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 10 Open Debate_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 71 My Log_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ 72

SMART STRATEGIES

WINNING TEAMS | 2012

Page

advertiser index Ricoh FC ISACA 5, 12-A HP – PSG IFC Airtel 7 Nokia 9 Schneider 14-15 PID Ltd 31 Gartner 39 IBM IBC Lenovo BC

Office Address Nine Dot Nine Mediaworx Pvt Ltd A-262 Defence Colony, New Delhi-110024, India Certain content in this publication is copyright Ziff Davis Enterprise Inc, and has been reprinted under license. eWEEK, Baseline and CIO Insight are registered trademarks of Ziff Davis Enterprise Holdings, Inc.

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INBoX niche products and my knowledge is truly enriched by the content within. Harsha E, Head-IT Consultant, HK IT Solutions

june 2012

IT NEXT thanks its Readers for the warm response

IT NEXT values your feedback

We want to know what you think about the magazine, and how we can make it a better read. Your comments will go a long way in making IT NEXT the preferred publication for the community. Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to editor@itnext.in.

I would like to thank IT NEXT for carrying my views on time management ‘Do more with less’ in the May 2012 edition. The IT industry is indeed a very fast-paced one and deadlines are always hanging over our heads. By organising ourselves better, by making necessary changes to our working habits and our mindset we can achieve much more than what we are able to achieve at present. The attitude ‘business as usual’ no longer fits into the current stream of things. I look forward to being associated with the publication and focusing on critical issues and contemporary themes around business and technology alignment, leadership, time management, etc., which can offer value to the readers and IT professionals in particular.

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read this issue online http://www.itnext. in/resources/ magazine

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Manager–BITS, M&M Financial Services Ltd

Congratulations to the entire 9dot9 Media for organising such a thoughtful event--TPL 2012. It is indeed a wonderful platform to have a healthy competition amongst top companies across verticals. It was very interesting to find each participant coming out with interesting perspectives and insights into IT. Besides giving an opportunity to bond with the team, the platform helped realise the inherent potential of the team members which would hitherto go unnoticed. I was delighted by the sight of enthusiastic participants who were eager to prove their worth utmost vigour. The eminent jury played its role very well in spotting the right winners.

Dr PH Rao, CEO, STEM, Bangalore

Thanks for publishing my article ‘Held at Ransom’ in the June 2012 edition of IT NEXT. I have been associated with the information security and information technology subject for over a decade now, and would like to share the knowledge and insights I have gained over the years in the form of articles and opinions with your readers periodically. I appreciate the initiatives taken up by your group and publication, all of which are aimed at empowering senior IT managers and IT managers, helping them take up larger roles and aid their career progression. I found TPL to be one such initiative, though unfortunately I haven’t been able to participate in the same. Another milestone from IT NEXT are the Next100 Awards, which is still fresh in memory for most. I am a regular reader of your publications and am truly impressed by the content published; all the magazines from 9dot9 Media Ltd. are

Thank you for publishing my article in the Cube Chat section of your magazine. It was indeed an honour and I appreciate the effort taken to understand the content and present it so perfectly. As a reader I would like to see more content around Business Intelligence (BI), cloud computing, virtualisation, big data, mobility, open source technologies, social networking and project management. The TPL is another interesting initiative from IT NEXT and is indeed a great effort. It is a very good platform to learn something new. The MMFSL team thoroughly enjoyed the concept of knowledge sharing and the entire TPL experience. Ranganathan N

ITNEXT<space> <your feedback> and send it to

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Sudesh Agarwal, CIO, Landmark Group

(Note: Letters have been edited minimally, for brevity and clarity)

Key Performance

Indicator.

Exam Date: 8 December 2012 Registration Deadline: 3 October 2012 Early Registration Deadline: 15 August 2012 ISACA members save US $150 off exam registration. Become an ISACA member today!

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Boss talk | DR SWAMI MANOHAR

E N T R E P R E N EU R S H I P

Akin to Hang Gliding

t some point in life, each of us is bitten by the entrepreneurial bug and we cling to the strong desire to carve out a niche for ourselves in society. Being an entrepreneur or even the journey towards making it big is akin to hang gliding where you are ready to jump off the cliff with nothing but a flimsy glider holding you up. However, the desire doesn’t die. So where does the entrepreneurial journey begin? It begins the day you tell your boss that you are quitting to start out on your own. Once the words are out, there is no going back, except for a fervent hope held by the rational part of your brain that the boss convinces you to stay back. In fact, I have been in such a situation thrice in my life! The starting point of the journey is the gut-wrenching decision to leave a comfortable job.

“Given the rapid changes, the complexities and the choices faced by IT managers,they are capable of starting their own ventures”

IT Managers Have an Edge Given the rapid changes, the complexities and the choices faced by IT managers on a daily basis, I think they have an edge when it comes to starting up their own ventures, since unlike core technologists, the job requires a broader understanding of the environment. Technology is only a small part of decision-making: the business, customers and vendors and the internal customers, all have to be understood and factored in.

Suggestion BOX

Consider the Risk Factors

“I like this because it is like a metaphor of the experiences of life”

The biggest danger of starting your own company is that you get emotionally attached to it and cannot exit at the right time; either to shut down because the business is no longer viable or to sell it because you do not have the right buyer at the right price. It is critical to have your financial security planning worked out, with savings and lifestyle changes that will help in your success.

title: Lord of the R ngs WRITER: john ronald reuel tolkien P UBLISHER: John ronald PRICE: Rs 832

The author is MD of JED-I and Co-founder & CEO of PicoPeta Simputers.

What Makes an Entrepreneur It is critical that you believe that the change you want to make, if achieved, is worth the effort and that it fulfils your passion, which finally is the end goal. Ask yourself: will this passion last the long journey of entrepreneurship or is it just a passing fancy? Am I qualified enough to chase the goal? Do I have the leadership skills to be a good manager? Your core skills must inspire and draw due respect

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and admiration from your team. Without them, perhaps you could become a leader in a corporate scenario. But in a start-up, without core skills you will be left with no team to lead. The next important question is: Can I pull together a team that is needed to achieve the goal? You do not need an army, just a few core team members that will take the ride with you and are as passionate and committed about the cause as you are. You should also have a Plan B if Plan A does not work, but never give up, as it will only enable you to change course and head towards a better path.

Boss talk | DR SWAMI MANOHAR

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Opinion

money wise KALAIVANI CHITTARANJAN, ED & CEO, eMUDHRA CONSUMER SERVICES LTD.

In terms of security

Mobile Wallet: Easy to Transact

hile many countries, particularly in Western Europe, Asia and the United States, have gone far ahead when it comes to the adoption of technology, India does not lag that far behind either as it sets the pace for technological innovation. This can be attributed in part to the same risk-taking, entrepreneurial spirit on which our nation was built. For instance, the country has taken large strides in leveraging the advantages of mobile technology in day-to-day transactions. Today, it is an accepted fact that mobile-based technologies could improve the service you offer to your customers. For mobile payment solutions redefine mobile usage completely, turning your mobile phone into a secure device, which can be used for transactions anytime, anywhere and for any service, be it cash transactions, utility bill payments, flight ticket purchases and much more.

“Mobile payment platform is the only solution in India given that 100 million new earners are expected to generate billions of cash transactions in 5-10 yrs”

An easier way to pay Electronic transactions using mobile phones is a rapidly-growing payment option where a consumer uses a mobile phone to pay for a wide range of services, digital or hard goods, instead of paying with cash, cheque or card (prepaid/debit/credit). A mobile wallet is a mobile phone application that supports multiple payment options including all credit cards. The mobile payment trend is now popular across geographies and it is no surprise that the mobile transaction

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market is estimated to reach over $600 billion globally by 2013, with India contributing significantly to this growth in the industry. The reason for this huge growth is the simplicity and ease of use. Mobile payments allow people to simply login to their accounts in order to complete their purchases. In some cases, the consumers need only submit their mobile phones for scanning and the payment is credited immediately to the user’s card.

The use of smartphones for transactions is growing at a rapid pace and hence the need to educate customers to adhere to secure practices is even more critical. In fact, with the right security measures in place, the humble handheld device is actually capable of offering more security than conventional payment methods and is the better option. How? Firstly, the security functionalities already present in the mobile handset provide authentication capabilities that do not exist in the existing payment environment. Secondly, at least 100 million new earners are expected to generate billions of cash transactions in the next 5 to 10 years; in India, with almost a billion mobile subscribers, a mobile payment platform is the only solution. The app encompasses a high level of security, and the encryption protections with passwords and GPS location functionality in the handset represent strong security controls to accessing payment instruments in the mobile wallet. The risks that come with this are the issues of data and identity theft. For every online transaction that one makes, one is required to provide data to complete the transaction—i.e., name, address and credit card or bank account details. Normally this is not a problem, but whenever data is exchanged or stored on the internet, there is a chance that it may be compromised by third parties. Mobile retail services overcome these exposures in online shopping. The best way to avoid these risks is if consumers are required to provide as little personal information as possible. However, if mobile-based technology providers can provide a simple, riskfree method of purchasing along with a robust secure transaction system, they are onto a winning formula. Since the ease of use and mobility service factor is driving the adoption of the mobile transaction trend, the service providers have to deploy security software to ensure that the transactions are smooth and risk-free.

Boss talk | DR SWAMI MANOHAR

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update

Telecom & Software on Upward Trajectory

Telecommunications is set to be the largest spender and spending on software will grow the fastest

TECH TRENDS | According to Gartner, Inc., the Indian financial ser-

vices industry (FSI) will spend Rs 377 billion on IT products and services in 2012—an increase of 17.4 per cent over 2011’s revenue of Rs 321 billion. This forecast includes spending by insurers on internal IT (including personnel), hardware, software, external IT services and telecommunications… Telecommunications equipment and services represents the biggest spending category, and is forecast to reach Rs 131 billion in

CLOUD

Manufacturers’ demand Cloud Computing In all about 59% of the users in the manufacturing sector have opted for IaaS(Infrastructure as a Service) cloud model in 2012.

The global survey shows that 50 per cent of the manufacturers are expected to perform more than 50 per cent of their transactions via cloud computing

20 10

Source: Gartner’s CIO survey

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Using SaaS

Using IaaS

12 5

trends deals products services people

2012, up from Rs 113 billion in 2011. However, spending on software is expected to grow the fastest in 2012, with revenue totalling Rs 34 billion in 2012—up 28 per cent from 2011’s revenue of nearly Rs 27 billion. This is being driven by a very high growth in enterprise software applications such as financial and administration packages, and CRM. “The drivers will be the Indian retail bankers, although all financial services sectors including insurance and securities are increasing IT spend as they build out their infrastructures,” says Derry Finkeldey, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. “Mobile is really top of mind for CIOs currently, and enterprise spend on devices is increasing and expected to grow by nearly 50 per cent in 2012. There is also a corresponding growth in mobile network services—of nearly 30 per cent.” “This focus on mobility is a global trend, but particularly pertinent to Indian FSIs,” says Finkeldey. “They are all focused on leveraging the high mobile penetration to bring banking services to a wider audience.” According to certain industry sources rise in cloud computing will have an impact on the telecom spending as most enterprises increase their broadband capacity utilisation to overcome network bottlenecks. The new telecom policy which is going to be out soon is expected to give an impetus to the telecom growth in the country.

I llustrations : s hig il n

Update I n d u s t r y

ON THE DOUBLE

CREATIVE FREEDom segment

TOUCH AND GO

The Samsung Galaxy Y Pro Duos is a dual SIM phone with a Qwerty keypad. A candy bar form factor with a 2.6-inch TFT touchscreen runs on Android 2.3 Gingerbread withTouchWiz interface. Price: Rs 9.900

Light in weight, it comes with a 10 megapixe sensor giving and stunning image quality. Price: Rs 45,450

The Logitech M600 Touch Mouse responds directly to your fingers and needs no set up at all. The drivers take about a minute to install automatically and need no software. Price: Rs 3,999

Wipro Signs 10 Year Deal with Manipal Health TECH TRENDS | Wipro Infotech has announced that it has won a 10-year contract from Manipal Health Enterprises Private Limited (MHEPL). As a result of this strategic partnership, Wipro will implement its latest Hospital Information System Solution and data migration services across Manipal Group Hospitals. The proposed HIS application is patient-centric. It will provide immediate access to clinical, administrative and billing data, required for the efficient functioning of a hospital. It will ensure high levels of automation, better availability of information, a reduction in

The Hospital Information System [HIS] to improve operational efficiency

patient’s waiting time and better utilisation of revenues. Wipro’s engagement with Manipal Hospitals spans across a gamut of services encompassing integration of

the application with third-party software, interfacing with lab equipments and providing infrastructure support services on the HIS platform. The Manipal Health Enterprises’ Network of Hospitals manages around 4,900 beds through 15 hospitals, spread over 11 locations across 5 States in India. The network of hospitals covers all levels of delivery from primary to quaternary care. The Manipal hospital network annually services around two million patients in India and overseas. Anand Sankaran, Senior VP and Business Head, Wipro says,“The partnership will enable the hospital to drive a superior customer experience and reach greater operational efficiencies.”

quick byte

Around The World

Android to Rule for Next Five Years According to an International Data Corporation (IDC) report, sluggish global economic conditions and the decline in the feature rich phone market are expected to drag down the overall mobile phone market growth to just four per cent over the year. Google’s Android is expected to remain the world’s most shipped smartphone operating system for the next five years, although its market share will peak this year. It is predicted that Microsoft’s Windows Phone 7 will overtake Apple’s iOS by the end of 2016.

Som Mittal, President–Nasscom

“We will maintain the project growth of 11-14 % which will be reviewed in October, even as some member companies have given muted forecast for economic uncertainties”

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update

Zensar’s Bengaluru Facility

to Develop ClosoMo Design TECH Tiding | Zensar Technolo-

gies has announced the launch of their Bengaluru development hub that is designed to provide solutions around cloud, Social Media and Mobility (CloSoMo) to enhance customer experience by giving them access to technical expertise and tailored solutions to meet unique requirements. This new facility will deliver next-generation solutions and services to Zensar’s clients across the globe and deliver high-end, solution-driven business roles as well. The office currently has a capacity to host 150 associates. and this is the new addition the development centres in India. Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies says, “The new centre will support our global clients in not only achieving their tactical goals of cost savings, but also enhance the long-term advantages of increased competitiveness, efficiencies and above

Interview Srini Rengarajan Program Manager-Data Warehousing and BI Practice, Collabera

IT NEXT: What are the challenges for IT heads now with regard to big data?

The new facility will be the hub of development solutions and services for next-generation enterprises

Ganesh Natarajan, CEO, Zensar Technologies

all, innovation. The centre will also integrate with other delivery centres to create a global sourcing model that offers flexible and best-in-class solutions for creating next- generation enterprises through its integrated CloSoMo offering.”

Srini Rengarajan: The first challenge is the sheer volume of data. This can be overcome by separating the noise in the data by simplifying the data environment. The second is how to leverage the uncovered information to derive increased organizational productivity. The trick is to transform this uncovered data into meaningful information, so that can it be analysed and converted into knowledge, which in turn will serve as a best practice to facilitate better decisions. What are the best practices / approaches to big data?

builder–Zoho Sites; customer relatech tiding | Helping people work tionship management software–Zoho online, Zoho has made a foray into the CRM; an online document manageIndian market, with its suite of busiment suite–Zoho Docs and a profesness, productivity and collaboration sional email service–Zoho Mail, Zoho products on the cloud. Zoho’s focus is is now ready to help put Indian SMBs on providing cost-effective solutions on the map. for small and medium businesses Raju Vegesna, Chief (SMBs) on the go. A Gartner, Evangelist, Zoho says, “We Inc. report reveals that the are excited to enter the global SaaS market is set to burgeoning Indian SMB reach 14.5 billion users in market and help companies 2012 as against 11.89 million smartphones to work online. We hope to broadband users today in by 2016. It is provide effective solutions India, Software-as-a-Service expected to grow 5 times across segments so that (SaaS) is transforming the between 2011 companies can concentrate on way businesses function. and 2016. their core competency.” With a do-it-yourself website

165

million

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Photo graphy: Jayan K Narayanan

Zoho Gets Ready for Cloud

There are numerous options to manage big data today, powered by technology advancements. While the concept is gaining rapid acceptance, the core aspects associated with it–such as best practices, structures, adaptability and methodologies--are in varying stages of evolution. A ‘one-solution-fits-all’ approach is ruled out.. Rationalising and optimising the 3 ‘V’s of big data – namely Volume, Velocity & Variety is a critical way to effecitvely deal with and reap the benefits of big data. What are your recommendations with regard to big data?

One must ensure that an organization’s overall (big) data management strategy is accurate and robust at every stage for enhanced usage.

update

KPIT uses Collaboration Tools to Cut Cost by 35% KPIT Cummins solutions will help reduce travel and communication cost by 15 to 35 per cent, annually

TECH TRENDS| KPIT Cummins has implemented Lync 2010 and Exchange 2010 for better collaboration among employees. This will lead to a reduction in the annual travel and communication costs by 15 to 35 per cent. The net reduction in the cost will be considerably high given that there are 6000 employees spread across 15 locations, globally. This solution will enable better collaboration and is a necessity in such an off- shore business model. Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 incorporates many features aimed at web and online services like database availability groups which automate database-level disaster recovery and online mailbox moves, which give

News @

I llustrations : photo s. com

blog

users access when mailboxes are moved and new management tools, including role-based access control. Lync 2010 supports collaboration in a much better and simplified way. Users can keep a track of their availability, join an audio/video web conference and make phone calls from the laptops. Mandar Marulkar, Head IT infrastructure, KPIT Cummins, says, “We needed an effective collaboration tool to accommodate our future expansion plans. As most of our business deals have off-shore/onsite models, employees are depend heavily on international calls and travel, and as a result, communication and commuting costs were rising.”

Tech Tidings

Wipro Expands IaaS Capabilities Wipro Technologies has announced that the company is expanding its Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) capabilities to create a global utility computing platform, designed to meet the specific requirements of enterprise-class clients. The platform draws on Wipro’s global data centre infrastructure and deep expertise managing mission-critical IT systems to deliver and compute services such as storage, recovery, network, security and others in an automated, consumption-based model. The IaaS portfolio is being marketed as Wipro iStructure services, and will be the foundation for a broad set of infrastructure, application and business process outsourcing solutions in an ‘as-a-service’ model. “We began offering multi-tenant, virtual server hosting to our existing clients as part of large, integrated infrastructure management engagements. There is a quick adoption of the service, and today, 15 per cent of the servers hosted in Wipro’s DCs are delivered in an ‘asa-service’ model,” states Michael Wilczak, SVP-Strategy, Datacenter Services, Wipro Technologies.

Microsoft Surface for Windows 8

The new tablet comes with a keyboard and other features designed to stand out in the market

In its most strategically significant push into the hardware business, Microsoft has unveiled a tablet computer called ‘Surface’ that is intended to challenge Apple’s iPad. Surface, will run a variation of Windows 8, a forthcoming version of the company’s flagship OS. The device has a built-in ‘kickstand’ that allows it to be propped up so that you can comfortably watch movies. Source: http://thinkdigits.blogspot.in/ j u ly 2 0 1 2 | itnext

ASK THE EXPERT DATA CENTER PHYSICAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The effective use of an integrated DCPI strategy can enhance the reliability of data centre operations and optimise business value

Photo : Subhojit Paul

Can you elaborate on the DCPI concept and how relevant is it to IT managers in todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scenario?

Data Center Physical Infrastructure (DCPI) is the foundation upon which Information Technology and telecommunication networks reside. It is considered the backbone of any business as DCPI components provide the necessary power, cooling, physical housing, security, fire protection and cabling which enables the IT systems to perform in a holistic manner. Since IT managers are associated with managing and operating the data centre, dealing with data processing, storage management, communication systems, keeping up the uptime, handling hardware and software applications maintenance along with the security system, understanding the importance of DCPI is critical. As the integrated DCPI system forms a critical layer of reliable IT business operations, it is very important that it is viewed as a whole rather than as individual components, to extract the best performance in designing

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dossier

aniket Patange Directorâ&#x20AC;&#x201C; Datacenter Lifecycle Services, Schneider Electric brings to light the data centre related challenges, while suggesting ways to extract optimal business value using DCPI strategy

the data centre framework. If IT managers try to source the elements (such as cooling, security, power, etc.) as a standalone factor from varied and other groups, the data centre integration process turns out to be much more complex and unpredictable as there would be multiple platforms which may not be compatible with each other. Managing the system would also be a huge task wherein the use of multiple management systems may not help provide the necessary visibility to the entire system, apart from adding to the turmoil of handling multiple contracts.

What are the key challenges IT managers are up against with regard to data centre optimisation? Rapid technological changes combined with a shrinking IT budget when it comes to carrying out a frequent technology refresh within the data centre are the key challenges. The basic design-related challenges are escalating due to the increase in data centre infra-

ask the expert CUSTOM PUBLISHING

“Besides mitigating risks emerging out of power and infrastructure, DCPI has the full capability to address two core criteria, which are availability and upfront cost” structure density, besides the soaring operational and services costs. While the power cost is escalating, resulting in the risk of downtime, underutilised systems are adding to the IT managers’ agony. The regulatory mandates from the management are posing their share of challenges, compelling IT managers to drive structural changes in the data centre with regard to resource re-allocation and assuring a certain level of physical-access security.

How can DCPI be optimised to address these challenges and enhance business value? The first step is to bring in a radical change in the approach to addressing data centre design. The next big move is dealing with organisational core objectives such as increasing revenue, reducing costs and a better utilisation of assets, where DCPI will play a vital role. Making investments on DCPI has multiple advantages which will enable IT teams to meet these objectives. Besides mitigating risks emerging out of power and infrastructure, DCPI has the full capability to address two core criteria such as availability and upfront cost. Increasing the availability (uptime) of the DCPI system and ultimately of the business processes allow a business to continue to bring in revenues and better optimise the use of assets. A judicious investment decision regarding DCPI revolves around three factors: # Availability—the degree to which a system or component is operational and accessible when required for use. As a technical definition, availability is measured as the percentage of time the systems(s) are operational, or 99.99 per cent, for instance which is often referred to as ‘9s’/‘Nines’. Many data centre managers strive for ‘Five Nines’. # Equipment reliability is one variable that contributes to systems and components remaining operational; a device, system or process that will perform its defined functions without failure for a given period of time. Mean time To Recover (MTTR) helps in a repairable system’s availability. This means the system is diagnosed quickly, parts are readily available, and the system is easily repaired or replaced. # Human error is a critical factor which cannot be ignored when considering the availability factor of DCPI. Speed of deployment, to assess how fast the DCPI system can be planned, designed, installed and commissioned for operation and the ability to scale and re-

60% of the time, unplanned downtime is caused due to human factors Source: Schneider Electric Data Centre Science Centre

configure the systems has to be looked into.These three factors fetch better benefits out of DCPI enabling data centre framework to integrate power, cooling and rack into a single management architecture.The new business value equation for DCPI:

Value =

Availability X Agility TCO

How can the adoption of DCPI enable data centre managers reduce the total cost of ownership and increase the RoI along with performance? We have observed large industry verticals deploying the DCPI framework and bringing down their PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness). The largest potential for TCO savings comes in the form of efficiency cost. The technologies chosen for DCPI can have a huge impact on energy costs. Traditional UPS systems, for example, are only about 85 per cent efficient at 50 per cent load levels. Newer on-line technologies, such as IGBT, Delta maintain an efficiency of 95 to 97 per cent at different load levels. To cite an example, changes in the power and cooling infrastructure can bring down the PUE from 2.00 to 1.70. These corrections would enhance the PUE and reduce the overall consumption of power. For instance, lighting and critical monitoring contribute to a nearly 5.3 per cent reduction in the PUE, passive cooling corrections would constitute almost 17 per cent, cooling improvements and corrections will have a 42 per cent share in reducing the PUE, critical power equipment corrections will contribute to 15.3 per cent, passive correction around the PFI panel will help reduce the PUE by 12.4 per cent and cooling equipment automations will help reduce the PUE by 7 per cent. These ratios indicate that each component contributes to the PUE upgrades and in turn results in improved efficiency and reduced cost. BROUGHT to YOU BY

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The Right

Strategic

Mo v e s IT managers are using innovative strategies to design effective IT frameworks to absorb future technological changes

photog raphy: photos .co m

by N g e e t h a & M a n u S h a rma

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in business or management terms, an organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s success would depend upon how well the mission, vision, strategies and goals are defined and how far the employees or management live by each of these concepts. The same phenomenon applies to the Information Technology (IT) sector, as the success of deriving the best benefits out of the technologies used will be measured by the strategic framework that the IT heads and their teams have built with effective planning. IT Next embarked on a study to seek insights into the various innovative moves required to create a robust IT platform and environment, which in turn can effectively leverage the technological benefits that the emerging technologies throw up. Most industry players, including the vendors, CIOs and some of the IT managers are of the opinion that every successful IT project will demand 70 per cent of effective backend planning and 30 per cent actual clear implementation framework. Most of the time, the reasons for any technology project not moving beyond the pilot is the result of bad planning and an ineffective strategy, as the assumptions based for the pilot would be inaccurate. Santanu Ghose, Country Manager-Converged Infrastructure, HP India, says, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every enterprise will need to find a way to embrace the new solutions without adding additional complexity and risk to their environments. The IT managers need to observe stringent planning with a critical date plan to implement any technology project and in right capacity.â&#x20AC;?

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The Bottlenecks in Planning The cover feature attempted to find the various challenges that the IT managers faced at various stages of the project. Going by the popular belief and feedback from the CIOs and their teams that technologies such as virtualisation, cloud computing and information security would make its impact in the future, the study highlights the necessary steps to be taken by the teams to make the organisation and its employees future ready. Besides laying primary focus on understanding the basic planning level challenges, the study offered insights into the best practices that are required to be followed to produce the best benefits of these technologies. Most often it is found that there is not much domain expertise or skill sets available within the IT groups to carrying out a thorough evaluation study. The reason for this

it strategy | cover story could be as V C Gopalratnam, VP–IT&CIO, Cisco India and Globalisation observes, “The teams are not clued in to the change management strategy which is critical to understand if one needs to get prepared to absorb new technologies and its benefits.” For instance, with regard to the cloud, Prashant Gupta, Head of Solutions, India, Verizon Business, says that the IT strategy should be clear; the team must be appropriately trained and be clear about the final business expectation from the cloud. It is also observed that most often, IT managers are carried away by the fancy campaigns and schemes running on various products and solutions which can be misleading. One IT manager remarked that there are hidden costs associated with certain technologies, such as virtualisation, which at the end of PoC, results in a huge acquisition cost. Information security is one area where IT heads are prone to several challenges when there is no standard security framework deployed across each group within the organisation.

Availing Best Performance It is a keen desire of every IT manager to extract the best out of every technology deployment. There are certain best prac-

“The IT managers need to observe stringent planning with a critical date plan to implement any technology project and in right capacity” Santanu Ghose, Country Manager-Converged Infrastructure, HP

tices put forth by the IT teams, technology vendors and other service providers which can help drive the best performance of any tool or solution deployed. Irrespective of which technology you deploy, the key ingredients that Sandeep Singh Walia, AGM-IT, HT Media Ltd., recommends is having an appropriate model to define the objectives of the said technological programme. According to him, the second vital feature is working out a technical architecture schedule to understand if any changes are necessary at that level. The third feature is enforcing a pragmatic policy around the architecture to gain acceptance from the business users and then evangelising the same within the organisation, thereby creating awareness about the importance of absorbing the said technology. (Read Are you ready for the cloud, Smart Steps to Virtualisation and Tight Plan means more security).

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Are You Ready for the

cloud

An IT team can improve the fluidity of a business with the enterprise cloud, through effective planning and best practices the primary concern amongst IT heads is to build strategies our years ago, cloud computing was merely a buzz, to maximise the benefits of the cloud. and now it is being considered a viable option for companies whose fundamental business predicament revolves around increasing business agility, Resource Planning is Critical flexibility and elasticity. Most IT heads that IT Next interacted with, echoed the need to Most organisations, big or small, who intend to adopt look at a change management strategy to address the unusual cloud computing services, face many obstacles, the biggest business trends that the cloud brings in. V C Gopalratnam, of which remains security. Understandably, all IT heads are VP–IT and CIO–Cisco India & Globalisation, who has built a sensitive about customer information, business data, legal cloud strategy says that it is critical to bring in architectural documents, or trade secrets residing outside of the premises. changes before jumping into the cloud as opposed to deliverMost cloud adopters and service providers argue that the ing point products. potential benefits of the cloud, in terms of “The important aspect of cloud reducing capital and operational expenses, planning is that the IT resources should are hard to ignore. Prashant Gupta, Head of not be restricted to only keeping the lights Solutions, India,Verizon Business justifies on; they must be clued in to understand the promise of the cloud, “Cloud computing the business growth plans, the changing The right information, certifications represents a shift in IT thinking, similar to business needs and take account of how and services are mandatory for the just-in-time phenomenon that exists in much is spent on running the business, service providers most organisations, where the IT head can including maintaining the head counts When considering a transition from stop tying up capital expenses (CAPEX) in and so on,” says Gopalratnam. a traditional infrastructure to a IT systems that are under-utilised.” Gopalratnam and his team have put cloud environment, in addition to Anurag Shah, COO and Head of together an enterprise architecture evaluating the risks and RoI from an Global Operations, Omnitech Solutions, framework to make the environment IT perspective, calculate the risks a cloud service provider, argues that the cloud friendly. “We created a concept associated to the business cloud strategy of any company is defined called BOST (Business Operations, One can carry out a real calculation by the infrastructure that is put on the System and Technology) which works using backup as a service cloud with a single window strategy, closely with business and operations Training around monitoring and which could address the concern of the to understand their requirements,” orchestration is vital to track the top management to stay connected. says Gopalratnam. According to him, SLAs While the benefits of the cloud it is the reference architecture and the Have a single window view of the computing model are not in question, integrated work culture that allows the cloud integration strategy

The Right Approach to Cloud

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it strategy | cover story IT team to be clued in to various business verticals and work out a strategy around the business models which allows for better scalability, besides helping build an effective service management framework and gain insight into customers’ core applications, and evolve a standardised framework along with a cloud migration plan. While the debate rages among various organisations regarding the choice between the private, public and hybrid cloud model (which is evolving), the question here is not about which one is ideal, but which one suits the organisational culture. The question that must be asked here is: what are the best practices and planning involved while opting for the cloud model? With thorough planning and resource allocation methods, the IT team can allow the cloud service providers and vendors to define their strategy for customers. For instance, Santanu Ghose, Country Head, Converged Infrastructure Solutions, HP India, points out that the converged cloud model enables enterprises to incorporate a blend of public, private and managed cloud services with their existing IT infrastructure to create a seamless hybrid environment that rapidly adapts to their changing requirements. Ghose says, “Three factors are critical in the journey to the cloud; these are virtualisation, automation and governance, which will justify the move.” In most cases, the reason for the failure and inadequate RoI from the cloud model is that the company’s adoption to automation is slow. “What I mean by automation is that the customers do not have appropriate tools to manage a virtualisation project; besides this, they have not conducted a study to gauge the quality of the virtual machines, they have no knowledge of where each machine is residing and have not allocated the quality of services to be provided and poor capacity planning,” explains Ghose.

“We created a concept called

BOST (Business Operations, System and Technology) which works closely with business and operations” V C Gopalratnam VP–IT and CIO–Cisco India & Globalisation

Ghose suggests that the IT heads need to work out the capacity planning around an instantaneous requirement, longterm or real-time basis, depending on their business growth. According to him, the allocation of resources, regarding the creation of a common resource pool, is based on the demand and priority mechanism and the innovation process.

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Casestudy | iGatePatni

Public

CLOUD

is not for large firms iGatePatni finds the private virtual cloud model to be a viable option for large enterprises as compared to public cloud model A multi-location global organisation with a talent pool of over 30,000 people, iGATE consistently delivers effective IT outsourcing solutions to over 360 Fortune 1000 clients. To serve its clients, the company has developed a unique business model, called iTOPS (Integrated Technology and Operations), which facilitates a single-point analysis of the multi-dimensional business matrix, encompassing business goals, IT, operations, processes, human resources and related costs.

The planning process As part of iTOPS strategy, iGate’s CIO Chella Namasivayam believes in deploying state-of-the-art technologies and tools, and ensures that his team is proactive when it comes to meeting business needs and goals. The cloud was one of the models that struck the CIO’s mind very early (as the earlier adopter). As a process, the CIO and his team conducted a due diligence/ feasibility study to gain insight into how the cloud impacted the integration of applications and if it seamlessly integrated varied applications in providing better RoI and lowered TCO. iGate initiated a plan to migrate all its applications, including ERP along with production-related applications, on the public cloud by signing a deal with a large global service provider. However, Namasivayam realised during the course of the migration and cloud implementation process that it

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was not a viable option to put all the critical ERP and production-related application on a public cloud. “The cost of migrating ERP and critical applications to the cloud and its support and maintenance turned out to be exorbitant and hence we pulled out ERP from the public cloud platform,” says Namasivayam. “The development, testing and staging phase on the public cloud itself incurred an average spending of $0.5 million, so I would imagine that porting production applications on the cloud would be huge,” he adds. According to him using the cloud as a strategy or as part of a short-

service levels were not up to the mark and security-related complaints were also not addressed appropriately. “To my surprise, the backup and recovery of data was also not done effectively, which became a challenge for us,” says Namasivayam. Hence, Namasivayam and his team decided to create a ‘Private Virtual Cloud’ across all data centres and migrated all the applications to this virtual cloud under a concept called ‘Cloud Aware’. “We created an intranet platform based on the concept and enabled all the applications to interoperate with each other and provided necessary security layers to observe safety standards,” he says.

“The cost of migrating ERP

and critical applications to the cloud and its support and maintenance turned out to be exorbitant and hence we pulled out ERP from the public cloud platform” Chella Namasivayam CIO, iGate Patni

term goal is ideal, but for a long-term goal, the cloud is not a solution. “The cloud is not a viable option for large and established companies, but it is ideal for small enterprises,” points out Namasivayam.

The solution iGate had genuine reasons to discontinue availing cloud services for critical applications as Namasivayam and his team discovered that the

At the same cost of $0.5 million, iGate is able to maintain all its applications on a cloud model while also enjoying the benefits of better RoI, scalability, availability and performance. As a future plan, Namasivayam and his team are working out a cloud security model and are in dialogue with various vendors and working on a proof of concept.

it strategy | cover story Chella Namasivayam, CIO of iGate Patni, recommends that a due diligence/feasibility study to plan a short-term and long-term cloud strategy needs to be evolved, taking the upfront cost into consideration. Namasivayam finds that the cloud is far more appropriate for small- and mid-level enterprises that have instantaneous needs to migrate certain applications to the cloud, rather than look at a long-term strategy to put critical applications on the cloud. For instance, Kanaka Durga Bhavani Prasad S, Senior IT Manager, Fifth Avenue Sourcing Pvt. Ltd. has opted to host an email server in a private cloud environment to maintain a 99.99 per cent uptime. The reasons Fifth Avenue opted for a private cloud were the increasing power-related costs and a manpower resource crunch, besides an alarming rise in the maintenance cost of the infrastructure. Prasad has plans to move the ERP applications to the private cloud going by the advantages it offers in terms of lowering TCO. Rajeev Agarwal, DGM-IT, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) is in a dilemma with regard to the cloud. “Being part of the defence establishment, I handle sensitive data and cannot afford to risk the data by putting it on a public cloud; while at the same time, I cannot rule out the private cloud phenomenon, which is also the need of the hour in terms of saving overheads.” The interesting twist that Agarwal expects is to see a big push for IT with the new Chairman being more IT-savvy, given that the company works on a Rs 200 crore IT budget, and the cloud has ample room to be absorbed. Companies such as Cafe Coffee Day are still not convinced by the cloud story and its IT Head Rajesh Verma is studying the market trends carefully before initiating the process.

Best Practices While appropriate estimations and planning address over 50 per cent of the challenges in a cloud environment, the best practices suggested by industry experts will help IT heads extract the best value from the cloud strategy. For instance, HP’s Ghose recommends that IT heads set up a private cloud and encourage usage base charges to their users, be it internal or external employees. “IT heads need to push sufficient usage of cloud services to make it profitable and give it the potential to realise operational costs and make it a profit centre,” says Ghose. He adds, “The IT team needs to avail services which provide on-demand compute instances or through virtual machines, scalable online storage capacity and accelerated delivery of cached content to end users.” Cisco’s Gopalratnam also recommends that IT teams develop the ability to increase the demand for cloud services within the company to increase the business agility, flexibility and elasticity. As a best practice, most experts recommend a collaborative approach with business, and to rope in service owners as stakeholders. Verizon’s Gupta points out that writing Cloud SLAs in clear terms by seeking the help of a legal entity is also very important to avoid any future litigations.

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s ma r t

Steps to Virtualisation

IT managers are tailoring their approach to drive maximum benefits from virtualisation technology

ntil recently, it was thought that only large enterthe mid-sized firms and small enterprises that have been facprises could absorb virtualisation technology; in ing teething problems, and in some cases, IT heads have also particular server virtualisation, where hundreds drawn back the virtualisation deployment initiative because of physical servers could be virtualised to reduce to a single the licensing costs are very high. digit. But now, even small- and mid-sized firms are fascinated iGate Patni, an early adopter of virtualisation technology, by the benefits that virtualisation brings to the table in terms with over 90 per cent of its servers virtualised, has placed of providing more free space and easy certain best practices to avail the manageability features along with a benefits. According to iGate’s CIO Chella reduction in overall TCO. Namasivayam, the consumption of Undoubtedly, virtualisation servers by the development teams was technology has come of age and huge. “I had to provide 2 to 3 servers Do not treat virtual systems any is considered the most influential to the team for an individual project, differently than physical systems, technology by IT managers. with over 35 projects on an average,” unless absolutely necessary Virtualisation is looked upon as the says Namasivayam. Meeting every Understand the failover and your most important layer every organisation requirement called for an expenditure scale-up strategy needs to have in place before initiating of $1200 which kept escalating. To put a Control virtual machine proliferation. the cloud momentum. check on this, iGate tried to consolidate Create interoperability between Having said that, fact remains that all servers using virtualisation tools and physical and virtual servers most organisations face quite a few consolidated 123 of its servers to 8 servers, Backup early and backup often; it is obstacles when it comes to implementing using server virtualisation technology. cost-effective the virtualisation process due to lack of Santanu Ghose, Country Manager– Set up a governance team to track effective planning. Converged Infrastructure, HP India, security and business continuity agrees that the high cost of virtualisation assurance deployment is discouraging IT heads from Why Intensive Planning is During production roll-out, opting for it as putting the hypervisor Mandatory understand environment deployment, layer is proving to be expensive. Apart History is testimony to the fact that analyse roll-out support strategy, from the hypervisor, the middleware most large enterprises have 80 per cent track and manage issues and usage licensing cost is also a challenge. He of their infrastructure virtualised. It is knowledge transfer levels

The Smart Steps Checklist

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it strategy | cover story suggests that IT heads work out a device strategy and conduct a thorough analysis of the workload between proprietary and open stack and categorise applications that would run on a virtual mode. Kiran Chitturi, Head–IT, Vijay Electricals Ltd. tried out a pilot for server virtualisation a while ago. “Since the cost of acquisition was high and procuring software licenses also turned out to be high and did not meet our criteria of reducing the necessary cost, we backed out of the project,” says Chitturi.

The Need for VDI Planning While server virtualisation is gaining momentum despite the hiccups, desktop virtualisation technology or VDI (Virtual Desktop Infrastructure), which is also trying to make an allpervasive entry and is going to be in demand in the coming years, is also throwing up several challenges. Surprisingly most IT heads have been taking it positively. However, there have been certain misconceptions surrounding VDI. One such interesting case concerned a large PSU like Bharat Heavy Electrical (BHEL), which tried conducting a PoC (Proof of Concept) around VDI. According to B Sadashiva Baliga, AGM-IT, BHEL, the team found that expenses on power and maintenance were skyrocketing and hence they thought of working out a PoC around VDI which was believed to help lower costs and provide ease of management capabilities. “After conducting a PoC with a reputed brand, we realised that it was not making any difference to our costs as we saw no reduction in the cost of power and maintenance, and hence discontinued the project,” states Baliga. Analysing the BHEL case, Nilesh Goradia, Manager Systems Engineering–India Sub-continent, Citrix, says the reason for such a setback would be that in most cases IT teams do not align their strategy with business needs and hence there is an expectation gap. “It is important to understand the changing technological landscape and map the technology based on organisational user culture,” says Goradia According to him, the IT team must perform an

“The IT head should dedicate two team

members to work closely with the virtualisation vendor on the said project to gain better insight” Nilesh Goradia Manager Systems Engineering–India Subcontinent, Citrix

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Casestudy | CCD

On a

v i rTual Mode

around virtualisation is expected to cut down power costs by 25 per cent Café Coffee Day (CCD) is the retail division of Amalgamated Bean Coffee Trading Company Ltd. They grow coffee on their own estates spread across about 10,000 acres and have 1,300 outlets both in the country and overseas. With the expansion in the business, the organisational overheads increased, resulting in increased challenges for the IT head. Some of the challenges that Rajesh Verma, Head-IT & Infrastructure, CCD faced was around increasing the cost of power, manageability issues and increasing IT manpower costs. An idea that Verma and his team had was to look at server virtualisation, which could address the challenges. One of the main reasons, according to Verma, to opt for server virtualisation deployment was to optimise the performance of the existing servers with good capacity planning and also reduce the costs incurred on deploying additional servers.

The planning process The first step that CCD initiated was to take up a PoC and a feasibility study for two months on a live 3D environment to understand if the virtualisation technology met the organisational requirement and addressed the said challenges. As part of the process, CCD initiated a vendor analysis programme to evaluate multiple vendors who offered the solutions, before settling for VMware, along with hypervisor software. The team worked out the costs and benefits structure and decided to allocate Rs 20 lakh for this project which is estimated to be completed by the end of this fiscal year.

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“As business expanded, the existing servers were unable to cope with increased data volumes, and the maintenance of the system put a strain on the IT team, which was why we decided to opt for server virtvualisation,” says Verma.

The solution CCD has about 20 servers located across the country. As a strategy, Verma and his team decided that the implementation process needed to be done with zero downtime and

“Virtualisation implementation needed to be done with zero downtime and hence took a

conscious decision to do it over the weekends, which would save power and also expedite the process” Rajesh Verma hence took a conscious decision to do it over the weekends, which would save power and also expedite the process. A team of three IT managers have been trained appropriately and assigned the task of monitoring and taking through the entire server virtualisation process. “I plan to virtualise the 20 servers to reduce it to three physical servers through the virtualisation process. The 20 servers will be replaced with three physical servers, running 20 virtual servers in a high availability cluster configuration. An additional server is used as part of a backup system, further improving resilience and stability. Once the entire implementation is done, we expect the power cost to go down by 20-25 per cent,” concludes Verma.

Head-IT & Infrastructure, CCD

photog raphy: s radhakris hna

Café Coffee Day’s effective planning

it strategy | cover story infrastructure assessment, review the technical environment of applications, hardware, network architecture, W2K/NT/UNIX environment and conduct a PoC and verify key assumptions. He adds that the causes for the failure rate in VDI deployment stem mostly from ignoring certain critical aspects of the business and not so much from a technological perspective.

Key Virtualisation Lessons The vendors and service providers play a major role in providing best practices and the necessary orientation to the customers to derive the measured result. The best methods apply to any kind of virtualisation, be it server, storage or desktop. Citrix’s Goradia reiterates that it is crucial to identify users and their technological usage. “The IT head should dedicate two team members to work closely with the virtualisation vendor on the said project to gain better insight.” According to him, during the pilot implementation, verifying the implementation with the user community, verifying the user experience and obtaining business and user sign-off, is critical. iGatePatni which has opted for Citrix’s VDI solutions recently expects to see a reduction in administrative overheads. However, iGate’s Namasivayam is of the opinion that VDI benefits can be acknowledged if it helps create mobile-ready applications to address the BYOD trend and create a single interface, irrespective of the device used or location of work. According to Namasivayam, while the cost of ownership around these virtual products is very high, the hope is that they will lower the CAPEX and the maintenance cost going forward. At Café Coffee Day, as a best practice, a team of three IT managers have been trained appropriately and assigned the task of monitoring and taking through the entire server virtualisation process. From his experience, P R Kannan, Head-IT, Tractors and Farm Equipment Ltd., finds that early and frequent backup of the data often helps in the virutalisation process. Kannan stongly recommends not to treat virtual systems any different from the physical systems, which means so much interoperability is required. Santosh Kumar, K S, Zonal head-BITS, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd., has focused on building his teams’ skills by partnering with institutes and vendors for a regular training on best virtualisation implementation practices.

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T i ght

Plan Means More Security Security chiefs need better tools combined with intelligent strategies to combat the risks from an interconnect world

he refrain that ‘an organisation’s information or internet browsing trends of users, monitoring the web pulse data security can only be as strong as its weakest particularly around the social networking platforms and link—the people’, has now percolated across the continuously driving the information hygiene factor, with IT establishment. True to the dictum, trends observed in the training modules for employees. security market now show that the IT heads or CISOs no lonKartik Sahani, Country Manager, India and SAARC, RSA– ger hold the security reins in the organisation. All securityThe Security Division of EMC, rightly argues that the security related controls, be it the risks involved, the emerging threats threats emerge from the outside of the perimeter defence or the hygiene factor overall, is driven or handled by the users layer; whether through email gateway, insider trading, data in an organisation. The recent phenomenon around mobility leakage and so on. “What is important for the IT managers or BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) is the hot topic which is and CISOs is to segregate each security issue or tool and increasingly becoming a bigger reality for most enterprises. analyse the impact and bearing it has on the organisations at Security then does not restrict itself to the data centre, but various level,” suggests Sahani. These could be the DLP (Data spreads across the organisation, as threats could emerge from Leakage Prevention) tools, APTs, IPS and so on. According any end point. to Sahani, it is mandatory for enterprises to have a SIEM, a Ambarish Deshpande, Managing Director, India Sales, single console, within their system to track and assess the Blue Coat, agrees that for IT managers the concerns have security threats. increased given the hybrid environment, Anomaly detection is very critical for with each department having varied organisations, besides taking proactive needs. “For instance, a section of the measures to counter threats rather than user group is using the cloud, the sales being reactive in handling the threats. The and marketing teams are leveraging the main concern for V C Gopalratnam, VP– Web 2.0 platform effectively in their IT & CIO, Cisco India and Globalisation is attempt to enhance the brand value and that the enterprises are neither geared to Evaluate new and old security with the CRM strategy, the BYOD trend address security measures nor ready for technologies and tools is invading the market, all of which are the cloud trend,” he states. Prepare for roles and responsibilities throwing up newer challenges,” According to Gopalratnam, the critical matrix of employees factors which should not be ignored are: Monitor the bandwidth consumption greater visibility of the IT teams in the Tightening the which will help in assessing the networks, a better understanding of user Security Bar security measures to be taken up minds, adaption to threat intelligence The core aspect of any security frame Do the vertical mapping of the framework, installing device intelligence work is to be trained around various security requirement methods, a quality-enabled technology security aspects, be it understanding Create a separate STP server for the policy and so on. the intelligent proxy framework, the marketing and sales teams

Tactical Approaches to Security

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it strategy | cover story S. Sivashankar, PACS/Network Administrator, G Kuppuswamy Naidu Memorial Hospital, Coimbatore, says, “Enterprises need to form an internal compliance department and adhere to the security policies very strictly, with a regular monitoring mechanism.” Most IT heads say that enterprises and the top management fail to allocate sufficient funds towards security and the consciousness about the need to secure the data should flow from the top.

Inflicting Stringent Security Layers Blue Coat’s Deshpande recommends that the IT heads place proxy and caching as a defence layer, as this enables storing frequently used data in an easily accessible location, so that time and resources are saved as the data does not have to be retrieved from the original source. iGate Patni’s CIO Chella Namasivayam strictly recommends having a security defence and depth model framework in place which absorbs multiple layers of security tools. “We have installed seven layers of security within our organisation, which is around the perimeter, a networking layer, a boundary around the servers, application layers, a data layer and so on,” reveals Namasivayam. The CIO has mapped the security requirement of each division and defined the confidential data along with noncritical data and enabled necessary tools to address security challenges. Namasivayam and his team tried to revamp the security tool architecture and also installed layers by anticipating future threats, which incurred a cost of around $650,000. The CIO is working out a cloud security model with three dedicated team members focusing on the modalities which is currently under the PoC stage. M Ashfaque Hussain, GM-IT and Head-Data Centre Operations, Tata Teleservices Ltd. says, “A risk assessment is an important step in protecting your workers and your business, as well as complying with the law. It helps you focus on the risks that really matter in your workplace and the ones with the potential to harm.” Cisco’s Gopalratnam believes in having an open culture in the organisation. He has rolled out a ‘Trusted Device Policy’

“What is important for the IT managers and CISOs is to segregate

each security issue or tool and analyse the impact and bearing it has on the organisations at various levels” Kartik Sahani Country Manager, India and SAARC, RSA

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Casestudy | BFW

Unified to

securE BFW needed a robust and single security framework for a secured communication network and UTM fit the bill Bharat Fritz Werner Limited (BFW), a flagship company of the Kothari Group in collaboration with the German-based Fritz Werner Werkzeugmaschinen is one of the largest CNC machine tool manufacturing companies with its subsidiary MATEC at Kongen in Germany and the BFW foundry at Hosur in Tamil Nadu. With the integration process getting stronger, BFW’s IT Head faced grave information security challenges, as the team had to ensure a smooth and secured communication flow between various business groups. While BFW had installed MPLS VPN connectivity between its offices, there was a need for a single point solution which could address various security needs at the network level as the threats were escalating.

The planning process With all the buzz surrounding UTM (Unified Threat Management), Nagendra C, Head IT, Bharat Fritz Werner Limited decided to carry out an evaluation study. The proof of concept around UTM included testing with firewall, antivirus, anti-spam, application control, content filtering, IPS, mobile device access software blade, URL filtering, etc., besides features around gateway security. “The growth in our business, com-

bined with the increase in employee ratio, demanded a robust and single security framework,” says Nagendra. According to him, UTM fit the bill.

The solution As a natural phenomenon, Nagendra and his team conducted a thorough evaluation study based on various parameters. A proper proof of concept was conducted using various tools from various brands. The criteria had been to deploy solutions which had compatibility and integrated well with the existing Checkpoint’s VPN connectivity. “We zeroed in on the Nortel Alteon 5106 model which we found would address our needs and challenges with no integration-related challenges,” points out Nagendra. With further expansion in business, Nagendra felt the need to deploy another round of UTM tools following the same recourse. Recently, BFW deployed Checkpoint’s UTM 4600 module which had high availability and redundancy built-in and embedded with several software blades. Having laid out a 5-year roadmap for support and enhancements, Nagendra also worked out a justifiable budget while deploying these security tools. Content with the UTM’s performance in securing the network and ensuring smooth communication standards, Nagendra plans to opt for a two-factor authentication security framework in to further tighten the security.

within Cisco with regard to the BYOD trend which helps provide recognition access to the device that comes into the organisation, while making sure that it offers possible level of authentication to the software applications. Sandeep Singh Walia, Assistant General Manager-IT, HT Media Ltd. believes in conducting the risk assessment and underrating the risk and its impact. “It is critical to assess the organisation’s appetite to absorb risks and design the technical architecture. B Sadashiva Baliga, AGM-IT, BHEL

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“The growth in our business, combined with

the increase in employee ratio, demanded a robust and single security framework” Nagendra C DGM-IT, Bharat Fritz Werner Ltd.

Electronics Division, has opted for a Data Leakage Prevention (DLP) solution which enables him to detect potential data breach incidents in a timely manner and prevent them by monitoring data while in-use (endpoint actions), in-motion (network traffic), and at-rest (data storage). Presently, BHEL has commenced a PoC on DLP based on certain assumptions. While there are too many point products in the security market, the best practice according to RSA’s Sahani is to build security consciousness amongst the various groups.

Boss talk | DR SWAMI MANOHAR

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ARE YOU READY TO BECOME A CIO? APPLY FOR INDIA’s FUTURE CIOs

Go to www.next100.in

2012 If you think you are ready to play the role of a Chief Information Officer, prove it to your peers and superiors. ITNEXT will help you echo your aspiration. NEXT100 is an awards program from IT NEXT magazine that identifies senior IT Managers who have the skills, talent and spirit to make to the top slot - the CIO. The process starts with a call for self nomination. The nominees then participate in a series of exercises that test their techno-commercial and management skills. The evaluation and selection of award recipients is made by a prestigious committee of technology and business leaders who judge nominees on career accomplishments, professional expertise, skills and potential to be a CIO. The culmination of NEXT100 is in an awards night that celebrates the NEXT100 CIOs. The ceremony will be held in December 2012

IT IS NOW YOUR TURN TO RISE ABOVE THE REST. YOUR TURN TO CALL THE SHOTS. YOUR TURN TO BE THE NEXT100. PRINCIPAL PARTNER

TECHNOLOGY PARTNER

NEXT100 awardees will be profiled in the NEXT100 book which will be sent to India’s top 1000 CIOs. EVENT BY

LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100

Next100 Winners’ Next Goal Inspired by their win, the recipients of the Next100 award have set passionate goals for themselves, with the objective of empowering their careers and creating a brighter future for all

Bhavita Saxena DGM, ISBS, RFCL Ltd.

Avtar Singh AVP, Bajaj Capital

Berjes Shroff Senior Manager-IT, Tata Services Ltd.

t has to be said: the winners of Next100, 2010 and Amit Phadke 2011, are an evolved lot. They are truly focussed, careerHead – Systems & Technology, Kale minded professionals with a clear set of goals, not just for Consultants themselves, but for their teams as well. What is heartening to Limited see is that these winners are not merely confined to their roles in IT or focused on only keeping the lights on. It is amazing to find that each one of the teams, that IT Next interacted with, has a whole lot of ambitious tasks and goals to reach. The fact of the matter is that these winners, who are already in leadership positions or have escalated to a leadership role in the last two to three years, still have great dreams Beena Nayar to hold on to. Manager – IT Forbes Marshall A fact that stands out is that these winners have aligned their goals with changing roles and trends and despite that, with all humility, attribute their success to the Next100 award, which they echo has brought them due recognition and success. Today, they carry professional and personal aspirations around leadership, team management, business strategy and planning, taking up larger responsibilities while also fulfilling their own dreams. IT Next is proud to be a part of something innovative and something so inspiring...

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Winner 2010

Bhavita Saxena DGM, ISBS, RFCL Ltd.

“I felt the impact of the Next100 award after my firm was acquired by a US firm”

ph oto graph by madishe tt y manasa

n Leadership I do not believe in making any long-term plans; I prefer to go with the flow of what life shows up. This gives me the flexibility to change my direction and my path without too much of an effort, and until now, it has worked well for me. Leadership is beyond the boundaries of big names and positions like CIO, CEO, Founder, etc. I believe in being a leader in every role I play, be it heading IT, leading a project or volunteering for a community project.

On Team Management In the course of my career I have managed both very small teams comprising three members, and a large team of 170 people. It is the responsibility of the leader of the team to constantly mentor the individuals to give shape to the team’s personality. I see myself growing when I mentor my team members, counsel them and help them grow. The most important factor is to align everyone under the same goal, to share the vision of the project and to prepare them to take the onus in meeting the set objective. On Larger Responsibility As of now I handle a large team with members from nine different countries, representing various business functions,

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coming from different work cultures, and varied age groups. It is a large responsibility and much bigger than anything I could dream of. I felt the impact of the Next100 award after my firm was acquired by a US-based firm, where I was given due recognition and bigger responsibilities.

On Business Strategy Planning As of now, the main business strategy is to set up a standardised and integrated platform across all businesses, functions, sites and geographies. While I was aligned with the business strategy earlier, post the Next100 award, people started taking me far more seriously. On Future Plans The IT sector has provided me with shelter, the ‘bread-butterjam’ and I should add the ‘pizzas and burgers’ too. When I look ahead, into the next decade, I see myself running my own NGO to empower underprivileged kids.

LEADERSHIP | NEXT 100

Avtar Singh | AVP, Bajaj Capital

â&#x20AC;&#x153;My larger goal would be to align with the business first and leverage technology to maximise revenuesâ&#x20AC;?

n Leadership A leader is the one who aspires to bring positive changes in an organisation. I am trying to gain a better understanding of business functions and process, so that all the processes are optimised using technology. I will be taking up management or leadership training courses on developing managerial and leadership excellence, soon.

On Team Management I have been leading a team that is working to create an online insurance comparison, transaction and service portal. This involved lot of effort in terms of ensuring that the team is sufficiently equipped and has the necessary technical exposure in handling all aspects of project management, besides understanding the functions and processes of various insurance companies. Taking all this into account we have to create our own comparison engine where the premiums are fetched on runtime and shown to the end user, along with the provision to purchase the policy online. This was quite challenging as it required understanding the team culture. I want to refine my skills by taking up programmes on evolving effective strategies that will enable the team to handle various risks and opportunities.

On larger responsibilities With the Next 100 Award, I gained lot of recognition from my peers, subordinates and seniors, and this has boosted my confidence to look at larger roles and responsibilities within the organisation. My seniors have bestowed me with the responsibility of defining new processes, rolling out new initiatives and alliances for business growth. My larger goal would be to align myself with the business strategy first, to get the best out of technology to maximise revenues.

Business Strategy and Planning I have aligned myself with different product groups within the organisation with respect to new initiatives and new alliances for business growth, and building strategies for promotions and the execution of the same. On future plans My goal is to become a CIO in a span of two years. I would like to join project management courses conducted by the IITs or IIMs. I would lie to run an e-business initiative for the company, since this channel can also become a new revenue stream.

Winner 2011

Avtar Singh AVP, Bajaj Capital

NEXT 100 |LEADERSHIP

Berjes Shroff | Senior Manager-IT, Tata Services Ltd.

“The new role came to me after the Next100 award which indeed is an excellent opportunity”

n Leadership Leadership in my view is the ability to lead, to guide, to mentor and to steer the people and the organisation to achieve the strategic goals. Fortunately, I have a mentor in my former Managing Director, who is my guide, philosopher and friend. I read books on leadership and not just technology. Post the Next 100 award, my management has entrusted me with the responsibility of handling three more departments, which are not IT-related.

The new responsibility is helping shape me as a leader more than anything else. To further refine my capabilities I recently earned an MBA degree.

On Team Management I have been fortunate enough to be leading teams since beginning of my career in 1993. But the difference is the new role, which came to me after the Next100 award, and it is indeed an excellent opportunity to understand and work with non- technical teams. On Larger Responsibilities Handling three non-IT related departments has been a huge responsibility and the role demands a high level of maturity as a leader. My goal is to become a CIO or CISO soon.

Winner 2010

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On Business Strategy Planning I have been involved with strategic planning for quite some time now, so this, per se, has not changed, except that I look into more business and strategic initiatives now. I am now involved in taking decisions around business initiatives.

Winner 2010

n Leadership Leadership is about understanding organisational objectives, setting goals and ensuring that the entire team moves together in a uniform direction. I have been working on these lines for a while now.

ph oto graph by Ji ten Gandhi

On Team Management While I lead a team of over 70 members, given the opportunities in the market, it is important to retain talent along with a pool of the right mix. It is actually quite a balancing act, meeting individual requirements visà-vis team and organisational goals. According to me, a leader has got to be smart when it comes to identifying the individual needs of the team and provide them with a balancing note. While there is no specific agenda, we do have training sessions organised by the HR department which often cover team management aspects. On Larger Responsibilities Being a recipient of the Next100 award means that the expectations from the management have gone up, in general. I am now involved in managing shrunk budgets, enveloping more projects, improvising on deliveries and innovation. I am working out strategies around creating a strong foothold for the IT department which would compel my organisation to look at my team as a ‘Profit Centre’ rather than a ‘Cost Centre’. This means proving that IT has a direct impact on business generation and every penny

Amit Phadke Head – Systems & Technology, Kale Consultants Ltd.

“Being a recipient of the Next100 award means that the expectations from the seniors is up” saved in rendering the services to the end customer leads to an addition to the bottom line.

On Business Strategy Planning While I am already involved in strategic business planning, on a personal level I feel more responsible than before. I enjoy developing a technology roadmap, aligning IT strategy with business goals, evaluating critical success factors and business commitments, and working out effective risk mitigation parameters.

On Future Plans I am looking forward to expanding my role and move up the value chain to eventually be a CIO. I plan (and need) to build a strong team focusing on service delivery. As a future course of action, I would like to ensure that most of my team members earn certifications such as ITIL, Prince2, PMP, CISA, CGEIT, etc. My aspirations include leading an eminent team of technology professionals.

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Winner 2011

Beena Nayar | Manager – IT, Forbes Marshall

“The Next100 winner tag around my name means that my career graph is ascending”

n Leadership The key traits an ideal leader possesses are sharing ideas and empowering the team member to evolve their own course of action to deliver a business solution. The proof of a good leader lies in creating a productive environment for the team and showing a clear growth path. My ambition is to lead a diverse set of people in a multicultural, multi-country environment. To further refine my leadership skills, I plan to be a part of a leadership training programme that will help me face any situation, straight on.

On Team Management The real challenge lies in leading people who are multitasking and have other priorities along with the project you are handling. I did have a tough time extracting tasks from a team that was involved in other projects, and in gaining their complete attention. I would like to hone my skills in the techniques of managing a team who have different priorities.

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On Larger Responsibilities The Next100 winner tag around my name means that my career graph is ascending as there are ample opportunities for leadership development, growth and breaks for high-potential employees in my company. Currently, our focus is on the successful implementation of ERP with planned deliverables and a future roll-out plan at our new manufacturing unit. With this success, I shall set up larger goals for myself and my team. On Business Strategy Planning I have made a conscious effort to involve business groups at various stages of ERP. On Future Plans I plan to play a strategic role of a CIO, while I aspire to own and successfully run a knowledge management business.

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Dream Teams

India’s first and biggest inter-corporate IT team challenge lived up to the huge expectations of all participants—and how!

Brain Storming: Corporate IT teams in Mumbai in deep discussion

Curious teams: All participants in Delhi paying full attention to absorb all details Involved Teams: TPL 2012 process and sessions in full steam with corporate IT teams in Bangalore

ll projects worth their click need a leader (like a Steve Jobs and the iPad)— but what they need equally is a team that works together towards a shared goal. This is reflected in the most famous expansion of the very term TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. And while there have been many awards and recognitions in the IT function for individuals, there are none when it comes to identifying and honouring the best teams.

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Or let’s say, there was none until recently. IT Next and CTO Forum magazines (published by 9.9 Media) got together to introduce the first Technology Premier League to the Indian IT market —the industry’s first unique model to identify and honour IT teams that have what it takes to solve complex technology

problems and who do it with style and substance. This is how the process worked: CIOs from India’s top organisations, across industry verticals, were invited to nominate their IT teams. A separate site to handle the entire registration process was created at www.tpl2012. com. The process was rolled out in the month of March and within a few weeks the website was swamped with

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Here is a list of the runners-up and winners: Delhi Second Runner-up: Unitech Wireless First Runner-up: Maruti Suzuki Winner: AON Hewitt

Mumbai Second Runner-up: ICICI Securities First Runner-up: WNS Global Winner: K Raheja Corp

Bengaluru Second Runner-up: Texas Instruments First Runner-up: AXA Technology Shared Services Winner: Vijai Electricals

hundreds of applications from all over India. These were pruned, based on the completeness of information provided and application of eligibility criteria, as listed on the site. In all, 64 teams turned up for the threecity, two-day offsite contest: 22 each in Delhi and Mumbai, and 20 in Bengaluru. Each team comprised a maximum of four players, plus one non-playing captain (CIO or IT head of the company, who acted as a mentor and guide). Each team was given a business case study scenario and a set of challenges that they had to solve using certain technology stacks. To bring more variety to the contest, there was a set of three separate but similarly designed case studies. These were assigned based on random lots so as to keep the element of surprise and to ensure fair play. To build up the momentum and make the contest more intense, a surprise twist was announced in the case mid way, declaring that the said company had acquired a large competitor and as a result of this, the CIO has to face the new challenge of integrating the IT platform of both the companies.

Q&A with Jury: Jury members throwing questions at the contestant team

Jury & Participants: Presentation in progress as the jury and participants look on

Jury at the job: Jury working on the final scores in Delhi as the participants await the result

An interesting element of the contest was the parallel tutorials on various technologies by the sponsoring vendors. Also, technical consultants were available on the spot to address the players’ queries, pertaining to the application of a technology to their respective business cases. Each city had an eminent panel of jury members drawn from across top corporates and consulting/advisory organisations. All teams were asked to make a quick presentation to the jury panel in Round One which was called the ‘Elevator Pitch’. Based on these presentations, the members of the jury shortlisted five teams in each city. These teams were further invited to make detailed presentations

in Round Two. In this round, along with the scores given by the jury, there was an online voting process through the TPL site where people could log on and vote for their favourite teams. These votes carried some weight in the overall score of the teams, though the major portion was accorded to the scores given by the jury members. As the runners-up and winners in each city were announced, all the anxiety and hard work of the two-day event turned into a climactic fusion of joy, celebration and applause! That the event was a great success can be gauged by the level of excitement and anticipation in the air about next year’s event, as TPL promises to return in 2013.

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Winning Teams ... Delhi Winner: AON Hewitt Ready to take off: Delhi team Aon Hewitt emerged winner in TPL 2012

At the top: The IT team from Delhi Maruti Suzuki is all excited to be the first runner-up

Case Study Synopsis:

Magnum Retail

agnum Retail operates a wide variety of retail store formats that include department stores, hypermarts and specialty retail outlets. Currently, Magnum Retail employs about 7,000 people across its 139 store locations and 20 warehouses/ distribution centres. Another 3,000 people are provided by contractors and consignment vendors for activities such as sales promotions, housekeeping, security, warehouse tasks, customer relations, and technology support. In its five-year strategic plan (for years 2015-2020), the Board of Directors of Magnum Retail has drawn up an ambitious growth plan, that includes rolling

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out at least five new stores each year, of which two will be in the hypermart format. At the same time, since retailing is a low-margin industry, the CIO of the company is under pressure from the CEO to find ways to reduce costs without compromising the customer experience. He has told the senior managers in the IT team that: 1. The number of data centres, as well as the space occupied by them would need to be reduced. 2. The organisation should look for ways to consolidate and rationalise the use of the communication and data network infrastructure. 3. Where feasible, the IT team should create self-service portals for employees and customers to bring greater agility to the organisation. 4. All sales and floor staff (including those in warehouses) would be enabled to be always connected using tablets or smartphones.

5. Make sure all applications are fast, and deliver acceptable response times. 6. Enhance employee productivity through seamless workflows, single sign-on and appropriate authentication. 7. Enhance disaster recovery capabilities of the organisation. 8. Dramatically reduce the number of vendors that the IT team needs to deal with. 9. Ensure that all systems and technologies are compliant with regulatory and corporate governance norms. 10. Dramatically improve the analytics and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;big dataâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; capabilities of the organisation to add value to the business. 11. Prepare for the implementation of the GST regime, and consolidation of warehouses/distribution centres in a hub-and-spoke configuration (4+1 warehouses). 12. Ensure that the IT infrastructure can be quickly scaled up and expanded.

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AON Hewitt Team

Mumbai Winner: K Raheja Corp

Captain: Yash Pal Syngal Team members: Vineet Kapoor, Lalit Jaitly, Karandeep Singh, Bharti Sharma

Highlights of the AON Hewitt Presentation: The key business and IT priorities of Magnum Retail include doubling business revenue in the next three years—from Rs 1,500 crore to Rs 3,000 crore; increasing operating margins by 5-10 per cent; and managing risk and compliance. The company should look at data centre transformation with the objectives of reducing operating expense of both IT and energy consumption, meeting security and compliance norms, and setting up a DR site. Embracing cloud technology can help Magnum Retail consolidate and enable infrastructure to be agile and scalable; meet security and regulatory compliance; and provide self-service portals for internal users. Unified communication can bring about the integration of multiple end-user platforms and enhance the call centre experience. AON Hewitt also suggested that Magnum Retail should deploy tools for big data and business service management. Among the innovations it suggested: a corporate employee recognition programme; virtual dressing rooms for its retail stores; collaborative marketing under which customers could design products; and the auto-replenishment of grocery items.

Top of the World: IT team from Mumbai, K Raheja Corp is beaming with joy on winning the first prize

Great Show: Mumbai’s WNS Global put up a great presentation and bagged second position

Case Study Synopsis:

Allied Bank of India

llied Bank has a panIndia network of branches, ATMs and associates. With a total of 1,342 branches and 4,537 ATMs, the bank compares well with the leaders in the industry. To support its core merchant and trading community, the bank also has a branch presence in 15 overseas locations. The bank runs a mix of systems, both legacy and modern, on a variety of systems and platforms supplied by multiple vendors. While the bank has conducted small-scale tests of latest

technologies like virtualisation and cloud computing, it still has not made a decision on a pervasive roll-out. The bank’s group CIO held a meeting of senior IT managers to review the entire infrastructure of the bank. This group concluded that: 1. The number of data centres, as well as the space occupied by them would need to be reduced. This would be done for greater efficiency, cost reduction and security control. 2. While the bank’s ATM network would be kept separate, the group would look for ways to consolidate and rationalise the use of the communication and data network infrastructure. 3. Where feasible, the group would create self-service portals for employees

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K Raheja Corp Team Captain: Rahul V Mahajan Team members: Kamlesh Jain, Prince Mathew, Rajendra Raut, Tabrez Shaikh

Highlights of the K Raheja Corp presentation:

Further, K Raheja suggested the time frames for each project (ranging from 9 to 18 months) and also evaluated whether a project’s business impact would be low, medium or high.

The overall implementation strategy suggested for Allied Bank was divided into three categories for the various technology stacks: Innovative, Critical and Productive.

The Key Success Factors (KSFs) listed for the project included project ownership, use of best practices, quality of the team, commitment of the company’s leaders, and training given.

The technology stack chosen for implementation included big data, machine-to-machine communication, data centre transformation, business service management, private cloud, business productivity and BI, and enterprise security.

In addition, K Raheja suggested immediate and future support requirements for the bank, such as the involvement of business heads in the projects, researched software, documentation and sign-offs, and frequent reviews.

and customers to bring greater agility to the organisation. 4. All sales and field staff (including outsourced staff) would be enabled to be always connected using tablets or smartphones. 5. Make sure all applications are fast, and deliver acceptable response times. 6. Enhance employee productivity, and bank security, through seamless workflows, single sign-on and appropriate authentication. 7. Enhance the disaster recovery capabilities of the organisation. 8. Dramatically reduce the number of vendors that the IT team needs to deal with. 9. Ensure that all banking systems and technologies are compliant with regulatory norms for in-branch and off-premise transactions—and that any changes can be implemented rapidly. 10. Dramatically improve the analytics and ‘big data’ capabilities of the bank to add value to the business.

Case Study Synopsis:

Bengaluru Winner: Vijai Electricals

Indus Consumer Products

ndus Consumer Products is a large Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company that owns a number of well-known brands in household, personal care, hair care and food segments. The company is one of the largest marketers of toilet soaps in the country, and is also a leader in hair

Clear Goal: Hyderabad based Vijay Electricals is ready to take off to Las Vegas as the winner

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Competency at heights: The first runner-up, Axa Technology put up a tough fight

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No Deviations: IT teams are fully focussed and completely engrossed in understanding the case

oils, skin care and oral products. With four regional offices, 16 branch offices, 33 C&F agents and 1,218 distributors, Indus ensures the pan-India availability of its products. In its strategic plan (for the years 2015-2020), the Board of Directors of Indus Consumer Products has drawn up an ambitious growth plan, that includes increasing revenues by 20 per cent each year, and improving profits. Indus sees technology as a key ingredient in enabling efficiencies, saving costs and offering better services to its customers (i.e. distributors and retail chains). The company’s VP of IT has told the IT team that: 1. Due to constant corporate expansion and overseas acquisitions, Indus currently has too many data centres. Some of these data centres are sub-optimal either in terms of space, or operational costs—and will need to be re-thought for greater efficiency, cost reduction and security control. 2. The organisation should look for ways to consolidate and rationalise the use of the communication and data network infrastructure. 3. Where feasible, the IT team should create self-service portals for employees and customers to bring greater agility to the organisation. 4. All sales, warehouse staff and external trade partners (e.g. distributors and C&F agents) should be enabled to be

Vijai Electricals Team Captain: Kiran C Team members: Saritha K, Rajendra Prasad A, Chowdary G V, Sandeep Kumar N

Highlights of the Vijai Electricals presentation: The company chose certain technology projects for Indus and gave its rationale for each project. ‘Big data’ was chosen for better analysis of customer buying patterns, seasonality and goods movement data. Machine-to-machine communication was suggested for locker box communication to customers, automated promo campaigns and logistical monitoring. Data centre transformation was chosen as a project that could help Indus utilise its resources more effectively. To help meet the business objectives of Indus, different IT initiatives were mapped to distinct outcomes: improvement in efficiencies through RFID implementation; designing sophisticated IT systems and use of data analysis tools for better R&D efforts etc.

always connected using laptops, tablet devices or smartphones. 5. All in-house and third-party applications should be optimised to run fast, be reliable, and deliver acceptable response times. 6. Employee productivity should be improved by enabling seamless workflows, single sign-on and appropriate authentication. 7. Disaster recovery capabilities of the organisation should be improved to ensure business continuity and data availability. 8. ll systems and technologies should be compliant with regulatory and corporate governance norms—and any changes should be implemented rapidly. 9. The analytics and ‘big data’ capabilities of the organisation should be improved to add value to the business. 10. The organisation should prepare for the implementation of the national uniform GST regime, and for the consolidation of warehouses/distribution centres in hub-and-spoke configurations. 11.The IT infrastructure should be architected to be quickly scaled up and expanded to accommodate the company’s expansion plans.

TPL JURY PANEL DELHI : Asheesh Gupta, Director, Mckinsey Knowledge Center India; Akhilesh Tuteja, Partner-Advisory Services, KPMG; Joydeb Chatterjee, Corporate Controller, SRF Ltd; Ramesh Narayan, CEO, BSES Yamuna Power Mumbai: Jaimin Bhatt, President & Group CFO, Kotak Mahindra Bank; Devendra Parulekar, Partner-Advisory Services, Ernst & Young: Kunal Pande, Partner, Management Consulting, KPMG; Rajiv K Gupta, ED, SBI life Insurance Co. Ltd. Bangalore: Revathy Ashok, former MD, Tishman Speyer; M P Badrinath, Director (Risk Advisory Practice), Ernst & Young; Ravanan Rostow, CFO, MindTree Consulting; Ashvin Vellody, Director (Management Consulting), KPMG

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Key People... TPL 2012

Orientation: Technology vendor Wipro’s executive explaining about the big data momentum to the participants

High Efficiency: Schneider Electric’s executives on how to increase data centre performance and improve efficiency

How to Manage: BMC Software’s executives sharing insights about infrastructure management trends

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Vikas Gupta, Co-Founder & Director, 9dot9 Media explaining the TPL’s objective and the thought behind

R Giridhar, Group Editor , 9dot9 Media, sharing the TPL concept and process with the IT teams

Krishna Kumar, VP-Marketing, 9dot9 Media, setting the rules and regulations for the TPL 2012 contest.

Communication at best: Mobile technology solutions provider Vodafone providing details on M2M communication trends

Be Secure: Check Point Software is conveying the importance of maintain highest level of security

Big Consultations: Excited participants consulting Microsoft’s executives on cloud challenges and advantages

15minute manager

training Education workplace compensation workforce trends skills development personal development

Long hours on PC? Eye care Precautions Pag e 50

Strategy: Finance Management this page Review: Apple versus Samsung page 52 Trends: Application Security page 53 Training Calendar: IT & Telecom page 5 4

BY SHARAT M . A I R A N I

il lustratio n : sh igil n

hile effective communication is critical to the success of every business, understanding finance and financial terms is equally vital. For IT managers whose activities primarily revolve around IT, internal or external, understanding their organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial goals and business strategy is a very important and fundamental component of their job. The mark of the most successful technical or IT manager is the extent to which the individual engages with business partners/managers through a shared understanding of the organisationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s financial goals and requirements. Working to pick up the nuances of financial terms, getting the numbers right with regard to growth or investments and related concepts enhances the collaboration between the two departments, and this is what creates a successful entity.

How Do You Do This? The use of an effective communication mechanism only adds value. Understanding the role of a business manager is imperative, for then you, as an

FINANCE MANAGEMENT

know the numbers Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s critical that IT managers understand finance if they want to take up bigger roles

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15-MINUTE MANAGER IT manager, can effectively communicate how your technological expertise can translate into financial benefits that affect business growth. You need to reiterate that the IT support systems enhance the efficiency of financial operations and thus help the department achieve their goals. You add more value to your organisation simply by developing an understanding of costing, planning (budgeting/forecasting), accounting, valuing, and communicating that information to the business in financial terms. In most companies, IT teams and business leaders carry a strong conviction that financial management falls under the purview of the accounts department and they have nothing to do with it. This perception could not be more wrong. While there are areas such as cash management, payroll, payments to suppliers and collection of payments from customers that are handled by the accounts team alone, aspects related to financial management are the prerogative of all managers and leaders. Also, most IT managers are apprehensive about financial management as they tend to believe that it is a complex task. However, if you have expertise in a particular area of business, understanding finance is not a herculean task.

Il lustrati on: Shig il N

Participate in Budget Planning

The first step towards understanding any finance-related activity is to be clued in to the IT budget planning process. This lets you get actively involved in determining a few critical aspects and also refines your decisionmaking skills. Budget planning helps you deliberate over people/staffing-related issues, product and technology deployment and deliveries, making investment decisions with regard to absorbing new infrastructure, creating new facilities and understanding the business implications of budgetary planning. Being involved in the process also helps you get more futuristic in your vision which in turn reinforces

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TIPS AND TRICKS

EYE CARE TIPS FOR COMPUTER USERS

tips to keep your eyes healthy More and more people in a variety of professions find themselves staring at a computer screen all day. Some jobs require intense concentration and you can easily lose track of how much time you have been at the task, in front of the monitor. This often results in headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision and even a long-term loss of visual acuity.

Do… * Use dark text on a light background; ideally it should be black text on a white background. * Ensure that the monitor is in focus and that the screen’s brightness matches that of the surrounding area. * Cut the glare on the monitor with an antireflective screen. * Ensure that the monitor has refresh rates of 60 hertz or more. * Blink regularly. * Give your eyes a 20-30 second break every 10 to 20 minutes. * Get up and walk away from your computer for 5 minutes, every hour or so. * Use disposable tissues to wipe your eyes. * Women should use cream-based eye makeup. * Try these exercises: Move your eyeballs from the extreme left corner to the right corner. Hold a pencil at arm’s length and bring it towards your nose slowly, keeping your eyes focused on it. Don’t… * Wear contact lenses for extended periods of time. * Use aerosol products like hairspray.

It takes just a little common sense to keep your eyes healthy. After all, they’re your window to the world!

* Rub your eyes frequently; it can cause an eye infection. * Splash water on your face vigorously. * Let bright overhead lighting on the screen

15-MINUTE MANAGER

Sujoy Banerjee, Financial Controller, Trident (Bandra Kurla)

“CFOs need to understand how IT knowledge and skill sets can add best value to the business”

Sanjeev Kumar, Group CIO & President, Business Excellence, Adhunik Group

your ability to forecast. You get the opportunity to work out appropriate estimates around sales growth, staff turnover, company performance and understand inflationary trends and its impact, and so on. Remember, when presenting budgets it helps if your assumptions are clearly stated.

Involve The Team As a manager and leader, your success depends on the impressions your team forms of you, so seek their insights when you plan the budget. Thereafter, share your decisions and the key assumptions or estimates. If your team knows what they are aiming for, in

While some areas are handled solely by the accounts team, financial management is the prerogative of all managers and leaders

tips on importance of getting the numbers right Financial intelligence is critical to IT managers’ growth in their profession. While IT has certain expectations from the finance, the CFO expects the IT teams to have good insight into financial know-how. The key facts that the IT managers need to keep a tab on would be: Money given to IT is hard earned money IT is expected to do more with less in turbulent times which is reasonable A structured course in ‘Finance for IT Managers’ should be developed and be part of the curriculum in institutions Key performance indicators around finance need to be understood Source: IT Next

terms of financial results, they will look at doing the right things operationally to get the best result.

Work With Accounts Your accountant is the business advisor of the organisation and you must be closely associated with the accounts team. This will reap numerous benefits. The accountant has a better insight into the cost and benefit analysis with regard to your line of business and the association will help you immensely when you are reviewing IT performance. The partnership can help create an effective business model based on several estimations made and pre-empt certain risk factors that could be addressed well in advance and managed successfully.

Take Responsibility When the going gets tough it is so easy to start looking for excuses. Instead, get involved in the financial decisions, take up bigger responsibilities and carry a long-term vision. This can happen only

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photo by : Dris hti

“IT and finance go hand-in-hand and can only deliver exceptional results if they collaborate with each other.”

15-MINUTE MANAGER review

Apple’s new iPad vs Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

when you are associated with working out a cost benefit analysis, taking the future roadmap into consideration, and not confine yourself to the present.

Get Process Oriented Make sure that you have a process in place to carefully monitor your actual performance against the budget. If things are going well see what more can be done to boost the performance even further. If things are not going as well as expected, focus on the changes you need to make to get it right.

Focus on Critical Numbers

Now that the iPad 2 has made way for its successor— the new iPad fondly called ‘the iPad 3’—it’s only fitting to pit Apple’s latest baby against the competition that’s littered across the tablet landscape. Rising above others, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE comes to mind as an undecided competitor; it is regarded as the best of the best from Samsung’s camp! DESIGN: From a distance, the two look similar, but once we grasp both in our hands, the new iPad is able to deliver the impactful wow factor thanks to its premium feel. That’s not to say that the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a bad looker, especially when it’s lighter and slightly thinner, but its all-plastic body doesn’t have the allure to match the impeccable industrial design of the iPad. DISPLAY: If there’s one reason why the new iPad is such a feared competitor, it has to be because of the crisp and stunning Retina display. Comparing the two, the numbers seemingly do all the talking as the iPad boasts a mind-bending resolution of 2048 x 1536, which blows away the 1280 x 800 resolution of the Galaxy Tab 10.1. INTERFACE AND FUNCTIONALITY: Fancy over visual appeal is one thing, but when you’re in the market to buy a tablet, the platform experience is undoubtedly an aspect that a lot of people should consider. As we’ve seen in countless iOS versus Android comparisons, it essentially breaks down to simplicity versus personalisation. PROCESSOR AND MEMORY: It doesn’t make much of a difference, because again, the iPad easily shows why it’s the fastest and most responsive tablet on the market. Barely exhibiting any strenuous movements, the new iPad moves seamlessly through all of its functions thanks to its Apple A5x SoC, which breaks down to a 1GHz dual-core processor combined with a quad-core graphics processing unit. Source: www.phonearena.com

When it comes to financial management, managers often tend to be overwhelmed by trivial details. Be clear on the big focus areas that you need to pay attention to; these constitute about 90 per cent of the budget. In most businesses this will revolve around growth figures, i.e.: Income from sales or services. Costs associated with employees’ salary (CTC). Major non HR-related costs relating to stationery and other materials. Cost of maintaining the IT infrastructure and IT-related investments. Ensure that you have as good an understanding of what impacts these numbers at the business unit level so that you can keep things under control. The need to track and plan the budgets well and having a clear understanding of internal financial statements indicate the financial health of the company and its spending pattern. It is imperative that all IT managers keep the financials on the top of their mind before initiating any task. This helps you excel in your job. It is as essential to align technology with finance as much as it is with business; this has a positive impact on your thought process. It is always advantageous to relate any technology initiative with financial implications that would make a huge difference to the IT team. The author is Chief-IT, (Systems & Security), Forbes Marshall

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

APPlication security

in Short Supply

IT managers find application security assessment tools not bailing out the risks due to inadequacies BY DHAN A N JAY C R O K D E

i llustratio n : raj ve rma

ost IT heads and CISOs are challenged by the fact that application security (AppSec) assessment tools fail to bail out the application-based risks. The CXO and other groups in the organisation have set expectations regarding the performance of these tools; they are often considered the ultimate tools that offer respite from risks. However, there are certain inadequacies found in the AppSec assessment process and formats within the organisation which cannot be ignored.

It is not only the IT and information security teams that need to take cognisance of this short supply in the security process, but the business groups also need to take into account, the critical aspects of the process which result in risks.

Expectations around security Typically, organisations perform web application (WebApp) security assessments of the newer applications before going live or conduct periodic assessments of their existing applications. These assessments are known by all

sorts of aliases such as application penetration testing, ethical application hacking, etc. Companies that lack the internal core competency of AppSec often outsource this activity to competent third-party players in the market. However, from a business head or a CEO standpoint, AppSec is often treated as an additional or ancillary investment to the core development expenditure. Once the assessment is made, the CXOs expect air-tight security within the application thereafter. For instance, the development teams start expecting miracles to occur considering that the applications are completely safe, being incapable of being hacked, even if it goes on the public cloud.

Why the insecurity? The obvious concern for all CISOs is why AppSec-tested applications are not secure. In most cases applications undergo assessments when they are either almost ready for production or already in production. This is against the spirit of AppSec to begin with, as AppSec as a process should ideally be

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15-MINUTE MANAGER

event calendar Major global events in IT and Telecom during July 2012

invoked right at the inception of the applications SDLC (Software Development Life Cycle). Very rarely are AppSec resources involved during the requirement analysis or during the finalisation of the design. Flaws and vulnerabilities that could have been killed right at the beginning; are most often patched in (with quick hacks and not actual AppSec best practices) after the application is already in production. AppSec professionals are often expected to perform miracles and mitigate flaws that are connected with the lifelines of the application. While business pressure will always compel the teams to have applications up and running; it is never easy for any CISO to let such applications fly without the proper checks and balances.

Remedy to secure event

Venue

Dates

Telecoms Loyalty & Churn 2012

Novotel Cannes

July 2-5, 2012

VAS Africa

Sandton Sun, Johannesburg, South Africa

July 3-4, 2012

ePIC 2012

London (United Kingdom)

July 9-11, 2012

3rd 4G International Forum

Taipei, Taiwan

July 10-11, 2012

3rd Greater Mekong Mobile Payments & Banking Summit 2012

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

July 12 - 13, 2012

2012 International Conference on Logistics, Informatics and Beijing, China Service Science

July 12-15, 2012

The Fourth International Conference on Wireless & Mobile Networks (WoMeN-2012)

Chennai, India

July 13-15

OSCON Java

Oregon Convention Center (OCC), Portland, Oregon, USA

July 16-20

OPTICS: International Conference on Optical Communication Systems

Roma, Italy

July 24â&#x20AC;&#x201C;27

Source: http://www.biztradeshows.com/

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Here are a few crucial factors that every CISO needs to consider before signingoff applications and eliminating the blind reliance on AppSec assessments. Although AppSec assessments are vital, they can never address the people, processes and technology completely. Lack of STP (Straight-ThroughProcessing) and Manual Hand-offs: AppSec can never be held responsible for processes that are offline or that are performed manually. While AppSec testers can test for data validation; they can never do so for business rules. It is common practice in several organisations to have online workflows that detach themselves into (smaller or multiple) manual tasks. These could include physical verification / inspection, offline approvals or matching records with another system. Whenever there is manual hand-off; the application has to rely on the validation of the incoming data. Intentional disruption of makerchecker mechanism: One of the most observed corporate practices is the dissolution of the maker-checker mechanism in the name of ease of use and time-saving. While such business rules may save time, it is not an ideal practice to adopt. A typical request-

15-MINUTE MANAGER

“Very rarely are AppSec resources involved during the requirement analysis or during the finalisation of the design.” Dhananjay C Rokde, Global Head– Information Security, Cox & Kings application components residing on the infrastructure; having multiple superuser identities or sharing credentials of administrative users completely defeats the purpose of implementing AppSec controls. Unauthorised migration of environments: Developers often start development on a sandbox environment (colloquially known as the ‘Dev’ environment). As soon as they start progressing on their (software) builds / releases; they often do not port the changes into the UAT (User Acceptance Testing) or QA (Quality Assurance) environments. This is a very common blunder made by many development

diving into appSec * Application security (AppSec) assessment tools fail to bail out the application based risks * Take cognisance of the short suppy in the security process * AppSec professionals are often expected to perform miracles and mitigate flaws that are connected with the lifelines of the application * It is never easy for any CISO to let critical applications fly without the proper checks and balances * While AppSec testers can test for data validation, they can never do for the business rules * A typical request-approval workflows works on the basis of the requestor(the maker) posting a request and some approver (checker) taking a decision to approve, reject or hold the request * Allowing too many user identities to directly access the application backend, makes access auditing very complicated and this also makes change and incident control very challenging * AppSec services are also offered as a pay-as-you-use service

teams under the pretext of meeting stringent timelines and lack of migration strategy. Before actually starting the AppSec assessment; internal teams must ensure that a clone environment, along with the production, is readyat-hand. This decreases the chances of the application becoming unavailable due to unforeseen effects of the assessment. Sometimes the AppSec testers run intrusive checks which have the potential to bring down essential services within the application. Excessive dependency of automated scanning tools and services: Most organisations looking to build-up their internal competency towards AppSec, often procure some sort of automated scanning tool or a service. These services are also offered as a payas-you-use, on-demand cloud service. One of the key aspects here is that these tools or services are completely black-box. These tools do not have the ability to understand business rules and workflows to detect and interpret ‘logical’ vulnerabilities; they cannot perform ‘deep crawling’ in sophisticated applications that do not give all the links. They do not support JavaScript nor detect Flash-based vulnerabilities. Most often, vulnerabilities reported by these tools are false-positives (and worse, sometimes false-negatives too). A great amount of human effort is required to fine-tune these scanners as automated scanning can never replace AppSec professionals.

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Photog ra phy: Jiten Gandh i

approval workflow works on the basis of the requestor (the maker) posting a request and some approver (checker) taking a decision to approve, reject or hold the request. This workflow is generally disrupted by adding functionalities like the ‘checker being able to modify the request’ or the ‘checker being able to delete the request’. AppSec can only detect flaws (if any) in the transfer of control from the maker to the checker. Password management: Auditing for password management is always a tricky situation for AppSec professionals. While AppSec can always verify password strength, secure password storage and transmission. AppSec cannot dictate terms on the hardcoding of passwords into application frameworks. The most commonly found password management lacunae are hard-coding passwords into macros and stored procedures and using a uniform password across the application framework. Excessive super-user privilege abuse: Singular administrative user credentials being used by an entire team for local and remote administration such as running backup scripts, routine batch jobs or updating and patching, is one of AppSec’s worst enemies. While AppSec assessments revolve around the

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david taylor | interview

Mobile is Driving Cloud Testing In a conversation with CTO Forum, David Taylor, President of Asia Pacific & Japan, Micro Focus talks about the mainframe business in India and how COBOL is no more restricted to the platform Do you see new COBOL deployments in India, apart from upgradation and migration? Yes, but a lot of the time it gets done by our partners. For example, TCS’ banking application, which is written on Micro Focus COBOL is earning new customers not only in India but globally and customers are running working on the COBOL platform without even realising. We are seeing a lot of work where we are upgrading customers from all versions of COBOL to new versions. So it isn’t dying. It is mainly expanding but through other applications. And at the end of the day those customers in most cases never realise they are running COBOL, nor do they really need to know. How big is cloud testing for you and how big is the market shaping up especially in India? We have a solution called CloudBurst where we can

basically test extremely large volume virtual servers globally. That service is doing very well for us. The growth in that is coming from the growing use of mobile devices in the enterprise. Many of our customers are trying to offer their users, mobile access to enterprise applications and therefore, they need to be able to test those applications effectively. In India we are seeing a lot of development work being done on mobile applications. I think companies will allow mobile access to applications where it makes sense. However, I am not sure that they will run them on the cloud. At this stage, I see there is a lot of talk in around cloud adoption in India but I don’t know how many companies are really running mission critical applications in the cloud. I am not familiar with any. What we are saying is that we work with other applications to be able to provide services to the end-users. We

always have discussions with our customers, and we put in a lot of focus in their ability to modernise their applications to be able to do what they want and we are seeing a lot of values there. Cloud really at the end of the day is just another platform, another deployment. So, from a Micro Focus perspective, if I migrate from the Mainframe to Windows, I am not seeing a lot of demand to do that for critical application where we see the mobile applications coming in from an enterprise perspective. We see a lot of banks already providing their customers with mobile applications that can be used to view account details, transfer money and so on. They develop a mobile application which ultimately connects to customer data that lies on the bank’s mainframe. The customer doesn’t have to worry whether it is delivered through a mainframe or a cloud that is using mainframe.

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interview | david taylor Considering most of your customers in India are in the banking and financial sector, what specific applications do you see moving onto the mobile and to the cloud? I do believe mobile applications being deployed over the cloud. If I think of myself as a customer, I need to access my account on the go. So what customers are now doing is to tailor in those applications so that they perform much better in terms of mobile devices. And we think a lot of that is taking place in many organisations. One of the important thing that is happening now includes insurance data applications. Cloud has lot of advantages as it allows an individual to work on the go and not be stuck in their desktops. In terms of security, there has been a lot of work which is happening but a lot still needs to be done so that people can get confident about migrating to the cloud. In terms of financial institutions running their applications in the cloud, I am not sure much of this is happening in India but we think that things will change in the coming years as people will eventually shift to the cloud environment. According to you which model of cloud is the best for the banking customers and how do they get the optimum benefit from that? It is quite difficult to answer that because different banks have different approaches. When we have to provide any kind of installations we have to first visit the location and understand the structure of the organisation. There can be a lot of complexities which we need to address and we have to customise our technologies for different banks. I think private cloud is getting recognition in

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different banking organisations as it is easy to deploy and there are many companies which are offering competitive services to the financial organisations. Cost is the primary thing that comes to your mind when you think of migrating to the cloud. Today, storage of data has become critical for financial organisations and I think people will have no option but to migrate to the cloud if they would like to keep their recurring costs at the lower side. Eventually, we would witness different models of cloud being adopted. The type of adoption would vary from customer to customer according to the need and the assets of the company.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;We see a lot of banks already providing their customers with mobile applications that can be used to view account details, transfer money and so on. They develop a mobile application which connects to customer data that lies on the bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mainframeâ&#x20AC;? How do you see the economics of cloud working for smaller banks in India that cannot afford to set up their own data centres and host their own applications? Yes, the economics of it absolutely makes sense. However, at the end of the day from a broad perspective, that is going to be a risk. It then boils down to the risk appetite of the bank and whether or not they want migrate to the cloud environment.

david taylor | interview platform which obviously is what we did. So you are going to get a lot of government regulatory compliance implications coming in when you start looking outside of borders. So I don’t know what India’s rules are in that area right now, you will have to store the data outside of India for Indian companies and that is one of the tricky things.

I do see risk is associated with migrating to the cloud. But the other thing is if you just think about migration the next logical extension of that would be to be able to sell those services outside of India? But then you have another issue in terms of storing the data outside of a country. Now for example, we did a migration in Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore recently we did it because they were processing the accounts from Hong Kong and the Chinese government introduced the legislation that said that financial data of a Chinese citizen cannot be stored outside of China. So the company had a choice to buy another mainframe or run the application on a different

Find other interviews online on the website www.itnext. in/resources/ interviews

What percentage of your COBOL install base in India or even globally is on nonmainframe environment? It is huge. It is massive. We would probably have to do some research. Our COBOL does not run on the IBM mainframe. We have developed a COBOL compiler, which basically is perfectly compatible with the IBM mainframe COBOL platform. So what that enabled us to be is to built COBOL compilers through different platforms. For example, we could run any mainframe application on different platforms including Linux and Windows. Windows and Linux are the most common platforms today apart from some of the proprietary UNIX environments. I use the word proprietary because they are also on a different base from the hardware vendor. So, we have never run on the IBM mainframe itself, but we can. So, we can do development on these platforms because our COBOL compiler is very compatible that has enabled us to offers different types of development. And when you send them back to the mainframe, it just runs perfectly, you don’t have to do anything. Growth for our business comes from two main areas. The first is our migration business. Migration means that we take an application from the mainframe and run it in the distributed

world. So we expand the footprint of COBOL as a result of that. And then second area is actually the people who have developed their applications in and around COBOL platform and run it on the variety of different platforms. TCS’ banking application is an example, Oracle’s People Soft is written on our platform, and literally there are thousands and thousands of applications that have been written in Micro Focus COBOL that is sold around the world and so that is what expands the footprint of COBOL.

What are your plans in India when it comes to migration business as well as Cloud testing? With the business, we are seeing a lot of growth. We are seeing more companies developing on our platforms to take products to market. The mainframe business as you know is not big in India as there are not that many accounts. But what we are doing is instead of talking to those customers about unnecessary migrations we are trying to help them in terms of lowering their cost of ownership of mainframe applications. India dominates that market globally as you know. And so what we have is an analytical technology which enables a person sitting at their business to do their job perfectly. When there is a person sitting at a desk answering multiple support issues from multiple customers and maintenance issues from multiple customers, he needs technological solutions to make his task easier and we are offering just that which makes us acceptable to the customers. We have technologies that can very quickly analyse the code that any person is working on and that makes the job of that person easier. The testing business in India is very strong, providing services globally.

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cube chat | KANAKA DURGA BHAVANI PRASAD S

Faith & Focus Pays off “I religiously attend to my morning prayers to seek the Almighty’s blessings and believe in hard work,” says Bhavani Prasad, Senior IT Manager, Fifth Avenue By MANU SHA R M A

A My sucess

mantra “Nothing is impossible.”

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s a staunch devotee of Sai Baba of Shirdi, Kanaka Durga Bhavani Prasad S., Senior IT Manager at Fifth Avenue Sourcing Pvt. Ltd. believes that blessings from God come through hard work and devotion. A lesson he has lived by is to not shy away from hard work irrespective of the circumstances. “While I religiously attend morning prayers to seek the Almighty’s blessings, I believe in hard work which will eventually pay off,” says Bhavani Prasad. He believes in doing his bit with total sincerity and leaving the rest to God, and that HE will guide everyone through difficult times. Bhavani Prasad also believes that his entry into the IT sector itself is driven by God’s will and the support of his family, considering that he earned a degree in commerce. “After my graduation, I took up a C Programming

course at Pace Computers. This helped me take up a job in the same institution and I was a faculty member for over nine months. It also enabled me to hone my IT skills,” he states. An interesting breakthrough came in the year 1999 when he bagged a contract for Pace Computers from the Andhra Bank, to create ALM (Application Lifecycle Management) data for a zone in Andhra Pradesh that included 42 branches. This was in compliance with the RBI mandate that all banks had to submit their assets and liabilities related data. The project involved data creation using ALM software developed by Laser Soft Technologies using COBOL. “The success of the ALM project gave me the opportunity to associate with the Andhra Bank for the automation of its branches,” says Bhavani Prasad. The task involved the core operations of banking such

cube chat

Fact File NAME KANAKA DURGA BHAVA N I PRASAD S. CURRENT DESIGNATIO N : SENIOR MANAGER – IT CURRENT ROLE HEADING THE IT DEPARTMENT AND REPORTING TO THE CFO AND MANAGING DIRECTORS OF THE COMPANY EXPERTISE STRATEGY PL ANNING, PROJECT MANAGEMEN T, DEFINING IT ROADMAP IT INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT – NET WORK MANAGEMENT – SYSTE M ADMINISTRATION

“The key challenge was to make the management understand the importance of an automated system for business growth” as creating an accounts database, data verification, tallying with general ledgers, uploading all of it onto a live server to get it online and handing it over to the branch head for live operations. “I interacted with top bank officials on their software problems periodically and my efforts were appreciated by senior managers,” says Bhavani Prasad. And once he had the success story of having automated 17 branches successfully behind him, he decided it was time to move on. Moving on meant moving to Chennai; the offer from his present employer was just too good to resist. Fifth Avenue Sourcing Pvt. Ltd. is a sourcing management company that exports garments and accessories for international brands such as Diesel, Calvin Klein, Fila, Diadora and Conbipel, to Europe

and the US. At Fifth Avenue, Bhavani Prasad was given the opportunity to lead the software team when the management decided to launch their software operations. However, getting the management to understand the importance of an automated system, which would help the business grow, and enlightening them about new and promising technologies, was a challenge. One such case in point was regarding driving an ERP project which resulted in a great success. In 2007, Bhavani Prasad was promoted as the IT head for the group where he was leading a team of eight to develop a solution for cloud, a significant achievement for him. Inspiration for him comes from B V Raju, the Founder of the Sri Vishnu Educational Society in his hometown in AP.

SECURIT Y AND RECOV E RY MANAGEMENT – BUSINESS CONTINUIT Y PL ANNING – TEAM MANAGEMENT WORK EXPERIENCE 13+ YEARS PRESENT EMPLOYER FIFTH AVENUE GROUP QUALIFICATIONS B.COM. PGDCA, MCP, IT I L V3 CERTIFIED, MBA PROFESSIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS: * COMPLETION OF ALM PROJECTS * COMPLETION OF ANDHRA BANK MECHANISATION PROJECTS * COMPLETION OF DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTION OF ER P PACKAGE * RECEIVING THE IT N EX T AWARD – I IN 2011 ASPIRATIONS TO BECOME A CIO IN T H E NEXT ONE YEAR FAVOURITE BOOK MIND MAGIC NLP BY B. V. PATTABHI RAM

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the web f r o m

www.itnext.in Read IT Next stories published online. The links of these stories can also be accessed through your mobiles/smartphones using QR code.

APPOINTMENT NEWS

Surajit Sen new Country Manager of EMC’s BRS Division

PC NEWS

Indian PC Market Grows 6.6 Per Cent in Q1 2012 The combined desk-based and mobile PC market in India totalled nearly 2.8 million units in the first quarter of 2012, a 6.6 per cent increase over the first quarter of 2011, according to Gartner, Inc. Shipments from Lenovo, HP, Dell and Acer, the top four vendors, represent 54.5 per cent of the market. “Consumer buying accounted for 47 per cent of total PC sales in the first quarter of 2012, which is down 3 per cent from the fourth quarter of 2011,” says Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst at Gartner. http://www.itnext.in/ content/indian-pc-market-grows-66-q1-2012. html retail NEWS

Jet Airways Deploys GuestLogix Retail Solution Jet Airways’ in-flight duty free programme is powered by GuestLogix’s retail solution. http://www.itnext.in/ content/jet-airwaysdeploys-onboard-retailsoln-guestlogix.html

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EMC India has announced the appointment of Surajit Sen as Country Manager of its Backup Recovery Systems (BRS) division in India & SAARC. In this role, Sen will manage operations for the BRS unit and work towards maximising productivity, growth and revenue course in India. The BRS unit is a key driver of EMC’s growth in the region in 2012. Sen has worked previously with NetApp and Wipro. http://www.itnext.in/content/surajit-sencountry-manager-emc-backup-andrecovery-systems.html

OPINION

Project Management: Delivering Value The guiding principles to the authentication process in project management are work effort analysis initiation, team building, estimation techniques, training and knowledge transfer, says Zinnov’s Chandramouli http://www.itnext.in/content/projectmanagement-delivering-value.html

Vijai Electricals Wins TPL 2012 Bengaluru After the resounding success of the inaugural Technology Premier League (TPL) in Delhi and Mumbai, all eyes were set on the third and final leg that was held in Bengaluru, in the battle among India’s top corporate IT teams. Twenty teams turned up to solve the case study challenges in Bengaluru. Following the Delhi/Mumbai format, each team was given a business case study to solve using certain technology stacks and innovative thinking. The teams made a short presentation or an elevator pitch to panel of judges. Based on the presentations five teams--Aspire, AXA Technology, Tata Teleservices, Texas Instruments and Vijai Electricals--were shortlisted and invited to present detailed pitches to the jury. After intense competition, the tech team from Vijai Electricals that emerged victorious. http://www.itnext.in/ content/vijai-electricalswins-tpl-2012-bengaluru.html

from the web IT SPENDING NEWS

Tactics IT Leaders Should Apply to Manage IT Spending According to Gartner, Inc., almost every CIO identifies reducing operational expenditure and increasing the amount spent on IT investments as a top priority. However, many fail to properly manage the operational costs of IT investment in new programmes, which can erode investment funding. “Organisations that overspend on operational activity have little money left to invest in new projects. Without reinvestment, organisations cannot restructure and optimise their operational spending,” says Stewart Buchanan, Research Vice President at Gartner. IT leaders should diagnose investment challenges, remove silos and plan asset and service lifecycles, among others.

ACQUISITION NEWS

Service Management Firm IFS Acquires Metrix IFS, an enterprise applications company that develops, supplies, and implements a component-based extended ERP suite built on service-oriented architecture, has acquired

http://www.itnext.in/content/5-tactics-manage-it-spending-new-projects.html

ERP NEWS

Ashok Leyland Deploys SAP for all Core Functions Ashok Leyland Ltd. (ALL), the flagship company of the Hinduja Group, has deployed an integrated SAP-based IT solution to manage planning and supply chain processes across core functions covering all seven manufacturing plants and dealership locations in India. The company has moved to the integrated IT solution from homegrown apps to improve efficiency and achieve global vision. The solution leverages SAP’s best practices for the automotive industry and enables allto seamlessly integrate operations and increase its efficiency. http://www.itnext.in/ content/ashok-leylanddeploys-sap-all-corefunctions.html

SECURITY NEWS

Global Study Shows 17% of PCs Operate Without Anti-Virus A McAfee survey reveals that 83 per cent of PCs have basic security software; Finland is most protected and Singapore the least. McAfee has conducted a global study, analysing data from voluntary scans of an average of 27-28 million PCs per month, to determine a global estimate of the number of consumers who have basic security software installed. http://www.itnext.in/content/ only-17-global-pcs-withoutanti-virus-study.html

Metrix, a global vendor of advanced solutions for service management and mobility. Metrix software is used by 90 customers worldwide to automate mobile field service, streamline repair processes, improve customer service and increase service profitability. Beyond industry-tailored field service management applications, Metrix develops a mobile framework that offers built-in industry expertise, out-of-the-box use amongst others. The company focuses on providing service management and mobile workforce software. http://www.itnext. in/content/servicemanagement-firm-ifsacquires-metrix.html

MOBILITY NEWS

Global Mobile Payments Cross $170-Billion Mark

Worldwide mobile payment transaction values will surpass $171.5 billion in 2012, a 61.9 per cent increase from 2011 values of $105.9 billion, says Gartner, Inc. “We expect global mobile transaction volume and value to average 42 per cent annual growth between 2011 and 2016, and we are forecasting a market worth $617 billion with 448 million users by 2016,” says Sandy Shen, Research Director, Gartner. http://www.itnext.in/content/global-mobile-payments-cross-170-billion-mark.html

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update

indulge

NEW Wrist mounted finger piano

The hottest, the coolest and the funkiest next generation gadgets and devices for you

Don’t hope to match Beethoven or Mozart, but atleast plays the piano. Strapped on your wrist is a central dial with wires that lets your finger play a piano.

Happy entertainment! Make sure you are armed with right gadgets to keep the musical flow and stay in touch

Price: `2000

i’m Watch An Italian manufacturer has surpassed that project by launching its own i’m Watch – a smart watch that runs on Android and tethers to any smartphone. Price: `18,000 upwards

Nikkor 6mm f/2.8 lens Nikkor has created a new range of fisheye lens that went up for sale at Rs 89 lakh. Fisheye’s 12 glass elements can capture a 220 degree picture. Price: `nA

HOT Focus Grande Utopia EM Speakers A chic designer speakers to fit your room’s interior perfectly. Focal Grande Utopia EM Speakers are about this. Price: `1 crore.

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Like something? Want to share your objects of desire? Send us your wish-list or feedback to editor@itnext.in

CLOUD SECURITY

the big

TAKE CALCULATED RISKS EXPERT PANEL

SURESH A SHANMUGAM HEAD–BITS, MMFSL GROUP, M&MFServices LIMITED

The Situation...

C ut it from here

“Is Kunal Joshi in a position to secure all applications on-premise and on cloud via closer relationships with his cloud provider?” Joshi and his business group do not deny the benefits of cloud computing which include cost savings, elasticity and agility. However, for Joshi, a senior IT manager with a large manufacturing company, these benefits are not enough to move entirely to the cloud. While cloud computing frees him from day-today core IT activities and lets him focus on business strategies, he has nightmares about securing the applications he has moved to the cloud. Joshi’s recent decision to move his HR, ERP, CRM, design and production related applications to the cloud also has him worried about its security. While the cloud model makes a compelling case where he is even thinking of integrating applications, both on-premise and in the cloud, Joshi is apprehensive about how secure these Your responses count. Log on to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit your replies. The best entry will be published in the next print edition.

MUKUND SATHE, VP– TECHNOLOGY, CORE EDUCATION Technologies

HARSHA E, IT CONSULTANT, HK GROUP

would be on the cloud. He has been hearing a lot about cloud security (referred to in the context of securing the applications on cloud and not security as a service), but is concerned about how he can ensure that the entire infrastructure is secure on a cloud model. Joshi is clued-in to the protocols and techniques to secure the links between applications, but his challenge lies in being vigilant over all the connections. And much depends on how well the cloud service providers are equipped to secure the entire infrastructure. Naturally, Joshi’s challenge also lies in putting a cloud security strategy in place to secure all their assets; this includes addressing governance, security and reliability. How much of the security aspect should be attributed to the cloud service provider and how much should be under his control? Another challenge lies in understanding the various dimensions of security within the framework. Against this backdrop, Joshi expects to find answers to two questions from the experts around his cloud security strategy.

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the big q

the big questions... What are the key security areas of concerns in a cloud model? And

? ?

what kind of cloud security strategy should Joshi adopt?

How much can he rely on the cloud service provider and what broad set of policies, technologies, and controls should he look at deploying to protect data, applications, and the associated infrastructure?

Here are the answers... Go cloud with effective security FIRST ANSWER

SURESH A SHANMUGAM Head â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Business Information Technology Solutions (BITS) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; MMFSL Group, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services Limited About me Member of 1st Shadow Board of Mahindra Finance instituted by the company and on Operating Committee to extract BITS requirements

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Since, Kunal Joshi has to secure all the applications on premise and on cloud via closer relationships with his cloud service provider, he and his business group must realise the benefits of cloud computing that include cost savings, elasticity and agility. The key applications he should secure are HR, ERP, CRM design and production both onpremise and in the cloud as part of cloud security initiative. He seems to be looking for a smart, secure and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) designed solution as per the manufacturer expectations to provide faster access to build security-rich platform for a class enterprise, multi-tasking, virtual server environment; the same can be used for development and test activities and other dynamic workloads. If he wants his team to have greater control over the accounts with more visibility, he has to deploy effective monitoring and efficient management capabilities. He should ensure to create methods to manage and monitor every instance by providing clearly defined permissions to modify user information and with controlled access. Manage multiple keys, more passwords and specific encrypted connections, and the value proposition of assigning instances to all networks, gain assistance where and when he needs it. Enhance production-level responsiveness and reduce costs by delivering services through a flexible and self-configurable cloud infrastructure owned and managed by the defined tools. Provide multiple levels of isolation and 99.9 per cent availability which means that he can deploy critical workloads with more confidence.

Second Answer Joshi needs to be specific about his business demands and the dynamics of the business expectations, to fix the industry-leading expertise and to grant more options to have better security processes, procedures and policies which will suit his environment and quality-proven deliverables from the vendor. The service provider should have global network of experts and have necessary expertise, premium and add-on support solution services which can help and guide Joshi to enhance the availability of information and security of the virtual environment. Complimentary technical support for all the business solutions and technical services should be made available through the cloud web portal besides having effective online cloud monitoring and management of the cloud infrastructure tools. The premium support services must extend to complimentary support solutions with round-the-clock telephone support and a web-based ticketing system online to submit and review the service requests on a defined timeframe basis.

the big q

Three-pronged security is key FIRST ANSWER It would be difficult for Joshi to have physical control over sensitive data related to human resources, production processes, client information and financials and applications, and the chances of the data being compromised by the cloud vendor are high. The infrastructure being used by the vendor may be vulnerable to virus or malware attacks. The attacker may take control of the virtualisation layer making all hosted workloads accessible. Sensitive data could remain on a private cloud and the rest of the data could be moved to a public cloud. With the private cloud, he could rely on the various security features provided by the virtualisation environment. Joshi also needs to define the vendor selection criteria based on various parameters, to ascertain the cloud service providerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s credentials. These parameters include access governance, data encryption, customer list, certifications, external audit process, DR implementations, among others.

MUKUND SATHE VP-Technology, Core Education & Technologies Ltd.

Second Answer The improvement in cloud security technologies is ongoing. Security vendors have established standards and APIs to effectively integrate with the cloud and provide better security services than in the physical environment. The solutions around policy management, monitoring and reporting are specifically built around the cloud services. Technologies such as vMotion also help create a backup of specific VM images at the desired frequency and at a much faster rate. The size of hypervisors is reduced from GBs to MBs over a period, which helps manage security easily. Joshi should break down the security aspects into three categoriesâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;data in the database at any given time, data in transit and network security. Many cloud providers have SAS 70 certified data centres showing that they have been through stringent audits. Joshi should verify if similar certifications are obtained by the service provider. He should look into the HR policies of the service provider in terms of recruitment standards, background checks, working environment and controls implemented.

CLOUD ITY SECUR

About me: He handles the entire IT set up and services and has been instrumental in rolling out IT projects, with a core competency in project management

Security and Compliance Layers on Cloud 30% of the users say private VLANs, network-layer firewalls and DDoSs is of highest priority in cloud 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% 0%

Highest Priority Requirement Nice to have N/A

HIPAA

PCI

Private VLANs network-layer firewalls and DDoSs

Private Cloud single tenant environment

Virtual Private Network (VPN)

S ource : Go Grid Feedback from ov er 500 CTOs , dev elopers and IT Professionals on best practices around cloud.

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the big q

point-to-point encryption is must FIRST ANSWER First establish a point-to-point encrypted tunnel link from the service provider to Joshi’s office. Also adopt cryptographic solutions, IP security policies, strong data encryption methodology, the vendor’s security token system for two-way authentication and tool searches to destroy malicious code in the cloud. Strong DLP policies and automated notification need to be in place. All applications should be audited for weak coding and open ports. It is critical to have super admin control of the cloud-based server and Joshi’s team need to login to every activity. Security updates and patches must be done on a daily basis with a regular security audit, while educating the users for security vulnerabilities.

HARSHA E It Consultant, Hk Group About me: As a consultant for the HK Group has rolled out several IT initiatives and big ERP projects to streamline operational efficiency

Second Answer Background checks of all, especially those who handle back-up and restoration of data is crucial. Also vital is a right to pursue permissible legal action for any supplier employee/contractor wrong-doing, if found by the cloud supplier or Joshi’s audit team. Send a notification, within the context of applicable law from the company’s legal department for any confirmed breach into your data. The supplier must maintain security monitoring logs of all access to your data and documents as routine, random or suspicious audit, leveraging their prescribed scripts and operational procedures as the basis for all audit, for no less than seven years. Offsite back-up for disaster recovery and/or business continuity must be encrypted and all vendors must subscribe to these security measures, without exception.

Notes NOTEs

More Resources 68

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Virtual Storage Platform anniversary: http://blogs.hds.com/hu/2011/09/happy-birthday-vsp.html How to avoid information overload: http://marksblog.emc.com/2011/09/episode-108-.html

update

off the shelf

A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services

Samsung Launches the Galaxy S III in India It’s a simple smartphone with intelligent features, and promises a unique mobile experience

Zebronics Unveils ‘Bold Keys’ PC Keyboard Infotronix, under the brand name ‘Zebronics’, has expanded its range of keyboards, with the introduction of a new model named ‘Bold Keys’. The lettering on the full-size keyboard has been printed in a large font size on the dazzling yellow keycaps, so that the print can be seen easily, even in low light. With letter characters twice as big and the command keys in a larger and bolder font too, these high-contrast keys are a boon for those who have trouble using the keyboard effectively. This keyboard is perfect for schools, special needs departments and libraries, as well as organisations employing people of all age groups.

MOBILES | Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd

key features

Natural Interaction recently announced the launch of the Language user interface — Galaxy S III in the Indian market. The S Voice smartphone recognises your voice, underAndroid 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich stands your intention, and lets you share a Easy and Instant Sharing moment instantly and easily. 8MP camera with zero-lag shutter B.D. Park, President and CEO, South speed West Asia, Samsung Electronics said, “The Galaxy S III is effortlessly smart and intuitively simple by design. It is a fascinating example of how design and technology can be combined with intelligence and imagination to create innovative new products.” With the Samsung Galaxy S III, you can view content like never before on the device’s 4.8 inch HD Super AMOLED display. An 8MP camera and a 1.9MP front camera offer users a variety of intelligent camera features and face recognition related options that ensure all moments are captured easily and instantly. Samsung Galaxy S III is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich, with greatly enhanced usability and practicality to make life easier. Price Rs 38,900.

The bright, soft-touch keys in a slimprofile keyboard help users with more accurate keystrokes. It has been engineered to heighten the visual impact and the typing speed, making it more user friendly for first-time users as well as in heavy usage scenarios or for those whose vision may have degenerated over time. Price: Rs 350. With plug-and-play technology for Windows 7, Vista, XP, 2000 and 98, the keyboard comes in both USB and PS/2 interface variants - making it easy to add-on for the latest or older PCs. Price: Rs 350. Product Features Large size lettering print Letter characters twice as large Bright yellow keys Plug-and-play technology for all

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Texas Instruments Launches Scientific Calculators Features P erform one- and two-variable analysis P rovides a wide range of functionality S ix different regression models D etermine the numeric derivative

CALCULATORS | Texas Instruments (TI) has announced the launch of its new range of scientific calculators in India. Four new models of TI’s advanced line of scientific calculators — TI 36 XPro, TI-36X II, TI-30XS MultiView and TI 30XII S — were unveiled in India. The TI scientific calculators feature a high-quality MultiView display, MathPrint capabilities and enhanced analytical functions suited for all needs. From basic calculations to sophisticated 2-variable statistics, conversions, regression analysis and scientific data plotting, TI’s scientific calculators provide a range of functionality for engineering, general mathematics, algebra, trigonometry and statistics. They will also allow users to determine the numeric derivative and integral for real functions. Users can also perform one- and two-variable analysis, and display six different regression models. The market for scientific calculators in India is growing at a CAGR of around 15 per cent year-on-year according to IMRB Scientific Calculators Market Study, 2012. Price Rs 490 and Rs 890.

Fujitsu’s LIFEBOOK SH531 Notebook NOTEBOOKS | Fujitsu India has launched

the compact Fujitsu LIFEBOOK SH531, an everyday mobile companion at home, in the office, at school or on the go. With its 33.8 cm (13.3-inch) display this 1.9 kg notebook is small and light enough to accompany you everywhere. Customers can connect with family, friends and colleagues via WLAN, or can upgrade the LIFEBOOK SH531 with an external UMTS solution through its 34 mm ExpressCard slot. Its tech specs include up to second generation Intel Core i5 processors and Intel HD Graphics onboard genuine Windows 7 Professional, 33.8 cm (13.3-inch)

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Dell’s XPS 14 Ultrabook Designed for consumers on the move with upto 10 hours of batterty backup along with 24x7 Dell’s premium phone support. Dell has rolled out XPS laptop series with 14 laptops. the XPS 14 is thoughtfully designed having additional screen size for consumers who desire connectivity, performance and entertainment, no matter where they operate from. While XPS 13 is highly portable and compact for today’s most mobile users, XPS 14 provides extended battery life and has a vibrant display with hardened Coming Gorilla Glass and is embedded with latest Intel 3rd generation processor, along with Rapid Start, Smart Response and Smart Connect technologies. “We see more acceptance for our XPS range, “ says, Mahesh Bhalla, Executive Director & GM, Dell India. XPS 14 boasts thin powerhouse performance for superior creation and entertainment. The Dell new laptop has thoughtful design and premium craftsmanship with machined aluminum display. Price: Rs 82,990

Key Advantages Get connected via WLAN 2 nd generation Intel Core i5 processor. 1.3 megapixel webcam Digital microphone 34 mm ExpressCard slot

16:9 HD anti-glare LCD with LED backlight, best connectivity with Intel Centrino 6205 802.11 a/b/g/n WLAN, Bluetooth, Gigabit Ethernet LAN and a 34 mm ExpressCard slot for external UMTS solutions. The notebook is now available ex-stock in India. Price: Rs. 45,000

update

open Debate

book For you A platform to air your views on latest developments and issues that impact you

The Pros and Cons of Tier IV Data Centres

BALA VARIYAM VP, COLLABERA LABS Tier IV data centres can be construed as the ‘holy grail’ of data centre infrastructure technologies. With redundancy at all levels in the data centre infrastructure--right from the dual power server components to the redundant network and HVAC infrastructure, to even a redundant power supply at the data centre itself—Tier IV data centres offer almost ‘five nines’ (99.999 per cent) of availability. It is not easy to set up a data centre of this level of sophistication. According to me, most of the data centres in India fall under the definition of a Tier III data centre.

KAPIL MEHROTRA CHIEF MANAGER (IT), APOLLO MUNICH HEALTH INSURANCE COMPANY LTD

MANUHAAR AGRAWALLA SYSTEMS MANAGERCORPORATE IT, EIH LIMITED

Tier IV data centres are designed for mission critical needs and feature a fail-safe design infrastructure and are deployed in India for high availability, robust IT infrastructure services, managed services, hosted applications, on-demand expansion, and better Internet connectivity. Some other criteria include:

While the capacity of Tier IV data centres are increasing, the utilisation is not going up proportionately. Many organisations are waiting for others to be the early adopters and learn from their experiences. Lack of clarity on the benefits of Tier IV data centres and concerns such as data security and leakage associated with outsourced data centres still prevail. This should change in the future as the complexity of internal data centres and the need for transaction-based IT costs will force the adoption of these DCs.

The electricity stays on as redundant transformers keep your servers online. The servers are kept in a climate-controlled environment for maximum performance.

The Value of Jugaad Title: JUGAAD INNOVATION: A FRUGAL AND FLEXIBLE APPROACH TO INNOVATION FOR THE 21ST CENTURY AUTHORS: NAVI RADJOU, JAIDEEP PRABHU, SIMONE AHUJA PUBLISHER: RANDOM BUSINESS PAGES: 336 PRICE: RS. 499 REVIEWED BY: SANJAY GUPTA

IN INDIA THE value of jugaad is well known—doing something on the spur of the moment with minimal or whatever resources are available, to achieve an immediate objective. So it is a pleasant surprise to come across a book that, in the words of The Economist, is “the most comprehensive book yet to appear on the subject.” The book is especially relevant at a time when the economic crunch continues to squeeze the R&D budgets out of companies’ expenditures and when time-to-market is more important than ever. The basic premise of the book is that Western countries can learn from the frugal and flexible approach to innovation adopted in developing economies such as India, China and Brazil. The authors outline the key principles of jugaad neatly into six areas: seeking opportunity in adversity, doing more with less, thinking and acting flexibly, keeping it simple (remember KISS?), including the margin, and (this one should take the cake) following your heart. IT NEXT VERDICT

Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the Editor at editor@itnext.in

Packs a lot of insightful punch on the concept of jugaad and useful to anyone looking for novel approaches to solve business problems. Star Value:

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my log

Sanjay Gupta Consulting Editor, IT Next (Online)

In Defence of Social Media

Let’s Face(book) it: This social networking site is the fastest-growing ‘medium’ in human history to cross the 400-millionuser mark. User count now hovers around 900 million; just a couple of years ago, the number was less than half that. And if Zuckerberg and his gang can reverse some of the embarrassments of the company’s recent IPO debacle and get their mobile act together, it can become ‘the’ largest medium ever. (Stories on the Web say an analyst predicts the site’s demise in five years or so, but we’ll have to wait and watch). Facebook, of course, is not alone in the current phenomenon of social networking sites vying with each other for an increasingly expressive cyber crowd. Consider all the chirping going on at Twitter, a micro-blogging website that’s more aptly seen as the world’s first giant ‘mirror’ that instantly reflects what people everywhere do, feel and believe—about things as trivial as their nail paint to as critical as earthquakes. Then there are many sites with a business or professional approach (LinkedIn comes to mind immediately, though other examples exist as well). They are used by millions of professionals and businesspersons as a new way to keep in touch, reach out to prospective buyers/suppliers and, as a Naukri.com advertisements depicts, just look for ways to make your boss, your ex-boss.

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More recently, there are the likes of Pinterest—the new kid on the social networking block with the picture power to sweep people away to its platform in droves. ‘All hot air!’ claim some social networking detractors. ‘Passing fad’, pontificate many editorials. ‘Time wasters’, moan the office puritans. Really? With hundreds of millions all across the world posting messages, chatting, viewing videos, looking at online resumes, playing games and doing various other things they also do in the physical world, I don’t think so. Some of the main reasons social networking receives so much flak include concerns that employees will watch YouTube when they should be working, that it will greatly increase bandwidth costs, that people’s privacy will be compromised, and that social sites will open up a hornet’s nest of legal issues. While these are valid objections, don’t people waste time in the physical world by taking a stroll or a break? Don’t they spend money on phone calls? Isn’t a lot of our personal information already known through other means as well? And, aren’t lawsuits the order of the day, anyway? So why single out social networking sites? They are as much a part of our life as any everyday item. Besides, just as there are numerous ways to make people more productive.

illu stration: Raj ver m a

Sites such as Facebook and Twitter are often in the cross hairs of employers and critics. But can we stop the social phenomenon?

3 Essential

Reads

DAVID TAYLOR | INTERVIEW

MOBILE IS DRIVING CLOUD TESTING In a conversation with CTO Forum, David Taylor, President of Asia Pacific & Japan, Micro Focus talks about the mainframe business in India and how COBOL is no more restricted to the platform Do you see new COBOL deployments in India, apart from upgradation and migration? Yes, but a lot of the time it gets done by our partners. For example, TCS’ banking application, which is written on Micro Focus COBOL is earning new customers not only in India but globally and customers are running working on the COBOL platform without even realising. We are seeing a lot of work where we are upgrading customers from all versions of COBOL to new versions. So it isn’t dying. It is mainly expanding but through other applications. And at the end of the day those customers in most cases never realise they are running COBOL, nor do they really need to know. How big is cloud testing for you and how big is the market shaping up especially in India? We have a solution called

services to the end-users. We always have discussions with our customers, and we put in a lot of focus in their ability to modernise their applications to be able to do what they want and we are seeing a lot of values there. Cloud really at the end of the day is just another platform, another deployment. So, from a Micro Focus perspective, if I migrate from the Mainframe to Windows, I am not seeing a lot of demand to do that for critical application where we see the mobile applications coming in from an enterprise perspective. We see a lot of banks already providing their customers with mobile applications that can be used to view account details, transfer money and so on. They develop a mobile application which ultimately connects to customer data that lies on the bank’s mainframe. The customer doesn’t have to worry whether it is delivered through a mainframe or a cloud that is using mainframe.

CloudBurst where we can basically test extremely large volume virtual servers globally. That service is doing very well for us. The growth in that is coming from the growing use of mobile devices in the enterprise. Many of our customers are trying to offer their users, mobile access to enterprise applications and therefore, they need to be able to test those applications effectively. In India we are seeing a lot of development work being done on mobile applications. I think companies will allow mobile access to applications where it makes sense. However, I am not sure that they will run them on the cloud. At this stage, I see there is a lot of talk in around cloud adoption in India but I don’t know how many companies are really running mission critical applications in the cloud. I am not familiar with any. What we are saying is that we work with other applications to be able to provide

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Micro Focus's David Taylor on how mobile is driving cloud testing Pg 56 FEATURE | tpl EvEnt

tpl EvEnt | FEATURE

Dream Teams

Here is a list of the runners-up and winners: DeLHi Second Runner-up: unitech Wireless First Runner-up: Maruti Suzuki Winner: AON Hewitt

MUMBAi

India’s first and biggest inter-corporate IT team challenge lived up to the huge expectations of all participants—and how!

Second Runner-up: ICICI Securities First Runner-up: WNS Global Winner: K Raheja Corp

BenGALURU Second Runner-up: Texas Instruments First Runner-up: AXA Technology Shared Services Winner: Vijai Electricals

Brain Storming: Corporate IT teams in Mumbai in deep discussion

Curious teams: All participants in Delhi paying full attention to absorb all details Involved Teams: TPL 2012 process and sessions in full steam with corporate IT teams in Bangalore

Q&A with Jury: Jury members throwing questions at the contestant team

Jury & Participants: Presentation in progress as the jury and participants look on

Jury at the job: Jury working on the final scores in Delhi as the participants await the result

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Dream Teams-India's first and biggest Inter-corporate IT team challenge Pg 42 CUBE CHAT | KanaKa DurGa BHavanI praSaD S

CUBE CHAT

FAC T F I l E namE K a n a K a D u r Ga B H ava n I p r aSa D S .

Faith & Focus Pays off “i religiously attend to my morning prayers to seek the Almighty’s blessings and believe in hard work,” says Bhavani Prasad, Senior IT Manager, Fifth Avenue BY MANU SHARMA

MY SUCESS

MANTRA “Nothing is impossible.”

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C u r r E n t D ES I G n at I O n : S E n I O r m a n aG E r – I t CurrEnt rOlE HEaDInG tHE It D E pa rt m E n t a n D r E p O rt I n G tO t H E C FO a n D m a n aG I n G D I r EC tO r S O F t H E C O m pa n y EX p E rt I S E St r at EG y p l a n n I n G, p r O j EC t m a n aG E m E n t, DEFInInG It r Oa D m a p I t I n F r aSt r u C t u r E manaGEmEnt – nEt WOrK m a n aG E m E n t – SySt E m a D m I n I St r at I O n

S EC u r I t y a n D r EC Ov E ry m a n aG E m E n t – B u S I n ES S C O n t I n u I t y plannInG – tEam m a n aG E m E n t WO r K EX p E r I E n C E 13+ yEarS p r ES E n t E m p lOy E r F I F t H av E n u E G r O u p Q ua l I F I C at I O n S B. C O m . p G D C a , m C p, I t I l v 3 C E rt I F I E D, m Ba p r O F ES S I O n a l aC H I E v E m E n tS : * COmplEtIOn OF alm p r O j EC tS * COmplEtIOn O F a n D H r a Ba n K m EC H a n I Sat I O n p r O j EC tS * COmplEtIOn OF D E v E lO p m E n t a n D ImplEmEntIOn OF Erp paC K aG E * r EC E I v I n G t H E I t n EX t aWa r D – I I n 2 0 1 1 aS p I r at I O n S tO B EC O m E a C I O I n t H E n EX t O n E y E a r FavO u r I t E B O O K m I n D m aG I C n l p By B. v. pat ta B H I r a m

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Kanaka Durga Bhavani Prasad belives that faith & hardwork will eventually pay off Pg 60

Lenovo ® recommends Windows® 7.

SUB-ZERO TEMPERATURES. ANALYSING GLACIAL MOVEMENTS. NO TIME FOR COLD FEET. THE LENOVO THINKPAD® IS BUILT TO TAKE ON ANY CHALLENGE. REASON WHY THE CENTRE FOR SEVERE WEATHER RESEARCH (U.S.) RELIES ON IT FOR ITS CRITICAL MISSIONS. ■ ■ ■

■

Powered by 2nd gen Intel® Core™ processors Passes 8 military-grade tests Built-in innovations like Active Protection System™ and spill-resistant keyboard Boots up in under 10 seconds with RapidBoot Technology

WWW.LENOVO.COM corpsales@lenovo.com This image is a creative representation and not an actual shot.

Source: IDC's Asia/Pacific Quarterly PC Tracker, Q1 2012, for shipments in the Jan – Mar 2012 period to businesses of 500 employees or more. © Lenovo 2012. All rights reserved. Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do, ThinkPad and Active Protection System are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Inside, Intel Core and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Lenovo reserves the right to alter product offering REM _ IND _ HPA _ Q1-13 _ 28006 _ IT Next and is not responsible for photographic or typographic errors. Product images are just for reference and might not resemble the actual products.

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