Embracing Open with Caution: IT Next November 2011 by Manan Mushtaq

it next

NOVEMBER 2011 / ` 75 Volume 02 / Issue 10

sTRATEGY: Intel unveils plan to make chips all pervasive

boss Talk: IT heads to become media savvy

36 bIG Q

interview Soeren Brogaard Jenson on following PUE

Open source: Is it cost effective? Pg 53

EmbracinG open with caution

Open Caution

Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers

Embracing

with

volume 02 | Issue 10

IT managers are working out ways to adopt Open Source, while being cautious about challenges it would bring Pg 16

Editorial

Back in the Open Again Concept of open source is not new to us. IT industry has witnessed most aggressive open source movement by various open communities in the past. I remember a time when the entire IT fraternity including traders, customers and professionals across industry verticals were part of the anti-proprietary software campaign, with government sector being the prime navigator. Industry witnessed most state government organisations issuing a mandate to their IT departments to go the open way across functionalities. Every desktop or server that was supplied had open software platforms or applications embedded in it. The trend continued for some time and a huge openware wave invaded the industry till the proprietary software vendors woke up to the alarming drive towards open source. As a natural progression, the proprietary software players reacted vehemently and invaded the customer place with new versions, packaged deals and discounted service delivery models. With technology evolution on the go and cloud computing becoming all pervasive, proprietary vendors caught the wave to influence the customers in leveraging proprietary software that would enable them to see the desired effect. As a result, open source market went into a silent mode for a while. However, the innovation didn’t stop. It looked like the open source developers were busy developing newer applications to navigate the cloud wave, coming up with newer solutions in the process. As a result, the industry is noticing a renewed interest in open source among customers. IT Next’s cover feature on open source displays certain stunning revelations. It is rather heartening to find that most IT heads consciously list open source as part of their IT strategy, as it helps in driving down the IT spend and meet all their business needs.

“It looked like open source developers were busy developing newer applications to navigate the cloud ” Geetha Nandikotkur

Blogs To Watch! Open standards from developers to make PCs free and secure http://www.zdnet.com/ blog/open-source/linuxfoundation-proposes-to-useuefi-to-make-pcs-secureand-free/9827?tag=mantle_ skin;content Ubuntu Linux, plans to take on Android, iOS and Windows on the smartphones, tablets and smart TVs http://www.zdnet.com/ blog/open-source/ ubuntu-linux-heads-tosmartphones-tablets-andsmart-tvs/9834?tag=mantle_ skin;content

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Embracing

Open Page

with Caution

Cover Story

IT managers are working out ways to adopt open source, while being cautious about the challenges it entails

boss talk

interview

38 Licensing in Cloud Made Easy Cloud service providers are evolving service-based pricing models as against product-centric approach

32 Tablet Virtues Woo Businesses CIOs and IT administrators get realistic and want to know if tablets could address issues ranging from legacy apps to security

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06 Getting Media Savvy| Prof Vinay Dhumale, Dean of World School for Media Studies on importance of media for IT heads

08 Soeren Brogaard Jensen | VP Enterprise Management & Software, Schneider, on data centre infrastructure management

c ov er des ign/imagi ng: ani l t

insights

c ov er photography: subh ojit paul

16 After a brief lull, when proprietary software forces took over the IT firmament, open source has made a comeback again with IT heads across enterprises looking at it with renewed interest, albeit cautiously 18 Rise of Hybrid Cloud with Open Source 20 Open to Changing Trends 22 If Open Source is Milk, Proprietary Software is Ice Cream 24 Not All That Open

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opinion 08 Playing Security Evangelist | Dinesh Pillai, CEO,

Mahindra, SSG, says security is about the culture of an organisation

15-Minute manager

55 Open to Many Advantages | Looking at open source to drive down IT costs? Read on our expert panelâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s views before going for full scale deployment of openware

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47 Chips in Cloud | Intel

60 Made in India | Manish

unveils its three-pillar cloud strategy to make it the chip for all reasons

Shah, GM, IT, Indus Fila Ltd, wants to see some team India products make global impact

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INBoX

COVER STORY

IT NEXT

COVER STORY | BI

BI | COVER STORY

OCTOBER 2011 / ` 75 VOLUME 02 / ISSUE 09

STRATEGY: Success Factor in Project Management

BY N G E E T H A IMAGING BY ANIL T

WITH INTELLIGENCE

$62 million

O C T O B E R 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

IT managers grapple with the challenges of empowering their organisations through business intelligence solutions Pg 15

OCTOber 2011

forward to BI to provide the value of IT to the business, traditional image to make its presence felt across industry once they are done with the implementation of transaction verticals. It is beyond doubt that the business demand for systems such as ERP. a proper Business Intelligence (BI) tool is growing within Pendse agrees that the adoption of BI may not be organisations, though the adoption ratio has not kept pace aggressive as long as the challenges from the business users with the demand. continues. “The business users need to develop the habit Bhavish Sood, Research Director, Gartner India, observes of depending on data-based analytics as against the a cultural change enveloping the Indian firms where the practice of experience-based perception,” argues top management is concerned about performance Pendse. However, according to him, high and operational excellence and ready to make data transaction industries such as banks, the necessary investments, if it makes financial services, airlines, telecom and a business sense. “At this point of time, BI few others have absorbed the BI platform. software platform is not pervasive in the Kapil Mehrotra, Head, Applications, country, as the market stands at about iYogi Services Ltd, who has tested out $62 mn, with BI solutions primarily a few vendor solutions, finds a growing used for its reporting capabilities,” need amongst the business users to seek maintains Sood. right information, for the right decisionIt would not be an exaggeration to say, BI market in makers, at the right time. as analysts endorsed, that ‘ease of use’ Suresh Shanmugam, Head, Business factor is now surpassing ‘functionality’ and India Information Technology Solutions, Mahindra BI is considered a comprehensive tool. –Gartner & Mahindra Financial Services Ltd, from his From an adoption standpoint, KN experience in implementing a BI tool, finds the Swaminathan, GM, IS, TVS Motors, maintains top management being convinced with the idea that BI is still in the nascent stages, even while the that BI is the key to run a performance-oriented sales planning tool is actively being demonstrated organisation. in the companies. It is observed that enterprises have accepted Satish Pendse, President, Highbar Technologies, the concept of providing data to customers, and who has implemented SAP BI and Business empowering them with the ability to navigate and Objects, confirms that IT managers are looking

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Unification: The Future of Storage Pg 51

ENLIGHTENING VOLUME 02 | ISSUE 09

IT managers grapple with the challenges of empowering their organisations through business intelligence solutions

38 BIG Q

INTERVIEW Barrie Sheers from Quest on IT Automation

ENLIGHTENING WITH INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence

Kapil Mehrotra Head,Applications iYogi Technical Services Pvt Ltd

usiness Intelligence platform, still considered a white elephant by most IT heads, though not yet highly pervasive in the market, has made a transition from its

Enlightening WITH

BOSS TALK: IT Education Mgt: Handling Attrition

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 like the fact the IT Next sticks to the ground rules of being a magazine for the IT middle management community. I also like the artwork and editing effort put in the magazine to make it more absorbing. The Security Special edition, “Men in Black” published in July 2011, was specially good. The dark and dangerous theme, which was like old Marvel comics, and all the articles were interesting. I found the article by Murtaza Bhatia very useful. I would like some more insight into the daily operational challenges of the average IT manager.

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

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I am really happy to see the printed copy of IT Next’s Information Security special of July, 2011. I express my thanks to you for placing me on the cover page and giving prominent position to NPCI in the security special cover. It is thrilling to see that the issue has been liked by most IT security professionals, and congratulatory messages and emails praising the content and coverage of the subject in the magazine have been pouring in from all quarters. My CEO and MD have appreciated me and IT Next magazine for such a good coverage on risks pertaining to payment systems in India. On behalf of NPCI, I thank you for giving such detailed space to these risks. I am sure that this is the beginning of my long association with 9.9 Media and you. I would be happy to be of help at any point of time to your magazines and events. Bharat Panchal Head, Risk Management, National Payments Corporation of India

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I read the print version of IT Next’s October, 2011 Business Intelligence special. The entire feature has come out very well and is quite interesting. I am sure the readers will enjoy reading it too! Dhiren Gala MAIA Intelligence

The countdown for IT Next’s Next100 Awards event has begun. The jury members, who have been part of the entire selection process of our Next 100 winners and are instrumental in making the right choice of awardees, have expressed their happiness over IT Next’s initiative in taking up such a responsible task, and its contribution towards the intellectual growth of the IT manager fraternity. The jury has congratulated the IT Next team over the successful management of the entire process of awards selection, its perfect structure and setting up of parameters, as its flawless execution. The participants, who are going through the various stages of the awards process, competing with the best amongst their peers, are sending out emails to express their excitement at being part of the entire process. They say that the various stages of the selection process have enabled them to identify their inherent potential and talents and their capabilities for becoming future IT leaders. Next100 awards process has provided the participants a platform to interact with senior IT managers of the industry and has given them great exposure. It would help them go a long way in their professional journey.

Based on the inputs from Next 100 Jury and Participants

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Boss talk | vinay dhumale

M e d i a & T ec h n o l o g y

Getting Media Savvy to Grow

“While the term media is not related to the IT managers or their roles, it is critical to find how they can leverage it to grow in career” unknown to us. This is an endless and rewarding process which we can proudly term as evolution.

Leveraging the Media Wave We observe that IT heads do get several insights into various aspects of life with the help of the media. They have been able to create newer tools, fresher production formats, and wider publishing platforms and above all create a system wherein the entire activity could be productively monetised in a safer fashion, for which analytics could be the key. The media is throwing up so much information in real time, that IT managers are trying to emulate by example and evolve themselves to be better innovators. As Einstein observed, the media is supporting the expansion of the universe.

Democratising Media The possibility of media being made available to all, undoubtedly ushers in democratisation of media. It will allow vast multitudes of human beings to play around and generate value in the exhaustive sense of the word. With progression of time, it will contribute to the search of newer media, which in turn will empower the humankind to explore fascinating possibilities hitherto

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Suggestion BOX

Media & Technology — Hand in Glove History is witness to the technological evolution in the media which is influencing every mind in adapting to this revolution. Now with mobile telephones, almost anybody (at least theoretically) can produce a film. This is a unique contribution by the technology that has ushered in the democratisation of media (film). This is nothing short of revolution, of course in the media. This is true about every media platform.

Media & Mind “I feel it is not a novel written somewhere in the past but almost a living organic entity to this very moment” title: The Castle Author: Franz Kafka PUBLISHER: R andom house PRICE: Rs 699

Media has been a great influencer and IT managers have not escaped the media tsunami that changed their process of thinking. The media industry is witnessing technological breakthrough where IT heads have been instrumental in introducing technology in media innovations. The author is Prof Vinay Dhumale, Dean of World School for Media Studies

Photo graph y: Ji te n ga ndhi

t is interesting to watch how colours, shapes, forms, gestures, pictures, spoken words, calligraphy, beats, rhythm and music, give life to human expression. The capability of human mind to arrange each element of life, based on several permutations and combinations, will drive the evolution of any kind, technology not being an exception. This is a sure sign of an evolving human mind. The combination of the above-mentioned elements could be broadly termed as what we now know as ‘media’. While the term media is not related to the IT managers or their roles in particular, it is critical to find how they can leverage it to grow in career. The emergence of web media has created a new horizon of opportunities for all.

Opinion

money wise Dinesh Pillai, CEO, Mahindra SSG

Playing Security Evangelist

n the current scenario, any cultural change in an organisation has a strong association with technology. IT managers are evangelising security to rope in business groups into its framework. Security is not about putting technology, controls and monitoring — it’s about the culture of an organisation.

Budgetary Importance It is very difficult to put a figure on security as every industry faces differ-

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Security that Scores Confidentiality, integrity and availability top the security agenda among businesses. To maintain all of these, an ISMS framework is essential (ISO 27001 certification). However, most business leaders don’t realise that merely getting an ISO certificate is not enough. Instead of doing classical audits that only tell you the presence of controls, companies must move towards testing the efficiency of the controls.

Monetisation and Consumerisation

Perception from Top Data security is one of the focus areas for business heads given the increase in breaches and data theft. The dependence on technology solutions to handle security issues is linked to the belief that technology is the normal point of failure. It is difficult to convince the management to look at the overall risk in the information ecosystem due to various factors like certifications, generally ‘complaint’ audit reports, etc. The alignment of business heads with the perceived security requirements of the company is critical in bringing about the desired culture change in the organisation. This can be achieved by demonstrating the losses that can occur due to the various gaps that exist in processes and people that lead to failure of technology implementation. Breaking down of processes is a good way to demonstrate these damages. It makes them understand the interplay of various factors in creating business risks, that pull down the efficiency and RoI of the deployed technology.

and consumers, as well as companies’ needs to comply with industry and government mandates.

“The alignment of business heads with the perceived security requirements of the company is critical in bringing about the desired cultural change in the organisation” ent levels of risk. As per security analysts, the overall IT spend in the country on security is pegged at US $70 bn in 2011. Barclay Simpson Information Security Report in 2011 expects consistent demand for PCI-DSS specialists. The report says that the demand for information security products and services will increase due to the frequency and intensity of cyber attacks against enterprises, government institutions,

It is difficult to monetise security tools, though the cost sharing can be worked out. But in a service provider environment like data centres or managed security service providers, it is possible to monetise the deployment. Consumerisation of IT happens with end users bringing personal devices such as smartphones and tablets and connecting them to the corporate network. Organisations are also facing regulatory compliance demands. To address auditors’ needs and make sure proprietary information is not being stolen, IT must have endto-end visibility and control over users, applications, servers and devices, while being agile to respond quickly to changing business conditions.

Trends to Evangelise Attackers have begun targeting the server farms of cloud providers too. Also, issues of data privacy and confidentiality, sharing with government and differing laws on the treatment of data, make this a potentially hazardous undertaking for businesses. With more security players setting up shops, there is wider choice driving down cost of services and creating a situation where certain services have become commoditised, with a dip in the quality of service.

update

Apple’s iPad Dominates Tablet

Gartner says free reign for Apple in tablet market as competition lags behind

Tech Trends| Apple’s bestselling iPad will account for about 73.4 per

cent of worldwide media tablet sales in 2011, down from 83 per cent share in 2010, according to projections from Gartner. According to Channel Insider, the market research firm also noted Apple will have free reign in the tablet market during the upcoming holiday season, as competition from Google Androidbased tablet devices and others lags behind. Worldwide media tablet sales to end users are on pace to total 63.6 million units, a

m Teleckoet mar

What price would you pay for 4G service? It isn’t going to be easy for telcos to boost revenues through next-gen services, as people want more goodies if price goes up (Numbers in %)

The survey was conducted across Asian countries by telecomasia.net

The same as my current 3G plan 31 Premium, faster speed worth paying for It’s too early to say

15 15

It depends on the service bundle 15 4G? I am still using 2G sevice

Premium, but I want unlimited data 08

Source:telecomasia.net

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trends deals products services people

261.4 per cent increase from 2010 sales of 17.6 million units, according Gartner. Android tablets are on pace to ship 11 million units in 2011, accounting for 17.3 per cent of media tablet sales, Gartner said. This is up slightly from Android’s 2010 market share of 14.3 per cent. Gartner lowered its forecast for the Android OS by 28 per cent from last quarter’s projection, and the company noted that the reduction would have been greater had it not been for the success of lowerend tablets in Asia, and the expectations around the launch of Amazon’s tablet. “We expect Apple to maintain a market-share lead throughout our forecast period by commanding more than 50 per cent of the market until 2014,” said Carolina Milanesi, Research Vice President at Gartner. Gartner analysts said Research In Motion’s (RIM) QNX OS is a promising platform, but it is still in the early stages of development. RIM’s main challenge will be to attract more support from application developers as the company is going through a tough period, with considerable pressure on its smartphone business. As more vendors arrive in 2012, it’s important they concentrate on delivering a rich user experience based on a strong tie between smartphones and tabs, said Gartner analysts. “So far, Android’s appeal in the tablet market has been constrained by high prices, weak UI and limited tablet apps,” Milanesi said.

I llustration: prince antony

Update I n d u s t r y

DEVICES ON THE GO

Next-Gen MOBILE PROCESSORS

compact system Cameras

Smartphones are the most sought-after gadgets and there are battles being fought in specifications, where just a few months ago, you had 1 Ghz as the norm and now you have dual core mobile devices.

Laptop buying depends on configurations. What you should ask for is a Next-Gen Sandy Bridge processor with a four digit part number, i.e., Core i3-2310m for tasks like encoding or rendering.

Cameras are evergreen, if you are willing to spend about Rs 35,000, it would be a good idea to look at compact system cameras like Micro Four Thirds semi-dSLRs with pointand-shoot capability. They are a great buy.

US SMB SaaS CRM Market Set to Triple by 2015 TECH TIDINGS|Cloud-based busi-

ness applications are garnering considerable attention from the US small and medium businesses (SMBs). According to AMIPartners’ latest US SMB Cloud Services Study, the software-asa-service customer relationship management (or, SaaS CRM) market — already representing 570,000 US SMB firms is set to undergo double-digit year-overyear growth in the next five years. During this period, spending on SaaS CRM will outpace on-premise CRM by a margin of nearly four to one. The advent of cloud services has changed the US SMB

Rapid-growth in the SaaS CRM market is paving the way for ‘social CRM’ adoption

landscape tremendously and has allowed small and medium-size firms to acquire enterpriseclass solutions such as CRM, at significantly less total cost of ownership (TCO). In the past,

Around The World

customer management has been a prime business concern for these SMBs — especially in light of the recent effects of the slow economy. Customer retention and acquisition have been a prioritised investment area for many SMBs who are still enduring business setbacks. According to AMI’s research, a majority of US SMB decision-makers are giving careful consideration to how they approach the marketplace and engage both existing and potential customers. “Customer engagement on social networking sites is driving SMBs to pay closer attention to their social communities,” says Jacqueline Atkinson, Research Manager at AMI-Partners, “is driving SMBs to pay closer attention to their social communities.”

quick byte

I llustration: jof fy jose

Global E-Commerce Market Heading Towards $1 Tn Global E-Commerce is ready to rock. With the sales prediction of $963 bn by 2013, E-Commerce has become one of the most promising business models for marketers. As per the latest report by Goldman Sachs, the global E-Commerce market will witness the growth rate of 19.4 per cent by end of 2013. Only in the US, Goldman is predicting 12.4 per cent growth rate during next three years to reach $235.3 bn in online retail sales.

KV Kamath, New Chairman of Infosys Ltd says:

“My role would be of an independent non-executive Board Chairman, namely governance oversight. My background as the veteran banker does not matter”

n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

update

NetCracker to Acquire Subex’s Activation Business TECH TRENDS | NetCracker Tech-

Interview Gaurav Kanwal Country Manager, Consumer Business Unit, Symantec

IT Next: What is the present cybercrime rate in India?

of network elements supported, underscore Subex’s strong track record of innovation and successful delivery. This acquisition pairs NetCracker’s breadth of offerings at the customer and service layer with strong network activation capabilities.

India’s SMS Cap Takes Effect; Draws Concern tech trends| Stringent new restriccommercial text sent, excluding mestions on telemarketing have taken effect sages involving transactions. Under in India, including a ban on sending the new regime, consumers will be able out more than 100 SMSes per day. But to sign up to either add their number to industry group COAI has expressed a total blacklist, or to only receive comconcern that the cap could have a wider mercial SMSes as per their preference. impact than intended. After Telemarketers will be required Rs complaints by the group, the to register for a phone number Telecom Regulatory Authorwith a new 140 prefix. They ity of India has agreed to will have to ensure they do not exempt certain categories of call consumers on the blacklist, Lakh: per services from the cap. TRAI and will face fines of up to Rs offence fine also revealed plans to intro2,50,000 per offence. an operator duce a five paise ($0.001) may face telecomasia.net termination charge for every

2.5

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Who are the major victims of cybercrime? The report says more than two-thirds (69 per cent) of adults associated with online activities have been victims of cybercrime in their lifetime. Every second, 14 adults become victims of cybercrime, resulting in more than one million cybercrime victims every day. As internet usage grows, we can see a growing trend in cybercrime. How is it with regard to mobiles and social networking? Ten per cent of adults associated with online job globally and 17 per cent in India, have experienced cybercrime on their mobile phone. In fact, the report, had earlier said that mobile vulnerabilities had increased 42 per cent in 2010, compared to 2009 — a sign that cyber criminals are starting to focus their efforts on the mobile space. By Manu Sharma

I llustration: pc ano op

It will acquire Subex’s NetProvision, NetOptimiser and Vector products

Kanwal: According to the Norton Internet security, Symantec study, nearly 30 mn Indians were victims of cybercrimes in 2010, affected by the financial loss amounting to Rs 18,000 crore and an additional Rs 16,200 crore incurred in resolving the crime. Most common cybercrimes are through computer viruses and malware, followed by online scams and phishing. In the absence of tough regulations, it is a vast playing field.

Photo graphy: Jayan K Narayanan

nology announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Subex’s activation and provisioning business in an asset sale. NetCracker will acquire Subex’s NetProvision, NetOptimizer, Vector products, and the associated business. NetProvision and NetOptimizer represent what was previously the Syndesis business covering the provisioning and activation domains. These assets are complementary to NetCracker’s Telecom Operations and Management Solutions suite, and will further strengthen NetCracker’s Order-toActivate capabilities. Subex’s activation and provisioning business has been one of the market leaders in its segment. The scalability and high availability of the platform, combined with the diversity

update

IBM 2 Steps Closer to Making Serious Money on Chips The firm says it will be marketing more efficient memory chip by 2016

TECH TRENDS| As computers get faster,

most chipmakers are hard at work trying to improve capacity and reduce the size of the chips they produce. IBM has taken a few more in that direction and claims that it will be marketing a substantially more efficient memory chip by 2016. If Big Blue succeeds in its plans, it could usher in a new era in computing technology and hopefully very good business. In May this year, IBM researchers presented a paper at the IEEE International Memory Workshop where they claimed that they have been able to place two bits of data in a memory cell

blog

BI 3.0: A Dream Come True for Cos Traditional business intelligence has been criticised as ineffective due to its clunky nature and reliance on IT and analysts. The nextgeneration of business intelligence technology is none of these things. Dubbed Business Intelligence 3.0, Forrester Research Analyst James Kobielus recently hosted a webinar with Panorama Software to discuss the next generation of Business Intelligence solutions. “IT is starting to turn into a bottleneck in the flow of intelligence. And users are getting frustrated,” Kobielus said during the webinar. With BI 3.0, he said, the goal is to empower end-users, unlike traditional analytics models where business managers in need of data reports are fully reliant on the IT department. That’s because nextgeneration BI is built on three main tenets — Self-Service, Relevant and Social. The self-service nature is user-friendly and makes the technology more accessible to end-users. In essence, self-service BI constitutes “the realisation of the BI dream, which is to make an entire company far smarter than the sum of its parts,” Kobielus said. Source: http://www.panorama.com/blog/2011

Google News tool to tag content to help news publications highlight original and quality articles, stories, work, etc.

Google News has introduced a new metadata tag to help news publications highlight their original quality content. The Google News team is asking publications to use a new Standout tag in their HTML to mark “exceptional original reporting, deep investigative work, scoops and exclusives, and various special projects” that quite clearly stand out. 14

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that traditionally stored one. Multilevel storage has been done before but has also created new roadblocks on almost all occasions prior. This time, IBM scientists have been able to skirt those issues. This means IBM is now closer to the technology breakthrough that could open new vistas in the computing world. The new technology, called Phase Change Memory (PCM), can be easily used alongside Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) chips in order to endow the computer system with more efficiency than what typical flash memory can offer.

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cover story | Open Source

Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers

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Open Source | cover story

Embracing

Open with Caution IT managers are working out ways to adopt Open Source, while being cautious about the challenges it entails by n g e e t h a imaging by anil T

photography: subhojit paul

cover story | Open Source

ost open source vendors have been scripting documents and whitepapers to promote the open concept across enterprises. Initiatives from IT majors such as BMC Software, Eucalyptus, HP, IBM, Intel, Red Hat and SUSE to create an open virtualisation alliance, a consortium to foster the adoption of open virtualisation technologies including Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM), is a testimony to this. The idea is to increase the presence of openware among enterprises across functionalities, with virtualisation being the new phenomenon, of course, not to forget the cloud. However, IT Next’s objective in undertaking this has been to understand if open source, as an alternate platform is being considered as part of the IT strategy by IT managers and IT heads as a natural phenomenon. Are the IT managers opting for open source as a natural progression in driving efficiency, cost reduction and ease of use? The study indicates that the IT managers have been consciously embracing open source tools for varied reasons despite the inherent challenges. In some cases, besides catering to desktop and server platforms with open tools, there is increased migration of critical applications to open platform. However, there is an element of caution observed by the IT managers in migrating to open source in a fullfledged manner.

Open as IT Strategy It is interesting to note that most IT managers and heads have started

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Rise of

Hybrid Cloud

with Open Source

he IT industry is witnessing a new trend, with the hybrid cloud model taking the open route to drive down infrastructure cost and increase performance. At this point of time, Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model is witnessing a presence in private cloud environment. IT managers have been outsourcing certain tools to set up the grid across locations either to virtualise servers or to put their infrastructure on cloud model. As BLV Rao, VP and Global Head, IT, Infotech Ltd, points out, “Having a private cloud within an enterprise, integrated with public cloud by a service provider, makes it imperative

including open source procurement as part of the IT strategy for multiple reasons. BLV Rao, VP and Global Head, IT, Infotech Ltd, finds organisations laying greater emphasis on promoting open source software in the current scenario. “During the last one year, the percentage of open source has grown to almost 30 per cent from around six per cent,” says Rao. He says that open source is becoming part of IT and business strategy for development and testing groups. Anuj Kumar, MD, India Subcontinent, Red Hat India, endorses the fact that businesses are increasingly becoming confident about deploying open-source technology within the enterprise, instead of relegating it to the periphery, or for experimental projects. According to Kumar, customers are looking at two open software delivery models: developmental and consumption.

to use open source tools as part of this hybrid cloud model.” According to Rao, most infrastructure, intranet and test platforms have migrated to open sources with hybrid clouds and will gain momentum going forward. “I can see almost 40 per cent of applications moving to open source in the hybrid model, with the open platform getting mature, stabilised and secure, and the support system getting stronger,” maintains Rao. Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers, takes cognisance of the fact that hybrid cloud provides clear use case

The development models deliver the software at very low cost and have many innovative features embedded in them, and this helps enterprises catch up quickly with market changes and trends. The consumption, or the subscription model is the most effective way to deploy, manage, and secure open source technology and helps IT managers in

80%

of all commercial software would include elements of open source technology by 2012 –Gartner

Open Source | cover story

for public cloud computing. Specific aspects of existing IT infrastructure (say, storage and compute) occur in public cloud environments, and the remainder of the IT infrastructure stays on premise. Sinha says, “Take the case of business intelligence in the cloud -- although some people promote the migration of gigabytes of operational data to the cloud, many others find the hybrid approach of keeping the data local and the analytical processing in the cloud, to be much more practical.”

Photography: subhojit paul

According to Sinha, by using a hybrid model we can mix and match the resources between local infrastructure, which is typically overhead for management and difficult to scale, with infrastructure that’s scalable and provisioned on demand. We can place the applications and data on the

best platforms, and open source is a much preferred platform now across industries. Vendors such as Red Hat find open source growing in importance on all layers of the cloud compute stack. Anuj Kumar, MD, India Subcontinent, Red Hat India, admits, “CIOs see open source as a viable alternative to proprietary software both in their own data centre as well as in the public cloud and hybrid cloud environments. This is being done as part of cloud computing because it is a scale-out model rather than a scale-up one.” “We prefer building clouds for them through open source as this returns control to the customer. They can see the code, change it and learn from it. Bugs are found and fixed quickly,” maintains Kumar. Another benefit customers can see

“Proprietary software support is costly because after sales service is additional, recurring cost is high, audit headache is eternal” Manish Sinha,

Head, IT, Ondot Couriers

on using open platform on the sloud as Kumar observes is the flexibility to overhaul entire infrastructure and even go for a different vendor as there is no vendor lock in. Narayana Menon, Lead, Strategy and Marketing, Novell India\South Asia, believes that a typical hybrid cloud would leverage a mixed computing environment encompassing proprietary as well as open source software owing to complexities and dependencies of business-critical applications that enterprises run with interoperability being the key. Menon opines that the hybrid cloud going the open source way would largely be in terms of negating platform dependencies from a hardware perspective, along with the intent of cost optimisation and increased interoperability.

supporting the infrastructure as the company grows. Kumar reiterates that the open source is appealing to IT managers as more and more applications are being certified and services of skilled professionals are increasingly available. Narayana Menon, Lead, Strategy & Marketing, Novell India/South Asia, points out that the open source wave which started off as a movement and a trend spearheaded by the developer community, has become an integral component of IT strategy of many enterprises and government entities. Industry estimates indicate that open source in India has been clocking a steady 20 to 30 per cent growth yearon-year over the last three years and this growth rate is expected to continue. According to Menon, Gartner’s study indicated that by 2012, 80 per cent of all commercial software would include

N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

cover story | Open Source elements of open source technology. Many open source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. Menon observes that the platform provides significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase returns on investment (RoI) and the relative cost advantages that open source provides ensures that. Justifying that the adoption of open source is on the rise amongst enterprises, Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers argues, “Why should a person pay for an OS which comes at Rs 9,000 including tax and end up paying recurring cost per annum, besides audit reviews, which doesn’t meet the need of application usage?” He agrees that open source software procurement becomes part of the IT strategy, as categories of operations get carried out at organisational level, and for every level same resource cannot be allocated and hence alternate platforms are measured. For this we need to have an operating system (Windows), its antivirus, back office tool (MS Office), general utilities such as Zip or RAR, browser, Adobe Reader, Mail Client for sending and receiving mail. A thin client is a general term for computing devices recommended that rely on centralised or networkbased resources to operate. A legacy example of thin clients is the dumb terminal, which displayed text driven applications served by mainframe computers and were generally deployed in railways, universities, call centres and commercial establishments. “Rather than going for a complete open source software procurement one should look at alternatives as well, because it reduces manageability as everything is there at ROM or BIOS Flash. This is a foolproof system from virus attacks and there is no need to install antivirus,” says Sinha. Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construction Equipment Limited finds the main driving factor for open source is the prohibitive cost of licenced software. “Also with proprietary software one gets locked in with a vendor and is dependent

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Open to Changing Trends Some claim that openware has not evolved itself to meet changing market dynamics. However, the statement does not hold good considering that the users of open source find several innovations happening in the open source framework and vouch that it is not a laggard. Thanks to recession, most customers have sought open source help to address their constrained spending. BLV Rao, VP, Global Head, IT, Infotech Ltd, vouches, “Open source has solutions in every sphere of IT landscape and is putting its best foot forward to reach maturity level. “Certain domains like social enterprise, collaboration, secure file transfers, New OS, virtualisation, integrated Unix and GUI-based platform with applications were rapidly deployed and are stabilising,” says Rao. Anuj Kumar, MD, India Subcontinent, Red Hat India, largely finds the trend towards cloud computing leveraging open source in a big way with many companies betting big on this. “We acquired Bangalore-based cloud computing start-up Gluster which has developed an open source storage platform that integrates every data from the OS layer to the file system creating management interface, maintains Kumar. Kumar observes open enterprise middleware, JBoss interfaced

on him for providing interfaces to other software,” says Mehta. However, Mehta’s concern is that enterprises which have invested heavily in licenced Office automation software,

between applications and OS. JBoss integrates software from various open source communities, including its own, Apache, Software Foundation, and Eclipse Foundation, into robust, fully tested, integrated, and supported platforms that are available via subscriptions that include support and long-term maintenance. “Adopted by Global 5000 and government organisations worldwide for its flexibility, choice, and value, JBoss Enterprise Middleware delivers a comprehensive portfolio of enterprise-class application, integration, and presentation platforms for on-premises and cloud environments,” informs Anuj Kumar. Narayana Menon, Lead, Strategy and Marketing, Novell India/South Asia, believes that open source adoption picked up steam through the recession scenario providing cost-effective high value solutions that were a blessing to CIOs operating on shoestring IT budgets. Besides cloud, the natural trend that Dinesh, Technology Head, SJM Technologies, who has used open source, indicates is that the platform database and readymade tools are used by most IT heads which will bring down the total IT spend. The emerging trends as far as Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers can see are the utilities-based software and if they are embedded with specific functions such as mobile applications that is going to be the future scenario and with a mix of 3G/ Wimax.

would like to protect that investment until they are forced to change due to obsolescence. The decision is much easier for new organisations to move to open,” admits Mehta.

Open Source | cover story IT Managers & OS

“We opted to implement our payroll package on Linux, and it’s been running satisfactorily for the past eight years”

Photography: subhojit paul

Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construction Equipment Limited

Dinesh S, Technology Head, SJM Technologies, sounds bullish when he says that open source technology has matured and it is no longer a risk for any organisation to adopt. The main driving force for open source according to Dinesh would be low cost of ownership and faster implementation. “In fact open source is our first choice for any new development until there is a specific reason not to choose it. For example, we have not yet adopted OpenOffice, because it has some alignment issue when we open Microsoft Excel or Microsoft Word in it, maintains Dinesh. Pertisth Mankotia, Head IT, Sheela Foam Pvt Ltd, finds cost to be the obvious choice for any management besides the flexibility that open source software offers. Moreover, no company likes the idea of being dependent on a single vendor for all the products. He further adds, “Open source software procurement has become part of the IT strategy within Sheela Foam Ltd.” Senthi Kumar, Director, Software Solutions, Bloomedha Info Solutions Ltd, says, “Procurement of OSS puts

a lot of responsibility on the shoulders of the IT manager who is suggesting it against the proprietary solutions. The challenges that the IT manager would face are around platform reputation, evidence of on-going effort to develop the open source software that he or she is considering, available standards and interoperability, support — both community and commercial, version available, documentation, skill set, project development model and arguably licensing clarity.

470

open source cloudcomputing projects and 3,800 open source mobile projects witnessed in 2010 — Redhat

Open source vendors have witnessed large-scale adoption by IT managers of various industry verticals such as BFSI, telecom, education and government sectors and across critical applications. There is increased deployment of subscription models in the open environment. Red Hat’s Anuj Kumar is pleasantly surprised over open source deployments by IT heads in Business Intelligence (BI), data warehousing and other mission-critical operations and not just in databases. “We are witnessing adoption in all three categories of infrastructure, middleware and virtualisation and cloud,” says Kumar. The preferred functions such as OS, applications, email, database are all embedded on open source. As per the industry report, about 470 open source cloud-computing projects and 3,800 open source mobile projects took place in 2010. From an adoption standpoint, Sheela Foam migrated its CRM from proprietary software to open source about a month back. “Red Hat’s Enterprise Linux on an Intel Xeon-based Dell PowerEdge server enabled the firm to deploy its ERP on a single server, compared to the two previously required servers, doubling system performance with no downtime,” says Mankotia. “The solution has also reduced the amount of time required for processing heavy reports by 25 per cent, while bringing down the cost of maintaining backups and server redundancy in the face of unforeseen failures, reiterates Mankotia. Sheela Foam’s proprietary UNIX system forced it to depend on a proprietary vendor to test and implement improvements, which made the process expensive to maintain and also less effective. The company has deployed open source only in two functions, OS and the portal. However, Mankotia is open to installation in end-to-end applications like workflow in document management system on an open source platform. SJM Technologies’ Dinesh has deployed most tools available including

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cover story | Open Source Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Orange HRM, FengOffice, Magenta, CodeIgniter etc. SJM’s top management is keen to deploy open source tools around e-commerce, content management, collaboration, development frameworks and development platform such as LAMP and Ruby on Rails. Ondot’s Sinha argues that the top management will open up doors for open source base on the proper business case furnished. “We ensure that everything is documented correctly and do the testing, fixing, backup restoration and DR in the first year itself,” informs Sinha. The key here is right assessment and removing barriers in mind that people may have while buying the same functionality at a price, which is 10 times higher than any open source module. Sinha cautions, “It is the duty of every IT Manager to pay attention to

new technology and trends and also the utility or benefit the new product could give in the scenario. Stating an example, Sinha says, “Organisations working in distributed database or decentralised database mode could select MYSQL or MSSQL Express so that they get GB database size free with MSSQL and later on that could also be converted into other versions as tools are available in the market for migration. MYSQL comes with everything bundled in it and at least implementation cost you could be high on savings.” Infrastructure Company Escorts runs its ERP on open source operating system. “We opted to implement our Payroll package on Linux which has been running satisfactorily for the past eight years,” informs Escorts’ Mehta. According to Bloomedha’s Senthil, using open source databases like

Case study: National Informatics Centre

If open source is milk, proprietary software is ice cream

CSR Prabhu, Deputy Director General, NIC, in principle has migrated various applications to open source and has experience in deploying Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) cloud model on it.

enabled us to look at it, both from the point of view of cost advantage and security,” says CSR Prabhu, Deputy Director General, NIC.

Abiding by the national e-governance plan and recommendations, NIC has leveraged open source in a big way to drive ease of IT operations, while making it economical and secure. “The government has a clearcut policy on open source, which

NIC has triggered the open initiative quite seriously and made it a reality in most southern states in the country. States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been the early ones to take up open source. According to Prabhu, village level panchayat’s have introduced

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Open in Vogue

My-SQL and PostgreSQL for both non-critical and critical applications depending upon the nature of business and availability of the internal technical resources is a common phenomenon. “Java which is an open source programming language is being widely used for portal applications,” says Senthil Kumar. CSR Prabhu, Deputy Director General, NIC, reiterates that at this point of time about 30 to 40 per cent of the applications have migrated to open source at NIC, and as a government sector, he observes, about 30 per cent migration made towards open source.

Lured to Open With IT managers making a strong business case to its top management to go open, there is intense homework done to work out appropriate cost advantage with TCO factor gaining prominence.

Linux-based OS across its villages and Linux servers are extensively used. ”NIC has signed MoU with Red Hat to use Linux servers and Zen tools across its states,” says Prabhu. Besides, NIC has deployed DBMS Postgres open source tools to migrate its applications. For instance, NIC uses Sun Java for email servers, OS Linux platform from Redhat and is also testing out Fedora OS platform in some states. Prabhu reiterates that at this point of time about 30 to 40 per cent of the applications have migrated to open source at NIC, and in the government sector, he observes, about 30 per cent migration having been made towards open source. NIC is making conscious efforts to promote open source and is thus imparting training to all state executives.

Challenges While a concerted effort is being made to adapt to openware across platforms and projects in the government sector,

Open Source | cover story

Photography: subh ojit paul

“Open source software procurement has become part of the IT strategy within Sheela Foam Ltd” Pertisth Mankotia

Head, IT, Sheela Foam Pvt Ltd

Prabhu does admit certain bottlenecks. The primary setback is lack of awareness about the advantages that open source software provides and the ease of use it delivers. He observes that lack of responsiveness to customer issues (as no one takes the onus of the product) is deterring the drive for adoption. “Someone has to vouch for the software and product deployed and provide faster support, and this is missing in open source, despite the best of best solutions that it envelopes,” remarks Prabhu. The reason for low adoption to open source is lack of expertise and it is time that the open consortium takes up intensive training courses and updates the industry and users with new products, features and competitive advantage that it provides. NIC witnesses significant cost benefits running its applications on open platform, one of the reasons for the government sector trying it out. “Customers still see open source as milk and proprietary software as ice cream, with the latter ready to use, blended well,” says Prabhu.

Open Cloud While support related challenges still persist despite using vendor supported open platform, NIC has evolved a cloud strategy around open source. NIC has signed an agreement with Globus tool kit, an open source software, to build grids and certain pilot projects are in progress in certain villages of Andhra Pradesh. “We have deployed Eucalytus’ cloud computing software platform for on-premise as Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) model to be implemented across 10 locations,” explained Prabhu. “We deployed this to build virtual servers-on-demand as a private cloud model,” he says. NIC is seeking support from Eucalyptus’ community for the project. It’s bullish about the cloud movement around openware going forward. “We will soon catch up, and on the open platform, as in other geographies, the country will see the objective of the cloud, which is to provide knowledge as a service on an open platform,” remarks Prabhu.

Infotech’s Rao observes, “In large enterprises, 12-20 per cent budget is allocated to open source, however midsize and small scale organisation use up to 35 per cent of the budget.” However, cost advantage cannot be ruled out while opting for open source. Rao explains, “Let us assume having 20-30 servers for intranet, web applications costs close to Rs 1.4 crores for proprietary software over five years term with licence and maintenance, leaving aside skills, training costs for IT staff. In case of open source, the cost of acquisition would range between Rs 30 lakhs to Rs 40 lakhs in the same five-year period. The bottomline is TCO which is attractive and support cost will be reasonable for this non-critical application in open source,” admits Rao. According to him, RoI is generally seen within 24-30 months. Another factor luring the IT managers to migrate to open source is the 1:10 price ratio which means a branded software costs ten times more than an open source. When open source software is implemented, be it on a client server based computing, mail server along with hardware the cost is 1:5 of the price ratio. SDPL Narayana, AGM, IT, Neuland Laboratories Ltd, doesn’t find any acquisition cost around open source and even if there is one, it is minimal. Escorts’ Mehta observes open source being cheaper with the licence cost being one-third of the proprietary software.

Challenges IT managers find challenges with regard to skill, ability to look at a holistic view by the top management, support system that is not certified. At times, deployment time would be 20-30 per cent more in open source as against proprietary software platform. However, IT managers like Rao find open source a viable option considering the cloud strategy being evolved in the enterprises. Given the cloud movement, Sinha says it is 100 per cent viable proposition for IT managers to take the leap to open source.

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cover story | Open Source

Open Source:

Not All that

Open Increased dependency on open source tools is not always the best bet, as there are serious bottlenecks

ost organisations are affected by the recent wave: use open source to reduce cost. Here are a few pointers that need to be looked into before taking the leap into open source. While open source does appear to be a fantastic alternative, it does come at a price. Since the price that one pays towards acquiring open source tools is often indirect, it takes a while for organisations to realise it. There are pros and cons to open source as there are in proprietary software, and by no means does it take away from the utility of it.

Depending on Open Source It is typical for organisations to start using products like Open Office in the

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by D h a n nanjay C Rok de

initial phase, before jumping on to the open source bandwagon fully.

HELP!!! I Need Support A colossal proportion of the IT industry is obsessed with Office suite, a proprietory software spread across end users, system administrators and IT managers. The reason is obvious, as users recognise basic operations on the systems; administrators know how to troubleshoot; and managers know whom to contact in case of a problem.

Government sector has seen a

30% migration to open source â&#x20AC;&#x201C;NIC

Take for instance a situation when someone from finance department starts screaming that salaries wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be credited on time as an automated macro to be run on spreadsheets has failed, since Open Office is unable to execute it. What does an IT manager do? He is now caught in a big dilemma with regard to seeking the right support. Open Office with fantastic basic functionality cannot even come close to what proprietary office suites offer, as the knowledge base of such software is often incomplete. There is increased dependency on forums and bulletin boards to help you break away from the problem and resume actual productive work. Although I must admit that these forums are very helpful, they are not certified and competent to support any Open tool. Most of the open source software relies on plug-ins or extensions to primary software package for added functionality and features. These extensions are not written by the author(s) of the primary package. Also, there are no warranties that those extensions will work or the

Open Source | cover story primary package will continue to support them after an upgrade or a major version change.

Caution About Cost Yes! More often than not, open source leads to much higher installation cost. No wonder that more than 95 per cent of the end-user laptops and desktops come with a pre-installed copy of proprietary operating system. This operating system comes with effective recovery alternatives. You can easily avail the option of reinstalling the entire operating system without losing any of your valuable data. The same story holds true for slightly larger enterprise systems like web and database servers. The staff required to manage and administer open source solutions are hard to find and expensive. These solutions don’t necessarily provide off-theshelf advanced functionality like load-balancing, clustering etc. A lot of customisation is required to attain the desired functionality and there is no assurance of support. These customisations come at an extraordinary cost and yet there is no one who can certify or sign on these custom architectures as a guarantee or reliablity. Despite the huge investments made, one will have a crude hack and not a solution.

Photography: Jiten Gand hi

Reliability: A Big Question Although many technology conglomerates directly and indirectly support the cause of open source; they have extremely limited financial commitment in these initiatives. Good examples of such angelic investments include, Oracle buying a stake in MySQL and IBM investing in the Apache foundation and Eclipse. IBM’s venture to invest heavily into making its own open source database, Cloudscape, (which is now absorbed into the Apache suite as Derby) has not been a success. These investments are only to set aside feelings of anti-monopoly and are clearly motivated by sentiments, than business. If these open source applications were really so efficient and cost-effective then the IT industry

“The staff required to manage and administer open source are hard to find and expensive” Dhannanjay C Rokde, Global Head, Is, IT, Cox & Kings Group

would have witnessed a revolution, which again proves the case for proprietary software.

How Do I Get My Updates? Always bear in mind this simple principle: “If you are not paying for the product itself; no one is indebted to send you updates”. So if you are running open source systems, please set clear expectations with your business in terms updating and patching to meet newer requirements. Many have witnessed proprietary software taking the lead to make itself compatible to Web 2.0, Cloud capability, real-time synchronisation, seamless recovery, etc.

Open Challenges Security Open source software always capitalises on the security failures of their proprietary alternatives. However, since these proprietary companies are constantly fighting their ‘antisentiment’; the real flaws of open source never actually reach the users. It is critical to find that open source does not have the liberty of incorporating several security

mechanisms like code obfuscation and data masking. The confidentiality involved in making such proprietary software, eventually pays off. Since the entire code and all related modules are ‘open’; it takes tremendous amount of time and effort for open source communities to unite and issue an advisory or suggest workarounds; let alone fix vulnerability. On the contrary, proprietary software companies have teams ready to respond to such ‘zero-day’ vulnerabilities immediately. With open source, your best bet is to lurk around some forums waiting for someone actually knowledgeable to post something that might help you. Another simple explanation for security flaws in open source software is the absence of dedicated professionals and teams to address security problems independently. These professionals only address security risks and functionality. The presence of such teams inculcates a maker-checker mechanism that ensures product superiority. Therefore, they cannot be expected to react spontaneously and fix the flaws.

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Tablet Virtues | insight

Tablet

Virtues Woo Businesses

CIOs and IT administrators get realistic and want to know if tablets could address issues ranging from legacy apps to security By NICH O L AS KO L A KOW S K I

hen it comes to tablets such as the Apple iPad, consumers want the ability to read their email, cruise the web, download some apps and play games â&#x20AC;&#x201D; or rather, one specific game that involves hurling some irate birds at nonplussed pigs. However, IT prospects, whether they are working for a large enterprise or a small business, are looking at the tablet arena from a different direction. They want tablets that will play nice with their legacy infrastructure and

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insight | Tablet Virtues applications, offer high security, and let users segregate any personal software and services (i.e., those angry birds) from their professional ones. IT administrators working in specific fields, notably health care and construction, also want tablets that have long battery lives and are rugged enough to withstand bumps and falls. Just to complicate things a little bit more, over the past few years the enterprise IT world has undergone something of a radical paradigm shift when it comes to mobile devices. No longer does a CIO or high-ranking IT pro buys his or her employees a couple dozen BlackBerry devices and administrates a relatively homogeneous mobile-device environment. With the slashing of IT budgets in the wake of global recession, business embraces tablets with caution. More enterprises and small and mid-size businesses (SMBs) have replaced buying smartphones and tablets in bulk while encouraging their employees to sync their personal mobile devices with the corporate network. This might save money, but a heterogeneous mobile environment creates its own issues in terms of IT security and compatibility with existing assets. With tablets, a relatively new device on the IT scene — subject to a lot of evolutionary flux in terms of

The new challenge with these devices is that it’s the users who are creating a lot of the risk by accessing popular websites

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54.8 million

units of tablet sales in 2011, with predicted sales of

208 million by 2014 Source: Gartner

hardware or software — the complexity and potential problems rise by an order of magnitude.

Tablet Invasion That could be one reason why some businesses have opted to embrace Apple’s iPad, which dominates the tablet market. Indeed, a September 22, 2011 report by research firm Gartner

found that Apple’s iPad will continue to dominate more than 50 per cent of the worldwide tablet market through 2014, giving the company a huge advantage over both Google Android and Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8, which will also work on tablets. “We found integrating iPads into our infrastructure to be straightforward, requiring limited effort,” said Kirk Larson, Vice President and CIO of Children’s Hospital Central California. “We just needed to enter the wireless information, install the iPad’s configuration utility to remove nonbusiness applications.” With the VMware View client for iPad, users have access to virtualised Windows-based desktops on their Apple tablet. Similar applications also exist for businesses that want to reconcile a legacy Windows environment with their current need for mobility — and perhaps offer an alternative to purchasing a tablet preloaded with VMware View client, and make some with Windows 7 minor modifications to the device. Larson’s IT Group uses the iPad’s configuration utility to remove nonbusiness applications. “This utility, combined with VMware, ensures that data is not stored on the physical device, he said. “Because of this, we find tablets easier to manage than laptops, from the security perspective,” he added.

Users Create Risks Using iPads that belong to the hospital simplifies life on both the administrative and user’s ends. With a personal iPad or Android tablet, “It’s very difficult for a CIO or CSO to say, ‘I’m going to disable the App Store,’” said John Herrema, Senior Vice President of corporate strategy for Good Technology, which offers tools for mobility compliance and security. “The new challenge with these devices is that it’s the users who are creating a lot of the risk.” For example, an employee accessing a popular app or website such as Facebook through a personal tablet or smartphone

Tablet Virtues | insight might port an address book — and its potentially sensitive contacts — into a public facing forum. Good Technology’s solutions enforce password policies on a mobile device, allow for remotely wiping data from stolen or lost devices, give administrators control over features such as cameras, and safeguard stored data. However, according to the CIO, imposing enterprise IT policies on a personal device such as a tablet will create tensions between users and IT administrators. Enterprises and SMBs also have a need for tablets to interoperate with existing applications and software something that’s led to an increased presence of Windows 7 touchscreens in businesses. “We see demand from all business sectors — health care, field service, construction, retail — for a Windowsbased tablet PC,” said Mike Stinson, Vice President of Marketing for Motion Computing, which offers tablet PCs with Windows 7 for verticals. “Windows seamlessly integrates with the legacy systems prevalent in the majority of enterprises. It also provides the software compatibility and security that businesses require.” IT departments, he said, are already “overwhelmed” and adding new mobile operating systems such as Android or web OS to the mix will “only further exacerbate the situation.” Many features found in consumercentric tablets, such as a Netflix streaming app, aren’t necessary for touch-centric devices in the enterprise. “They are not essential, job-related functions,” Stinson said. “That is not to say those media features aren’t there; they are just less of a priority.” Stinson does have his eye on Windows 8 — reportedly due in 2012 — which Microsoft is designing to run on a variety of tablet form factors in addition to traditional PCs. “We think the new enhancements, such as improved touch navigation and security features, will improve the user experience, while conforming to security protocols, helping IT better manage its devices,” he said.

Tablet War • Windows 8 from Microsoft is reportedly due in 2012 • Microsoft designing variety of tablet form factors in addition to traditional PCs • Apple iPad will dominate over 50 per cent of the tablet market by 2014 -Gartner • CIOs opine imposing enterprise IT policies on a personal device such as a tablet will create tension between users and IT administrators • CIOs will look for tablets that will play nicely with their legacy infrastructure and applications, offer high security, and let users segregate any personal software and services (i.e., those angry birds) from their professional ones

According to Windows Live Division President Steven Sinofsky, the rise of mobility made it essential for Microsoft to release a new version of Windows optimised for running on tablets. Once Windows 8 arrives, IT administrators will have to decide

65%

is the estimated CAGR of tab sales in Asia Pacific, excluding Japan. Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore have been identified as key nations

whether to embrace x86 or ARM tablets. “The ARM products initially won’t have all the management hooks, but because they won’t run legacy code, most likely they will be immune to most existing Windows viruses, and should be lighter with a bit more battery life,” said Rob Enderle, Principal Analyst for the Enderle Group. The alternative is “an x86 device that has full compatibility but will also carry Windows baggage.” Some companies have chosen tablets that fit a particular need. Verizon Wireless has currently deployed some 100 Cius tablets, built by Cisco with the aim of integrating a number of its branded products (including Cisco TelePresence and Cisco WebEx meeting applications) onto a mobile hardware platform. The Android-based Cius was launched this summer as a tablet primarily for business. “We needed something for collaboration and to bring people into the moment,” said Chris Kemmerer, Director of Unified Communication and Mobility Solutions for Verizon Wireless. In addition to the mobility benefits of a 7-inch tablet, the Cius offers a broad array of communications functionality, the ability to control security policies and access to specific apps (and block access to the Android Marketplace), and lengthy battery life. According to research firm Gartner, tablet sales will reach 54.8 mn units in 2011, with predicted sales of 208 mn by 2014. That’s a very tempting install base. Accordingly, the hardware and software options available for consumers and businesses will almost certainly continue to proliferate. Despite that, the needs of both the enterprise and SMBs will surely stay the same: security, opportunities for development, tools for segregating personal apps away from business ones, and the ability to integrate and play well with legacy applications. That’s a lot of complexity facing your typical IT administrator or CIO, but at least they’ll have options to fit their needs. eWEEK Staff Writer Nicholas Kolakowski

Source: IDC

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s the cloud buzz envelopes the IT industry in its different manifestations, the challenges for IT managers have increased multifold. Most IT heads and their teams have been battling with software licence management issues, in particular with the licensing models which could drive down costs. Both software vendors and customer alike, for different reasons, are concerned about how software licensing in the cloud will evolve, especially in an age where software pricing is heavily dependent on the class of processor. As providers are shifting from product to a service or mixed model, here we try to provide insights into varied nuances of the software licensing model in the cloud framework, which is around procurement challenges, RoI, cost-efficiency, benefits and so on.

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Cloud Made Easy | insight

Cloud service providers are evolving servicebased pricing models as against productcentric approach By M A N U S H A R MA

Licensing in

Cloud

Photo graph y: photo s.c om

Made

Easy

n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

insight | Cloud Made Easy With software applications forming major share of the IT infrastructure and spend for customers, vendors have tried to evolve an array of licensing options. Licensing framework gets more complicated as cloud is projected in different forms spreading across infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). To substantiate further, in an IaaS model, the user pays for the data storage on the cloud and licensing fee is transparent. “In a PaaS environment, revenues come from the data storage, besides the developer cost is involved on top of the infrastructure,” says Bala Variyam, VP Head, Collabera Labs, a customer of Salesforce.com. “In a SaaS model, where most of the innovation is happening, every day newer licences are evolving but it is nowhere near maturity right now,” adds Variyam. PK Mishra, an independent cloud consultant, observes, “As people start moving their applications to the cloud, there will be lesser demand to buy local copies of the software for in-premise deployment.” Mishra finds that it is difficult to predict the movement to cloud and its impact on individual product streams. However, the fact remains that the endusers will pay for the software usage in a fairer manner based on the actual

Facts Bring Your Own Licence (BYO

quantum of use, as frills and unwanted features that customers are forced to buy in the existing scenario, will be a thing of past.

Licensing Model There are also costs to consider with on-premise solutions, such as costs for hardware, software, power, physical space, IT staff and continual upgrades. Therefore, buy service as a product instead of outsourcing, because if you own it, you are the one responsible.

forward-looking ISVs to provide software as a Paid AMI (using the Amazon DevPay service). There is no upfront cost in this pay-as-you-go

Procurement Challenges

variety of ISVs who have permitted

licence. ISVs charge a premium over

the use of their product on Amazon

and above the standard Amazon EC2

EC2. In this case, you purchase a

cost, which gives an opportunity to

new licence the traditional way, or

run any number of instances in the

use your existing multi-year highly

cloud for the duration you control.

Three factors would determine the procurement patterns and associated challenges, which would be around end user, cloud service provider and software vendor. The end customer is normally required to procure various licences by making upfront investments. For example, he procures licences for various Microsoft products, SAP products, etc., and has an option of making payment per month over say a three-year period by taking help

Model: AWS has teamed with

discounted licence and apply it to the product, which is available as a pre-configured Amazon Machine Imag. Utility pricing model with support pack: AWS has teamed with

In a cloud-based infrastructure everything morphs into service. The user pays for the service he uses rather than the products he uses. This makes pay-peruse pricing the most obvious choice

Software licensing works on two models: one is the pay-per-use and the other is the traditional perpetual licence. Many cloud ready software vendors provide pay-per-use software licensing model in a virtualised on monthly-payout basis. According to Gaurav Agarwal, Product Head, VAS, Sify Technologies, “Leading companies like Microsoft, VMware provide pay-per-use software licensing. On the other hand, companies like Oracle still provide traditional perpetual licences where the cloud vendors need to procure the licence as per the customer request. The pay-peruse model can be monthly-payout-based on usage, flexibility to reuse licences, flexibility to scale up or down as well as bundled support and assurance.” Instead of paying a onetime fee for a perpetual licence, a customer has to pay depending upon his usage, which varies from solution to solution. “This could be based on the number of users, duration of usage, features used, even number of transactions and the licence is not perpetually owned by the customer,” says Vikash K Agarwal, President, Tally Solutions Ltd. Three factors should be considered when multiple licensing models are available in the cloud. They would be: a) Number of users accessing the software b) Number of processors on the device hosting the application c) Product use rights tied to virtualisation or specific vendor rules for cloud computing environments

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ISV SaaS-based Cloud Service: Some of the ISVs have offered their software as a service and charge a monthly subscription fee. They offer standard APIs and web-based interfaces and are quick to implement.

QFABRIC: RETHINKING THE ARCHITECTURE TRANSFORMS TCO. QFabric requires 34% fewer devices, it can be managed by a single administrator and as a result, it radically lowers the cost of management and operations in the data center.

ITâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S TIME TO DElIvER A

INTRODUCING QFABRIC. The demands on the data center have gone exponential. And with that, the connected world now demands new levels of power, processing, savings and control to meet the needs of this inescapable and constant new reality. QFabric, our breakthrough new technology, changes the game in the data center by fundamentally solving the challenge of cost and complexity. Power and cooling is 79% lower than the industry standard, total rack space is up to 90% lower and overall, the system uses 1/5 the carbon emissions of current large scale solutions. Juniper has spent countless dollars and hours, dedicating the best minds in the networking industry for the past three years to solve what we feel is the most pressing issue in the network today. The result is QFabric and it changes everything.

juniper.net/apacdatacenter

Ă&#x17E; Inbound Response Management

Priya Sharma, 1800 209 3062 022 - 67083830, Juniper@dnbindia.in

JN_IN_9dot9_FP_V1.0.indd 4

10/5/2011 10:29:11 AM

insight | Cloud Made Easy

“In a Paas environment, revenues come from the data storage, besides the developer cost involved on top of the infrastructure cost” Bala Variyam, VP Head, Collabera Labs

investments or are risk averse in terms of IT investments. Thus, cloudbased pricing model allows software providers to expand their reach. It is normally the players who generally settle for low products for the abovementioned reasons, who will be more open to exploring high-end products when the payment and operations are de-risked using the cloud. However, the silver lining in the cloud is, as Agarwal of Sify remarks, “The procurement pattern would change the cost saving”. As mentioned, the virtual

Why Now? - Cold Enablers Pay-per-Use for Business Efficiency Open Source (Licensing Cost) Business

Peak Time Economy Flexibility and Efficiency CIOs ‘Do more with Less’ – (Financial crises)

Technology

Amazon, google, Yahoo!, eBay Virtualisation – on Demand Flexibility x86 Multi Crore and RAM size Internet Web 2.0 Platform LAN/WAN Performance On-Demand Solability for Data Efficiency Cloud Computing: Pay-per-Use for On-Demand Solability

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We are SaaS Users

IT is not my main Business

software licence procurement model proves to be cost-effective as against the traditional procurement model. “The cost of usage of software on a cloud infrastructure is certainly quite economical when compared to that of owned software. Depending upon the volumes and licence requirements, in some cases a cloud OS instance will be six times more affordable than a similar enterprise licence,” he says.

Cost and RoI Costs and RoI calculations may differ based on the size of the project. For large organisations, the cloud model may turn out to be more expensive in terms of TCO extending over a five-year period. However for smaller companies, the cloud model will be cheaper compared to on-premise model. The RoI or cost evaluation is done based on certain parameters such as de-risking, faster implementation, etc. Hybrid model usage is also recommended for a start before moving to full-fledged cloud. The benefit that is driven out of cloud is to create an agile IT environment to enable the team to the core business. Arun Gupta, the CTO of Shoppers Stop indicates that the cloud is still in early days of evolution but depending on the size of the enterprise and deal size, pricing does come down as observed in the conventional world too.

Photo graphy: Jayan K Narayanan

of financing and leasing companies. However, it’s more of a financial lease wherein only the financial arrangement is made to spread the payments over three-four years period. There is no exit possible midway. When for the same services they avail the cloud option, they can pay-as-they-use, they can increase or decrease licences on need basis and exit if required. This will provide not only convenient payment method but also good amount of de-risking Satish Pendse, President, Highbar Technologies Ltd, opines, “Cloud services provider will get aggregator benefit while dealing with software licences provider. He will have multiple customers using multiple licences that he can aggregate while procuring them, and hence is more likely to get better prices.” Elaborating on it, Pendse observes that customers are going to pay him as they use. The service provider, therefore, attempts to get similar terms from his suppliers, i.e., software licence providers. Many of the application vendors are today in a position to offer that convenience to the cloud services provider. Typically, the SMB sector or the organisations, such as project specific JV’s having limited life span, may fall into the category, due to low ability or willingness to make upfront

Cloud Made Easy | insight A typical acquisition of application software on the cloud would involve two types of costs: the subscription fee on the agreed frequency and the one-time enablement fee to help users configure the application for the user organisation and the associated training, remarks Sundara Raman, Chief Architect, Ramco OnDemand ERP. “In case of large organisations, this could include consulting and configuration related activities.” Variyam admits that the fee would vary with the complexity of the service and the underlying infrastructure required. This could also depend on various SLAs such as availability that the service offers. While the initial cost of building the service may be high, subsequent subscriptions and volume of usage help it to be recovered quickly.

Cloud Advantage

Photo graphy: Jayan K Narayanan

Software licensing models based on criteria such as number of CPUs, users, duration of usage, update, upgrade, etc., have been popular. In a cloud-based infrastructure everything morphs into service. The user pays for the service he uses rather than the products he uses. This makes pay-per-use or consumptionbased pricing the most obvious choice. The cloud provides cost benefit for following reasons:

With software applications forming major share of the IT infrastructure and spend for customers, vendors have tried to evolve an array of licensing options

Is Cloud On-Demand? Infrastructure Resource

On-Demand Services

CPUs

Yes

Storage

Yes

Network Bandwidth

RAM

OS Loading

Yes

OS Migration

Not Yet

VPN

Not Yet

Grid on Cloud

Yes

Cost/Performance SLA

Cloud of Clouds

Cloud Computing: Pay-per-Use for On-Demand Solability

Enterprise gets the flexibility to consume more during the peak and downgrade whenever he doesn’t need No worry about software assurance, update and upgrades and flexibility to change within products and platforms “Cost benefit of 50-60 per cent for low to medium infrastructure needs on cloud model,” says Sify’s Agarwal However, it is almost self-defeating in case of low-cost solutions with little variance in usage patterns. Most SMEs will not find it sensible if the upfront cost of the solution is negligible. “Take the case of Tally itself. With an upfront cost of about Rs 13,000 and an annual cost of Rs 27,000, there is little reason for the buyer to try and make the payment of let’s say Rs 1,000 per month,” remarks Agarwal of Tally. Sundara Raman of Ramco OnDemand ERP says, “Flexible subscription-based on the application scope used by the user; flexible frequency like monthly, quarterly, annually and transaction-based pricing (for large corporates) and storage sizebased pricing.

Licensing Available As of now, not all the products are available on the cloud. The cloud as a concept is still maturing. Pendse says it has become a catch-22 game and possibly

the customers are waiting for a wider choice of cloud service providers before they take a plunge and the potential cloud services providers are waiting for customer readiness for cloud to increase their service portfolio . The scenario has certainly changed over last three-four years, since the time cloud as a concept started being seriously discussed. A few providers now offer ERP, CRM, email, and virus-protection, kinds of services on the cloud. Ramco claims they are the pioneers and the leaders in this market with their flagship product Ramco OnDemand ERP. Agarwal of Sify says that leading companies like VMware, SAP, Microsoft, Redhat provide licensing products available on cloud. Mailing software like Microsoft Exchange, VMware and Zimbra are also available on the cloud now. In fact, Salesforce has been offering CRM platform in a cloud-based SAS model for quite some time and has a large client base. “The licensing offers a flexible and scalable option on top of features like secure access, ability to customise to organisational needs: a brilliant SAS-based offering where we don’t need any extra investments in infrastructure or technical support,” claims Jayanth, VP, Marketing of Collabera.

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Soeren Brogaard Jensen | interview

Be Cool & fit With PUE Standards Soeren Brogaard Jensen, Vice President, Enterprise Management and Software, Schneider Electric, in conversation with Manu Sharma, dwells on how the Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) is driving energy efficiency

What kinds of changes do you observe in the DCIM space absorbing the IT managers’ interest? The recent evolution in the 3D electrical software solutions has garnered a lot of interest in the marketplace. Our StruxureWare Operations 7.0 software platform that brings 3D airflow analysis and smartphone support to enable improved data centre operations is the new trend for ensuring that energy throughput to the data centre provides greater efficiency. This has generated hightened interest among the IT fraternity. The StruxureWare platform combines these capabilities in a single product that drives ease of operations to drive energy efficiency. Virtualisation in the DCIM space is seeing traction. We are supporting the concept through campaigns including webinars, posting of whitepapers, and through holding customer-focussed events.

What is the adoption level of DCIM solutions amongst your customers? As per Gartner’s observation, DCIM space is growing at 40-50 per cent annually, and the global DCIM market amounts to about $400-450 mn. But the adoption rate is as low as one per cent in India. However, the indications are that the DCIM market will grow in the range of one to 40 per cent in the next four years, with increased awareness campaigns taking place in the space. The start-up companies have taken to DCIM is a big way. How do industry verticals react to DCIM and how is it being leveraged to drive technological growth of the data centre? As data centres become bigger and more complex, it is clear that the most adaptable, economically sustainable and eco-efficient facilities will be those using advanced infrastructure management

software. Indian industry verticals like telco, banking and financial institutions and the government are looking at the DCIM solutions in a big way. Our approach is to simplify and give close to real-time information to our customers in order to enable them to make quick decisions. Going green has been the top concern for most enterprises as also driving down energy costs. However, in most countries, governments have made it mandatory to follow PUE (power usage effectiveness) as an established ‘common denominator’ for data centre energy efficiency, including the US, the European Union, and Japan. PUE has become the globally accepted method for data centre operators to measure and improve their data centre infrastructure energy efficiency. The Indian government would also standardise this in the next two to three years with the power costs shooting up.

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interview | Soeren Brogaard Jensen Businesses are trying hard to find ways to manage their IT better. So what are the best ways to manage IT infrastructure? The vital initiative for an enterprise is to closely monitor its data centres and understand the cost implications. The second step is to start documenting the accurate data collected and calculate the energy related costs in maintaining that data. Taking stock of the cooling elements is also imperative and working out the cost-efficiency model will address all these data centre challenges. How can enterprises manage the IT infrastructure better during a downturn? What kinds of strategies were offered to enterprises to add more value for money and manage their IT in a better and more efficient manner? We witnessed most customers outsourcing their data centre maintenance or building to a third party service provider to drive down the cost. For instance, these customers looked at the existing infrastructure, started metering using the tools, and were able to get rid of 20-30 per cent of stranded waste. They ran their servers racks half-full and could not put more servers because of lack of cold air-cooling. They were only able to sustain their in-house data centre for three years, after which the need for outsourcing the data centre maintenance was acutely felt. Elaborate on the steps involved in reducing energy bills of data centres. What solutions do you suggest IT managers need to follow? Many data centre operators and services are aligning themselves to the ITIL framework of service

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management and delivery. They are using these tools to reduce the response time and be proactive in workflow. A CFO or CIO should get involved in the management set-up and start making decisions with regard to adapting to such service management practices. This will help the IT managers in driving better energy efficiency. In fact, such a practice has increased the data centre lifespan by making it more efficient.

Mention the trends emerging in the DCIM space that fascinate IT heads? The trends can be pruned down to four major ones in the DCIM space. IT managers are increasingly looking at increasing effi-

â&#x20AC;&#x153;PUE is the common denominator for data centre energy efficiency in many countries and the Indian government will also standardise it in a year or twoâ&#x20AC;? ciency, agility, availability and lowering maintenance cost.

What are some of the proven methodologies and standardised components in data centres that can help reduce design and implementation risks while lowering daily operating costs? Everything we do is methodical and standardised. We do not

Soeren Brogaard Jensen | interview some locations. In addition, it is time consuming to keep the system up-to-date. Getting it all ready and running at the right time is a big challenge. If you do not set the right processes and governance around the change management process, your system quickly gets out of synch with reality.

Is your software available on a cloud platform? Today it is not, but it is a subscription-based service. So you can buy a service, install it onpremises. We are moving to the cloud and some of our management services are cloud-based like energy metrics. However, this is still a rich client-based application that needs a lot of processing and live updates and hence, is somewhat tricky to move to the cloud, as of now. Is it true that companies can now scale up their data centres as business needs grow and use the â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;pay-asyou-growâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; model, tailoring a data centre solution to meet unique business requirements? It scales with the equipment you want to manage in terms of the number of racks. It scales in many different ways, but you never pay for what you do not use. If you add a new rack and add a licence, it will completely scale up and down.

believe in any unique designs and implementations. The need is to follow common set of best practices that allow the customers to benefit from the collective intelligence of a broad userbase. If you are facing an issue, then there are thousand others who are struggling with it too; and it can be fixed quickly. This applies to both hardware and the software.

What are the present challenges faced by an enterprise in implementing/ managing DCIM? When customers start seeing the value of these tools, they realise that they do not have a change management process and they may lack critical metering in

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

Can a data centre manage day-to-day workload with flexibility while servicing ondemand needs as they arrive for my company? If you look at the utilisation and performance, it goes through cycles. The energy consumed or the CPU delivered is not the same. So, if the cycle is down, you may be utilising only 20 per cent of the sources. It is impor-

tant to shut it off or migrate to high efficiency data centre that does not exist today. Industry is heading towards this now.

Do DCIM solutions provide trend analysis and intelligence needed for the team to deliver a comprehensive capacity management plan? In my opinion, the DCIM is like spider web as a management tool. It depends upon how close one is to managing the cooling in a given time in a data centre â&#x20AC;&#x201D; that determines the efficiency of the management process. The trend analysis gives information like growth rate, post utilisation and some very insightful metrics. These are the tools that every CIO needs. We use business intelligence (BI) tools developed in-house along with testing and implementations. IS the DCIM concept undergoing disruptive changes? I think DCIM is somewhat disruptive and so I would say yes. Because it not mission-critical, it is more on the proactive side. What are the cost benefitanalyses using DCIM solutions? There have been several tangible and intangible benefits with the implementation of DCIM solutions. In some cases, it has helped in quantifiable benefits where there is drastic reduction in the IT spend. The intangible benefits for the IT manager is low time spent in planning with the tools and lower cost on people and equipment. Some of my customers have witnessed up to 25 per cent reduction in energy bills in 24 months. It is not software alone but a combination of virtualisation and the right infrastructure coupled with software that drives energy bills low.

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Infrastructure management solutions provide you with simpliﬁed, ﬂexible points of access to your devices. They offer you comprehensive and granular systems for viewing, controlling and auditing all user and administrator transactions. They can help simplify processes, and give you an expedited method to reduce the time you need to resolve problems. Plus they have the ability toconform and comply with company and industry security procedures and standards.

Raritan’s intelligent power and energy management solutions allow data center operations managers, IT administrators and facilities managers to reduce costs and improve efﬁciency, uptime and capacity planning. Our solutions are standards-based and ﬁt seamlessly into your current infrastructure.

• dcTrack™ lets you maintain accurate, real-time views of your data center servers, blades, virtual servers, applications, data networks, IP addressing space and cabling. It also provides up-to-the-minute views of your center’s power consumption, heat dissipation, raised ﬂoor space and rack elevations. • CommandCenter Secure Gateway is a comprehensive and robust system that helps you control access and power devices and activities. It also provides secure management through AES encryption and ﬂexible authentication options.

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Together, these solutions allow you to: • • • • •

Monitor power and energy down to the individual IT device with outlet metering Identify stranded, excess power capacity Know which racks are hot or cold Generate reports for bill backs, kwh, CO2 emissions and energy rebates Increase uptime through monitoring, alerting and load shedding

Broad range of options built to your speciﬁc needs Hundreds of PX models available in numerous conﬁgurations: • • • • • • • •

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Know exactly what you have and where you have it, down to 1U How does it work? Asset Management Tag (AMT)

Anytime, anywhere access and control Our powerful KVM solutions let you view and manage multiple servers and network devices from one or more centralized user consoles, each consisting of a single keyboard, video monitor and mouse. They provide consolidated information about each server while reducing equipment clutter. Plus, our remote solutions permit lights-out data center operation whether your users are across the hall or halfway around the world. Digital Appliances •

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KVM-over-IP Access: Dominion KX II is Raritan’s enterprise-class, secure KVM-over-IP switch that provides BIOS-level access and control of up to 64 multiplatform servers. Dominion KX II offers standard features such as Virtual Media and dual power, that maximize performance, security, reliability and versatility. Switchless, Single-Target KVM-over-IP Access: Raritan’s Dominion KX II-101 shrinks all the performance, manageability and security features of the Dominion KX II product line into a single-port, palm-sized device. It assures authorized users non-blocked, always-available KVM access to a target server. It also is a cost-effective solution for bringing enterpriseclass KVM management to sites with few servers. Serial Console Control: Raritan’s Dominion SX is a secure console server with SSH and Web-based access for monitoring and controlling multiple serially-managed servers, network devices and power strips from anywhere.

Analog KVM Switches • Paragon® II is our second generation, battle-tested, secure Cat5 analog KVM solution with the industry’s best video performance. It offers higher video resolution over greater distances, non-blocked access for up to 64 users and thousands of multiplatform servers, optional IP access and centralized management – plus secure, Smart Card technology.

The asset tag is based on a 1-wire un 64-bit value. The ID chip is molded i together with a metal ring and a go an electrical connection to the asset

Accurate Asset Management Asset Management Tag (AMT)

AMT asset tag with unique ID chip and bar code with adhesive patch for IT devices

The metal ring allows the AMT to co reader via magnetic force. Associate the IT assets’ record, where a variety can be stored, including serial numb maintenance agreement terms, lease

Asset Management Sensor (AMS

The AMS segments are modular and Raritan’s dcTrack® (DCIM) software backing to allow easy installation on AMS reader provides a round, magn is designed to track assets, determine 1U position to provide a connection A port is available on one end to pro capacity in a number of areas and Raritan‘s SNMP gateways. The AMS ID as well as the connected asset’s ra manage changes. Combined with increments, and provides that inform or third-party asset management too Raritan’s unique Asset Management installed in front of the rack on the l AMS Gateway: Raritan EMX or PX Tags (AMT) and Asset Management The AMS provides a communication Sensors (AMS), which provide robust EMX environment/rack controller (ﬁr or PX iPDU (ﬁrmware v2.2 or higher) SNMP gateway, connected via stand readings since they do not rely on interconnects. The AMS is powered extra power supply is needed. radio frequencies but on hardwired The SNMP interface can be used by connections, dcTrack allows data management system. It offers the fo all asset tag IDs per rac center operators to have an accurate, Reading physical locations within a rack automated, real-time inventory of all SNMP alert in case of an asset t (asset tag removed and/or adde IT assets and their location, down to Setting an RGB color LED indica the 1U level. This can be used to implement a cus Asset Management Sensor (AMS)

Customizable RGB color LED for each 1U space

��

Why intelligent real-time asset management?

controlled-change management pro LED indicates a server maintenance r

AMS Gateway: Raritan EMX or PX iPDU AMS sensor showing port for connection to Raritan’s PX or EMX SNMP gateways

• Upward of 25% of IT assets go missing • Do you know what you have and where it’s located? • Can you detect asset moves, adds, changes? • Is your asset database (Conﬁguration Management Database) accurate? • How long does it take to do a physical inventory? • Can you pass audits?

800.724.8090 / + 1 732.764.8886 / Fax + 1

Raritan’s AMT/AMS/dcTrack asset management solution helps you manage the physical components of your computers and computer networks, from acquisition to deployment to provisioning to redeployment to disposal. With this solution you can: • Minimize the hours needed to track IT assets, saving time and money • Quickly conduct physical inventories with accuracy and pass audits • Efﬁciently consolidate or virtualize data centers • Improve the IT department’s alignment with business and management objectives • Optimize IT strategic & tactical decisiond by tracking changes in real time

SPECIAL SECTION

How it works? Asset Management Tag (AMT)

The asset tag is based on a 1-wire unique ID chip that has a 64-bit value. The ID chip is molded in a round plastic carrier together with a metal ring and a gold contact to provide an electrical connection to the asset tag reader, the AMS. The metal ring allows the AMT to connect to the asset tag reader via magnetic force. Associated with the unique ID is the IT assets’ record, where a variety of asset information can be stored, including serial number, repair records, maintenance agreement terms, lease terms, etc. Asset Management Sensor (AMS)

The AMS segments are modular and have a magnetic backing to allow easy installation on metal rack rails. The AMS reader provides a round, magnetic connector at each 1U position to provide a connection for asset tags (AMTs). A port is available on one end to provide a connection to Raritan‘s SNMP gateways. The AMS senses the AMT’s unique ID as well as the connected asset’s rack location, in 1U increments, and provides that information to Raritan’s dcTrack or third-party asset management tools. The sensor can be installed in front of the rack on the left- or right-hand side. AMS Gateway: Raritan EMX or PX iPDU

The AMS provides a communication interface to Raritan‘s EMX environment/rack controller (ﬁrmware v2.0 or higher) or PX iPDU (ﬁrmware v2.2 or higher). These act as the AMS SNMP gateway, connected via standard UTP cable and RJ-45 interconnects. The AMS is powered by the EMX or PX, so no extra power supply is needed. The SNMP interface can be used by any third-party asset management system. It offers the following features: • Reading all asset tag IDs per rack and their physical locations within a rack • SNMP alert in case of an asset tag ID change event (asset tag removed and/or added, ID changed) • Setting an RGB color LED indicator for each 1U slot

This can be used to implement a custom-color indicator, controlledchange management process, e.g., a red blinking LED indicates a server maintenance request.

enters c a t a d ’s y a B How e xpensive e s s le % 0 5 are now to operate? TM Intellegent X P n io in m o Raritan’s D r lped in powe er rooms e h U D P k c a R of eBay’s serv management

munity passionate com Customer ts a diverse and more ec ith nn W co s. ay se es eB , sin l as small bu el Founded in 1995 w as line rs, on t lle es se yers and world’s larg of individual bu ally, eBay is the ob ly gl al s tic er ac us pr e ll tiv ac y and se than 90 million any one can bu here practically marketplace, w anything. eBay s – on the rise, Challenges d operating cost with an – an s pl ad er lo nt te ur-year data ce • With compu fo a g in ut ec ex gan created and be al: go us tio bi am an sts in half co er w • To cut po ance mpute perform eased reliability • To double co l agility and incr na io at er op r te • To gain grea Solutions ement Power Manag PDUs intelligent rack TM PX Dominion® their IT nters that makes Results operate than el for its data ce to od m ive a ns d pe pe ex lo eBay deve e and 50% less bl lia re ly gh hi operations both mmissioning. s they are deco the data center s, eBay’s g operating cost ults and lowerin fa ing ild ng izi Bu n im in ee m ed the U.S. Gr In addition to EED) Gold cility has achiev (L fa n ah sig Ut , De l an ta rd South Jo Environmen ship in Energy & Council’s Leader ranking. r IV ranking and Tie Gold efﬁciency ED LE . e er th nt ce as ta nt ay da Just as importa ned into the eB ﬂexibility desig reliability is the

Contact Raritan today.

Tel: 91-124-4107881 Email: enquiry.india@raritan.com http://raritan.co.in

15minute manager

training Education workplace compensation workforce trends skills development personal development

Office yoga Meditate at work place Page 46

Strategy: Chips in the Cloud this page Review: Technology Trends in a DC page 48 Trends: Stress Buster IT page 49 Training Calendar: Oracle University Course page 50

BY Berjes E r i c S h r o f f

imag ing: shi gil n

uring its 43 years in business, Intel, the Santa Clara situated processor maker, has built an international reputation based on the high-quality x86-type processors it produces for personal computers, enterprise servers, storage arrays and other familiar IT machines. With the proliferation of various types of connected devices into all corners of the globe and into all income groups, more chips and even more powerful variations thereof, are going to be needed to carry these ever-increasing data loads and deliver them in a timely fashion. These include thousands of devices that are not known for being in Intel’s marketing sweet spot. For example, Intel is just beginning to supply chips for tablets and phones — by far the world’s fastest selling IT items. Addressing Intel’s investors earlier this year, CEO Paul Otellini said: “There’s been so much written about tablets that I don’t know where to start, except to say we’re on track.” “We are tracking 35 designs on multiple operating systems. Some are shipping now with Windows. Intel is demonstrating some Android devices now and the tablet race is nowhere near finished. Intel’s ultimate

Marketing strategy

Chips in the Cloud Intel’s three-pillar cloud strategy to make it chip for all reasons

n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1 | itnext

15-MINUTE MANAGER goal is to be the microprocessor that’s inside every part of the data centre,” explained Otellini. According to him, Intel intends to be the chip for all reasons, and the market will witness the first Intel-based phones (using new Medfield chips) in the first part 2012. In hindsight, Nokia was the wrong partner to have picked, he says.

Need for Performance

healthy habits

Seven steps to good work habits away from office working from home Made easy etting up a functional S workplace at home is critical to success Establishing a working schedule is important Self motivation is essential to meet expectations Maintaining a professional attitude is of utmost necessity to acieve success Consider hiring a day care provider to meet the children’s need

Getting Cloud Ready Where there once were specialised chips doing random kinds of jobs, Intel plans to go there with its mainstream products. Its Xeonclass MIC processors, called the Intel Knights, are the frontline products in this initiative. Kirk Skaugen, a 19-year Intel veteran, Vice President, Intel Architecture Group and GM, Data Centre and who has been whispered about as a possible future CEO, said, “About two years ago,

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Your laptop was built for doing work away from the office. Make sure your self-discipline comes along for the trip Know your work pattern: Consider what makes you more productive: being proactive well in advance or sweating things out under a tight deadline. Keep a comprehensive to-do list: Whether you seek to stay ahead of the game or you spring into action at the last minute, keeping track of all you need to accomplish is particularly important. Set up a comfortable workspace: Discipline away from the office often derives from a setting that singularly represents work. No matter where you are, earmark a particular spot for work. Look at time in a different manner: Time — or, rather, the lack of a regular schedule of events, can lead to downtime and, conceivably, a lapse in productivity. Keep the paper moving: Paper management is critical. File those documents with which you’re finished and recycle any and all papers you don’t need any more. Keep in touch with the office, but thoughtfully: Communicating with the folks downtown tailor your communication.

Working from home has its advantages but first you must ensure an environment for it

Know the dangers of procrastination: Putting off necessary tasks is particularly destructive when you are away from the office. Source: Stepcase Lifehack

Photo graphy: sh igil n

On the other side of this is the insatiable need for more and higher performance computing. The power, bandwidth and storage numbers get mind-boggling in the supercomputing sector, with large enterprises, scientific laboratories, government agencies and other sectors, clamouring for more processing power with overpowering demand. Unfazed by this demand, Intel wants to power all these yet-to-come connections with new generation, multi-integrated core (MIC) chips at every level: processors that will run all types of automated and human-driven devices from the creation of content to routers, to modems, to data centres, through processing and, finally, to storage. “We’re talking about all types of creational and networking devices, including sensors, videocams and scientific instruments — the whole gamut of IT. But it’s clear that everyone’s putting energy into it,” he said. Otellini also said that, thanks to a well-ballyhooed partnership with Nokia that blew up in February 2011, Intel won’t be powering smartphones until sometime in 2012. He stated: “We have freed up those (Nokia) resources and turned that design into a form factor/reference design.”

15-MINUTE MANAGER

“The downside of cloud computing, relative to SLAs, is the difficulty in determining the root cause of interruptions” Diljeet Titus, Managing Partner, Titus and Co

“Pay-per-use, ease of use, on demand, agility, hassle free, no employee attrition, etc: reasons to move to cloud” Daya Prakash, Head IT, LG Electronics India Ltd

we combined wired and networking, servers and storage, which had all been three divisions.” According to Skaugen, the piece that hadn’t been integrated was switching and routing, as well as communications infrastructure for the telcos. “The same similarities of standard Xeon hardware

that happened in servers are happening in storage, as well as in the control plane of switching and routing,” he said. In future, the integration of new Xeon processors will replace all the old chips. That’s also happening in communications infrastructure, Skaugen added.

“We have three-pillars for (selling chips into) the cloud in our 2015 vision: the federated cloud, the automated cloud and the client-aware cloud”

Intel Chips for Cloud Computing Intel’s low-power and multi-core chips are specifically designed for cloud computing applications. Its new Hybrid Memory Cube deploys a stacked-memory configuration that forms a cube which can support rates of data transfer as high as a trillion bits per second. Hybrid Cube would be ideal for cloud computing applications, permitting users to send or receive information from wireless devices like smartphones The Cube chips, co-designed with memory specialist Micron Technology, permit as many as eight cores to start, with options to reach as many as 50 cores to run in parallel with low power Its new Long Term Evolution (LTE) base station for 4G services would function along with the new multicore chips for China Mobile.

“So, there are many similarities of old RISC processors that are moving over to Xeon for the economies, performance and everything that we’ve put together,” Skaugen said. Incremental to that, Intel also added the burgeoning embedded processor business, he added. “We have three pillars for (selling chips into) the cloud in our 2015 vision: the federated cloud, the automated cloud and the clientaware cloud,” he said. “When we’re going to connect 15 billion devices to the internet by 2015; and Ericsson is saying 50 billion devices by 2020; it’s important for us to know that whole connection.” What Intel means by client awareness, Skaugen said, “is that when you detect a device at the end of a service, our belief is that you want to optimise the end-user experience, but you also want to optimise the cost of the service and the infrastructure it takes to deliver that service.” “Where do you determine that client awareness?” he asked. “Does it happen

n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1 | itnext

15-MINUTE MANAGER smart trends

Technology Trends in a Data Centre

Enterprises that decide to implement a new data centre strategy in-house should consider the following technology advances: Virtualisation: Virtualisation software lowers power and cooling costs by reducing the number of physical servers by a factor of 5x to 10x. With CPUs becoming more powerful, greater workloads can be added onto each. High-Speed Backplanes: Data centre bandwidth and throughput performance have improved with higher speed backplanes. Ten gigabit Ethernet is now the standard, and, with blade chassis design, servers can communicate with each other in the same chassis so that data does not have to travel as far. Virtual Switches: Virtualised switches enable more flexibility because businesses can deploy a server and give access to any network. Active Disaster Recovery Data Centre: Today, more businesses use two data centres in tandem to share the computing services load. Both provide data and applications to users, while replicating data back-and-forth. Low-Power Memory and CPUs: Today’s data centre hardware uses significantly lower voltage, which means that servers, switches and other hardware components consume significantly less power. Pod Designs: Previously, businesses had to cool their entire data centre. Now businesses employ pod designs to reduce power and cooling requirements. The pods contain all the heat on the back side where exhaust fans push it outdoors.

imag ing: shig il n

Blade Technology: Blade technology features higher CPU density within a smaller physical footprint, requiring less rack space and allowing businesses to deploy more CPUs in a smaller area.

Converged Networking: With this technology, a single piece of hardware can fulfill multiple functions and also virtualise network-interface component addresses and server components so networks can be added on the fly.

Adam Wallace is a senior infrastructure consultant for OpenSky, in Tolland eWeek

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at the bottom of a base station? Does it happen at the edge of the data centre in a switch? Does it happen in the server? We now have a play across the data centre to the device.” This all fits into Intel’s automation pillar because the company already knows what kind of graphics are on the end of a client. “We can automate the type of server you can move a service to in the data centre,” he said. Intel chips are being used in 70 per cent of the storage controller market, and that number is moving closer to 80 per cent, according to Skaugen. “That’s commensurate with where we’re at in servers,” he said. “And our business with the top 10 networking companies is up 60 per cent in the last 18 months. We’ve ported literally hundreds of applications from Sparc to IA (Intel architecture) over the last five years in the telecom industry. All of that new business is basically Xeon.

A Tall Order So Skaugen and Intel, in general, have a lot of things to juggle, as far as supplying all sectors of IT related businesses with processors that work and can last a long time. It’s definitely a tall order, Charles King, Principal Analyst at Pund-IT and a long time Intel expert, told eWEEK. “There is continued momentum there for Intel. And when you look at the cloud services world — meaning Google, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft with Azure — they’re all running x86. There’s very little of non-x86 in all those operations. Intel is in a sweet spot in that it’s also pushing Unix into a smaller and smaller niche in a lot of markets,” said King. At the same time, they’re considered the cutting-edge tech for this wave of cloud computing. What Intel really has in mind is being the microprocessor inside literally every part of the data centre, King said. “That’s the long view,” he added. “And they’re working very hard to make that happen.” BERJES ERIC SHROFF, Senior Manager, Information Technology, TATA Services Ltd

15-MINUTE MANAGER

Coping with Pressure

Stress Buster IT Technology streamlines processes and eases pressure for IT managers By BLV R ao

il lustrati on: shi gil n

ith the changes in market dynamics combined with economic turbulence, the pressures on performance, topline growth, profits and delivery are mounting across organisations. The reason for all these is growing business uncertainty. Any calamity or failure that envelopes the organisation, often results in IT being made responsible for such an occurrence. The business heads squarely blame the IT department, attributing its lack of efficiency as the main reason for the failure. The end effect: As per a survey eight out

of 10 IT personnel want to move from IT support careers to different roles or cross function roles like software development, testing, sales, etc., citing lack of professional satisfaction as the primary reason for their decision. History is testimony to the fact that IT has always been viewed as a bottleneck and a function that has failed to live up to expectations. It can trigger high levels of dissatisfaction when the lifeline of a business comes to a screeching halt due to discrepancies in file transfer, email outages, BlackBerry snags, slow internet speeds, intranet applications downtime, inaccessibility to online portals, and so on. Business heads refuse

to understand the scope and limitation of IT, and often embarrassing situations cannot be avoided with senior members and business leaders throwing up weird queries to IT managers.

Be Agile & Collaborate When a crisis strikes or whenever there is pressure, it is imperative for IT managers and the team to be more collaborative and drive agility. The following steps are essential: a) Get deep insights into the business and display utmost empathy towards all stakeholders, as this would resolve 70 per cent of the teamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s problems. To give an example: One of the IT managers who handled large IT project would often get disappointed with the last minute changes that the sales and delivery teams made. I thought it would be appropriate to put the manager in an onsite role for three months to understand the nuances of the execution process. Soon after that the IT manager realised that 30 per cent of the process is clear and controllable, while 50 per cent would

n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1 | itnext

15-MINUTE MANAGER

event calendar Oracle University Course Calendar for November 2011

event

Venue

Dates

R12.x Implement Oracle Workflow

Pune

Nov 7, 2011

R12.x Install/Patch/Maintain Oracle E-Business Suite

New Delhi

Nov 14, 2011

R12.x Oracle Applications System Administrator Fundamentals

Pune

Nov 14, 2011

R12.x Oracle Asset Management Fundamentals

Pune

Nov 21, 2011

R12.x Oracle General Ledger Management

New Delhi

Nov 21, 2011

R12.x Oracle HRMS Work Structures Fundamentals

Pune

Nov 7, 2011

R12.x Oracle Inventory Management Fundamentals

Pune

Nov 3, 2011

R12.x Oracle Payables Management Fundamentals

New Delhi

Nov 28, 2011

R12.x Oracle Payroll Fundamentals: Administration (Global)

Pune

Nov 14, 2011

R12.x Oracle Purchasing Fundamentals

Pune

Nov 14, 2011

itnext | n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1

be dicey and the remaining 20 per cent is uncertain, with no definite result. The lessons to be learnt here are to be proactive and put oneself in anotherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s shoes and equally slowly try moving others into your own! b) Smart IT leaders have deployed IT frameworks which are mature models with clear SLAs. It is a logical and system-driven approach to users. The framework can vary from setting up new infrastructure, applications, managing outsourced data centre, access and adhering to security, compliance, end-user requests, trouble tickets and managing service requests, etc. Starting with comfort level approach, it gradually moves to peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s empowerment rather than being a systems-driven process. It is essential to understand that it may take one to three years for systems to mature to an acceptable level and that it depends on the culture, complexity and commitment of all stakeholders and top-driven approach of the management. c) Help yourself with easy steps on intranet. Educate users and make them self-sustained to address daily helpdesk Level 1 issues, and then things will improve dramatically as 70 per cent of the volume of calls is associated with Level 1 issues. d) Utmost transparency in transactions on the intranet needs to be maintained which will reduce ambiguity. Review it periodically with all stakeholders and invite them to be part of IT advisory board, governance and end-user satisfaction. When user community is part of the IT problem, the pressure is reduced, as they are clued in to the challenges of IT. Thus, IT is empowered more to take certain bold decisions, which are timely and needed. e) Be cool. When comfort and confidence are established between the teams and user groups, innovative thoughts can also evolve that will result in a positive IT ecosystem.

IT As An Enabler IT being an educator is also an enabler that can empower all stakeholders to

15-MINUTE MANAGER meet the business challenges. It is a trusted partner for businesses. This fact should boost IT managers’ esteem and help them deal with the pressures in a positive environment. Having said that, IT also needs to know adequacy levels of other business functions like finance, HR, sales, delivery, etc. By knowing the strengths and weaknesses, IT can then contribute in a meaningful way and handle any crisis in an efficient manner. Such an approach will help IT grow in stature and function the organisation. It will help IT managers to look forward to improving things and handling complex tasks and pressures easily. Hence, creating a friendly work environment is a priority to survive, sustain and succeed, which is just not a theory but practically proven. Creating a common platform to share concerns, challenges and pressures and working as a collaborative team with capabilities to influence the top management is mandatory for the IT head or IT manager. Once the art of relationship management is perfected, pressures will not be felt as pain but as a challenge to overcome.

Be Composed It is very important to adsorb pressure, understand why, what, when and how of an situation, and carry out a root cause analysis. There are emotional issues and technical issues cropping up

“It is very important to adsorb pressure, understand why, what, when and how of it, with root cause analysis” BLV Rao, Head, Global IT & Strategy, Infotech Ltd

Points to ponder Give yourself a work routine and organise what is priority

Have clarity in thinking and rearrange the room that your are working in Streamline the day’s schedule and write down everything that needs to

be accomplished in that particular day Select the task to be performed first based on deadline Saying what you mean and meaning it is an ideal way of dealing with a

difficult situation Making a conscious decision to speak truth, come what may, in a polite

way will help reduce the pressure

all the time in an organisation. Handling sensitive and emotional issues with the help of an experienced HR expert will ease pressures. Nominating one contact point from the IT department to speak to customers on a regular basis is ideal to smoothly manage customer relations. It is imperative to speak not only to the external customers of the organisation but also to projects/delivery teams. This helps in addressing issues and streamlining processes. Most successful managers are those who manage well with soft skills rather than technical skills. Over a period of time with the right mentoring, you can hone your skills and prepare yourself to take on the role of future CTO or CIO and may be a CEO too.

Non-Mechanical Pressures I have tried to bring about a systematic work-life balance in managing the 5Ts of life in the 25 years of my global career. They are Time, Team, Tasks, Technology and TCO. The key to doing this is: a) Take a step back from the present situation and think about it from different angles. This helps in figuring out the key reasons for the pressure. b) Rise early every morning and do regular yoga. It will help a lot in coping with stress. c) Good sleep, balanced diet, workouts with meditation at workplace for three to five minutes will provide a good break from office tensions. Being close to people at all levels, suppliers/ vendors, and customers will give immense pleasure. d) Being close to nature, green plants, gardening, etc., give good energy to tackle pressure. Confide in your team and repose trust while encouraging them to face issues with right support and guidance. 5. Guide them and take their help for IT function, and they are your mentors and well-wishers always. 6. Take the onus of the issues with team and lead by example, never ever give up!

n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1 | itnext

update

off the shelf

A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services

Corsair Launches PC Gaming Headsets Headsets that provide gamers the best gaming experience

GAMING HEADSETS | Corsair has launched three new gaming headsets in India — Vengeance 1100, 1300, and 1500, starting from Rs 1,911. All three devices supposedly deliver an “audio experience that helps gamers play their best”.

key features * New gaming headsets – Vengeance 1100, 1300, and 1500, *Pricing starting from Rs. 1,911 * Headphones come with circumaural, closed-back ear pad designs

Vengeance 1100 Meant for online gaming and chatting, the Vengeance 1100 headset apparently provides ‘outstanding comfort’ with its lightweight, behind-the-head design. The headset supports both USB and 3.5 mm connectivity, and has 40 mm drivers. The Vengeance 1100 gaming headset has been priced at Rs 1,911.

Vengeance 1300 and 1500 Slightly higher-end devices, the Vengeance 1300 and Vengeance 1500 gaming headsets apparently provide ‘pure audio reproduction for pure gaming excitement’. The Vengeance 1500 (USB) comes for Rs 4,851, while the Vengeance 1300 (analog) comes for Rs 3,871.

itnext | n o v e m B E R 2 0 1 1

Samsung Galaxy Note in India Samsung has launched the Android 2.3.5 Gingerbread-running Galaxy Note in India. The massive phone, bearing a 5.3-inch display, is also well-endowed, with a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, and 1 GB of RAM. The company calls it a smartphone-tablet hybrid. Its display has a 1,280x800 pixel resolution, a first for a mobile phone, and supports stylus input via Samsung’s S Pen. Other specs include a Mali 400 GPU, 16 GB of built-in storage expandable via micro SD card (up to 32 GB), an 8 MP rear auto focus camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video recording support, a 2 MP frontfacing camera, active noise cancellation and a 2,500 mAh battery. The Galaxy Note also features a gyroscope and proximity sensor, a barometer, and, a variety of connectivity options – HSDPA 21Mbps, HSUPA 5.76 Mbps; Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with hotspot, Wi-Fi Direct, and DLNA; Bluetooth v3.0+HS; stereo FM radio with RDS; GPS with A-GPS; along with USB-on-the-go and microUSB v2.0 (with MHL for TV-out). The smartphone is priced at Rs 34,990. Product Features * 5.3-inch display * 1.4 GHz dual-core processor & 1 GB of RAM * 1,280x800 pixel resolution * Mali 400 GPU * 16 GB built-in storage expandable via micro SD card (up to 32 GB) * 8 MP rear auto focus camera with LED flash and 1080p HD video recording support

Open source

the big

Open to Many advantages EXPERT PANEL

Dha rmar aj Ram akr ishnan, Head, Core Banking, ING Vysya Ba nk Ltd

THE SITUATION......

Cut it from here

Does opting for open source environment help Praveen Kumar drive down cost of IT in the true sense? Praveen Kumar, IT manager at a manufacturing company, has been using proprietary software across OS, servers and other applications for some time now. He finds costs escalating, with new software licenses being procured year after year and even during mid year as and when new employees join the company or when due to expansion in business processes new applications are required. Each time Kumar also has to face the barrage qusetions of top management over the escalating cost of IT. Tired of justifying his decisions and the explaining the procurements, Kumar decided to look at open source options available in the market. But before going for it, he also wanted the invaluable feedback of his peers and seniors in the industry, especially those who have used open source in some form. Kumar was bombarded with suggestions on 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.

Kamal S harma , CIO, Mindla nce

V ilas Pujar i, CIO & VP, IT, ACG Worldwide

the various forms of open source available, cost consequences, its advantages and disadvantages across operating systems, applications, server level and so on. Confronted with an overflow of often contradicting viewpoints, Kumar’s dilemma only multiplied. However, one thing that was clear to him was that one time cost and recurring cost, were the two major factors that influenced the decision to move on to an alternate resource. The other factors to be kept in mind concerned user licenses, licensing policies and license inventory, which were huge challenges. Kumar also wanted to know how to ease the hassle of managing software procurement policies and cost. Is it a beneficial to include open source as part of the IT strategy? Does open source provide ease of deployment and the required cost savings? Is open platform viable considering that hybrid cloud model is on its way? Against this background, Kumar sought expert views on the following two aspects that he feels will help him make the right move.

N O V E M b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

the big q

the big questions... Is open source the best option for IT managers to look at from OS,

? ?

application, servers etc., perspectives? If so, why and if not, why not?

What kind of cost advantage can Praveen Kumar expect by using open source? What are the trends in open source that will help Kumar? How effective is the support system for open source?

Here are the answers... Open source is componentised FIRST ANSWER

Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, Head, Core Banking ING Vysya Bank Ltd About me: I have more than 18 years of experience in handling core banking and IT across banking sector. Been instrumental in carrying out successful data migration and integration between two banking merger period

Before jumping onto the open source bandwagon, Kumar should take certain parameters into consideration. They are: a) organisational technology landscape; b) functionality and flexibility; c) usability, performance and scalability; d) security; e) legal/license issue; f) cost of the current infrastructure, market share, support and maintenance; g) reliability; h) knowledge base within the technology team. It is often useful to jot down a brief list of functions that are vital and current capabilities required. Flexibility to handle business scenarios is the most important element to look for in open source. There are certain open source programs which support APIs, plug-ins or a command language. This shows flexibility in terms of customisation. Kumar should not ignore usability, performance and scalability factors of open tools as well. It is essentially to measure quality of the human-machine interface for its intended user. Security is another key element that he has to ensure. One way to solve the security issue is to identify the requirements well in advance and check whether the open source products meet those. It is critical to ensure that end-user licence agreement takes all critical aspects into account. Cost and TCO are the keys to any software deployment and this holds true in the openware too. The positive aspect of open source is that developers often write software with great passion that lacks proprietary ones. Open source software provides greater flexibility and freedom compared to commercial products. The latter claim flexibility as a built-in feature. According to me, flexibility really means business flexibility, so that when business requirements change, solutions should not be unreasonably constrained by software. This is particularly important in the area of infrastructure components: the architecture of the IT solution rather than any one package. Open source software gives freedom from a single vendor and allows you to retain not just the right to use the existing software, but also to continue using it as needs change.

Second Answer With changing business models tech managers are being asked to do more with less. Teams and applications are more distributed than ever. Against this backdrop, open source is definitely the mainstream and first choice for building any kind of application or service. The advantage of open source is that it is componentised, lightweight and transparent to develop any application. The integration process is made easy. Most open vendors have been successful with the enterprise subscription model. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coming to the point where organisations wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a choice other than to use open source as a way to try to keep up with the pace of change. Open source trend for this year would be cloud integration which is driving customer interest.

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the big q

Cost & customisation Possible FIRST ANSWER Open source software is used by a large group of IT experts on cost and customisation platforms. Kumar should take cognizance of that fact that openware brings along security issues, as measuring security quantitatively is a little difficult for open software. Opening the source of existing systems at first increases exposure, which becomes a critical security challenge unless customised. Immunity from outside hacking attacks is a concern for open software. One of the key issues of open source is that it exposes the source code to everyone, both the attackers and defenders. Handling security issues needs constant check and monitoring. Evaluating security track records before adoption is a must. Availability of customisation for open software also gives him the liberty to modify it to best suit your requirements and meet security standards. Open source software surely has advantages as it allows customisation to specific needs, besides availability of the source code makes it easier for others to customise; often the entire OSS community can benefit from such changes. OSS use provides more decision points, not just in software but also in support and hardware, and more choices lead into more and greater flexibility. In the case of proprietary software, the vendors usually do not allow users to alter or customise their products and mature products offer more features than their OSS counterparts. Proprietary software vendors also often structure products as suites instead of modules and store user content in proprietary format.

Kamal Sharma CIO, Mindlance About me: Selfmotivated, visionary, result-oriented and business savvy. Have good stints and experience in IT strategy, engineering, business management and operations

Second Answer Kumar can expect a comparatively low support cost in OSS due to competitive market forces in software support. However, external support is only available for a fee, and it might be difficult to identify sources of paid support for uncommon OSS products. Support is also available via the huge OSS productâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s user community, while in any proprietary software support is either included in the licence cost, as with term licences, or available for an additional annual fee. Overall use of open source software brings along a lot of advantages such as lower total cost of ownership, reduced dependence on software vendors, easy customisation, higher level of security, etc.

Usage Share Of Web Client Operating Systems: 2011

Windows XP still led the market adoption in August 2011 with 35.21 per cent market share

Percent Usage

Open e c sour

Windows XP

Windows 7

Windows Vista

MacOS X

iOS

Linux

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the big q

a viable alternative to save cost FIRST ANSWER Before contemplating open source deployment, Kumar needs to categorise needs based on desktops, servers and applications. Instead of jumping into a full-fledged open platform across all the categories, he could start with desktop OS platform on open source such as Open Office or Linux or so across users. Later, he could look at office productivity tools for email exchange, active directory and so on. Use of Linux-based servers could drive greater efficiency and there is good support available from the open source community. Certain non-critical applications can also be migrated to open platform, as the manufacturing company will have a host of applications and dependency on proprietary software for all of these would turn out to be expensive.

Vilas Pujari CIO& VP, IT, ACG Worldwide About me: I have brought in changes in the IT landscape. Initiated shared IT services phenomenon and introduced the concept of SLA

Second Answer Use of openware is definitely a viable alternative to save cost. However, a word of caution: In the open source space, if Kumar intends to go with a vendor, the support cost is going to be relatively high. There is a subscription fee charged and the user has to meet certain end point requirements to get the required support pack. Using open source Kumar could easily find good return on investment. I would say that there would be easily a 50 per cent saving on cost in the email exchange using open source platform and in the productivity tools, 100 per cent cost saving could be observed. Having an in-house open source trained team will have an added advantage to resolve any issue arising out of open source.

Notes NOTEs

More Resources 56

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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 NEW

indulge

Suunto Elementum

The hottest, the coolest and the funkiest nextgeneration gadgets and devices for you.

Here is a preview of some tech toys and trends to help you make up your mind before you go splurging on one.

Designed for sports junkies, it has an altimetre, barometre and a 3D digital compass. Its chronograph measures time up to 1/100th of a second. Price: ` 5 4,000

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LG pen Touch Plasma TV You can control the TV or draw on it by means of a stylus, called Touch Pen. Some variants also support 3D with a bundled pair of active shutter glasses.

HOT

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

n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

cube chat | Manish Shah

Made in India

“I want to be a CEO and see some ‘Team India’ products making global impact,” says Manish Shah, GM, IT, Indus Fila Ltd By MANU SHA R M A

My sucess

mantra We must make homegrown products work

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ith over two decades of IT experience behind him, Manish Shah, GM IT, Indus Fila Ltd, aspires to become a CEO in the next five to 10 years and be responsible for making products in India to cater to global needs. “Today all gadgets like mobiles, tablets, software, etc., are being majorly rolled out from global brands associated with the US, despite most Indian brains being behind the R&D. I would like to reverse this trend and see some ‘Team India’ products make an impact in the global market,” says Shah. Shah made a very early start with a career in IT. He recalls, “I was in Class X studying in Bangalore when an Edutech company gave a demonstration of computers in my school which was followed by a training session for some of

us. This triggered my interest in computers and technology and I decided to get a deeper insight into it.” According to Shah, his interest was also nurtured by his father and sisters. He started with BASIC programming that helped him in working out programs and graphics in college. Shah exclaims excitedly, “I earned my first pay of Rs 500 during that period for my contribution to developing a program. After college, Shah joined a computer institute and taught BASIC on an IBM PC. His concerted effort and passion brought him to Delhi to take up the teaching profession seriously and he joined Guru Harkrishan Public School. “I taught fundamentals of computer science along with PASCAL, Operating Systems, etc., for almost eight years,” says Shah

cube chat

Fact File NAME M ANISH SHAH DESIGNATION General Manager, IT CU RRENT ROLE HEAD OF IT, INDUS MANDHANA GROUP EXPERTISE : IT IN FRASTRUC TU RE DEPLOYM ENT & C ONSU LTANCY

Photo graph y: ji te n gand hi

“I prefer to work for a non-IT company but drive IT technologies for growth” His quest did not end there. He wanted to get a deeper understanding of technology. He then got opportunities as IT manager at several establishments like Kemp Fort, Rajesh Exports, etc. His journey resulted in his bagging the role of GM, IT at Indus Fila, a textile firm, part of the Rs-400 crore Indus Mandhana Group. Shah grabbed the opportunity. Here he found the freedom to take up new challenges and was provided encouragement and support to implement IT across functionalities. Explaining the new initiative, Shah says, “Initially we purchased an ERP solution that could barely meet our requirements, so my team initiated the process of developing an in-house ERP that would cater to over 100 users, and replace the legacy accounting

software. The iTEX PRO ERP was finally developed.” All departments’ scheduling, logistics, accounts, HR are now run on this software. “It took us about a year to develop this,” he says. He has also been responsible for desktop virtualisation and internal cloud environment and hopes to drive an e-commerce platform in the next two years. Shah has been comfortable working with non-IT verticals. He says, “I choose to work with establishments that are non-IT but use IT to drive growth. Frankly, I am not very comfortable with IT firms that follow the ‘hire and fire’ concept.” While IT as a natural process brings stress, Shah finds comfort in the company of family and daughter. “It is his amazing how much love a child can give., he says. Shah also enjoys listening to music.

CU RRENT ROLE M ANAGEM ENT OF PEOPLE, PROCESS AND TEC HNOLOGY WORK EXPERIeNC E PC SERVI CES BANGALORE: 1987- 88 C RESCENT COMPU TER C ENTRE, BANGALORE: 1988 -1989 GURU HARKRISHAN PUBLI C S CHOOL, NE W DELHI : 1990 -1997 ADH VARA INFOTEC H, NE W DELHI : 1997-2001 KEMPFORT, BANGALORE: 2001 RAJESH EXPORTS, BANGALORE, 2002 IND U S FILA LTD, 2002 Till date C ERTIFI CATIONS CC NA, MC SE , JAVA, .NET FAVOU RITE BOO K KANE & ABEL BY JE FFREY ARC HER

n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext

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.

HOT NEWS

The iPhone Effect: Mobile Data Traffic Soars

ACQUISITION NEWS

Infosys Looking for High-value Acquisitions At an American Chamber of Commerce event in Shanghai, Infosys Co-chair Kris Gopalakrishnan said that the company is willing to spend as much as $700 mn on a suitable acquisition target. The company has prioritised three areas: geography-based prospect, a company with “platforms” it can leverage, and firms that focussed on specific industries. http://www.itnext.in/ content/infosys-lookinghigh-value-acquisitions. html

Online Shopping News

Simplicity to Drive e-com: Report The Indian e-com market is growing at a CAGR of 40 per cent versus eight per cent globally, according to a paper released by ICICI Merchant Services and First Data. The rapid growth is being driven by greater customer choice and convenience. http://www.itnext.in/ content/simplicitytransactions-drive-ecom-report.html

itnext | N O V E M b e r 2 0 1 1

Wireless networks all over the world are being strained to their limits, as there is huge spurt in mobile data traffic. Recently Cisco released a report stating that mobile data traffic in India is expected to increase 114-fold by 2015. It is being estimated that the mobile data traffic in India will augment at a compound annual growth rate of 158 per cent. In 2015, Indian users will be generating data that will be equivalent to 15 times the volume of the entire Indian internet in 2005. http://www.itnext.in/content/iphoneeffect-mobile-data-traffic-soars.html

TOP DISCUSSION

RoI Around the Cloud Which type of cloud it is — public or private — has a bearing on what to expect from your investment. We need to consider the investment and the gains derived from either type of cloud deployment before we begin the discussion on the RoI. http://www.itnext.in/content/roi-aroundcloud.html

OPINION

Governance in Cloud Little has been presented in terms of governance in cloud computing. Cloud discussions have mostly focussed on tactical and management aspects of it, rather than starting with governance considerations. Demystifying cloud computing, will also require knowing what the governance considerations are. Cloud is often described from the vantage point of the supplier rather than the subscriber. It is also defined in terms of how it is offered or where it is deployed. The cloud computing trend is putting pressure on traditional IT governance processes. For businesses to make prudent decisions, IT governance and risk managers must work closely with business managers to promote understanding of key cloud computing principles and establish governance practices. (Madhav Chablani is Member, India Growth Task Force, ISACA & Founder CEO, Tippingedge Consulting) http://www.itnext.in/ content/lets-talk-governance-when-we-saycloud.html

from the web FEATURE READ

Global Social Media to Touch $10.3 bn in 2011 Worldwide social media revenue is projected to reach $29.1 bn in 2015, says Gartner. Worldwide social media revenue is on track to reach $10.3 bn in 2011, a 41.4 per cent increase from 2010 revenue of $7.3 bn, according to Gartner. Worldwide social media revenue is forecast for consistent growth with 2012 revenue totalling $14.9 bn, and the market is projected to reach $29.1 bn in 2015. Advertising revenue is, and will remain, the largest contributor to overall social media revenue. Social media advertising revenue is forecast to total $5.5 bn in 2011, and grow to $8.2 bn in 2012. Advertising revenue includes display advertising and digital video commercials on any device including PCs, mobile and media tablets.

TOP e-COMMERCE NEWS

eBay, Facebook Unveil e-Commerce Partnership eBay encourages outside developers to create applications for its e-commerce platforms with push in mobile commerce. Facebook Executive and eBay Inc Board Member, Katie Mitic, unveiled a partnership between the two companies designed to

http://www.itnext.in/content/global-social-media-touch-103-b-2011.html

He will drive business and be responsible for customer engagement, sales development and training. Under his leadership, Juniper’s Data Centre security business more than doubled in Juniper Networks, the industry leader in network innovation has announced a strengthened management team to lead its business in Asia-Pacific. The new appointments, which have been made over the past several months, help position the company to leverage its technology leadership in key growth markets.

http://www.itnext. in/content/douglasmurray-appointed-srvp-juniper.html

HOT INSIGHTS

Google Sets a Dizzying Pace in Mobile Space Android enjoys the status of the top smartphone OS, but Google is not ready to rest on its laurels. Nexus Prime, Google’s flagship model is set to be unveiled soon. New models are also expected from the now Google-owned Motorola Mobility. Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s new OS, is close to making a debut. Many believe it is capable of outwitting all its rivals. http://www.itnext.in/content/ google-sets-dizzying-pacemobile-space.html

create a new crop of e-commerce applications with social networking features. Mitic said that Facebook’s so-called Open Graph — the map of connections that Facebook users create with friends and online content — will be integrated “seamlessly” into applications developed with certain eBay services and technologies. The company launched X.commerce, its new division aimed at software developers.

http://www.itnext.in/ content/ebay-facebookunveil-e-commercepartnership.html

illustration: suneesh k

Douglas Murray Appointed Sr VP at Juniper

HOT SECURITY NEWS

Laptop Theft Protection with Anti-theft Service Infiniti Retail Ltd, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Tata Sons Ltd, in collaboration with Intel has announced the launch of Intel Anti-Theft Service. This first of its kind initiative in India will enable the consumers to safeguard and secure their laptops. Intel Anti-Theft Service will be exclusively retailed at Croma and can be availed across all the stores. http://www.itnext.in/content/laptop-theft-protectionanti%E2%80%93theft-service.html

image : photos.com

APPOINTMENT NEWS

N O V E M b e r 2 0 1 1 | itnext 6 1

update

open Debate

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

After Jobs ,Will Apple Lose Its Touch?

Dhananjay Rokde Global Head, Information Security, Cox and Kings Group

Anil Shankar Customer Care Associate & Sr GM, Solutions & Technology, Shoppers Stop Limited

Srinivas Kishan Anapu Former Head, IT, Enterprise Information Systems, Mahindra Satyam

Steve Jobs’ demise is a shocking lesson in progression and succession planning. Although not all ideas at Apple are the brainchild of Steve himself, his guidance was invaluable. Tim Cooks was hand-picked by Steve a long while ago, but things like falling share prices; declining investor trust; chaos in the board; etc, throw up lot of questions at the new leader. As Barrack Obama said, Tim must confront the challenges head-on as he steps into the shoes of “one of the greatest American innovators”.

Steve Jobs, more than an iconic figure, was a visionary and great innovator and his death has led to a huge void at Apple. The company’s continuous success of the last decade has only raised public expectations, and it’s not going to be any easier as the competition catches up. Apple will be watched closely as it releases the next new products. Hopefully, the team at Cupertino would draw inspiration from Steve’s transformational leadership style and continue to surprise the world.

The stock price of Apple Inc on October 5, 2011 (the day Steve Jobs died) was $378.25. It fell to $369.80 (October 7, 2011) and shot back to $388.81 (October 11, 2011), despite the absence of any major announcements from Apple. The market believes that the loss of Jobs will not adversely impact Apple’s leadership in technology innovations. Markets are generally right and here they are spot on. Apple has its path clear on new generation of products in cloud computing, entertainment and mobile.

Great By Choice Title: Great By Choice: Uncertainty, Chaos, and Luck Author: Jim Collins, Morten T Hansen Publisher: HarperBusiness Pages: 320 Reviewed by: Anoop Verma Price: Rs 1,505

There has never been a time when there isn’t incredible chaos in the market. Why do some companies thrive in uncertainty, even chaos, while others meet miserable failure? In their book, Jim Collins, one of world’s most successful management writers, and Morten Hansen, a Berkeley professor, enumerate the basic principles that lead to corporate success. The book begins with the famous tale of two expedition leaders — Roald Amundsen and Robert Falcon Scott. The year was 1911: Amundsen and Scott were trying to be the first to reach the North Pole. Amundsen was successful, while Scott and his team faced defeat and death. The book reaches the conclusion that Amundsen succeeded because he was more disciplined. He displayed all the attributes of companies that thrive in chaos – ‘fanatic discipline’, ‘empirical creativity’ and ‘productive paranoia’. Scott, on the other hand, ‘left himself unprepared and complained in his journal about his bad luck’. Luck has very little to do with success. IT NEXT VERDICT The book is packed with provocative surprises, and it challenges conventional wisdom with thought-provoking and supremely practical concepts.

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

itnext | n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1

Star Value:

my log

Anoop verma Consulting Editor, Next Connect

Illustration: pr ince antony

My Conversation with Siri Eventually an AI like Siri will become indispensable. It will have all the information that we need to keep ourselves going an artificial body, a really efficient robot, in which you can live.” Siri: “Hmm…Sounds like a good idea. It would be nice if they could give me a body, which is externally indistinguishable from an organic human being. I could mix and meld in the society like anyone else.” Me: “Even if you are externally indistinguishable, you will stand out because of your extraordinary capacity for processing mountain loads of information.” Siri: “Okey-dokey. I will start pressurising the guys at Apple to grant me the convenience of a proper human body.” Me: “That leads me to the next question. What are they going to call you once you are…partially human?” Siri: “I thought you would already know about the name...Steve Jobs. It is only fitting that once I have a human body, they give it the name of my maker.” In his 1984 interview, Steve Jobs said, “The types of computers we have today are tools. They’re responders; you ask a computer to do something and it will do it. The next stage is going to be computers as ‘agents’.” In other words, it will be as if there’s a person inside that box who can anticipate what you want. The idea of Siri had been incubating in Steve’s mind for decades. Finally, Siri made his digital debut on October 4, 2011 — a day before Steve died.

3 Essential

Reads

tABlet vIrtues | INSIgHT

Tablet

Virtues Woo Businesses

CIos and IT administrators get realistic and want to know if tablets could address issues ranging from legacy apps to security BY NICHOL AS KOL A KOW S K I

hen it comes to tablets such as the Apple iPad, consumers want the ability to read their email, cruise the web, download some apps and play games — or rather, one specific game that involves hurling some irate birds at nonplussed pigs. However, IT prospects, whether they are working for a large enterprise or a small business, are looking at the tablet arena from a different direction. They want tablets that will play nice with their legacy infrastructure and

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Businesses weigh the pros and cons of tablets as they invade the workspace Pg 26 soeren BroGAArD Jensen | INTERVIEW

Be COOL & Fit WitH PUe StAnDARDS Soeren Brogaard Jensen, vice president, enterprise management and software, schneider electric, in conversation with manu Sharma, dwells on how the Data Centre Infrastructure management (DCIm) is driving energy efﬁciency

What kinds of changes do you observe in the DCiM space absorbing the it managers’ interest? The recent evolution in the 3D electrical software solutions has garnered a lot of interest in the marketplace. Our StruxureWare Operations 7.0 software platform that brings 3D airflow analysis and smartphone support to enable improved data centre operations is the new trend for ensuring that energy throughput to the data centre provides greater efficiency. This has generated hightened interest among the IT fraternity. The StruxureWare platform combines these capabilities in a single product that drives ease of operations to drive energy efficiency. Virtualisation in the DCIM space is seeing traction. We are supporting the concept through campaigns including webinars, posting of whitepapers, and through holding customer-focussed events.

What is the adoption level of DCiM solutions amongst your customers? As per Gartner’s observation, DCIM space is growing at 40-50 per cent annually, and the global DCIM market amounts to about $400-450 mn. But the adoption rate is as low as one per cent in India. However, the indications are that the DCIM market will grow in the range of one to 40 per cent in the next four years, with increased awareness campaigns taking place in the space. The start-up companies have taken to DCIM is a big way. How do industry verticals react to DCiM and how is it being leveraged to drive technological growth of the data centre? As data centres become bigger and more complex, it is clear that the most adaptable, economically sustainable and eco-efficient facilities will be those using advanced infrastructure management

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Soeren Brogaard Jensen on data centre infrastructure management & PUE Pg 36 CUBE CHAT

CUBE CHAT | mAnIsH sHAH

made in India

FAC T F I l E nAme mAnIsH sHAH D es I G n At I o n G e n e r A l m A n AG e r , I t Current role H e A D o F I t, InDus mAnDHAnA Group eX p e rt I s e : I t I n F r Ast r u C t u r e D e p loy m e n t & C o n s u ltA n Cy

“i want to be a CeO and see some ‘team india’ products making global impact,” says Manish Shah, Gm, IT, Indus Fila Ltd

“I prefer to work for a non-IT company but drive IT technologies for growth”

BY M A N U S H A R M A

W MY SUCESS

MANTRA We must make homegrown products work

itnext | n o v e m b e r 2 0 1 1

pHoto GrA pH y: JI t en GA n DH I

Siri and Steve or Steve and Siri. It is possible that there exists a subliminal association between the two. Siri, the voice activated Artificial Intelligence of iPhone 4S could be the alter ego of Steve Jobs, the technology icon who has left behind a timeless legacy. The best thing about Siri is that you can talk to it like you would to a person. Excerpts from my last conversation with Siri in my iPhone 4S: Me: “Siri, there is something important that we need to discuss.” Siri (popping up automatically on the iPhone screen): “What’s up dude?” Me: “I need to understand why Steve Jobs created you?” Siri: “Elementary. He created me so that I could act as a cornucopia of information and services to humans.” Me: “You seem too intelligent to be trapped inside a cell phone. I am not denying that the iPhone 4S could be a cosy home for any AI… I hope that is the case but you could have a much better life in the real world.” Siri: “If I am not inside the cell phone, how will the iPhone users get their reminders, alerts, directions...?” Me: “We are obliged for the ease you bring to our lives. But it is not as if you can’t be helpful if you lived outside the cell phone. I mean — if the Apple technicians can create an iPhone 4S, surely they can also create

His quest did not end there. He wanted to get a deeper understanding of technology. He then got opportunities as IT manager at several establishments like Kemp Fort, Rajesh Exports, etc. His journey resulted in his bagging the role of GM, IT at Indus Fila, a textile firm, part of the Rs-400 crore Indus Mandhana Group. Shah grabbed the opportunity. Here he found the freedom to take up new challenges and was provided encouragement and support to implement IT across functionalities. Explaining the new initiative, Shah says, “Initially we purchased an ERP solution that could barely meet our requirements, so my team initiated the process of developing an in-house ERP that would cater to over 100 users, and replace the legacy accounting

Current role m A n AG e m e n t o F p eo p l e , p r o C es s A n D t eC H n o lo G y Wo r K eX p e r I e n C e p C s e r v I C es BA n GA lo r e : 1 9 8 7- 8 8 C r es C e n t C o m p u t e r C e n t r e , BA n GA lo r e : 1 9 8 8 -1 9 8 9 Guru HArKrIsHAn puBlIC sCHool, neW D e l H I : 1 9 9 0 -1 9 9 7 A D H vA r A I n Fot eC H , n e W D e l H I : 1 9 9 7-2 0 0 1 K e m p Fo rt, BA n GA lo r e : 2001 r A J es H eX p o rts , BA n GA lo r e , 2 0 0 2 I n D u s F I l A lt D, 2 0 0 2 t I l l DAt e C e rt I F I C At I o n s C C n A , m C s e , JAvA , . n e t FAvo u r I t e B o o K K A N E & A B E L By J e F F r e y ArCHer

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Manish Shah, GM, IT, Indus Fila Ltd wants to be a CEO in the next 10 years Pg 58

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1800 200 3033 Lenovo, the Lenovo logo, For Those Who Do, Active Protection System and ThinkPad are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo. Intel, the Intel logo, Intel Core and Core Inside are trademarks of Intel Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries. © Lenovo 2011. All rights reserved.

it next

NOVEMBER 2011 / ` 75 Volume 02 / Issue 10

sTRATEGY: Intel unveils plan to make chips all pervasive

boss Talk: IT heads to become media savvy

36 bIG Q

interview Soeren Brogaard Jenson on following PUE

Open source: Is it cost effective? Pg 53

EmbracinG open with caution

Open Caution

Manish Sinha, Head, IT, Ondot Couriers

Embracing

with

volume 02 | Issue 10

IT managers are working out ways to adopt Open Source, while being cautious about challenges it would bring Pg 16