August Issue

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FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs. AUGUST 2021

SIGNIFICANCE OF

ADOPTING OF LEGACY

APPLICATIONS P-22

SUMANA IYENGAR

CEO & CO-FOUNDER, GOAVEGA SOFTWARE PVT. LTD.

EDITOR’S LETTER

OPTIMIZING CX

Hello Friends.

Post pandemic things are going to be different.

There would be not much rush for anything.

CXOs would take everything steadily than before.

However, the demand for customers and customer satisfaction would be paramount for the CXOs. The GDP of the country is going up and many new companies are going public and even getting big investments from India and global funding companies. There is a good number of start-ups in India have valued more than US$1 billion in 2021.

This situation in India is quite satisfactory today.

Every year entrepreneurs are entering into billionaires’ club. Therefore, the opportunity in innovation is really big given the background that all the companies are cloud age and complete digital. All these companies have achieved the highest degree of customer satisfaction. Indian start-ups raised $7.8 billion in first four months of 2021.

The scope of employment is growing in this time frame and growth in infra – including DC, Cloud, security, etc. is inevitable. The interesting thing is that all these companies which have achieved the

NEXT MONTH SPECIAL

feat of billion-mark value are operating in hybrid mode. Majority of their employees are working from home. These companies have not only kept these companies immune from the cyber attacks but also helped grow in good numbers. Thanks to the IT leadership of these companies who have architected IT to achieve desired growth.

In 2021 only Indian startups got USD 16.9 billion of venture capital funding. Some of the notable VC funding deals announced in India during JanuaryJuly 2021 include USD 3.6 billion raised by Flipkart, USD 502 million raised by Mohalla Tech (ShareChat), Zomato’s capital raising of around USD 500 million, and USD 460 million raised by Think and Learn (Byju’s).

What these companies have achieved is that they have acquired customer loyalty. Majority of their customers are happy with their services. This is what is the objective of the companies. No modern-day CEO or promotor would want their company doing bad due to in adequate customer engagement, but it does not happen without any tool. So, these companies are complete digital and therefore they have achieved highest degree of transparency and visibility for the entire ecosystem including the promotors and office bearers. They are the inspiration to other companies who are still thinking about going digital.

The customers are so aware these days that create judgement quickly and drive their dissatisfaction in social media effectively.

All the traditional companies in India who are still thinking that they would do fine and grow without CX strategy is mistaken. There would be no time that they would be replaced by any start-up.

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

COVER STORY

SUPPLEMENT

CLOUD COMPUTING

QUOTES FROM TOP CIOS

The next issue is dedicated to the Cloud Computing. We would like to take feedback from the CIOs and OEMs and create our judgment on the same.

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

PLUS

Interviews and Case Studies

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

Send in your inputs to sanjay@accentinfomedia.com 4

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

CONTENTS

FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs.

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Chief Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra

V O L U M E 0 6 | I S S U E 0 5 | AUGUST 2021 | W W W . E N T E R P R I S E I T W O R L D . C O M

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

SECURITY

Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016,

18 MULTI-CLOUD ADOPTION: THE NEXT PHASE OF CLOUD DATA IN INDIA DATA CENTER: /19 Equinix Completes Acquisition of Two Data Centers in India

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Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.

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

ARE PVT. LTD.

20

26

22

28 SAAS

GUEST TALK

GUEST TALK

SUMANA IYENGAR

JEFF STOUT

PIYUSH AGRAWAL

“Paving the Way for DataDriven Media & Enterta inment”

“Significance of adopting modernisation of legacy applications”

“How CIO’s Can Prepare for Ransomware Attacks”

“customer Success in SaaS: the 80:20 effort ”

VIMAL VENKATRAM

SECURITY

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

5

ITWORLD

ROUND UP

LTI bags Golden Peacock National Quality Award 2021

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

Larsen & Toubro Infotech has been awarded the Golden Peacock National Quality Award 2021.

The award recognizes LTI’s consistent endeavour to deliver excellence while maintaining optimum quality benchmarks.

Golden Peacock Awards, instituted by the Institute of Directors (IOD), India in 1991, is considered to be among the coveted awards for corporate excellence worldwide. Golden Peacock National Quality Award (GPNQA) scheme has been instituted to encourage Total Quality improvements in both manufacturing as well as service organizations in India. GPNQA is presented to organizations in different industrial sectors, adjudged to have made the most significant achievement in the field of Total Quality.

This year’s edition included 146 applications shortlisted for the final round which were then scrutinised 6

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

through a three-tier assessment process. It involved an assessment group jury comprising experts from domain areas such as Risk Management, Innovation, Business Excellence, Learning & Development and Quality Management. Each of the application was reviewed by assessors independently, and was later discussed by the committee for normalization of assessments/reviews.

Sanjay Jalona, CEO and Managing Director, LTI said: “The knowledge-driven work culture of LTI inspires us to strive for perfection. This prestigious award is a testament to our commitment to quality and the perseverance of thousands of LTItes globally.

It motivates us to further scale up on our promise of business excellence to our clients across the globe.”

D ATA BRIEFING

India’s HCP Market Records an Improved Performance Clocking 103.5% YoY Growth in 2Q21, Reports IDC

Source: IDC 2021

ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

SBI Life accelerates its digital transformation journey with Dell Technologies’ IT solutions

Dell Technologies’ HCI solution, VxRail is enabling SBI Life Insurance to accelerate its digital transformation journey and offer prime experience to its customers amidst the ongoing pandemic. The association has allowed the insurance giant to introduce the cutting-edge IT solutions, make themselves future-ready, and execute operations in remote working conditions, flawlessly.

With the insurance sector moving at an extremely fast pace, SBI Life has always looked for ways to scale up their IT operations to strengthen its business continuity plans and adapt to the changing needs of the industry.

The need of the hour for SBI Life was to find the best possible solution, which helped in responding to the existing and future needs of their customers, by offering the highest level of data protection and addressing the security concerns of today’s data age.

To address these needs and enhance its exist-

CIO

8

ing IT Infrastructure, the company adopted Dell Technologies VxRail technology, along with technical support from Galaxy Office Automation Pvt. Ltd. While the engagement began as a future-proofing mechanism to enhance the remote working capabilities of the workforce in 2019, it soon became apparent that it was the ideal solution to handle the disruption caused by the pandemic in March 2020.

Customer Benefits: With the deployment of the new VxRail solution from Dell Technologies, SBI Life was able to offer a robust and reliable platform that was instrumental in enabling the workforce to continue working productively during the remote working phase, amid the nationwide lockdown in March 2020. The solution ensured secure and containerized access to corporate users who handled confidential and sensitive data.

Acies and Jackstien announce Joint Venture to build cuttingedge applications on Revolutio

Acies Consulting Pte Ltd and Jackstien Practices & Consulting International LLP have entered into a JV to service the increasing technology needs of the BFSI sector which spends upwards of INR 75000 crores annually, a figure that will spike as the sector rises to the challenges posed

by FinTech. With plans to grow to a USD 350 million entity in under five years, the JV will focus on high quality systems, intelligently designed by industry stalwarts to surpass international best practices.

This new venture will help in demonstrating how technology platforms can be expertly and thoughtfully designed to revamp operational management and control, decision making, regulatory compliance, market-risks, customer experience and cost of operations. This venture will be led by Nishant Shah, a Financial Services industry veteran and award winning senior international banker having more than 20 years of diverse experience across multiple global banks.

“Over the years across the industry, I have seen systems convert their users into near-hostages.

EVENTS

03 SEP 2021

28-30 SEP 2021

12-14 OCT 2021

Enterprise IT World Security Symposium and Cyber Sentinel Awards 2021.

DataOps Summit 2021 This virtual event focuses on “best practices, thought leadership, and technical education for the emerging domain of DataOps.”

Google Cloud Next ‘21 Google bills this as a way to “learn how the world’s leading companies are solving their biggest challenges in the cloud, and hear first-hand about their digital transformation journeys.”

ACCENT INFO MEDIA PVT. LTD.

ONLINE, VIRTUAL

VIRTUAL EVENT

ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

Cloudera Introduces Cloudera DataFlow for the Public Cloud

S/HE SAID IT

DR. ANBUTHAMBI BHOJARAJAN

PRESIDENT, ICT ACADEMY

“Technology has become part of every business. As technologies evolve, skilling will be key to employment and economic development. At ICT Academy, we continuously strive to develop a sustainable skill ecosystem right from the bottom of the pyramid by collaborating with corporates, government, and academia.

Cloudera launches Cloudera DataFlow for the Public Cloud, a cloud-native service for data flows to process hybrid streaming workloads on the Cloudera Data Platform (CDP). With Cloudera DataFlow for the Public Cloud, users can now automate complex data flow operations, boost the operational efficiency of streaming data flows with auto-scaling capabilities, and cut down on cloud costs by eliminating infrastructure sizing guesswork.

Data-in-Motion volumes are expected to grow exponentially, up to 79 ZB, across all industries, according to IDC’s Worldwide Global DataSphere IoT Device and Data Forecast, 2021–2025, and many organizations already leverage Apache NiFi to capture and process data across hybrid cloud architectures by visually designing no-code data flows.

While the cloud provides an easy outlet for processing or storing massive volumes, there are multiple challenges that must be addressed. Deploying dozens of sophisticated data flows into a single cluster can lead to

QUICK BYTE ON

operational and monitoring challenges.

When multiple NiFi flows compete for the same resources, it can lead to performance issues. IT administrators often choose larger infrastructure sizes out of caution, leading to underutilization and high costs. Finally, companies want a pay-as-you-go model to avoid paying for resources not in use.

“Cloudera DataFlow automates and manages cloud-native data flows on Kubernetes – and it is something only we offer,” said Dinesh Chandrasekhar, Head of Product Marketing, Data-in-Motion at Cloudera. “Now it is easy for our customers to boost the operational efficiency of their streaming workloads and save on infrastructure costs in the public cloud.”

“Companies are doing the balancing act between efficiency and performance on one side and cost control as they scale up their streaming workloads,” said Maribel Lopez, Founder & Principal Analyst at Lopez Research.

“Extending Platform Equinix to India with the addition of two world-class, highly interconnected data centers provides a platform for additional expansion across the country, and I am excited about the opportunities ahead for Equinix.

M A N OJ PA U L , M A N A G I N G D I R E CTO R , E Q U I N I X INDIA

SECURITY

SREI Adopts Trend Micro Vision One “Trend Micro Incorporated is providing a comprehensive suite of cybersecurity solutions to Srei Group of Companies, India’s leading asset finance and leasing institution. The company secured its endpoints and instances in the cloud within a month with the help of Trend Micro’s all-inclusive and robust solutions, which elevated its security posture. Being a large and diversified business group, Srei was looking for the right security partner who could offer a unified, comprehensive view of their entire security landscape. The extended detection and response (XDR) capabilities at the core of Trend Micro Vision One have empowered Srei to gain visibility across multiple security layers and also helped resolve skill and resource constraints by correlating security events to help reduce alert fatigue.”

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

IndiaITChannels – Becomes 10000+ Strong

AVEVA Helps Customers Upskill the Industrial Workforce with Launch of Cloud-Based AVEVA Unified Learning Solution AVEVA has announced the launch of AVEVA Unified Learning as part of AVEVA’s portfolio available on AVEVA Connect, common cloud platform. The new cloud-based employee development solution helps AVEVA customers advance industrial workers from novice to expert by using blended custom and generic experiential training modules, including AVEVA’s Process Competency Training, Pipeline Competency Training, and The Operations Excellence Group’s OEG Knowledge Library*.

Harpreet Gulati, Senior Vice President, Planning, Simulation and Optimization Business, AVEVA commented, “Effective training programs are essential to help prevent industrial accidents and ensure safety, especially when the workforce is inexperienced

EXECUTIVE

or unaccustomed to new plant technologies. As the name suggests, AVEVA Unified Learning combines a set of development elements within one cloud-based platform so training managers can customize learning development to each member of their workforce wherever they are. Experiential learning can now be delivered in safe, simulation-based environments while workforce competence and operational excellence can be tracked at the same time.”

AVEVA Unified Learning drives competency and consistency through experiential learning on a single platform, serving as a unique offering at a time when companies are focused on improving skills to contend with radically altered business environments and an influx of new staff.

A journey of perseverance, resilience and determination has paved ways to the rise of an incredible platform, IndiaITChannels (a product of IndiaIT360 Solutions Pvt. Ltd.) which is spearheading a new direction of business transactions. The IT Channel industry predominantly functioning on a retail model saw a stagnation of business during the pandemic, which provided us with an opportunity to bridge the gap and provide a solution for the channel industry. A digital platform that is assisting the partners to conduct their business transactions online and become digitally enabled for future progress.

The portal is supporting the IT Partners to take their business to another level by transforming the way they market, sell and operate their services. IndiaITChannels successfully has launched B2B and B2C page for the partners where they can create their own e-stores and catalogue page to manage, promote and update their latest products and services. Expansion of business is now an effortless process with opportunities of incremental customer database as well as a diverse sales portfolio for the partners.

The initiative has seen an overwhelming response from the industry with a 10000+ strong network already engaging with IndiaITChannels and prospects of adding another 10000+ by this year seems promising.

MOVEMENT

Kelly chan appointed as new web AVP Metallic scale at commvault APJ

NetApp India welcomes industry stalwart Vasanthi Ramesh to its engineering leadership team

10 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

Publicis Sapient Announces Appointment of Arthur Filip in Role of Chief Growth Officer

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

BOOK

SHELF

Corporate Chanakya: successful management the chanakya way

GLOBAL UPDATE

BY

RADHAKRISHNAN PILLAI (AUTHOR)

LoanTap Selects CyborgIntell’s AI Platform to amp up their digital lending solutions LoanTap, a homegrown digital lender, today announced its collaboration with Cyborgintell, an AI software company.

LoanTap has always maintained its brand image around providing flexible and friendly products for their consumers.

Through this collaboration, LoanTap aims at simplifying their overall journey and introduce a unique AI model in the digital lending space. The model will help develop and on-board quick AI solutions for better consumer service and minimize operational costs.

The inclusion of AI and ML algorithms will enable LoanTap to assess large quantities of consumer data, analyze consumer behavior, organize, and track consumer journey to prevent defaults, therefore improving the turn-around time for loan disbursals. AI will further guide the consumers throughout the loan journey, including reminders to repay timely, and develop consumer profiles which will eventually lead to us being able to service our consumers efficiently along with offering them an ideal product.

Gautam Sinha, Vice-President-

Technology, LoanTap said, “At LoanTap, we believe innovation is atour core, we have always aimed at re-inventing the financial dynamics, introduced fast loan processes for the convenience of our consumers.

This collaboration is a step forward in that direction, wherein we are aiming at financial inclusion. The adaptation of artificial intelligence will enable us to target our consumers and make internal processing of loans seamless, ultimately driving value for our customers with a customized, fast, and convenient experience.”

Suman Singh, Founder, and CEO of CyborgIntell adds, “We’re very excited to join hands with LoanTap and be a part of their success journey in helping them to be the new-edge AI-first lending company to source quality customers, offer instant loan decisions, and early warning indicators for loan default management. AI-First strategy is going to reduce customer acquisition cost significantly, reduce risk exposure, enhance revenue and improve their customer experience.

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RS. 299.00 (PAPERBACK) WHERE

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About The Book A pioneer of economics and political science in India, Chanakya was one of the most brilliant, tactful and shrewd economists and strategists of the Mauryan Era. Building the entire Mauryan Empire can be attributed to Chanakya’s witty principles and out of the box strategies.

Key Feature: • Corporate Chanakya holds a record for being a book with highest number of pre-release sales for any first book of an author.

• This book derives from the knowledge of Arthasastra, which was an ingenious masterpiece from which lessons can be used in current scenarios to achieve long term as well as short term success.

Aerospike Cloud Managed Service helps Dream11 Scale to Serve Millions of Concurrent Online Users Aerospike Inc. announced its partnership with Dream11, the world’s largest fantasy sports platform, to scale and meet requirements to handle millions of online users during the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) season. Powered by the Aerospike Real-time Data Platform, and deployed as a fully cloud managed service on AWS, Dream11 has improved performance, scale, availability and elasticity – while reducing the total cost of its online fantasy sports service.

Aerospike’s Real-time Data Platform powers real-time, hyperscale and data-hungry applications

with predictable performance. By eliminating many of the tradeoffs of traditional database approaches, Aerospike makes it possible for companies to quickly ingest and process vast amounts of data from multiple sources at massive scale—with up to 80% less infrastructure typically required.

Abhishek Ravi, Chief Information Officer, Dream11 and Dream Sports said, “Thanks to Aerospike’s expertise and our data-driven team, Dream11 along with other group companies of Dream Sports like FanCode and DreamPay, has become synonymous with sports fan engagement in India.

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

Commvault Receives Highest Product Scores for Three Out of Three Use Cases in the 2021 Commvault has given it the highest Product Scores across all three use cases in the 2021 Critical Capabilities report: datacenter environments (4.13/5), cloud environments (4.02/5), and edge environments (4.01/5). ¬This is the second year in a row that Commvault has achieved the highest scores in all three Critical Capabilities use cases as identified by the Gartner report.

Commvault was also recently named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions.

“In our opinion, Critical Capabilities dives deep into the technical facts behind the technologies evaluated,” said Ranga Rajagopalan, VP of Products, Commvault. “We’re thrilled to be the only vendor with the highest scores across the use cases of data center, cloud and edge environments, for the second year in a row, after having been named a Leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software Solutions for the 10th time. I believe that this is a great validation of what our customers love – breadth of Intelligent Data Services, flexibility to deploy as software, appliance or Metallic SaaS, and the continuous innovation we drive into our portfolio.”

COSEC ARGO FACE the Integrated Contactless Identification Device to Upgrade your Security The waves of pandemic all around, security, as well as hygiene, becomes a standard of measure for corporate working environments. Integrating aesthetics, hygiene standards, and technology, Matrix COSEC ARGO FACE simplifies your security concerns. With higher processing power, two in-built cameras, and a deep learning algorithm, it easily adapts to facial changes as well as serves as a surveillance grade camera.

With a sleek design and top-notch appearance, it brings the best in luxury alongside utility. With features such as impact-resistant and scratch-proof Gorilla glass, dust and water resistance, and vandal resistance, Matrix COSEC ARGO FACE covers all-round aspects of high-end access control devices.

With the integration of multiple credentials, this device stays tech-savvy and futureready. Few benefits that you bring into the workplace environment from using Matrix COSEC ARGO FACE are contactless authentication, high-speed Identification eliminating grouping, accurate imaging even in low light conditions, to name a few.

The perfect combination of performance and elegance, Matrix COSEC ARGO FACE is the answer for your organization.

StorONE Powers Scientific and Engineering Research Capabilities at University of Limerick StorONE, the software-defined enterprise storage platform company, today announced it has partnered with Wisetek, a global leader in advanced IT asset disposition (ITAD), data destruction, technology reuse and manufacturing services, to provide an innovative, new cloud storage solution to the University of Limerick that will be used for cutting-edge research and development projects.

StorONE’s Enterprise Storage Platform powers and optimizes Wisetek’s repurposed IT assets, known as an EcoBytz Storage Array, to deliver a storage solution that runs like new. The system is manufactured sustainably using repurposed parts, which is 12 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

a core tenet of the Wisetek business model and its internal culture.

StorONE’s Enterprise Storage Platform, powering Wisetek’s EcoBytz Storage Array provides a cost-effective alternative to large, international cloud storage providers. With two server nodes, with 64 available cores and more than 100 terabytes of hard disk drive and solid-state disk storage capacity, the StorONE-powered system enables researchers to run critical applications with the resources they need while allowing for remote compiling of complex projects online.

The StorONE solution enables block, file and object storage in a single array.

DIGEST SONICWALL, FUSION BPO SERVICES ENTER INTO STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP SonicWall has entered a strategic partnership with Fusion BPO services, a global BPO with headquarters in Kolkata, India and Draper(USA). SonicWall will offer its stateof-the-art next-generation firewalls (NGFW) for SMB, enterprise, and government organizations.

“SonicWall has been extremely proactive in attending to our business requirements and implementing the right solutions. Earlier we were managing two devices, one for UTM Firewall and other for SD-WAN. Sonicwall has enabled us to manage the firewalls better through one single platform,” further added Mr. Singh.

FORTINET AND HASHICORP ANNOUNCE FORTIMANAGER INTEGRATION WITH TERRAFORM TO AUTOMATE AND SIMPLIFY CLOUD SECURITY Fortinet announced integration between Fortinet’s FortiManager and HashiCorp Terraform to simplify and automate Day 0 and Day 1 operations for multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployments leveraging the Fortinet Security Fabric.

Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC at Fortinet, said, “With the integration between FortiManager and Terraform, Fortinet and HashiCorp are enabling organizations to automate security provisioning, eliminate errors caused by misconfiguration, and simplify the rollout and change management of security policies. Ultimately, this integration provides organizations with more confidence to implement new applications while reducing their infrastructures’ complexities.”

VPN DEMAND GROWS TOGETHER WITH CONCERNS ABOUT USERS’ PRIVACY As International VPN Day is approaching, a digital privacy expert talks about how virtual private networks are becoming mainstream According to Google Trends, over the past 8 years, interest in virtual private networks (VPN) has doubled and outgrown the demand for another popular cybersecurity product — an antivirus.

“Spikes in the demand for VPNs usually concur with cybercrime statistics or some important political decisions related to internet surveillance or privacy in general.

Virtual private networks help users to encrypt their traffic and browse with peace of mind, without third parties accessing their data.

As people face the dangers or restrictions, they tend to value their privacy, security, and freedom more.

NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD

MANAGEMENT

MANTRA

“The key to successful leadership today is influence, not authority.”

Kenneth Blanchard, American author, business consultant and motivational speaker

IronNet Expands Collective Defense in Singapore to Defend Against Cyberattacks

Adoption rate quadrupled in Singapore as industries join forces to strengthen their security posture in proactive defence IronNet, in its mission to transform cybersecurity through Collective Defense, announced that it is making the technology of its flagship Collective Defense solution available to all Singapore enterprises.

IronNet’s Collective Defense platform empowers organizations to stay ahead of evolving threats and better defend their network through real-time cyber attack intelligence sharing and collaboration across industries and sectors. The platform leverages behavioral analytics and artificial intelligence to deliver visibility across enterprise ecosystems, group-level detection and correlation, and instant collabora-

tion with fellow defenders.

General (Ret.) Keith Alexander, Founder and Co-CEO at IronNet Cybersecurity said, “It is very exciting to see IronNet’s Collective Defense platform expanding globally into Singapore. Our approach is truly a revolutionary one, enabling AI-based threat detection and collaboration across enterprises for a stronger, more proactive cyber defense.”

Gaurav Chhiber, VP of Asia Pacific and Japan at IronNet, said, “In the spirit of National Day this month, we are heartened to see strong adoption for Collective Defense across Singapore as more organizations realize they can maximise the effectiveness of their security investments against cyber threats through collaboration, and empower the nation with a transformational cyber defense. Given the shortage of skilled cybersecurity operations resources coupled with rapidly evolving cyber threats, it is vital to build a cyber defense framework that can leverage our collective wisdom across enterprises and help scale over time. This expansion of the Singapore Collective Defense community allows businesses in Singapore to detect threats together and defend together.”

Fortinet Unveils the Industry’s First High Performance NextGeneration Firewall with Integrated Zero Trust Network Access and Ransomware Protection

Fortinet unveiled the FortiGate 3500F NextGeneration Firewall (NGFW) to protect organizations with hybrid data centers against the ever-growing threat landscape and ransomware attacks. FortiGate 3500F offers some of the industry’s highest performance numbers, including TLS1.3, with automated threat protection post decryption. Additionally, FortiGate 3500F is built with zero trust network access (ZTNA) capabilities, further delivering consistent security and seamless user experience to any user at any location with its security-driven networking approach.

Evolving Threat Landscape Poses Security Risks Across Hybrid Data Centers With the shift to work from anywhere, organizations are adopting hybrid data centers to increase operational agility by deploying some resources across multiple clouds while keeping other business critical applications and data in on-premises data centers for compliance and control.

Cyware Partners with RiskIQ to Deliver Actionable Threat Intelligence Cyware, a Virtual Cyber Fusion platform provider, forges partnership with RiskIQ, an internet security intelligence company. The partnership combines advanced global threat intelligence automation with enriched, high-fidelity threat intelligence data to enable customers to more effectively respond to attacks.

“As we expand our partner ecosystem to facilitate more threat intelligence sharing and collaboration across the industry, this partnership with RiskIQ could not be a more perfect fit,” said Anuj Goel, CEO, Cyware. “The combination of Cyware’s Cyber Fusion solutions with RiskIQ’s rich internet security intelligence provides joint

customers with the next-level threat intelligence necessary to stay ahead of attackers and protect the business. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with this market leader to help customers make their security programs more efficient and effective.”

The integration extends across multiple solutions at both companies, including Cyware’s Threat Intelligence eXchange (CTIX) being integrated with RiskIQ PassiveTotal. The joint solution enables customers to embed automation more effectively into their investigations, empowering them to enrich data on demand from Cyware’s playbooks, access RiskIQ alerts

and artifacts seamlessly, and monitor the attack landscape. Also, Cyware has integrated RiskIQ’s RiskIQ PassiveTotal and ExternalThreats brand protection intelligence solution with its Security Orchestration Gateway Layer (CSOL) to orchestrate and aggregate threat indicators and observables across the entire Internet and social media landscape to prevent identity compromises and domain abuse.

The wide-ranging threat intelligence data delivered through RiskIQ enriches metadata for customers, including information on subdomains, cookies, trackers, and other factors.

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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF

FireEye Advances XDR Platform to Arm Security Operations Teams

Older, unpatched flaws in SSL VPNs routinely exploited The Tenable Security Response Team has identified three critical SSL VPN vulnerabilities CVE-2019-19781, CVE-2019-11510 and CVE-201813379 that continue to be routinely exploited by threat actors and ransomware groups. According to Cert-In’s advisory, these vulnerabilities were some of the most exploited in 2020.

Satnam Narang, Staff Research Engineer at Tenable has analysed how these three vulnerabilities have been exploited historically along with new reports of attacks in 2021. A more detailed overview on how many organizations have not applied available patches a year and a half after they were released and why it is important to fully update and properly configured SSL VPN

products to keep attackers out can be found in this blog.

“The research highlights that threat actors don’t need to spend capital obtaining or developing zero-day vulnerabilities, or burn the ones they already have when unpatched vulnerabilities remain a consistent challenge for organizations. This issue is reinforced by easy access to publicly available PoC and exploit scripts that attackers can repurpose in order to compromise organizations,” said Satnam Narang, staff research engineer, Tenable.

“VPNs are often unpatched because, unlike traditional IT assets, they are expected to be operational at all times and may not be configured for maintenance.

Reliable Industry IT and ITES industry, a key enabler in meeting the technology needs of companies are constantly vulnerable to cyber-attacks, requires a secure communication platform ~ The IT and ITES industry has been a key enabler in catering technological services to companies across the world. However, a collapse in communication and lack of collaboration can lead to miscommunication, hindrance, inaccuracies and inefficiencies. Especially, since employees are working from home it has created a strong need for secure enterprise solutions. In a 14 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

FireEye introduced FireEye XDR, a unified platform designed to help security operations teams strengthen threat detection, accelerate response capabilities, and simplify investigations.

The FireEye XDR platform provides native security protections for Endpoint, Network, Email, and Cloud with a focus on improving organizations’ capabilities for controlling incidents from detection to response. FireEye Helix unifies the security operations platform by providing next-generation security incident and event management (SIEM), security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), and correlation capabilities along with threat intelligence powered by Mandiant.

“Our superior knowledge of threats and the adversary is unmatched. Hands down, I believe we manage the best XDR platform in business by integrating threat intelligence into an advanced detection engine which is delivered centrally and extensibly via the cloud,” said Bryan Palma, EVP of FireEye Products. “Our XDR platform translates insight to action across more than 600 security technologies. FireEye XDRfurthers our mission to relentlessly protect our customers.”

FireEye’s Helix native cloud design provides an improved analyst experience allowing for the seamless integration of disparate security tools regardless of vendor or data source.

of IceWarp Empowers ‘IT and ITES’ bid to build secure communication infrastructure for the IT and ITES industry, IceWarp, a global leader in developing email communication and collaboration solutions offer a secure email collaboration platform to facilitate secure and encrypted communication.

As IT or ITES service providers are allocated with a huge amount of data and files, the cyber threats are difficult to ignore hence, using a secured collaborative solution for smooth remote working in a secure manner is of utmost importance. IceWarp, being a leading business

email and collaborative solution provider is effectively accelerating the industry with its collaborative tools and catering best-in-class connected experiences to improve productivity and to strengthen the culture of collaboration. To name a few, IceWarp’s solution is being leveraged

by AGC Networks Limited, Hinduja Global Solutions Limited, WNS Global Services (P) Ltd., Teleperformance Global Services Pvt. Ltd. & many more.

GROW YOUR BUSINESS // BUSINESS MANTRA

ABOUT WHEN LOOKING TO

GROW YOUR

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

BUSINESS

When you start a business there are going to be goals you are going to want to hit in terms of growth for your business. Sometimes growth does not happen as we would like it as it can be the toughest thing when running a business, but this does not mean you cannot implement some changes and see the growth take place, it is just about knowing where to get started.

If you run your own business or you are thinking of starting one, but you are unsure how to help your business grow and hit the goals you want to hit, then these few tips should help you to understand what changes can be made and help you to get started on growing your business.

Understand your current customer Too many people when looking to increase growth in their business automatically look to get-

ting in new customers and completely overlook the fact they already have some. You would see more growth and profit from utilising your current customers than going out and spending money trying to get new ones. Get them loyal to your business by giving them offers and get them to use the business more, it is so much easier to do that than get a customer that will only use you once and move on, loyalty in customers is a huge growth tool.

Grow the business with your growth Try and grow with your business by upscaling where needed, the thing with growth is it can then be hard to contain it within the business you currently have. You may need to mo ve offices to increase employees to meet demand or upgrade to a bigger shop with a bigger car park for you to

allow more customers at one time, you need to think about these repercussions when looking to grow your business. Make sure you use good moving companies too when you are looking to change offices or location, this is important because the better the movers the less downtime you will have while transitioning.

Utilise the internet In this day and age anyone that is not utilising the internet and digital marketing is going to struggle to grow. It has become such a power horse in these modern times that you can use it for anything.

To access the complete article log on to: www.enterpriseitworld.com

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

15

SECURITY // BABUK

16 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

BABUK // SECURITY

BABUK: DID THEY BITE OFF MORE THAN THEY COULD CHEW WHEN THEY AIMED TO ENCRYPT VM AND *NIX SYSTEMS? Executive Summary For a long time, ransomware gangs were mostly focused on Microsoft Windows operating systems. Yes, we observed the occasional dedicated Unix or Linux based ransomware, but cross-platform ransomware was not happening yet. However, cybercriminals never sleep and in recent months we noticed that several ransomware gangs were experimenting with writing their binaries in the cross-platform language Golang (Go).

Our worst fears were confirmed when Babuk announced on an underground forum that it was developing a cross-platform binary aimed at Linux/UNIX and ESXi or VMware systems.

Many core backend systems in companies are running on these *nix operating systems or, in the case of virtualization, think about the ESXi hosting several servers or the virtual desktop environment.

We touched upon this briefly in our previous blog, together with the many coding mistakes the Babuk team is making.

Even though Babuk is relatively new to the scene, its affiliates have been aggressively infecting high-profile victims, despite numerous problems with the binary which led to a situation in which files could not be retrieved, even if payment was made.

Ultimately, the difficulties faced by the Babuk developers in creating ESXi ransomware may have led to a change in business model, from encryption to data theft and extortion.

Indeed, the design and coding of the decryption tool are poorly developed, meaning if companies decide to pay the ransom, the decoding process for encrypted files can be really slow and there is no guarantee that all files will be recoverable.

Coverage and Protection Advice McAfee’s EPP solution covers Babuk ransomware with an array of prevention and detection techniques.

McAfee ENS ATP provides behavioral content focusing on proactively detecting the threat while also delivering known IoCs for both online and offline detections. For DAT based detections, the family will be reported as Ransom-Babuk!.

ENS ATP adds 2 additional layers of protection thanks to JTI rules that provide attack surface reduction for generic ransomware behaviors and RealProtect (static and dynamic) with ML models targeting ransomware threats.

Updates on indicators are pushed through GTI, and customers of Insights will find a threat-profile on this ransomware family that is updated when new and relevant information becomes available.

THIBAULT SERET, SECURITY RESEARCHER, MCAFEE

Initially, in our research the entry vector and the complete tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs) used by the criminals behind Babuk remained unclear.

However, when its affiliate recruitment advertisement came online, and given the specific underground meeting place where Babuk posts, defenders can expect similar TTPs with Babuk as with other Ransomware-as-a-Service families.

In its recruitment posting Babuk specifically asks for individuals with pentest skills, so defenders should be on the lookout for traces and behaviors that correlate to open source penetration testing tools like winPEAS, Bloodhound and SharpHound, or hacking frameworks such as CobaltStrike, Metasploit, Empire or Covenant.

Also be on the lookout for abnormal behavior of non-malicious tools that have a dual use, such as those that can be used for things like enumeration and execution, (e.g., ADfind, PSExec, PowerShell, etc.) We advise everyone to read our blogs on evidence indicators for a targeted ransomware attack (Part1, Part2).

Looking at other similar Ransomware-asa-Service families we have seen that certain entry vectors are quite common amongst ransomware criminals: n E-mail Spearphishing (T1566.001). Often used to directly engage and/or gain an initial foothold, the initial phishing email can also be linked to a different malware strain, which acts as a loader and entry point for the ransomware gangs to continue completely compromising a victim’s network. We have observed this in the past with Trickbot and Ryuk, Emotet and Prolock, etc. n Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190) is another common entry vector; cyber criminals are avid consumers of security news and are always on the lookout for a good exploit. We therefore encourage organizations to be fast and diligent when it comes to applying patches.

To access the complete article log on to: www.enterpriseitworld.com

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

17

SECURITY // MULTI-CLOUD ADOPTION

MULTI-CLOUD ADOPTION: THE NEXT PHASE OF CLOUD DATA IN INDIA SANDEEP BHARGAVA, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ASIA PACIFIC / JAPAN, RACKSPACE TECHNOLOGY

Digital technology has been advancing at breakneck speed in the last few years, giving companies access to powerful computing capabilities and better data storage and analytics, which enable firms to implement innovative technologies such as internet-of-things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.

Cloud plays a major role by supporting the delivery of needed IT resources on-demand amid the rapid digital transformation.

In India, cloud adoption accelerated during the pandemic as enterprises adopted new technologies to meet the demands of the business. To ensure business continuity, Indian enterprises 18 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

moved various critical business applications such as email, web hosting, customer relationship management (CRM), enterprise resource planning (ERP) and human resources (HR) to the cloud.

While cloud adoption in India is in its early stages, analyst survey shows adoption will increase at least 12% within the next two years, with multi-cloud as the preferred deployment model at a 28% growth rate within the forecast period.

To maximize the benefits of the cloud, enable utilisation of existing assets and technologies, scale up and down as needed and avoid vendor lock-in, many enterprises are adopting multicloud strategies.

The key, however, adopting to multi-cloud successfully is devising a strategy that considers consistent security, faster time to agility, ROI and the total cost of ownership (TCO).

The Multicloud Opportunity India is poised for significant growth as workforce talent and costs, sales maturity and advanced technologies create an attractive environment for companies to develop into globally competitive enterprises.

According to McKinsey, there is a great opportunity for India’s IT sectors, such as digital services in automation, cloud, AI, IoT and big data analytics to contribute to the country’s economic growth.

With this environment, the country’s public cloud services market, including internet-as-aservice (IaaS), platform-as-a-service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS), is predicted to grow at a CAGR of 22% between 2020 and 2024.

Investments in SaaS startups are also enabling the country to grow into a global supplier of cloud services. Moreover, the domestic demand for cloud is increasing as companies of all sizes digitalise and small and medium enterprises get better opportunities to compete in the market.

As companies progress on the digital transformation journey, the cloud is acting as the backbone for the adoption of all new technologies and will continue to be a vital part of modernization strategies.

Enterprises adopting a multi-cloud strategy are seeking constant availability and low latency, scalability, better data quality and improvements in ROI. However, enterprises need to be aware of app sprawl, compliance requirements and differences in vendor portals to ensure that multi-cloud adoption is effective, seamless and secure.

Effective Cloud Management The migration of applications and systems to the cloud is a complex process that must be planned and managed closely.

Taking advantage of the scalability of the public cloud, adopting edge computing capabilities and deploying mission-critical applications in a private cloud, require a strategy to allow data to be exchanged between systems and cloud environments.

It is estimated that by 2022, 30% of Indian enterprises will deploy various tools and solutions to manage their multi-cloud use.

Managed cloud service providers can help companies in navigating their digital transformation journey and assist them in designing a cloud strategy that works best with their IT environment.

With customisation, enterprises can get the most value out of applications and systems in the cloud. This also enables customers to gain multi-cloud connectivity in a secure, dedicated hosting environment and unite their entire hybrid environment across data center locations and multiple cloud providers.

To access the complete article log on to: www.enterpriseitworld.com

EQUINIX // DATA CENTER

Extending Platform Equinix to India with the addition of two world-class, highly interconnected data centers provides a platform

for additional expansion across the country, and I am excited about the opportunities ahead for Equinix. With the global footprint of Equinix and the industry’s largest ecosystem, we are well-positioned to be a critical part as well as a driving force of the digital revolution in India, helping businesses to leap forward domestically and globally.

Manoj Paul, Named India Managing Director for Equinix

EQUINIX COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF TWO DATA CENTERS IN INDIA Equinix completes acquisition of the India operations of GPX India. The US$161 million all-cash transaction includes a fiber-connected campus in Mumbai with two data centers.

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

E

quinix’s expansion into India will unlock opportunities for Indian businesses expanding internationally and for multinational corporations pursuing growth and innovation in the Indian market. With the upcoming 5G rollout in the country, companies can get ahead in the digital era with Equinix and benefit from the ability to accelerate their evolution from traditional to digital businesses by rapidly digitizing and scaling their infrastructure, easily adopting hybrid multicloud architectures and interconnecting with more than 350 international brands and local companies in India.

Equinix India will be led by Managing

Director Manoj Paul, a veteran with more than two decades of experience who will leverage his deep insights into the local data center industry to support the digital transformation journeys of businesses in India.

Highlights/Key Facts: From the acquisition, the two new International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centers in Mumbai, dubbed Equinix MB1 and MB2, form a network-dense data center campus with more than 350 international brands and local companies, including the world’s leading cloud service providers (CSPs), global networks, content delivery network (CDN) providers, all local

carriers, 170 internet service providers (ISPs) and five internet exchanges.

Home to the digital infrastructure of numerous global organizations, the two data centers in Mumbai provide an initial 1,350 cabinets, with an additional 500 cabinets to buildout. The facilities will add more than 90,000 square feet of colocation space to Platform Equinix® when fully built.

Equinix’s Mumbai campus offers a clouddense environment and direct access to major cloud services, including AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Dedicated Interconnect and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure FastConnect. It also hosts key internet exchanges such as AMS-IX India, Extreme IX, Mumbai IX-DECIX, National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and Bharat IX, allowing ISPs, carriers, CDNs and large enterprises to exchange internet traffic.

Equinix plans to introduce a full range of interconnection and digital infrastructure services, including Equinix Connect, Equinix Internet Exchange®, Metro Connect, Equinix FabricTM and Network Edge, in the new data centers upon the completion of the business integration. This will enable customers in India to connect in real time, directly and privately, to more than 10,000 companies, including more than 1,800 networks and 3,000 cloud and IT service providers, through Platform Equinix for increased performance, security and scale.

To access the complete article log on to: www.enterpriseitworld.com

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

19

GUEST ARTICLE // DATA-DRIVEN MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT

VIMAL VENKATRAM COUNTRY MANAGER, SNOWFLAKE INDIA

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

PAVING THE WAY FOR DATADRIVEN MEDIA & ENTERTA INMENT Not too long ago, media and entertainment companies relied on audience surveys, ratings and blockbuster charts to arrive at business and investment decisions. Insights to viewers’ wants and preferences were limited, and many projects were often hit-or-miss affairs. As digitalization continues to transform many industries, including the media and entertainment sector, the scenario is changing rapidly. With the availability of data from a host of content delivery platforms including mobile devices, computers and HD boxes, the entertainment industry is awash with tools to be predictive and more accurate in making decisions.

The amount of data the media and entertainment industry generates – from viewership records to social media sentiments, demographics to device data – combined with the accelerated adoption of digital technologies such as cloud, artificial intelligence and machine learning, presents vast opportunities for media and entertainment firms to understand what content, shows, movies and music consumers want. To harness the opportunities with the growth in content consumption, build up a comprehensive 360° view of their customers and open new revenue streams, industry players must solve their data challenges and empower their organizations to become truly data-driven.

Unlocking the Power of Data In 2020, India’s media and entertainment sector witnessed a shift in consumer demand and consumption patterns. As the whole country was forced to stay at home due to the health crisis, consumers turned to their mobile devices for 20 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

entertainment and information. According to the recent EY Media and Entertainment Industry Trends report[1], Digital and Over the Top (OTT) subscription registered the highest growth rate for the year 2020 at 49% (53 million subscriptions taken up by 28 million people, a 10.5 million increase from 2019), while Online Gaming was reported to be one of the fastest-growing segments in India as online gamers grew from 300 million in 2019 to 360 million in 2020. With the upcoming 5G rollout in the country, more entertainment and gaming innovations such as virtual and augmented reality will be introduced to the market. As such, the demand for hyperpersonalized content and immersive entertainment will continue to increase.

With the explosion of data, particularly in the OTT and streaming services space, new approaches to advertising, customer acquisition and product development are emerging. This has opened tremendous opportunities for companies within the media and entertainment sector in India to move seamlessly across platforms and stay competitive in a fast-evolving digital world.

However, gaining insights into audience preferences while complying with consumer privacy regulations is just one of the hurdles companies must overcome to provide engaging and customized experiences. Let’s look at a few examples elucidating importance of data in the media and entertainment vertical: n New product development and predictions on Audience interests: Viewing history, searches, reviews, ratings, location and device data, clickstreams, log files and social media sentiment are just a few data sources that help take the

DATA-DRIVEN MEDIA & ENTERTAINMENT // GUEST ARTICLE

guess work out of identifying audience interest and produce more relevant content. n Content monetization: Data can also help media and entertainment companies generate additional sources of revenues, suggesting new ways to incentivize consumer behavior, revealing the true market value for content, or identifying a new product or service opportunity.

Advertisements can be tailored to suit festivals, local weather and many other pivots allowing advertisers insights into which products will sell more under what conditions. n Effective advertisement targeting through micro Segmentation of customers: Since consumers access media and entertainment on multiple devices at the same time, it’s helpful to use big data insights to understand when consumers use a different device to consume the same content. With this, campaigns can be optimized across devices resulting in more apt and segmented advertising initiatives.

With the multitude of ways consumers access content, data proliferation and segmentation has become a challenge within the industry. To deliver personalized content and experience, companies should first create a single source of truth by storing, integrating, and querying all their data — whether structured or semi-structured—in a single location. By breaking data silos and leveraging data at scale, companies can aggregate data from various sources, gain market insights and create a holistic view of their customers.

As mentioned earlier, with data on consumers’ consumption patterns and habits, companies can enhance content development and acquisition and make better decisions on which projects to fund or which channels to launch their content.

Apart from a single data source, what organisations need are factors of near infinite scale, concurrency and performance so large workloads on data can be run in near real time, providing real time actionable insights.

The future of media and entertainment is data-driven To understand customer behaviour and preferences and uncover the factors that drive customer interest and churn, advertising, media and entertainment companies in India must unlock data-driven insights. With the help of platforms and data analytics technologies, companies can scale their use of data while complying with consumer privacy regulations and reducing their costs.

Through data-driven decision-making, companies within the media and entertainment sector can deliver personalized content and experiences, retain customers, grow their business and build a data-driven future.

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD

21

GUEST ARTICLE // ADOPTING MODERNISATION

SUMANA IYENGAR CEO & CO-FOUNDER, GOAVEGA SOFTWARE PVT. LTD.

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

SIGNIFICANCE OF ADOPTING MODERNISATION OF LEGACY APPLICATIONS The past two years, dominated by the global pandemic and the lockdown, has accelerated digital adoption and disrupted several businesses.

From E-commerce and cashless payments to no contact deliveries, online health consultation and digital classrooms, life as we knew it, has changed!

Under such circumstances, when technology adoption has taken giant leaps, a lot of businesses were forced to adopt quickly, and futuristically, given the continued acceleration in tech innovation. Under such circumstances, when resource optimisation and technology adoption have become vital, modernisations of legacy application has emerged as a significant need of the hour.

Modernisation of legacy applications, as a concept, simply refers to the updating/ upgrading of Software so as to be compatible with the more modern and emerging computing technologies, while bringing better agility, efficacy and speed to the operational and strategic functions of technology adoption. which include newer languages, frameworks and infrastructure platforms.

Further, upgrading or adopting a modernisation of applications, helps companies to fully leverage the technology infrastructure and assets, enhance their lifespan, while also leveraging the best of modern technology functions, while optimising resources.

of remote workplaces and enhanced data security.

Apart from making the operational network more agile and secure, data migration has also drastically contributed to optimising resources and integration of several tech solutions, including leveraging AI for data analysis and automation.

- UI/UX Modernisation: Enhanced customer success and customer experience has become a vital aspect for successful businesses, especially in the digital ecosystem, where efficient technology solutions become key differentiators in the overall customer experience. Modernisation of UX (User Experience) or UI (User interface, helps companies to leverage the best in automation, data analytics and smart solutions to cater to and enhance customer experience many fold, while optimising resource .

- Infrastructure Modernisations: Modernisation of technology infrastructure plays a major role in the overall development and up gradation of legacy applications. Unfortunately, it has been widely limited to just cloud migration when there is actually a lot more to this. Implementing microservice architecture, Cloud services and compartmentalisation, etc., all go a long way in creating an integrated, agile and efficient Infrastructural set up, which is vital for the overall Application modernisation process.

The three key areas where application modernisation has been making significant impact, include: - Data Migration: Movement of Data from stand alone, physical servers to larger cloud based network, can be termed as one of the most significant aspect of application modernisation.

This can be termed ‘re-hosting’ or ‘lift and shift’ approach to data modernisation. This aspect has several benefits, especially in the current scenario

Some of the key benefits of modernisation of legacy applications, can be further elaborated as: - Integrated and Compatible IT infrastructure: A modernised tech infrastructure allows for easy and smart integration of several other tech enabled processes. This can, in turn, lead to smarter, faster and seamlessly functional operational network, that can leverage the best of AI and Automation and Smart Data analytics.

22 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

- Optimisation of Resources: One of the key benefits of modernisation of legacy applications is the opportunity to transform old assets into more relevant and smarter versions, thus optimising them. Modernisation also ensures that the best in emerging technology and processes are made available at a fraction of the cost, and results in more energy, and cost effective solutions.

- Speedy and efficient operations: Upgrading and integration of modern technology processes eventually leads to faster and more efficient operations, on a regular basis. Further, it also facilitates easy co-ordination between different departments and teams, in a secure, and effective manner, in spite of the geographical distance.

- Improved Customer Satisfaction: Improved operational efficacy eventually translates into improved customer experience. By leveraging AI and data intelligence, it is further possible to enhance service efficacy and thus improve customer satisfaction.

- Robust Security and Scalability: Modernisation of applications has proven to be a boon to businesses as technologies like cloud migration have evolved to make data more secure and accessible. This has also resulted in agility and scalability, in the long run, as data now doesn’t need to be stored in stand alone servers which would be huge energy and resource guzzlers.

From the above listed points, it is clear that modernisation of legacy application is the only way forward for existing tech support companies to further grow and continue to remain relevant.

With an increasingly robust digital economy and business space now taking shape, across the world, modernisation is inevitable if Indian Inc., would like to continue to remain a key contender for a winning position, in global economy.

ADOPTING MODERNISATION // GUEST ARTICLE

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 23

GUEST ARTICLE // AI AND ML

VIKAS BHONSLE CEO, CRAYON SOFTWARE EXPERTS INDIA

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

AI AND ML - THE GAME CHANGING DUO IN THE SAAS INDUSTRY Over the past few years, we have been observing the global evolution of the SaaS market. SaaS solutions are today spanning across horizontals and verticals, creating products for both individual and enterprise, and segmenting their markets to specific customer size. Analysts believe the market will grow @12% every year and by 2022, the volume of investments will reach a staggering $141 billion.

However, in all this, there is one common underlying factor - the foundation of all these solutions is built on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML).

AI and ML have been the two most influential factors to impact SaaS businesses and have become the fundamental constituents of the SaaS landscape. With AI’s infusion, the industry today can see business categories that were non-existent earlier. AI has made several enhancements to the SaaS solutions that are currently driving the market growth.

Following are four areas, where we can see game-changing impact of AI and ML in the SaaS industry.

Tailor-made services Consumers today are looking for personalized user experiences from any product or service - be it B2C or B2B. A one-size-fits-all template is an obsolete concept, especially when it comes to SaaS-usage. For instance, in general practices UIs are first designed taking into account the designer’s idea of the product. If the design is 24 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

not upgraded sooner or later, it will lead to the discord of options and redundancy. AI and its subset like ML and NPL (Natural Language Processing) is making it possible for solution providers to design tailor-made user interfaces and user experiences (UI/UX). Applying AI, the customer’s usage history data will reveal patterns that will help the product teams to understand their usage behaviour and also their preferences.

Consumers today have the choice of multiple providers to switch to, in case their needs are not specifically served by the solution.

Big Data The SaaS industry’s growth can be credited majorly to the accumulation of Big Data - a massive pool of untouched information for companies. But the data volumes are ever-increasing, and companies are struggling to manage the same. AI and ML together can enable a much more automated means of mass data processing.

With the help of automated data analyses, businesses can understand their product usages trends and identify areas that demand further improvement. This helps not only businesses to prevent and resolve any potential outages faster, but also to identify redundant features that can be either discontinued or changed. Businesses are better equipped to understand customer usage patterns and can use this data to give intelligent feedback.

Automation

AI AND ML // GUEST ARTICLE

SaaS offerings are also being popular because they provide a greater degree of automation, again largely enabled by AI. AI essentially aggregates large quantities of data and filters it into automatic processes. Automation allows companies to respond to customer needs automatically, with less reliance on human resources.

Chatbot is a great example here. A chatbot is a computer program designed to provide automated replies to preliminary queries of customers visiting a website or an app. It dismisses the need for a human assistant round the clock.

Hence, companies can respond and troubleshoot customer inquiries automatically, making customer relations management faster and efficient.

It can be an extension of the larger customer service team. An example could be, the banking services using AI to register the requirements of the customer before connecting them to the appropriate department, where they may have a person-to-person interaction for further services.

However, chatbots are not expected to replace human interactions completely. AI will add more value when it is used in conjunction with humancentric services. Together, they can drive the SaaS model further.

Marketing Marketing activities today are leveraging AI and ML techniques. AI principles and applications are directly applied to marketing concepts for targeting, acquiring and retaining customers.

Here comes the term Marketing Technology (MarTech). MarTech can be a range of software and tools that assist in achieving marketing goals or objectives, and is a growing industry, both in size and scale. When MarTech software adopts AI applications in order to boost the RoI and effectiveness in SaaS and Cloud operations, we can safely term it AI Marketing.

For instance, while running cross-promotional activities or loyalty programs, large organizations will be collecting a fair amount of data for AI and ML to analyse. The analysis can help businesses to nail down their insight into potential customers.

Conclusion The impact of ML and AI will be clearly visible practically in every application and industry, in the coming few years. Today, almost all modern business applications are delivered via the cloud.

Having that settled, SaaS and cloud-based application providers should continue to deliver the competitive benefits of AI and ML to customers. Companies who want to stay relevant and updated do not have a choice but to adopt both the technologies while also ensuring full compliance with all regulatory requirements and keeping customer data fundamentally safe at all times.

AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 25

SECURITY // RANSOMWARE ATTACKS

26 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD AUGUST 2021

RANSOMWARE ATTACKS // SECURITY

HOW CIO’S CAN PREPARE FOR RANSOMWARE ATTACKS The ransomware threat is worse than ever, and there’s no end in sight. The damage caused by ransomware nearly doubled from $11.5 billion USD in 2019 to over $20 billion in 2020, and 2021 is shaping up to be even worse. In 2021, we’ve already seen some of the biggest ransomware attacks ever, including a $40 million dollar ransom paid by CNA financial.

At the same time, with the COVID-19 lockdowns, companies are more vulnerable to cyberattacks than ever before. More and more business is moving online, meaning that disruption of IT systems has a bigger impact than ever before.

This presents a unique challenge for CIO’s.

Although most ransomware attacks are not caused by any mistake on the part of a CIO, it’s the CIO that usually has to answer for it. Thankfully, there are a number of preventative and preparatory measures that can reduce both the incidence of ransomware attacks and the severity of attacks when they do occur.

Keep Your Baseline Security Strong The vast majority of ransomware attacks happen due to neglecting basic security features. Multifactor authentication, locking down RDP ports, next-generation antivirus software, and always keeping up to date with patches and updates are all essential.

If you can afford to have someone in house monitor network activity, this can also help to detect the presence of an attacker in the network and prevent a ransomware attack. There’s also many third party services that can remotely monitor network activity.

Prepare for the Worst It’s good to be optimistic, but it’s important, especially these days, to prepare for the worst. It’s

easy to concentrate on preventing ransomware infections, because that’s the best case scenario, right? No hacks at all.

The reality is that almost every company will get hit by ransomware at some point, so it’s necessary to prepare for it. One of the most important actions is to prevent lateral spreading of ransomware through a network. This is accomplished by using strong passwords and implementing multi-factor authentication within a network.

Strong, regular backup procedures are also key.

If you have current backups, recovering from a ransomware attack can be as simple as refreshing your network. It’s important to take care when securing backups, though, as they are one of the first things attackers will look for.

It’s also a good idea to encrypt data stored on servers. As many companies improve their backup procedures in response to the ransomware threat, more and more hackers are relying on threats to publicize sensitive data. This could be trade secrets, or sensitive information about clients. If data is encrypted, even if hackers access it, they can’t use it for blackmail.

Another way to prepare is to have a well thought out ransomware response plan in place.

Many times, ransomware victims panic when an attack happens and make bad decisions. Hackers are aware of this, so they will try to pressure victims by putting time limits on them, like demanding payment within 48 hours, and then threatening to double the ransom if they are not paid.

It’s possible to rehearse a ransomware response plan in advance, so when it actually happens it’s just a matter of following the steps in the plan.

Don’t Underestimate the Human Factor It’s a common mistake to focus excessively on

ABOUT THE AUTHOR JEFF STOUT IS A CYBERSECURITY CONSULTANT WITH BEFORECRYPT. HIS WORK BRINGS HIM INTO CONTACT WITH BOTH VICTIMS AND HACKERS INVOLVED IN ONGOING RANSOMWARE CASES ON A DAILY BASIS.

technical solutions. You might think because you have the latest next-generation anti-malware software, machine learning powered endpoint detection and response, and robust update and patching procedures that you’ve covered your bases. This is not the case— while many ransomware attacks use some kind of software vulnerabilities, the majority of attacks rely on phishing.

There are two ways to reduce the risk of phishing attacks. One is to apply the principle of least privilege, and the other is to increase phishing awareness among employees. By using both of these approaches, it’s possible to optimize anti-phishing efforts.

The principle of least privilege means that everyone who uses a network only has the absolute minimum privileges they need to do their job.

By implementing this principle, it’s possible to see which employees are a higher risk for phishing, and focus phishing awareness efforts on them.

Another issue is trust. Some ransomware gangs are now offering bounties of up to $100,000 USD to employees who are willing to inject ransomware into a company’s systems. So be nice to your employees!

A Little Bit of Prevention Goes a Long Way It may sound kind of intimidating. Many of these security upgrades mean totally restructuring workflows and in some cases network architecture. However, even implementing a few of these precautions can prevent a huge number of potential ransomware attacks.

For example, a huge number of attacks use unsecured RDPs or some form of phishing attack.

By simply securing RDPs and taking some time to regularly brief employees on the latest phishing techniques, ransomware attacks can be reduced substantially.

To access the complete article log on to: www.enterpriseitworld.com AUGUST 2021 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 27

SAAS // CUSTOMER SUCCESS IN SAAS

CUSTOMER SUCCESS IN SAAS: THE

80:20 EFFORT Customer acquisition is challenging. However, in Software as a Service (SaaS) businesses, interestingly, the real challenge starts after the customer is acquired. Customers want their SaaS providers to solve their problems without the “legacy” of managing the SaaS provider’s system.

Therefore, after the initial agreement, they start with a prototype or proof of concept (POC) with a bounded customer commitment, also called a trial or limited usage plan. Then, as they realize outcomes, they start paying more with increased adoption, while others, due to various limitations, stay with the Basic or lower-end usage models. Accordingly, SaaS providers serve a broad revenue range of customers from very low to high revenue streams with this approach.

The customer success manager (CSM) is critical to make the SaaS deployments successful and push their customers to higher-paying usage models. On the one hand, the 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle, will urge the CSMs to focus on the customers that generate the most revenue with optimal effort. However, the other 20% is still a substantial revenue for the SaaS provider and offers a nurturing base to convert those customers to higher-paying models. So how should SaaS providers distribute their work effort to manage both these customer segments?

Team Setup for 80% Accounts The actual breakdown will vary from one SaaS company to the next, but let’s call the two segments 80 and 20 %, respectively. SaaS companies manage the former segment by the traditional approach with accounts assigned to CSMs based on experience, skillset, and existing relationships.

They establish sub-teams based on strategic, growth, enterprise, or other such variations.

I recently talked with an Asia Pacific region CS leader of an NYSE-listed company. He assigned accounts to his CSMs such that each was responsible for about $4M revenue. That number could come from 2 or more than 40 accounts.

The work involved for each CSM, irrespective of the number of accounts, was equally intense given the nature of his company’s business.

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Bringing in another Pareto rule, the critical point he made was to be in front of customers 80% of the time – talking and interacting with customers meaningfully. The rest, 20%, was administrative, preparation, and record keeping.

Another global leader of a European finance company mentioned that his team is currently evolving and consists of both farmers and engagement managers with technical skills. Since his company’s platform is heavy on the technical aspects, his group focuses on retention. He expects a dedicated sales team to own the upsell/ cross-sell elements of the job eventually. These conversations finally zeroed in on their respective efforts and experimentations to increase every customer’s lifetime value, a very sensitive topic with investors, driving SaaS company valuations.

Labor Challenges Both these individuals also reiterated the importance of outcome-based interactions. But the maturity required from CSMs to be effective in this measure is simply in short supply. The former CS leader mentioned that he expects all CSMs to have some sales experience to appreciate acquiring and retaining customers. He said that a good CSM might need more than five years of sales experience as a farmer.

Given the ease at which customers can switch their SaaS usage on and off and move to competitive solutions, assigning a CSM to every customer account, no matter big and small, is not an option.

Companies can no longer offer their customers just a help desk contact number and address.

Support staff cannot be good CSMs. But amongst this demand, there is limited CSM supply, and asking salaries have gone up a lot. Today, the job boards display an insatiable need for CSMs with hundreds of thousands of open CSM positions worldwide.

Managing 20% Revenue Base SaaS CSM leaders are struggling to manage the lower 20% revenue customer bracket. For example, a third CSM leader I talked with mentioned his 20% bracket comprises accounts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR PIYUSH AGRAWAL ENTERED THE IT INDUSTRY IN THE EARLY 90S WITH STINTS AT INFOSYS AND CITIBANK OFFSHORE DEVELOPMENT UNITS WHEN THEIR REVENUE WAS BARELY 10 MILLION USD. HE HAS EXPERIENCED AND INFLUENCED FIRSTHAND THE TRANSFORMATIONS THROUGH THE Y2K, DOT COM, SOCIAL MEDIA, AND RECENTLY SOFTWARE-AS-A-SERVICE (SAAS) REVOLUTIONS IN THE IT SECTOR FROM THOSE DAYS TO NOW. PIYUSH IS CURRENTLY SUPPORTING THE BOOMING SAAS INDUSTRY AS A LEADING THOUGHT LEADER, INFLUENCER, AND TECHNOLOGY ENABLER VIA HIS LATEST INITIATIVE, LATVIV, THAT OFFERS A COMBINATION OF CONTENT, SERVICES, AND SOFTWARE TO HELP VENDORS MANAGE THEIR CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS BETTER. PIYUSH IS THE PUBLISHED AUTHOR OF THE BOOK “HELPING CUSTOMERS WIN” AND IN THIS BOOK HE HAS CAPTURED RELEVANT CUSTOMER SUCCESS EXPERIENCES FROM HIS LONG CAREER TO EQUIPPING THOSE NEW TO THE WORKFORCE OR LOOKING FOR A JOB IN THE CUSTOMER SUCCESS FIELD. TO HELP VENDORS INSTITUTIONALIZE THE RECOMMENDATIONS IN THIS BOOK, PIYUSH FOUNDED LATVIV, A SAAS PLATFORM THAT ASSISTS CUSTOMER SUCCESS LEADERS. LATVIV’S GOAL IS TO MAINTAIN THE SPARK IN CORPORATE RELATIONSHIPS DURING IMPLEMENTATIONS, DEPLOYMENTS, AND BEYOND. IT IS WORTH MENTIONING THAT LATVIV IS THE COMBINATION OF TWO ROOT WORDS, “LAT” AND “VIV.” THEY STAND FOR RELATIONSHIP AND VITALITY—COLLECTIVELY STANDING FOR VITALIZING RELATIONSHIPS.

CUSTOMER SUCCESS IN SAAS // SAAS

that pay $150 a month, among others at $10K or more. So collectively, this 20% revenue is not pocket change. But it is distributed across so many accounts that CSMs cannot spend more than, say, 30 mins a month calling/texting / persuading customers to use SaaS products more and buy more.

My take is that CSMs should provide adequate attention to these accounts. If labor is limited, perhaps explore automation to congratulate on usage intelligently, suggest tooltips for product use, and share availability to arrange 1×1 meetings. The key is to convey the importance of this segment to the

SaaS provider. This customer segment’s journey could start small, but with efficiencies can be a profitable standalone group.

The Way Forward SaaS trend has evolved fast into a significant tech business with huge potential, fuelling the global startup ecosystem. To take India alone, Bain & Company projects the estimated revenue by Indian SaaS companies to reach USD 18-20 billion by 2022. In addition, NASSCOM projects the Indian SaaS ecosystem is estimated to create USD 1 trillion in value and nearly half a million jobs by

2030, driven by accelerated digital transformation and automation in business.

SaaS, startups, SMEs, and MSMEs are yet to completely figure out how to manage this increasing customer base and CSM teams. However, given the wealth coming into this sector, SaaS companies are ready to make technology investments. One of the above CSM leaders said that the CS practice is just starting out and barely out of its infancy. Accordingly, the SaaS industry is going to see a lot of innovation in customer success very soon.

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CASE STUDY // MATRIX

MATRIX PROVIDES COMPREHENSIVE PEOPLE MOBILITY SOLUTION TO MINISTRY OF FINANCE, INDONESIA Introduction Right from the era of Kingdoms in Indonesia, financial management has existed. The Ministry of Finance is an institution under the Indonesian Government, which has an important role in conducting economic development. In Indonesia, the important role of the Ministry of Finance is managing the state’s finances and assisting the leader in the state’s finance and asset. Therefore, the Ministry of Finance can be considered as the guard of state finance.

BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Challenges After having a word with Ministry officials, Matrix got to know that the organization faced many issues when the users had to place their palms on the surface of the palm geometry reader.

This resulted in making devices dirty. Moreover, such devices were not able to reflect real-time attendance in the system. Hence, they were not getting correct time-attendance data for timely and accurate salary payment. To resolve all the above challenges, they wanted the latest contactless technology for a centralized time-attendance solution, which can connect its 141 locations with the head office in Indonesia. Furthermore, they needed a solution that can be easily integrated with their own time-attendance and payroll software.

Solutions With extensive study of the existing system and client requirements, Matrix gave a comprehensive People Mobility Solution to the Ministry of Finance, Indonesia that took care of all their business challenges. Matrix provided a centralized solution, which connects 141 different locations with the COSEC CENTRA server to their corporate head office located in Jakarta. Attendance of each employee can be marked from any location as all the terminals are interconnected with each other and with the central server through a VPN network. User credentials will be transferred automatically to every device connected with the COSEC CENTRA server. It will prevent users to enroll at every location. Furthermore, Matrix provided COSEC DOOR PVR, which is a contactless technology that reads the internal vascular pattern of the palm and gives accurate results to provide utmost security and hygiene.

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These palm patterns are unique to each individual and exist underneath the skin layer so they cannot be faked, thereby making it more secure than any other biometric technology.

Results n Reduced Salary Calculation Time by 80% n Improved Productivity n Error Free Time-Attendance Data for Salary n Faster Decision Making with the Help of Informative Reports

Products Offered n COSEC DOOR PVR - Biometric Palm Vein based Door Controller n COSEC ENROLL PALM - Palm Vein Enrollment Station n COSEC LE CENTRA - Web-based Application Software Platform For further information, please contact: Toll Free – 1800-258-7747 E-Mail: inquiry@matrixcomsec.com

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Date of Publication: 28 of Every Month Date of Posting: 1 & 2 of Every Month

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