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he fast evolving mobility landscape has the potential to transform businesses and the world at large. It has enabled the creation of a collaborative, interactive environment for workplaces that transcends geographical boundaries. In today’s cut-throat competition, enterprises are realizing the power of mobility for anytime, anywhere communication. A mobile workforce has become an imperative to meet the growing customer demands in a realtime, eicient and efective manner.
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According to Manoj Khilnani who leads marketing initiatives for BlackBerry Enterprise Solutions in India and is responsible for developing marketing programs, enterprise channel management and business development, “Moving beyond boardroom discussions, mobility has emerged as a top priority across enterprises of diferent sizes and sectors. According to a recent BlackBerryCMR ‘India Enterprise Mobility’ report, 71% of organizations either have a mobility policy or are in the process of crafting one, clearly indicating a strong shift to mobility.” According to Adrian De Luca, chief technology oicer of Hitachi Data Systems Asia Paciic, a key impetrative will be the increasingly critical intersection between business and information technology. "The era of Business-Deined IT is here, and the time for IT to embrace the third platform that is built on mobile devices, cloud services, social networks and big data analytics is now. The CIO must respond to these requirements and become an architect and broker of business services rather than a technology-builder focused on data centre infrastructure," said De Luca. And according to Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, India & SEA, Trend Micro, “The Internet is an arrangement of connected, yet autonomous networks and devices. Each device or host, uses protocols or set of rules in order to communicate with other devices within a network. Simply put, the Internet is used to send and receive information quickly between devices and people all around the world. While the Internet of Everything—or the concept that interconnects people, data, things and processes—is projected to play a rather large part in the future of technology, it still lacks development in terms of utility and security.” In 2012, the number of connected devices surpassed the human population. While some tech experts believe that the IoE still has to prove itself and that much credence is needed to baptize the concept into the present landscape, the number of smart devices is still projected to reach 50 billion by 2020. In the wake of frequent security breaches and data theft, security and control of devices will be the key requirements for implementing a robust mobility solution. Business agility across functions especially customer facing teams and increased productivity will be the key drivers of enterprise mobility in the coming years. CIOs need to evaluate a combination of
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Manoj Khilnani As the ecosystem matures and more players come in, Internet of Things (IoT) is all set to become a reality. 2014 laid the foundation for the next phase of connectivity. Data management, analytics and cloud intelligence will become critical focus areas for enterprises of the future as IoT (Internet of Things) becomes a reality.
management scenarios to cover their mobility needs, which vary based on geography, compliance requirements, role, risk proile and several other factors. The upcoming trend of COBO or Corporate Owned Business Only, will ix some of the concerns related to BYOD. The COBO model ofers businesses a new way of acknowledging and embracing consumerization by giving some control back to IT without depriving users of the choice of devices that make them more productive. Enterprise applications will continue to be strong drivers of enterprise mobility, creating new ways of working, and transforming existing business processes. The integration of
development of intelligent social infrastructure solutions that combine advanced analytics, the IoT and machine-to-machine interaction. According to Manoj of Blackberry a smart city is one that is connected, has high living standards and uses technology as its backbone. Sustainable economic development and wise management of natural resources, through participatory action and engagement form the basics of a model smart city. Data analytics to provide eicient solutions to management, wireless sensor networks to deliver data on a real-time basis, automated building security and surveillance systems, requiring minimal human intervention, and Wi-Fi-powered open spaces and houses that ensure always-on, high-speed connectivity are some attributes of a Smart City. Smart cities are connected with Internet to enable more productivity, features and eiciency in the daily lives of the inhabitants.
Smart city initiatives will drive greater investment in the Internet of Things
Our existing cities need to get smarter to keep up with the burgeoning urban population, while the mid-sized cities need better living standards and rural areas need basic access to utilities. The concept of smart city is inluenced by the idea of expanding urban hubs which would leverage technology to provide better electricity and water supply, improve sanitation and recycling, put proper traic and transport management systems in place. Technology will play a crucial role in the development of smart cities in terms of network, mobile devices, applications, solutions and a complete connected experience. In an emerging market like India, mobile devices will be the enabler in the development of smart cities. M2M (Machine 2 Machine) technologies will play a signiicant role along with the delivery platform as the point of access. Security concerns and data management will also be important focus areas as we move ahead to the next phase of connectivity.
Governments across APAC, including Japan, India, China, Sri Lanka and South Korea, are embarking on smart city initiatives to tackle urban challenges, manage energy and resource consumption and prepare for further growth. These nation-building initiatives across the region will drive signiicant momentum in the
The expansion of urban hubs and modernization of mid-sized cities will provide job opportunities to the youth and ease the pressure of the metropolitan cities. This will bring down migration igures from rural areas to a few limited urban cities. Infrastructure revamp and development of real estate will mobilize
mobile applications with businesses will drive a new wave of productivity and eiciency in enterprises, Manoj added.
Smart City:
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"Smart cities will require an unprecedented scale of computing, network, storage infrastructure and new software architectures, which are optimized to deal with the ever increasing volume, velocity and variety of data," said Adrian De Luca, Chief Technology Oficer, Asia Paciic, HITACHI DATA SYSTEMS.
employment opportunities. Additionally, this will spur innovation, enable economic upliftment and foster entrepreneurship.
Challenges & Key security issues According to Manoj in this increasingly connected world, technologies that connect to machines and devices for seamless communication and interaction are gaining greater prominence than those that connect people to people. Connected devices are rapidly becoming the norm in the enterprise space and simply put, the potential of M2M technology is limitless. The ecosystem of connected devices and machines will grow exponentially in the coming times. Internet-enabled smartphones, watches, white goods, home entertainment systems, controlled lighting systems, reading devices, robotic healthcare systems, etc are all bringing together a connected world. Smartphones and mobility devices in the hands of the common man today have the potential to spearhead the IoT movement. As per Gartner, IoT will include 26 billion units installed by 2020, and by that time, IoT product and service suppliers will generate incremental revenue exceeding $300 billion, mostly in services. While IDC expects the technology and services revenue of IoT to expand from $4.8 trillion in 2012 to $7.3 trillion by 2017 at an 8.8% CAGR; Cisco estimates that 50 billion devices and objects will be connected to the Internet by 2020. With the smartphone and internet revolution, India is not far behind in the larger scheme of IoT.
number and utility of smart, connected devices will only increase means that the boundaries of the modern organization are being stretched to include hundreds or even thousands of end points possessing access to the most precious assets, such as intellectual property and other sensitive personal information. Security in this environment cannot be an afterthought. It must be built-in at every layer -- hardware, software and network infrastructure -- to ensure end-toend protection. There is a need to look at the complete lifecycle of the security architecture from design through to implementing products and technologies and managing the network over time. While IoT has the power to change our future forever, if we do not lay a secure and reliable foundation, it could also lead to catastrophic damages. Moving beyond building speciic products or solutions, the next steps in IoT should be drafting standardized policies,
security frameworks and infrastructures. IoT is not a fad and is here to stay. We need to connect and invest responsibly for the next technology revolution. BlackBerry is uniquely positioned to be a leading player in the M2M and IoT space with QNX and our open mobility ecosystem approach. BlackBerry and QNX have a long history of developing solutions that can create a connected ecosystem of devices and machines. Solutions that connect and support the IoT, including embedded platforms, networks and devices, are at the core of QNX oferings. Over the past 30 years, QNX software has become a big part of everyday life. People encounter QNX-controlled systems whenever they drive, shop, watch TV, use the Internet or even turn on a light. Its ultra-reliable nature means QNX software is the preferred choice for life-critical systems such as air traic control systems, surgical equipment, and nuclear power plants. Global leaders such as Audi, Siemens, General Electric, Cisco and Lockheed Martin depend on QNX technology for their in-car electronics, medical devices, industrial automation systems, network routers and other mission- or lifecritical applications. We are already witnessing steady interest and traction from the automobile and healthcare sectors in India. Given the huge opportunity, it is just a matter of time before IoT deines our existence, as we know it today. The mobile explosion will require the technology infrastructure to be more datadriven Over the past 5 years, IT organizations and cloud service providers have been investing in object storage technologies to protect and
With device proliferation and a hyper connected ecosystem, there is a data deluge. Therefore, with this huge opportunity, there is the added risk of data theft, leakage, malware and much more. A small breach in an unsecure connected device can lead to the breakdown of an entire system. The inlux of devices connected to the Internet also increases the risk of attacks far more widely than in the case of regular cyber-attacks. The fact that the
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preserve data for longer periods of time. A critical foundation for this is data-driven storage that enables enterprises to manage multi-tenancy, extend metadata to enable linkages to other data sets, and carry out data deduplication and compression to curb growing costs. With data now moving through various cloud models, these capabilities also have to be made available beyond the 4 walls of the data centre. Enterprises have to ind ways to enable intelligent and eicient remote access to applications and data, and allow information to be shared conveniently via intelligent devices while ensuring that sensitive data is protected.
Dhanya Thakkar Managing Director, India & SEA, Trend Micro
The adoption of the IoE is set to go upward and as we get more familiar with the smartiication of devices, it’s time to increase our awareness and prepare to protect our privacy and security.
With new regulations governing data privacy and protection, businesses will increase compliance-related investments. Governments across Asia Paciic are introducing new privacy regulations or updating existing ones. In the past 2 years, countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand have either enacted or enhanced privacy laws, requiring compliance with data privacy/conidentiality rules. For enterprises, this presents a growing challenge with the rapid proliferation of information from multiple platforms and channels. "Businesses today must be extra vigilant in protecting vital customer information as they grapple with the exponential growth in structured and unstructured data within the organization," said De Luca. On Security landscape Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, India & SEA, Trend Micro elaborates that the Internet is an arrangement of connected, yet autonomous networks and devices. Each device or host uses protocols or set of rules in order to communicate with other devices within a network. Simply put, the Internet is used to send and receive information quickly between devices and people all around the world. While the Internet of Everything (IoE)—or the concept that interconnects people, data, things and processes—is projected to play a rather large part in the future of technology, it still lacks development in terms of utility and security. In 2012, the number of connected devices surpassed the human population. While some tech experts believe that the IoE still has to prove itself and that much credence is needed to baptize the concept into the present landscape, the number of smart devices is still projected to reach 50 billion by 2020. Additionally, as much as our enthusiasm bemuses industry players, we need to be aware that cybercriminals are also preparing to cast their nets toward relevant IoE vulnerabilities. But where do you stand in the web of all things? Let’s say when you hit your favorite café; irst things irst: you pull out your trusty
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device, whether it’s a laptop, tablet or phone, you enable your Internet connection and then go online. Once you’re connected, you’re entitled to a world of information where everything is virtually possible and potentially dangerous too. But it isn’t all just plug-and-play; communication between devices and networks involves a complex system of layers, protocols and data. Since the language we use is vastly diferent from the language a computer uses, the messages need to be translated from alphabetic signals to a code that goes through several series of connections such as cloud layers, session, router and link layers. If unsecured, these layers could be attacked and used as infection vectors by cybercriminals. For example, a typical exchange between you and the cashier in the café would compose of you ordering a drink while the cashier ticks the speciics: tall double-shot macchiato, skimmed milk and no whipped cream. The cashier then passes your order to the barista but upon receiving your drink, you notice a huge dollop of whipped cream on your cofee. What went wrong? In order to execute a successful transaction, the communication between you, the cashier and the barista should begin and end with the right information. In this example, somewhere in the middle of the order, someone obviously made a mistake, botching the order altogether. The same goes with the Internet. To send and retrieve data, it must to go through certain network protocols, and for the message to rightfully end up on the Internet and for it to route back to your intended recipient, the data must be transmitted within the communication protocols. Securing an entire IT infrastructure is hard enough but the IoE demands an even bigger security approach to keep endpoints and networks protected against more sophisticated cybercrime techniques and tools such as snifer attacks, denial of service attacks, compromised-key attacks, passwordbased attacks and man-in-the-middle attacks.
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