SME Channels January-2011 Issue

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Canon to Touch 1 billion US$ by 2015

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McAfee: Intuitive Solutions Act Better

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SME CHAT

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WatchGuard: Our Products have Superior Engines

RAGHURAMAN P of AMD India belives Social Communications and Collaboration will take a front seat

PRAVEEN SAHAI of Iomega belives “We will continue customizing the best softwares for the SMB segment to solve storage and security issues”

ANIL GUPTA of eScan belives There will be Social Media Explosion and Politically Motivated cyber-attacks will increase.

TUSHAR SIGHAT of Cyberoam belives “At present, the market for enterpriseclass UTM offerings has been largely unexplored by major players.”

VINAY SHETTY of ASUS belives It’s going to be a year of communication for us

SUSHIL BANDI of Western Digital belives Convergence in digital technologies will drive the growth of the storage peripherals market

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Lexmark: Buy Less Save More is the answer

SURAJIT SEN of NetApp India belives “Most companies will have migrated or be in the process of migrating the bulk of their existing application to virtual machines”

MILIND TAMHANE of DIGILINK belives “There is a good potential in Residential cabling where we can expect tremendous growth”

SATYEN VYAS of Dell India belives, “We are going from being a PC maker to an IT solutions provider and as we do that, we are changing the role we play for customers.”

ABHIJIT JORVEKAR of Quick Heal belives, “We will introduce security appliances for the SOHO and SMB segments”

JAIDEEP KUMAR of Red Hat belives, “Growth will come from rising consumer and business confidence that the recession is truly behind”

RAJAN SHARMA of GIGABYTE belives “2nd GENERATION core-I series, Light Peak, SFF desktop will gain grounds”

SHUBHOMOY BISWAS of SonicWALL belives “2011 will bring the continued evolution of several major computing trends, like increased wireless deployment in the enterprise and expanded adoption of virtualization” VIPIN TUTEJA of Xerox belives “We will focus on providing end-to-end document management outsourcing services to our customers throughout India”

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PLUS

Dell Forays into Indian Printer Market /10 www.smechannels.com

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EMPOWER

JANUARY 2011

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Asus: Enablement of Partners in C, D and E Class Cities to Drive Business

SERVICES

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D-Link: Right Support Helps to Grow the Market

PARTNER CORNER

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Mediaman: Broadband to Drive the Growth in India

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

2011: A YEAR OF EDUCATION SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com

Happy and Prosperous New Year 2011!

It is always the New Year brings happiness to everyone, so 2011 is not an exception. The prediction and forecast is made and met with some deficits or with slightly better performance. It never brings miracle to the industry. If any miracle happens, it happens in the direction of down performance of the industry due to some geo political factors.

2010 has created a vision for the enterprises to invest. They have gauged the market potential in India. Financial revival is already happening from the end part of 2009 and this year also it will keep on happening. However, there is an exorbitant rise in the commodity prices and petroleum products cost, which is a factor to the price rise of all the products across the industries. Therefore, IT or ICT is not immune from this spiral effect.

The growth of mobile phone industry is on its track and it will keep on growing but this is not the indicator of the overall growth of the ICT industry. Although communication wise India is well connected, yet computing is miles behind. It has to catch up very soon in order to catch up with at least countries from South East Asia if not other big nations.

People in general are not averse to investing on technology but only thing they lack is the proper knowledge about it. What they acquire is the cosmetic knowledge but due to the huge competition, they get confused – either they end up in buying high configuration or very low cost technology which is not required for them. Partners always think about their margin although the trend is changing towards value selling. They are becoming advisor to the customers but it is very slow. Therefore, retail industry booming in the country. Consumers at least touch and feel and evaluate products’ merit and buy at the given price. They go back with a feeling of not being cheated at least.

In the enterprise solution space also same thing is happening. There are case of customers being discouraged from deploying cloud computing. Partners come and bat for the advantage of on premise solutions even though it incurs higher cost. So one thing is very clear now; to create a knowledge based society, everyone has to be educated including the customers and the partners. Then only we can achieve the high-volt growth in India. So, it is better to make 2011 a year of education and invest in various platforms.

Acer’s New eM350 along with MTS Mblaze ACER’S BUNDLE OF MTS MBlaze High Speed Data Services along with the newly launched eMachines eM350 is a very good combination. As customers really want something hassle free, Acer offers it in a single attempt. Along with this, if you are getting cash back of Rs.2, 000 is like icing on the cake.

Good part of the eM350 is that it weighs only 1.25 kgs, the sleek and stylish. It does not have any compromise on memory or storage as it has 1 GB RAM and 250 GB hard drive respectively.

It is believed the MTS dongle is priced at Rs 10,999, but Acer offers it absolutely free and the cash back comes to you within a fortnight .

SPECIFICATIONS : eM350 is power-driven by Win7 Starter operating system and Intel Atom processor and 2nd second-gen N450 single-core CPU. FINAL WORDING With Rs. 12000, the netbooks is fantastic for all the mobile executives and home users.

- specially with the offer of 3G connectivity.

But the issue is a limited time offer from the company (Valid till 31st January 2011).

OVERALL RATING

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Cyberoam Named as UTM Appliance Vendor in India Source: IDC UTM Report for India, Q3 2010

Cyberoam thanks its partners and customers for putting faith and making it the No. 1 UTM player in India.

Some of the major factors that helped Cyberoam achieve this feat could be attributed to excellent product, partner's support to Cyberoam customers, higher value for money to its customers, excellent post sales and pre sales support and aggressive marketing, making it the top most player in its segment.

Cyberoam Product Portfolio:

Cyberoam UTM | Cyberoam SSL VPN | Cyberoam iView | Cyberoam Endpoint Data Protection For more information please contact marketing@cyberoam.com Awards & Certifications National Distributor

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Š Copyright 2011 Elitecore Technologies Pvt. Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

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contents

JAN VOLUME 01 ISSUE 11

2011

ER COV RY STO

india’s first IT magazine for sme business

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Design and Development: Ravi Kumar Visualizer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Senior Manager: M Raj Executive- Marketing: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/101, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 9313891660 E-mail: raj@smechannels.com Bangalore Subrat S 136/9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest Apartment Grape Garden, Ejipura Vivek Nagar PS Bengalore-560047 Phone: 9886107294 Mumbai Hemal Shah B/14, Neel Ashish 92, J.P.road, Andheri (West) Mumbai - 400058 Chennai Thaga Pandian No-27, Rajan Street, Kodambakam Chennai - 24 Phone: 044-43066990 Kolkata S Subhendu BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101

Technology Adoption to be much stronger in 2011 /26

Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/102, Kaushalya Park, New Delhi110016, Phone: 91-11-41055458 info@smechannels.com

With the arrival of a New Year, every one becomes agog imagining the better fortune the year will bring to them. Similarly, 2011 was not an exception. The entire ICT industry has pinned their hopes this year, which they had seen the past year to be a year of consolidation.

Bangalore 136/ 9, Ground Floor, Eden Crest

SME BIZ

Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib

Mcaffe /37

Intuitive Solutions act Better

SME CHAT WatchGuard Tech /44 “Our Products have Superior Engines”

Apartment, Grape Garden, Ejipura Vivek Nagar PS Bengalore-560047 news@smechannels.com

Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/101-102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016

Lexmark /46

Buy Less Save More is the answer

more inside

Editorial~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06 Snippets~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~10 Services D-link~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 22

GUEST TALK M.Lakshmi Narayan (Lux) Rao /42 India, Go Cloud

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Empower Asus~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 40 Security Forecast~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 48 Partners Corner~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 42, 49 Products~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 50

Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458 Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-2, New Delhi 110020, India.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher.

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

SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

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SNIPPETS for more log on to smechannels.com

PRODUCT | CHANNEL | PC & LAPTOP | DATA COM

Dell Forays into Indian Printer Market Dell forays into printer market by introducing a comprehensive range of printing devices for home offices, small and medium businesses

and workgroups. Dell’s single and multifunction printer line-up is engineered to reduce total cost of print by providing increased prod-

uct reliability with comprehensive warranty and maintenance coverage. The range of printers being launched include the 1250C, the

world’s smallest single-function A4 color laser-class printer and a host of monochrome printers including the multifunction 1133 and singlefunction printers - 2230d, 1130, 1130n, 2330d, 2330dn.

While unveiling the products, P Krishnakumar, Director, Marketing - CSMB, Dell India said, “Dell is focused on helping businesses of all sizes operate efficiently and make the most of their IT so they can simplify day-to-day tasks, increase productivity, and focus on innovation. With the launch of these printers today in India, we are excited to add one more dimension to our portfolio and offer more comprehensive solutions to our customers.”

Sanjay Yadav, Country Head – Retail, Dell India, said, “As we continue to empower our channel for greater profitability, we believe that the addition of printers to our portfolio, and the fact they will primarily be available through the channel, will add significant value to our partners’ business. Our channel focus is based on the premise of making technology more accessible to our customers and this will increase the ability of our channel partners to offer total solutions to their customers.”

Cyberoam Named As No.1 UTM Vendor Cyberoam has been named as the No.1 UTM appliance vendor by IDC in Q3 2010 (JAS). IDC has considered the factory revenue figures of the vendor for such period. According to data released in IDC’s India Quarterly Security Appliance Tracker, Q3 2010, December 2010, Cyberoam gained substantial market share over its competitors to become the leader in the India UTM appliance market in terms of factory revenue. Cyberoam recorded factory revenues of US$ 2.71 million out of a total India UTM appliance market size of US$ 11.52 million during Q3 2010, representing a 23.5% market share.

Said Tushar Sighat, VP - Operations, Cyberoam, “For last two years, Cyberoam has been breezing ahead in its growth momentum with continued demand for its UTM appliances. Clearly, it reflects our ability to meet the growing requirements among SMBs and enterprises for comprehensive security through multiple product ranges and latest feature-packed versions of UTM. Also, full credit goes to our well-defined channels strategy, pricing and quality support.”

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Transend to Grow 32-35% in 2011 Transcend, a global product company for memory modules and flash products, is stepping on the gas to make it big for India in 2011. The company is trying to consolidate its product lines and channel strategy to happen it more smoothly this time.

Transcend, coming from behind has almost taken market shares from the competition including Kingston and SanDisk, but has not able to take the mindshare as it should happen. Transcend advantage is that it has a vast range of products including DRAM memory modules, USB Dives, Flash Memory including MicroSD, MMC, SD cads, SSD drives, external storage devices, MP3/4 devices, photo frames, Media players.

Gordon Wu, Regional Head, South Asia, Transcend, says, “I respect the competition, they have done some good things to stay in the competition, but as per IDC report, we have garnered good market share in India. This shows that we also have done good things in the market. And, these efforts will be expedited this time. Our advantage is the range and we want to be one stop solution provider.”

He added, “To create brand, we will do a lot of investment this time, which will include investment in channel engagement, retail and more in brand promotion.”

Although the company has retail presence through Reliance retail chain, but the company is talking to retail chains like eZone, Croma, and a host of other companies. As per Gordon, the company is thinking of creating shop- in- shop for Trascend branded products.

Besides, the company is also investing in social media sites like Facebook. Gordon believes being present in Facebook, Transcend can create millions of India friends for this brand which will help the company to do a good transaction in the market. Finally, Gordon believes Transcend expects a growth of 30-40% against the industry growth of 20-25%.

Tally Heard its Partners at UDAAN Tally Solutions successfully concludes its annual Partner event, ‘UDAAN 2011’, held on the 7th and 8th of January 2011. Attended by 150+ Master Tally Partners from across the globe, this annual event is designed to provide partners with a platform to recognize, learn, share experiences, celebrate the success and share their aspirations.

The event allows them to realize that it is possible for them to “fly” even higher (“UDAAN” in Hindi means “flight”).

During the 2 day residential event – some partners shared their achievements, while some shared their success stories and others discussed their plans, and then there were a few sessions on how Tally Solutions is helping them achieve their dreams. The highlights included guest lectures by Eminent Professors from IIMA, a session from Franklin Covey Institute.

Shoaib Ahmed, President, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd., remarked, “I believe partners are our prime stakeholders. It is our partners who make Tally a Great Product Company and they have been instrumental in helping Tally achieve the dominant position that we enjoy today. Therefore, it is our concerted responsibility to nurture and enhance this valuable partner network.”

MY POINT

ZOTAC Takes ZBOX Series to SuperSpeed ZOTAC takes the award-winning ZBOX to SuperSpeed with the new ID41 series. The ZOTAC ZBOX ID41 series introduces SuperSpeed USB 3.0 and DDR3 technologies to the ZBOX mini-PC. “External expansion is vital with mini-PCs. By adding SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology to our award-winning ZBOX mini-PCs, we are able to offer external connectivity capable of speeds up to 5.0 Gb/s,” said Carsten Berger, marketing director.

DDR3 memory technology combined with an Intel Atom D525 processor and Next-Generation NVIDIA ION graphics deliver outstanding energy-efficiency.

Seagate Introduces Goflex For Mac Addressing the personal preferences of the Mac community, Seagate introduces a new collection of GoFlex for Mac external drives designed to make it easy for those who use Mac OS X and Time Machine to backup, shuttle, or share their digital content.

These new portable and desktop solutions are HFS+ formatted out-of-the-box, making them fully compatible with Apple Time Machine backup software, while maintaining the ability to work across both Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X computers. A truly unique feature, GoFlex for Mac drives can also be used with computers running Windows by simply downloading an HFS+ driver for Windows from Seagate.com , which will provide full read-write access to the drive from a Windows computer.

Kaspersky engages youth at the IIT TechFest

“Canon registered 50% growth in the year 2010 with revenues of `1,260 crore and is expected to generate revenues of 1 billion US$ by 2015” KENSAKU KONISHI

PRESIDENT & CEO, CANON INDIA

Kaspersky Lab has got associated with IIT, Mumbai as the Associate Title Sponsors for their annual TechFest this year. The company’s branding was themed around ‘War Against Cyber Crime’ and had the new creative advertisements with International Superstar Jackie Chan as the brand ambassador.

The Kaspersky Lab branding inside the campus was very strong and prominent and it managed to create a lot of buzz amongst the students with its innovative style of marketing.

Kaspersky Lab booth was designed in the form of a battle bunker and generated a lot of interest among the 70,000+ students who came from all over India to participate in the TechFest at IIT.

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Foxconn Grows 5.5% in December Foxconn Electronics (Hon Hai Precision Industry) has announced revenues of NT$244.68 billion (US$8.36 billion) in December, up 5.5% on month and 83.8% on year, while nonconsolidated revenues for 2010 reached NT$2.31 trillion, up 62.83% on year.

However, although the company had strong growth in revenues, market watchers are more concerned about whether the company’s profitability will also see a similar performance.

As quoted by Digitimes, Taiwan, since the company started a new minimum wage system in October 2010, the market watchers believe that Foxconn should face some pressure on its profitability, but as its production lines in western China started operating plus new orders, the company should start seeing an effective recovery in 2011.

GIGABYTE INDIA ENDS 2010 WITH HIGH NOTE Gigabyte India reports a 37% year-over-year (YoY) revenue growth in Q4 FY10, providing a fitting ending to an outstanding year in which its motherboard sales in many Tier 2 and Tier 3 regions grew by over 100%.

Gigabyte accomplished this remarkable YoY growth by successfully undertaking a number of sales & marketing initiatives through the year 2010. These initiatives included adding more channel partners, increasing channel penetration and spread in the upcountry markets, sustaining growth in established markets, reinforcing post-sales infrastructure for both partners and customers, and attaining the No. 1 position in terms of channel satisfaction.

However, the major credit for the successful year goes to Gigabyte’s innovative, result-oriented programs for its channels, which drive over 85% of the company’s business.

Rajan Sharma, GM, Marketing and Sales, Gigabyte India, said, “During Q4 FY10, we continued to successfully execute our proven programs and schemes for channel partners. We were able to leverage our distribution strength, spread and expertise to reach new regions and partners.

Our local resources were spent more on channel building, education, training, marketing and brand-building activities that ensured sustainable and continuous demand generation.

eScan ends 2010 with a Bang eScan a leading anti-virus solution providers has won a plethora of awards for its eScan range of AntiVirus and Information Security solutions. eScan has been winning the VB100% and AV-Comparatives awards on a continuous basis. These awards are from renowned Independent testing bodies that undertake strenuous test on the products before awarding them. eScan also won the “Visitors Choice Award” during its participation in the CMDA Expo held during Dec 2010 at Pune.

Govind Rammurthy, CEO and MD, eScan said, “We are very happy to have ended 2010 on such a great note and we will strive very hard to continue this momentum forward in 2011 by coming with products that are user friendly and offer advanced Information Security to our customers. The fact that eScan managed to pip a large number of competitors, speaks volumes about the quality of our products.”

Kingston Launches Sandi Bridge Compatible Memory Kingston has released HyperX Genesis Special Edition Grey. The high-performance dual-channel memory kits are engineered to complement the new motherboards featuring the Intel P67 Sandy Bridge platform as well as existing P55based systems.

“The modern design and look accentuate the new black and grey P67 motherboards just reaching the market,” said Ann Bai, DRAM Memory

Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. “With performance memory frequency initially at 2133MHz and 1600MHz, these new additions to the family of HyperX products meet the demands of everyone from the enthusiast vying for the fastest benchmark score to the weekend gamer.”

HyperX Genesis Special Edition Grey is available in DDR3 2133- and 1600MHz 4GB kits. The HyperX memory is backed by a lifetime warranty.

PCI ties up with Riello UPS PCI Ltd has entered into a joint venture with Europe based Riello UPS – the fourth largest UPS manufacturer in the world. The new joint venture company will be called Riello PCI India Pvt. Ltd. Surinder Mehta, Founder Chairman, PCI Ltd, said “The joint venture will enable the combined skills, experience & technology of the two companies to rapidly capture the UPS market in India & in the Indian Subcontinent.”

Anil Munjal Director & CEO Riello PCI India Pvt. Ltd. “This agreement with Riello will strengthen and complete the range of solutions that PCI Ltd. is capable of offering to its clients.”

Abacus hosted Hynix India Roadshow 2011 Abacus Peripherals hosted Hynix India Roadshow 2011 at the Holiday Inn Hotel in Mumbai.

The event was attended by more than 200 channel partners, retailers, Major System Integrators from across the length and breadth of Mumbai.

Mr. Seong Byung Ho, MD Hynix Semiconductor, South Korea as well as Mr. Sanjay Kaul, General Manager Hynix Semiconductor, India was present during the event. The roadshow received overwhelming response from dealers all across Mumbai. The main purpose of the meet was to educate the channel partners and dealers about the latest technologies in the DRAM Industry.

Kobian offers 3-Year warranty on Memories Mercury offers a 3-Year warranty for their Mercury Memory Modules effective 1st Jan, 2011.

This step has been appreciated and welcomed by the partners who have been associated with Mercury.

The range available in India is DDR2 & DDR3 in capacity of 1GB, 2GB & 4GB. Mercury Modules are available in attractive retail packaging making it easy for the dealers and integrators to store and use.

“We are working on a 100% growth in the Memory product lines in 2011 and this decision has come in line with the same”, said Sushmita Das, Country Manager- India, Kobian.

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Canon to Touch 1 billion US$ by 2015

OM NANOTECH LAUNCHES ZIPMEM Om Nanotech, the leading manufacturer, supplier and exporter of Memory Modules, Compute RAM, Pen Drives and Flash Card announces the simultaneous Indian and Global launch of its range of branded memory products named ZipMem. This branded product is available in various capacities from 512MB to 4GB in DDR1, DDR2 and DDR3 format. Similarly, the ZipMem USB Pen Drives are available in wide range varying from 2GB to 32GB, while the FLASH cards (Micro SD/SD cards etc.) offer a choice of four different capacities of 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16 GB. With this branded-new product range, general users can easily reach greater performance with blazing fast data transfer rates, making it much easier and less time-consuming to get access to rich digital content.

Ashok Khosla, CEO, OM Nanotech Pvt. Ltd., said, “We are very happy to announce the launch of ZipMem which represents a premium range of memory products ranging from computer RAM, flash cards to USB drives. ZipMem is designed for application in a wide range of digital consumer products, offering full compliance with the latest technology demands and expectations as well as RHOS compliances.”

Harish Grover, Founder, Om Associates, said, “Our confidence in the quality of the product which we are offering an ‘Amazing Warranty’ policy. Not only the original product carries a 3 year ‘Across the counter’ replacement, the replaced product again is warranted for a period of 3 years.”

Before the launch, the senior persons of the company had taken a group of media people on a guided tour to visit their Noida facility.

Canon India has expressed its plans to touch 1 billion US$ revenue by 2015. Towards achieving this, the company has taken some fantastic steps.

Part of this, Canon India has integrated Oce business in India. Globally Canon has acquired majority share of Oce and in India, the integration makes both the company an absolute leader in digital printing segment though there are many challenges on the way. As per the terms of both the companies, Canon will sell, distribute and service Océ products in the areas of production printing, wide format printing, signage printing and business services. Canon India expects joining forces with Océ will generate Rs. 100 crore revenue in this domain in 2011.

Canon India will handle the Océ business portfolio and will be the single interface across a range of products targeting multiple segments including Offset printing, transaction printing, bill printing, signage printing, Photo arts printing, CAD and GIS printing. Currently Canon has 19 products in its professional printing portfolio and together with Océ the portfolio will increase to 70 product offerings. The alliance will offer customers the largest portfolio in the professional printing space.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

WORLDWIDE PC SHIPMENTS GREW 3.1 PERCENT IN Q4 2010

Brocade Appoints Edgar Dias as Regional Director.

He will Drive Business across Key Enterprise Verticals throughout Asia

WORLDWIDE PC SHIPMENTS SURPASSED 93.5 MILLION UNITS IN Q4 OF 2010, ACCORDING TO PRELIMINARY RESULTS BY GARTNER, INC. THESE FIGURES WERE BELOW EARLIER FORECAST OF 4.8% GROWTH FOR THE Q4 OF 2010 Pacific.

WORLDWIDE PC VENDOR UNIT SHIPMENT ESTIMATES FOR 4Q10 (THOUSANDS OF UNITS)

Dell Q4 2009

Q4 2010

5,347

7,809

10,801 Lenovo

12.1%

Toshiba Growth

Others

Note: Data includes desk-based PCs, mobile PCs, including mininotebooks but not media tablet such as the iPad. Source: Gartner (January 2011)

Acer

10,395

12,075 HP

11,853

3.9%

4,768

-1.8%

9,482

21.4%

17,582

17,787

-1.2%

38,417

37,816

1.6%

Vinod Kumar appointed as the new MD & CEO of Tata Communications.

Rajesh Sinha has been appointed as Branch Head of Cyberstar, Patna.

Hip Street has appointed Sukhesh Madaan as General Manager- Sales & Marketing, South Asia.

Avinash Vashistha joins Accenture as MD & Co-Chairman ESET has appointed Richard Marko as its new Global CEO. Marko, a company co-owner and previously the company’s Chief Technology Officer, succeeds Miroslav Trnka.

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BELKIN LAUNCHES HDMI & AV CABLES Belkin India launches the new range of HDMI & AV cables. HDMI cables come in two variations, Standard and High Speed HDMI cable that come with or without Ethernet channel.

Along with it, Belkin has also launched Component Video and 4 types of Audio cable in category of AV cables.

Mohit Anand, Managing Director, Indian Subcontinent said, “Belkin HDMI & AV Cables are fully engineered using the latest technology and manufacturing methods to bring users a superior Audio/Video experience. From Cat6 to Fiber to HDMI cables, Belkin designs, manufactures and tests to meet and exceed industry standard specs for performance, regulatory & reliability” HDMI is nearly universal in the home video market. Present on the entire range of current HDTVs and Blu-ray players, Belkin HDMI cables enable all-digital connection between digital source devices, such as DVD players, DVD recorders, digital set-top boxes, Gaming consoles and A/V receivers. Enabling delivery of high definition video and digital surround sound, these HDMI cables makes your Home Cinema an unsurpassed experience. With lifetime warranty, Belkin’s HDMI & AV Cables are available in 3 different lengths of 3, 6 & 12 ft with different features and price range, that varies from Rs.549/- to Rs.1249/-.

DIGEST ‘SME INDIA OUTLOOK 2011’ TO BE ORGANIZED ON 10TH FEBRUARY Enhancing productivity has always been the prime concern for SMEs in the manufacturing industry that primarily run on minimum costs and minimum resources. In this backdrop, INK Business Media Pvt Ltd (one of the leading conference management companies in India), recently announced ‘SME India Outlook 2011’, a National Conference focused on SMEs in manufacturing industry with a theme on “Capitalizing IT & Automation for Manufacturing Excellence.”

The conference would be held at Hotel Novotel Juhu Beach, Mumbai, on 10 February 2011.

CBF VI TOUCHED 3000 PARTNERS IN THE COUNTRY Rashi Peripherals has successfully completed the second phase of CBF VI covering north, south,

Intel Launches Gen 2 Core Processors Intel has launched its second generation Intel core processors with built-in visual capabilities to deliver superior audio-visual experience, faster downloading ability and improved battery life.

Intel estimates that a 4-minute HD video that used to take 4 minutes to convert to play on an iPod would now take just 16 seconds.

The new processor technology focuses on high-definition videos, mainstream gaming, online socialising and multimedia and combines visual and 3D graphics technology with performance-leading microprocessors on a single chip. Its new features include Intel Quick Sync Video, and a new version of the company’s award-winning Intel Wireless Display which now adds 1080p HD (high definition) and content protection for those wishing to beam premium HD content from their laptop screen to their TV.

central and eastern cities and towns. The CBF VI – phase 2 kicked off at Agra and Agartala simultaneously drawing huge crowds despite the winter chills in most parts of the country.

Cities like Agra, Allahabad, Varanasi, Patna, Gorakhpur, Guwahati, and Durgapur saw a turnout of over 100 partners at each location.

Cities like Coimbatore, Calicut, Cochin, Trivandrum, Trichy, Hyderabad drew a huge crowd at the event venue. Central India cities like Indore, Bhopal & Jabalpur saw more than 120 partners.

CYBERSTAR LAUNCHES CREATIVE BLUETOOTH SPEAKERS Cyberstar launches Creative D100, a modern-day

Techcom Launches Multimedia Player - SSD MP 100 Techcom has come up with a unique product for its customers – the Multimedia Player, SSD MP 100. This portable device, when connected to your TV, can turn it into your personal media player – enabling you to watch movies, listen to music and view pictures, of your choice, from a choice of convenient storage mediums such as USB Flash Drives, USB External Hard Discs or Memory Cards.

Using the latest-designed digital decoder chip, SSD MP 100 multimedia player can read in the data information in amazing speed. Digital image enhancement facilitates a sharp, bright display with clear image and pure sound.

The concise and user-friendly OSD menu display is absolutely easy for users to operate. The equipment can be divided into movies, music, pictures, and TXT eBook and priced at INR 1875.

boombox speaker that delivers wireless audio from any compatible Bluetooth device such as mobile phone, notebook, iPhone or iPad from a range of upto 10 meters from the speaker.

Opening a whole world of possibilities unbound by wires and blending harmoniously into any environment, it also allows for wired connections with other portable devices via its integrated AUX-in port even while it works seamlessly with wireless Bluetooth devices.

POLYCOM ENABLES UC ANYTIME WITH MICROSOFT LYNC Delivering on its strategic relationship with

QNAP Launches QMobile Apps for Android QNAP Systems launches the beta application of QMobile, the world’s first multimedia player solution for Android. QMobile allows users to stream music, digital pictures, and videos from their QNAP NAS servers and play directly on their Android handsets from anywhere.

Kerman Rana, Director, Business Development of QNAP Systems, Inc., India, said, “Users no longer need to be concerned about synchronizing the multimedia contents to the mobile device. They can save storage space of the mobile device and get a compelling user experience with QMobile.”

Microsoft to provide end-to-end UC solutions, Polycom announces enhancements to its comprehensive portfolio of voice and video solutions for Microsoft Lync Server 2010. The Polycom HDX series telepresence systems and Polycom UC Intelligent Core Infrastructure are the industry’s first telepresence solution designed to be fully interoperable with Microsoft Lync.

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At 10K, Epson to offer Lifetime Printing When most of the printing solution companies had shifted their focus to laser technology, Epson was the only company to push inkjet printers consistently. The company has been innovating to bring out best of the Inkjet technology.

Now with the start of 2011, Epson is bringing more and more innovations. As per Ramprasad S M, Business Manager, Consumer Product Group, Epson India, the new printers the company is bringing out can change the way printers have been used. There will be a printer at around Rs. 10, 000, which will provide life time printing solution without replenishing consumables. He adds, “Once you buy that printer just forget it as it will go on printing.”

Apart from the products, the company has engaged channel partners to spread across the geogaphy. The company has also enrolled 1000 SIs in 10 cities under its “N-Solution progamme”.

Epson is expecting to touch Rs.1000 crore in India by 2015, towards which they have embarked upon a 5 years plan. In 2009, the company has grown 30% and in some product categories even they have achieved 50%.

Cisco Partners with Neoteric Infomatique

WD UPGRADES A FULL LINE-UP HDDS TO SATA III Western Digital has transitioned its line of WD Caviar Blue and WD Caviar Black drives to SATA 6Gb/s (SATA III) interface to ensure compatibility with next generation of SATA 6Gb/s chipsets and motherboards, and keep up with the market demand for higher transfer rates. The 6Gb/s drive - Caviar Blue (WD500AAKX) is already available in the market. During 2011, the complete component ecosystem is expected to adopt SATA 6Gb/s that will open windows to new standards of performance and compatibility. The new WD Caviar Black and WD Caviar Blue 6Gb/s interface drives are compatible with emerging SATA 6Gb/s supporting chip sets and motherboards expected to arrive from the stables of leading component manufacturers.

Cisco appoints Neoteric Infomatique as one of the national distributors for its complete range of Cisco Consumer home networking products. This new partnership will further strengthen Cisco’s consumer focus in India.

Neoteric has a strong reputation and extensive channel network with pan-India reach and this partnership will further propel Cisco’s Go-To-Market approach especially in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Neoteric’s strong emphasis on commitment and reliability to achieve mutual growth has created a strong interlinked network of over 7500 partners in 350 cities. Suresh Balasubramanian, National Sales Director, Cisco Consumer Products, “The partnership with Neoteric Infomatique is a strategic move designed to strengthen our focus on the consumer market which will help our on-going expansion to Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. With their pan India network and their deep understanding of the retail channel business, we are confident that Neoteric would be a great partner in retaining our leadership in Indian WLAN market.”

AMD Launches Fusion APU At the Consumer Electronics Show, AMD launched a new class of accelerated processor that combines more compute capabilities than any processor in the history of computing. The AMD Fusion Family of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) incorporate – in a single die design – multi-core CPU (x86) technology, a powerful DirectX11-capable discrete-level graphics and parallel processing engine, a dedicated high-definition video acceleration block, and a high-speed bus that speeds data across the differing types of processor cores within the design. New generations of desktop, notebook and HD netbooks are now available based on AMD Fusion APUs at affordable price points. Tablets and embedded designs based on AMD Fusion APUs are expected to be available later in Q1 2011. The new range of product features include stutter-free HD video playback, breakthroughs in computational horsepower to handle the most demanding applications, DirectX 11-capable graphics and all-day battery life.

Huawei Symantec Organized Partner Meet with iValue Huawei Symantec organized its first exclusive partner event in Bangalore to create awareness of their products and solutions.

Organized by iValue, the VAD of the vendor, the event had attracted over 30 partners like Cubic Computing, 22by7, Frontier Business, Kinfotech, Fortune Computers, Veeras Infotek, Ninth Technology, Raksha Technologies, Softcell, Safezone. System Integrators and the key consulting companies also attended the event.

Guna Sekaran R, Channel Director, Huawei Symantec, India had given presentation on their present product lines available in the Indian market including Data protection, Application Solutions, Cloud storage solutions, HSSD, Network Storage, and Storage software, Security Services, Network and content security, and Security Software, etc.

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SERVICES

D-LINK

RAJ JADHAV, VP - SOLUTION CONSULTING, TECH SUPPORT & IT, D-LINK (INDIA) LTD

“RIGHT SUPPORT HELPS TO GROW THE MARKET” For success of any company, one requires three things, right products, right marketing activities and right service support. There is no denying the fact that if one component becomes weak, then the entire company’s positing goes haywire.

BY SMRUTI CHOUDHURY info@smechannels.com

I

n fact, people consider marketing as the primary constituent and take sales and service support as the secondary one but one should understand that service support is as critical as the other two. This is what helps the company to sustain its brand in the market. If the support commitment is weak then the entire purpose goes defeated. If one studies the typical buying behaviour of the customers - even the partners, they evaluate service support. Until they get any definite answer they do not give any affirmative answer.

Therefore, D-Link considers its service support very seriously. Raj Jadhav, VP - Solution Consulting, Tech Support & IT, D-Link (India) Ltd, says, “At D-Link, we believe customer is the king. Hence we ensure our customers are offered the best of service support. It is indeed this philosophy that has made D-Link the most preferred networking brand in India.”

At D-Link almost 80% products are repaired /replaced on same day (Single visit) across the desk. He adds, “In fact, we have also designed a very comprehensive and flexible service support system to meet our customer’s specific require-

ments. We have set up Web-Based Support (unlimited access to technical documentation that includes installation and configuration guides, release notes, frequently asked questions (FAQs), and a management information database ) and Hardware Support system (replace shipped product if the product is established as Dead on Arrival (DOA) by the Partner’s inspection team within 10 days from shipment).”

For Mid & large -level enterprise customer, D-Link has a special service program wherein all their service related issues are taken care off within a stipulated time frame. With this, they ensure that the company offers the best of service support to its customers. In addition to this, the company also has Proof of concept (POC) labs, which provide live demonstration of D-Link End to End solution. Its POC labs are well equipped to demonstrate the capability of all the advance solutions for different verticals. Hence, customers now have a first-hand demo of the product before making their purchase decision.

POCs are designed to simulate customers’ project scenarios and train the partners’ engineers on particular technology and solutions. D-Link POC

labs provide live demonstration of D-Link End to End solution. He adds, “Our POC labs are well equipped to demonstrate the capability of all the advance solutions for different verticals. Hence, customers now have a first-hand demo of the product before making their purchase decision.”

Currently D-Link POC labs are available in four locations (Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Kolkatta) Raj maintains, “D-Link is committed towards providing quality products & solutions to its customer. D-Link’s entire business solution product line now includes Lifetime Warranty policy. With this D-Link now affirms its commitment towards providing quality products and after sales support to build and increase customer confidence towards D-Link’s products and solutions.”

D-Link has always been focused on providing world-class products/ solutions and services to its consumers. And as part of this attempt, D-Link had recently announced ‘Life Time Warranty’ policy on its business solution products.

As per the new policy, D-Link business solution products purchased from D-Link or through authorized resellers and distributors will be

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SERVICES

D-LINK

education program that addresses the networking concerns of partners’ techno-sales & pre-sales team. It has been devised with the sole purpose of giving insight to attendees on network design and helping partner understand customers networking requirement in a better way. A panel of experts from D-Link technical team travels during the seminar and discuss with attendees. The two days exclusive seminar covers various topics like Switching & Routing, Security Solutions, Wireless & Broadband, IP surveillance and we also have live product demos for the attendees.

So far, the company has covered over 20 cities across India & SAARC and the response so far has been phenomenal. In fact, the company has also been getting request from different regions & partners on ‘Sales Pro’ as well.

Recently, D-Link has moved to a new India Corporate office, which is spread over a sprawling area of 10,800 sq.ft & is located at Kalpataru Square in Andheri East.’. This new corporate office houses it’s Marketing, Channel sales, Enterprise sales, Pre & Post sales support, Human Resource and Finance team. The new office is equipped with state-of-art video conferencing facility.

Further D-Link’s new corporate office also has a special Proof of Concept (POC) lab designed to simulate consumer experiences & train partner’s engineers on particular technology and solutions.

This will also act as great tool for enterprise customers as they can now evaluate their project scenarios in advance. The POC lab is well equipped to demonstrate the capability of all the advance solutions for different verticals. Hence customers can now have a live & first-hand demonstration of D-Link End to End solution before making their purchase decision.

This is the company’s first big move in 2011 & it is further working towards strengthening its company Infrastructure. It also signifies the beginning of a new chapter for D-Link in India. Moving ahead D-Link plans to work even more closely with its partners & customer present across the country & ensure it retains its position as leader. covered by the Lifetime Warranty for as long as the product is owned by the original customer or up to a period of five years after the product’s discontinuance - whichever occurs first. This new warranty covers D-Link’s entire business solution product line, which includes smart switches, unmanaged and managed switches, business wireless, and firewall security appliances. With this D-Link affirms its commitment towards providing quality products and after sales support to build and increase customer confidence towards D-Link’s products and solutions.

He adds, “At D-Link, we always believe knowledge is the key to success. In today’s age & time it is

“OUR GOAL IS TO BUILD SPECIFIC, VALUE-ADDED PRODUCTS THAT MEET SPECIFIC MARKET NEEDS, AND MARKET THEM ACCORDINGLY” imperative for partners to be well-equipped with the technical know-how of the product that they pitch. Therefore, in order to address this requirement, we have launched ‘Sales Pro - 2010’” Sales Pro-2010’ is an interactive technology

Finally…

Last but not the least to mention, in every region of the country D-Link has dedicated post-sales and pre-sales team which is supported with 22 RMA centers in major cities and several collection centers across India. In addition to this, D-Link also has 35 hard core system engineers on the field. Today, D-Link has almost 100 plus technicians supporting D-Link customers at PAN India level. D-Link is now in the process of engaging with outsourced service partners (OSP) and Authorized service & delivery partners to serve the D-Link customers at their doorstep.

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COVER STORY

TRENDS FOR 2011

MUCH

TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION TO BE

STRONGER IN 2011

With the arrival of a New Year, every one becomes agog imagining the better fortune the year will bring to them. Similarly, 2011 was not an exception. The entire ICT industry has pinned their hopes this year, which they had seen the past year to be a year of consolidation.

BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com

A

fter 2008-09 market slowdowns, people had high hopes on 2010 but it turned out to be a year of recovey and truely it acted similarly. Of course, huge infrastructure projects in various locations and commonwealth games put the investment in right path. But, year 2011 is expected to be a better year of all. The entire channel market and technology vendors actually agog about the forecasts. The reasons are pretty simple. There will be huge technological upsurge this year from both consumer and business perspective. 2010 has already prepared a playing field for broadband (both 3G and Wimax). From the IT perspective, the technology including LED, SSD, Media Players, have entered into the global market from the consumer perspective. Even tablets and smart phones, virtualization, social media have dominated the market momentum. And most of the channel partners

have also adapted to the technology in their business. For them to understand the market for 2011 is also very important.

To stat with consulting house, Gartner has outlined top technologies and trends that will be strategic for most organizations in 2011. In the list, cloud computing features the first position. Many will also offer management services to remotely manage the cloud service implementation. Next to it is the Mobile Applications and Media Tablets to provide an ideal environment for the convergence of mobility and the Web. Social Communications and Collaboration will take a front seat. Gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded IT systems. Similarly video will play a critical role. Gartner believes that video will become a commonplace content type and interaction model for most users, and by 2013, more than 25%percent of the content that workers see

in a day will be dominated by pictures, video or audio.

Raghuraman P, Director Transaction Business, AMD India, says, “Obviously everyone was talking about the Tablet. From our perspective with reference to India market, we got great response to the Phenom II X-6, the 6-core CPU we launched in the market at aggressive prices. Also our Danube platform was well accepted in the notebook space. Also our Radeon family of graphics solution was the darling of the channel due to its high performance, low power consumption and compatibility with DirectX 11.”

He added, “2011 is going to be the year of FUSION Processors. The AMD Fusion Family of Accelerated Processing Units (APUs) incorporate – in a single die design – multi-core CPU (x86) technology. Tablets and embedded designs based on AMD Fusion APUs are expected be available later in Q1 2011.”

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COVER STORY

ENTERPRISE NETWORKING EQUIPMENT MARKET IN INDIA IS LIKELY TO GROW FROM $1 BILLION IN 2008 TO $1.7 BILLION BY 2012

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“NEXT TO IT IS THE MOBILE APPLICATIONS AND MEDIA TABLETS TO PROVIDE AN IDEAL ENVIRONMENT FOR THE CONVERGENCE OF MOBILITY AND THE WEB. SOCIAL COMMUNICATIONS AND COLLABORATION WILL TAKE A FRONT SEAT.” RAGHURAMAN P, DIRECTOR TRANSACTION BUSINESS, AMD INDIA

Sushil Bandi, Country Manager, Indian Subcontinent, Western Digital, says, “In 2010, we witnessed certain trends in technology that pointed towards direction that storage peripherals will now take. To begin with, faster interfaces such as USB 3.0 and FireWire became immensely popular. SATA III desktop drives have been introduced in anticipation of a prevalent 6Gb/s ecosystem by mid 2011. The increase in capacity has clearly kept up with the surge in content; evolved interfaces will now ensure faster processing & transfers, and compatibility for newer features. The most interesting development however has been the growing prevalence of HD and networking in homes, indicating a pervasive convergence of storage and entertainment. WD has created a new segment altogether by introducing the WD TV Live Hub media center, that will give Indian households their first experience of a ‘connected home.’”

He added, “In 2011, we forecast convergence and the never-ending surge in digital technologies will drive the growth of the storage peripherals market. We plan to ride on or more appropriately, drive the wave of personal digital content and enterprise content. The continued exponential growth of digital content combined with convergence of storage and entertainment technologies will shape vendors’ plans for the year ahead.

The ability to create, store, and share personal digital content and enterprise content in a secure manner will gain prominence. Networking and remote access will become simpler and more affordable, and coupled with the huge surge in the smartphone market; consumers will reap benefits of a synergy of ‘access.’”

Surajit Sen, Director – Channels, Marketing & Alliances, NetApp India, says, “2010 was a great year for us in terms of our growth resulting from our go-to-market strategies. NetApp has been a constant innovator and ushering the best-in-

breed products and technologies for maximizing the storage efficiency for our customers has helped us constantly gain the market share over the past few years that we have been operating in the Indian Market.”

He added, 2011 will feel much like 2010. The tech refresh will continue to drive business. Next year will be a year of solidification and increased

“IN 2011, WE FORECAST CONVERGENCE AND THE NEVERENDING SURGE IN DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES WILL DRIVE THE GROWTH OF THE STORAGE PERIPHERALS MARKET.” SUSHIL BANDI, COUNTRY MANAGER FOR THE INDIAN SUB-CONTINENT, WESTERN DIGITAL

“WE BELIEVE THAT THE NETWORK IS IDEAL FOR CREATING A POWERFUL COMMUNICATIONS PLATFORM THAT WILL SERVE AS THE BASIS FOR THE CONVERGENCE OF DATA, VOICE, VIDEO AND MOBILE SYSTEMS ON A SECURE, INTEGRATED ARCHITECTURE.” NARESH WADHWA, PRESIDENT AND COUNTRY MANAGER, INDIA AND SAARC, CISCO

adoption of some key trends that began in 2009/2010.”

He maintains, “Most, if not all, companies will have adopted a ‘Virtualize First’ policy for new applications. More customers are rethinking their IT infrastructures and evaluating alternatives to cope with the new realities of today’s business growth and pace. There is a sense of urgency to act now and move from a siloed infrastructure to a shared IT infrastructure that is more efficient and flexible in addressing today’s rapidly evolving business requirements. Most companies will have migrated or be in the process of migrating the bulk of their existing application to virtual machines, but this transition will stretch beyond 2011. A battle for new apps infrastructure will emerge with traditional ITaaS vendors on one side and Microsoft Azure, Amazon, and Google on the other side. This is already happening to a degree, but will heat up in 2011. And, object storage will be a hot discussion in 2011 with expanding enterprise deployments starting by 2012.”

Naresh Wadhwa, President and Country Manager, India and SAARC, Cisco, says, “The economic climate impacted all sectors, but the upswing was felt globally towards the end of 2009.

In 2010, we saw strong growth in our core sectors – enterprise, commercial and service provider. On the enterprise front, we witnessed increased traction in the IT Services business. Cisco introduced Unified Network Services, designed to deliver any network service in any environment and in any form factor, along with Unified Fabric and Unified Computing enhancements which promise increased deployment flexibility, simplicity and cost-effectiveness.”

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COVER STORY

TRENDS FOR 2011

“IN 2011, THE INTEGRATION OF MULTIMEDIA APPLICATION AND SECURE DATA SHARING, BACKUP WILL GET MORE AND MORE INTENSE AND EVEN MORE USER FRIENDLY.” KERMAN RANA, DIRECTOR, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT OF QNAP SYSTEMS, INC., INDIA

A study by Springboard Research has predicted that the market for enterprise networking equipment in India is likely to grow from $1 billion in 2008 to $1.7 billion by 2012. Sectors such as government, power, infrastructure and defence are driving this growth.

He added, “Globally, Cisco is leading the transition to a network-centric technology environment.”

Tushar Sighat, Vice-President - Operations, Cyberoam, says, “In 2010, Cyberoam saw UTM has emerged as a choice technology to be invested for SMEs as well as enterprises as corroborated by leading analysts and research groups across the industry. Businesses of all sizes are trying to replace legacy or outdated point security solutions such as anti-malware gateways, routers and firewalls with unified UTM solutions. The reasons for this are the possibility to have one single source of support, one device to worry about and truly unified controls in every security aspect of the organization.”

Other important market drivers for UTM growth include a desire to have more flexibility in network security and increased need for security in DHCP and Wi-Fi environments.

He added, “At present, the market for enterpriseclass UTM offerings has been largely unexplored by major players. All that is set to change with the imminent arrival of Cyberoam’s enterprise-class offerings covering large security segments. The network security market for home broadband users is on the anvil. Cyberoam is soon slated to bring secure home appliances for the Global security market which will give complete security to home Internet users along with features such as parental control. It’s probably obvious by now but the emergence of social media applications, such as Facebook, have introduced an entirely new attack surface on which attackers can focus their energies. Clearly, security players must address this gap by tackling social media threats in their packaged solutions.”

From the Iomega perspective, 2010 has been a great year. Praveen Sahai, Director of Sales - India & SAARC, Iomega, says, “At Iomega, we focus heavily on continuously innovating in our product range and technologies to deliver a world-class experience to our consumers when it comes to storage solutions. This year, Iomega launched its largest portfolio of multimedia drives, including Iomega ScreenPlay Director HD Media Player and Iomega ScreenPlay TV Link Director, etc. the company also launched iConnect Wireless Data Station, that provides a simple way to bring all of your USB storage into your network, allowing you to connect, share and access files anywhere, even over the Internet. This year saw vCLONE software and announced the migration of all its USB 2.0 drives to USB 3.0 starting with the award winning eGo Portable Hard Drives. Iomega also announced the new host-powered Iomega External USB 3.0 SSD Flash Drives.”

He added, “In 2011, Iomega plans to bring some of the most innovative technologies for the consumer segment. Portable and compact devices are our focus. Some of the products to be introduced by Iomega this year include Iomega Personal Cloud, which is a web-based computing architecture that will connect Iomega network storage device to other individuals and/or devices via the Internet. Iomega TV with Boxee, a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device, which will helps users access online video, Twitter, Facebook, and Pandora, among others. In 2011, Iomega will also continue looking at customizing the best softwares available to us for the SMB segment which helps solve issues around storage solutions, security etc.”

Abhijit Jorvekar, VP Sales & Marketing, Quick Heal Technologies, says, “Rise of malwares, spywares, spam mails, fishing sites have added to viruses types. Looking at the current trends, threats originating on the internet in future will be more and more complicated, they will be smarter

“AT PRESENT, THE MARKET FOR ENTERPRISE-CLASS UTM OFFERINGS HAS BEEN LARGELY UNEXPLORED

BY MAJOR PLAYERS.” TUSHAR SIGHAT, VICE-PRESIDENT OPERATIONS, CYBEROAM and use newer and better techniques to carry their goal of stealing valuable personal, and financial information.”

From the perspective of Digilink, there is a clear migration happening from Cat5e to Cat6 as a default standard in 2010. Milind Tamhane, Vice President- Product Management & Exports, Digilink, says, “We saw expectations for higher Frequency uses for Copper Products; we have also witnessed Fiber being more popular in LAN/ WAN fields. Enterprises have realized advantages of Intelligent Patch Panel Solutions, PoE Midspan solutions.”

He added, “In 2011 Copper and Fiber will continue to be the growth area for SCS industry

“MOST COMPANIES WILL HAVE MIGRATED OR BE IN THE PROCESS OF MIGRATING THE BULK OF THEIR EXISTING APPLICATION TO VIRTUAL MACHINES, BUT THIS TRANSITION WILL STRETCH BEYOND 2011.”

SURAJIT SEN, DIRECTOR – CHANNELS, MARKETING & ALLIANCES FOR NETAPP INDIA

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TRENDS FOR 2011

“IN 2011, IOMEGA WILL ALSO CONTINUE LOOKING AT CUSTOMIZING THE BEST SOFTWARES AVAILABLE TO US FOR THE SMB SEGMENT WHICH HELPS SOLVE ISSUES AROUND STORAGE SOLUTIONS, SECURITY ETC.” PRAVEEN SAHAI, DIRECTOR OF SALES INDIA & SAARC, IOMEGA

i.e. CAT6, CAT6A but Intelligent Physical layer management system (IPLMS) and fiber demand for Single mode ITU-G655.D and beyond i.e.

Leaf attributes Fiber and in Multi Mode OM4 Clear Curve fiber i.e. 10Gb/s over 550 Meter (Draft Stage) will be increased. We also expected Tier IV Green Data Center as growth area. There is good potential in Residential cabling where we can expect tremendous growth in coming

“THIS YEAR QUICK HEAL WILL INTRODUCE SECURITY APPLIANCES FOR THE SOHO AND SMB SEGMENTS, WHERE THEY ARE VERY STRONG IN” ABHIJIT JORVEKAR, VP SALES & MARKETING, QUICK HEAL TECHNOLOGIES

days. This all will create business opportunity and incremental growth in structured Cabling Industry in India.”

Satyen Vyas, Director, Medium Business, CSMB at Dell India, says, “Year 2010 was an inflection point in the computer industry where technologies such as virtualization, mobility, cloud computing, heightened storage requirements, the digital home, personalization, ubiquitous data access and ever-present security concerns are fundamentally changing the way people use technology. We see this as an opportunity to differentiate ourselves from our competition through services and comprehensive solutions that give our customers the most flexibility, the highest value and less complexity.”

He added, “One of the trends to observe in 2011 is that IT is now being seen as a key enabler for almost all business activities - from sales and marketing to internal organizations, training and customer outreach - and is no more just about automating the back office. As we have seen growth come back to the economy, we see that companies continue to keep a sharp eye on the costs and support technology trends that help reduce costs and increase efficiencies. Also, most customers, especially the larger enterprises, will continue to look for vendors that offer a heterogeneous approach and do not tie them into proprietary technology costs. We have always worked closely with industry partners to create open solutions and we continue to expand this because most customers do not want to lock themselves in with one Technology Company.”

He maintains, “We will continue to see a higher degree of automation, and Dell’s approach to services is really all about being technology intensive vs. people intensive.”

As per Jaideep Kumar, Head, Channels and Distribution, Red Hat India, Over the last 18-24 months and right through 2010, there were

many breakthrough technologies coming in right from Cloud Computing to how social networking technologies could be used for business collaboration.

He adds, “One important trend was increased adoption of open source software in the enterprise as they reigned in their spending. Cost savings were a major driver - savings in software maintenance costs, total costs of ownership and development costs.”

From a customer and reseller partner perspective, 2010 was more of restarting projects on hold and addressing core business requirement. However, a number of Proof of Concepts for these new innovations have started and are expected to take shape in 2011.

Channels are recognizing the changed environment as enterprises increase their commitment to open source. Open source will become more dominant in the coming decade.

Multiple sources have noted that the global economy is expected to average a modest 4% growth in 2011. Growth will come from rising consumer and business confidence that the recession is truly behind, from global manufacturing growth and buoyant financial markets. India will lead the world in this resurgent economic growth.

Virtualization, Cloud Computing and Software as a Service would gain further acceptability and you would see organizations across verticals and size taking serious note of them.

From a global perspective, the greatest challenges will come from uneven recovery in the global economy: the emerging markets have blistering growth and overheating in 2011 remains a possibility; the Euro zone faces enormous challenges, including sovereign defaults; and America still has some way to go in addressing unemployment and the burgeoning deficit.

2010 has been fairly good for eScan. Anil Gupta, Head National Sales, eScan says, “We successfully launched our new version 11 with innovative features and a complete new Dock GUI. He foresees a major shift in internet i.e. there will be Social Media Explosion, Mobile Applications will pose high threats, Short URL service abuse and Politically Motivated cyber-attacks will increase.”

Shubhomoy Biswas, Country Director, SonicWALL, India & SAARC, says, “In 2010, we saw traditional IT controls fade as applications moved from dedicated servers to virtual servers and to the cloud. In addition, a new generation of workers expected mobility and ubiquitous access, with new platforms and applications arising as a result of a crossover from consumer-focused IT. One of SonicWALL’s milestones for 2010 is the release of its SonicOS5.8 for its Next-Generation Firewall product lines.”

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TRENDS FOR 2011

“GROWTH WILL COME FROM RISING CONSUMER AND BUSINESS CONFIDENCE THAT THE RECESSION IS TRULY BEHIND INDIA WILL LEAD THE WORLD IN THIS RESURGENT ECONOMIC GROWTH.” JAIDEEP KUMAR, HEAD, CHANNELS AND DISTRIBUTION, RED HAT INDIA

He added, “2011 will bring the continued evolution of several major computing trends, like increased wireless deployment in the enterprise and expanded adoption of virtualization. Cloud will continue to be hot. Applications on tablet computing will further boom. As the Web 2.0 adoption increases, enterprises will further adopt Web 2.0 technologies such as social media, video streaming etc as major channels to reach out to its constituencies. Tablet computing will be more widely adopted by the masses as its ease of use increases and price points drop. Also, the scope, scale and performance demands of securing a borderless environment will result in the development of massively scalable security architecture.”

From the perspective of Gigabyte USB3.0, SATA3, core-I series from Intel, 6-core from AMD, were major technology innovations which were welcomed by DIY PC segment.

Rajan Sharma, General Manager, Marketing and Sales, Gigabyte India, says, “In 2011, 2nd GENERATION core-I series, Light Peak, SFF desktop will gain grounds. Similarly, cloud computing, SSD gaining popularity by become affordable.”

For Asus 2010 was a good year in terms of technology innovations. As far as 2011 is concerned, Vinay Shetty – Country Head, Component Business, ASUS (India), says, “We foresee 2nd Generation Intel Core processors and the popularity of tablets increasing and going mainstream. Also, our DIP 2 technology employed in the new P67 based motherboards will be a significant value addition in the motherboards segment. Also, the integrated CPU based AMD motherboards coming in 2011 seem promising for the India market.”

For Xerox, the acquisition of Affiliated Computer Services (ACS), the largest diversified outsourcing firm, made 2010 an unprecedented year for Xerox Corporation. The move transformed

the company into the world’s leader in business process and document management. Xerox has broadened its portfolio and opened doors for collaboration with new clients in all industries to automate workflow, manage information and extract meaning from different types of unstructured data and documents.

For Xerox India, expanding its portfolio in high-end digital printing and office printing technology, and launching a four-color technology platform in toner, laser, LED and solid ink were outstanding feats. The inauguration of the Xerox India Innovation Hub in Chennai, though, was our most exciting achievement for the year.

Vipin Tuteja, Executive Director, Marketing and International Business, Xerox India, says, “In 2011, Xerox will continue its journey as a worldclass services provider. Our focus on services is already producing good results for us. Nearly 50% of Xerox global revenue comes from its services -- from 23% in 2009 and prior to our acquisition of ACS. In line with our corporate vision to be the best global business process and document Management Company worldwide, Xerox India will focus on providing end-to-end document

COVER STORY

management outsourcing services to our customers throughout India.”

In addition to services, Xerox’s printing business is still very much alive and thriving. In India, the company foresee that copying and printing trends in color multi-functions devices and digital production printing will witness formidable growth; however a bright future lies in providing document management services to SME and Enterprise customers.

Xerox India customers can expect Xerox to deliver business solutions that optimize infrastructure, improve efficiency and enhance productivity at all levels of business processes – helping companies of all kinds become more competitive and generate more profits in 2011.

Kerman Rana, Director, Business Development of QNAP Systems, Inc., India, says, “From the storage technology perspective, we see virtualization in SMB NAS and multi-tasking SMB NAS storage getting so strong now worldwide in 2010.

The used-to-be unreachable expensive storage server is getting more affordable now through the offering of SMB NAS makers such as QNAP.” He added, “In 2011, the integration of multimedia application and secure data sharing, backup will get more and more intense and even more user friendly. More SMB or even corporate users will adopt more Unified Storage for covering the versatile commercial needs and for budget conservation. QNAP NAS offers exactly the match covering virtualization and high integration for even iPhone, Android support.”

With the technology evolution, the channel partners also need to be given proper direction so that they can align their business.

Kerman says, “In the era of Post-PC, the application concentric storage solution is the few items which indicates high potential growth and bottom line. Channel partners can grasp the opportunity to enhance own value addition through the offering of NAS products.

“2011 WILL BRING THE CONTINUED EVOLUTION OF SEVERAL MAJOR COMPUTING TRENDS, LIKE INCREASED WIRELESS DEPLOYMENT IN THE ENTERPRISE AND EXPANDED ADOPTION OF VIRTUALIZATION.” SHUBHOMOY BISWAS, COUNTRY DIRECTOR, SONICWALL, INDIA & SAARC

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“IN LINE WITH OUR CORPORATE VISION TO BE THE GLOBAL BUSINESS PROCESS AND DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT COMPANY, XEROX INDIA WILL FOCUS ON PROVIDING END-TO-END DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT OUTSOURCING SERVICES. VIPIN TUTEJA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, MARKETING AND INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS,

In terms of developing their skill sets, he adds, “Cloud and application concentric-solution are essential so the skill to offer solution services and networking capability are what the partners should invest in. It will be an ideal way to learn all these skills through the familiarity with QNAP NAS product as it offers the skill and services necessary to learn.”

QNAP will keep on launching innovative products to cover the storage needs of individual, SMB and corporates. In 2011, aside from a full line of storage products ranging from 1 bay, 2 bay, to 8 bay, 1U, 2U or more, QNAP will invest heavily in the corresponding storage software for best security, efficiency and high performance data storing, sharing and backup experience.

From the Gigabyte perspective, the focus will be on value business and they will ensure the partners to keep updated on technology changes having been the first mover to adopt & adept to new products & hence giving value to customers.

As per Rajan, Gigabyte will focus on developing skillets of partners on on-line selling, better logistics management, improved credit control.

He adds, “They need to follow closely innovations & product transitions by Intel, AMD to keep pace with PC building block vendors.”

Gigabyte surely advises partners to be focused on retail, SME, education and gaming segments which will help them to enhance their margin opportunity. For this calendar year, Gigabyte’s slogan is “Beat The Old By New, Beat Slowness By Qickness”. The company started the new year with an aim to surpass the existing benchmarks and to look forward to building the existing critical base/ mass of channel partners. Focus would be to keep improving and growing organically by relying on their current strengths and growing inorganically by looking forward to new challenges in terms of customer growth, channel penetration, spread across new locations.

SonicWall, which makes huge investment in partner development, wants their partners to invest in understanding their partner organisation, its requirements and the technology and products/solutions being offered by them.

The company is committed to providing best of security solutions and services to the customers.

Their plan is to impart better trainings to their partners and given the rising demand of network security not just in Tier 1 cities, but Tier 2 and 3 as well. The company is looking at focused presence in local markets to better reach out to customers.

Further, SonicWALL will continue to strive to provide best of services and solutions to both enterprises and SMB’s. Also, SonicWALL will introduce the next generation firewall in the market, which will bring about a drastic change the network security space. Their focus would continue to remain on the key verticals like BFSI, Retail, Education, Manufacturing and Healthcare.

From eScan perspective, the company wants the channel to sell eScan products more easily, which will be supported by their increased marketing activities which we have initiated this year. Anil says, “They should update themselves constantly by learning about the various threats that are being perceived by hackers to penetrate into the PCs and have access to financial data and other personal & confidential data of the corporate.”

Jaideep, says, “There would be multiple OEM’s with their various technology approaching partners to reach out to their customers. Channel Partners as trusted advisors to their customers, should understand how these would add value to their customers’ business.”

The growth opportunities in 2011 lay in government, the telcos and financial services sectors.

The adoption of open source technology is already evident across these industries. IT partners will do

“IN 2011, 2ND GENERATION CORE-I SERIES, LIGHT PEAK, SFF DESKTOP WILL GAIN GROUNDS. SIMILARLY, CLOUD COMPUTING, SSD GAINING POPULARITY BY BECOME AFFORDABLE.” RAJAN SHARMA, GENERAL MANAGER, MARKETING AND SALES, GIGABYTE INDIA well to focus on delivering value to their customers with open source solutions.

From the stand point of partners’ enablement, as per Redhat, Partners should develop skill sets on Open Source stacks so that they can give their customers an alternative. Open Source Virtualization will see a major upswing especially with a focus on Cloud Computing. They should be more solution focused rather than being a plain vanilla reseller. Value added Service with significant visible cost benefits will be deal clinchers.

Redhat would be adding partner selectively and solicit those who understand and ready to invest in the every growing opportunity our technologies bring to the table. And from the vendor’s perspective, they will focus on acquiring customers through the Channel route and propagating JBOSS Middleware & Red Hat Virtualization.

Dell believes Indian IT market is an underpenetrated one and they believe there is a great opportunity for the company to work with the partners to offer differentiated solutions, even more in the SMB segment where will have a significant channel play. In order to reach more customers and more markets it is imperative for vendors like Dell and partners work in tandem.

For this to happen, partners need to understand

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customer pain points, be educated about product/ solution offerings and their suitability – only this would assure greater customer satisfaction and expand reach towards more customers.

Dell wants to be the vendor of choice for its channel partners and is investing in tools to make it easy and efficient for partners to register deals, make purchases and obtain certifications as making it easier to do business with us allows partners to focus on growing their business. The primary objective of Dell’s channel program is to deepen the engagement with Enterprise partners and our strategy will involve a definite thrust on solution selling.

Satyen says, “Dell is clearly changing as a company. We are going from being a PC maker to an IT solutions provider and as we do that, we are changing the role we play for customers. We are now evolving to be able to provide a complete solution to business institutions of all sizes. To do that we need more ingredients and you can see that we are buying a couple of companies a year.

And you will see us continue to do that in areas we see inflections; in technology where a lot of value can be created for our customers. Virtualization, cloud and mobility are definitely the focus here.”

Digilink has become a mover and shaker in the networking industry. In 2011, the advices its channels to stick to basics, up sale in to their own customer base, and emphasize on skill development among team members and venture in to technology area which is going to be need of an hour.”

Year 2011 would bring in huge excitement in product offerings, while there would be focus on Data Centre Products, Products suitable for FTTH environment, Digilink is confident of would still achieving its numbers from Cat6 range big way. With good investment in in-house automation and product quality we feel the year would fetch big leap in the figures.

Iomega’s pillars of commitment are two fold – create new value proposition for the partners and increase their bottom line. The company expects to double the partner base this year. The company is lay stress on educating and demonstrating the power of various features the keep adding on Iomega product line – in addition to displaying the complete range to the partners. From the stand point of enabling them, Praveen sees a low level of knowledge and understanding for storage in the SMB segment. Partners feel that storage is expensive and need high level of tech expertise.

He adds, “Instead, we want to show them higher profits with lesser investments in the storage needs for SMB market which is growing at a very fast rate. Iomega will be conducting training camps to create skill set and expertise to be able to deliver this additional capability in the market.”

The market needs help on educating the customer to separate COMPUTE from STORAGE which are very different needs. Iomega investments are on these grounds without breaking into verticalization at this point in time. Once the customers start understanding the basics of storage technology and it’s benefit – we will move on further segmenting it on the basis of verticals.

This year Iomega’s core focus area will be the mass consumer market. Iomega feels that this market should ideally grow 2-3 times the rate of PC market and will comprehensively invest in the sectors including Education, LCD TV, broadband and mobile/ smart phone users market.

Cyberoam recently become the no.1 UTM vendor in India with 23.5% market share. And, IDC quarterly report, suggests that the company has gained substantial market share over its competitors. This is great news that the company wants share with its partners.

Tushar says, “There will be huge business opportunities in the security solutions space. We anticipate a rapid growth of the SMB, enterprises

“THERE IS A GOOD POTENTIAL IN RESIDENTIAL CABLING WHERE WE CAN EXPECT TREMENDOUS GROWTH IN COMING DAYS. THIS ALL WILL CREATE BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY AND INCREMENTAL GROWTH.” MILIND TAMHANE, VICE PRESIDENT- PRODUCT MANAGEMENT & EXPORTS, DIGILINK

COVER STORY

“DELL IS CLEARLY CHANGING AS A COMPANY. WE ARE GOING FROM BEING A PC MAKER TO AN IT SOLUTIONS PROVIDER AND AS WE DO THAT, WE ARE CHANGING THE ROLE WE PLAY FOR CUSTOMERS.” SATYEN VYAS, DIRECTOR, MEDIUM BUSINESS, CSMB AT DELL INDIA

and small user security market and would closely cooperate with our partners to help them close major deals and enhance revenues/prospects.”

The company advises its partners to choose right set of products in their portfolio for better profit margins, regularly attend partner meets and sales training programmes to keep aware of latest trends in security and for better lead generation opportunities. They also emphasize on using of vendor’s collaterals such as case studies, white papers, and other solutions kit by the partners.

The partners should collaborate with a vendor who is in growth phase in the security industry.

This year, Cybearom advices its partners to be segment-focused i.e. they should do some introspection to decide which market segment would be most profitable to them: SMBs, SOHO or large enterprises. Accordingly, they should redirect their selling efforts to carve a niche for them in that particular segment as each of these segments have their own, unique security requirements.

Partners should also preferably weigh in the importance of market response/customer response. By including more customer-oriented products in their portfolio (instead of being

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TRENDS FOR 2011

product-oriented), they will be able to drive much more sales and reach the right customer audience.

For the understanding of the partners, this year, Cyberoam will focus areas will be the large enterprise appliance security market, SOHO market, home appliance users etc.

This year, Quick Heal will keen on recruiting partners with an SI background as they have a good understanding of the customers’ IT requirements and can suggest the right solution based on the customers’ in-house IT capabilities. The vendor also will focus on on-demand training programs, which are free and conducted practically every week at all the branch locations so as to strengthen its support infrastructure. The company indicates its partners to be focused on the education and government verticals as the growth in these sectors is most likely to be more than that of Industry growth rates. And, this year Quick Heal will introduce security appliances for the SOHO and SMB segments, where they are very strong in.

From the perspective of WD, clearly the partners will have the opportunity to cater to a much larger consumer base than ever before. Additionally, extended product portfolios will demand that partners try their best to push up volumes by focusing on a consistent vendor, as opposed to best-selling product categories.

Sushil adds, “Improved skills-sets and technical know-how can yield significant benefits for channel partners this year. For instance, consider the evolving ecosystem of PC components: it demands a certain amount of awareness on upgradation and compatibility to sell a 3 TB or a SATA III drive to first-time users.”

Currently, vendors are undertaking a consolidation of their channel base as they hit the market with extended and diversified product portfolios.

There is a clear opportunity for partners who step up to cater to the huge demand with a sensitivelypriced basket of storage devices for all needs. Congruently, vendors will prefer to work with fewer

“THERE WILL BE SOCIAL MEDIA EXPLOSION, MOBILE APPLICATIONS WILL POSE HIGH THREATS AND SHORT URL SERVICE ABUSE.” ANIL GUPTA, HEAD NATIONAL SALES, ESCAN national distributors, thereby ensuring that partners push the brand and its extensive portfolio.

Connected Homes’ will be our focus for WD in 2011 for which the company has launched WD TV Live and WD TV Live Hub. Besides, AV drives will also be a key focus segment, as storage is becoming as essential feature of more & more personal and enterprise devices. In short, Western Digital will attempt to continue to stay ahead of the technology curve by bridging the gap between personal and professional content creation, storage, and sharing.

AMD advises partners to take advantage of the training programs offered to understand the

“IN 2011, IT’S GOING TO BE A YEAR OF COMMUNICATION FOR US. WE WANT TO TALK TO OUR PARTNERS AND UNDERSTAND THEIR PROBLEMS AND ISSUES AND WORK WITH THEM AS AN EXTENSION OF OUR TEAM.” VINAY SHETTY, COUNTRY HEAD, COMPONENT BUSINESS, ASUS (INDIA).

right product positioning combined with how to deliver key benefits to customers to ensure it is win win for both partners and customers. They should take advantage of new technology like the AMD Fusion APUs to offer gaming experience to even value conscious customers, Small form factor PCs, AIO PCs etc.

For them, opportunity lies in SMB, gaming and upcountry markets (smaller towns & cities). The focus of AMD will be on working closely with the final tier partners – helping them with training, positioning, POSM, after sales support and ensuring they make good margins selling AMD over competition.

Asus advises channel partners should focus on selling right, selling more. Ensuring the right product mix to maintain profitability and providing right value to their customers. Also they need to keep up with all the new product developments and learn about the new changes in the industry.

Vinay maintains, “For the partners, having a diverse product portfolio depending on their operating market should work. Partners should also focus on high end products for positioning within their market and to offer a one stop solution for their customers.”

Asus had taken 2010 a year of service and support. They had started burnt and corrosion warranty on all motherboards, free pick and drop service in 798 cities. Vinay says, “In 2011, it’s going to be a year of communication for us. We want to talk to our partners and understand their problems and issues and work with them as an extension of our team. The ASUS Business Connect initiative is our first step in this direction and this year we will focus on improving communication with our partners.”

The company’s focus will be on training their partners and imparting the right product knowledge to them so that they can sell more effectively and ensure profitability. Investment will be mainly on more channel seminars, improving the channel communication network and reaching out to them. The company has already made an investment of 5.1 million rupees in January to improve the communication with top 324 AEC partners.

Finally…

Given the forecast most of the vendors have made, there will be huge investment on technology. Therefore the partners have to be visionary, flexible, efficient, and ready for the future IT challenges. Customers will increasingly look at Service Providers to offer them Infrastructure as a service as an option. So the summery is that the partners have to develop capability and from the vertical perspective, they have to more focussed on the SME market space.

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MCAFFE

SME BIZ

INTUITIVE

SOLUTIONS ACT BETTER

Threat to your computer and network is always growing at an alarming rate. Unlike the physical threats the cyber threat are invisible and unpredictable.

BY NEIL D’SOUZA info@smechannels.com

FACTS ABOUT Year of Operation in India

:

1998

Turnover in 2009

:

US$1.9 billion (global revenue) (but acquired by Intel at US$ 7.68 billion in 2010)

Key People (India)

:

Ambarish Deshpande, Director, Channels & Mid Markets

Presence in India

Mumbai (HQ), New Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai

Products

Data Protection, Email & Web Security, Endpoint Protection, Network Security, Risk & Compliance, Security-asa-Service and Security Management

Strength Website

end-to-end Security solutions :

www.mcafee.com

A

cross the industries, Cyber threats have wrecked havoc and have compelled everyone to look at it with a pair of glasses.

Everybody has well understood the consequences of the data loss by now. The threat perception is so high that people today ask about security before buying any product or solution. So security landscape has all of a sudden opened in India. Looking at the market opportunity, every global vendor has opened their shops in India and the established ones have tried innovative ways to sustain their growth.

If one recalls, 10-11 years back, people only knew that only two brands sit in computers for security - McAfee or Norton. But, gradually many other MNC brands came into the Indian market. Even the Indian brands evolved and the consumer, SOHO and SME markets found it more cost effective and viable to buy other brands than these two brands. Of course a myth developed that these two antiviruses are heavy on PCs. However, with the growth of complexity in cyber threats and change in the perception that antivirus is not the only product which can protect the PC, these two companies have again positioned as the premium content security vendor. They have developed or acquired capabilities to address

the landscape with a suite of solutions. Specially McAfee has proved to be the leading vendors in the security space having featured in the leaders’ quadrant of Gartner’s magic quadrant in maximum categories.

Ambarish Deshpande, Director, Channels & Mid Markets, South Asia McAfee, says, “People bring out very good technology. But after 5-6 years, they either get acquired by a larger company or become a part of the lager company or they become very cold and lose the impact. From McAfee perspective, we are the largest security company in the world today.”

In India, McAfee is present from 1998 but people knew it as Network Associate and the antivirus was McAfee like the Norton of Symantec. Of course the name of network associate had come from a merger of two companies - McAfee Associates and Network General. But in 2004, to Network General and changed its name to McAfee. So the journey of the company has been pretty eventful and based on acquisition, merger and legal entanglement, etc. The company has acquired best of breed technologies globally to enrich its capabilities and demerged entities or sold softwares which were not part of their strategy.

But in 2006-07, the company had seen a major

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MCAFFE

shakeup as it was slapped with a law suit from Securities and Exchange Commission, and the casualty was its president and CEO along with a $50 million penalty. But the company has overcome those hurdles and gown as very next year, the company had hired David DeWalt from EMC Documentum as its new CEO. This was of course a change in fortune as the company touched US$1 billion mark revenue same year and grown double by 2009. Finally, Intel acquired it for 7.68 billion US$ in 2011.

Ambarish adds, “We were predominantly known as antivirus company, not anymore!

Today, we are the single largest company for endto-end security solutions. Our pitch to both our customers and partners is that we are the single solution company. As the new attacks coming in, you need all your products talk to each other.

Two –three years back, people were happy attacking servers or networks for being publicised, but today these attacks are getting much targeted.

Spreading worms or viruses etc. have become a monetary gain.”

Today most of the business class- people are using PDAs. Although these devices are bought personally yet they carry all your official data. If that is lost then you are in a big soup.

If you look at the typical market maturity model from any organizational perspective, first is the reactive phase. There is a virus and you act by buying a technology. Then you move into compliances. They invest in new technologies. Then they think they need to be proactive. As they move in, their investment keeps on increasing. Managing more technology and invest on man power who know technology – most importantly they make the technology talk to each other and that is where McAfee has made a major impact in the industry.

“Today if you look at our IPSs, we have the maximum market share in the world. If you look at our firewall probably the most secure firewall we have in the world. Defence segment worldwide by default use our firewall. If you look at our email and web security technology or our data leakage prevention technology, each of these technologies is in the leaders’ quadrant of Gartner today.” Ambarish, says, “But what is more important for us that each of these technologies can talk to each other from a single management console.

There is no other vendor today, has that kind of capacity. There is no other vendor who gives you a single dashboard, which gives you management over your laptop, mobile device, servicers, database, etc. They take help of third party vendors for the same. This is where we differentiate and stand from others.”

McAfee has added two important technologies, which help them to differentiate from the compe-

FINAL QUESTION

AMBARISH DESHPANDE, DIRECTOR, CHANNELS & MID MARKETS, SOUTH ASIA MCAFEE HOW MCAFEE IS PRESENT IN THE SECURITY LANDSCAPE? We have the best antivirus, best IPS, best firewall, best email security and web security, best DLP, best hosted DLP, etc. We also have the most secure enterprise mobility management security technology today. In the individual end product level, we also fight with them but when it comes to the combined products as a solution, we are far ahead of them.

WHAT IS THE UNIQUENESS OF MCAFEE? Our uniqueness is that we are able to sell our products as a bundle managed by a single console and a single reporting structure. In 2011, we will work aggressively on end-point, IPS and web washer products.

tition. Most of the security technologies are reactive in nature thus they talk about applications blacklisting. On the contrary, McAfee is reactive and proactive in nature. In 2009, it acquired a company called Solidcore Systems, which offers application whitelisting and compliance enforcement mechanisms.

Ambarish says, “Today, ATMs use this technology. We have probably very strong market share in that space. We have approached from both the side. We have software, hardware and also SaaS offerings along with VMware, Microsoft and Citrix.”

McAfee’s forte is that they advocate for phased manner adoption of our solution. For example, a customer is using enterprise antivirus and tomorrow they have 100s of iPhones given to the senior executives, they also help the customer secure their data in their handhelds. The company does not like to lose information, even if the devices are lost. The company suggests the client how remotely they can erase the information or ensure that the information cannot be misused if fallen

into wrong hands. McAfee has ePolicy Orchestrator (EPO), which is a single point console that integrates all the applications.

McAfee takes helps of channel in its go to market approach. From the market perspective, consumer business contributes 35% of its global revenue. Top 8 OEMs are the partners of McAfee.

Social media including Facebook, Twitter, etc. run on McAfee platform. Many websites and payment gateways are tested and certification by McAfee.

Therefore if one finds shield of McAfee against many website suggesting those sites are safe.

As far as Indian market is concerned, the go to market is also through channel partners. there are 700 channel partners work with McAfee. The company has a very good partner programme called McAfee Security Alliance programme, under which there are three categories of partners Elite, Premium and Associate.

Elite partners are large SIs including Wipo, HCL Comnet, HCL Infosystems, Verizon, HP, etc. Then premium partners are like MIEL, Kinfotech, Veeras, Tarak and Micro Clinic, etc., which

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MCAFFE

have technical resources and have good inroads into the SMEs market. There are approximately 35 partners in these two categories and rest fall into the associate category.

The company has three distributors including Ingram Micro, Redington and Inflow technologies.

And, iValue deals in the secure computing products. These distributors help the company reach out to the customers through the associate resellers.

With these distributors, McAfee engages dedicated resources in terms of post sales and presales who work along with the associate partners.

The distributers run their rebate programmes for the resellers on the business they do for quarter on quarter basis.

To attract more business, recently McAfee has started a programme called “Bring McAfee to the Game”. Through this, the company is targeting the competition and the sales person of the partners is offered US$100 as incentives if he brings an opportunity. Normally the incentives go to the organization but this is clearly targeted towards the sales reps. Second thing the company is doing is Deal Registration. If you bring a deal to McAfee, the company will protect the margin from minimum 5 to 15%. On top of what the partners make is transactional margin.

Ambarish, adds, “A partner gets a good margin within 20-40% today and on top of it, they do achieve incentives. There are also incentives for our

Elite and Premium partners towards training and certifications. If they are going to certify minimum number of their people, they also get margin.”

McAfee has three types of certifications and the partners have to pass at least two to keep themselves abreast of the technology changes.

He adds, “We also have regular engagement through our partner advisory council, which is a big initiative of McAfee after three years. Today, we have a lot of senior people on board. We are consolidating distributors to 3 from 6-7. We also have consolidated our partners from the number of 12-13K partners.”

McAfee India has presence in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai but they now intend to open offices in Pune, Kolkata and Ahmadabad.

The company is knowingly restricting the partners and want to help partners get benefitted.

From 2011, the company wants to consolidate and want to ensure that partners get good business and respect.

Especially, for the SME market, the company has bundled the end point solution and firewall at a comparatively better cost. But the issue with the vendor is to reach out to the SMEs based out of dispersed locations, which the company is addressing by shared resources with its distributors.

He adds, “Our 50% revenue comes from endpoint security, then 25 percent comes from email and web security and the rest comes from the risk

SME BIZ

and compliance. In the network security we are very highly focussed on IPS and web securitythe secure computing products. In the firewall it is very much crowded where we are part of it but not much focussed to be a leader. In the End point security there are multiple technologies, including DLP, host based intrusion prevention, NAC, and anti-malware, which includes antivirus, anti-phishing, etc. these are the combination of technology which sits in the end-point.”

Finally…

India is not only a market for business transaction but it houses McAfee India centre, which is the second largest R&D centre outside US. This facility holds 1200 people here. Many products have been developed in this centre. Similarly, Solidcore also has 100 people sitting in Delhi. As far as growth is concerned, this year McAfee is expecting a gowth of 29-30%, and 35% next year against industry growth of 27%. So far McAfee has been very sigh in tems of being vocal to the market about its successes, Ambarish promises to be very aggressive. The primary indication is very encouraging as they have started a programme called Cyber Mom, where they have chosen a lady as a mascot for all mothers who like to make their children aware of the Cyber theat. From the revenue perspective, India has already been the third largest contributor to the McAfee APAC.

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EMPOWER

ASUS

ENABLEMENT OF PARTNERS IN C, D AND E CLASS CITIES TO DRIVE BUSINESS

This is good to see that vendors are getting aggressive on the partners engagement front to make it happen big in 2011. At least Asus has taken the step by providing them the PC free Skype Videophone.

BY SMRUTI CHOUDHURY info@smechannels.com

E

nabling the partners in the smaller cities, ASUS kick started a unique and innovative communication program– ABC – ASUS Business Connect. ABC is a step to further

“Communication is the key to the success of any rela-

tionship – personal or professional - and

facilitate smooth communication between the company and its channel partners. Inaugurated from Silliguri, a small city of Darjeeling district, ASUS has demonstrated the capability of Videophone Touch AiGuru SV1T. In the pictures Albert Tung, Managing Director, ASUS (India) visited the partners at siluguri to explain them about the benefits of the video phone touch AiGuru SV1T. he also had patched calls with Vinay Shetty - Country Head for Component Business, Asus (India) as a live demonstration.

ABC is our step to initiate this communication with our valued partners.”

—ALBERT TUNG, MANAGING DIRECTOR, ASUS (INDIA)

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ASUS

As a live demonstration, partners spoke to Vinay Shetty - Country Head for Component Business, flawlessly and explained him about issues of the market. They were very excited while speaking to the country head about being facilitated with the communication system and promised him of a better performance this year.

It is the World’s First PC-Free, touch enable Skype videophone, which will installed at 324 partners locations across the country to help partners communicate directly with ASUS Head Office in Mumbai, in the most effective way possible – face to face.

Partners from C, D and E class cities have always had a problem in reducing the communication gap with vendors since most of them don’t have representatives in these locations. The communication channel through sub-distributor or distributor was not always the most effective way to reach to vendors and sometimes proved to be too cumbersome for partners to partake in while engrossed in their busy schedule. ASUS has undertaken this initiative to tackle this problem and will only be focusing on C, D and E class cities for this project.

In the first phase, ASUS will be making an investment of 5.1 million towards the devices and

target its top 324 ASUS Elite Club Partners in C, D and E Class cities. Partners from these belts have always faced an issue of not having a direct contact with vendors. Channel meets and seminars do help in the process but they are usually sporadic and offer only a many to one form of interaction.

With the launch of this initiative, partners can now reach ASUS directly, one to one and face to face from the comfort of their own offices. Partners frequently face issues with product updates, service issues and availability related queries and with the launch of this initiative, ASUS hopes to address these needs of partners. Partners can now get real-time updates of any issues, clarify their service related queries and touch base with the ASUS product team for updates.

Mr. Albert Tung – Managing Director; ASUS (India) was present to help take this first step in improving communication with the partners.

Commented, Mr. Manish Agarwal from Kurseong Computer Sales Pvt. Ltd., Siliguri, “We have always faced a problem getting in touch with vendors to address our issues since most of them have their head offices in metros or major cities. In the past, it was difficult to get timely responses to our queries.

We are really happy that ASUS has undertaken this initiative to cater to the needs of partners from

EMPOWER

distant locations and are happy that our needs are being addressed and given priority.”

Added Mr. Albert Tung, Managing Director, ASUS (India), “Communication is the key to the success of any relationship – personal or professional - and ABC is our step to initiate this communication with our valued partners. We encourage them to utilize this platform to get in touch with us for any issues, queries and feedback that they may have regarding our products or services. It is an initiative that will only be successful with the support of our partners as communication is always a two way process. We hope to be able to co-work better with our partners in the future and are confident that together with their support we can all grow and scale new heights in 2011.”

About the effectiveness of the Videophone AiGuru SV1T, another partner, Mr. Mohit Dubai from Mithicomp Computers, Sangli said, “It is a very innovative product to get in touch with each other as it stimulates a feeling of sitting in front of each other. The sound and picture clarity is superb and it’s also a good product to be pitched to the market. Thanks to ASUS, we came to know about something new in technology.”

SME CHANNELS 41 JANUARY 2011

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PARTNER CORNER

KEDAR SHAH, CEO, NIRMAL DATACOMM PVT. LTD.

“WE ARE ACTIVE IN ENTERPRISE, TELECOM AND PSU SPACE” As you know, Nirmal Datacomm is India’s leading system Integrator focused on large and Mid-sized Enterprises. Networking, Unified Communications, Video Conferencing, Data Centre Solutions, Wireless solutions and security solutions are some of the key areas of expertise at Nirmal Datacomm. SME Channels spoke to Kedar Shah, CEO, Nirmal Datacomm to know its strategy. Excerpts

Tell us about Nirmal Datacomm?

Nirmal Datacomm is India’s leading system Integrator providing End-to-End solutions based on advanced technologies. We are focussing in the mid market, which drives a large volume of business these days and is growing at a very good pace.

Earlier, the technology was being adopted by the large corporate but now the mid-market is driving this. The company started in January, 1994 and have been growing since then. We started off with data communication solutions. We were into Wide Area Network connectivity then but gradually we moved to voice, video and security.

That is how we are positioned in the SI space. We are predominately on the network side of business but with cloud computing coming in, we are also offering cloud services. So now we are providing, cloud storage, computing, infrastructure, aggregation, etc.

Which are the vendors you working with at present?

We are working with Cisco for voice and video.

On the IT computing side, we are working with VMware, for storage, we are working with EMC.

We also have our association with Fortinet in security space. We also have worked with Fluke Networks for network audit, monitoring and testing.

What is the core strength of Nirmal Datacomm?

We are a silver partner of Cisco. We have earned advanced competency for routing, switching, wireless, security, UC, Data Centre, storage, infrastructure communication, etc.

We take turnkey projects directly from the customers. We have 200+ people spread across 8 cities in the country including all the metros. This manpower strength also includes 100+ technical people.

We are predominantly active in enterprise, telecom and PSU space. From the vertical perspective, BFSI, telecom, PSUs, are driving the market for SI business. In the SMEs, mid market is growing very fast also. Opportunity in terms of growth is 40% year over year for SI business.

We are also authorised to conduct training as we are authorised training partner for Cisco.

We have been fortunate that we are in the market for last 16-17 years, so a lot of customers

know us, which is a prime advantage for us. They have experienced us and it is easy for us to acquire customers and manage them. We are not very high on the tendering game because of its long life cycle. HPCL, L&T are some of the major customers that we deal with.

What is you turnover?

Our turnover was Rs.32 crore last year. We are expecting to touch Rs.45 to Rs.50 crore this year.

Where do you think this growth will come from?

Last year, many companies had deferred their decision of investing on technology due to the market slowdown but now with the market bouncing back they have again started investing.

Besides, a lot of customers are expanding and upgrading their networking. So growth is natural.

What is your road map for next 5 years?

We are expecting to become a Rs.300 crore company with much more capability acquired after 5 years.

42 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

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1/24/2011 9:37:25 AM

Advts.indd 2

1/23/2011 10:09:09 PM

SME CHAT

WATCHGUARD

MOHIT PURI, COUNTRY MANAGER INDIA/ SAARC, WATCHGUARD TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

“OUR PRODUCTS HAVE SUPERIOR ENGINES” WatchGuard has been leading UTM provider for last fourteen years. From extensible threat management (XTM) network, the company has now acquired capability of Extensible Content Security (XCS).

SME Channels spoke to Mohit Puri, Country Manager India/SAARC, WatchGuard Technologies, Inc., to know about its strategy. Excerpts.

Brief us about WatchGuard presence in India?

WatchGuard has been there in India for the last ten years but in the last three years our team size has grown five folds and we are present directly in New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai and Kolkata.

What is the strength of the company over the competition?

Our products have superior engines in terms of our gateway anti-virus, anti-spam, URL filtering and intrusion prevention system. These are all commercial tools which given us edge over our competition.

We also have unique feature which has upgradability within the family. This is not available with any other UTM across the globe where we can upgrade the model of the UTM without the change of hardware.

This can be done with the help of license.

What are the products you have?

We have the three lines of products starting from our flagship product which is our UTM and we have coined a new term for it called the “XTM” Extensible Threat Management. We had acquired an organisation called Borderware in the end of 2009 for Email, web security and Data leakage

prevention. So “XCS” Extensible content security is our second line of product with last product being our SSL VPN. What is your marketing and channel strategy?

Our go to market strategy is very clear, initially we started aligning with Tier two channel partners but now we have started partnering with tier-1 as well. We have also had a clear focus on the end customer which gives us better control in the market.

How do you empower your partners?

We have around 80 Channel partners across India who have been consistently doing our business and we have regular training so that we can empower on the latest technologies and innovations about the product.

What is your focus on brand promotion?

We would be participating in all the top trade shows this year like the Interop. Apart from this we are running promotional schemes for our partners’ called “Enjoy the Journey” in which the

partner is incentivised on the qualified lead and not on the closures.

What are your plans for 2011?

We have done very well over the last year and we grew around 50% over 2009. We will continue our focus with the tier one partner and also add more people in B Class cities to give a better grip on the overall business .

What kind of growth are you expecting for this FY? We are expecting a growth of minimum 25% over 2010.

What is your strategy for SMEs? We have increased the number of tier 2 and tier 3 partners over the last year and we would continue doing it which would automatically give more reach. We are also targeting Class B and Class C cities which would give us more growth in the SME market.

What is WatchGuard India turnover to the global revenue?

India contributes 13% of the APAC business and contributes 2 to 3% of our global turnover.

44 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

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1/23/2011 10:12:32 PM

SME BIZ

LEXMARK

BUYLESS

SAVEMORE &

It is always good to do different especially when the market is cluttered with similar kind of solutions or products. Lexmark is exactly doing the same since 2007.

BY NEIL D’SOUZA info@smechannels.com

FACTS ABOUT Year of Operation in India

:

September 2001

India Headquarters

:

Mumbai

Key People

:

Shailendra Aragula, Country Manager

Strength

:

Managed Print Services

Products

:

Laser printers, inkjet printers, multifunction devices, associated supplies, services and solutions

Website

:

http://www.lexmark.co.in

I

f many of you are trying to forget Lexmark, it is time to refresh your memories that Lexmark is much fitter now than earlier.

Its growth is pretty decent – especially after shedding the frills of low priced printers in 2007 and entering into managed printing services. Of course in the process the company has lost its position in the Fortune 500 companies; but that’s fine as the bottom-line is much better now.

Started in 1991, Lexmark is based out Lexington, Kentucky, United States. The company is present all across geography with offices throughout North and South America, Asia, Africa and Europe. Lexmark has more than 13,000 employees worldwide.

The ethos of the company is to “Buy Less Printer and Save More”. It means they are advocate to buy less printers of whatsoever format and adapt to print services, which they call as DFM or Distributed Fleet Management. This will not only fulfil your objective of printing but also save you a lot of dollar or money.

In India, Lexmark is known for its servicing of the MNCs now though it started all out in the product sales through channel market at the beginning. But with its global strategy changed, the Indian strategy also changed.

Talking about its India operations, Shailendra Aragula, Country Manager, Lexmark (India), says, “Lexmark is a conservative company. We do not sponsor many sports events or participate in any of the big-ticket events but still our brand name is not diluted as our focus is on only printing than anything else

compared to some of the large printer companies. Our earnings per share are more than even other large printer companies.”

He adds, “India is one of the biggest markets for us. Apart from the large enterprises, the SME business has been flourishing here. Our performance so far has been very good in both the segments and we want to keep it up for coming years. As the business dynamics is changing, we also have relooked at our channel and distribution strategy and enabled them to participate in various market opportunities including cloud printing.”

Asked about how the company is doing good business? His answer is very straight that products’ selling does not have much margin today whereas services give you a healthy margin.

By virtue of its relation with the MNCs, the company is getting orders from their ancillary’s units, which happens to be SME in nature. This has helped Lexmark to create a good case study.

As per Shailendra, the high-touch approach of the company has been a key to the success of Lexmark. He added, “Canon is into many things and they are an imaging company. HP is again a product company, but none of these companies call on customers. What Lexmark does is that it calls the customers and understands their needs.”

The company does a lot of channel training programmes for doing high-end stuff. There are a few steps they take before rolling out Distributed Fleet Management (DFM) with any customers.

They take care how they can pay less by buying fewer printers. They ensure how optimally the existing printers can be deployed for maximum

46 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

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1/24/2011 9:38:25 AM

LEXMARK

SME BIZ

Unlocking the True Value of Print Managed Print Services (MPS) is a business model that allows companies to control their print infrastructure, rationalise the hardware they use, and take advantage of ongoing service level agreements with a strategic partner. The MPS market in Asia Pacific is growing rapidly, in some cases with growth rates as high as double digits. In the emerging economies of China, India, Indonesia and Malaysia, MPS is expected to see rapid growth in the next five years.

The approach: Processes beyond print n An optimised output strategy n Total visibility of cost n Proactive and reactive services – combining supplies management with support services n Cradle to grave asset management n Management information and reporting – to demonstrate, in detail, printing habits across the organisation, down to the individual n Continuous Improvement Program But what are the hidden benefits – key business issues that can often go unnoticed or uncontrolled – that MPS addresses?

1. Workflow optimisation The term ‘MPS’ encompasses much more than just a managed fleet of printers. Before a solution is implemented, the business processes are examined, and

SHAILENDRA ARAGULA, COUNTRY MANAGER, LEXMARK (INDIA)

a response designed to fit exactly with the business needs.

2. Infrastructure rationalisation When a company starts an MPS project the first thing they notice is often how much can be saved in hardware. There is often little focus on what is really needed and why. With an outsourced printing environment, these factors can be continually monitored and the printing infrastructure tuned to meet the needs of the business.

3. Management of waste

MPS allows businesses to leave planning and operation of the printing estate to the experts, enabling a consistent approach to toner and printer type. This ensures that there is little wastage, with control of printing resources right down to the employee level.

4. Security Depending on industry or customers, a company may have differing needs or levels when it comes to document security. For example, banks or law firms may be legally required to keep certain documents secure. In these cases, printers are fitted with card readers or keypads so the printouts themselves are accessible only by employees with the correct permission.

usages. So consolidation of printers comes as a priority before others.”

He adds, “Consolidation is a major savings of a customer and a paradoxical to other printer companies in the competition. They want to sell more products.” He quipped, “Just as mango flavour sounds with ice tea, same is managed printing services sounds with HP. There is no body in HP printing division who can go work with customers. On the contrary, traditionally Lexmark has

been working with the customers.”

Truly distribution is not the core competency of Lexmark rather talking closely with the customer to assuage their pain points emanating from the area of printing. However, the fulfilment is done through its channel network headed by Cyberstar as distributor. “We have helped them to create a network that is very strong in their geographies,” Shailendra added. Companies like HCL and CMS are partners for managed print services in India

for Lexmark. Besides, the company also works with 36 number of Tier-2 SIs.

Finally…

Finally, Lexmark is definitely in the business but with a difference. The company again advocates for less use of printers, which is unlikely of other companies. Here likes the twist and a factor that will force the customers to also rethink about their preferences.

SME CHANNELS 47 JANUARY 2011

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1/24/2011 9:38:28 AM

SECURITY FORECAST

COMPLEXITY OF THREATS ASSUMES A NEW LEVEL IN 2010 About the author: Alexander Gostev (Aleks) has headed the Global Research and Analysis Team at Kaspersky Lab since 2008, and specializes in all aspects of information security, including mobile malware. His responsibilities include detecting and analyzing new malware. His research and analytical articles are published both on dedicated IT sites and in the mass media. He has been with the company since 2002, and is based in Moscow.

THE YEAR 2010 has been almost identical to the previous one in terms of malware evolution. Vulnerabilities have really come to the fore in 2010, especially those in Adobe software. Exploiting vulnerabilities has become the prime method for penetrating users’ computers, with vulnerabilities in Microsoft products rapidly losing ground to those in Adobe and Apple products (Safari, QuickTime and iTunes).

It could be said that 2010 was the ‘Year of the Vulnerability’ and 2011 only promises worse to come.

The rise in malicious exploits that seize on programming errors won’t just be down to new vulnerabilities appearing in popular solutions from the likes of Microsoft, Adobe and Apple, but will also occur because of the speed at which cybercriminals react to such loopholes. A couple of years ago the use of a zero-day vulnerability was considered something to write home about, whereas in 2010, they became a common occurrence. Sadly, that trend is set to continue, with zero-day threats becoming even more prevalent. Moreover, the remote code execution class of vulnerabilities will not be the exclusive weapon of choice in 2011, as vulnerabilities that allow privilege escalation, data manipulation and security mechanisms to be bypassed emerge from the shadows to take centre-stage.

The theft of online banking credentials, spam, DDoS attacks, extortion and scams are likely to remain the primary sources of the cybercriminals’ illegal income. Of course, there will be more emphasis placed on some of these methods than on others, but it’s safe to assume that they will all continue to be used to achieve the goals of the

cybercriminals in one form or another.

There is little doubt that there will be an increase in the number of threats targeting 64-bit platforms. There will be new developments with regards to attacks on mobile devices and mobile operating systems, and these are likely to affect Android in particular. Attacks on users of social networks will increase. The majority of attacks will make use of vulnerabilities and will be carried out via browsers. DDoS attacks will remain one of the biggest problems plaguing the Internet.

But all of the above are only the entrees to the main course, which will consist of the biggest shift in the threat landscape to date – the emergence of a new breed of organizers with new and more potent aims for their cyber attacks.

As we have already discussed, over the last few years, we have grown accustomed to combating malicious code created by cybercriminals for financial gain. The creation of the Stuxnet worm was a significant and frightening departure from the familiar, suggesting a moral and technological barrier had been breached. The attack was an impressive demonstration to the whole world of just what the cybercriminals’ arsenals contain, as well as a wake-up call to the IT security industry because of how difficult it was to counteract. It is even quite possible that programs like Stuxnet could be used as a medium for the know-how and capabilities of secret services and commercial organizations.

Of course, compared to the number of more traditional cybercriminal attacks that will occur, those with Stuxnet’s level of sophistication will be few and far between. However, when they do,

they will be potentially far harder to detect and as they are unlikely to affect the average user, only the odd episode will hit the headlines. The majority of victims are unlikely to ever know they have been targeted. The principal aim of such attacks will not be sabotage, as was the case with Stuxnet, but the theft of information.

These types of attacks may only begin in 2011 and come to fruition years later. However, it is already clear that the arrival of this new generation of cybercriminals means that those tasked with counteracting such cyber threats will need to raise their game considerably.

What to watch in 2011: n A whole new generation of more organized and more malevolent malware writers n Malware attacks targeting information as well as for financial gain n Information becoming the target of the new breed of cybercriminals and another source of income for those already in the game n The emergence of Spyware 2.0, a new class of malware that steals users’ personal data (identity theft) plus any other type of data it can find n Spyware 2.0 becoming a popular tool for both new and old players alike n An increasing number of attacks on corporate users by traditional cybercriminals and the gradual decline in direct attacks on everyday users n Vulnerabilities remaining the principal method of carrying out attacks and a significant increase in the scope and speed with which they are used.

48 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

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1/24/2011 9:39:00 AM

PARTNER CORNER

DUSHYANT MEHTA, CHAIRMAN & CEO, MEDIAMAN INFOTECH

BROADBAND TO DRIVE THE GROWTH IN INDIA A globe trotter and philosopher in the heart, Dushyant Mehta is also a serious business man. His USP is to do business with razor focus. He always tries to explore opportunities which can yield him high returns.

F

ounded in 1987 by Dushyant Mehta, Mediaman group has been active in the IT business since then. The company has been dealing in various product lines depending upon the opportunity.

However Dushyant Mehta, the Chairman & CEO of the group is known as a storage man to many people because of his high indulgence in the storage products. He says: “My philosophy is always to find out places where the business will happen forever.”

Today, when the business dynamics is changing and geographic barriers breaking down; Mediaman is also sees new opportunities of business.

He says, “I see opportunity in the communication space within the ICT. IT growth has happened pretty timely but as far as communications growth is concerned, it is yet to happen. Today, there are a huge number of mobile phone users so also service providers but there is a dearth of broadband users and providers also.”

He adds, “There are a couple of hitches these days as far as communication outreach is concerned. First problem is power shortage. Since power will be reached to all over the country very soon, the broadband penetration will happen along with that. Secondly, problem is that the service providers do not see the mobile phone market is matured; therefore they are not able

to divert their focus to the broadband. This will happen very soon as the service provides’ revenue dries up from the mobile phones. Looking at the immense potential of this segment, we have already tied up with a big brand for the communications products and networking products.”

However, at present, he is riding the chariot of Transcend, which is driven by 6 horses. He adds, “This chariot is so wonderful I do not feel like getting down from it.” As per him the six horses means six memory products including generic and server memory modules, then flash cards, which include six types of cards i.e. TF( MicroSD), SD, Flash Drives, then CD & DVD, External Storage, MP3/4 and Digital Photo Frames.

He opines that photo frames will grow aggressively because people like to see things in front of them. Another product which is going to grow fast is SSD but it will happen in next two years time.

Besides, Mediaman is also getting into industrial solutions from Transcend. His own brand Bravish is also doing very good in the market.

Under this brand, Mediaman brings batteries for most of the mobile handsets. Bravish also has scratch guard and screen guard products for the mobile handsets.

Apart from these products, Mediaman also distributes Palit graphics cards. AVG is another global brand for content security products that

MY PHILOSOPHY IS ALWAYS TO FIND OUT PLACES WHERE THE BUSINESS WILL HAPPEN FOR EVER. Mediaman carries. They also have efficiency enhancement software. These all activities are going right on its way at this moment but Mr. Mehta is an innovator. He sniffs market opportunities very soon. After product selling, he found solution business has immense opportunity. It is customization of portable storage products as per the need of the clients. He says, “These days, large corporate buy huge number of portable flash drives and customizing these drives with their corporate logo and messages and give it as gift to their clients or customers. And this business is growing fast.”

He adds, “In recent times, Transcend also have tied up with Tron movie and it has worked for them very well. Tomorrow, you will not be surprised to hear that Mediaman has tied up with Karan Johar because the shelf life of his products or software is only 15 days. So we can promote his movies in various different opportunities.” This is one example; Mr. Mehta can create many of these opportunities for himself.

Finally…

Today, the turnover of Mediaman Group is Rs.350 crore and by 2012 Mr. Mehta expects to touch Rs.1000 core. Towards achieving this, he will concentrate primarily on three areas i.e. storage, communications and solutions business.

SME CHANNELS 49 JANUARY 2011

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1/24/2011 9:39:22 AM

PRODUCT

REVIEW

DIGISOL USB PRINT SERVER

BU

BUY l

2010

l B EST

ST

ST B U

Y

BE

Y l BE

EPSON PERFECTION V330 SCANNERS

DIGISOL USB print server, DG-PS1010U allows wired and wireless stations in your LAN to access and share a USB printer, no matter where they reside on the LAN.

BY MANAS RANJAN

The DG-PS1010U has one USB 2.0 interface

info@smechannels.com

and supports major network protocols like TCP/IP, IPX/SPX, NetBEUI, AppleTalk, LPR, RAW TCP/IP and SMB over TCP/IP.

EPSON PERFECTION V330 is best fit for small offices - not because it has a price that the SMEs can afford but also in a small footprint, the vendor packs so much of power.

When you open the scanner from the pack, it looks very cool and cute. The scanner comes with 4 buttons and as per the pictorial indication one is for on and off, other three represent scan to PDF, scan to email and scan to print. It means the functionality is very simple. You do not have to read the manual though it is always advisable to read the manual before installing any product.

It also comes with an inbuilt transparency unit (TPU), which helps to hold the slides, negatives and films for the convenience of scanning. Of course the capacity of the TPU is to hold 6-strip film in 35mm and 4-frame mounted slides in 35mm. When you connect it with the computer and start scanning, it is amazingly fast.

It offers 4800 X 9600 dpi optical resolution and optical density (3.3 DMax) for more precise scanning capabilities.

The Epson ReadyScan LED Technology eliminates waiting time. Besides, the software integration with this machine is very high also, which includes ABBYY FineReader Sprint 9 and Arc-soft Scan-n-Stitch Deluxe for converting scanned copies into editable formats and stitching documents that are larger than A4 sizes. Epson’s Easy Photo Fix Technology makes it easy to restore damaged photos. The four customizable buttons actually help you to enhance your productivity with the scanner.

FEATURES

With its compact design, DG-PS1010U can

n Optical Resolution: 4800 X 9600 dpi

easily be accommodated anywhere. You

n Photoelectric Device: Epson MatrixCCD

can easily manage the DG-PS1010U using

(12 line colour CCD with On Chip Micro) n Scanning Speed: Monochrome (A4):

600dpi - 25sec on Speed Priority Mode n 24bit Colour (A4): 1200dpi – 129sec on

a windows-based configuration utility that can automatically discover print servers on the LAN and run a wizard for configuring it.

Best Mode

The DG-PS1010U also supports web-based

n Power Consumption: 0.5w on standby;

administration. Using a Web Browser on a PC

12.0w during operation

simplifies configuration of the print server.

n Transparency Unit: 32.9mm X

244.4mm (35mm X 6 frames strip film, 35mm X 4 frames mounted slides)

Configuration is also possible using Telnet.

With its USB 2.0 interface and a simple setup process, the DIGISOL DG-PS1010U

PRICE

offers seamless connection to most printers

`7,999/-

available on the market. It is the best solu-

CONTACT Tushad Talati, Epson India Pvt. Limited Phone: 080-30515000 Email: premjith@eid.epson.co.in / tushad@eid.epson. co.in

tion for network based printing for Small and Home Offices, Educational Institutions and Businesses that need sharing of printers across a LAN.

OVERALL RATING n Cost: `3,000, Contact: DIGISOL sales support, Phone: 1800-209-3444 (Toll Free) & 022-30616666, Email: sales@digisol.com or helpdesk@ digisol.com

50 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2011

Products pages.indd 50

1/24/2011 9:39:46 AM

e

,

n

t.

NEW ARRIVALS

PRODUCT

TRENDNET

TRERNDNET WIRELESS INTERNET CAMERA SERVER

DELTA

DELTA AMPLON RT UPS

TRENDNET WIRELESS, Day/Night Pan/Tilt Internet Camera Server with Audio (TVIP422W) is one of the smallest form factor surveillance cameras that work day and night covering a large area. You can talk to the field people and hear their talks and see what is happening always on. Only requirement you have is wireless internet connection. With the broadband becoming ubiquitous everywhere, investing Rs.24,000 on an equipment which streams video for 24/7 is not a bad option.

Especially those SMEs who cannot afford manpower to look after their manufacturing facility, offices, etc., for them this is a very good product.

Its design is so beautiful that you can tilt up-and-down 105°or pan the camera side-to-side 330°. The TV-IP422W provides high quality video streams over a secure wireless connection. Advanced intuitive software includes motion detection recording, email alerts and scheduled recordings.

DELTA AMPLON RT series is a parallel redundant, single‐ phase UPS systems is specifically designed to protect mission critical information technology (IT) systems, telecommunications, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), network equipment and light industrial applications against costly damage from power failures and disturbances. Recognizing the individual needs, Delta VX UPS series offer the best value and availability UPS to prevent damage and data losses for your home offices and small businesses equipment caused by power fluctuations.

The Amplon RT’s leverage double conversion on‐line topology ensures better filtering and more stable voltage to the load, and its genuinely parallel redundant system provides worry‐free reliability. With an optimized 2U (5, 6kVA)/ 3U (10kVA) form factor in a solid enclosure, Delta’s Amplon RT is ideal for installation in a standard 19‐inch rack space. The product is coming in three configurations i.e. 5kVA, 6kVA and 10kVA.

n Price: `24,000, Warranty: 3 Years Limited Warranty, Contact: Aditya Mohan Jaiswal, KSG - Technologies Pvt. Ltd., H.O. Pune, Email: marketing@ ksg.net.in

n Price: `47,999 – `84,999, Warranty: 1 Year, Contact: Anjali Sharma, Phone: +91-124-4874900 (Extn-4672), Email: Anjali.sharma@delta.co.in

PC

.

.

rs

-

s

ers

FUJITSU

FUJITSU SCANSNAP S1100 FUJITSU’S LATEST PORTABLE mobile scanner is believed to be the world’s smallest scanner. The Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 is the first in its range to boast a linking function to popular cloud services including Google Docs, Evernote and Salesforce CRM. This allows users to seamlessly link and save their scanned image data.

The light-weight scanner features the same easy-to-use, one-touch scanning capabilities, packed with enhanced productivity features and added versatility. At approximately one quarter the size of the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300, the ultra-compact Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 is an easy solution for mobile users and business professionals. The S1100 features a manual Continuous Document Feeding (CDF) function which enables non-stop, smooth scanning of multi-page documents.

Equipped with the cloud service linking feature that significantly increases versatility and work efficiency throughout the entire scanning process, from prescanning to post scanning, the ScanSnap S1100 provides a truly unique scanning experience in terms of efficiency, reliability and ease of use. n Price: `14,995, Warranty: carry-in warranty (RTB), Contact: Rohit Grover, Fujitsu India Pvt. Limited, Email: rohit.grover@in.fujitsu. com , Web: http://sg.fujitsu.com/scanner

SME CHANNELS 51 JANUARY 2011

Products pages.indd 51

1/24/2011 9:39:52 AM

GUEST TALK

INDIA, GO CLOUD The sheer “pay-per-use & pay-as-you-go” would be a great motivator for the SMEs as they consider IT Automation, a first time for many of them.

M.LAKSHMI NARAYAN (LUX) RAO Marketing Director - Global Channel Programs, Jamcracker Inc

BRIEF PROFILE Lakshmi Narayan (Lux) Rao is the Marketing Director for Jamcracker Inc. He is responsible for managing Global Channels. His role involves setting up Channels for Jamcracker and devising & driving Channel Marketing Strategies.

Lux has over 20 years of experience in multifarious roles spanning IT Hardware & Software Marketing, Sales, Channel Management, Product Management, Product Support, Pre-sales, Competency Development and Customer Service in Organizations such as IBM, Canon & Xerox.

Prior to the current role, Lux was managing the Country Channels for IBM India/South Asia for the Lotus Brand of Software Solutions. As a Channel leader, Lux’s role was to ensure Channel readiness and effectiveness to handle Lotus Value Portfolio.

EDUCATION Lux is an Electronics & Communication Engineer from Bangalore University besides holding an MBA specializing in Marketing & Finance from Manipal University.

MUCH HAS BEEN written about Cloud and its value for businesses that are considering Automation.

Given India’s legacy of leapfrogging technology trends and adopting the latest, it is no wonder there is a large amount of interest in the latest poster-child for technology – the Cloud.

How does the Cloud augur for Indian organizations?

Will the adoption trend reach critical mass this year or will it be limited to early adopters alone?

Here are some projections that could mirror the market trends as we start a fresh year.

Projections – 2011 From Hype to Ripe: To borrow Gartner’s phrase, 2011 would see many organizations taking the plunge to Cloud. While a cloud-wash may not be imminent, over 30% of Indian organizations are expected to explore the magic, mysteries & imminent rewards of the cloud, subscribing to at-least 2 services as they start their transition to Cloud. 2011 would be the year where the Cloud story gains critical mass and would start its journey towards ubiquitous existence.

SME, Cloud and the Art of Affordable Automation: The sheer “pay-per-use & pay-as-you-go” advantage would be a great motivator for SMEs as they consider IT Automation, a first time for many of them.

Given the simplicity of deploying (Zero/low initial investments), zero barriers to exit (you don’t like it, you RIP it & Replace it without any woes) and the uber cool RoI factor, it is no wonder that SMEs are moving from consideration to crystallization this year.

Enterprise and the Cloud: Undoubtedly, Cloud forms a key agenda for Enterprises as the recession pales into background and IT investments are making a come-back albeit cautiously.

Most enterprise organizations are already defining the framework for outsourcing key business processes, consuming public Cloud Services and taking the initial steps towards deploying private clouds by virtualizing their internal computing assets. In this context, ‘the

Cloud’ helps define a vision for how enterprise IT can meet the needs of their organizations better.

Government The classical technology adoption cycle has traditionally classified Governments as technology laggards - late in adopting emerging technology but that could be a myth when it comes to Cloud Adoption.

It seems that the Cloud tech with its “Compute Any-ware, Any-where” philosophy and pervasive ability is tailor-made for the working of the Government juggernaut.

Globally, Governments are actively promoting cloud computing through construction of various testbeds and the launch of multiple cloud service initiatives such as e-governance, cloud grids etc.

Closer home, the much publicized Aadhaar aka UIDAI project could well give a major boost to ubiquitous Cloud adoption in India.

Cloud computing could well be termed Social or Community computing.

CSB - The Cloud Service Broker A new addition to the ever expanding IT lexicon is the term CSB which is quickly becoming the ‘term du jour’ A cloud services brokerage (CSB) is a type of service provider that plays an intermediary role in cloud computing. CSBs make it easier, safer and more productive for companies to navigate, integrate, consume, extend and maintain cloud services, particularly when they span multiple, diverse cloud services providers.

The emergence of the CSB has provided a major fillip to the non-traditional IT vendors such as Telcos, BFSI, Retail segment et al to make a major charge for gaining a share of the opportunity. Telcos with their last mile advantage (read Broadband) have aggressive plans to take a major chunk of the IT pie and have been the first to challenge the traditional IT channels.

Will it be a ‘Battle Royale’ between traditional IT Channels taking on the Noveau IT Savvy channels?

Time will paint the true picture.

Interesting Trivia l Internet only 4 years to reach “mass market.” Social Media (FB, Twitter) took only 2 years to go main-stream. Future technologies will go viral in days, if not hours. l Marketers are consumed by the buzz around ‘social media’ launch of their products and gain instant feedback about their product/positioning. The recent GAP logo change and the instant back-lash & subsequent recall due to the ‘viralwhirl’ on social media makes for an interesting case study on the rewards & retaliation in a socially networked world. l Over 4 EB of unique data was generated last year, more than all of human history thus far. (1 EB = 1 billion GB) l The top 10 in-demand jobs in 2010 did not even exist in 2004.

Source: Various research and Internet

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