E-Magazine, May 2015 Issue

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D-Link teams up with GajShield

AMD brings 7000 Series APUs

Net Neutrality – Internet access for all

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Modi's one year of Governance: Ministry of Communications & IT 30pg

HP launches “Next Business Day”

H

P has launched a new service, for the first time in India, for its customers, which offer hardware and software resolution within 24 hours of complaint registered on its consumer range of Notebooks, including HP Pavilion, HP Envy, HP 15 and HP Stream.

To provide a hassle-free and quick resolution, HP has introduced the unique service that will ensure that the issues are resolved on priority and the productivity is not affected. The service can be availed in 65 cities across India, including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Chennai, Pune and Ahmedabad.

Facebook opens up Internet.org Platform

F

acebook has introduced the Internet.org Platform, an open program for developers to easily create services that integrate with Internet.org.

It is also giving people more choice over the free basic services they can use.

This is a move, according to Facebook, would boost efforts to get people online in low-income and rural areas in emerging markets. The move comes amid growing debate in India, home to the world's third-largest population of internet users, over free access and net neutrality in the country.

“Our goal with Internet.org is to work with as many developers and entrepreneurs as possible to extend the benefits of connectivity to diverse, local communities. To do this, we are going to offer services through Internet.org in a way that is more transparent and inclusive,” commented Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook.

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HELLO INDIA

Celebrating a Year of Success of the Modi Govt.

T

he discussion on the topic on Net Neutrality has traversed from technology corridors to social media to political battlefields. This was bound to attract the attention of the common man and hence it raises many questions. Is it important? Is it going to affect my life or someone else's life? Should I be concerned about this?

The reply is we should feel concerned about it but as a concerned citizen. Net neutrality is the idea that Internet service providers (ISPs) should treat all data that travels over their networks equally. It can be defined as a neutral access to the internet. Unfortunately, the ISPs are considering a plan that would allow some Internet providers to provide better access to some websites that pay a fee to reach users faster. This kind of “pay-to-play� Internet will stifle innovation. New websites that can’t afford expensive fees for better service will face barriers to success, leaving users with ever fewer options and a less diverse Internet. On the contrary, everyone should have an equal right to the internet and the fight should go on unless a solution is found.

Secondly, the first year of the new government was a great success, with several policies having focussed on long-term vision, infrastructure creation, existing policies rectified and new programmes launched. Infrastructure creation in LWE (left wing extremism) affected states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Telangana will definitely act as a catalyst for future growth in these states and Union Territories. New programmes like Digital India, Make in India, National Supercomputing Mission and Cyber Security Policy will definitely help in attracting fresh investments in the ICT sector, thereby giving a big boost to the Indian economy. Policies like the GST Bill passed in this session of Parliament, which is critical for growth and the Cabinet’s approval for 100 smart cities and rejuvenation of 500 cities is very timely. It will not only lay out the path for more liveable cities in India and improve economic competitiveness of India but also provide the desperately needed growth engine for the domestic as well as global economy. Another important announcement which is doubling of single-window clearance limit for new FDI proposals will lead to higher investments.

Lastly, I am quite sure that Make-in-India initiative is going to create 100 million jobs over the next decade and manufacturing could reach to 25 per cent of the Indian GDP. The Government’s initiatives are also likely to boost technology transfer and speed up product development in various sectors.

With the hope of Digital India becoming a success soon, I sign off wishing a better future for the S. Mohini Ratna country.

Editor, VARINDIA mohini@varindia.com

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Huawei Eyes its Enterprise Business with keen interests Huawei has followed a simplistic slogan to position the Brand – ‘To MAKE IT SIMPLE and MAKE BUSINESS AGILE.’ Sameer Rawal, Vice President - Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Telecommunications India gives an account of how Huawei is planning to position in the enterprise space in the country and grow its business

H

uawei Enterprise Business Group was established in 2010 and is the youngest of Huawei's other business groups. In 2013, Huawei Enterprise Business Group has globally achieved $2.5 billion revenues and has shown a growth of 27 percent. It plans to increase its revenue by 30 percent this year.

Coming from a carrier background, Huawei Enterprise initially saw a good success with leading ISPs like ACT, Hathway, DEN and Spectranet. “This year, we are focusing on education vertical and we have started having footprints with IIT-Guwahati, Manipal University and Calicut University. Our extended focus is on HPC (high Performance Computing) where in we would like to leverage our global experience to India. Another vertical is the BFSI Segment, where we have footprint in Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), ICICI Bank and UBI and we would like to expand it in a big way. India’s leading retail chain Future Group is also our esteemed customer,” says Sameer Rawal, Vice President Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Telecommunications India.

Huawei has a very strong portfolio in its enterprise business group which is created to provide SME and large enterprise customers an innovative experience. Huawei offers a complete range of services for IT (servers and storage), IP (routers and switches) and unified communications like VC, TP, VDI etc. “Our products and solutions, besides being innovative are user friendly. We address vertical markets like BFSI, education, oil and gas, media as well as SME segment and stitch a solution tailor made for them,” Sameer explains.

Huawei’s newly launched OCEANSTOR V3 for India market is the most innovative product till date. It is launched to reduce pain points of Indian enterprise customers and the kind of technological innovation that has been put behind this is simply exemplary.

Huawei has categorized its enterprise customers buying broadly into two segments - one who are highly innovative and want to leverage technology to its benefit and the other who currently would like to pass their financial tides and are looking for cost competitive solutions.

At the same time, Huawei is also witnessing another set of customers, who currently want to pass their financial tide and would like to see benefits that accrue by former players to make their decisions.

In the last 15 years of its presence in India, Huawei has established its credibility and trust with leading operators in the country with its strong R&D capabilities and strong execution prowess. Traditionally, the Indian market has been dominated by US based companies, and of late the trend has shifted in favour of companies like Huawei that has started to engage more with partners and create a suitable eco-system.

In 2014, Huawei posted revenue of $20 million which it plans to take it to $100 million by 2017.

While technologies like M2M, IoT and IoE are the latest buzzwords in the industry and a lot of innovations are happening around the same, Huawei’s conservative assessments forecasts them to be at least 2-3 years away for the India market. “We feel that a lot of brainstorming and open sessions shall happen this year and then things will start to get concrete shape for its implementation/execution,” Says Sameer.

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Sameer Rawal Vice President - Enterprise Business Group, Huawei Telecommunications India In the coming years…

Despite being a new player, Huawei was quick to have understood the need to have right partners and channels in order to make it big. Currently, the company is investing to build its enhanced capabilities to build a harmonious ecosystem with its partners and channels.

Going forward Huawei would like to leverage on its relationships to enter into large companies for their IT or IP requirements. It fully endorses and supports government initiative on Digital India and Smart Cities and shall co-operate more with government in both these initiatives.

“All the three schemes like Digital India, Make in India and Smart Cities will lay the foundation of a forward looking and better connected India in time to come. While all these schemes are currently in their nascent stages, we are very sure of them taking due and desirable shape in upcoming years. The momentum in all these three schemes is about to pick up soon with the present government laying special emphasis and providing business friendly guidelines for private public partnership. We ourselves see few state governments taking extra initiatives to make it happen,” observes Sameer. n

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CONTENTS Website: www.varindia.com

Publisher: Deepak Kumar Sahu Editor: S Mohini Ratna Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Assistant Editor: Samrita Baruah Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Correspondent: Aparna Mullick Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera BUSINESS: Commercial Manager: Amit Kumar Jha Circulation Executive: Manish Kumar Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar Marketing Manager: Shubhendu Nanda CORPORATE OFFICE: VAR House, A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi - 110030 Tel: 011-41656383, 46061809 Email: edit@varindia.com Bangalore: Bureau office Marketing Manager: S. Kamala kar Correspondent: L. G. Swami D-103 G.F., Ashish JK Apartments Thubarahalli Extended Road Bangaluru- 560066 Tel: 08049530399 Mobile:08904205750/9916134482 E-mail: shubhendu@varindia.com, swami@varindia.com Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S. Anurag Residency, 203 - “B” Wing, Plot No-5, Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai-410 209 Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479 E-mail: anil@varindia.com, mamta@varindia.com Chennai: Bureau office Branch Manager: Parthiban K A2, R.C.Residency, Cholambedu Road, Thiruvenkada nagar, Ambathur, Chennai - 600 053 Mobile: 098400 55626 E-mail: parthiban@varindia.com Hyderabad: Bureau office Branch Manager: L.G. Swami Plot No. 103, Sagacity Apartments, Street No. 10 Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad - 500029 Tel: 040-32989844/ Cell No. 08374935692 E-mail: swami@varindia.com Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Sunil Kumar Correspondent: Kiran Kumar New Korola, Near Alampur, Land Mark Asian International School, Howrah - 711302 Mobile: 08100298033, E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Printed and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of M/s. Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. 153, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Are ,Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi 110030, Editor - S Mohini Ratna.

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Channel Chief

Growing Software Partner Ecosystem is what Tally aims at Tally Solutions launches “Vriddhi”, a project encompassing a new channel partner model to deepen engagements with the Partner Ecosystem in India. To know more about the program, we spoke with Tejas Goenka, Executive Director, Tally Solutions Private Ltd, who explained to us more about the program and how it is going to benefit both partners and customers

F

or Tally, 2015 is going to be a year of major milestones.

As an organization, Tally has decades of experience in developing profitable and growing channel partner relationships.

This translates into a deep understanding of channel requirements and the development of mutual best practices to drive new opportunities for both parties. “Vriddhi” – the new partner program that Tally has introduced – will enable partners to deliver higher-quality experience to customers while maximizing profitability in business. All this will be achieved through specialization in their respective lines of business.

“Vriddhi” will provide opportunities to partners to create their own growth path, by allowing them to – • Acquire knowledge, specialize in what they do best

consistently and become experts in their own domain • Use this expertise to build a strong reputation for their business • Deliver high-quality experience to customers • Grow consistently and predictably • Get recognized for their abilities through Tally’s Certified Partner program The Vriddhi framework will further classify partners into Certified Partners, Associate Partners, Partner Developers and Distributors.

Along with the partners, the entire exercise will deliver some important elements to customers and the market as a whole – • Focus on implementing strong support and development program that allows its existing partners to see exponential growth as an achievable possibility. This program does not just consider helping partners become more knowledgeable on the products and domains, but also equips its partners with the requisite softer skills or exposure that will help them achieve their growth desires.

• Certification of partners with a goal to provide excellent customer experience consistently, across a diverse range of segments. This will provide partners with a more relatable identity as well as a platform to showcase their skills to customers – again assisting them in their growth desires.

“Vriddhi” is backed by solid research and study of two years regarding how partners have performed so far and the IT market realities of the future. “The sheer size and diversity of Tally’s partner network meant that we could not introduce the changes overnight. So, we introduced the Focus Partner Programme (a sampling exercise with select partners) about 15 months back as a test bed for the changes in the partner structure. The results of this approach were very encouraging and gave us confidence that we could now take Vriddhi to our entire partner ecosystem,” says Tejas Goenka, Executive Director, Tally Solutions Private Ltd. Since October last year, Tally has been spending significant time, resources and effort in introducing its partners to the new structure and most of them have already chosen their roles and successfully made their transition.

Message to Partners “In the coming few quarters and years, we still strongly believe that a strong and healthy partner network is the key to addressing the opportunities we believe exist. We will be focussing on this very strongly and we do want to say that our efforts will be very high in building world-class software sales, implementation, and customization partners in one of the most difficult and diverse business environments across the globe.”

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In times to come – Tally believes that it has played a pivotal and almost a solitary role in building the software product sales and service ecosystem in the country. While many principal organizations have invested a great deal in the hardware partner community, Tally has not seen the same attention in the software products space and has seen its organization to be one of the very few that continues to strongly invest in building this community and ecosystem.

“We have been able to find great partners to work with, and have seen their support in our journey together, but we do believe that there is a long way to go. Our journey in the next few years will not just see our existing partner grow significantly, but also attract many new partners to the software products space. Our Partner Network today is a robust system of close-to 28,000 partners who produce excellence every day. We are improving the structure and the business approach in our partner ecosystem,” asserts Tejas. n samrita@varindia.com

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ROUND ABOUT

Tectonic Shifts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Do we have a Digital Solution?

T

he sinister earthquake that struck Nepal and parts of India had taken away several precious lives. The disasters are still continuing in one way or the other in the form of aftershocks, epidemics, lack of or slow rehabilitation measures and water problems et al.

What prompted me to treat earthquake as the theme for this piece is the paradox that is glaring at us. Technological advancements remain to be standstill to address the tectonic shifts. Man has conquered the outer space and our knowledge is expanding at a faster pace regarding movements of celestial objects, orbitary economic et al. We have stepped on the surface of the Moon several years back.

We have gained considerable insights about planets and their orbits. Manmade spacecraft had landed on the surface of Mars and are beaming thousands of clear photographs every day. We are contemplating landing of a spacecraft carrying human species on the Mars surface in the near future.

Yet, we are far away from predicting the occurrence of an earthquake which engulfs thousands of people at frequent intervals.

Admittedly, it is a paradox.In this digital world, when our knowledge is progressively increasing and inquisitive minds are chasing every day newer paradigms of knowledge, we remain totally ignorant of what is happening below our feet. Should we get to know more about the strange phenomenon happening underneath us? Opinions differ! One set of scientists predict that clear-cut knowledge about earthquakes, their timings, likely impact, etc will always elude mankind. Their rationale is that the quest for unravelling the mysteries of earth has started much before demystifying the universe above us.

While we have a good track record of conquering the outer space, we have almost drawn a blank in the case of earth-related issues. Some of them point out that in the initial stages scientists were hopeful of predicting earthquakes based on the analysis of several parameters observable on the earth surface. As years grew by, they became skeptic so much so that they started believing that prediction will be a farfetched desire at least for some decades.

Can earthquake be predicted? Earthquake prediction is an nascent science, so much so that it has not led to any successful prediction.

Whatever research has been carried out focusses on empirical analysis either identifying distinctive precursors to earthquakes or detecting some kind of geophysical trend and certain patterns of energy release that might precede an earthquake. Animal behaviour has been considered as a signal to predict the forthcoming earthquakes. There is also scientific explanation behind such beliefs. In situations where animals display unusual behaviour, it is inferred that that they are responding to the P-wave. (P-waves are longitudinal earthquake waves that travel through the interior of the earth and

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usually the first seismographic wave to be recorded before an earthquake.) But the flip side of using this wave is that it occurs only a few seconds before the happening of the earthquake leaving very few seconds for the people to evacuate.

There were reports that, during the last Tsunami which struck the Eastern coast, animals were behaving in a curious manner and cattle which were grazing near the seacoast had moved out from there in a hysterical manner. Sometimes, the curious behaviour of the animals can be noticed days before the earthquakes.There can be minor earthquakes happening before the major one of significant intensity. Minor earthquakes normally will not lead to heavy losses.

Dilatancy of the rocks can be another precursor. It is the increase in volume of a granular substance when its shape changes because of its distance between the particles.

To put it in a common manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s knowledge bereft of its technical abstractness, it will mean that objects like rocks which are seen on the surface of earth becomes bigger being exposed to various waves that are triggered by the interior movement of plates. Most rocks contain small amounts of gases that can be isotopically distinguished from the normal atmospheric gases. There will be spikes in the concentration of such gases prior to an earthquake, which is called randon emissions.

This has been attributed to pre-seismic stress or fracturing of the rock. Scientists have proved empirically such a nonlinear phenomenon of earth basing their research on the earthquakes happened in Wildlife Refuge in California in 1987 and Hushiro-Oki in Japan in 1993.

But the later studies undertaken had disproved the correlation between the two on the basis that such a dilation of rocks is found not only in places where the earthquakes happen but also places in far-off distance.

Therefore, it concluded that mere elongation of rocks is not a sufficient proof of imminent earthquake.

There are some seismologists who believe that prediction is like alchemy of our times.

They have given up the quest for precise prediction and are turning now towards more modest projects like telling the public the probability of an earthquake. What they have in mind is the evolution of a seismic weather report, a chart describing a continuously updated, local estimate of probability of an earthquake. These forecasts will not tell when and where the earthquake will happen or of what magnitude it will be. But it will indicate whether the baseline probability of the earthquake has risen or not. It will be something like the weather reports beamed across the world through the media-visual, audio and print, which is mostly in the nature of probability of occurrence rather than precise prediction.

Of course, there are some places which are more sensitive than others. For instance, Japan has modelled their town planning,

construction et al in terms of withstanding earthquakes. Most of the people in a developing country are more concerned with their livelihood than anything else. Stories coming out from quake-hit areas of Nepal are revealing. We have seen people fighting with each other to grab the food packets dropped aerially. They live without water and shelter.

Rough estimates indicate that re-building Nepal will cost close to US$10 billion, which is astronomical for that small impoverished country.

We have to put in place a contingency plan for addressing such eventualities on a war footing. International aid alone will not suffice since the intensity of such alms dry out in a few weeks or so from the date of occurrence of the quake. These initiatives should be germane to a nationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s governance apparatus.

We also know how the international aids are misused by the countries diverting them for other purposes. Such sinister things have happened in developed countries also. It needs more imaginative planning and expertise to set standards for usage of such funds and regular auditing by independent international bodies to oversee whether the funds are used for purposes for which they are meant for.

Equally significant is the creation of an ecosystem that attaches importance to lessening human contribution to earthquake.

Creation of huge dams, indiscriminate clearing forest areas, mindless constructions, etc abet earthquakes, put our ecological system into great strains.

Every natural disaster, wherever it takes place, is an open challenge to the mankind.

It shows how little we know about our own environs and how helpless we are in addressing natural calamities. It also instructs us to focus on man and build around him a protective ring, because every life is precious. Let us take an oath to subordinate the most sophisticated technology to the wellbeing of mankind to make this world more livable, peaceful and harmonious. n

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• Website: www.gigabyte.in • Toll-Free: 1800-22-0966 • www.facebook.com/GIGABYTEindia Gujarat: 97250 59195; Mumbai, Goa, Vidarbha: 99677 18653; Rest of Maharashtra: 99677 18653; New Delhi & Uttar Pradesh: 99583 72672; Chhattisgarh 98269 92970; Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand: 99100 86976; Punjab, Chandigarh and Jammu & Kashmir: 97818 33433 Madhya Pradesh: 98269 92970; Rajasthan: 99100 86976; Bihar: 90075 45577; Jharkhand: 90405 06080; Orissa: 90405 06080; North East: 98642 30150; West Bengal: 97485 02710; Karnataka 74117 74666; Andhra Pradesh, Telangana: 90405 06080; Tamil Nadu: 74117 74666; Kerala: 98950 99231 www.varindia.com

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17

HOT BYTES

Ruckus Wireless and Ingram Micro to bring Smart Wi-Fi

R

uckus Wireless has announced the signing of a new distributor agreement for India and SAARC with Ingram Micro.

“We believe our partnership with Ingram Micro will be extremely significant and beneficial to the continued growth and success of our business in India and SAARC,” said Sudarshan Boosupalli, Sales Director, India and SAARC Operations, Ruckus Wireless. “Our Smart Wi-Fi products and technology have been extremely well-received by corporate enterprises

and service providers that demand carrier-class Wi-Fi networks to serve a myriad of mobile devices in public venues such as school campuses, hotels, airports, train stations, convention centres and more.”

“This new agreement with Ruckus offers our customers innovative Smart Wi-Fi solutions that will provide them with a high level of satisfaction,” said Navneet Bindra, Director, Enterprise Business Group, Ingram Micro.

Dimension Data ties up with NTT DATA

D

imension Data and NTT DATA have jointly announced a new set of end-to-end services that help clients leverage the agility and costs advantages of moving their SAP applications to the cloud. The new services combine Dimension Data’s SAP Cloud certified data centers with NTT DATA’s extensive implementation, migration and application management services, providing clients with deep expertise and a variety of

options.

Available in 16 data center locations around the world, Dimension Data’s Managed Cloud Platform (MCP) provides a comprehensive set of services to support SAP applications, and is certified by SAP for cloud, hosting and SAP HANA. The new services provide clients with a hybrid model that allows SAP to run on Dimension Data’s private MCP within the client’s data center.

Emerson rolls out “Avocent Avengers” Programme

E

merson Network Power has launched the Avocent Avengers programme to incentivize partners.

This programme is valid for sales of Emerson’s Avocent range of products for its ValueAdded Resellers (VARs) and Network Solution Partners (NSPs) in India.

Partners can significantly enhance their earning potential for Avocent products with the option to win a car or redeem PAYBACK points worth Rs.5, 00,000 for sales in excess of Rs.1, 00, 00,000 for the Avocent portfolio

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of products.

The programme will be valid for a period of three months from April 1to June 31, 2015. The programme has been designed to offer multiple slabs to offer PAYBACK points from 1, 00,000 to 1, 00, 00,000.

Partners can avail the benefits of this programme from Emerson’s national distributors – Ingram Micro,InflowTechnologies and neoteric infomatique ltd.

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ZTE ties up with Amdocs and NASSCOM Foundation Modi InfoSol to drive Digital Literacy

Z

TE has selected Modi InfoSol as an authorized distribution partner for their surveillance solutions.

The agreement includes distribution of ZTE surveillance solutions across India with Modi InfoSol acting as open channel business partner.

This strategic partnership with Modi Info Solutions will allow ZTE to establish panIndia presence.

Himanshu Gupta, Head Corporate Affairs & Business Development, said, “ZTE is very happy to announce Modi InfoSol as our distributors and we are confident that this partnership will help us delve deeper into the Indian market. The partnership will also help us expand our footprints pan India.”

NComputing deploys 1.4 Million Seats

N

Computing has deployed over 1.4 million seats in India.

Customer wins, backed by a unique value-driven proposition and growing relevance in the market for its products across varied sectors like education, small and medium businesses, enterprises, and government and non-government organizations, have been the key factors behind achieving this momentous milestone.

Manish Sharma, VicePresident, Asia-Pacific, NComputing, Inc., said, “The milestone achieved by NComputing in India is a small step towards achieving 100% computer enablement in the country for the youth and knowledge workers, especially for those located in the tier-2 and tier-3 cities/towns, and the rural and remote areas."

A

mdocs has partnered with NASSCOM Foundation to establish National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) centres in Gurgaon and Pune. The centres will train more than 3,000 underprivileged people this year to become digitally literate.

“Amdocs India has been a consistent contributor towards the skill development and education of less-privileged communities. They were the biggest contributor among all our registered corporate partners in the recently concluded NASSCOM Foundation Digital Literacy Week.

Amdocs India employees trained more than 475 underprivileged people on digital skills in a week,” said Ganesh Natrajan, Chairman, NASSCOM Foundation. Under the NDLM digital literacy programme, Amdocs will invest in training infrastructure, trainer’s cost, and other operational expenses. The centres will train less-privileged people on using computers, phones and other digital devices.

Amazon.in introduces Service Providers Network

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mazon Seller Services has launched the Amazon Service Providers Network (ASPN).

ASPN is a network of empanelled third-party service providers who will help bridge seller capability gaps in the new digital economy.

ASPN has 21 service providers across 35 cities which include imaging studios, local transportation companies, digital design studios, etc, who have been trained

on Amazon systems and processes.

Amit Deshpande, Director – Seller Services, Amazon India, said, “While India’s millions of retailers are getting familiar with online selling and are beginning to participate on marketplaces, a vast majority are first-time online sellers who need handholding. Our aim is to create a self-sustaining marketplace of services for sellers to successfully grow their business."

Iris Computers becomes ND for BenQ

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enQ has announced its tieup with Iris computers as their National Distributor.

With the association, Iris Computers is entitled to distribute the entire range of projectors and monitors from BenQ India.

Rajeev Singh, MD, BenQ India, said, “Iris Computers has a wide knowledge, network and an in-depth understanding of both consumer and B2B technology market.

We are confident that their rich background

in the industry and an exceptional distribution reach will help us strengthen our goal of increased market penetration in the year 2015.”

Vishal Sopory, CEO, Iris Computers Ltd, said, "This association is surely going to be beneficial for both of us. Our market penetration strategy and BenQ’s solutions forms a perfect blend to cater to the wider consumer and corporate technology market."

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May 2015

19

HOT BYTES

neoteric infomatique and Prime ABGB come together

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e o t e r i c infomatique ltd has entered into a strategic partnership with Prime ABGB. As per the agreement, Prime ABGB will move its operations under neoteric and the company’s Founder Gulbirr Bhatia will join neoteric as Director, PC Components Business Unit and Emerging Technologies.

Our new partnership underscores our common goals and aligns our future growth,” said Paras Shah, CEO, neoteric infomatics ltd. “More importantly,

I

we are delighted to have Gulbirr Bhatia on-board to drive neoteric’s PC Components Business Unit. Gulbirr’s role will be that of an intrapreneur, identifying new technologies, strategizing partner engagement and managing the business in order to provide a major growth boost.”

Olive Data Center teams up with Vision Solutions

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live Data Center has partnered with Vision Solutions.

This relationship enhances both Olive Data Center and Vision Solutions' position in the industry, while significantly expanding Olive Data Center's reach in Malaysia, the Philippines, Middle East, India and other key, high-growth markets. Olive Data Center will distribute and provide technical support to Vision Solutions' Double-Take products in India and selective

countries in the Middle East and Africa. The new partnership is expected to spark innovation by maximizing the product development talents and resources at both companies, while driving scale and efficiency in the partners' respective supply markets.

"We look forward to collaborating with Vision Solutions to offer our customers some of the next-generation technology," said Pravin Mohite, CEO, Olive Data Center Private Ltd.

UST Global to digitize urban local bodies in MP

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ST Global will help Madhya Pradesh Government to digitize its 377 urban local bodies. The company has inked a deal of 7 years with the MP Government, worth $30 million.

As part of the deal, UST Global will help these bodies provide facilities such as electronic bill payments and online filing of grievances to its citizens. Overall, it will support the state’s projects in water, electricity, public health and transportation outlined in the Chief Minister’s infrastructure

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May 2015

Infosys and Microsoft to offer Finacle on Azure

development manifesto, Vision 2018.

Sajan Pillai, CEO, UST Global, said, “We are delighted to partner with the state of Madhya Pradesh to build a robust framework for good governance, accelerated economic growth, and inclusive social development.”

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nfosys has announced an extension to its partnership with Microsoft Corp. As part of this collaboration, the Finacle suite of solutions will be available on Microsoft Azure.

This offering will allow banks to utilize Finacle’s award-winning solutions, along with the robust capabilities of Azure, enabling them to operate at lower costs and with greater agility.

Michael Reh, Senior Vice-President & Global Head, Finacle, Infosys, said, “The adoption of cloud in the banking sector has been relatively slow due to rising concerns about security, reliability and compliance.”

D-Link teams up with GajShield

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-Link has inked a deal with GajShield. D-Link will now offer high-end network security solution to meet the protection requirements of modern enterprise’s missioncritical infrastructure, and further strengthens its Security product portfolio.

Tushar Sighat, Executive Director & CEO, D-Link (India) Ltd, said, “We, at D-Link, have made some significant business alliances that have amplified our Enterprise product portfolio. Our association with GajShield is another in the series of strategic tie-up toward expanding enterprise product portfolio and reinforcing our presence in the Network Security segment. D-Link’s robust business infrastructure and holistic approach along with GajShield’s domain expertise in network security will benefit and empower enterprises.”

Thoma Bravo acquires Riverbed

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homa Bravo has completed their acquisition of Riverbed Technology.

The acquisition is valued at approximately $3.5 billion, with Riverbed stockholders receiving $21.00 per share in cash.

Riverbed stock has ceased trading on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol RVBD. “Riverbed is a clear industry leader and significant addition to our portfolio of software companies. Our team is looking forward to building upon Riverbed’s

customer support and delivering its product portfolio to even more enterprise customers,” said Seth Boro, Managing Partner, Thoma Bravo.

“With this acquisition now complete, our team can begin to move forward with the strategic initiatives that will take us to the next stage of growth. As a private company, Riverbed is better positioned to pursue our long-term goals, and has greater flexibility to develop bestof-breed technologies."

Allied Telesis chooses Kaspersky Lab for Firewall Portfolio

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llied Telesis has selected Kaspersky Lab to provide anti-malware and antivirus engines for

partnered its own specialized hardware with two Kaspersky Lab products to deliver comprehensive

its new series of NextGeneration Firewalls.

Using the latest highperformance platforms, and featuring Kaspersky Antivirus and Kaspersky SafeStream II to provide comprehensive protection, the Allied Telesis Next-Generation Firewalls deliver a powerful, flexible, and highly-configurable security solution.

Allied Telesis has

protection against a wide range of cyber threats.

Kaspersky Lab’s Antivirus engine provides protection from viruses – Trojans, worms, rootkits, spyware, and adware.

Kaspersky SafeStream II provides wire-speed protection from zero-day malware, server-side malware, web-borne malware, drive-by downloads and more.

Supertron Organizes Annual Business Meet in Dubai

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u p e r t r o n Electronics Pvt Ltd (SEPL) has organized an Annual Business Meet from 2nd May to 5th May in Dubai to celebrate the continuous growth in the IT Industry and for having achieved 2000 cr milestone. A total of 125 team members attended the meet from 34 branches to plan the future business strategy, target & action points.

V. K. Bhandari, CMD of SEPL had given a unique speech for future

challenges, the road map emphasizing on belief systems, passion, attitude and inter personalized skills, motivation and leadership qualities.

He gave few examples through audio-video clippings of common areas of SEPL business functions specially in product selling.

Vibhor Agarwal, Director Marketing discussed in details about the Industry, opportunities and scope of improvement.

FACE TO FACE

Pursuing Product Excellence and Credibility Atul Guupta, Managing Director, Lapcare, in a chat with VARINDIA gets lively to inform about the recent developments within Lapcare and the new product launches

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apcare is a well-known brand in the domain of laptop peripherals, compatible batteries and adaptors and is positioned successfully in the Indian market.

Lapcare, a Singapore-based brand, mainly focusses on quality and innovation and being a customer-centric company always works towards giving maximum benefits like special warranty plans along with enhancing the product range and quality standards. “In this fast-moving and multitasking world, everyone looks for a product range which is also multitasking and easy to carry. We know our strength lies in peripherals and accessories and we are enduring more innovative products to our peripherals range, keeping in mind the need of our customers. We will introduce a wide range of consumer products with versatile features. As India is becoming a prime centre for global market, we try to tie up with more e-commerce companies to sell out our products. Lapcare believes in delivering quality products at extremely competitive prices to the customers so we are catering our services to following this strategy,” says Atul Guupta, Managing Director, Lapcare.

Lapcare is working extensively towards increasing its product portfolio and availability in the market by entering retail segment and opening brand authorized stores. It is going to strengthen itself by focussing more on Laptop spares. “We will also establish ourselves as a consumer brand so that users can connect easily with our brand. We will also make our way to enter into tablet spares and accessories with the rising market size of this product.

Our focus area in the present scenario is to get multidimensional in perspective,” explains Atul.

Lapcare has recently launched its trendy and innovative range of products, Lapcare Yo series which comprises the Bluetooth plus water-resistant speakers. Then, the M-25 power bank is the new improvement from

expansion by taking big strategic decisions which also include the recent appointment of Manish Paul, a well-known celebrity as its brand ambassador. The campaign will be going viral on both social media and print.

“Lapcare is a trusted brand for channel partner community. We associated with Rx Infotech to enter the Indian market due to its massive dealer base of more than 6,500 partners and resellers. We have dedicated sales people to manage the partners and solve their issues, if any; we always support our partners with all branding opportunities. We keep introducing special promotional programmes, activities and schemes for our resellers and channel partners,” says Atul.

Atul Guupta Managing Director Lapcare Lapcare YO! series. The new unbreakable headband headphone is the trendiest product which is designed keeping in mind the current trend and usage of today’s customer, especially youth. It is also in the process of coming with more innovative products in the laptop accessories segment. Lapcare’s focus in the PC peripheral segment is wireless products, including wireless mouse and keyboards.

Lapcare is also coming up with headphone speaker range which will attract youth and also more mobility product devices.

Channel Engagement Lapcare is looking at expanding the channel structure and adding resources to handle these verticals by adding more channel partners and more new verticals, especially lifestyle and mobile accessories. It is also working extensively towards market

Going ahead…

Lapcare has successfully entered the tierII and -III cities market by introducing more partners and resellers in the tier-II and -III cities. Its vision is to get more products in lifestyle and all should be available in multibrand outlets.

As mentioned earlier, Lapcare is in an expansion mode and has major plans to add more new and innovative products for consumers – for instance, new and advanced speakers, more new models in the power bank range, mobile accessories, tablets, etc, new verticals like adding presence in retail to increase the reach to end-users and be more specific in the target audiences.

As a matter of fact, Lapcare has global presence which extends to as far as the US, Europe, China and Canada. n

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ON THE RAMP

Dell expands server portfolio with R930

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ell has expanded its thirteenthgeneration PowerEdge servers that include PowerEdge R930, specifically designed for the most demanding enterprise applications such as in-memory databases, customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP). Once the domain of UNIX systems, theseenterpriseapplications are increasingly shifting to x86 platforms for increased innovation, additional capabilities and lower total cost of ownership.

A s h l e y

Gorakhpurwalla, General Manager & Vice President, Dell Server Solutions, said, “The PowerEdge R930, our powerhouse server, and our entire foursocket server portfolio are the latest examples of how we are providing our customers with the technology they need to address the business needs of today and tomorrow.”

The PowerEdge R930 rack server can flexibly scale to optimize transactions and operations.

Wipro Launches RoBoDo solution

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ipro has l a u n c h e d its Remote-BranchDistribution Office solution (RoBoDo), based on Nutanix Web-Scale Infrastructure. Wipro’s RoBoDo offering registers significant operational gain and agility, all the while ensuring that an enterprise’s remote office management, transformation, upgrade, compliance guidelines and, above all, end-user experience, is assured.

In collaboration with Nutanix’s partner

ecosystem, Wipro has built a consistent, duplicable standard reference blueprint, comprised of designs based on hyper-converged web-scale IT. “Remote Branch Distribution office is built on an emerging hyperconverged infrastructure, a complete cloud stack for enterprises to lower cost of distributed IT operations and drive agility," said G. K. Prasanna, Chief Executive & President, Global Infrastructure Services, Wipro Limited.

Axis introduces the first camera in its Q37 Series

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x

i

s

Communications has introduced the first camera in the new AXIS Q37 Series. AXIS Q3709PVE provides situational awareness of a large area, making the camera ideal for city surveillance applications, as well as in installations in logistic centers, airports and train stations.

“An effective onecamera installation providing overview and image detail at the same time ensure that surveillance needs are met in large open areas,” Erik

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May 2015

Frännlid, Axis’ Director of Product Management, explains.

“Multi-sensor cameras are also wellsuited in applications such as squares, stadiums, parking lots and perimeter surveillance.”

Installation is easy, reliable and cost-efficient.

No focussing is required since the lenses are factory-focussed.

The camera comes in a stylish and discreet design with an easily repaintable and removable weather shield that protects against rain, snow and sunlight and allows for easy blending in with the environment.

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AMD brings 7000 Sony unleashes SRSSeries APUs X11 and SRS-X55

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MD has unveiled new AMD 7000 Series Accelerated Processing Units (APUs), AMD Radeon 300 and M300 Series Graphics, and AMD A-Series desktop APU updates.

"AMD’s commitment to graphics and compute performance is evident in the newly available 7000 Series APUs and the Radeon 300 Series graphics that deliver superior gaming experiences, premium entertainment streaming and innovative computing features,” said Matt Skynner, Corporate Vice-President & General Manager, Computing and Graphics Business Unit, AMD. The APUs combine a power-efficient CPU, an advanced GPU, an AMD Secure Processor and system I/O on a single energy efficient chip to prolong battery life and enable uninterrupted video streaming.

Samsung unveils Portable SSD T1

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amsung has unveiled the Samsung Portable SSD T1, an external portable solid-state drive (SSD) that represents a new standard of storage for today’s digital life. Designed for speed and security, the Portable SSD T1 is ideal for business travellers, creative professionals and content creators with a need for secure local storage they can take on-the-go and use to quickly transfer large amounts of data.

The benefit of the new Portable SSD T1 over regular hard drives is the amount of time that users save in copying or accessing their data. The T1 gives speeds between three times to seven times as fast as an external hard drive (HDD). The security features of the drive also make it among the safest in the world. It features 256bit hardware encryption.

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ony has launched the all-new portable Bluetooth speakers – SRSX11 and SRS-X55. The two new Bluetooth speakers

super clear sound with premium design. Sony’s S-Master, DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine) and ClearAudio+

– SRS-X11and SRS-X55 – combine powerful sound quality with Bluetooth and NFC, enabling users to instantly connect their smart device and stream music wherever they are.

SRS-X55 boasts of

technologies which when combined together improve the bass, clarity and restore audio quality .

SRS-X55 is powered with 2.1 channel system and dual passive radiators.

EMC announces new Federation Business Data Lake

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MC has announced Federation Business Data Lake. The fully-engineered solution includes storage and Big Data analytics technologies from EMC Information Infrastructure, Pivotal, and VMware to help customers leverage the new world of Big Data, thereby clearing the path for new insights and disruptive differentiation.

EMC has also announced the launch of its Hadoop Innovation Centre in the APJ region, located within EMC’s Centre of Excellence (COE) at Bengaluru. The Centre will showcase

solutions with Cloudera, Hortonworks and Pivotal.

Further, it will provide opportunities to ISVs to create and test solutions and to application vendors like Splunk to explore/ create vertical stacks.

Amit Mehta, Country Manager, Isilon Storage Division, said, “The new Federation Business Data Lake provides a fullyengineered, enterprisegrade data lake tuned to the strategic priorities of the businesses that can help organizations realize the value of big data analytics as little as one week.”

SAP enhances Its SAP HANA Cloud Platform

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AP has announced significant enhancements to SAP HANA Cloud Platform aimed at building and deploying powerful modern-day business applications to meet the demands of today’s hyper-connected digital economy.

The new innovations continue to capitalize on the advanced in-memory capabilities of SAP HANA, as well as planned added capabilities such as new library of easy-to-consume Internet of Things (IoT) services

for creating powerful yet lightweight apps.

“New innovations delivered by SAP HANA Cloud Platform help companies re-imagine how they run their business. SAP is setting the industry-standard for developing, consuming and deploying apps on our PaaS. SAP HANA is truly the great simplifier of our time for overcoming IT complexity challenges,” said Steve Lucas, President, Platform Solutions, SAP.

Capsule_FullPageAd_235mm275mm.pdf 1 29-Apr-15 10:32:31

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ON THE RAMP

ViewSonic presents LightStream Series Projector Line

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iewSonic has introduced the whole new LightStream Series – multimedia projectors, offering exceptional audio and visual features to meet the needs of small- to medium-sized business and consumers from presentation.

The speakers take pride in quality sound with Sound Response Curve, and high efficiency of transferring electric power to sound power. The projectors also come with ViewSonic’s SonicMode presets to deliver optimized audio performance for different

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applications.

“Our new generation of LightStream projectors demonstrates ViewSonic’s continued dedication to lead the visual display industry with innovative and feature-rich digital projectors that range from affordable entry-level to advanced projection solutions,” said Max Hsu, PM Director for ViewSonic Asia-Pacific.

Citrix’s Announces CloudBridge Virtual WAN Edition

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itrix has announced the CloudBridge Virtual WAN Edition, which reduces the cost of delivering applications, documents and IT services to branch offices by up to 80 per cent, while ensuring nearly 100 per cent application availability.

The new CloudBridge Virtual WAN solution provides businesses with the flexibility to employ multiple cost-effective WAN technologies, offering the ability to

scale WAN bandwidth at dramatically lower cost than traditional approaches.

Chalan Aras, VicePresident & General Manager, CloudBridge Product Group, said, “Businesses need a revolutionary solution to deliver ‘always-on’ availability and a highdefinition experience as their customers, employees and partners increasingly rely on time-sensitive information processing for their business."

HyperX launches SATA-based SSD

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yperX

has

announcedHyperX Savage, its nextgeneration SATA Rev. 3 (6 GB/s) SSD. HyperX Savage is powered by the Phison S10 quad-core, eight-channel controller delivering incredible read/write speeds for both compressible and incompressible data, as well as high IOPS. It replaces the highly successful HyperX 3K SSD. HyperX Savage is the fastest SATA-based SSD in the HyperX family.

With sequential speeds of up to 560MB/s read and 530MB/s write, and

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FUJITSU’s offerings for SAP Customers

IOPS of up to 100,000 read and 89,000 write, HyperX Savage offers higher performance, ultra-responsive multitasking and an overall faster system. It features an eye-catching red steel and aluminum case with a low profile to fit most notebooks, desktops and small-formfactor PC builds. This new design continues the HyperX trend as a leader in stylish gaming products.

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ujitsu has added new offerings for customers running or planning to adopt SAP software. Fujitsu continues to enhance the PRIMEFLEX portfolio of workload-specific Integrated Systems with two infrastructure solutions purposebuilt for SAP software landscapes: FUJITSU Integrated System PRIMEFLEX for SAP Landscapes, and reference architecture versions of the FUJITSU Integrated System PRIMEFLEX for SAP HANA. Both new additions to the PRIMEFLEX family draw on Fujitsu’s close working relationship with SAP and leverage the company’s deep expertise in designing solutions.

BT announces “Cloud of Clouds”

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T has announced a new generation of cloud services that allow large organizations around the world to connect easily and securely to the applications and the data they need, independently of where they are hosted.

They will empower customers to integrate and orchestrate the IT resources hosted on their own private clouds as well as on BT’s global cloud platform and on the platforms of other leading cloud providers. The new services take advantage of BT’s global network infrastructure and build on BT’s longstanding expertise in the delivery of enterprise-grade cloud services. They rely on innovative technology developed by BT and its partners in the fields of diversified infrastructure management, service management, global network optimization, application performance acceleration and security.

Honeywell launches Cyber Security Risk Manager

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oneywell Process Solutions (HPS) has launched the first digital dashboard designed to proactively monitor, measure and manage cybersecurity risk for control systems for refineries, power plants and other automated production sites throughout the world that are at increasing risk of cyber attacks. The Honeywell Industrial Cyber Security Risk Manager is designed to simplify the task of identifying areas of cybersecurity risk,

providing real-time visibility, understanding and decision support required for action.

“Risk Manager gives guidance on the potential impact of threats and vulnerabilities as well as possible resolutions to manage risks,” said Jeff Zindel, Global Business Leader Cyber Security, HPS.

Verizon Announces SDN Strategy

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aving worked closely with a number of its key technology partners – Alcatel Lucent, Cisco, Ericsson, Juniper Networks and Nokia, Verizon has announced that it is transforming its network by implementing software-defined network architecture, laying the groundwork for new innovative services and applications. This SDNbased architecture is designed to introduce new operational efficiencies and allow for the enablement of rapid and flexible service delivery to Verizon’s customers. SDN is a new approach to designing,

building and managing communications networks.

To enable its network vision, Verizon and its technology vendors have co-authored a comprehensive SDN Network Architecture document, which includes all interface specifications and reference architectures plus requirements for both control layer and forwarding box functions.

This network architecture document will enable Verizon’s key technology partners to develop solutions to achieve the business and technical benefits of an SDNenabled network.

VMware Announces new OPEN-Source Projects

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Mware has announced two new open-source projects– Project Lightwave, an identity and access management project that will extend enterprise-scale and security to cloud-native applications, and Project Photon, a lightweight Linux operating system optimized for cloud-native applications.

These projects will integrate into VMware’s unified platform for the hybrid cloud – creating a

consistent environment across the private and public cloud to support cloud-native and traditional applications.

“Through these projects VMware will deliver on its promise of support for any application in the enterprise – including cloud-native applications – by extending our unified platform with Project Lightwave and Project Photon,” said Kit Colbert, VP & CTO for CloudNative Applications, VMware, Inc.

FACE TO FACE

India emerging as a leader in RIM space Discussion on Remote Infrastructure Management, Sathya Prakash, HTC Global Services, in a chat has mentioned the scopes, risks involved, investments required and the verticals adopting it

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emote Infrastructure Management (RIM) has become a driving force of the IT industry. As per research estimates, a pull will be observed in banking, financial services, automotive, manufacturing and petrochemical sector for RIM. With the availability of resources with technical and functional skills, India is expected to emerge as a leader in the sector.

According to NASSCOM, over the last five years, the RIM segment has been on an accelerated growth path in India growing at a CAGR of 50 per cent. This sector is estimated to have aggregated export revenues of US$4.3 billion and employs 90,000 people in FY 2010. It is estimated that, by 2020, RIM can contribute more than a third of total IT services revenues for India.

RIM is the remote management of the IT infrastructure of a company, such as its workstations (desktop PCs, laptops, notebooks), communications and networking hardware and software, as well as applications, by a service provider.

How the concept of RIM is flourishing in India and what is the scope?

India is emerging as a leader in the RIM space due to the availability of a large number of highly qualified manpower with the required technical and functional skills. The welllaid-out processes that are in place among the major Indian IT players make it all the more congenial.

Apart from the above, we have the required infrastructure for supporting RIM business opportunities. The primary one being seamless connectivity. India is strategically connected in the Atlantic and Pacific routes which makes it much more failsafe.

The positive and stable perception of Indian RIM service providersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; future readiness and mature service operations will act as the major tipping point for greater outsourcing of RIM services from India.

Which are the segments that are rapidly adopting this new technology?

Research estimates indicate that the industry segments expected to adopt RIM services rapidly are banking, financial services, automotive, manufacturing and petrochemical. The aim of this rapid adoption is to reduce costs and increase efficiency and productivity of their IT investments. However, the adoption of RIM services in the other industry segments is expected to be low to moderate.

The service offerings under RIM are mostly remote monitoring and management. This includes support, administration, maintenance, troubleshooting and performance enhancement which are predominantly behind the scene. RIM is also looked at as a preferred choice for managing user-facing services such as network management or desktop support.

What are the risks involved in it?

The major concerns of offshoring RIM are security and data privacy, language and accents, industry-specific knowledge and the lack of performance metrics. These concerns can be mitigated by a strong governance model.

What kind of investment is required to deploy

Sathya Prakash HTC Global Services

the technology?

Organizations looking forward to deploy RIM should first identify a suitable vendor and complete a walk-thru of their existing infrastructure. Make the vendor understand the existing process and procedure. The major investment would be the efforts in identifying a vendor and the time invested in explaining the current landscape.

Do small businesses have any scope of adopting RIM? How far will they be benefited?

Yes, utilizing the services of a RIM vendor with diverse skilled workforce and robust systems, can help them to respond to changing IT needs and their internal customers in a timely manner.

As maintaining a skilled resource pools might not be practically feasible, RIM is highly beneficial for organizations whose core business is not IT as it would help them to concentrate on their core areas.

How far is it effective in reducing IT maintenance costs?

The key success factor of RIM services is reduction in the cost of maintaining the relevant skilled resource pool. RIM can save up to 30 to 40 per cent of the total IT spend. Access to state-of-the-art tools and technologies, proven process and continuous improvement capabilities and highly skilled technical resources available on demand can spur growth. n

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VOICE-N-DATA

Tata Communications join forces with China Telecom Global

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a t a Communications has announced its brand new partnership with China Telecom Global to enable and manage media content for customers in China and globally. This partnership leverages China Telecom Global’s regional expertise and leadership and Tata Communications’ Global Video Network to ensure a compelling service offering to their customers.

The partnership enables China Telecom Global to leverage the global reach, quality

and reliability of Tata Communications’ Global Video Network to offer reach for all their live sporting events in China.

Brian Morris, VP & General Manager, Global Media & Entertainment services, Tata Communications, said, “We are excited to leverage China Telecom Global’s video network in China and to offer our customers access to this key region, connecting broadcasters, media and entertainment providers, news bureaus and service providers across the globe.”

Nokia Networks Factory reaches milestone

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okia Networks' Chennai factory has reached a major milestone. The facility has manufactured over two million components for telecommunications networks, of which about a quarter have been used for 4G technology. The announcement was made during an event attended by Amitabh Kant, Secretary for Industrial Policy and Promotion, government officials, European delegates and customers.

Nokia Networks'

Chennai factory is the largest manufacturing facility in the Indian telecommunications e q u i p m e n t manufacturing sector, and a strategic hub for Nokia's global operations.

The company has invested approximately INR 500 crore since 2008 in the 140,000 square-meter facility, which produces and distributes mobile broadband products for advanced technologies such as LTE in domestic and global markets.

Huawei launches NetEngine 9000 Core Router Platform

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uawei has unveiled its NetEngine 9000 (NE9000) core router platform at its 2015 Global Analyst Summit. The petabit core router has the largest capacity in the industry, meeting operators’ demands of delivering next-generation data center (DC) - centric networks.

The new product supports the industry’s first 2T router line card and leading SDN/NFV technology meets the requirement of the nextgeneration DC-centric network. NE9000 supports

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May 2015

the maximum capacity of 8 Tbit/s per slot. The cluster system capacity scales to 8 Pbit/s.

“The Huawei NE9000, the industry’s largest petabit core router platform can accelerate the innovation for highend router technologies and network architecture, meeting operator demands for next-generation DCcentric networks,” said Gai Gang, President, Router and Carrier Ethernet Product Line, Huawei.

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Ozone to provide BSNL partners with UTStarcom by offering harat Sanchar service, high-speed Nigam Ltd (BSNL) our robust portfolio of B has extended its contract advanced yet affordable Broadband infrastructure with UTStarcom for three telecom

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s part of the arrangement, the Hauz Khas Village Residents’ Welfare Association (RWA) and Ozone Networks have come together to provide their patrons and customers with the ultimate Wi-Fi experience that will allow customers to login the moment they enter an Ozone Wi-Fi hotspot therefore extending a “Home WiFi” experience to people while in Hauz Khas Village.

Sanjeev Bobby Sarin, Founder & CEO, Ozone Networks, said, “We have signed a 10 year contract, with a lockin period. With this partnership, Hauz Khas Village will become fully operational within six weeks. By doing this, the Delhi Government can see a “real live’ operational network for the Delhi citizens."

Videocon invests Rs. 210 Crore in Gujarat

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ideocon Telecom has revealed its investment plans in Gujarat Telecom circle.

The telco plans to invest over Rs.210 crore in Gujarat Telecom circle in the current financial year.

The telco’s investment will be on its GSM services Network expansion, where the telco plans to deploy over 450 new cell sites, of these 330 sites will be for geographical coverage expansion across 142 new towns, and another 120 sites for capacity enhancement to accommodate more users. The telco will be also investing to enhance its packet core to accommodate growing data usage on its recently upgraded 2.75G EDGE network.

The telco currently has 3,989 cell sites in Gujarat.

years. UTStarcom will support BSNL for a major network enhancement for the largest n a t i o n a l wireline carrier in India. This reinforces the strength of UT S t ar com’ s advanced efficient and reliable broadband infrastructure solutions.

“We are excited to play a key role in an effort to support the rollout of BSNL's ‘Multiplay’ broadband Internet

solutions. As a leading telecom infrastructure provider, we plan to extend our efforts significantly in the year 2015 and will work with Indian telecom operators, s y s t e m integrators and the government to address the needs of Indian government’s initiatives to build up Digital India,” said William Wong, UTStarcom’s Chief Executive Officer.

Ericsson's report on “The Changing Mobile Broadband Landscape”

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ricsson Consumer Lab has released a new report titled “The Changing Mobile Broadband Landscape” which highlights the evolving mobile broadband adoption and usage in urban India. The report focuses on consumers from different socio-economic backgrounds who are using mobile internet on smartphones. It reveals diverse behaviour and needs of different mobile broadband users and the need for service providers to offer personalization.

Users’ needs are evolving as usage of services and applications is becoming a

way of life.

The adoption of mobile Internet within the lower socio-economic

segment has increased over the last two years: from 38 per cent in 2013 to 45 per cent in 2015. Three in five smartphone users use mobile broadband in urban India. Mid-size and small cities are showing higher smartphone penetration levels at 33 per cent, as opposed to the smartphone penetration levels of 27 per cent in big non-metros and large cities.

Airtel’s 4G trial starts in Mumbai

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harti Airtel Limited has launched 4G trials exclusively for its existing customers in Mumbai.

Airtel customers can now avail a complimentary upgrade to Airtel 4G at 3G prices. The company will use this trial phase as an opportunity to gather valuable customer feedback around the quality of its 4G services and assimilate these market insights into Airtel’s wider agenda of

building a world-class 4G network infrastructure for the city.

Ashok Ganapathy, Hub CEO – Mumbai.

Maharashtra, Goa & Gujarat, Bharti Airtel Ltd, said, “Airtel is excited to bring the power of 4G to our customers in Mumbai.

While launching Platinum 3G, we significantly augmented our network and now have made further investments in building a robust 4G network here."

FACE TO FACE

Exotel helps businesses to “Never miss a business call”

Aiming to becoming a one-stop solution for communication, Exotel helps businesses of all sizes to improve their efficiency. Shivakumar Ganesan, Co-Founder of Exotel, in a chat with VARIndia, has discussed about the Cloud telephony market in India, trends in the market, focus, future roadmap and expansion plans of the company.

How is Exotel positioned in the How far the acquisition of market today? How is the Cloud Croak.it is fruitful for Exotel? telephony market in India shaping Any other acquisition to come up up? next?

Exotel at the core helps businesses to “never miss a business call”. Customers look at Exotel as a reliable product that will take care of their business calls whatever be the volume.

Cloud telephony in India looks very promising. There is increasing awareness about Cloud telephony amongst businesses of all sizes and from different verticals. Especially amongst the SMEs, the adoption rates are on the increase. We are beginning to experience a network effect amongst the SMEs.

Who are your main customer verticals today?

We have products across verticals.

Verticals like transportation, e-commerce, education, etc have found their sweet spot with Cloud telephony due to the nature of their business with respect to the need of automation, measurability, accountability and innovation.

What is the current focus of the company?

Our current focus is in reaching out to more SMEs in India. Till recently, our customer acquisitions have been largely inbound. We are trying out other innovative and effective means of reaching out to the large market in India.

The goal of Exotel is to power all business communication. And voice is at the centre of this. Croak.it’s innovative voice-based technology has taken us one step closer to that goal.

We are always looking out for companies that are solving interesting problems around the voice and business communication areas.

What are the emerging trends in Cloud telephony?

“Cloud Telephony” is a very broad term.

We are seeing a trend where different players are trying to specialize on one vertical and roll out products to that effect, like “sales Cloud telephony product” or a “support Cloud telephony product”.

Another trend that we have observed not in Cloud Telephony, but as a result of telephony is: it acts as a catalyst for technology adoption among SMEs. Telephony is at the lower end of the stack, and more like a basic necessity.

Cloud Telephony acts as the first push to break their inertia to try out technology. They start seeing the benefit of taking their business leads over phone to a CRM or integrate their phone calls into helpdesk software. This is a very encouraging trend for us, because it changes behaviours in the market and also gives us a good understanding of how the

Shivakumar Ganesan Co-Founder, Exotel product must evolve.

How your products and services will benefit SMEs? There are a few different ways Exotel helps SMEs improve their business efficiency, the first of them being greater control and accountability. Businesses can now monitor business calls and gain a better understanding of customer interactions.

As businesses grow, Exotel can seamlessly scale without them having to worry about hardware or infrastructure. In fact, some of Exotel's biggest clients today started small with us and we have grown with them in their journey. n

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Brother DCP-T700W

DCP-T700W is an Inkjet Multi-Function that features a new Refill Tank System. This printer introduces low cost ink bottles with ultra-high 6000 page-yield, and a smart design with embedded tank that takes the hassle out of ink refilling. With Brother’s affordable original refill ink, users minimize the risk of print head damage that arises from using non-official ink. This in turn reduces repair and replacement costs. Its ultra-high yield ink bottles also let users make less frequent ink purchases and enjoy added convenience. Ink refilling process is very easy. Firstly, its ink tank cover is conveniently located at the front of the Multi-Function Centre, which allows for easy access to the ink tank, and makes ink refilling effortless for users. Secondly, the embedded ink tank features a see-through cover at the front, which makes it easy for users to check how much ink is left.

The embedded ink tank design also frees up precious desktop space. DCPT700W enhances work efficiency with Automatic Document Feeder, which allows unattended scanning and copying of multi-page documents quickly and easily. Users may also save resources and share the Multi-Function Centre with a number of users conveniently through Wireless LAN. In addition, the range’s fast print speeds of up to 12 monochrome and 10 colour pages per minute (based on ISO/IEC 24734) are suited for high print volume users who value efficiency. Moreover, with paper tray of up to 100-sheet capacity, users avoid frequent replenishment of paper.

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May 2015

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CHANNEL BUZZ

NVIDIA commences Four-City Roadshow NVIDIA has announced the India availability of the new Quadro M6000 and Quadro K1200 graphics cards for professional design and visualization applications. The company has kicked off a fourcity roadshow, which began on April 24, 2015 in New Delhi, to demonstrate the value proposition of the professional graphics cards solutions to customers.

NVIDIA also showcased its revolutionary Iray technology.

In combination with Quadro graphics cards, Iray provides the highest level of visual realism and interactivity in design workflows by simulating the physical behavior of light and materials, while more than doubling the rendering speed. Therefore, professionals do not need expert knowledge of computer graphics techniques to quickly achieve photorealistic results.

Through the roadshow, NVIDIA will seek to increase awareness of the applications

of the new Quadro M6000 and K1200 cards in a specialized setting and demonstrate how the cards deliver a superior visual computing experience to professionals.

The roadshow moved on to Pune, Hyderabad, and culminate in Chennai on May 8, 2015.

The new Quadro M6000, NVIDIA’s most powerful graphics card ever, is built for professional design and visualization applications. It packs 12GB of GPU memory, 7.0 teraflops of peak single-precision performance, support for up to four 4K displays, and the power efficiency of NVIDIA’s Maxwell architecture in one powerful solution. The Quadro M6000 is certified on more than 100 popular professional applications.

The new Quadro K1200 is the fastest graphics card specifically designed for small form-factor (SFF) workstations. K1200 is the ideal solution for space and power-constrained chassis.

Juniper organizes Partner Summit 2015

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uniper Networks has hosted the Juniper India Partner Summit 2015 in Jaipur.

The three-day event kicked off on the 15th of April. This exclusive event showcased how Juniper's accelerating market innovation, helps drive growth and profitability for partners and ensures a win-win relationship for

the attendees. The event also allowed extensive insight that allowed partners to see with greater clarity the larger picture comprising of industry-specific innovations and dialogue. It enabled different players to come together, discuss, debate and re-envision a larger dynamic and integrated network. This

MAIT and TAIT host National Conclave

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AIT, in association with TAIT has organized the “National Conclave on IT & Electronics Manufacturing in India”which focussed on encouraging entrepreneurship within the ICT industry to boost local manufacturing in India with an aim to make “Make In India” dream a reality. Shri Subhash Rajaram Desai, Hon’ble

products in India.

Hon’ble Minister of Maharashtra Subhash Desai said, “Government is willing to invest US$100 billion with an aim to produce goods worth US$400 billion. New Electronics Policy of Maharashtra supports ‘Make-in-India’ Programme and manufacturing of IT products and hardware in Maharashtra. I

Cabinet Minister of Industries, Maharashtra Government, was the guest of honour at the event with dignitaries from the Central Government and State Government of Maharashtra, CEOs of IT companies and Leadership Team of MAIT. The conclave was themed at “IT & Electronics Manufacturing in India – Opportunity for IT Channel Partners, System Integrators and SMEs” that included the panel discussion on Government Schemes and Policies, Challenges faced by the IT manufacturers and opportunities to manufacture IT

welcome the recommendations of MAIT and TAIT prior to its implementation. We should make ‘Make-in-India’ Programme with the support of MAIT and TAIT IT associations a grand success.”

K.R. Chaube, President, TAIT expressed his gratitude to Shri Subhash Desai, Cabinet Minister of Industries, Maharashtra Government, for attending the conclave by changing his original schedule, State Government and policy-makers for providing full support to the IT manufacturers and creating a conducing environment for manufacture of IT products.

Trend Micro organizes FourCity Partners Meet

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both sides. The event attracted renowned speakers from the industry, covering more than 30 topics across five key areas.

Besides nominees from Juniper Networks, representatives from partner organizations and providers of cloud-based marketing platforms took part in the event.

The conference also facilitated a lot of cross-platform and enterprise dialogue, and also built closer relationships between

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process was actualized through the various sessions on a wide array of topics that were part of the conference.

The keynote session by Ashish Dhawan, Managing Director – India and South Asia, Juniper Networks, set the tone for the event on the opening day by tracing the emergence of the platform-oriented business model and its influences and implications on the technology industry at large.

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rend Micro hosted a four-city partners meet from 5th – 8th May in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and Delhi, respectively. The event series titled “Play 2 Win” endeavours to provide channel partners an opportunity to capitalize on the rapidly- growing business opportunity for Trend Micro’s solutions in order to take their business to the next level.

Dhanya Thakkar, Managing Director, APAC, Trend Micro, said, The sessions will be directed towards imparting vital insights and information to them, which would guide them towards making the right business decisions in 2015. By the end of the meet, our partners will procure a clear understanding of Trend Micro’s solutions, how to position them and also of the business opportunities awaiting

them through us.”

The Trend Micro four-city Partner Day event is open to those channel partners who are focussed on mid-sized to enterprise customers, including resellers, system integrators, service providers and cloud service providers. Each event consists of updates on Trend Micro’s vision and strategy, as well as the threat landscape, from local Trend Micro leaders.

Attendees will also benefit from the Global Partners Programme along with separate technical and sales tracks that focus on Trend Micro solutions, including 3C solutions comprising Complete User Protection, Cloud and Data Center Security and Custom Defense.

FACE TO FACE

“Each new generation of Xerox products use less energy” Balaji Rajagopalan, Executive Director, Technology, Channels & International Distributor Operations, Xerox India, explains more about its latest launch Xerox Color C60/70 and about its features

it become on the part of vendors to come out with environmentf r i e n d l y products?

How is Xerox Color C60/70 going to be different from all the other launches of Xerox?

We had launched the Xerox Color C60 towards the end of last year and C70 in the beginning this year with exquisite features and have already received a tremendous response for both the machines. They offer the widest range of applications and media handling in this market space, including running synthetics, vinyls, window clings, carbonless paper, never-tear paper, transfer papers, magnets and many other unique applications made possible with Xerox’s low melt toner and flexible paper path.

What is most exciting about the Xerox Color C60/70 is the exceptional energysaving capabilities on offer. It comes packed with an ultra-low melt technology that allows it to achieve minimum fusing temperature at 68 degrees F (20 degrees C) – lower than conventional toner for additional energy savings and brilliant glossy output even on ordinary paper. Also, the power consumption of the scanner using LED lighting is one-third of traditional scanners using fluorescent lamps.

Furthermore, the newly-developed, heatefficient IH fuser does not require preheating, which helps reduce power consumption in a standby mode by 44% compared to a resistance heating. Our customers have also loved this new technology and experienced great cost savings in their business.

The Xerox Color C60/C70 offers sharp, consistent and accurate image quality with the 2400 x 2400 dpi resolution and enhanced front-to-back registration accuracy. This precise image quality is combined with flexible inline finishing options, such as stapling, holepunching, folding and face trimming.

How important or binding has

Today, with growing environmental issues, it is very essential that products are ecofriendly in nature. Our latest products are all eco-friendly and built to eliminate wastage. The Xerox Color C60/70 has exceptional energysaving capabilities. The running electricity costs of the C60/ C70 are almost one-fourth to similar press configurations available in the market today.

The newly-developed, heat-efficient IH fuser does not require preheating, which helps reduce power consumption in a standby mode by 44% compared to a resistance heating device. Also, the power consumption of the scanner using LED lighting is one-third of traditional scanners using fluorescent lamps.

Key technical features of Xerox Color C60/C70 • Speeds up to 70 pages per minute (A4 ppm) in colour; 75 ppm in black-andwhite.

• Class-leading quality and graphic arts certifications: IDEAlliance Certified Digital Press System, Gracol, Fogra offset and Pantone certified.

• Choice of four print servers/controllers from Xerox and EFI that enhance productivity, reduce time-intensive tasks and deliver high impact vibrant images, including the: • Xerox EX C60/C70 Print Server Powered by Fiery utilizing EFI’s newest system, Fiery FS150 and FS150 Pro. • Xerox FreeFlow Print Server Integrated – New to the marketplace, this controller brings production capabilities with an easy-to-use Microsoft Windows architecture.

• Variable-data capabilities for personalized applications.

• Efficient pre-programmed workflow solutions for job accounting, job security, monitoring and tracking.

Each new generation of Xerox products offer more functionality and use less energy, saving our customers’ money and reducing the carbon footprint. Since 1993, we have been a charter partner of the International ENERGY STAR program. Over 600 Xerox copiers, printers, faxes and multifunction products have earned ENERGY STAR status. In 2003, we committed to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions – our carbon footprint – and adopted a goal of 10% reduction of our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 2012 from a 2002 baseline. We met this target six years early. In 2007, Xerox set a new and challenging goal of 25% reduction. Through 2009, we have cut emissions by 31%. This was achieved by reducing energy consumption in our facilities, manufacturing operations and across our service and sales vehicle fleet, using energy efficiencies, new technologies and business productivity.

Is there any scope for value addition with this particular product for the Channel?

Our channel partners are very excited with this new product. We have already seen a large number of installations of this device and this shows that the marketplace is quite excited about this product.

We always have schemes running throughout the year for different products for our partners, but there is nothing specific that we would like to mention presently.

What is the next level of growth you foresee for Xerox and from where will this come from?

We witnessed a good start to 2015 with some of our digital presses such as Versant 2100, Color C60/C70 seeing a positive uptake in the market. We plan to continue to maintain our lead in the Graphic Communications space by focusing on entry and mid production systems.

We aim to increase our market coverage in the office printer business, with a renewed emphasis to grow our A3 business and invest further in A4. We are looking forward to rolling out new ConnectKey-enabled devices that will offer true value to our customers, simplify workflow solutions and equip them to do much more than just printing. We plan to focus on the mid-market through Key Accounts and Xerox Partner Print Services (XPPS).

Additionally, we have also noticed a lot of demand from pockets like photo-printing, publishing sectors and we have devices ready to cater to these segments and will be looking forward to aggressively tap these sectors. n

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Indian Market Scape

Modi's one year of Governance:

Ministry of Communications & IT

Focus on Infrastructure & New Policies Narendra Modi Prime Minister of India The first year of Narendra Modi government focused on infrastructure creation, rectifying existing policies and coming out with new programs. Infrastructure creation in LWE (left wing extremists), North East, Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep will definitely act as a catalyst for future growth in these states and union territories. New programs like Digital India, Make in India, National Supercomputing Mission and Cyber Security Policy will definitely help in getting fresh investments in ICT sector thereby giving a big boost to the Indian economy. Rectifying existing policies such as spectrum auction resulted in highest ever auction proceeds of Rs 109,874 crores as against approved reserve price of Rs 80,277 crore.

Let's look at last one year achievement of all the three departments of ministry of communications say Department of IT (DeitY), Department of Communications (DoT) and Department of Posts under the leadership of Ravi Shankar Prasad.

Department of IT (DeitY) Achievements Digital India, Make in India, National Supercomputing Mission and Cyber Security were some of the highlights of one year completion of Narendra Modi government. Digital India is an ambitious programme worth Rs 113,000 crore to prepare India for knowledge based transformation. Make in India has seen an investment of Rs 22,000 crores from 60 proposals. National Supercomputing Mission has been alloted Rs 4,500 crore over 7 years whereas Rs 800 crore has been allocated for establishing National Cyber Co-ordination Centre (NCCC).

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Within 100 days, the government launched an ambitious programme to prepare India for knowledge based transformation called Digital India. To realize the vision of the Prime Minister, Digital India Programme identified three key areas- Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen; Governance and Services on Demand; and Digital Empowerment of Citizens.

Digital India rests on nine pillars- Broadband Highways; Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity; Public Internet Access Programme; Reforming Government through Technology; eKranti - Electronic Delivery of Services; Information for All; Electronics Manufacturing; IT for Jobs; and Early Harvest Programmes.

The government attaches high priority to electronics & IT hardware manufacturing as it has the potential to generate domestic wealth and employment, apart from enabling cyber secure ecosystem.

Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS) to provide financial incentives to offset disability and attract investments has

Ravi Shankar Prasad Minister of Communications and Information Technology

Digital India Achievements MyGov has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance. The platform has helped in formation of 27 Groups, 160 discussion themes, 152 tasks have been published.

• e-Kranti portfolio increased from 31 MMPs to 44 MMPs. The MMPs of e-Kranti have delivered 242 Cr e-Transactions from 25th May 2014 to 31st March 2015 and this is a substantial increment of 162 percent over the number of e-Transactions delivered in previous year.

• Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) mobile app has been developed and is being used by state governments for uploading beneficiary and toilet photographs along with GPS co-coordinates for all toilet constructions in rural India.

• The government has notified its employees to use government of India e-mail servies and presently around 10 lakh e-mails have been covered in Phase I and in Phase 2 around 50 lakh employees would be connected for which work is in progress.

• Policy on adoption of open source software has been approved for formal adoption and its use in government organizations.

• Beta version of Digital Locker system has been released, which envisages provision of private space on a public cloud to each citizen where he/she can keep public records and can even exchange it for availing various services.

• eSign framework has been released, which would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

• Jeevan Pramaan portal has been launched and over 1 lakh pensioners have submitted their life certificate on the portal within four months.

• Government of India cloud (GI Cloud) provides cloud services and infrastructure on demand to government departments.

Around 100 departments have started using NIC National Cloud and its utilization has reached to approximately 50 percent.

• National Scholarship Portal has been developed as an end to end solution that includes all activities from registration to disbursement of scholarships. It is a single platform through which a student can apply to any centrally funded scheme.

• Biometric Attendance System (BAS) has been rolled out in 500 central government offices in Delhi with 1.14 lakh employees.

In addition, BAS rolled out in 1,160 central government organizations outside Delhi involving 60,000+ employees.

Make In India Achievements Electronic Development Fund Policy approved by the cabinet provides participation in venture funds to support R&D, innovation and IP generation in electronics, IT and nano electronics.

• Granted in-principle approval for setting up 10 Electronics Manufacturing Clusters in 7 states involving investment of Rs 817 crores.

• Two incubators for electronics start-ups approved at Delhi University and IIT Patna, which will incubate 95 start up companies.

• National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlex) approved at an estimated cost of Rs 132.99 crores at IIT Kanpur.

• Inverted duty rationalized for various products including mobile phones, telecom equipment, tablets, PCs, solar photovoltaic cells, LED lights, LCD/LED TVs, specified medical electronics devices etc.

• Setting up of two semiconductor wafer fabrication (FAB) manufacturing facilities in India is under process.

• Setting up of Electropreneur Park for development of Product and IP creation.

• Skill development scheme for electronics sector attracting 3.28 lakh persons at an estimated cost of Rs 411 crore has been approved. A scheme for increasing the number of PhDs in Electronics & IT started implementation from academic year 2014-15. The scheme supports 291 full time and 38 part-time PhD students.

• 7 new regional electronics & IT academies approved for Rs 147.48 crore to improve quality of graduate education in electronics and IT. • A scheme to provide Digital Literacy (DISHA) for 42.5 lakh persons at an estimated cost of Rs 380 crore approved.

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Indian Market Scape received 60 proposals worth Rs 22,000 crores of which 23 proposals worth Rs 2,525 crores have been approved. The department received electronics manufacturing proposal from 27 companies involving Rs 6,467 crores.

Rural BPO Schemes: A scheme to incentivise the growth of IT Industry in the North East Region through BPO operations has been approved, with a view to create employment opportunities and expanding the base of IT Industry. Further steps are being taken for the implementation of this Scheme. Besides, another scheme to promote growth of IT Industry particularly in the smaller cities towns in other parts of the country is separately under formulation and the government is planning to create 48,000 seats which has been approved.

National Supercomputing Mission: The cabinet has approved the launch of the “National Supercomputing Mission (NSM)” with an outlay of Rs 4,500 crores over a period of seven years. This is a joint initiative by DeitY and DST in which C-DAC is a key implementing agency which will enable India to leapfrog to the league of world class computing power nations. A supercomputer grid will be set up across India’s top educational and research institutions, consisting of more than 70 supercomputers.

A new Centre of SAMEER on electromagnetic interference at Visakhapatnam has been approved at an outlay of Rs 80 crores.

This centre of excellence will cater to the T&M requirements of both strategic and civilian applications. A new Centre of SAMEER at Guwahati, Assam in collaboration with IIT Guwahati for research and development in High Power Microwave Tubes and Components technology with clean room environments (Class-10,000) has been approved at an outlay of Rs 25 crores.

Mobile Seva, an integrated platform by which 1,601 government departments/agencies are integrated will enhance the delivery of government services. e-Basta framework has been launched which helps publishers, schools and students. It enables publishers to upload electronic content with relevant data; schools to search and collate e-content into e-Basta; and students to download e-Basta contents through an app on their tablet/phone/PC. Internet of Things: Government has drafted Internet of Things (IoT) policy which is envisioned to develop connected and smart IoT based system for India. Under this policy, it is proposed to create an IoT industry of $15 billion by 2020 which will also aim to undertake capacity development, research and development and domain specific product developments. IoT policy will help in supporting smart city initiative of the government.

The draft IoT policy for India shall provide spur in

innovation of new ideas and technology which shall lead to skill development and job creation. The policy shall encourage indigenous product development and manufacturing in the country thereby boosting Make in India.

Cyber Security: DeitY is implementing a programme on cyber security that is aimed at building a secure and resilient cyberspace for citizens, businesses and government, by way of actions to protect information and information infrastructure in cyberspace, build capabilities to prevent and respond to cyber threats, reduce vulnerabilities and minimize damage from cyber incidents through a combination of institutional structures, people, processes, technology and cooperation.

CERT-In is setting up a centre for detection of computer systems infected by malware and bots and to notify, enable cleaning and securing systems of end users to prevent further malware infections.

Approval for the project has been received and implementation is in progress. The department has prepared plans to establish National Cyber Co-ordination Centre (NCCC) at an estimated cost of Rs 800 crores, for monitoring the web traffic to ensure prevention from cyber attacks and any malicious cyber activity. This shall also have the capability for detection and cleaning of infected systems.

NKN is a state-of-the art multi-gigabit pan-India Network for providing a unified high speed network backbone for various knowledge related institutions in the country. During FY 2014-15, NKN has connected 178 number of edge links.

Department of Telecom (DoT) Achievements

The spectrum auction 2015 resulted in highest ever auction proceeds of Rs 109,874 crores as against approved reserve price of Rs 80,277 crore. Spectrum in four bands - 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz were put into simultaneous and multiple rounds of auction for the first time. For the first time in more than seven years, the government also approved identification and harmonization of defence band and released a good quantity of 2100 MHz for the auction.

The country is moving from state wide mobile number portability to full mobile number portability which is planned to start from July, 2015 whereby customers can retain their mobile numbers even if they shift from one part of the country to the other part. One can also select mobile service provider as per their choice benefiting more than 97 crore mobile phone users in the country. This will also help government in developing mobile number as an identity of individuals for providing various government services and move towards JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhar-Mobile) Trinity.

The first WiFi facility by BSNL at Varanasi’s famous Dashashwamedh Ghat was inaugurated on 8th February, 2015.

Similarly, 30 WiFi hotspots around the Husainsagar lake have also been launched. WiFi connectivity at prominent tourist places in the country is being provided in a phased manner. All the tourists visiting renowned tourist places like Taj Mahal, Fatehpur Sikri,

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Sarnath, Konark Temple, Red Fort, Shore Temple Mahabalipuram, Hampi, Khajuraho and Thanjavur-Brihadeshwar temple etc would be benefited by this facility. This will help in increasing the tourist flow in the identified tourist destinations.

In National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN), Idduki district in Kerala has become the first fully connected district. Broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of India is being executed in a mission mode. The work of laying optical fibre network has been speeded up (by 30 times) in the last 10 months. For speedy implementation of NOFN Project a special committee was constituted

by DoT for further improvement and speedy implementation, to serve the larger purpose of broadband to all.

NOFN will support e-governance services, tele-medicine, teleeducation, financial services, e-commerce and e-entertainment and will provide non-discriminatory access to telecom service providers, internet service providers etc.

Revival of BSNL and MTNL is a top priority area for the government. In Phase VII, BSNL is setting 25,645 BTS towers at a cost of Rs 4,805 crores. BSNL is also replacing wireline local exchanges by IP enabled NGN (Next Generation Network) exchanges. The company has also signed a MoU with Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Limited (BSCCL ) to provide alternate Internet connectivity in North East. On the other hand, MTNL is setting/upgrading 1,080 3G sites in Delhi and Mumbai each and 850 2G sites in Delhi and 616 2G sites in Mumbai.

Under Unconnected Villages initiative, the government is planning to cover all 46,288 unconnected villages, which presently do not have mobile connectivity, in a phased manner by March 2019. The government has approved a proposal to implement a comprehensive telecom development plan for the North-Eastern Region at an estimated cost of Rs 5,336.18 crore. This project will connect 8,621 villages and is likely to be commissioned by September, 2017.

The government has also approved a project to provide mobile services in 2,199 locations in the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE). LWE states include: Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh & West Bengal, all 8 North Eastern States, Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands. Special efforts have been made to provide connectivity in Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep Islands.

Network for Spectrum (NFS) is planned as an exclusive optical fibre based ‘Nationwide Communication Network’ for Defence Services, has been given a big push for its early completion. The project is being implemented by BSNL along with its partners and is worth around Rs 12,000 crore.

Department of Posts Achievements The government has taken various initiatives to revamp 155,000 post offices network to meet the growing challenges

DoT Achievements Successsful Spectrum Auction resulted in collection of Rs 109,874 crores • NOFN work has been speeded up by 30 times in the last 10 months • NFS Project is implemented with an investment of Rs 12,000 crores • Connect 46,288 unconnected villages at an estimated cost of Rs 5,336 crores • Approved Rs 3,568 crore to provide mobile services in 2,199 locations in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) states • Full mobile number portability is planned to start from July, 2015 • WiFi connectivity at prominent tourist places in the country is being provided in a phased manner of changing times. With 12 crore live bank accounts having a balance of Rs 219,039 crores, the department of posts is trying to modernize. By connecting 27,095 post offices, mail offices, accounts offices, administrative offices and store depots through India’s largest Wide Area Network (WAN), the department can now offer ATM and anywhere banking facilities. Around 2,225 post offices enjoy anywhere banking facility whereas the department has installed 115 ATMs at post offices across the country.

Special purpose vehicle has been created for Post Life Insurance and this will take benefits of life insurance to every corner of India.

Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana for the education and welfare of the girl child was launched by the prime minister on 22nd January 2015 and within a short span of 3 months, 38.91 lakh Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana accounts have been opened by post offices across the country.

A total of Rs 350 crores have been deposited in these accounts upto 30th April, 2015. Kisan Vikas Patras (KVP) was launched on 18th November 2014 and 22.44 lakh KVPs with a total investment of Rs 1,922 crores have been sold through post offices across the country till 30th April, 2015.

To cash on the e-commerce bandwagon, the department of posts has done tie-ups with e-Commerce giants like Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal, YepMe and Naaptol for delivery of e-Commerce parcels and collected Rs 500 crore through Cash on Delivery (CoD). All this has resulted in 13 percent growth in business parcel traffic in last 10 months. n Pravin Prashant, Tele Analysis

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INDUSTRY WATCH

Net Neutrality – Internet access for all A Workshop on Net Neutrality from the social and economic perspective was organized by the Computer Society of India, Noida Chapter, and IMS-Noida on 5th May, 2015.

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n the Workshop, dignitaries like Dr Arvind Gupta, Keynote Speaker and National Head of the IT Cell of BJP; Rajan Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators’ Association of India; Gopal Agarwal, BJP Economic Cell and a senior active civil society member; and Deepak Sahu, Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA, were present.

In the inaugural address, Anuj Agarwal, Chairman, Computer Society of India, Noida Chapter, mentioned that the internet is the only non-discriminatory medium and platform for the world where nobody is discriminated on the basis of nationality, colour, caste, creed, birth, social or economic status, gender or any other thing.

Internet is not governed by any particular government or company and it is guided by we the people, “the global citizen”.

The Indian e-commerce space is dotted with not only flipkart.com and snapdeal. com but by lakhs of small e-commerce companies which provide excellent services to people in a smaller area and, without net neutrality, they will be completely wiped out.

Dr Arvind Gupta described net neutrality and also explained the fine difference between “freedom on internet” and “free internet”. He mentioned that the hon’ble Supreme Court has declared freedom of speech on internet as a fundamental right and struck down Section 66A of the IT ACT, 2000.

He categorically mentioned that any distinction between data and voice and any other service is not the correct thing.

The telecom operators are like road and highway providers and the road can not dictate where a person wants to go and at what speed. So let it be the choice of the person to decide where he wants to go and at what speed. Since there is a massive amount of investment required to build the telecom highway to provide internet access to the rural India, the content and platform providers like facebook.com want to play a role in subsidizing the building of telecom highway and in return want to have exclusive access to customers and users, which is not acceptable.

Dr. Arvind Gupta said that Net Neutrality is about four things put together:

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1) 2) 3) 4)

Speed Cost Access Content

He

also

mentioned

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that

telecom

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operators the world over use some methods to slow down video contents to maintain the quality of their service for voice.

Net neutrality is required to help digital democracies and also ensure health and education like public welfare programmes.

Rajan Mathews, Director General, of Cellular Operators’ Association of India and a renowned telecom expert, maintained that all telecom companies support Net Neutrality. But he mentioned that telecom highways are very complex and have slow and fast, light and bulk traffic. The telecom operators have to make distinction between the traffic to ensure that some of the traffic, especially voice traffic, is given a priority.

Otherwise, the voice call quality will be very poor and inaudible.

He also mentioned that in India, telecom spectrum is at a scarcity unlike in USA where spectrum in the band of 50 Mhz is given for life to telecom operators while in India, a range of 15 Mhz is given to operators at a

high price and they need to buy their own spectrum after 20 years. When the highway is congested some traffic differentiation has to be made and different pricing of different products will follow.

The unique feature of India is that voice charges are low but the data charges are high as compared to USA. Gopal Agarwal, BJP Economic Cell and a senior active civil society member, mentioned in his address that one has to see the entire debate from the consumer perspective. The consumer wants reliable services at an affordable price. He also put the case of calculating the actual cost of telecom networks and operations because telecom is a public good.

Gopal presided over the session and mentioned that the debate should remain focused on the substance and should not get politicized. In the current political scenario, according to him many people who may not know the nitty gritty of the subject may try to jeopardize a healthy debate. He also mentioned about the social and economic impact of net neutrality.

Deepak Sahu, Editor-in-Chief, VARINDIA supported net neutrality and put forward the social perspective on the need to have net neutrality. He was categorical and clear that net neutrality can not be diluted.

Dr. Kamaljeet Singh, Director IMS, summed up the discussion and presented a vote of thanks.

The program was organized at IMS Institute Noida and was well attended by participants from CSI/CA/CS/CMA/ Lawyers/Directors/Engineers/Faculties and young students and entrepreneurs. n

FACE TO FACE

“LIVA X” redefining Minicomputers Discussing the features of ECS’s new offering LIVA X, Rajshekhar Bhatt, Country Manager, ECS, and Rajesh Goenka, Vice-President – Marketing and Sales, Rashi Peripherals, mention about their channel strategy, target verticals and future roadmap of the company

E

litegroup Computer Systems and Rashi Peripherals have redefined the concept of minicomputers with the launch of LIVA X. This latest mini PC is the new initiative from ECS for its end-customers. It has revamped the idea of portable computers at an affordable price. The portability, size, utility and affordability are the USPs of the product. It actually fits in a pocket.

The Mini PC- LIVA X LIVA X is a small form-factor PC. While traditional PCs have been quite large and heavy in nature, this new PC weighs only 250 gms, consumes 10% of power than a normal PC consumes and is available at an economical price – all without compromising the performance.

This is a very unique product with a unique design and is very efficient. Any desktop can ideally be replaced with this efficient PC. “Rashi Peripherals and ECS wish not to cannibalize the desktop market but to create an additional segment. Our intention is to create an independent segment for this PC,” said Rajesh Goenka, Vice-President – Marketing and Sales, Rashi Peripherals.

No matter the laptops are becoming lighter and people are using it for their dayto-day usage, but still there is a large market available for those who are using desktops.

be using less natural resources to generate power. Secondly, this PC does not have a fan inside, so no noise pollution takes place. Thirdly, the components that have been used are ROHS standards.

“Our company believes in working with partners, system integrators and end-customers, taking feedback from our distributor and channel partners. So based on those feedback we decide the look and feel of the product which will also save money in indirect ways like electricity.

Second is the latest technology and the most important thing is its affordable price.

We work in this direction and without compromising with the performance,” said Rajshekhar Bhatt, Country Manager, ECS. Rajshekhar Bhatt Country Manager, ECS

Target Verticals Home, small offices and businesses and retail are the first three focus areas for ECS because all these places face a challenge of space and want to reduce the cost of operation so LIVA X PC fits in these verticals perfectly.

A separate market can be created with this new product. LIVA X can be attached to a TV and one can convert it into a smart TV which one will not do for a desktop because it is too big to handle. This can go behind the TV. The Green Element LIVA X is an ideal green product as the power consumption is less. Thus, it will

Channel opportunities The product will go through the channel and this is one more additional opportunity to do business especially for the DIY channel which offers standalone CPUs and motherboards of ECS. So they will have an additional opportunity to promote and sell LIVA X PC to their customers.

“Initially, we are launching only through Flipkart and Amazon.

However, subsequently we will go with the channel also and there we are going to offer a lot of bundle programme because

this is standalone PC. So theoretically you need a keyboard, mice, monitor and Rashi Peripherals being a distributor of IT equipments will come with a lot of schemes and programmes which will give a complete solution. So a partner or an end-customer does not have to scout for keybord, monitor, etc. The supply and service will be provided to the customers from one source which is Rashi Peripherals. Rashi Peripherals has got 52 branch offices and 57 service centres and all the service centres are activated to provide service support to LIVA X. In years to come...

ECS has four businesses and will continue to be focussing on all the four businesses.

ECS works for OEM, ODM, also support brand owners to come out with tablets under their own brands manufactured

by ECS. The company also has channel business where it sells products of its own brand. "We will continue to be focussing on component business which is the motherboard business and work towards the finished product and in that we will always look forward to our channel partners to do value addition in terms of customizing some hardware-based customer requirement such as upgrading the storage, etc. So this gives an opportunity to the customer to choose and decide what they want,” Rajshekhar Bhatt said. n aparna@varindia.com

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COVER STORY

Today is the time when enterprise customers have come of age and they know of their choices better. No wonder then that this change in the outlook of customers will put a huge demand on the vendors of how to perceive their customers from now on

T

oday’s customer is smarter, savvier and more socially aware.

They know what they want and can easily find where to get it. They have access to information at the click of a button and are mindful of price. They are not averse to discussing the merits of a product or service online and they are not afraid to name and shame. Competition is high – and expectations even higher. The changing role of the customer means that sales people and business people need to adapt or get out.

Solutions – India, Avaya, sees the infliction point in a transformation towards the need for greater mobility taking place this year. “Mobility in this view is when businesses integrate video-conferencing, not only as a team engagement solution, but also as one of the most critical solutions that enable businesses today to deliver an Omnichannel-based customer experience, where the customer experience is

Technology is never static; it is constantly changing and evolving. What is brand new technology today just might be obsolete a year down the line, especially if it fails to meet the needs and wants of the enterprise world. Nextgeneration customers want innovation and they want it now.

Arun Shetty Director of Collaboration Solutions – India Avaya

So how is the IT industry getting ready to this change?

Arun Shetty, Director of Collaboration

Sanjay Hasija Country Head, Quantum

Enterprises are already grappling with the huge amount of unstructured data generated every minute and the issue will get further compounded in the IoT era. Agrees Sanjay Hasija, Country Head, Quantum, “The next generation of customers will be similar to those today.

delivered on any channel, anytime, anywhere, without interruption. In fact, almost every CEO and CIO we spoke to in India, has mobility the top of mind, not only video conferencing.”

Sidharth Malik Managing Director & Vice-President, India Akamai Technologies

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This is going to impact not only large organizations, according to Arun but also small to medium businesses across India.

“We have accelerated our commitment to this segment in our solutions portfolio and in our GTM activities to enable them to compete with the larger enterprises,” he further adds.

Sudharsan R Commercial Marketing Head Dell India

Ravi Raj Brand Head, Director Sales & Support NetRack However, as unstructured data grows faster than traditional, structured data, customers are going to need to adjust their data protection processes. They will need to segment their data in order to optimize their processes. For example, virtual servers could benefit from solutions that are designed for virtual servers such as Quantum’s vmPRO software combined with Quantum’s DXi disk-based backup appliance with deduplication. Unstructured data can be protected using its own process such as LTFS.” True to everyone’s belief, nextgen customers will be an evolved breed who will be in concurrence with their customer demands. Abhilash Purushothaman, Country Head, Solution Sales, Enterprise Management, CA Technologies, believes that every business today is a software business.

Software is re-writing the business and applications are driving the economy.

“Next-gen customers will be more aware of newer technologies or concepts such as DevOps. They will be nimble, agile and will be able to deliver faster. That will be a reality. It is a positive scenario to witness when a customer will realize the potential of software or a solution and will demand that to be part of their IT infrastructure, than vendors ‘selling’ those solutions to potential customers.”

Abhijit Potnis Director, Technology Solutions, EMC India & SAARC

The new-age enterprises are burdened with complex issues ranging from security, productivity to scalability.

According to Sidharth Malik, Managing Director & Vice-President, India, Akamai Technologies, customers will require an infrastructure that provides advanced safety measures that can scale and also adapt itself based on the situation. “Customers would prefer having an infrastructure in place that will resolve the interruption before it reaches the core. Since volatile attacks are being developed in a fast proportion and in order to meet the demands of the future, we will require technology that can provide the right amount of governance and support,” he says.

Manoj Khilnani, Country Marketing Head – Enterprise, BlackBerry India, is of similar view. He says that in the backdrop of changing mobility landscape, enterprises are looking for a highly secure, reliable yet flexible mobile

Santhosh D’ Souza Director – Systems Engineering, NetApp Marketing & Services Private Ltd India architecture to manage the complex needs of a highly dynamic workforce.

“The next-gen CIOs need to map IT to business in a manner where it is able to contribute to the productivity and help grow revenues. CIOs are, therefore, constantly looking at increasing enduser productivity while reducing TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). CA minor breach in data security can lead to immense loss in terms of wealth, privacy and reputation,” Manoj asserts.

Srinivasan R, Chief Technology Officer, Ramco Systems, feels that the next generation of customers will make informed choices. The Internet of Things brought along with it amazing transformations to the IT world, including extensive information about user-friendly products and practices.

The millennials as they are called are expected to make assertive decisions based on the various criteria including mobility, accessibility, interface, etc,”

Abhilash Purushothaman Country Head, Solution Sales, Enterprise Management, CA Technologies he says.

The next-generation customers will look for greater simplicity, agility and scalability from their IT infrastructure beyond what exists today. “It means providing customers with the ability to respond more quickly and effectively to business needs with solutions that simplify and streamline the time required to deploy and manage enterprise applications. Keeping this in mind, the next-generation enterprise customer will require products and solutions that support growing Data Center Trends, Hyperscale Computing, Software-Defined Applications and Infrastructure and Scalable, open and Flexible Solutions,” reiterates Sudharsan R, Commercial Marketing Head, Dell India.

As cited by Sudharsan, organizations are moving towards new technology trends and are considering for centralizing their data center architecture, which means that the next-gen customers would require data center model which would turn around more open technologies to lower power costs. Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director Sales & Support, NetRack, remarks, “In that case, our motive would be to address the issues like power, cost and security of server data. With numerous new possibilities coming up in

Ryan Perera Country Head for India, Ciena www.varindia.com

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COVER STORY

Subhasish Gupta Country Manager – India & SAARC Allied Telesis

S. Sriram CEO iValue InfoSolutions

Santosh Rao Principal Research Analyst Gartner

the industry, we are geared up to meet and deliver them the best-in-class products, thereby serving the organizations with solutions to encounter the issues like power consumption, heat dissipation, and cooling provisioning.”

make the network more dynamic, open, and programmable to enable all of the potential applications their customers utilize on a minute-by-minute basis. An open network leverages the principles of software-defined networking to free the network from the constraints of protocol-based operations and to put the intelligence and agility of software (and the power of modern IT) in the driver's

selling products and delivering on brand promise. To meet these expectations IT organizations must deliver IT-as-a-Service (ITaaS) via a well-run Hybrid Cloud that brings together the performance, security, and control of private cloud with the flexibility and cost advantages of public cloud,” explains Abhijit Potnis, Director, Technology Solutions, EMC India & SAARC. Explains Santosh Rao, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner, “With the increasing influence of the nexus of forces (Cloud, mobile, social and information and analytics) on almost all verticals, success in business is heavily dependent on how today’s CIOs use the key technologies to their advantage. The next-generation CIOs must carefully assess capabilities they currently have and what the enterprise needs. They should have a two-pronged approach – Gartner calls this bi-modal IT. Mode 1 is the traditional way of executing IT projects – systematic, emphasizing safety, accuracy and efficiency. Mode 2 is non-sequential, emphasizing agility and speed. The second mode frequently uses many of the principles adopted by a lean start-up. By implementing this method, IT leaders can provide different responses to any opportunity by investing through one of these two modes.”

iValue, on its part, is seeing customer across size and vertical steadily moving from private cloud to hybrid cloud. “iValue hence has started offering most of its solutions both in capex or opex models in line with the evolving needs.

We strongly advice partners also to equip themselves to meet both onsite and offsite needs of customer moving forward since customer would prefer working with VAD/VAR capable of meeting both the models,” cautions S Sriram, CEO, iValue InfoSolutions.

Customers deal with a lot of economic challenges. The emerging generation of customers is determined to radically change the rules for customer engagement. “Different customers have different demands according to their needs. Forthrightly when it comes to fulfilling the needs of customers we will try our level best to deliver best solution and quality according to the latest technology. While their networks would grow by virtue of more IP applications, their expectation is high levels of simplicity to manage the network,” says Subhasish Gupta, Country Manager – India & SAARC, Allied Telesis.

Today, there is a gap between what customers need and what the network can provide while ensuring revenue growth. The current challenge is ensuring telecom networks have both the needed capacity and programmability to support a billion+ end-users and their growing appetite for anytime, anywhere high-bandwidth services like mobile broadband, cloud computing and HD video just to list a few. “Equipment vendors and service providers need to

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Srinivasan R Chief Technology Officer Ramco Systems

What lies ahead? seat,” says Ryan Perera, Country Head for India, Ciena.

With advent of SMAC, customers are more aware and expect an organization to act as one entity to match other experiences regardless of touch point.

This customer-centric cohesion requires new paradigms in user experience fuelled by the backbone of digital business including social, mobile, cloud, big data, and unified communications.

“Technology provides a catalyst for new experiences as organizations move from

The new-age customer expects more than ever before. That the customer is God cannot be denied anymore, not at least in this era. Now is the age of the customers who equally control the product, the product information and the product buying decision. As cited by a famous marketer that the Age of the Seller is slowly succumbing to The Age of the Customer, who is rightly correct.

Vendors need to understand it better that being competitive or maintaining visibility on social media is no longer enough, but one needs to be relevant. n

Movers & Shakers

Deb Deep Sengupta becomes SAP’s new MD for Indian Subcontinent

SAP has appointed Deb Deep Sengupta as the new Managing Director for SAP Indian Subcontinent to drive its growth strategy and operations in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Based in New Delhi, Deb Deep Sengupta reports to Adaire Fox-Martin, President of SAP Asia- Pacific Japan.

Deb brings more than two decades of wide-ranging IT industry and management experience to the role, with a track record of increasing market share, winning key customers and leading effective teams. Deb Deep was most recently the Chief Operating Officer for SAP Indian Subcontinent.

Kyocera Appoints a new MD

KYOCERA Document Solutions has announced the change of its President, effective as from April 1, 2015. To illustrate the new direction of KYOCERA Document Solutions, the New President, Takashi Kuki, has released the essential Management Message to the public as below.

For more than 20 years, we have minimized environmental impact by developing long-life, low-waste printers and multifunctional products. We have worked continually to build longterm partnerships with our customers by optimizing total usage cost of a product through the minimization of the number of consumable parts that require frequent replacement.”

Symantec Appoints Shrikant Shitole as MD

Symantec Corp. has appointed Shrikant Shitole as Managing Director for its enterprise security business in India. Based in Mumbai, Shitole will be responsible for driving growth for the company by developing and delivering on business strategy. Shitole takes over from Sanjay Rohatgi who has been promoted to Senior Vice President for Asia Pacific and Japan sales for Symantec.

A seasoned industry veteran with over 25 years of experience, Shitole has held senior management roles across several enterprises in the IT and telecom segment. Prior to joining Symantec, he was the Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Nelco Ltd. (Tata Enterprise).

Acer Appoints Chandrahas Panigrahi as Senior Director

Chandrahas Panigrahi has joined Acer as a Senior Director – Consumer Business from 04 May, 2015. As part of his primary responsibilities, Panigrahi will be heading the Consumer Business Group which includes the consumer product management team, retail management team, e-Commerce, modern trade and distribution teams. Chandrahas would be reporting directly to Mr. Harish Kohli, Managing Director, Acer India.

Chandrahas’ has over 15 years of rich industry experience with leading companies in the technology domain spanning components and personal computing.

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Indian Market Scape

IT Hardware Market: Running Through Rough Waters India’s IT hardware market is facing a lot of challenges. The digitization in many sectors and the lack of innovation has triggered these challenges. The industry hopes for a better tomorrow as the new trends (cloud and big data) are forcing enterprises to upgrade to new hardware.

IT Hardware market in India is going through a massive shift. The trend is no different than the global trend. All segments of IT – PCs, Printers, Servers and networking hardware, etc – have witnessed decline in sales, profits and growth.

Vendors such as HP, Lenovo, Dell, Acer, Canon, Samsung and Sony, among others are trying to revive consumer sales through different ways. While PC market is facing the competition from the mobile and tablet devices, printer market is experiencing a great impact from the growth of the digital economy.

MAIT, the industry body representing India’s IT hardware, training and R&D services sectors, underlines in the findings of its Annual Industry Performance Review for the financial year 2013-14 the installed base of IT hardware in India. MAIT estimates India’s IT hardware market to be around $12.43 billion in 2013-14, up 37 per cent from $ 9.1 billion in 2012-13.

But this estimate includes Smartphones which we have not included in this article.

If smartphones which take the lion’s share

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of the Indian IT hardware pie, with 38 per cent are excluded, it comes down to 8.2 billion. Notebooks are next with a 23 per cent share of the overall IT hardware market.

Against the global trends, MAIT points out at the growth in the installed base in the country. The report puts forth one

point quite emphatically – the growth of the PCs in India. But the reality is not hidden from anyone. Vendors are crying as the profits and sales, both are on a downward trend. Experts believe that the changes are happening because of the shift which market is taking. The power centers are shifting from hardware vendors to



       

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software vendors. In addition, the revenue models are changing fast.

While PC and printer market struggle to sustain growth, over the last couple of years a new category of sever manufacturers have emerged and who are threatening to disrupt the status quo, or perhaps have already disrupted the status quo to some extent. Interestingly these are not the traditional server players. One

  

of the IT hardware market to understand the challenges and opportunities.

Desktop and Notebook market India PC and Notebook market underwent a lot of changes in the past few years. While the enterprise demand for PCs declined or stagnated, the government buying kept the mood upbeat. All in all the consumer PC market remained suppressed against the market forecast.

    

of the biggest examples is CISCO which entered the market just a few years ago.

IDC calls these players ODMs (Original Design Manufacturers). But the server space remained volatile because of the global disruption. As the focus remained on ramping up infrastructure for cloud readiness, buyers or enterprises continued to minimize their hardware consumption.

This resulted in putting pressure on the vendors such as IBM which had to sell its server business to Lenovo. This was a major shift in the market. IBM had already shunned its PC business to Lenovo back in 2007.

The new trends have left a big impact on the IT hardware market. Enterprises are keen to embrace these trends while keeping their hardware adoption minimal.

CIOs are looking at ways that help them to optimize the use of existing hardware for the adoption of new trends. In addition, many of the emerging enterprises are outsourcing their environments to the experts in the hosting space so that they do not have to spend on building data centers and maintaining them. This trend is visible in the eCommerce, education and healthcare space, among others.

Most of the industry experts are of the opinion that the adoption of IT hardware market still reserves a huge scope in the SMB market which is barely using any kind of technology. Vendors are keen to tap this huge space. Out of 50 million SMBs in India only 8 per cent use a kind of technology to run their business. The rest of the businesses are still working the old way. This is a huge market waiting to be tapped. Vendors are trying different means to get this space on board.

The overall IT Hardware Industry struggled to keep up with the projected growth rates. On the whole we have witnessed mixed trends in the sector with some segments reporting strong growth patterns while few reported slow or negative growth rates. The sector has immense growth potential. Vendors and experts are hopeful that the upcoming budget addresses the issue of correction in duties anomalies which is needed for the overall growth of the IT hardware market in India.

It is important to look at sub-segments

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There are several reasons. But the biggest is the growth of the smartphone and tablet segments in the country. In addition, Microsoft failed to give a convincing reason to enterprises to buy the latest operating system – Windows 8.1.

Even though Microsoft pulled back support for Windows XP, barely did anyone moved to the latest operating systems. Only the banking space showed interest in upgrading to the latest operating systems because of security challenges.

Others preferred to move to newer form factors. Google’s Android smartphones and tablets proved to be great challengers for Microsoft Windows. In several organizations, sales workforce has moved to smartphone and tablets. Organizations have realized that notebooks and PCs are not worth for the mobile workforce which does not need fully functional PCs as their needs are minimal.

IDC and Gartner shipments do already

Most of them realize that smartphones and tablets have fast emerged on the scene giving options to rural population to access the internet. Interesting features are available on the smartphones. Users are getting smartphones for as low as Rs 3000 in rural areas whereas PCs are still an expensive bets. Their price is still around Rs 20000.

Over the last year, the market has seen some instability in terms of some domestic brands exiting the PC business after struggling to sustain the profits. It is visible from the silent exits of two players such as Wipro and HCL Info systems. The sudden exit of these PC vendors shattered the whole industry. Even though these vendors were big in volume but they have to compete with many multinational giants like HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, etc. After closing its PC operations, HCL shifted its entire focus to its original business – distribution.

Indian companies are not the only ones to shut down their businesses. Global brands such as Sony had already closed their notebook business. If global brands are not able to sustain their PC business, it is clear that the market is going through really challenging times. The PC business in India also came under undue stress as the buying for large educational projects came down. The Uttar Pradesh Government’s PC buying did not set great examples to be followed by other states. Other political parties which were making tall claims in the elections in other states did not try to adopt the UP govt’s free PC plan.

If Dataquest magazine’s DQ Top 20 issue

        

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manifest challenges for the PC market in India. But MAIT estimates PC sales to be around 11.85 million units in 2013-14.

MAIT, however, considers the installed base in the country. It does not pay attention the new shipments. Though it reflects partially in their report, it does not include all of it. The installed base includes even PCs purchased five years ago so this is not a convincing measure.

For many experts and analysts, the Indian market is highly underpenetrated and has a great potential for the PC adoption.

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is believed, the PC market in 2014 remained at Rs 28,154 crore, down by 7 percent from Rs 30,273 crore. The degrowth shows the decline in the adoption in many segments.

According to one estimate, the market is trying to seek different innovative ways to move further. Enterprises are of the opinion that it is good to wait for the market as the new trends evolve and become part of the global market.

Notebook market continues to witness flat growth as vendors tried to show new products with new features. Google’s

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Indian Market Scape Chromebook also jumped in the fray, though it did not have many takers in the country. But experts believe that Google Chromebook will soon become mainstream as the bandwidth will become cheaper in the country. But the biggest setbacks were received by the desktop market. It did not grow. It, however, degrew as consumers are looking at devices which are slimmer and can be taken along. Desktops do not fit in the modern work space as well. Only a few segments continue to show fascination to desktops. Even sellers did not show any interest in pitching the desktops. Places such as Nehru Place and Lamington Road have witnessed low turnaround for the desktops – assembled or branded.

Printer market in India The printer market is one of those territories where blind growth has dried up significantly. While this market suffered setbacks during the slowdown because of the heavy focuss on digital document management by enterprises, it has witnessed partial growth in some of the categories in FY 14. Yet it is no surprise. As many vendors believed that the market was looking for better and affordable alternatives, they have tried to make printers more efficient at lower cost. As a result, vendors tried to woo customers through their new launches that claimed better performance at lower cost of ownership and operations.

The printer market in India witnessed a growth at about 8 per cent. According to Cyber Media Research (CMR) last year the printer market stood at Rs 2406 crore, whereas it jumped to Rs 2587 crore. A number of factors attributed to the growth at the printer market including the new launches by HP, Samsung, Canon, and Epson. Indian organizations are still largely paper-driven. But there is an increasing importance of digitization and the need to access information anytime, anywhere.

This represents an opportunity for print providers to expand their services into optimizing the document workflows that support business processes. CMR estimates that HP is the leader in the printer market with 41 percent marketshare in the overall market followed by Epson with 17 percent, Canon 14 percent respectively. In the A4 market, the competition is very tough in the stagnating market, it is important that vendors innovate to reduce the cost and

show visibility.

Inkjet printer market rebound as the vendors tried to display innovation in this segment. A number of vendors including HP, Canon and Epson exploited CISS (Continuous Ink Supply Systems) technology which helps inkjet printers to perform at par with laser printers and that too, at a lower cost. The inkjet printer segment offered multi-function options to consumers in India. Single function market is no longer impressive and is declining in both laser and inkjet segments.

Laser printer market did not show any signs of growth. During the recession, laser printer was the only segment growing.

The trend faded of late. Digital revolution in all segments has caused this wave. But multifunction laser printer market is still experiencing the double-digit growth.

Consumers and officers are only looking for feature-rich printers as they want to save on power, space and other things. HP rules the laser market as well followed by Canon and Samsung.

The printer market also saw the entry and exits of many international players such as Pantom and others. But they did not receive any positive feedback.

Server market in India As discussed earlier, servers as a category continues to undergo a lot of challenges.

While x86 is on the threshold of revival, the outlook for non-x86 remains grim.

According to International Data Corporation (IDC), x86 server market in India grew by 10% in terms of unit shipments in Q3 2014 as compared to Q3 2013. The major contributors to this growth were Professional Services, Communications & Media, Banking and Retail verticals.

The non x86 server market however, saw a decline of 58% in terms of revenue due to large refreshes in verticals like Banking and telecom being on hold due to various factors. IDC further underlines that this market is expected to revive in the coming quarters as these verticals battle the need for more compute due to transitioning needs of their business teams.

The analysts further believe that large deals in professional services vertical that were on hold previously due to elections, are opening up now. Continued investment

by Communications & Media vertical

Google rolls out new affordable Chrome Devices in India

in 4G rollouts is another reason that is driving the server market. It is noteworthy that the retail vertical has seen increased investments as there is lot of funding inflow.

Even though IBM has sold its server business to Lenovo, organizations plan for future growth owing to positive sentiments and favourable government policies.

4G rollouts, banking infrastructure upgradation to support more transactions as e-commerce in India takes over, modernization of some of the government departments, long pending defence projects, ever growing services vertical and platform adoption in every walk of the life would push demand in the coming quarters as well, says IDC. Though this is an encouraging trend, it does not guarantee any immediate success.

Server market depends on the growth and modernization of data center market in India. In last few years, data center market was going through transitional phase.

However, in last one year the market is back on track as cloud and big data trends are driving growth.

Networking equipment market The networking equipment market in India is going through technology transformation which reflects in the market dynamics. In last few years, all the major players such as CISCO, HP, Juniper and others have been busy realigning their strategy to go along the industry trends.

While almost all the IT pieces, such as servers, storage, routers and applications, have been virtualized for quite some time now, the networking players managed to resist change for long in the internet of their proprietary businesses. But this is no longer the case. All kinds of networking equipments are ready to embrace the change. All players are making products that are fit for the cloud, big data and IoT environments.

In nutshell, the next wave of technology adoption is being defined by the mid and small segments as a number of startups are disrupting the market with their innovative ideas. All technology players in the hardware space are betting big on the untapped SMB market. Many vendors have begun to woo customers in the SMB space with tailor-made products for them. n

Google has announced the launch of a new range of affordable Chromebooks for India, as well as the launch of Chromebooks for Education and Chrome OS for businesses.

The new range of Chromebooks for consumers includes: The XOLO, Nexian Air Chromebook & the latest units from ASUS including the Chromebook Flip and C201 and Samsung.

Smita Hashim, Global Product Manager, Chrome OS, said, “When we introduced Chromebooks four years ago, we wanted to build a laptop for the way people use computers today always fast, easy to use, and secure by default. Since launching Chromebooks in India, we’ve been working to ensure that Chromebooks work in an environment where connectivity can be spotty, and many people’s first experiences with technology are through a phone rather than a laptop.”

Chromebooks have proved a hit with teachers and students around the world. Superfast to boot up with built-in security and virus protection, it help teachers and students get straight down to learning. They also come with Google Apps for Education .

Google is helping to bring the productivity benefits of Chrome OS to work with Chromebooks for Businesses and Chromebox for meetings. Chromebox for Meetings brings together Hangouts, Google Apps and easy-to-manage chromebox, making it simple and affordable for any company to have high - definition video meetings.

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PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

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alerts, with reports laid out in daily, weekly, and monthly formats. Live Parental Controls that are powered by OpenDNS allow you to

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May 2015

45

“The video surveillance market is growing by leaps and bounds” In a chat with VARINDIA, Ashish Mutneja, Director, Quantum Hi Tech Merchandising Private Ltd, has discussed the ongoing trends in the market, challenges and strategies adopted by the company to remain competitive

T

hough rapidly moving forward, the Indian security and surveillance market is facing challenges. Moreover, the presence of many players in the industry, unique selling points and lack of awareness are adding woes to the companies. Talking about the market booster that has redefined the surveillance market is IP surveillance cameras.

According to 6Wresearch, India IP video surveillance is projected to reach $1.4 billion by 2021. In the overall IP video surveillance market, IP surveillance cameras account for a key share of the market revenues and are expected to lead through the forecast period. Amongst all IP surveillance cameras, bullet-shaped camera has captured a major share of the market volume in 2014. However, a shift towards dome-shaped camera is exhibited over the next six years.

Trends Consistent with the ongoing demand from heightened security needs, the security and surveillance market continues to experience a technology transition from basic analog CCTV cameras to more sophisticated High Definition Analog CCTV cameras and networkbased IP video solutions that include integrated analytics. Also, the awareness regarding higher security with face recognition, missing object and other benefits like increased productivity and efficiency provided by video surveillance solution is increasing. The most popular products currently will be the AnalogHD cameras and DVRs which have shown wider acceptance in the industry.

Challenges The video surveillance market is growing by leaps and bounds every year. The Indian CCTV market is largely unorganized and is reportedly loaded with inferior security products from Taiwan, China and other Southeast Asian countries. Added to it, the manufacturing of these security products in India is a big challenge, as none of the components are locally available. India sources 70% of the components from other countries (China and Taiwan). Also, CCTV is no more a luxury item. Yet, manufacturers and distributors are paying hefty taxes on it. Although the security market in India has been growing steadily, there is lack of a regulatory framework. Many are still unaware of the benefits of installing security products. The most important initiative that can be taken for this growing market is educating the customers on the benefits of the video surveillance solution.

The Indian market for security and surveillance is expected to accelerate in the future led by strong demand from every sector – be it home/office etc and growing awareness for CCTV cameras.

However, every opportunity comes with its share of risk – and this industry is no different. With the everchanging technology enhancements, there is an added risk of obsolete technology bringing the product inventory.

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Ashish Mutneja Director Quantum Hi Tech Merchandising Private Ltd

Strategy The industry is a highly fragmented and competitive market with lots of brands involved. Coming up with a unique selling point is challenging for each brand as it overlaps in its offerings. “All the players in the industry have been working strongly against the ongoing challenges, namely lack of awareness (major reason for slow growth) and also the availability of the product. With our offerings to the industry – AHD range and soon we will be launching IP cameras, PTZ and solutions for families have shown vital growth and also have been focussed areas,” said Ashish Mutneja, Director, Quantum Hi Tech Merchandising Private Ltd. Every product needs a right channel to reach its potential. And this surveillance market is at the nascent stage. A lot of growth and potential lies behind it for the channel partners to grow. n aparna@varindia.com

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47

Wiio committed to deliver reliable smartphones at a reasonable and affordable price C

ommencing its operations in October last year, the indigenous handset company Wiio has already impressed the Indian consumers with its offerings and the company has managed to create a satisfied customer base of 5,000 which is growing with every passing day.

Wiio Mobiles has been launched by a Jaipur-based company Fortune Infovision which has a decade of experience in IT and mobile trade.

of our new models that will be launched soon,” said Rohit.

The company is also in the process of introducing three new smartphones in the market at a highly competitive price offering, with features that are available in phones in the higher price segment.

Currently, the company is selling two phones exclusively through eBay. However, going forward, as the company aims to increase the product portfolio, Wiio is in talks with a couple of major e-commerce players for selling through them.

Trends

“Today's consumer is aware and is looking for options that are reasonably priced, yet do not compromise on features.

Keeping this in mind, we introduce our phones with features such as a smooth design, fast processor, good camera and audio, a 5” screen for enhanced visual experience and, most important of it all, good after-sales service backup,” said Rohit Ghai, Director, Wiio Mobiles.

Based on the demands, Wiio has launched two smart devices – Wiio WI 5 and WI-Star 3G. WI 5 is a power-packed device running on an Android 4.2.2 KitKat OS and is driven by Octa-core 1.7 GHz processor. It is boosted by a 2GB RAM and supported by a 2,400mAh battery.

Dual-SIM Wiio Wi5 enables customers to click life-like high-resolution images using the 13MP rear and 5MP front camera.

Superior gaming experience is delivered by a rich interface through a 5” HD display. It has a memory space of 16GB expandable up to 32GB. It boasts unique features like the Smart Gesture which enables customers to access applications

Vision

Rohit Ghai, Director, Wiio Mobiles, discusses the ongoing trends in the mobile handset market, strategy and the vision of the company with VARINDIA by just drawing shortcuts without turning on the screen.

Another handset, WI-Star 3G is also designed similarly keeping the demand in mind. It has a 5.0” Screen with 5MP rear and 2MP front camera.

It runs on 1.3GHz Dual-Core Processor and Android KitKat v4.4.2 version. It has a storage capacity of 512MB RAM and 4GB ROM.

Strategy

Being a relatively new brand, Wiio has managed to garner good visibility and recall among its target customers. “We have generated good sales figures for the two smartphones that we have in the market and are confident

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Wiio’s vision is to deliver the latest and reliable smartphones at a reasonable and affordable price to the Indian market.

Wiio plans to build a robust platform to develop feature-rich handsets with highquality standards and the most updated technology, offering its customers with unique products at different price points which cater to every age group.

Wiio is committed to providing the Indian market with aesthetic designs, uncompromised quality, best-in-class user interface and exciting apps in smartphones which are robust and Wiio WI-Star 3G and Wiio WI5 are already available in the market and the company aims to introduce new models with unmatched features at regular intervals to cater to the growing demands of customers in the segment. n aparna@varindia.com

VAR MOBILITY

Lenovo P70 Smartphone Lenovo P70 has a 5" HD IPS Display. Powered by a 1.7GHz octa-core MediaTek (MT6752) processor coupled with 2GB of RAM and Mali T760-MP2 GPU, the P70 delivers a superb multimedia experience. Combining amazing performance with outstanding energy efficiency, the cutting-edge eight-core technology is supported by up to 2GB of RAM for seamless responsiveness. P70 Comes with Android 4.4 KitKat. It has 16GB of inbuilt storage, which is further expandable via microSD card of up to 32GB. It sports a 13-megapixel autofocus rear camera with LED flash and a 5-megapixel fixed-focus front-facing camera. The P70 supports high-speed LTE (4G) networks for the fastest data connectivity, helping the user reach full enjoyment potential when browsing, watching, gaming or chatting online. It measures 142x71.8x8.9mm and weighs 149 grams.

The Lenovo P70 packs an accelerometer, ambient light sensor, magnetometer, and proximity sensor. The Quick Charge feature of the smartphone allows it to get fully charged in 3 hours while a 15-minute charge offers up to 4 hours of talk time. It also supports Dual SIM.

OPPO N3

OPPO N3 has a motorized swivel camera with PI 2.0+ technology that can track objects as they move, and can rotate up to 206 degrees. The Smartphone is equipped with a multi-frame synthesis super-sampling technique that can combine multiple low resolution RAW images into an ultra-high resolution picture with greater details. OPPO N3 has a 16-megapixel camera. It comes with a 5.5inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display, the density of which is 403ppi. It is powered with Qualcomm Snapdragon 801 processor with 2.3GHz Quad-Core CPUs. The OPPO N3 operational capacity and performance are enhanced by Qualcomm's heterogeneous computing approach.

This chipset harnesses the robust integration of many components for incredible speed and power efficiency.

Among them, the custom Krait CPU architecture for sustained peak performance, integrated 4G LTE connectivity and Adreno 330 GPU for superior graphics and gaming experience, boost 3D interfaces, colors and textures. It has 2GB RAM and 32GB internal memory that can expand up to 128GB. N3 runs on Color OS2.0.1 (based on Android4.4). It comes with 4x faster charging speed than conventional chargers; the VOOC rapid charging system will have the phone ready to go when the user is on the move.

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VAR MOBILITY

XOLO introduces XOLO Prime, with 1GB RAM & Android Lollipop

X

OLO has unveiled its new device XOLO Prime.

The device provides a wholesome smartphone experience and is targeted at value seekers. It comes with a stunning glass finish back in four exciting colours – Black, Blue, Red and Gold, and is loaded with best-in-class features.

XOLO Prime comes with multitasking capabilities and is equipped with 1GB RAM and 1.3 GHz Quad-Core processor.

Its internal memory is expandable up to 32GB. The dual-SIM device is powered by 1,800 mAH battery. XOLO Prime runs on the Android v5.0. The new Lollipop version is loaded with a host of improved features such as notifications, quick settings and also

T

gets more easy controls like flashlight, hotspot, screen rotation and cast screen controls. XOLO Prime offers vivid and sharp display that brings everything from photos to videos to web pages to life. XOLO Prime comes with a 5MP camera with auto focus. The camera supports 1080p (Full HD) recording as well as playback and also comes with image enhancing features. The device will be available across all authorized retail counters.

Microsoft Introduces Lumia 430

M

icrosoft has launched the Lumia 430 Dual-SIM, the most affordable Lumia yet, in India. The Lumia 430 Dual- SIM is available in stores at a best buy price of INR5, 299/-. It is the most affordably priced Lumia that will upgrade to Windows 10. The device will be available in bright orange and black colours.

To demonstrate the uncompromised and unparalleled smartphone experience on the Lumia 430 to consumers, Microsoft Devices has conceptualized

“Knockout on Wheels” – an experiential initiative that will challenge consumers for a faceoff between their existing smartphone

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May 2015

Moto E 4G available on Flipkart

and the newly-launched Lumia 430, to showcase the superior experience offered on the device.

Consumers will be asked to perform the most common operations on the Lumia 430 as well as their existing phones, to showcase the superiority (Hardware and Software) of the Windows Operating System and the Lumia 430. Being flagged off from Delhi, the Lumia Knockout van will travel to

over 200 cities across the country taking the Windows Phone experience to tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 towns for the first time.

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he newly l a u n c h e d Moto E 4G variant is available for purchase on Flipkart for INR7, 999 exclusively.

The new Moto E 4G will help user connect to the world like never before. Its comes with 4G speed, a 4.5-inch qHD display, frontfacing camera, the latest Android software (Lollipop) and even more customization options.

And, for the first time, Motorola has brought personalized software experiences that will be introduced with Moto X. The new Moto E packs a bigger smartphone punch for a fraction of the average smartphone cost. The new Moto E with 4G network will provide amazing speed with increased bandwidth which will lead to much faster data transfer speed, which is especially advantageous for mobile devices.

Moto E 4G users will be able to stream music, videos and movies at a much faster rate than ever before and can also easily share information online.

The new Moto E features a powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon processor with a 1.2GHz quad-core CPU and advanced graphics. With a 2,390mAh battery, the new Moto E is designed to last a full day.

The new Moto E comes with a 5-megapixel rear-facing camera and a second camera in front, making it perfect for selfies or video calls with family and friends. With two twists of the wrist, user can launch the camera with Motorola’s Quick Capture feature.

The new Moto E runs on Android Lollipop, the latest version of the most popular mobile operating system.

Panasonic lauches ELUGA L

P

anasonic has introduced a new smartphone series “ELUGA” in the Indian market. ELUGA smartphone series is known for its design, superior build quality and unique user interface for single-hand operation.

Manish Sharma, Managing Director, Panasonic India, said, “The newly launched Eluga L will not only cater to the fast-developing technological needs in the market, but is also priced reasonably. With the company’s recent success in the smartphones category and the mobility landscape rapidly evolving today, the new device will surely match the needs of our fast-evolving consumers in the country.”

ELUGA L has been designed which features a 6.1mm sleek, lightweighted and a lustrous finish design. Its sleek design and size is perfect for comfortable usage and its light weight makes handling the phone even more effortless. Fitted with Corning Gorilla Glass (Front + Back) for protection, the phone also features a 12.7 cm (5) HD IPS display to render sharp and vivid visuals.

Featuring a 64-bit 1.2 GHz Qualcomm

Snapdragon Quad-Core processor with 1GB RAM, the ELUGA L performs better at multitasking and carrying out intensive processing than its peers.

It boasts an 8MP Rear Camera and the 5MP Selfie Front Camera featuring BLINK PLAY Technology.

With a powerful flash, images can be captured in dark and low light conditions enabling a seamless experience for the consumers.

Featuring Panasonic’s exclusive “Fit Home” User Interface, navigating through applications and files has now been made easier with UI specifically designed for single-hand operation and exclusively integrated in ELUGA series of smartphones.

The ELUGA L 4G will be available in Radiant Blue colour.

Sony introduces New Xperia Z4 Smartphone

S

ony has announced the launch of a new high-end handset – Xperia Z4. It comes with an aluminum frame and a 5.2-inch screen, showing it is still in the smartphone race even as it scales down its struggling mobile operations.

This launch of the new flagship model comes amid a painful restructuring at the Japanese consumer electronics giant which has thrown the future of its smartphone division into doubt with top executives.

But as the company

focuses on cutting costs rather than growing its mobile market, the division still needs investment in new products and marketing to maintain Sony's brand and hold off a more rapid deterioration.

Sony said the Xperia Z4 would be available in Japan around the middle of the year, though it did not provide a launch date, details on carrier partners or price. The handset would be available in four colours and was slightly thinner than the previous Z3.

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52 pages including cover