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Tally welcomes “Vriddhi� Program Partners

Polycom wins agreement with DGS&D

10th Best CMOs in ICT Industry Awarded in SNA 38pg

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Wipro ties up with IBM

WD Red Pro Drives with 5 TB and 6 TB Capacities introduced

Theme: Channel First Friday, 13th November 2015 Hotel Taj Palace, New Delhi

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Smart City – A Coveted yet a Complex Project

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HPE Debuts as an Enterprise Technology Leader

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ollowing its separation from Hewlett-Packard Company, Hewlett Packard Enterprise debuts as an enterprise technology leader with $53 billion in annual revenue, a comprehensive product portfolio in the industry and a unique vision for the future of technology and its benefits for enterprise customers.

The company will begin to trade under the ticker “HPE”. Hewlett Packard Enterprise India, will bring renewed dedication and focus to helping customers be more agile in this dynamic environment and compete successfully in the marketplace,” said Neelam Dhawan, VP & GM, Enterprise Group and Country Managing Director, Hewlett Packard Enterprise India.

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Western Digital acquires SanDisk

Western Digital Corporation has signed a definitive agreement with SanDisk Corporation under which Western Digital will acquire all of the outstanding shares of SanDisk for a combination of cash and stock. The offer values SanDisk common stock at $86.50 per share or a total equity value of approximately $19 billion, using a fiveday volume weighted average price ending on October 20, 2015 of $79.60 per share of Western Digital common stock.

With this transaction, Western Digital will double its addressable market and expand its participation in higher-growth segments.

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HELLO INDIA

Is Make in India Vs Made in India ....... indicative of the future potential???

I

ndia has become the hotbed of investment with the Make in India concept, which has created new industries and has paved the way for new job opportunities. It is an open call for foreign investors to set up manufacturing industries in India.

Whereas, Made in India applies to the products that are manufactured only in India. The Manufacturing sector is expected to get 100 million jobs and upgradation of technology by the participation of foreign investors for production in India.

Enterprise IT is at its critical crossroad, and technology is playing a major role in everyone’s business.

Around 40 per cent of the world population (some 3.2 billion people) has an Internet connection today.

With the emergence of newer technology like IoT (Internet of Things), which is the network of physical objects (fixed or mobile) that contains embedded technology to communicate, monitor, sense or interact with multiple environments, IOT will ride in the cyber world to transform the way people communicate and connect the world for a better tomorrow.

Moving ahead, communication is the backbone of infrastructure, security is the spine of all intelligently orchestrated devices and e-commerce is on rise. The market will continue to grow with e-commerce rising rapidly in India in the coming years. Data says, that about 75% of Indian Internet users are in the age group of 15 to 34 years. In the coming days, as internet presence will increase in rural areas, rural India will yield more e-commerce business. Digital Infrastructure will play a critical role in several ways of life in taking digital services and e-commerce industry to an exciting phase. The current high valuations, in spite of losses, perhaps are indicative of the future potential.

Going forward, India is on a path to achieve financial inclusion where banks can address an additional US$380 billion market in annual revenues by targeting micro-enterprises and bringing unbanked and under banked adults into the formal financial system. More than 90% of the PSUs see increased thrust on technology in the coming years and the Government is focusing on greater need of technology in various areas. With all good things happening, the decision of the government for bringing the economy in the fast track by incentivizing the exporters, sugar industry and the lagging infrastructure sector by offering various incentives is a welcome note.

Lastly, the recently held Annual Star Nite Awards witnessed the vision of senior beaurocrates, CEOs and CMOs of large corporates talking about transformation and sustainability. It was indeed a great success with a closing note - “Customers are above the company and citizens are above the government.�

S. Mohini Ratna Editor, VARINDIA Industry will see another era of growth..... mohini@varindia.com

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AMD looks at a consolidated growth in India AMD has seen a remarkable growth in the country in the last few quarters and this growth is backed by a couple of strategic decisions that AMD has taken in terms of its product line, channel programmes and choice of motherboard vendors. Throwing more light on this, Srinivas M, Country Head – India & SAARC, Channel Sales and Distribution, AMD, tells VARINDIA of how this growth has been made possible

F

or two quarters in a row, AMD’s business has been growing in terms of revenue and the company has been able to offer stable channel programmes and win channel confidence. AMD has brought hygiene into its product stack, corrected its focussed list of products in India, regained confidence across the ecosystem, including motherboard vendors who are backing AMD with sufficient inventories across the stack. “We have increased significantly our product ASPs and hence we have had an improvement in the health of our business. So all in all, the strategy which I have framed has worked so far and now is the time to build on and show consistent growth,” says Srinivas M, Country head – India & SAARC, Channel Sales and Distribution, AMD, who is responsible for heading India & South Asia channel business.

For India, the key thrust for AMD is to improve its GPU & CPU market shares and bring in consistency to its ongoing business. “We are backed with fantastic product lines, especially the new Radeon series. Last quarter, we have launched our R300 series and Fury range, which are already doing well across the globe. We have positioned these in India too and have seen positive response. We are also working in building the gaming ecosystem and AMD is well poised with both CPU and GPU solutions to cater to consumers, businesses as well as the gamers in India,” explains Srini.

Channel undoubtedly is very critical to AMD’s business. Investments from AMD focus primarily on developing its channel. Since AMD’s PC business does not have a direct channel to market, all its GTM is focussed on developing and promoting the channel partners for its business. “When selecting our partners, we keep in mind our desire for a long-term business relationship and look forward to partners who can value add by not just selling but do aim to educate customers and suggest what best suits their need/purpose. As a result, we have partners who are working with us for over a decade now and also have partners who are just selling AMD and nothing else,” says a jubilant Srini.

Srini personally drives the LOEM relationship for India and there is a huge thrust from AMD to promote local manufacturers and support the Government’s “Make-in-India” initiative. The company has set up a team which is focussed only on LOEM business and has already won a few Government rate contracts through three major LOEMs. The LOEMs have supplied AMD’s initial orders already. “Overall, I can say we are excited to support the Indian Government’s initiative and keep our efforts up to the mark,” he says.

Going ahead…

AMD believes in “delivering what it commits”, and sure enough that’s being in its DNA, the company plans its programmes in such a way that it delivers what it has promised. “The Indian channel community has already acknowledged with a smile that AMD business is their most profitable business and that illustrates how our programmes are designed to benefit our partners. We have worked a lot to improve our payout TAT and this is well appreciated of late by the channel,” Srini sums up. n samrita@varindia.com

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Srinivas M Country Head – India & SAARC, Channel Sales and Distribution, AMD

Top Technologies that AMD vouches for • The New Radeon GPU Lineup and the Fury – With our 2015 GPU lineup, AMD has added new and improved technologies to its product stack. After seven years of development, the AMD Radeon Fury was the first to introduce High Bandwidth Memory (HBM), a game-changing new memory architecture delivering far superior bandwidth over previous GDDR5 technology. HBM has huge benefits in terms of efficiency and enables a compact package allowing for a variety of innovative form-factors.

• VR, DirectX 12 and FreeSync – With AMD’s GCN architecture being the choice for DirectX 12 developers, AMD is well prepared for the transition to DX12 with Windows 10. With stunning new visuals coming in the next generation of games, AMD’s GCN architecture makes the user well prepared to make the most of the new API from Microsoft.

• AMD FreeSync – It was introduced earlier this year to enable variable refresh rates with communication between the GPU and the monitor. The result is a smooth gaming experience with tearing and choppy gameplay eliminated with fluid, artifact-free performance at virtually any frame rate.

• AMD Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) – With built-in Radeon discrete class graphics, AMD’s APUs for desktops and notebooks created a new market segment for those customers who require a great computing and graphics solution in a device that is also efficient and affordable.

Physical virtual logical

access GRANTED. Today, security solutions need to stretch beyond just physical access. With a mobile workforce on the rise, eliminating network vulnerability is just as critical to securing your most valuable utions in the world.

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You’ll call it the evolution of IT security. We call it, “your security connected.”

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Channel Chief

Citrix Leverages the Hybrid Cloud to Address Today’s Digital Workspaces T

Eklavya Bhave, Head Partner Strategy & Sales (India & SAARC) – Citrix explains to VARINDIA of how Hybrid Cloud adoption is picking up in India and about its Citrix Workspace Cloud that fits in to the merit of Hybrid Cloud.

he right infrastructure setup can be the pivotal difference between reaping the complete benefits of cloud and simply ‘adopting’ the use. There are generally three broad categories that customers can consider while choosing the right Cloud infrastructure • A Public cloud service or the standard cloud computing, which is a subscription based model where the resources are made available to the consumers over internet. Public cloud leaves room for scalability and is economical but poses the risk of security.

• Private cloud on the other hand offers exclusivity as the organizations can exercise strict control over location and management.

Thus security concerns can be addressed but with a higher spending on dedicated resources.

• Hybrid cloud which has emerged as a preferred choice of infrastructure is a unification of both the platforms, which offers scalability and retains security measures. Simply put, hybrid cloud offers the best of both.

“With a myriad of options in terms of cloud infrastructure and services, organizations need to carefully weigh the risks and compliance to security protocols for the correct choice,” says Eklavya Bhave, Head Partner Strategy & Sales (India & SAARC) – Citrix.

Citrix Workspace cloud offers a hybrid cloud choice where the organisation’s IT can maintain physical control as well as align with their requirements because of its unique architecture. In the present day scenario, Citrix Workspace Cloud solution is already witnessing successful implementation by YES Bank, which benefits immensely as a result of faster time to rollout new branches enable workspace mobility and offering data security.

Citrix Workspace Cloud…

Citrix Workspace cloud upholds the ‘one cloud does not fit all’ approach and thereby optimises the merits of hybrid cloud. It enables simplicity, flexibility in terms of infrastructure and cloud choice without having to fret over data security. Citrix WorkSpace Cloud provides the ability to securely deliver virtual desktops or applications to users using a common platform. The core principle remains-access to any application from any device delivered from any cloud or infrastructure. With Workspace Cloud, an organization can integrate the scattered management and streamline it into one through Applications and Desktops Service.

“Most cloud service providers push the workloads in one cloud which results in the IT administrator sacrificing control over workload action.

While they offer a ‘workspace’ that is nothing more than virtual desktops offered in their own cloud, Workspace Cloud makes it easy to deliver a people-centric, modern workspace located on-premises, off-premises or both in a hybrid mode. Workspace Cloud provides the only solution that allows the customer to select the best infrastructure combinations based on economics, performance, existing capacity, sovereignty and expertise,” says Eklavya.

An elaborate Channel Arrangement…

Citrix has different types of partners which bring their own expertise and skills to service customers. Across the country Citrix has a strong base of expert Citrix Solution Advisors (CSA) who bring domain and technical expertise on a regional level. On a national level it works very closely with the large SIs on transformational projects in both enterprise and government projects. “We have strong tie-ups with our global alliance partners who work with us not only globally but also in India,” points out Eklavya.

This year Citrix has launched the Citrix Specialist program with all its partners. After becoming a Citrix Specialist, partner will achieve industry

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Eklavya Bhave Head Partner Strategy & Sales (India & SAARC) – Citrix Adoption of Hybrid Cloud in India According to Gartner, India is poised to become the fastest growing information technology market and the country's spending on IT is expected to rise 7.2% to $72.3 billion in 2016. With increased budget allocation to IT infrastructure, enterprises are moving to cloud based models to meet the infrastructure challenges, to simplify complexities related to business and to create more value, agility and achieve cost benefits. Cloud computing as a concept is being widely adopted across developing markets like India. recognition by having the specialist badge to demonstrate the technical expertise and success in customer engagements. The specialist partner will also enjoy higher financial rewards.

By delivering all management via the cloud, Citrix is providing its customers and partners with the experience, flexibility and security needed to architect, design, deploy and publish easy-to-use mobile workspaces to anyone, anywhere – on any device. This cloud-based management platform provides customers the flexibility to choose which clouds or datacenter resources fit their needs best, then select the applications, data, files and features that work best for each specific organization and each person. “Partners add value by architecting and designing customized, personalized workspaces uniquely suited to meet their customers’ business requirements, combining new Citrix technologies with existing Citrix workspace environments to simplify management and gain greater value from their Citrix investment. This will add a new revenue stream for the partners,” sums up Eklavya.

Such an arrangement also immensely helps a partner to elevate the discussion with the customer. n samrita@varindia.com

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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 Sr. 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 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: 080-49530399 Mobile:08904205750/9916134482 E-mail: kamlakar@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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ROUND ABOUT

Delhi – A City Where Epics converge with Digital Space F

everything. He died, of course, with a lot of material accomplishments, but history refuses to hoist him on the same pedestal as Akbar the Great. Also, he carried with him the stigma as the person who scripted the downfall of the Mughal dynasty.

lights of fantasy are a normative diversion in a day-to-day chorus riddled with meetings, discussions, deadlines, targets, etc. I enjoy fantasizing where I can achieve the impossible, no matter whether it is ephemeral or only leave sprouts of hope in you for targeting the unattainable. But this time my fantasy is different – not of any material wealth or position. I want to be inside a time capsule to traverse through the seamless horizons in an inert state to see for myself what the transformation of the great city of Delhi was like over centuries.

I want to see the great Delhi under the medieval period, particularly under the rulers – humane, cruel, generous, idiosyncratic, blood thirsty – and the wish unfolds in a translucent manner: The Huns, Afghans, Iranians, Greeks, whether they were invaders, travellers, traders, had seen an India in its variety. I want to see the ordinary folks of that time, how they had etched a living, how they had faced the invasions, and to sympathize and empathize with them and to be cast as an atom that survived the vagaries of time and space to recall the great history of this city.

Do such hallucinations go well with an IT entrepreneur who is bound by the rule that he or she should look at the future only – the innovative side of the future that gives rise to newer ideations and concepts that jell well with the technology and things that have immediate or remote connection with it. But, presently, my passion is remote to the technology and innovation. I want to travel down the timeline much beyond my memory lane or the collective memory lane of the people of my generation to several millennia past. Sitting in the cozy confines of my office and its surroundings, I can visualize the Ramayana and the Mahabharata and connect with the timeline of the two epics. Both these great epics, perhaps, must have taken place not far from my office in NOIDA, a suburb of Delhi, which harks back to history spanning over millennia. For a change, I am not in the world of computers or technology that created thousands of gadgets and made distance neutral. I am in that state where timeline is neutral.

The medieval history of Delhi, during the Mughal period and the modern period till the day of Independence, is reasonably well chronicled, particularly the latter.

Yet, there are anecdotal triggers also. For instance, Qutub-ud-din Aibak, the founder of the Slave Dynasty who built the Qutub

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Minar to commemorate his victory died before the completion of the massive edifice. Many believe that a curse had befallen that took away his life. There are also versions to prove that he had a natural death. Sometimes, fiction surrounds facts difficult to decipher chaff from grain.

After him came Khilji, Tughluq, Sayyid and Lodi dynasties. They also built mosques, forts, townships and gardens, which remain even now and most of them unknown and unsung. As one puts it succinctly, every stone and pebble in Delhi has a story to tell. But nobody has the time to hear that.

Chronicled history tells the sad story of Shah Jahan, who built Taj Mahal in memoriam to his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. The tragedy befallen him pales the Greek tragedies into insignificance. In his old days, the Sultan, who was known for his overindulgence in material pleasures was confined to house arrest by his own son Aurangzeb, after killing one after the other his own brothers to usurp the throne.

He was victorious in every battle he fought, farsighted and firm in his administration, expansionist in the sense that during his time, the Mughals had extended their reach much beyond Vindhyas. The grapevine had it that none of his achievements could hold him back to Delhi, the seat of his power.

Historians say that the guilt complex that obsessed him stemming from patricides and mass killings made him a wanderer always mounting one expedition or the other and the treachery he practised in his personal life made him suspicious of everyone and

On the cusp of decline of the Mughal period and the rise of the British hegemony, the history of Delhi is caught in the vortex of a time resplendent with sophistry, aesthetics and manipulations.

The descendants of the Mughals with no power to assert and more time to indulge had a carefree life dotted with Ghazals and nautch. The uprising in 1857 had come as a rude shock to the British, who put all their might behind quelling the unrest using all tricks up in their sleeves. What followed was the exile of the last Mughal ruler – Bahadur Shah Zafar to Burma, where the old monarch died in penury – unknown, unheard and unsung. At that time, little did the British realize that the uprising was the beginning of their own downfall, reminiscent of the apocalyptical utterance that those who win by Delhi will lose by it?

Delhi had become the capital of British India in 1911, since they felt the heat in the erstwhile capital Calcutta, after the partition of Bengal. That scripted a lot of changes in the Delhi landscape. New churches, offices, clubs, etc had sprung up at regular intervals. English was used increasingly as a medium of instruction.

Many in Delhi, who mainly lived by tilling the land, had an additional avocation of government service. English education was preferred over the native medium of instruction, which was mostly in Urdu and in some pockets Persian. English had become the court language. More and more English newspapers and periodicals had started appearing in the capital city. There were shops and outlets of various hues and nature and some exclusively catering to the British.

Delhi is still caught up in a churn. The capital city has transformed into a digital entity from a place where traders and commission agents flourished not long back. Its bylanes, narrow gullies may be difficult to traverse, but even the humblest of the dwellings have a digital connection.

Should we then say that the great city that played backdrop to the top two epics of the world, witnessed conquerors, expansionists, looters and the concomitant bloodbaths, could also become a digital capital of the world? “Yes, it can” is my short answer. n

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HOT BYTES

AirTight to drive the Digital world with Persistent Systems

A

irTight Networks continues to drive its vision of simplifying connectivity to the digital world with the successful launch of new customer and partner-focussed online communities.

Designed and implemented

by Persistent Systems, these online communities are built on, and integrated with, the Salesforce platform to enable peerto-peer support for both customers and partners, providing a better user experience, higher engagement and faster answers to questions.

As Rick Wilmer, CEO, AirTight, says, “Accelerating global delivery of our cloudmanaged Wi-Fi solutions is a top priority. To accomplish this, we search out new and smart ways to make our customers and partners successful as they further their innovations through cloud Wi-Fi. to our customers and partners is essential to AirTight’s growth.”

Virtusa to buy Majority Interest in Polaris Consulting & Services

V

irtusa has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire a majority interest in Polaris Consulting & Services, Ltd (“Polaris”), for approximately $270 million.

The combination of Virtusa and Polaris would create a leading global provider of IT services and solutions to the banking and financial services industry segment. The acquisition would combine Virtusa’s deep domain

expertise in consumer and retail banking with Polaris’ proven strength in corporate and investment banking. This combination would provide an endto-end portfolio of differentiated solutions to the global banking and financial services industry segment.

Virtusa expects to realize over $100 million of cumulative revenue synergies over the next three fiscal years from the business combination.

Tally welcomes “Vriddhi” Program Partners

T

ally has announced that it is ready to welcome its first batch of Certified Partners to the new partner structure, as a part of the “Vriddhi” partner program. These partners have been certified after meeting compliance standards on a number of processes, to deliver high customer satisfaction on a continuous basis. Tally Solutions will continue to support these partners in deepening their engagement with customers, while driving their business results to higher and higher standards.

On the occasion, Tejas Goenka, Executive

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Director, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd, said, “Vriddhi has brought in an organized, focussed and a systematic approach in the way our partners are approaching their businesses. And now it is imperative that they get recognition and the right platform to serve more customers with greater quality. I am looking forward to help drive collective business growth with them in the coming years,” he further added.

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TCS Alliance with Tableau

T

ata Consultancy Services has announced a Global Alliance Partnership with Tableau Software. This partnership will enable customers to quickly and cost-effectively implement and integrate rapid analytics and visualize multi-structured data in the forms of patterns, trends and visual insights to drive better real-time decision making. In addition to building accelerators, solution frameworks and reusable assets, TCS will focus on developing largescale delivery capabilities, using Tableau’s new innovative features that address the needs of agility and flexibility.

“The combination of Tableau’s software with TCS’ business solutions enables customers to unlock the power of big data,” said Raman Venkatraman, Global Head, TCS Alliance & Technology Unit.

Telengana Schools to get IT Education

J

ayesh Ranjan, IT Secretary, Government of Telangana, has announced that the Telangana Government is likely to introduce “IT Skill Education” in schools from Class 9. Jayesh Ranjan said, “Airtel’s Bharti Foundation has been in talks with the state government to introduce IT Skill Education in schools.However, nothing is finalized yet”.

Jayesh felt that it would be nice if computer training is introduced in schools from 6th class onwards. Also, he shared that Ankit Fadia, computer security expert, author of 16 books, is likely to be appointed as the Cyber Security Advisor for the State of Telangana.

New Oracle Cloud program helps its Partners to escalate growth

T

o support partner business growth in the cloud, Oracle has announced a new cloud program within Oracle Partner Network (OPN).

The newly-announced

OPN program called the Cloud Registered level.

This program provides immediate opportunities for new cloud partners to begin their journey and grow their business with

cloud program is designed to help partners take advantage of Oracle’s integrated cloud portfolio to successfully transition new and existing customers to the cloud, assuring partners' success in this accelerated market.

Oracle also launched a new entry point into the

the Oracle Cloud, requiring no initial investment.

New cloud partners are encouraged to join OPN at the Cloud Registered level between today and May 31, 2016 to take advantage of the key Oracle Cloudfocussed benefits with no membership fee.

Google to design its own chips for smartphone

A

ugmented Reality (AR) is the most effective technology in providing real-time and real-world view information to users, where advancements in Smart Devices are expected to trigger various new AR services. IoT is a new emerging technology domain which will be used to connect all objects through the Internet for remote sensing and control.

IoT uses a combination of WSN (Wireless Sensor

Network), M2M (Machine to Machine), robotics, wireless networking, Internet technologies and Smart Devices. To address the growing demand in the enterprise mobility and social mobility, Google is ready to take the challenge to make a better Android for the future. Through this, your smartphone can handle the technical challenges of augmented reality, virtual reality, and whatever else smartphones will become.

Brocade and Intel Security to drive innovation in security space

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rocade has joined the Intel Security Innovation Alliance program.

Under the program, Brocade intends to integrate Intel Security products and technologies with Brocade solutions, enabling enterprises to deploy more secure New IP networking solutions that leverage Intel's industry-leading security technologies.

"The need for better and more pervasive security is one of the biggest drivers behind customers upgrading their networks to New IP architectures.

By joining forces with the Intel Security Innovation Alliance program, Brocade intends to offer an enhanced and fully integrated security layer to Brocade data center

solutions," said Ken Cheng, CTO, Brocade. "We are pleased to collaborate closely with Intel Security, as it addresses an industry need for more secure, agile and scalable networks."

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November 2015

19

HOT BYTES

Trend Micro buys HP TippingPoint

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rend Micro International has signed a definitive agreement of around $300 million to acquire HP TippingPoint.

The agreement encompasses security technology, intellectual property, industry expertise, as well as a large, loyal enterprise customer base.

This acquisition positions Trend Micro as the goto enterprise security provider of dynamic threat defense solutions spanning endpoints, network, data center and the cloud. Trend Micro

will also combine current and acquired capabilities to create a Network Defense business unit, serving more than 3,500 enterprise customers.

Today’s “borderless” enterprises are barraged by increasingly complex threats, and organizations must be prepared to efficiently prevent, detect and respond to modern threats that circumvent traditional security.

Microsoft ties up with Red Hat

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icrosoft and Red Hat have tied up and this partnership will help customers embrace hybrid cloud computing by providing greater choice and flexibility deploying Red Hat solutions on Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft is offering Red Hat Enterprise Linux as the preferred choice for enterprise Linux workloads on Microsoft Azure. In addition, Microsoft and Red Hat are also working together to address common enterprise, ISV and developer needs for building, deploying and

managing applications on Red Hat software across private and public clouds.

Scott Guthrie, Executive Vice-President for Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise division, said, “With this partnership, we are expanding our commitment to offering unmatched choice and flexibility in the cloud today, meeting customers where they are so they can do more with their hybrid cloud deployments – all while fulfilling the rigorous security and scalability requirements that enterprises demand.”

Canon enters into Surveillance

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anon is a new entrant in the surveillance domain with their new range of intelligent network cameras. The portfolio will come in four series, i.e. S series, H series, M series and R series of network surveillance cameras which will include both indoor and outdoor cameras under three categories, i.e. PTZ (Pan-Tilt-Zoom), Fixed Dome and Fixed Box. The new high-performance network cameras are ideal for a wide variety of indoor and outdoor environments, including retail, city surveillance and critical infrastructure monitoring.

K. Bhaskhar, VicePresident – Business

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November 2015

Imaging Solutions Division, Canon India, said, “The enhanced Canon network cameras are specially crafted to deliver improved visual detection, image capture, and intelligence to meet new surveillance needs. Canon is leveraging its imaging & lens technology leadership in this new product range and with features like Auto Smart Shade Control and a host of other intelligent functions. With our venture into this new domain, we are aiming to capture 10% share in the IP surveillance space by the end of 2018.”

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Verizon adds HP Wipro ties up with IBM Wipro will BM and Wipro countries. and its Cloud has announced leverage more than 100 I a partnership in which services through IBM’s to double its Wipro will use the IBM public Bluemix catalog as Bluemix cloud development well as Bluemix Dedicated – footprint a private-cloud platform for the

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erizon Enterprise Solutions is adding HP and Verizon Cloud to its Secure Cloud Interconnect service, essentially doubling the size of its footprint in the Asia-Pacific region and increasing the number of cloud providers, giving clients a seamless way to connect, manage and secure their multi-cloud environments.

“Verizon’s Secure Cloud Interconnect allows users to connect to applications simply, securely and reliably,” said Shawn Hakl, Vice-President of Enterprise Networking and Innovation, Verizon.

ViewSonic offers free 30-Day DOA Service

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iewSonic has announced to provide free 30-day DeadOn-Arrival (DOA) service from 1st November to 31st December, 2015, for the selected range of Ultra HD monitors, including VX2475SMH-4K, VX2573SHW, VX2573-sg, and VP2780-4K. ViewSonic has been devoted to providing customers in India with high-performance products and guaranteed excellent service.

The 30-day DOA Service Policy is valid only for customers in India. To apply for this free 30-day DOA service, consumers must first register on ViewSonic website, and call the ViewSonic India toll free customer service hotline, 1800-419-0959 or 120-612-1200.

The original purchasing invoice or receipt must be kept as proof of purchase; purchase date, name & address, serial number of the product, and detailed description of the problem have to be provided to complete the application process.

agile creation and deployment of mobile, analytics and machine learning solutions for clients around the world. As part of the effort, Wipro has committed to train and engage 15,000 of its developers on the platform through a massive online open course across 58

version that developers can use to build apps involving sensitive data. With a growing list of demands for scalability, security and capacity, IBM will tap into Wipro’s global talent pool to accelerate the release of new Bluemix features.

Netmagic launches its Largest Data Center at Mumbai City

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etmagic has announced the launch of its 9th data center in Mumbai. One of the largest data centers in India, this massive 300,000-sq. ft. (27,000sq. mt.) high-density data center with 2,700 racks has been built to the exacting global design standards of NTT Communications, using the experience and expertise from building and successfully running over 140 data centers worldwide.

Extending the promise of world-class

data center facilities to Indian customers, this is yet another “Nexcenter” branded data center in the country. The data center will deliver Netmagic's entire suite of services including Managed Co-location, Dedicated Hosting, Cloud Computing, IT Infrastructure Monitoring & Management, Managed Security, Disaster Recovery and Managed App Hosting. The Data Center is already operational with some marquee anchored customers on-board already.

Polycom wins agreement with DGS&D

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olycom has won a rate contract agreement with the Directorate General Supplies & Disposals (DGS&D).

Through the rate contract agreement – supported

by Inspira, a national Polycom distributor – the company will offer video collaboration solutions and services to government institutions, helping to implement and integrate video networks within existing infrastructure.

Speaking on the award of the rate contract, Minhaj Zia, Managing Director, Polycom India & SAARC,

said, “We firmly believe that our innovations uniquely place people at the heart of collaboration enabling them to work better, smarter and more

efficiently.

Polycom India remains focussed on being the leading collaboration partner for our customers – whether in the government or in the private sector offering seamless user experience, and open and interoperable technologies through an ecosystem of expert partners.”

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November 2015

21

ON THE RAMP

Lapcare launches In Car Charger

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apcare has launched the Dual USB In-Car Charger exclusively designed for the needs of the Indian audience.

The HighSpeed In Car Charger is a compact, easy-to-use and portable with two dedicated USB ports (1A for Phone and 2A for Tablet/ipads) providing full power at all times. Priced at Rs 499/this car charger allows you to charge two devices simultaneously. Attuned to charge your iPad, iPhone, MP3 Players, or any other power hungry gadgets, the Lapcare in-car charger can be compatible with 12 or 24 volt sockets. It automatically detects how

to charge the connected device as fast as possible.

The charger implements the Volt IQ technology that smartly adjusts amperage and wattage to the maximum ratio required by the device, so that large devices that need more current are not deprived and at the same time smaller devices do not become over-allocated resources.

HDS launches new converged infrastructure and solutions

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itachi Data Systems (HDS) has announced a new portfolio of converged infrastructure and software solutions for Oracle Database 12c environments.

These solutions, which include Hitachi UCP 6000 for Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC) and Hitachi Database Infrastructure Evaluation Tool (DIET), help lower the total cost of Oracle RAC 12c infrastructure through optimizing hardware

resources, streamlining operations and accelerating the migration to cloudbased business.

Hitachi DIET, developed by top Oracle Database experts at HDS and used with more than 800 global companies over the past eight years, is a simple-to-use, powerful utility that helps customers improve Oracle database performance and increase utilization of the underlying storage, compute and network infrastructure.

GIGABYTE adds high-end cards to its XTREME GAMING Lineup

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I G A B Y T E is all set to roll out five high-end cards in its premium XTREME GAMING lineup, each crafted with overpowering performance, astonishing design, and added gamercentric features to take gaming experience to a whole new level.

The latest XTREME GAMING series offerings include TITAN X (GVNTITANXXTREME12GD-B), GTX 980 Ti WINDFORCE Edition ( G V- N 9 8 T X T R E M E 6GD) and

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November 2015

WATERFORCE Edition ( G V- N 9 8 T X T R E M E W-6GD), GTX 980 (GVN980XTREME-4GD), and GTX 970 (GVN970XTREME-4GD).

These new XTREME

GAMING graphics cards are redesigned inside and out to meet the needs of enthusiastic gamers who relentlessly challenge themselves for reaching their ultimate performance.

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Tata Ricoh's A4 Colour MFPs in India has unveiled Communications Ricoh two new highperformance A4 colour Launches IZO multifunctional printers for the Indian market.

Private Cloud Designed for fast operation

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a t a Communications has launched its IZO Private Cloud service to bring CIOs unprecedented control over their public and private clouds and their entire data centre estate. The new service, unveiled at Cloud Expo Asia is the latest addition to Tata Communications’ game-changing IZO cloud enablement platform, and will empower enterprises to connect to the world’s biggest clouds, and to build a truly hybrid, high-performance IT infrastructure.

“IZO Private Cloud overcomes enterprises’ final barriers for cloud adoption,” says Genius Wong, President, Global Network Services, Cloud and Data Centre Services at Tata Communications.

Axis rolls out explosion protected network cameras

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x i s Communications has introduced its first explosion protected network cameras.

XF40-Q1765 Explosion Protected Fixed Network Camera and XP40Q1765 Explosion Protected PTZ Network Camera both feature a 316L stainless steel housing certified for hazardous areas according to, amongst others, ATEX, IECEx, cLCus and Class I, II/Div 1 for OSHA. “With the new explosion protected network cameras we are offering plant managers in the oil, gas, chemical processing, paper and textile industries a powerful video surveillance monitoring solution for hazardous areas. In addition, Axis’ broad safe area product portfolio complements these two new cameras, opening for new installations in new markets.

and easy integration with companies existing document workflows, Ricoh MP C306ZSP and MP C406ZSP print 30 colour or B/W pages per minute and 40 colour or B/W pages per minute.

Manoj Kumar, MD & CEO Ricoh India, said, “The Ricoh MP C306ZSP and MP C406ZSP combine user-friendly controls, versatile performance, robust

security and energy and paper savings in a compact solution that’s specifically designed for convenience and affordability. We expect customers to use it as the primary device for their small office or workgroup or use it as part of an integrated Ricoh Managed Document Services (MDS) strategy.”

NVIDIA GRID 2.0 launches in India

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VIDIA has announced the launch of its NVIDIA GRID 2.0 which can deliver even the most graphicsintensive applications to any connected device virtually. NVIDIA GRID 2.0 delivers unprecedented performance, efficiency and flexibility improvements for virtualized graphics in enterprise workflows.

Employees can work from almost anywhere without delays in downloading files, increasing their productivity.

IT departments can equip workers with instant access to powerful applications,

improving resource allocation.

In comparison to its predecessor, NVIDIA GRID 2.0 offers twice the user density, allowing up to 128 users per server, expanding service to more employees at a lower cost per user and doubled application performance.

NVIDIA GRID 2.0 can now be run on blade servers – not simply rack servers – from the leading blade server providers.

Along with Windows OS, it also has expanded its support to enterprises in industries that depend on Linux applications.

New Precision Mobile Workstations add up to Dell’s new lineup

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ell has come up with its new lineup of Dell Precision mobile workstations and significant updates to the entry fixed line of Dell Precision tower solutions.

“We listened to our customers from media and entertainment, e n g i n e e r i n g , manufacturing, finance and beyond to deliver the highest performing systems for their critical workloads.

This year’s lineup of the Precision portfolio brings together industry-leading solutions combining great, new technologies from our hardware partners,

seamless functionality with critical applications from our software partners, and amazing innovations from our Dell engineering teams to deliver powerful and beautifully-balanced mobile and fixed workstations to our

customers,” said Indrajit Belgundi, General Manager for Dell Client Solutions Business, India.

www.varindia.com

October 2015

21

ON THE RAMP

Konica Minolta rolls out bizhub PRESS C71hc

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onica Minolta has introduced the bizhub PRESS C71hc to provide enhanced printing services based on the advanced colour reproduction capabilities of the manufacturer’s proprietary high-chroma toner.

"The colour production printing market is steadily growing and there can be no doubt that RGB data and the high-chroma technology will continue to increase in importance in the future." explains Yuji Nakata, MD, Konica Minolta India.

The high-chroma toner

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of these colour production systems has an extended colour range that is much closer to RGB than that of conventional CMYK toners. Colours can be printed virtually as they are displayed for example on a calibrated monitor.

Kingston releases UV300 SSD in India

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ingston has announced the release of the ultravalue UV300 solid-state drive (SSD) in India. It is Kingston’s first SSD to use TLC (triple-level cell) NAND to provide speed and performance at the best possible price. The new UV300 SSD is now available in 120GB, 240GB and 480GB capacities at MRPs of Rs.3, 700, Rs.6,500 and Rs.12,700, respectively.

“We are proud to offer a value-oriented, highperformance SSD to the

Indian market,” said Nathan Su, Flash Memory Sales Director, APAC Region, Kingston. “Switching to an SSD is one of the best things a PC owner can do to make their system run faster. UV300 provides that performance boost at a great price and is the perfect entry-level drive for anyone considering an upgrade to SSD technology.”

AMD announces R-Series SOC Processors

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MD has announced new AMD Embedded R-Series SOC processors that establish performance leadership across a targeted range of embedded application market requirements for digital signage, retail signage, medical imaging, electronic gaming, media storage and communications and networking. Designed for demanding embedded needs, the processors incorporate the newest AMD 64-bit x86 CPU core

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November 2015

Seagate brings WD Red Pro Drives with 5 TB 8TB Surveillance and 6 TB Capacities introduced has announced HDD of its WDexpansion

(“Excavator”), plus thirdgeneration Graphics Core Next GPU architecture, and state-of-the-art power management for reduced energy consumption.

Scott Aylor, Corporate VP & GM, AMD Embedded Solutions said, “The platform offers a strong value proposition for this next generation of highperformance, low-power embedded designs.”

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eagate Technology has announced its 8TB surveillance hard drive disk (HDD), the largest drive of its kind for surveillance applications in the industry. Targeting surveillance system integrators, end- users and system installers, the Seagate Surveillance HDD offers the highest capacity in the market, tailor-made for surveillance storage to keep systems in the field longer and reduce postdeployment support.

“Seagate has worked closely with the top surveillance manufacturers to evolve the features of our Surveillance HDD products and deliver a customized solution that has precisely matched market needs in this evolving space for the last 10 years,” said Matt Rutledge, Seagate’s Senior VP, Client Storage.

Quantum unveils Xcellis Workflow Storage Solution

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uantum has introduced Xcellis, a next-generation, high-performance, endto-end, shared workflow storage solution that empowers users to boost their efficiency, productivity and creativity in delivering the products and services that drive their business.

This solution supports online work in process, ingest and delivery, and archive through Quantum’s portfolio of Lattus object storage, LTO tape and Q-Cloud services, all running on the powerful StorNext 5 media workflow platform.

Xcellis takes workflow storage to the next level by integrating real-time and “non-real-time” media production support elements in the same system.

award-winning WD Red Pro hard drive line with the release of 5 TB and 6 TB capacities. The WD Red Pro family is purposebuilt for NAS (networkattached storage) systems having up to 16 drive bays and serving businesses with more expansive storage needs than the standard WD Red drives.

WD’s Senior Sales Director, South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Khwaja Saifuddin said,

“With the capacity expansion, there is now a path for customers to increase the storage density of their systems while knowing their data is protected with the most trusted and valued brand on the market.”

Epson intros new model projectors

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pson has updated its best-selling entry-level projector range with performance levels and features that used to be found exclusively in its mid-range to highend models, making them brighter and easier to use than ever. The entire entry-level range now features powerful lamps that give them brightness ranging from 3,200 lumens to 3,600 lumens, as well as standard features that include HDMI connectors, optional wireless connectivity

with mobile devices, and Epson’s unique Horizontal Keystone Adjuster. The launch of these products strengthens Epson’s number one market share position, a position they have held in the projector market for the past 14 years.

The new series allows customers to select their most ideal projector from a wide range of five models that have different combinations of resolutions, brightness ratings, features and interfaces to optimise their budget.

Sony introduces High-Resolution Headphones and Earphones

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ony India has revamped the audio segment with its new range of stylish Hires audio compatible headphones and earphones – “H.ear on” headbandtype headphones, “H.ear in NC” Noise Cancelling (NC) earphones, “H.ear in” in-ear headphones. H.ear is an amalgamation of “Hear” and “Ear” symbolizing a strong relationship with headphones. Packed with a distinct finish in a vast array of colours, these headphones and earphones compliment the consumer’s musical style quotient.

Sony’s High-Resolution Audio brings the favourite tunes so much closer to the true sound that the artist

originally intended.

Whether one portrays laidback elegance or radiant cheerfulness, Sony’s sleek H.ear series are available in deep shades ranging from viridian blue, cinnabar red, charcoal black, lime yellow to bordeaux pink for every type of personality.

Focussing on the beauty of simplicity, the headphones feature a single-shape design emphasizing their glossy brilliance. It is this simple expression of style that makes these devices not only great sounding products, but a true expression of character that will guarantee to turn heads.

www.varindia.com

November 2015

25

VOICE-N-DATA

SSTL and Reliance Communications to merge

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istema JSFC and the CIS have announced the signing of binding documents regarding the merger of Sistema's Indian telecommunications business with business of Reliance Communications.

The signed documentation provides for the demerger of the telecommunication business from Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) and its merger with the telecommunications business of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom) based on a Merger

Scheme to be approved by Indian courts. As a result of the merger, SSTL will acquire and hold a 10% equity stake in RCom besides SSTL planning to pay off existing debt prior to the completion of the transaction.

Following the completion of the transaction, RCom will take responsibility for payment of SSTL's frequency spectrum licensing fees payable by installments to the Department of Telecommunications of India.

Videocon plans for a Mobile Assembly plant in Punjab

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ideocon has announced an investment of Rs.500 crore for setting up a Mobile Handset Assembly Plant in Punjab. Addressing the “Progressive Punjab Investors' Summit”, Anirudh Dhoot, Director, Videocon, announced that the investment will be made over the next three years to assemble mobile handsets along with the manufacturing of set-top boxes.

With such futuristic step, the company aims to

generate 3,000 openings in Punjab, thus creating a platform for skill development and give impetus to the growth of the economy.

“We are happy to announce that Videocon would be setting up a Mobile Assembly plant in Punjab. I have visited several States, but the speed of progress, development and treatment given to industrialists in this State is par excellence,” said Anirudh Dhoot, Director Videocon.

Ericsson inks deal with Cisco

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ricsson and Cisco have tied up and announced a global business and technology partnership to create networks of the future. The multi-faceted relationship will offer

from incremental revenue in the calendar year 2016 and expected to ramp to $1 billion or more for each by 2018. New and greater opportunities are also expected, as the

customers the best of both companies: routing, data center, networking, cloud, mobility, management and control, and global services capabilities.

The strategic partnership will be the key driver of growth and value for the next decade, with each company benefiting

partnership enables both companies to drive their efforts and investments to deliver value in growth markets.

Teams from both organizations will also begin working on a joint initiative focussed on SDN/NFV and network management and control.

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NETGEAR Broadcom Launches Automotive ReadyNAS 200 Ethernet Switch Portfolio Through the use r o a d c o m Series powers Broadcom’s highC o r p o r a t i o n of B BroadRhas announced its next- performance the smart home generation BroadR-Reach Reach Ethernet technology,

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he ReadyNAS 200 is powered by a dual-core ARM Cortex A15 1.4GHz processor, has 2 Gigabytes of RAM, dual Gigabit Ethernet ports with Link Aggregation technology and delivers up to 200MByte/sec data transfer speed. It offers 5 levels of protection on documents, photos, videos and all types of data. The ReadyCLOUD portal-based user interface and app on PC, Mac, smartphones and tablets make the RN200 an ideal choice for consumers because of its simplicity and ease-of-use.

S u b h o d e e p Bhattacharya, Regional Director, India & SAARC, NETGEAR, said, “The advanced performance and Data Protection features in the ReadyNAS200 series make it stand out of the crowd.”

TP-LINK intros Wireless N Router

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P-LINK has announced their latest 450Mbps router in India, the TL-WR940N 450Mbps Wireless N Router. The TL-WR940N comes with MIMO and SST technologies and creates an exceptional and advanced wireless performance, making it ideal for streaming HD video, VoIP and online gaming.

Complying with the IEEE 802.11n standard, TL-WR940N can establish a wireless network and get up to 15X the speed and 5X the range of conventional 11g products. Also, with transmission rates up to 450Mbps, it mitigates data loss over long distances and through obstacles in a small office or a large apartment, even in a steel-and-concrete building.

automotive Ethernet switch portfolio with integrated PHYs for automotive central gateway, Advanced Driver Assistance Systems infotainment, head units and time-sensitive applications. The new 28 nm devices utilize a unique design that delivers 30 percent power savings to provide the industry’s lowest power automotive switch solution.

automotive manufacturers not only address bandwidth concerns but also ensure compliance with the latest standards and enable a secure network. Serving as the car’s network gateway, wired Ethernet connectivity provides device authentication to protect the car from malicious attacks, eavesdropping and the installation of nonapproved devices.

Ruckus Wireless launches Virtual Data Plane for Wi-Fi

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uckus Wireless has launched virtual data plane for Wi-Fi that segregates data traffic from control traffic on large wireless networks. Carriers and enterprises will now have maximum flexibility in network deployments, installing multiple data flow managers across a distributed network to help optimize cost and performance based on user demands.

The new software – called Virtual SmartZone Data Plane (vSZ-D) – works with Ruckus’

Virtual SmartZone controllers, which provide a software-based system for managing wireless networks. It has built strong market momentum in just one year, with more than 700 customers in production networks – managing more than 200,000 access points. Virtual SmartZone is an early highlight in the industry’s network functions virtualization (NFV) movement, which encapsulates key network functions in software that can run on industrystandard hardware.

Alcatel-Lucent to empower DEN Networks

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lcatel-Lucent is to help cable operator DEN Networks to launch ultra-broadband Internet connectivity to homes and businesses using GPON fixed access, IP routing and aggregation technologies.

With a customer base for its cable TV service of 13 million throughout 200 cities, DEN Networks plans to use fiber-optic access technology to expand its “DEN Boomband” broadband service to 8.5 million city homes within three years.

Srini Sundararajan of Alcatel-Lucent said,

“This project marks a key breakthrough in the important Indian cable market. Under the Shift Plan, we identified how, as leaders in IP networking and ultra-broadband access, we could help MSOs transform their networks. Working with the DEN Networks on an in-depth study and trials, we were able to show how our IP routing and GPON technology would help it scale to better meet the growing demands of their customers.”

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November 2015

27

CHANNEL BUZZ

ASIRT Techday empowers its members

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SIRT has conducted its Techday for the month of October 2015. It can be summed up in these three phrases: Dr Deepak Deshpande spoke on human skills and leadership, Artis, on their Solar power solutions and Fission Cloud on their disaster-recovery system. Techday was keenly attended by members to open up completely new business verticals

for themselves in the era that has seen lesser dependency of ASIRT members on hardware sales and service to solution integrations.

Artis, a company that has brand presence in almost all computer stores and retail counters for computer peripherals and accessories, had an ace up their sleeves, literally speaking, The Sun up their basket of offering. With ASIRT members being consultants to customers including government, large enterprises, SME factories, education and healthcare where solar power solutions can benefit the customers in terms of costs, captive

power generation to connect to power grid and sell excess generation and contribute to reducing carbon emissions that are promised to be rewarded by government for tax and other infrastructure benefits. Anil Daryani, CEO of Artis, promised members to not only provide preferential pricing but also mentor and handhold members to consult, integrate and build a practice in solar power opportunity. So enthusiastic were members that the session extended way beyond the allotted time.

Fission Cloud, earlier Cloud Leap, extended partnership with ASIRT members outlining recently launched 5-minute high availability and disaster-recovery solution which offers members opportunity to add data protection to their solution offerings. Srikant Srinivasan detailed how the flexibility of on-premise and off-premise data centEr disaster recovery of Fission Cloud can be applied across segments and verticals for domain agnostic block level data approach. Amod Phadke, Director – Sales, promised complete case locking and margins to ASIRT members.

DIGISOL Channel Partners visit Russia

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IGISOL took its partners for a luxury trip to Russia to celebrate the success of its business in Eastern region. This was in appreciation to the partners’ stupendous support in making DIGISOL a huge success in the East India market. The partners who completed their targets were invited to join this trip which was organized from 2nd Nov to 6th Nov 2015. The trip saw over 20 partners joining from the eastern region.

The 4 Nights/ 5 Days luxury trip was packed with lots of exciting activities that included a visit to Moscow, the capital of Russia and St. Petersburg City, which is rightfully described as Northern Venice or Pearl of the Baltic along with a business discussion session.

Partners enjoyed their stay in Moscow with visit to various famous places such as The Grand Kremlin Palace , Red Square , St. Sofia’s Embankment , The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the world famous Bolshoi Theater to name a few. In St. Petersburg, the group got a taste of the Russian Royalty

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November 2015

Symantec Partner Engage 2015 Conference dedicates to advancing security

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fter rolling out an enhanced channel partner program designed to help security-focussed partners grow their businesses, Symantec Corp. has held its very first Symantec Partner Engage 2015 Conference for security partners in Singapore this week.

Aimed to Excite, Engage and Empower the partner community, Symantec Partner Engage 2015 Conference was attended by 170 most valued and strategic partners from across Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ).

“Symantec has always been a partner-driven company, and it will continue to be even more as we focus on information security.

Our partners have played a critical role in driving business success and contributing positively to customers across the Asia-Pacific and Japan region. We look forward to working with our partners, as we advance security together and take a stand to keep information safe,” said Sanjay Rohatgi, Senior Vice-President, Asia-Pacific and Japan, Symantec.

The key highlight of the event was the Partner Awards which recognize security-focussed channel partners that have demonstrated innovative delivery of services and solutions to customers during the past year and acknowledge their

dedication and commitment to selling Symantec's security solutions.

The winners were selected based on criteria such as innovation, overall performance in revenue, deal registration, technical and marketing investments, customer service excellence and certification.

Edwin Yeo, Vice-President of Channels for Asia-Pacific and Japan, Symantec, said, "A huge congratulations to our award-winning partners who have demonstrated a deep commitment, and made outstanding achievements in addressing the biggest cybersecurity challenges of customers.” “I am confident that Secure One, our enhanced partner program, will further support and accelerate partner growth and provide our channel partners with more opportunities to take advantage of the innovation and growth at Symantec.”

Veritas exclusive partners get recognition

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with visits to various palaces, royal gardens etc.

“It is our constant endeavor to work closely with our partners and we will continue to introduce a number of incentive programs for our partner community. Such reward programs help in building excitement in the channels and encourages them to focus and improve their business relationship with us, “says Venkatesh Kamath, Sales Head, East and South region, DIGISOL. Kaushik Goswami, GM - Link Telecom Pvt. Ltd., the T1 distributor for Digisol in entire Eastern India said, “It was a pleasure to be a part of the DIGISOL Trip in Moscow.

We thank DIGISOL for the hospitality extended to us! Looking forward for more such events! ”

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t its inaugural regional partner event, Veritas Asia Pacific Partner Link Conference 2015, Veritas Technologies LLC has announced the winners of the 2015 Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ) Partner Awards. The Veritas APJ Partner Awards honour top performing partners who have demonstrated dedication to achieving strong business growth and positively contributing to their customers, the partner community and Veritas.

“Veritas APJ Partner Awards is our inaugural awards event as a standalone information management company. We are energized to embark on this exciting journey with our partners who are truly invested to deliver the Veritas value proposition – that is to offer customers the unique ability to harness the power of their information. Today, we celebrate the outstanding achievements of our top performing partners in the APJ region and their notable contributions to strengthen the

Veritas partner ecosystem,” said Mark Nutt, Global Head of Channel, Veritas.

Besides Veritas has also announced its independent global partner programme, Veritas Partner Force in Asia-Pacific and Japan (APJ). The refreshed partner programme was enhanced based on extensive partner feedback and is designed to further reward information management partners focussed on growing their business with Veritas.

“CEOs across Asia-Pacific have pledged their biggest IT investments in the next five years to big data as unstructured data growth continues to be a burden. It is more important now than ever for Veritas to empower our customers to address their information management needs and priorities. We believe Veritas Partner Force is a gamechanger that offers our partners increased support, access to our technology,” said George Wong, APJ Channel Leader, Veritas.

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November 2015

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PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Frontech JIL 1943 and JIL 1944 Headphones Frontech JIL 1943 and JIL 1944 Foldable Headphones comes with USB and Single Jack feature.

With the high-end drivers for amazing audio quality and premium materials for unrivalled comfort, JIL 1943 and JIL 1944 has been styled and tuned to the dynamic lifestyle of Gen Next. Engineered specifically for the youth, the new path breaking headphones are targeted at consumers who love heavy tunes, want to look good and won´t compromise on quality. The headphones have signature ‘Frontech audio’ and dynamic drivers to offer a rich bass, crisp highs, and natural midtones for music lovers. The headset follows an over-ear design with a 40mm speaker with dual-diaphragm, an ergonomic leather headband that folds up, soft and ergonomic memory cushions around the ear, and replaceable shields.

There's a built-in mic on the headset, and another one on the 3.5mm cable. The cable also houses a button for controlling your device. The headset uses a 3-button design, two of which are for volume control and one acting as a multi-function button. JIL 1943 and JIL 1944 deliver everything you would expect from a premium headphone, without the premium price tag. Offering no bargain JIL 1943 and JIL 1944 offers the best sound and Noise Cancellation capabilities bringing in the Quite comfort even in a crowd.

Ricoh MP C406ZSP Ricoh MP C406ZSP is a new high performance A4 colour multifunctional printer. It designed for fast operation and easy integration with company’s existing document workflows. Ricoh MP C406ZSP prints 30 colour or B/W pages per minute and 40 colour or B/W pages per minute. The Ricoh MP C406ZSP is a 4-in-1 MFP that provides colour print, copy, scan and fax (option) functionality. It features a large, intuitive control panel that’s as simple and convenient to use as a tablet, featuring Quick Copy and Quick Scan apps, a full built-in HTML5 web browser, and direct Wi-Fi access to enable mobile print/scan/copy from Smart Devices (Android and iOS). Amazingly energy-efficient, its small footprint and quiet operation means it can be placed anywhere without distracting employees or interrupting meetings. With the lowest TEC value in its class, the MP C406ZSP offers print speeds of 30ppm (mono and colour), colour scan speed of 30ipm and auto-duplex for efficient double sided copying and printing. MP C406ZSP offers intuitive 10.1” widescreen super VGA Smart Operation Panel which helps in easy viewing and navigation. It also simplifies operations, expands functionality and customises the user experience. VGA Smart Operation Panel even includes a web browser that allows customers to view and print web content from the control panel of MFP. The panel is also equipped as standard with a WiFi card, which makes direct connection between mobile devices and panel possible, simplifying accessibility and information exchange. MP C306ZSP’s has class-leading Typical Electricity Consumption (TEC) to minimise energy consumption and help reduce operating costs. Users have to enter a passcode or swipe their smart identity cards to access MFP functions and release jobs. And with the standard DOSS feature, any data left on the hard drive is overwritten and rendered unreadable at the end of each job.

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XEED Projectors wit Canon LCOS projector

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advertising/digital signage The night projection to a window and a building wall surface in an advertisement purpose.

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There are the indoor examples such as a cafe or a shop, the showroom, too.

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Projection Mapping The projection mapping which used high quality LCOS projector use case increase. In this case, it often blend it using several projectors. (ex) - Projection to use the water tank of the aquarium with jellyfish. - Projection to unevenness of the wall surface.

Projects beautiful, sharp, and impressive images when using Photo Studio, CAD, and design Only Canon!

Dynamic gamma correction by area

High quality edge enhancement Automatically adjusts the edge enhancement, and enhances the resolution with a natural impression.

Only Canon!

Presents the dark shop interior in the background more vividly while leaving the presentation of bright areas such as the man's face unchanged.

Makes human skin smooth

Hair and flowers in the bouquet are crisp

Memory color correction

Also reproduces dark areas in background in detail

Skin color, color of sky, and green are corrected independently to colors people perceive as beautiful.

Reproduces the blue of the sky, the green of the grass, and the red-tinge of human facial expressions

What is the overall scenario of projector market in India and How do you place your brand?

The projector market is totally crowded with more than 20 brands but lot of scope for quality brands which can add value through a superior product and technology. With our LCOS technology products we have created our own space in the high end segment where there are only few brands present. Canon wants to play a role of game changer in this high end space.

Canon projectors use cutting edge technology which offers unique features mix to customers.

Canon LCOS projectors offer a unique feature mix with interchangeable lens offering wide installation features like edge blending, stacking etc., which makes these projectors suitable for segments like Boardroom solutions , museums, planetariums, events, auditoriums and Home theatre segment.

Short/Ultra short Throw, interactive, edge blending, stacking, vertical mounting etc. are the key areas of technical growth in the industry. Canon LCOS product range is ready to cater to these segments. Canon strong presence in more than 5000 cities in India through Canon Care Centres and franchisees makes canon service offerings unique in the Industry.

For Dealership Enquiry: North & East: Mr. Vivek Kumar-09958222331 South: Mr. Pankaj Puri : 09560627979 Canon Call Centre: 1800 208 3366

West: Mr. Milind Bokil-09820488073 www.varindia.com 2015 For AV Consultants & Rental Enquiries: Mr. Pankaj PuriNovember : 09560627979 www.canon.co.in

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EVENT

5

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The Star Nite Awards 2015 will be best remembered for three things â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the presence of a host of distinguished dignitaries, IT honchos, senior bureaucrats and government officials, the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from the industry and last but not the least the top performers from the field of ICT. The 14th leg of the Awards that was organized by Kalinga Digital Media lived up to the tradition of its predecessors and the reputation it has gained during its primitive years. With the theme of the event being "CHANNEL FIRST", this event was entirely dedicated to the Indian Channel Partners from the ICT industry.

Solution Display Kiosks

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EVENT

(Pictures from Left to Right)-Mr.Parag Amalnerkar,Director,Marketing-India &SAARC-NETAPP INDIA, Ms Nalini Singh, Partner Channel Development Manager, Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt.Ltd., Mr. Amarjeet Manchanda, Director -Consulting Services,Redhat India, Mr. Sanjay Kumar Singh,Director,Cloud sales- Microsoft India, Mr.Sudharsan R, Marketing Head, Commercial, DELL India PVT. LTD., Mr.B S Rao,V.P.- Marketing- CtrlS Datacenters Ltd.- CTRLS DATACENTERS LTD, Mr.Vineet Goenka, Member Task Force IT, Ministry of Surface, transport & shipping-GOI,Mr. D.K.Sahu,Publisher cum Chief editor-VARINDIA, Shri.Anil Swarup,IAS, Secretary-Coal- Govt. of India, Shri.Navin Verma, IAS- Secretary-DONER, Govt. of India, Mr.VipinTyagi, E.D.- C DOT, Govt. of India, Shri. Rajesh Janey, President, EMC-India &SAARC, Mr.Rajesh Kumar Jindal,CMO- SAP India and Ms. S Mohini Ratna, EditorVARINDIA

Star Nite Awards 2015 – The Bigger, The Better T

he Star Nite Awards 2015 will be best remembered for three things – the presence of a host of distinguished dignitaries, IT honchos, senior bureaucrats and government officials, the Chief Marketing Officers (CMOs) from the industry and last but not the least the top performers from the field of ICT. The 14th leg of the Awards that was organized by Kalinga Digital Media lived up to the tradition of its predecessors and the reputation it has gained during its primitive years. With the theme of the event being "CHANNEL FIRST", this event was entirely dedicated to the Indian Channel Partners from the ICT industry.

The auspicious lamp lighting ceremony marked the beginning of the event that was graced by the Chief Guest, Shri Anil Swarup, IAS, Secretary – Coal, Government of India, and other high-profile guests and distinguished delegates like Shri Navin Verma, IAS, Secretary, DONER, Government of India; Shri S. N. Tripathy, IAS, A.S. & Development Commissioner, MSME, GoI; Shri Vipin Tyagi, E.D., C-DoT, Government of India; Shri Rajesh Janey, President, EMC India & SAARC; Shri Vineet Goenka, Member, IT Task Force, Ministry of Surface, Transport & Shipping, GoI; Shri Kishore Badami, CMO, CISCO Systems India & SAARC; Shri Amarjeet Manchanda, Director, Consulting Services, Red Hat India; Shri Sudarshan R, Head – Marketing, Dell India Pvt. Ltd; Shri B. S. Rao, V.P. – Marketing, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd; Shri Rajesh Kumar Jindal, CMO, SAP India Subcontinent;

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Shri. Anil Swarup, IAS, SecretaryCoal- Govt. of India "After all these years of experience, I have come to the conclusion that we do not need to be as such a technologist in order to use technology. What is most important is your ability to understand the implications, nuances, and utility and not the futility of technology. In some of the cases I have found that if you are a technologist, you might put some other technologies and eventually its users in trouble. To my mind, for someone like me, the job would then be to balance the imbalance and let technology do the good job. I had my brush with technology from a very early stage of my career."

Shri Parag Amalnerkar, Director – Marketing, NetApp India; Shri Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing, Intel India; Ms Jayanthi Sethuraman, Global Head – Marketing, Tally Solutions; Shri Alok Gupta, President, PCAIT; Shri Champak Raj Gurjar, Chairman, FAIITA; and Shri Kshitij M. Kotak, President – ASIRT, among many others.

The unveiling of the SPOI magazine was another highlight of the evening. SPO India is an initiative towards CSR that is aimed at creating a sustainable growth for the organizations in the country. The formal inauguration was done in the presence of the Chief Guest and other dignitaries.

In his welcome address, Shri Deepak Sahu, Publisher, VARINDIA, reiterated the fact that the industry has changed from every perspective and it is upon us how we take in those changes with our innovative ideas. “Today, communication has grown as the backbone of infrastructure; security is the spine of all intelligently-orchestrated devices; open-source software is under way to enable digital infrastructure and IoT will ride in the cyber world to transform the way people communicate and connect the world for a better tomorrow. The current high valuations, in spite of losses, perhaps are indicative of the future potential.”

Taking a cue from how the industry is fast changing, Rajesh Janey said that the world is moving faster the way we could have ever imagined. “The way things have been evolving

Mr. Rajesh Janey, President, EMC - India &SAARC “The way things have been evolving in the current IT industry is an interesting topic to begin this evening. It was way easier for me to start with my first job since there were very few products, which used to come out in every 6-8 months. From then to now, when there are thousands of products, solutions and a much wider dimension of customer requirements, is in itself a perfect example to indicate how things have changed.”

Shri. S.N.Tripathy, IAS, A.S.& Development Commissioner-MSME - GOI “Today’s consumer demands for a technology that is more user-friendly, smart and secured.

Having taken note of this, we have taken an initiative to address the MSME sector of the country by felicitating a registration portal for them wherein they can go for an easy and paperless registration process of their enterprise without much hassles. So any micro enterprise whose capital may be less than 5 lakhs can register on this Govt. of India portal. Till 18th September, we have completed close to 2000 registrations in Delhi itself.” in the current IT industry is an interesting topic to begin this evening. It was way easier for me to start with my first job since there were very few products, which used to come out every 6–8 months. From then to now, when there are thousands of products, solutions and a much wider dimension of customer requirements, it is in itself a perfect example to indicate how things have changed. Infrastructure is no longer the point of discussion. It is about applications, and it is about the outcome that matters more.

The point I want to make is that we have to change the way we have been servicing our customers.”

The Chief Guest, Shri Anil Swarup, IAS, Secretary – Coal, Government of India, stressed on the usability of technology and how it can be used for the good of the society. “After all these years of experience, I have come to the conclusion that we do not need to be as such a technologist in order to use technology. What is most important is your ability to understand the implications, nuances, and utility – and not the futility – of technology. In some of the cases, I have found that if you are a technologist, you might put some other technologies and eventually its users are in trouble. To my mind,

for someone like me, the job would then be to balance the imbalance and let technology do the good job. I had my brush with technology from a very early stage of my career. The biggest moment for me was when we introduced a Health Insurance Scheme for the poor in the country, where a poor man can carry this smart card issued to him to any Government hospital and get treated. This happens to be the only paperless initiative in the world so far.”

Commemorating the role that Chief Marketing Officers play in the industry, VARINDIA this time took the opportunity to felicitate them during the event with a token of appreciation. A total of nine CMOs were recognized and they were asked to give a 60 seconds marketing pitch to the audience, on their efforts and success in transforming their respective organizations.

The Star Nite Tech Byte Session saw a few eminent speakers from the industry talk about the present and future technologies that their respective companies endorsed and were given a time-limit of 5 minutes each. The speakers who spoke during this session were Shri Amarjeet Manchanda, Director, Consulting Services, Red Hat India; Shri Vipin Tyagi, E.D., C-Dot; Shri

Mr. Vipin Tyagi E.D.- C DOT, Govt. of India “C-DOT got a unique recognition at the International level as our product Gyansetu is being adjudged the best product capable enough to bridge the gaps in connectivity and meaningful communication dissemination at the vast rural part of the country. C-DOT showcased its products live during the ITU Telecom World 2015 at Budapest, Hungary this month as part of the Digital India Pavilion. This is indeed a great moment for us as this carries the Digital India message very clearly as also will play a big part in bridging the digital gap in the country.”

Girish Gargeshwari, Director – Commercial, SMB & Channels, Intel Security-McAfee; Shri Rupendra Bhatnagar, Head of Industries, SAP India Subcontinent; and Shri Vineet Goenka, Member, IT Task Force, Ministry of Surface, Transport & Shipping, GoI. Then came the most-awaited part of the evening – the gala Award ceremony that, as usual, was an extravagant affair, taking everyone present in the hall by storm. A total of closeto 63 categories were announced this year and more than 50 vendors were awarded for their remarkable contribution in their respective field.

Three associations were also recognized for their contribution to their respective regional channel community.

There was also a Lucky Draw contest sponsored by EMC during the event where three lucky winners walked away with an iPhone 4 model each.

Overall, the event was a grand success. It did drew inspiration from Modi’s Digital India and Make-in-India campaigns as most of the presentations and speeches were centred around these, but the ultimate goal was to play a part in building a more Connected, Informed and an Empowered India.

CMOs of the Year 2015 Sudharsan R, Marketing Head,Commercial Dell India Pvt. Ltd. A L Jagannath, Director, Marketing-India & SAARC, VMware Software India pvt. Ltd. Jayanthi S, Global Head-Marketing, Tally Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. Matt Fairbanks, CMO, SOPHOS TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD. Rajesh Kumar Jindal, CMO, SAP INDIA PVT. LTD. Kishore Badami, CMO, CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA PVT. LTD. B S Rao, V.P.- Marketing, CTRLS DATACENTERS LTD. Parag Amalnerkar, Director, Marketing-India & SAARC NETAPP INDIA MARKETING AND SERVICES PVT. LTD. Sandeep Aurora, Director - Marketing & Market Development, INTEL TECHNOLOGY INDIA PVT. LTD. Tushad Talati- Senior General Manager - Brand & Communication- Epson India Pvt. Ltd.

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EVENT

CMOs of the Year 2015

Shri.Anil Swarup, IAS, Secretary-Coal- GoI, Shri.Navin Verma, IAS- Secretary-DONER, GoI and Mr. D.K.Sahu, Publisher & Chief Editor-VARINDIA presenting the awards to:

Sudarshan R, Head – Marketing, Dell India Pvt. Ltd

Puneet Saxena on behalf of A L Jagannath Director - Marketing, Vmware

Ms Jayanthi Sethuraman, Global Head – Marketing, Tally Solutions

Mohit Puri on behalf of Matt Fairbanks Chief Marketing Officer, Sophos

Rajesh Kumar Jindal, CMO, SAP India Subcontinent

Kishore Badami, CMO, CISCO Systems India & SAARC

B. S. Rao, V.P. – Marketing, CtrlS Datacenters Ltd

Parag Amalnerkar, Director – Marketing, NetApp India

Sandeep Aurora, Director – Marketing, Intel India

Mr. B.S. Rao V.P.-Marketing-CtrlS Datacenters Ltd. “We all understand the demand of our consumer; these demands are tend to change with time just like change in technology is very much imminent. But going forward we have to keep in mind that there is still a lot to achieve in order to call ourselves a good marketer and we are just midway to achieving that.”

Kishore Badami, CMO - Cisco Systems India Pvt. Ltd. “I accept this award very humbly on behalf of my team. Cisco is working very closely on the Digital India platform and the CMO has a great role to play in that.

This award is going to boost up our energy further to work together as a team and achieve our laid objectives.”

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Sandeep Aurora, Director - Marketing & Market Development - Intel Technology India Pvt. Ltd. “Working for transforming something is not easy, but while working for a big organization like Intel make sure that we CMO, CIO work together to work towards a common vision, a larger prospective of the company and the desired goal. Sometimes we fail, sometimes we success but the inspiration is always there to put in our best efforts.”

Parag Amalnerkar, Director, Marketing-India & SAARC - NetApp India Marketing and Services Pvt. Ltd. “I take this award on behalf of my team. It is upon all the CMOs of how we steer forward the company in terms of meeting business goals, setting standards and achieving higher results. But our motto always remains firm – to never lose hope and leave the battleground.”

Ms. Jayanthi S, Global HeadMarketing- Tally Solutions “I am proud to represent Tally here.

Tally is India’s original garage story and it came way before the Make in India concept has become popular. It powers 1 million businesses in India and is an integral part of the powerful growth story of India.”

Mr. Sudarshan R, Head Marketing- Dell India Pvt. Ltd. “I take this CMO recognition on behalf of my team that has done an immaculate work. The brand name does the magic but creating that brand is something which we all have really worked hard for. I could not have asked for more.”

Mr. Rajesh Kumar Jindal CMO SAP INDIA Sub Continent “This recognition goes to the team that works behind the brand. Consumers are ahead of the company just like citizens are ahead of the government. In between citizens and consumers, the line is slightly getting blurry. Business people are demanding consumer specific experiences in business and citizens are demanding citizen specific experience in governance. Both of them are trying to talk the same language. In this era we have also seen the Marketer donning a multi-dimensional role, a shift from what he used to be a few years back.”

Tech Talk

Mr. Amarjeet Manchanda, Director - Consulting Services, Red Hat India “The way applications are consumed have changed now. Suppose I have he Uber application on my smartphone and someone today tells me that the OLA is giving me a better deal or experience, I will without any second thought download the OLA application and use this for my future travels. What is the cost of this change – zero. This need for agility, continuous improvement and development is what is driving some of the IT infrastructures.”

Mr. Rupendra Bhatnagar, Head of Industries - SAP India Subcontinent “SAP has been playing a big role in the Digital economy, in terms of value creation and addition. If we take top 200 businesses in today’s world, almost 10% of their money goes waste in just addressing complexities. It is then we realized that a change in the business model is what is required to avert such a waste. Cloud Technology has the potential of unlocking several opportunities that can help address such challenges. The business model of SAP today as a business organization is to build products and sell licenses. So its this Cloud-based consumption cloud model that SAP is best known for.”

Mr. Girish Gargeshwari, DirectorCommercial, SMB & Channels- Intel Security-McAfee “We have heard enough how technology is impacting our lives, of how SMAC is impacting initiatives like Digital India and Smart City. While all these technologies are creating a very positive impact in the way we look at the future, we are also witnessing things like security breaches, hacking, malware, ransomware which is resulting in loss to many. It is important for a security company like us that we do not only protect our consumers but also step up to help detect and overcome these threats in their environment.”

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EVENT

SNA Awards 2015

Awards Presented by: Shri.Anil Swarup,IAS, Secretary-Coal- Govt. of India, Shri.S.N.Tripathy,IAS, A.S.& Development Commissioner-MSME-GOI and Mr. D.K.Sahu,Publisher & Chief Editor-VARINDIA

HP INDIA SALES PVT. LTD.

HP India Sales Pvt. Ltd. receiving the award for BEST DESKTOP BRAND/BEST NOTE BOOKSOHO/ BEST INKJET PRINTER(SINGLE & MFP)/ BEST LASER PRINTER(SINGLE & MFP/ BEST THIN CLIENT- DESKTOP VIRTUALISATION/ CHANNEL FAVOURITE COMPANY

Best Desktop Brand Best Note Book- Soho Best Inkjet Printer(Single & Mfp) Best Laser Printer(Single & Mfp) Bset X 86 Server FASTEST GROWING NETWORKING SOLUTION FOR SMB'S CHANNEL FAVOURITE COMPANY BEST THIN CLIENT- DESKTOP VIRTUALISATION

IBM INDIA PVT. LTD. receiving the award for TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SOLUTION COMPANY

CANON INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST PHOTO COPIER BEST IMAGING SOLUTION COMPANY BEST Scanner

LOGITECH ELECTRONICS INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST KEY BOARD –MEMBRANE BEST WEBCAM BEST MOUSE BEST SPEAKER LOGITECH receiving the award for BEST KEY BOARD –MEMBRANE, BEST WEBCAM, BEST MOUSE, BEST SPEAKER

LG ELECTRONICS BEST LED DISPLAY MONITORS

DELL INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

EPSON receiving the award for BEST PROJECTOR LCD, BEST DOT MATRIX PRINTER, BEST POS, BEST INKJET PRINTER(VALUE WISE)

BEST ALL IN ONE-CONSUMER BEST FUTURISTIC COMPANY INTO CHANNEL BEST NOTE BOOK- ENTERPRISE BEST WORK STATION

D-LINK INDIA LIMITED BEST NETWORKING SWITCH COMPANY BEST STRUCTURE CABLING COMPANY DLINK receiving the award for NETWORKING SWITCH COMPANY, STRUCTURE CABLING COMPANY

BEST BEST

EPSON INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST PROJECTOR LCD BEST DOT MATRIX PRINTER BEST POS BEST INKJET PRINTER(VALUE WISE)

Intel receiving PROCESSOR

the

award

for

BEST

CHECK POINT SOFTWARE TECHNOLOGIES LTD. BEST UTM

SOPHOS TECHNOLOGIES PVT. LTD. EMC receiving the award SOLUTION COMPANY

for

STORAGE

BEST SECURITY COMPANY IN INDIA BEST UTM- INDIAN BRAND

CISCO SYSTEMS INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED

SAP receiving the award for BEST CLOUD SOLUTION PROVIDER

BEST NETWORKING SOLUTION COMPANY BEST VIDEO CONFERENCING INFRASTRUCTURE SOLUTION COMPANY

RAH INFOTECH (P) LTD. FASTEST GROWING VAD

AVAYA INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED BEST UNIFIED COMMUNICATION COMPANY LG receiving the award for BEST LED DISPLAY MONITORS

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SYMANTEC INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST END POINT SECURITY SOLUTIONS

MICROSOFT CORPORATION(INDIA) PVT. LTD

DELL receiving the award for BEST ALL IN ONE-CONSUMER/ BEST NOTE BOOKENTERPRISE/ BEST WORK STATION/ BEST FUTURISTIC COMPANY INTO CHANNEL

BEST O.S.-WINDOW 8

EMERSON NETWORK POWER (INDIA) PVT. LTD POWER MANAGEMENT SOLUTION COMPANY

TALLY SOLUTIONS PVT. LTD. BEST ERP SOLUTION FOR SMB Microsoft receiving the award for BEST O.S.-WINDOW 8

EMC DATA STORAGE SYSTEMS INDIA PVT.LTD.

Avaya receiving the award for BEST UNIFIED COMMUNICATION COMPANY

STORAGE SOLUTION COMPANY

LENOVO INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST NOTE BOOK– SME

SANDISK INDIA BEST FLASH DRIVE-SSD

WESTERN DIGITAL CORPORATION Sophos receiving the award for BEST SECURITY COMPANY IN INDIA, BEST UTMINDIAN BRAND

BEST EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE

SEAGATE TECHNOLOGY

Tally receiving the award for BEST ERP SOLUTION FOR SMB

Awards Presented by: Shri.Anil Swarup,IAS, Secretary-Coal- Govt. of India, Shri.S.N.Tripathy,IAS, A.S.& Development Commissioner-MSME-GOI,Mr. D.K.Sahu,Publisher & Chief Editor-VARINDIA, Mr.VipinTyagi,E.D.- C DOT, Govt. of India and Mr.Vineet Goenka, Member Task Force IT, Ministry of Surface, transport & shipping-GOI

BEST INTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE

INTEL TECHNOLOGY INDIA BEST PROCESSOR

GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST MOTHER BOARD Lenovo receiving the award for Best Note Book Brand-SME

KINGSTON TECHNOLOGY BEST MEMORY MODULE

Checkpoint receiving the award for BEST UTM

KASPERSKY LAB INDIA BEST ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE-SOHO

Intel Security( Mcafee) BEST WEB SECURITY TECHNOLOGY COMPANY

VMWARE SOFTWARE INDIA PVT. LTD BEST SERVER VIRTUALISTION W.D. receiving the award for BEST EXTERNAL HARD DISK DRIVE

NVIDIA GRAPHICS PVT. LTD. BEST GRAPHIC CARDS

Digisol receiving the award for DIGISOL(MAKE IN INDIA BRAND)

MICROWORLD TECHNOLOGIES INCORPORATE(eScan) BEST INTERNET SECURITY SUIT – SMB

ADITYA INFOTECH PVT. LTD BEST ELECTRONICS SECURITY COMPANY OF THE YEAR

ORACLE INDIA PVT. LTD. Redhat receiving the award for BEST OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PRODUCT

BEST BUSINESS APPLICATION SOLUTION COMPANY

SAP INDIA PVT LTD.

Ctrls receiving the award for BEST DATA CENTER IN INDIA

BEST CLOUD SOLUTION PROVIDER

IBM INDIA PVT. LTD. www.varindia.com

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EVENT

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEMENT SOLUTION COMPANY

FORTINET INC. NEXT GENERATION FIREWALL

IRIS COMPUTERS LTD. EMERGING DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR

IRIS receiving the award for EMERGING DISTRIBUTOR OF THE YEAR

RAILTEL CORPORATION OF INDIA LTD. BEST CARRIER OF THE CARRIER

VMware receiving the award for Best server virtualization

RICOH INDIA PVT. LTD. JAM FREE PRINTER SP 212 SNW/ AFFORDABLE COLOUR BUSINESS PRINTER SPC 250 DN

REDHAT INDIA PVT. LTD. BEST OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE PRODUCT

Fortinet receiving the award for Best Next Generation Firewall

SMARTLINK NETWORK SYSTEMS LTD. BEST NETWORKING PRODUCTSDIGISOL(MAKE IN INDIA BRAND)

RAH Infotech receiving the award for Fastest Growing VAD (Value added distributor) of the year 2015

IQOR BEST AFTER MARKET SERVICES COMPANY

SAMSUNG INDIA ELECTRONICS BEST SMART PHONES

CTRLS DATACENTERS LTD. BEST DATA CENTER IN INDIA Oracle receiving the award for Best Business Application Solution Company

Intel Security(Mcafee) receiving the award for Best Web security Technology Company

EDITOR’S CHOICE AWARDS FOR IT ASSOCIATIONS IN INDIA Awards Presented by: Shri.Anil Swarup,IAS, Secretary-Coal- Govt. of India, Shri.S.N.Tripathy,IAS, A.S.& Development Commissioner-MSME-GOI,Mr. D.K.Sahu,Publisher cum Chief editor-VARINDIA, Mr.VipinTyagi,E.D.- C DOT, Govt. of India and Mr.Vineet Goenka, Member Task Force IT, Ministry of Surface, transport & shipping-GOI and Ms.S Mohini Ratna,editor-VARINDIA

Lucky Draw

ASIRT-Mumbai receiving the award for BEST ASSOCIATIONS IN TECHNOLOGY TRANSFORMATION

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CONFED-ITA- Chennai receiving the award for INNOVATIVE IT ASSOCIATION IN INDIA

PCAIT-Delhi receiving the award for MOST ACTIVE IT ASSOCIATION IN INDIA

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United we stand, divided we fall!

Alike last year the Indian IT channel community is still concerned about the predatory pricing of online marketplace. But things are on the better side at present as a lot of initiatives have been taken by the Associations to curb it. It is left to be seen of how these initiatives fetch positive results and get wholesome support from the vendors.

Taking this discussion to a new height, a meeting of Federation of All India Information Technology Associations (FAIITA) was held recently where the leaders of IT Associations across India gathered under one roof for a round table discussion. It was organized by VAR INDIA on 13th November 2015 at Hotel Taj Palace in New

Delhi. IT Associations from every corner of India took part in this discussion and made it a huge success. Various regional and state level Associations including PCAIT, ADCTA, ASIRT, UPCDA, CMDAPune, SIITA, ISODA, TCCDA, JCWA, JCDA, ITAO, TAIT, GIBA, CIITA, CONFED-ITA, FITAG, Society For Welfare of IT Dealers UP, BITA, FiTDAK, CMDA- Delhi and COMPASS participated in the discussions, with views shared by the representatives of these associations.

The main objective of this round table was to discuss and arrive on a consensus about the various pain points of the IT Channel community, among other

core issues like Online commerce, creation of FAIITA marketplace and committee formation of its E Commerce, coming up with FAIITA’s own Brand with Foxconn and the introduction of the new business model by CONFED-ITA. The round table was commenced

by Saket Kapur, Secretary - FAIITA by giving an update on having sent an advisory to all brand owners regarding the discounts announced by online commerce before the festive season.

Saket Kapur, Secretary , FAIITA “Most of the FAIITA members were weary of the deep discounts announced by online commerce, which would be given by the brand

owners during the festival season.

FAIITA issued an advisory on 12th October on the same. The response from the major brand owners was almost immediate and very positive.

The most important aspect is our unity and due to this the major vendors is considering us seriously.

So let leaders remain united.”

Online commerce, a contentious issue: Devesh Rastogi, Presedent, Society For Welfare of IT Dealers UP “Online commerce is a very contentious issue.

We are not fighting against online commerce but fighting against the predatory pricing and unethical practice. We need to have a code of conduct for that. A regulatory body has to be there to keep a check on them. I have come up with some pointsfirstly negotiating with vendors. We are engaging with them for the last one year and it is taking some direction on a concrete basis. Our endeavor should be to make them fulfill that. Secondly we should not allow distinguished products for online.”

Swarn Singh, Secretary, ADCTA “If online commerce companies are playing a major role in discounting on a particular product price, then we should take an initiative to discuss this issue of predatory pricing of IT products with them.”

B HARI, Past President, COMPASS “Specific model for online and offline is practiced in several markets but in India the way the market is going one can remove the online products from Channel but it cannot be possible vice-e-versa, as it is diluted. So our point is you must create a free market and all

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products should be available in all markets.”

Pawan Agarwal, Immediate Past President, NECTA “Online commerce is selling the exclusive models of the products as well as other models.

We should not allow them to sell all models if they are selling exclusive models as even exclusive stores cannot sell those exclusive models.”

Anand Rao, PresidentFiTDAK “Online marketplace is an important issue. We have to pay enough attention and deal it in either offensive or defensive way as it is a very sensitive issue.”

Shiv Shankar Singh, Jt. Secretary, UPCDA “We cannot stop online business, so we have to walk with it and for that we have involved our government in it. It is government’s duty to protect the prosperity of the citizens and traders. For that a regulatory body formed by government is required which will put a check on the predatory pricing or deep discounts.”

Alok Gupta, President-PCAIT “It is a universal fact that both online portals and brick and mortar retail partners have to survive together. In my opinion the best way to deal with price parity issue is the negotiation with OEMs. We had a discussion with our OEMs and got to know that they are also facing the problem because of price parity and they have come up with certain schemes which are only for the brick and mortar channel partners. For that, the OLS committee is already working on it. OLS committee has been founded by FAIITA to take care of online sales issues arising due to price parity.”

Kshitij Kotak, Chairman, ASIRT “If we cannot stop the channel members who sell their products on

the online marketplace, then at least we can stop our members from buying from those members by issuing an advisory.”

Nalin Patel, Vice-President, SIITA “We have to ensure that those who are incurring lose for the online marketplace should get compensation by raising debit note to the Distributors. Also, I have been always vocal about it that we must expose those black spots of our channel community, who are involved in selling spurious material which affects the whole channel community.”

Creating own marketplace: Arun Dey, President, ITAO “We want to have a consent on whether FAIITA should create its own marketplace or not. According to the fraternity feedback we should have our own marketplace. We also need to decide whether we will form our own marketplace or should go for a joint venture. Considering everyone’s views present in the meeting, as of now we are not ready to create our own marketplace. In future when we will be ready we will definitely take it forward. We have postponed the idea for the next meeting.”

Narendra Bheda, President, CMDA-Pune “The main objective of FAIITA was to fight against online price parity. We are fighting against online and at the same time we are considering to create an online marketplace, which is a serious issue. With this we are opening another platform for the Channel members who sell their products online. So it is better to control the vendors and those members who are not giving proper pricing.”

Rushab Shah, President, TAIT “To come up with an own online marketplace will require immense resources, it is a mammoth task. We do not have resources like big online marketplaces so we should concentrate on vendor engagement so that we can discuss the level playing field.”

Forming our own Brand Champak RajGurjar, President, FIITA “Unity is very important and if we are united then we have lots of opportunity in FAIITA. As discussed in FAIITA’s Kolkata conclave, we should have our own Brand. We had a meeting with Foxconn and they are interested to come up with a Brand with us. Now if both Foxconn and our association members are ready then we need to decide our next step. Interested members of FAIITA can become a partner of the company. ” Alok Gupta, Past President, ISODA “We need to understand our society as we are a non-profit body. When this type of body which is meant to look after the interests of members becomes a commercial organization, then it loses its sight and vision. We should look for the common good.”

New business model Senthil Kumar M, President CONFEDITA “CONFED-ITA has created a company called CONCOM Communications Ltd. It is a public limited company and we have collected 500 demand drafts from our members to form this.

Here the interested members have to pay Rs 50000 as shareholders. We have 1490 members and among them 500 members have already payed their share. We have 25 associations in CONFED-ITA, out of which we have selected 25 Directors for the company. The company will initially distribute exclusive pull products to its promoters (CONFED-ITA members) and other IT traders in Tamil Nadu to sell the products. We are looking for a turnover of RS 50 crores in a span of 2 years.”

Amit Shah, President, FITAG “We have taken an initiative of an exhibition in tier 3 cities like Anand, Mehsada, Gandhinagar and other places. It starts from January. FITAG always believes in enablement of tire 3 cities. I take this opportunity to invite everyone for the exhibition. I also welcome Senthil Kumar with the same business model in Gujarat.”

Key Take Away The concept of Make in India has penetrated so deep into the roots of the business that not only the major brands but also the VAR (Value Added Resellers) community, who are the key drivers of the market, have thought to come up with a local brand by uniting with their respective Associations.

They can source the products from different places and further repackage and brand it to sell to their respective customers. With this they can earn a sizeable amount of profit. Whereas when they sell the same product of any MNC brand, they get just one-fourth of the current profit. With this trend, there can be a revolution among the community to bring their respective Brand products.

Another noticeable fact is that online commerce cannot be stopped but partners can change the dynamics of selling by implying innovative ways in terms of Go To Market.

Mr. Deepak Kumar Sahu,Publisher Cum Chief -editor,VARINDIA felicitating the Round Table Discussion

Mr. Girish Mamtani,Product ManagerEnterprise( Sales & Marketing)

Mr. Om Ahuja- Vice President, Information

Security- Inspira Enterprise India2015 Pvt. Ltd 45 www.varindia.com November

COVER STORY

It’s raining offers

Everywhere!

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ales, offers, goodies, freebies, discounts are the words that are seen in every nook and corner store and also at online stores during the festive season. Festivities are the time for merry-making and rejoicing. Buying new things or gifts doubles the joy at this time. With time, needs of the people change and so the demand.

A major shift has been noticed these days in commodity buying. Now, people have started buying consumer electronics and mobiles on festive occasions. Another trend that is quite noticeable is buying commodities from online marketplace where people can shop their heart out. To attract this section of the masses, companies come up with best product launches, catchy schemes, goodies, loyalty programmes, discounts, etc. The companies look forward to this period of the year when they witness an upsurge in sales and this adds to their growth trajectory.

Ritu Gupta, Director – Marketing, Dell India, says, “Festivals are an occasion for

Shripal Gandhi Founder & CEO Swipe Technologies

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Ritu Gupta Director, Marketing, Dell India togetherness and celebrations with all our near and dear ones. It is also a season for exchanging gifts and sharing the joy of celebration. This festive season, we wish to celebrate with our customers and encourage them to ShareTheJoy with the power of technology. With the launch of our new festive campaign, we aim to sweeten our customers’ experience with special offers

S. Rajendran Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India www.varindia.com

available on our entire Dell Inspiron and Vostro range.”

“The last quarter has been the best quarter for Swipe and keeping the same momentum at Diwali, we are expecting best Diwali this year, especially because of Swipe's increasing focus on omnichannel presence. We are looking forward to massive sellouts in terms of tertiary or end-consumer sale,” commented Shripal Gandhi, Founder & CEO, Swipe Technologies.

S. Rajendran, Chief Marketing Officer, Acer India, said, “The festive spirit is in the air with Durga Puja, Dussehra and Diwali. To make gifting and shopping even more special for our consumers, Acer brings its mega Diwali celebration offer promotion. The primary objective of this special festive campaign is to engage with consumers at the ground level and strengthen our brand connect.

Through this campaign, we also intend to reinforce our relationship with our channel partners and regional distributors and increase

Sudhin Mathur, Director- Smartphones, Lenovo India

Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies our sales. We have introduced this special festive offer to spread more fervour amongst our consumers, offering them yet another reason to purchase an Acer device."

Consumer buying trends From time to time, with varying needs consumer’s demand changes. It is the need that decides the buying trends. This year, smartphones with 4G features are in much demand among the people.

Sudhin Mathur, Director – Smartphones, Lenovo India, expressed his views, “Our product lineups have mostly been customer demand based. In the past year, the growing customer response to our 4G portfolio has been very encouraging. We are now looking to offer

Rajesh Khurana Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology than ever. This, in turn, calls for more storage.

The young technology enthusiasts are looking for a storage device which is stylish and has features that would satisfy their data storage needs easily and efficiently.

“Today’s consumers are well aware of the current trends of data storage solutions and are looking at various aspects when making a purchase decision. Apart from features like easeof-use, they look at storage capacity, durability, reliability, data security, data sharing, etc. For an external drive, consumers are also looking at the aesthetics of a drive. They look for a sleek, portable and stylish drive that represents their styles.”

“Keeping this trend in mind, Seagate offers data storage solutions that answer to various lifestyles, such as Seagate Seven and Seagate Backup Plus Slim,” added Rajesh Khurana, Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology.

Alok Garodia, Managing Director Jupiter International Ltd. the Diwali season in the Indian market. To strengthen the existing retail network, OPPO will also launch 8 exclusive stores in the key markets like Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Pune and Bangalore,” commented Mike Wang, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India

Online or Offline Though the new shopping trend of online marketplace has spread like a virus across the country but the vendors are still concentrating on brick and mortar stores. For the vendors, both online and offline channel is important in this season.

“The way consumers choose and buy smartphones is continuously evolving and, at

Revenue expectation

Rajesh Doshi, Director Zebronics our customers an improved service experience.

We are enhancing some of our most popular smartphone devices with premium add-on features for Diwali.”

“With the advent of 4G services, Intex has launched a slew of 4G handsets and has an aggressive lineup in this category for the festive season. Also keeping in mind the festive season, Intex, in the month of October, entered the Rs.10K-15K segment with category defying 4Gmodels – Aqua ACE and Cloud Swift having 3GB RAM. “In every festive season, customers look out for good phones at discounted prices or exchange offers. Intex has always given its customers and market high-end classy smartphones at very affordable and appealing prices,” said Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies.

With the growing number of smartphones and tablets, people are generating more content

With new product launches and special offers, companies always expect a surge in revenue. New products are meant to boost the market shares of the companies.

“With the new products / models range introduced for this festival season, we are expecting at least 8–10% growth compared to the last year’s festive season,” said Alok Garodia, Managing Director, Jupiter International Ltd. “We are expecting an increase of 20–25% sales during the period from October to November,” added Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies.

“We are expecting a growth of 40% this quarter from the previous one. Our growth could be attributed to Sound Monster range of speakers, advance and meticulous planning of various models for this festive season worked well,” stated Rajesh Doshi, Director, Zebronics.

This festive season, OPPO has some other plans apart from achieving a decent market share. It is aiming to spread its footprint pan India with its go-to-market strategy.

“This festive season, OPPO plans to expand the reach of the brand across India with an aggressive marketing strategy, new product launches, attractive pricing and retail expansion.

We aim to achieve a decent market share and more than 100% growth in sales as compared to the last festive season. We are, therefore, planning to spend over Rs.40 crore around

Mike Wang, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India OPPO, we are focussing on retail as of now but do keep the window open for online sales as well,” said Mike Wang, CEO, OPPO Mobiles India.

“Intex has a strong presence in the e-commerce space too with exclusive tie-ups and presence all across the online space. Besides our presence in the organized retail chains and e-commerce sites, we have recently opened our exclusive branded store ‘Intex Smart World’ as experience zones, and plan to come with 400 stores across the country. At present, we have 30 such brand stores which are already operational.”

“For us in the past few quarters, sales from the online platform have surely picked up but still the major share is coming from the traditional channel,” commented Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies.

“As of now, we are more into the channeldriven business. No doubt, e-commerce has

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COVER STORY Though the new shopping trend of online marketplace has spread like a virus across the country but the vendors are still concentrating on brick and mortar stores. For the vendors, both online and offline channel is important in this season. shown unprecedented growth during the last two years and we are a part of it to a limited extent only as we have some exclusive products for this platform,” said Alok Garodia, Managing Director, Jupiter International Ltd.

Offers This is the time when consumers are flooded with offers, discounts, goodies, etc. The festival season usually sees a boost in sales as people spend on their loved ones. To fuel it more, vendors shower the customers with exclusive deals and offers.

To offer something more than value, Lava has chosen to address the biggest concern of the customers that is screen replacement in case of accidental damage. Luke Prakash,

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Vice-President & National Head – Sales & Distribution, Lava International Limited, said, “This season, we want to offer something that consumers will value and will help them get more out of their purchase. We feel that irrespective of the price segment one thing that the consumers are concerned about is screen replacement in case of an accidental damage.

The number of such instances has increased, given the amount of time being spent on mobile phones. In line with this, we have launched a screen replacement offer across our portfolio and since the replacement can be availed anytime in the next year one year from the date of purchase, it will practically take care of the entire life cycle of the device for a consumer.”

“Yes, we have introduced a silver coin scheme in traditional retail and special gratification to online consumers in terms of early access of devices, special scheme, accessories bundling, complimentary insurance cover, etc,” said Shripal Gandhi, Founder & CEO, Swipe Technologies.

“Any customer buying Intex handsets priced above Rs.6,000 will be eligible for 1-year one-time screen breakage warranty for free. Moreover, the customer will also get a complimentary bagpack,” said Sanjay Kumar Kalirona, Mobile Business Head, Intex Technologies.

The telecom service providers are equally forthcoming and aggressive in making such offers. They are also offering festive season deals to their customers. Anupam Vasudev, Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel, said, “This festive season, Aircel, in keeping with its commitment

Anupam Vasudev Chief Marketing Officer, Aircel of doing a little extra for the customers, has launched an exciting and holistic roaming pack ‘ApnoKeSaath’ that has been tailor-made for frequent travellers. The pack offers 100-167 minutes of free incoming and outgoing roaming calls. We have also taken into account the needs of the growing data users and our customers can also enjoy 100MB of free 2G and 3G data.”

At Last…

Though the growth of the economy is slow, still it is unable to hamper the spirit of shopping. People are on a shopping spree and all the companies have also geared up for the festive season.

Festivity is the time to rejoice and spread happiness. It is the time to shop, to gift and to love everyone. n

VAR Market Insight

Selling the Cloud: Are Your Channel Partners Ready for Driving Cloud Consumption?

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elling Cloud services is a challenging proposition. There’re certainly many fears associated with cloud, security being the topmost among them. While these concerns are associated mostly with public Cloud, the impact is visible in private cloud and hybrid cloud segments as well. In this context, cloud service providers need to look for strategies that alleviate the fears about cloud and bring its real benefits to the market. The provider’s channel strategy should focus on enabling partners to help drive cloud consumption among the right customers so that both parties can draw maximum value from their investments.

Are your channel partners aware of the challenges?

Cost of marketing and selling cloud services is comparably higher than that of on-premise models. Cloud is an evolving technology, so providers are mostly targeting the first-time buyers who may not be aware of the model suitable for their business. Lack of understanding of the cloud solution from the customer’s viewpoint and lack of understanding of the customer requirement from the provider’s side will directly impact the overall success of cloud deployment. Such pitfalls in deployment will cause dissatisfaction among customers, resulting in premature customer churns and economic loss to all parties.

Channel partners have a lead role to play in driving cloud transformation. Being the face of the cloud service provider, the partner is responsible for building the right go-to-market strategy for cloud so that it brings business benefits to all parties involved. They need to focus on the strengths of the technology while also gaining insights about the typical concerns, which customers are likely to raise while on their path to a cloud based solution. Customers perceive cloud as the cost effective alternative to traditional IT, so the approach to sales should revolve around the business impact that cloud brings to these customers.

Going to market with a handful of Cloud challenges In the world of cloud, the task is not to sell a product only – the task at hand is to sell and most importantly, drive consumption. The requirement is to ensure that while the purchase happens, the usage and thereby the consumption is also an absolute focus.

One of the biggest challenges to selling cloud is that ROI from cloud deployments will be negative till it attains the inflection point.

Hence, the value of a cloud deployment will be measured in terms of other KPIs, for example, the ease of operation, cost gains over onpremise model, flexibility, and technological advantage, all of which will result in a competitive edge for the customers. Since there is no single off-the-shelf model for a cloud solution, it is important that the cloud provider or channel partner identify the specific needs of the customer and focus on the KPIs that will add immediate value to their cloud deployment.

Cost Matters in Cloud Cost being the most attractive proposition of cloud, providers are also challenged with the pricing. While incumbent providers find it easier to sell cloud at cheaper rate, newcomers find it hard to achieve the same price scale owing to the recurring investments in infrastructure and cost of operations. Providers have to accept the reality that pricing pays hugely while selling the cloud; hence, they need to design a value proposition that will attract customers in terms of cost and results. In

Snehahshish Co-founder and CEO, Denave India Pvt Ltd short, their channel strategy should accommodate the demands from the competitive market that requires greater level of perseverance and stern actions to deliver best value to customers.

With global Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) market expected to reach $106 billion in 2016, all concerns about the success of cloud business are uncalled for. However, cloud companies and their partners must be wary of the growing competition and the challenges associated with retaining customers.

Know your customer before going to market The knowledge and experience in driving consumption in this market is an absolute key in order to target incremental and consistently growing revenues. If you are an organisation that’s focusing on selling and driving cloud consumption, you need to absolutely partner with experts who can become your extended sales force to: - Increase awareness - Drive readiness in the eco-system to help faster adoption - Drive activation - Grow usage - Drive consumption Having realized the risks in customer acquisition, providers have to prepare their channel partners to identify the most profitable customers in the market. The first step in the process is to identify the short-term and long-term goals of the customer. After identifying these goals, they can go to market with a handful of questions that will help them design an outline of the cloud deployment and its potential impact on the customer. The channel partner should be able to put himself in the shoes of a customer and ask the questions which are likely to be raised by the customer: “When will the cloud deployment start paying off ?” “What immediate benefits it can bring to the firm?” “What cost benefits do it offer over traditional models?” “What is the USP of the provider?” etc.

Since the scope of cloud deployment also varies based on the economic and regulatory conditions of the country/countries where a business is operating, providers and channel partners should be cautious of the changing requirements of the market and thereby gain a competitive advantage over others.

The world of cloud is evolving… at a pace that’s difficult to catch up with. To be ahead of the curve, the need of the hour, therefore, is to move at a pace faster than that! Sales models are evolving rapidly, creating next wave of opportunities for cloud providers; and undoubtedly, cloud provider is the key enabler of this transformation. n

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COVER STORY

Smart City – A Coveted yet a Complex Project If the concept of Smart City is delivered as promised, it will bring in smart solutions both for government and people. However, not much progress has been seen, other than announcing the names of the cities and most recently the names of consultants aiding in this project. So where is the bottleneck?

R

ight after the announcement of the Smart City vision, budgetary allocations were provided, policy guidelines drafted, selection criteria finalized, consultants short-listed, candidate city proposals evaluated and 98 cities chosen. The 98 local governments across the country have also been prompt in identifying and appointing consultants to prepare Smart City development plans to be submitted to the Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD). The structure of the staged process towards selection of up to 20 cities in the first phase is rightly in place, with proposals from competing cities due midDecember.

The Ministry is also making considerable progress in policies that exploit technology in transforming the urban socio-economic landscape. Besides, the relaxation of FDI eligibility thresholds aimed at the creation of Smart Cities provides the financial platform for technology-enabled urban regions. However, though the Smart City project has been launched by the Government of India, its momentum and success depends on the participation of all involved - stakeholders, including state legislatures, private sector entities and interested foreign governments. “Due to the sheer scale of the 100 Smart City project, and given that the budget will be allotted over the next five years, we do not expect to see results overnight. As of now, the Smart City project is in its design phase, with consultancy firms preparing action plans for the proposed cities,” says Manish Sharma, President CEAMA and Managing Director - Panasonic India & South Asia.

According to CN Raghupathi, Senior Vice President and Head, India Business Unit – Infosys, Smart Cities is a complex concept and requires multidimensional planning, coordination and execution. “The current stage is that of deliberation and planning. Having said that, there are however several challenges on the ground such as taking the debate from basic infrastructure to that of integration, economic development and smarter systems. Financing these smart cities is another challenge to be addressed. It is no doubt an uphill task but things have started moving on ground.”

“We were delighted to know about India’s bold initiative towards a Smart City and the country’s 100 Smart Cities Mission, as announced by the India PM in June this year. India is a vast country and people naturally move to urban areas due to better job opportunities and a

Concept-building is at the foundation of any smart city. Municipalities and developers need to clarify what kind of smart city they want to create, taking in the social, economic and environmental contexts and bandwidths of their localities.

Many conventional smart cities focus on a high level of infrastructure, smart energy, and are product and technology oriented. But whatever the vision may be, it is only with clarity and coordination that projects can work as per their timelines.

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Lux Rao

Country Leader – HP Future Cities & CTO – Technology Services, HP India Sales better standard of living. The rising population growth in mega cities such as Mumbai and Delhi may be a key challenge to the government as their needs will be different from smaller cities. It is an ambitious plan, so it would be advisable to take gradual steps and engage citizens on a community level to know their needs, so that solutions can be created based on feedback,” says Santhosh D’ Souza, Director- Systems Engineering, NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd India.

He further continues, “The very fact that the Central Government had to launch an over-arching Smart City framework in collaboration with State government and City authorities points to the infrastructural lacunae across our cities. Previous attempts at urban renewal and city/ state-level efforts not-withstanding, we do have some distance to traverse before our cities attain “smart” status.”

According to him, countries such as France and United Kingdom have supported the government’s decision and have gone a step further and guaranteed aid. “Now that new industrial corridors have been introduced, incentives for manufacturing units and measures to promote investments in the development of factories, airports, ports and roads will ensure that India attracts investors in all sectors that contribute to the building of Smart Cities,” he adds.

HP’s vision for Future Cities is one that is a self-sustaining ecosystem that allows efficient and effective utilization and management of resources like energy and water. HP’s vision focuses around a citizen and community centric approach that calls for open and collaborative systems allowing transparency and public access to data, eventually leading to citizen empowerment, effective e-governance and economic growth. “Governments around the world partner with HP to radically transform what they do and how they operate, to shift from an outputbased paradigm to a citizen-centric government focused on results and public value,” says Lux Rao, Country Leader – HP Future Cities & CTO – Technology Services, HP India Sales.

Koichiro Koide MD NEC India How to turn Smart City into a Reality?

What is required to make Smart City a reality is long-term planning.

The purpose of Smart Cities is to create a sustainable future and it is the duty of all the stakeholders involved in it to set common targets and clearly defined goals for urban development and work in cohesion.

“Our Sustainable Smart Town (SST), Fujisawa, in Japan, endures because we have outlined a roadmap for the next century, which we hold as our reference point,” cites Manish.

In 2007, Panasonic jointly laid down the town development policy with the local government for Fujisawa, under the Town Development Council. The goal was to create a smart growth community that could support sustainable development for at least 100 years. “We followed a consortium model of 18 companies, of which Panasonic was at the helm, together identifying our core priorities for sustainability, which were energy, security, mobility, healthcare and community. A consortium model is ideal for the building of a smart city as each entity, public or private, can best leverage its expertise to provide economical Smart City solutions,” Manish says.

One aspect of Smart City that Raghupathi clearly points out is the challenge to have all stakeholders take responsibility and ownership of the smart city implementation. “This should not remain a consultant driven project with its relevance fading past the expiry of consulting contracts. We believe participation and accountability are the first degree steps towards achieving the Smart Cities dream. There may be a need to create new institutional structures to achieve this. An entrepreneurial approach that will make the real difference,” he exclaims.

Finally, he also believes that the Smart Cities Mission should be seen in conjugation with the wider Digital India, Housing for All, Make in India, Skill India and Clean India missions. “There is no reason that the Digital India infrastructure cannot be leased to fund local governments, the housing for all cannot have smart monitoring of structural integrity and service levels, clean India funds cannot help the walking infrastructure and its upkeep. The possibilities are many,” he says.

Concept-building is at the foundation of any smart city.

Municipalities and developers need to clarify what kind of smart city they want to create, taking in the social, economic and environmental contexts and bandwidths of their localities. Many conventional smart cities focus on a high level of infrastructure, smart energy, and are product and technology oriented. But whatever the vision may be, it is only with clarity and coordination that projects can work as per their timelines.

Having defined the scope of the Smart Cities project, it seems

quite evident that only information technology can overcome the scale of the challenges. At the heart of the project is the concept of sustainable and safe eco-systems: self-sustaining neighborhoods, efficient and planned traffic management, access to citizen services from home rather than in civic offices. The all pervasive use of IT is the foundation on which these smart cities will be built. “In the long run, the IT infrastructure should be able to cater to transaction volumes on a diverse set of applications at scale, automate processes with failsafe mechanisms built-in, and make living in these cities a considerably richer experience. Needless to say, this will result in a huge amount of data: e-governance applications generating large amounts of structured data, civic amenity-related applications simultaneously producing large amounts of unstructured data. If Information Technology is the foundation of a Smart City, a robust, agile and efficient Data Storage, Services and Management architecture will be the Keystone in its arch,” states Santosh.

For NEC however, Smart City is a reality. “As one of the first companies to promote the Smart City concept, NEC created our motto – We Make Cities Safer – to reflect our commitment to help cities flexibly respond to challenges that arise during the development of urban and industrial infrastructure. As cities evolve, city planners have used advanced technologies also adapt to address the challenges that many cities face such as industrial growth and rising population.

In this respect, the Smart City concept is actually closer to reality than what others might think,” asserts Koichiro Koide, MD - NEC India.

Opportunities for vendors…

The Government of India’s ‘100 Smart City’ initiative has spelt new opportunities and added a new dimension for the brands participating in it. It is little wonder that these brands would always want Smart City to be a successful initiative.

NEC has already successfully deployed its advanced Face Recognition System in Surat Safe City for Surat Police, and at Lemon Tree Premier, Delhi Airport in India. These solutions empower security teams to prevent crime by offering real-time blacklist and white-list management using highly intelligent live CCTV feed analysis.

In addition, NEC is also working with the Government of Andhra Pradesh to provide comprehensive safety and security solutions in the city of Tirupati.

In India, Panasonic showcased its smart solutions at a seminar in

Manish Sharma, President CEAMA and Managing Director - Panasonic India & South Asia www.varindia.com

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COVER STORY

CN Raghupathi, Senior Vice President and Head, India Business Unit Infosys association with CREDAI this August, demonstrating the full range of solutions that Panasonic offers for the development of smart cities.

Its products and services have been effectively utilized in Panasonic’s Fujisawa model town, where each home includes its integrated suite of technology centric applications from home appliances, security and surveillance solutions, energy management systems, displays, business communications systems and even entertainment solutions. These include solar power panels, public and private HD surveillance cameras, LED street lights with motion sensors, wireless video door phones in every home, and consumer products designed to promote zero carbon footprint homes through integrated energy creation, storage and saving systems. “Given India’s rapidly changing urban landscape, Panasonic hopes to continue to work closely with real estate developers in India to understand their requirements on local smart city projects,” says Manish.

Infosys has a multi-pronged approach to Smart Cities. “While we are actively building capabilities in the domain via Industry partnerships, we are also engaged with key ministries, consultants, IT service providers, Energy and Power companies, Transport solution providers etc. in defining Smart Cities for India,” cites Raghupathi.

Infosys has developed significant capabilities in e-governance and citizen centric projects through its involvement in multiple central and state level projects in India. On top of this, it managed to achieve significant advancements in urban and digital infrastructure development, creating and managing urban services, and incorporating smart technologies to achieve unparalleled efficiencies in its smart campuses across India. Infosys has strong capabilities in Internet of Things (IoT) and are creating platforms to serve the needs of smart cities. “We are also working on our consulting frameworks and solutions in the space, seeking to provide holistic and integrated solutions from strategy to implementation. We will keenly watch the developments in this space and we hope that some innovative engagement models would evolve to engage IT industry for such complex and prestigious mission,” he adds.

NetApp is also actively engaged in developing differentiated, mature solutions with technology and consulting partners in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. “We have delivered designs that respond to requirements in the areas of Mobility, M2M (Machine To Machine) interactions, Smart Energy Grids, Transportation and Smart Cities. In the context of Smart Cities, where virtually everything is collecting data and interacting with other things as well as with datacentres, the impact on storage is going to be immense. Our Data Storage, Services and Management portfolio enables highly available data access, unrivalled efficiency and optimal performance at scale; all of which are critical for government and civic functions. Our platforms are highly responsive as they employ low-latency Flash technology on all tiers in a data path,” explains Santosh.

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Smart City is a complex concept and requires multidimensional planning, coordination and execution. The current stage is that of deliberation and planning.

Having said that, there are however several challenges on the ground such as taking the debate from basic infrastructure to that of integration, economic development and smarter systems. Financing these smart cities is another challenge to be addressed. It is no doubt an uphill task but things have started moving on ground.

What is next…

The Smart City is indeed a bold and a very ambitious step as pointed by many. But the first step is always crucial as it lays the blueprint for the city, on the basis of which potential sponsors and service-providers will come together to raise funds and invest in the development of Smart Cities. The key challenges as pointed out by Santosh would be however to ensure a relatively painless process through which a city,

Santhosh D’ Souza, Director- Systems Engineering, NetApp Marketing & Services Pvt. Ltd India whose infrastructure is already subject to heavy usage, evolves into a “smart” city. Another challenge would be ensuring the consistent and firm application of world-class norms across several cities and across agencies within each city as projects begin to get executed. Finally a technology architecture that is standards-based, with components defined comprehensively in terms of features and operational characteristics will go a long way in time-bound delivery on objectives.

There are also several live examples and similar projects executed in various cities across the world to learn from. Studying the life-cycle of those projects would ensure that we avoid pit-falls and apply the learnings from them up-front in defining our projects. n

CHANNEL BUZZ

“Barracuda will continue to invest locally with the help of Channel” Murali Urs, Country Manager, Barracuda Networks, India, speaks with VARINDIA on how the company is shaping up in the country with the help of its partners and what does it seek to attain going forward

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arracuda has become a highly visible and recognizable brand as a trusted IT partner. Its business model is built on the core values of speed and agility, which it applies to all aspects of its approach, including technology innovations, delivery and deployment of its solutions and responses to customer’s inquiries.

This integrated model enables it to tailor the customer experience to deliver powerful yet easy-to-use security and storage solutions and high-value, recurring subscriptions to IT professionals in the way that works best for their organizations.

“We believe partners and customers alike have come to rely on Barracuda as a trusted IT partner. We invest in brand development efforts to help solidify our position as a go-to provider of powerful yet easy-to-use security and storage solutions. The principal focus of our marketing programmes is to reach IT professionals and elevate their awareness of our comprehensive portfolio of security and storage solutions. We believe this is highly differentiated from our competitors and keep our customers coming back to Barracuda over and over again,” asserts Murali Urs, Country Manager, Barracuda Networks, India.

Definitely, Channel is one of the key pillars of Barracuda’s strategy for India that help support the customer’s product, services, and support needs. They help Barracuda get a better appreciation of customer challenges and their requirements. To make them stronger and more

effective, Barracuda has enhanced its channel programme to provide the necessary structure and tools to allow resellers to successfully sell and support Barracuda solutions for mutual customers. The new programme is designed to accelerate profitability for loyal partners and to attract new, motivated partners. It is designed to provide partners with the necessary economics, resources and technology to enable their businesses. With the enhanced programme, Barracuda aims to establish global consistency with more levels for greater participation, and reward partners at each of the new levels – Premier, Preferred, Authorized and Registered.

The previous levels included Diamond, Platinum and Certified, but now it has been changed to these new levels.

Under this programme, channel partners who qualify and are approved by Barracuda to provide managed services can leverage Barracuda Backup and Barracuda NG Firewall. This option opens up new revenue generation opportunities for channel partners who offer managed security and storage services to customers.

Partners at each level will have the opportunity to take advantage of improved discounts for evaluation of products throughout Barracuda’s broad portfolio, extensive product training from Barracuda University and a more flexible deal registration process.

M Tech, Round Robin and Redington India Limited are the distributors Barracuda is working with in India. Barracuda appointed Redington

Murali Urs Country Manager, Barracuda Networks, India India Limited as its national distributor only last year.

Going ahead…

The future plan of Barracuda is to continue building the Barracuda brand, end customer market and the channel community. It also wants to continue building a team to focus on a hybrid model which will be to work with the partners and with end-customers. Going forward, Barracuda’s focus will be to sell strategic solutions like WAF, Message Archiving and Next- Generation Firewall to large enterprise businesses. It wants to power its channel even further. n

PARTNERS SPEAK Manoj Madhavan, Business Head (Backup – Storage & Security), Cubic Computing “Cubic has been associated with Barracuda Networks for the past two years. We see Barracuda Networks as a complete solution provider to address most of the customer needs in terms of providing End-to-End Solutions on Security, Backup and Archival.

The company has solutions offerings catering to all levels of customers like SMB, Mid and Enterprise. Also, Barracuda Networks’ Local Technical Support has been very supportive to provide us DEMO/POC or Joint Calls, as and when required.

We would highly recommend peers in our channel community to partner with Barracuda Networks as a trusted vendor. We have tasted great success on many backup solution deals where competition never thought that Barracuda Networks’ solutions can address customer’s needs. All our customers have renewed their support which shows the confidence in the product.

Last but not the least, Barracuda Networks ensures great margin on every deal.”

Ashok Prabhu, CEO, Valuepoint Techsol “Barracuda Networks has very enviable security and storage solution offerings and has an unrestricted user-based licensing model for better RoI. Also, Barracuda has Cloud-based management interface to manage all Barracuda solutions which is a huge advantage. This makes Barracuda ideally suited for the SME market.

It is a One-Stop Shop for Security solutions and Backup and has an unlimited user-based licensing, i.e. not restricted to the number of users and provides cloud management of all solutions Barracuda Networks, to me, is a technology sale and not a box sale.

Hence, we need to be fully updated and trained on the pre-sales and post-sale implementation and support. Barracuda’s local pre-sales team plays a major role in training our technical resources and helps achieve certification subsequently.

We are planning to bundle Barracuda solutions as part of each proposal which will connect the Barracuda brand with our customer base.”

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VAR CORPORATE

Legends of Lenovo 2015 meet at Cambodia L

enovo India has recently hosted its first combined Commercial Business Partner Meet in Cambodia for its commercial & EBG partners. Centered on the theme ‘Legends of Lenovo 2015’, and set against the backdrop of Angkor Wat UNESCO world Heritage Centre, Lenovo India brought together existing commercial business partners along with newly acquired SystemX business partners.

This annual tradition of bringing together all of Lenovo’s business partners is aimed at delighting them with rare experiences. Steadily scaling up, this year’s exclusive event saw 53 Partner invitees, where partners got to enjoy Lenovo’s new and innovative methods of bonding and focused activities. The event was designed with the aim of strengthening the connect Lenovo shares with its partners.

Talking about the meet, Rahul Agarwal, Managing Director, Lenovo India said, “Partners have always been our core focus and they play a critical role in Lenovo‘s success story. It is heartening to see this annual partner meet get bigger each year. We are committed towards building stronger ties and create a personal connect with our partners.”

At a gala-night function, Lenovo partners were awarded for their significant contribution to Lenovo’s business in the previous financial year and for great post-integration business continuity.

The awardees were given surprise congratulatory messages from their loved ones on the screen real-time.

Apart from the award ceremony, partners were taken on a tuktuk tour of the legendary Angkor temple and visited one of the world’s best jungle zipline tours, “Flight of the Gibbons”.

The company is aggressively looking to meet its business objectives by deepening its partner engagement and reaffirm their relationship with the partner network.

Rahul Agarwal Managing Director Lenovo India

Lenovo Award Winners • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 54

Best Distributor Top seller Best Distributor New Partner acquisition Best Distributor for driving breadth Best Distributor for Runrate biz (EBG) Best Business Partner, Metro (Premium Mix) Best Business Partner, Geo (Premium Mix) Best Commercial segment Partner, Metro Best Commercial segment Partner, Geo Best EBG RR Partner, Metro Best EBG RR Partner, Geo Best Partner, Overseas Best Partner, consistent EBG performance Best EBG competitive winback Best named account Partner November 2015

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- IRIS Computers - Rashi Peripherals - Redington India - IRIS Computers - United Computers - Microhard - Om Sai Corp - Vectra computers - General Technologies - Tricad Computers - Thakral - Comnet Vision - Team computers - CDP computers

“Lenovo is a company that has shown great Promise and Vision” The wide acceptance of Lenovo as a Channel-friendly company gets reflected in the testimonials that it receives from its distribution and reseller community. VARINDIA spoke to Anand Chakravarthy, President - Redington (India) Limited, and we got to know more about the relationship between these two companies – one a principal vendor and the other a national distributor

For how long have you been in helping Lenovo to grow sectors like BFSI, Public Sector and SMBs. We as an active association are participating associated with Lenovo? further?

Our association has been on ever since Lenovo began its operations in India.

Lenovo is a channel-friendly company and we owe a part of our success to it.

How has been your journey with Lenovo in terms of support?

From a product perspective, Lenovo has an ever-expanding product portfolio.

The best part is that they keep in view the distribution community while devising their growth plans. It provides us an opportunity to grow along with them and makes us invest in the right resources and places. It is a company that has shown a lot of promise and vision with respect to its investments and capital to identify the right production technologies across different portfolios.

This has not only helped us alone but the entire distribution community to grow. It has expanded its horizon across all segments – commercial, consumer and enterprise – and has never been stagnant.

The basic strength of any distribution company is the availability of capital, deploying resources in the right place and getting the kind of reach that Lenovo or any other brand needs. Our strength comes from the following aspects – Capability to invest in inventories; having the required number of offices across the country and looking at a countrywide geographic expansion with the help of more than 25,000 channel partners with whom we share a cordial business relationship. We operate through 54 branches and reach out to more than 150-160 cities across the country. This has definitely helped Lenovo to expand its presence in all the key markets.

What kind of projects have you associated yourself with Lenovo?

in every kind of projects with it.

What message would you like to convey to the partners through our medium?

To stay ahead of the curve, channel partners need to learn about new technologies that can help them to be more competitive in the industry. Also, they can follow a more consultative approach rather than just being the sales point of contact, which will add more value. Lenovo has undertaken several engagement initiatives on the channel front and imparts training for partners every quarter, which helps them to understand the market better.

Lenovo relies on its strong relationship with the channel community to extend its reach and considers them as natural partners in profit. I believe more and more

How instrumental has been the role of Lenovo in shaping your business?

By establishing an effective channel strategy, Lenovo has been able to increase channel engagement, thereby boosting growth and profitability. Lenovo has always believed in implementing fair and ethical practices to grow its business. It has been successful in realigning its strategies to match with the business goals, backed by a comprehensive marketing programme to create awareness. As incentive schemes are important to drive business efficiently and increase productivity, it keeps on revamping its partner programmes so that partners can earn 50% more on achieving targets. Besides, it creates the right mix of communication, enablement and engagement policies and maintains an open communication with us.

To help partners maximize their growth opportunities, Lenovo sets targets depending on the vertical and profile they are into. As mentioned, Lenovo introduces reward programs from time to time that are aimed at rewarding partners for new business acquisitions. By such initiatives, we have been able to grow, by way of identifying the opportunities in specific segments of the market.

Last but not the least, what has been your core strength

Without naming any projects, I can say that Lenovo has grown immensely in the small and medium enterprises together with the distribution and the partner community.

With respect to its enterprise products, Lenovo has been doing well in all the major

partners should join Lenovo’s channel ecosystem because it is a company that works in tandem with everyone and tries to have an open discussion for initiating anything new. It is a wonderful company to work with. n

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Protection of data more important than

IT infrastructure

Data plays an important role in the decision-making of any business and securing that data is even more important in today’s cyber-endangered world. So it is important to protect data rather than devices. Moreover, cybercriminals do not distinguish between large or small business so cybersecurity is important for all businesses. Zakir Hussain, Head of ESS Distribution, official distributor of ESETdiscussed about the importance of IT infrastructure.

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arious industry studies estimate cyberattack-related losses at $300 billion to $600 billion annually in the world. While there is hardly any reliable estimation of the size of cybercrimes in India, since most of the breach cases go unreported in India, there is enough evidence to prove that the cybercrime is growing in India at a tremendous pace and its nature is changing from targeting individuals to basically siphoning money of enterprises.

Enterprises are as vulnerable as any home user or small company. Cybercriminals do not really distinguish between large and small companies, or consider their revenues while planning the attacks.

To curb these cyber-attacks, Indian enterprises are taking positive steps for establishing strong IT infrastructure security.

They invest in security solutions, ensure strong BOYD policies as more and more employers become the owners of smart devices.

Trends “Since the trends in IT security are moving from protecting devices to securing data or intellectual property, the enterprises should constantly revise their security policies and adopt more sophisticated risk management solutions that allow them not only taking preventive measures but ensure real-time monitoring and control of the security situation. The companies should ensure they have security measures in place in all the domains, from preventive, to detective, to response. Further, these measures should cover people, processes and technology altogether,” said Zakir Hussain, Head of ESS Distribution, official distributor of ESET products in India.

The sectors of business most targeted by cybercriminals in India are companies of the financial sector (banks, credit organizations, insurance companies, payment systems), of large and booming IT-BPO sector, as well as online retailers, consumer brands and natural resource companies.

Government Initiatives Though the Government of India is at a nascent stage to form policies and practices for cybersecurity, but security of IT infrastructure

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be, and is, one of the first priorities of the government agencies and policy- makers.

From the cybersecurity point of view, the Indian Government, law-enforcement agencies are still at the very initial stage of developing policies and practices, although there have been a lot of improvements in the past few years.

We understand the challenges faced by lawenforcement and national security authorities at a time of rapidly-developing technologies and cybercrime market are getting more targeted and organized.

Zakir Hussain Head of ESS Distribution, official distributor of ESET is of importance to the government. When it comes to data protection, instead of controlling or restricting cyberspace, the Government should ask IT infrastructure owners to protect information where it resides.

“In the context of data protection, whether it is government or corporate or personal data, their mutual objectives of security control and privacy must be taken into consideration. The Government cannot protect cyber space by controlling and restricting. Instead, it should urge the owners of IT infrastructure to protect infrastructure to ensure protection of the data.

Violating people's or companies’ privacy in the interest of ensuring cybersecurity would defeat the aim of cybersecurity itself. It might break the ‘token social contract’ and undermine citizen’s trust in the government. Moreover, it can impact India’s economic growth as India is the huge outsourcing hub for the whole world.

The suggested amendments regarding privacy regulation can hardly be accepted by the US, the UK and European countries which are now the largest customers of India’s IT industry,” said Hussain.

With initiatives like “Digital India” promoted by India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the security of IT infrastructure should

Strategy The product portfolio ESS Distribution is offering in the market, combined with channel policies, unique marketing strategies and overall market expertise are the key factors in attributing to its growth.

“While we have a certain range of products that we have been promoting in India for many years now, for example ESET consumer and business security solutions, we are constantly looking for new products and vendors available in the market worldwide to ensure that we have the most updated, advanced and innovative product portfolio as we believe our partners and clients deserve the best,” added Hussain.

Apart from working closely with the channel partners, providing them with sales and technical trainings, ESS Distribution has created a unique tool to help best performing partners to invest more in the marketing of solutions. For this, the company has created a Market Development Fund (MDF) that allows partners willing to conduct separate marketing activities to claim certain funds.

At Last…

The IT Security market is very potential, especially now when the market drive is likely to move towards the service side. Service today is presented mostly by local solution providers, system integrators, VARs and VADs and the company focuses on expanding partner network to ensure that security solutions are deployed and constantly supported by strong and reliable providers. n

FACE TO FACE

Blue Coat vouches for a fullyencrypted network security system Manoj Sharma, WW Solutions Architect - Blue Coat Systems tells VARINDIA about what an encrypted traffic management strategy can be like for an organization and how an encrypted environment can mitigate the security risks that today’s organizations are faced with -

What is the present state of network security in the country at present?

Business owners are getting increasingly conscious of their deployed security. The security pedigree we have in India is now better educated on threats and on the possible solutions empowered by the requirements that are driven by their international partners and the vendors working in India.

Cyber security has become an important agenda item, but we still have a long way to go when it comes to advanced persistent threats.

Our research labs are finding more and more instances of same attacks are now being used in different ways to exploit known vulnerabilities.

The security strategy needs to consider the solution that identifies and/or prevent the known attacks and also enable the organizations to defend against unknown vulnerabilities aka zero day attacks and advanced persistent threats.

While we are talking about the security landscape, we should also consider the impact on security posture, our users can cause. India currently has the second largest population of Internet users in the world, crossing 350 million this June. This is primarily driven by the faster network connectivity and ease of use of technology that mobile applications on smartdevices provide.

How would you summarize an ideal encrypted traffic management strategy for an organization? What would be its benefits?

An ideal ETM strategy would comprise of an effective solution set, procedures and policies to address current and future encrypted traffic and threats. This requires planning and collaboration between IT Security and non-IT departments such as Legal, Compliance, Human Resources (HR) and more. It’s more than just a technology issue.

Employee awareness and understanding that some of the organization’s network traffic and applications will be inspected and decrypted is important for security, compliance and employee satisfaction reasons. This is essential for all employees and users –especially at the international level – as different cultural perspectives of traffic inspection will be a factor.

The resulting ETM solution and strategy would then provide the following benefits: • Eliminate the encrypted traffic blind spot (i.e. all encrypted traffic, regardless of application or port) • Cost-effectively enhance the existing security

Manoj Sharma WW Solutions Architect Blue Coat Systems infrastructure (i.e. complement and enhance the existing security infrastructure without dismantling or disrupting it) • Assure high security encryption (i.e. support the latest crypto standards and not “downgrading” to lower, less secure levels) • Preserve privacy and compliance while enabling comprehensive security (i.e. selectively inspect and decrypt inbound and outbound traffic based upon established policies)

With the BYOD trend soon catching up, what further complications could it bring to an encrypted environment?

The BYOD trend is certainly a driver of more encrypted traffic within organizations today - not because of the myriad of new, innovative devices entering the organization, but because of the mobile and cloud applications being used through these devices.

Most business applications are now using SSL/TLS communications by default (O365, Google Docs, Salesforce.com, etc.) to ensure data privacy and secure communications. This growth of encrypted traffic will only continue as more secure apps are delivered and implemented within enterprises worldwide.

What is the level of consciousness do you find on the part of mid-level and small organizations?

The internet is growing at a significant

pace and so has the amount of company data saved online by organizations of all sizes. What starts as a small organization has a potential to grows into a larger enterprise. At this stage is when organizations ponder over cybersecurity concerns. It is important for companies to realise that the required cybersecurity measures need to be employed as a part of their growth plan and not a remedial measure once their systems have been threatened. Defining and building a security posture needs to be a matter of utmost consideration these decisions cannot be made in haste.

Secondly, smaller and the mid-level organizations consider a good cybersecurity to be an expensive proposition but this does not have to be the case. Companies like Blue Coat Systems offer Cloud Security Models that are readily being accepted within India and globally and they provide a security posture without having to put up large sums of money to invest in anon-premise solutions. With such security solutions cybersecurity need not be an expensive affair.

The growing e commerce - business in the country has seen several trading portals coming up. How easy or difficult would it be for them to migrate to such an encrypted environment?

By their design, these trading portals use secure communications to maintain privacy and integrity, so encrypted traffic exists - or is introduced - by default. The challenge, which is the next obvious step, is to monitor and manage the encrypted traffic and applications and ensure potential hidden threats don’t enter the organizationand that proprietary data does not leave the organization (i.e. exfiltration). A holistic approach with ETM – vs a point product approach based on simply turning SSL inspection “on” - would circumvent these unwanted and dangerous events from happening, saving the trading company - and its users – from lost funds as well as from a damaged reputation.

How as a security company would Blue Coat take it upon itself the responsibility of spreading awareness among companies of encryption?

Blue Coat continues to play a leadership role in driving awareness and action regarding the necessity of encrypted traffic management in organizations worldwide. Whether, through market and sales campaigns, customer and partner events or face-to-face meetings with CISOs and Executive Boards, our goal is to eliminate the security gap and risks due to encrypted traffic.

We are - and continue to plan to be - the leader in this important business initiative. n

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TECHNOMANIA

Vulnerability Management – What does it Really Mean for your Business!

While most CEOs would agree that Vulnerability Management is critical to protecting their business, if asked if they have one in place, they would typically answer that they have the right firewalls, antivirus applications, IDS, etc. But does Vulnerability Management only mean that?

Though what they say is partially correct, but they are missing on the real picture.

Let us first begin with defining what Vulnerability Management actually means, according to SANS, “Vulnerability management is the process in which vulnerabilities in organization’s IT infrastructure are identified and the risks of these vulnerabilities are evaluated. This evaluation leads to correcting the vulnerabilities and removing the risk or a formal risk acceptance by the management of an organization (e.g. in case the

impact of an attack would be low or the cost of correction does not outweigh possible damages to the organization).

Vulnerability Management is an ongoing process not a one-time response Vulnerability Management (VM) is essentially identifying and correcting network security holes. Organizations typically think of adopting a Vulnerability management process when disaster strikes. VM is an ongoing continuous process that helps organizations proactively identify, assess & remedy any security breach, it is not a one-time response to a security calamity and definitely not a tactical operations that should be used occasionally.

A Vulnerability Management typically consists of a Vulnerability Assessment, Vulnerability Report, Prioritization and Response.

Aruna Sundarajan appointed Secretary in Ministry of Steel

Effecting a top-level bureaucratic reshuffle, Senior IAS officer Aruna Sundarajan was on Wednesday appointed as Secretary in Ministry of Steel. She is among the five new Secretaries appointed by the government.

A 1982 batch IAS officer of Kerala cadre, Sundarajan is presently the Administrator for Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) under the Department of Telecommunications. She is also the CMD at BBNL (Bharat Broadband Network Ltd.) heading the National Optic Fibre Network Project (NOFN) under the Digital India program.

As per an order issued by Department of Personnel and Training, she has been appointed in place of Rakesh Singh, who will step down from his duties on September 30.

Veritas names its new APJ Channel Leader

Veritas Technologies has appointed George Wong as the new Channel Leader for the AsiaPacific and Japan (APJ) region. In this role, he is responsible for conceptualizing and leading the APJ channel strategy that will spur Veritas to increase its customer reach and market scale across the region. He will also be focussed on developing and nurturing an ecosystem of trusted partners.

“I am pleased to bring George onboard to lead and grow our channel business in the APJ region.

With George’s experience and proven track record, I am confident that he will be able to accelerate our channel strategy to achieve success for our partners and importantly, expand Veritas’ scale and reach as the leading information management company that helps customers harness the power of their information,” said Mark Nutt, Global Head of Channel, Veritas.

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Today numerous information security compliance, audit and risk management frameworks require organizations to maintain a vulnerability management program.

Vulnerability Management is not only Firewall, anti-virus, IDS, etc.

Firewalls, Intrusion Detection System, antivirus are definitely security devices but are not complete in themselves. Firewalls will be completely ineffective in case of improper system

configurations, vulnerabilities, rogue assets or mischievous internal activity. Similarly IDS has its own limitations.

The Right Reports are critical to Vulnerability Management But the Vulnerability Assessment is only the beginning of the story, the Vulnerability Assessment fortified with the right Vulnerability Report and Prioritization and Remediation program will ensure that the organization is ready to withstand any security attack.

Narendra Nayak at the helm of BlackBerry

BlackBerry has appointed Narendra Nayak as the company's new Managing Director for India operations. During the last one year, the company faced downsizing in the employee base due to a global transformation drive, wherein it is trying to reduce its dependence on the hardware or smartphone business and focus more on software and solutions for enterprises.

Nayak has taken over the responsibilities from Matthew Tonkin, BlackBerry's Vice-President, Carrier Sales and Distribution, APAC. Since the exit of Sunil Lalvani, Tonkin was taking care of the company's operations in India.

Sunil Sharma becomes VP – Sales, India and SAARC, Sophos

Sophos has appointed Sunil Sharma as VicePresident – Sales for its India and SAARC region.

This new strategic leadership position will focus on strengthening the company’s sales and channel strategy for India and SAARC. “With a strong rapport with local partners, Sunil has successfully leveraged the UTM market for Cyberoam in the past. We are certain that he will replicate the same success for us in our endeavour to become a vendor of choice for both endpoint and network security solutions. His leadership will be crucial to carry out sales engineering and reseller enablement initiatives in India and SAARC while ensuring that our channel and sales organization gain higher synergy with Cyberoam’s ecosystem,” said Stuart Fisher, Regional Vice-President & Managing Director, Asia-Pacific, Sales, Sophos.

VAR MOBILITY

LAVA Pixel V2

LAVA Pixel V2 is designed to bring an excellent smartphone experience with unmatched camera capabilities. It is a 4G device (VoLTE upgradable). It boasts a vibrant 5 inch HD IPS display with a scratch resistant Dragon trail Glass. Weighs 128 gms, it is one of the lightest devices available in the market today having a 5 inch screen. Giving a stellar performance, the smartphone is powered by a 64 bit MediaTek Quad Core Processor coupled with 2GB DDR3 RAM. The device has a whopping 16 GB internal storage that is expandable up to 32 GB. It is powered by Star OS 2.0 based on Android Lollipop 5.1 supporting dual 4G SIM slots (one 4G slot running at a time) with dual standby. It also packs a strong 2500mAh Li-Po battery. The Pixel V2 sports a 13 MP rear camera with dual LED flash and an 8 MP ‘selfie’ camera with LED flash. The smartphone promises to capture images like none other in its category and that’s because of the 1.4 micron large pixel size, F2.0 and F2.4 aperture of the rear and front camera, respectively. 1.4 micron large pixel size allows enhanced light intake per pixel helping in capturing brighter, clearer images with great detail. The aperture gives depth of field, better focus and great images in low light. The camera comes with 5 layer Largan lens in rear camera and 4 layer Largan lens in front camera along with Blue Glass Filter that cuts off infrared light to help the sensor reproduce true life-like colours. The stellar hardware is backed with unique camera enabler software that allows a user to take professional grade photos. Wide Selfie, Bokeh Mode, Face Beauty, GIF Maker and Night Pro make one’s social media timelines attractive and unique. Pixel v2 is a first mover in this professional photography space at this price point category.

Lenovo VIBE Shot

The new sleek Lenovo VIBE Shot has everything you need in a stylish smartphone. VIBE Shot comes with an advanced camera feature that offers you everything that a point & shoot camera can. It supports dual-SIM (Nano-SIM) and runs on Android 5.0 Lollipop. The smartphone features a 5.5-inch full-HD (1080x1920 pixels) display. It packs an octa-core 64-bit Snapdragon 615 SoC clocked at 1.7GHz coupled with 3GB of RAM. Inbuilt storage is 32GB, which is expandable via microSD card (up to 32GB). Connectivity options on the smartphone include 4G LTE, Wi-Fi, GPS/ A-GPS, Bluetooth, and Micro-USB. As of now, it is not known to us whether the Vibe Shot will support the Indian LTE bands. The handset is backed by a 2900mAh battery.

It also boasts a 16MP auto-focus with tricolor flash rear camera which helps you shoot like a pro - even in low light.

It includes infrared autofocus that's 2X faster than normal autofocus, an advanced 6-piece lens for extra clarity, optical image stabilization for steady shots, and a true 16:9 BSI sensor. And for selfie-addicts, there’s an 8MP front camera including panoramic selfies, and Full HD video mode to connect with your people over video chats. The Vibe Shot's camera-centric approach starts with two keys on the side of the phone- one is a shutter button, to bring back the precision of taking picture with a click and other is a toggle button to switch from ‘Auto’ to ‘Pro’ mode, effortlessly.

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VAR MOBILITY

Swipe launches 4G Smartphone ELITE 2

Swipe Technologies has announced the launch of its ONLINE-ONLY flagship smartphone ELITE 2.

ELITE 2 is Swipe’s most affordable 4G device to be sold exclusively on Flipkart from 8th November, 2015. The device is competitively priced at Rs.4,666 only. The company has also announced the EXCLUSIVE PREVIEW SALE of ELITE 2 for Uber customers, wherein Swipe will deliver ELITE 2 directly to Uber customers in Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Delhi.

Expressing delight on

the new device and the innovative ventures, Shripal Gandhi, Founder & CEO, Swipe Technologies, said, “ELITE has been a huge success for Swipe, and it was sold out on Flipkart in a record time when launched in August this year. For Indian customers, quality wins over everything else.

Keeping this in mind, we are coming up with this exciting new offering. We received an overwhelming response for ELITE from the online space and are looking forward to replicate the same magic this time, too. We strongly believe that ELITE 2 will be a true value-for-money proposition that the brand has to offer. Our aim is to offer the best in technology at an exciting price range which absolutely suits the pockets of aspiring youth of India. Also, partnering with Uber will enable us to target the tech-savvy, aspirational online customers to get their hands on this new device.’’

Alcatel Flash launches Flash 2 in India

Alcatel Flash has announced their latest prime model, the Alcatel Flash 2, with an even stronger focus on mobile photography than ever before. The rebranded “Flash Green”

colour signifies innovation, youth and energy.

MOBIGRAPHY is a new mobile terminology that Flash 2 has introduced, encouraging people to use mobile phone camera to record their lives and share their special moments.

“Mobigraphy is not just an action, but is now a lifestyle. We understand this from the very beginning when we created the Flash series,” says Albert Wong,

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General Manager, Alcatel Flash. “What we have done for Alcatel Flash 2 is to continue to improve on what we already have and make it better yet at the same time continue to provide accessibility and convenience to the users to shoot their best moments.”

P r ave e n Valecha, Regional Director, Alcatel APAC BU India, said, “Today, we are launching the Flash 2 in association with Flipkart at Rs.9,299/-. The product will be available after a week from today on Flipkart.”

Flash 2 has been priced at Rs.9,299/- in India and will be available exclusively on India’s largest online marketplace FLIPKART. The new model is available in Volcanic Grey colour.

Flash 2 will be sold exclusively on Flipkart.

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LAVA launches XOLO introduces BLACK 1X with Pixel V2 in Prism 3GB RAM and 32GB ROM XOLO has launched Taking this philosophy Blue finish BLACK 1X, another flagship forward, new BLACK 1X LAVA International Limited has announced the availability of its limited edition variant of Pixel V2 smartphone in Prism Blue colour. Priced at MRP INR11, 050/-, the new variant of Pixel V2 is mesmerizing with its elegant prism finish which has been launched amidst the festive season in India, for a limited period in the months of November and December.

Apart from this, the company will continue selling Icy White and Royal Black variants of the smartphone for MRP INR10, 750/- across all the national retail stores and multi-brand outlets. The prism blue variant is also available online.

Pixel V2 is designed to deliver an excellent smartphone experience with unrivalled camera capabilities.

It is a 4G device (VoLTE upgradable) and its design is a testimony to Lava’s in house product design & development capabilities.

It has a vibrant 5-inch HD IPS display with a scratchresistant Dragon trail Glass.

At 128 gms, it is one of the lightest devices available in the market today having a 5-inch screen size. Giving a stellar performance, the smartphone is powered by a 64-bit MediaTek Quad-Core Processor coupled with 2GB DDR3 RAM. The device has a whopping 16GB internal storage that is expandable up to 32 GB. It is powered by Star OS 2.0 based on Android Lollipop 5.1 supporting dual 4G SIM slots (one 4G slot running at a time) with dual standby. It also packs a strong 2,500mAh Li-Po battery.

The Pixel V2 sports a 13MP rear camera with dual LED flash and an 8MP “selfie” camera with LED flash. The smartphone promises to capture images like none other in its category and that’s because of the 1.4 micron large pixel size, F2.0 and F2.4 aperture of the rear and front camera, respectively.

device under its online sub brand – BLACK. Targeted at young tech enthusiasts,

with BLACK 1X, XOLO aims to provide the best technology experience at a value pricing.

Sunil Raina, Business Head, XOLO, said, “With our online sub brand – BLACK, we aim to deliver a fresh design approach with future-ready technology that is backed by full potential of the hardware, complemented with our proprietary customized software platform – HIVE.

is designed to cater to the growing online, digitallysmart youth who is looking for a perfect combination of seamless computing experience and specs at an honest price.”

BLACK 1X is powered by the MTK 6753 Octa-Core processor with 64-bit CPU architecture and integrated 4G LTE. The device comes loaded with LPDDR3 3 GB RAM, enabling ultra-fast app launch, multitasking and lower-power consumption. Additionally, device comes with 32GB internal memory to allow users to add much more to their device. Moreover, BLACK supports USB OTG for additional storage requirement.

Sony unveils its flagship product Xperia Z5 Sony has unveiled its flagship Xperia Z5 and its super-flagship Xperia Z5 Premium. Both are

the latest additions to the Xperia family, which gives a different camera experience with 23MP and 0.03 autofocus.

The super-flagship Z5 premium redefines mobile entertainment with the world’s first 4K UHD smartphone display and 4K Ultra HD upscaling technology.

Xperia Z5 features Sony’s brand new large 1/2.3 Exmor RS for mobile 23MP sensor and F2.0 G Lens - Sony’s first completely re-imagined smartphone camera element since Xperia Z1.

Designed by leading

creatives at Sony’s Creative Center studios in Sweden and Japan, Xperia Z5 presents a svelte continuous plate form, with a metal frame and frosted glass back.

It’s striking, comfortable to hold and waterproof for everyday convenience. With a 5.2” display, sleek looks and Fall 2015 fashion and interior design cues, colours range from elegant to expressive for any personal style or taste, Graphite Black, Gold and Green.

Xperia Z5 is equipped with Sony’s incredible up to two-day battery stamina and innovative power-saving technology, which gives one a better long-lasting battery performance. With Qualcomm Quick Charge 2.0 enabled on the new devices, one can get 5.5 hours usage with just 10 minutes of charging with a certified Quick Charge 2.0 charger, such as the Quick Charger UCH10( In India, Quick Charger (UCH10) will come bundled within the box and you don’t need to shell out anything extra for the quick charge experience9.

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Star Nite Aw

Channel Leade 13th November, 2015, Ho

VARINDIA Star Nite Awards (SNA) is the DNA of the Indian IC voting procedure and their voting pattern helped us in choo by many distinguished bureaucrats, CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, CXO

Categories Technology Management Solution Company Best Desktop Brand Best Inkjet Printer (Single & MFP) Best Laser Printer (Single & MFP) Best Thin Client-Desktop Virtualisation Best All in One-Consumer Best Note Book-Enterprise Best Work Station Best Futuristic Company into Channel Best Imaging Solution Company Best Networking Solution Company Best Video Conferencing Infrastructure Solution company Best X86 Server Best Networking Switch Company Best Processor

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wards 2015

ership Summit otel Taj Palace, New Delhi

CT Channel. In its 14th edition, a total of 12,547 VARs participated in the osing the best vendors in some 30+ categories. The event was witnessed Os, IT Associations and the industry honchos from across the country.

Categories Best Storage Solution Company Best Cloud Solution Provider Best LED Display Monitors Best Operating System Best Power Management Solution Company Best Security Company in India Best ERP Software for SMB Best Anti Virus Software Best Open Source Software Product Best Electronics Security Company of the Year Best Data Center in India Emerging Distributor of the Year Best Server Virtualization Best Web Security Technology company Best Business Application Solution Company

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64 pages including cover