Crn 15 december 2013 all pages by UBM India

contents

December 15, 2013 l Volume 3 Issue 04

Cover Story We list the technologies and events of 2013 that will significantly influence the IT industry in the coming year

22 Cover Design : Deepjyoti Bhowmik

NEWS Analyses Lenovo ends post-sales agreement with IBM Axis to increase focus on tier-2 cities Autodesk seeks 30 percent growth in 2014

Special Focus

Dell makes sweeping changes in PartnerDirect 8

Editorial 10 Opinion

Feedback

Channel Buzz

New Products

Shadow Ram

Get Personal

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13 Market Focus Down but not out System builders have been written off several times in the past but they continue to survive. That is because every time one door closes for them another one opens elsewhere

18 Role Model

The sky is the limit With the government opening up the retail sector for FDI, the opportunities for the partners will grow exponentially in the coming years

The man who saw tomorrow Rahul Meher, MD, Leon Computers, walked away from the PC business way back in 2007 because he saw no future in it. He continues to be ahead of the times

Tech Focus 10 strategic tech trends for 2014 Gartnerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s analysis of the top ten technology trends for the coming year

starting line MUST

Lenovo ends post-sales agreement with IBM

Axis to increase focus on tier-2 cities

n Ramdas S

Read

IP surveillance provider Axis Communications is planning to penetrate deeper into tier-2 cities with a focus on SMBs. The company intends to pursue an aggressive channel strategy in order to boost its coverage and small system sales, which means a surveillance set-up of less than 16 cameras. Said Sudhindra Holla, Country Manager, Axis, “We are seeing massive demand from SMBs for an IP surveillance set-up of less than 16 cameras. This is partly driven by a government diktat, partly by security concerns and the transition from analog to IP. Our small system portfolio, which caters to SMB customers, today contributes 30 percent to our India revenue though Axis has a limited presence in tier-2 cities.” The company’s strategy for 2014 is to increase its focus on tier-2 locations so as to eventually grow its SMB business by 50 percent. Axis plans to penetrate deeper into tier-2 cities such as Jaipur, Chandigarh, Lucknow, Thiruvananthapuram, Lucknow and Patna, and intends to increase its registered partner base from 1,600 to 2,000 within the next six months. Sudhindra Holla “The major thrust will be to motivate partners to transact more,” explained Holla. “We have 320 active partners who transact at least once a year and about 65 partners who buy on a monthly basis. We want to increase our active partner base to more than 1,000.” Axis is targeting SMBs with its M series of network cameras supported by the Axis Camera Companion software solution which enables plug-and-play installation of upto 16 cameras with automated IP configuration. Because many of the opportunities in tier-2 cities are led by consultants, Axis is targeting these consultants and will align them with its partners. “Consultants are involved in the decision-making for most of the medium and large projects in tier-2 cities,” Holla explained. “Educating them in the design of IP surveillance solutions is therefore a good idea. We have enrolled about 20 consultants and are training them in various products from Axis.” n — Amit Singh

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enovo India has discontinued a five-year-old agreement with IBM for post-sales service and support for its range of desktops and notebooks. The Chinese PC maker will now manage on its own the service partner network. Sudipto Ghosh, Executive Director, Services, Lenovo India, explained the reasons. “Following our acquisition of IBM’s PC business, in India we had signed an agreement whereby IBM would mange our post-sales service. We decided to discontinue the contract this year since we need to cover a larger territory and increase the scale of operations. Also, the cost of service delivery through an outsourced relationship proved to be expensive especially in the current market scenario. In addition, our entry in the smartphone market demanded that we set up our own separate support infrastructure.” Lenovo formally ended the IBM relationship at the end of October 2013. “We started creating our own service platform and infrastructure six months back, and yet in this short time we have managed to put a very strong infrastructure in place using our global processes and best practices,” said Ghosh. Lenovo now has a separate service partner network for the consumer and SMB (CSMB), and the enterprise segments. It has signed on 37 national and regional ASPs with a coverage of more than 700 towns and 28,700 pin codes for both segments. “Of the 37, five national ASPs have been appointed for the CSMB segment while 32 ASPs will cater to enterprise customers. Separately, for our smartphone business, we have created an ASP network of 160 partners covering 150 cities with

“We want to increase the scale of operations. Also, the cost of service delivery through an outsourced relationship was expensive” Sudipto Ghosh

Executive Director, Services Lenovo India

a plan to scale it upto 600 ASPs covering more than 1,000 cities and towns by the end of 2014,” informed Ghosh. Lenovo has set up three toll-free numbers for different product categories—Think, Idea and Lenovo smartphones. Said Ghosh, “Having our own service infrastructure is helping us to respond faster to customer needs. We are already seeing an enhancement in customer experience, and the cost of our post-sales operations is coming down considerably.” Ghosh expressed confidence that Lenovo will now be able to improve the responsiveness and turn-around of the postsales services offered. “Today we provide onsite warranty on all our PC products for both CSMB and enterprise customers. We are confident of improving the turnaround of these services.” With the service infrastructure in place Lenovo is now planning to introduce several new services for its enterprise customers. “We have started offering several value-added services such as migration services, tech refresh, asset lifecycle management and other advanced services which were earlier provided by IBM,” said Ghosh. n

starting line Autodesk seeks 30 percent growth in 2014 n AMIT SINGH

utodesk is targeting more than 30 percent growth in 2014. The company is expecting major contribution to its growth from 11 tier-2 and -3 cities where it started investing in 2012. Autodesk is banking on cities such as Nagpur, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Kochi, Vadodara and Hyderabad which are emerging as manufacturing hubs, and verticals such as architecture, engineering & construction (AEC) and media & entertainment (M&E). “We are seeing impressive demand for design suites because many projects are coming up at these locations,” shared Pankaj Gauba, Country Manager, Channels, Autodesk, India & Saarc. “We have appointed channel managers at these locations to support the channel in terms of identification of prospects and market intelligence.” Autodesk is strengthening its

“As tier-2, and -3 cities have many SOHO and SMB customers who want entrylevel AutoCAD LT, we want to double our registered partners in 2014” Pankaj Gauba

Country Manager, Channels Autodesk, India & Saarc

channel for its platform offerings AutoCAD and AutoCAD LT, and vertical offerings for manufacturing, AEC and M&E. The company has 93 value partners of whom 50 are focused on platform offerings and the rest on vertical offerings. Additionally, about 300 registered partners deal in AutoCad LT alone. “As tier-2 and -3 locations have

a large base of SOHO and SMB customers who opt for our entrylevel AutoCAD LT, we expect to double our registered partner base in 2014. To target opportunities for our value offerings we plan to increase our base of value partners by 15 percent,” informed Gauba. Autodesk operates with three VADs—Redington and Ingram Micro for platform, manufacturing and AEC offerings, and Aditya Infotech for M&E offerings. The government is where Autodesk is betting big. Said Gauba, “Last year we formed a separate team for this business; the team has been working on building a pipeline. We currently have six large projects in the pipeline which will materialize in 2014.” Gauba expects the company’s cloud-based offerings, Autodesk 3ds Max and Autodesk Maya, to gather momentum in the coming months. n

Dell makes sweeping changes in PartnerDirect n Tom Spring

n one of the most sweeping changes, Dell globally has moved 200,000 existing Dell Direct accounts to partners. The company plans to double its partner-led business from the current 33 percent to 60 percent of the overall global commercial business revenues. Dell also plans to quadruple the money spent on its PartnerAdvantage sales incentive program, significantly boosting rewards and points used to motivate partners. Part of Dell’s push includes making a five-fold increase in new investments in the number of demo units, seed equipment and lab hardware available to partners. The 200,000 direct accounts are those where the company believes that Dell Direct just doesn’t have the resources to manage them and having a partner engagement will help get significantly more business. “These accounts will be managed

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“To incentivize our reps, we have created 20 percent compensation accelerator on new busniess they generate jointly with partners” Bob Skelley

Executive Director Global Certified Partner Program, Dell

jointly by the partners and the direct sales team. In order to incentivize our direct reps to work with partners we have created a 20 percent compensation accelerator on the new business they generate along with partners. This will be applicable to new storage, networking, software, security and Wyse workstation

business our direct reps create with Dell partners,” explained Bob Skelley, Executive Director, Global Certified Partner Program, Dell. Dell expects to significantly increase the share of wallet with its partners and foster deeper strategic relationships between Dell Direct and partners. “The changes made to our programs create crystal-clear rules of engagement for the channel that are consistent and predictable,” said Skelley. He added that these efforts are a part of Dell’s acknowledgment that it has work to do to reverse perception that it’s not 100 percent committed to the channel. The changes are meant to reduce channel conflict and strengthen partner sales, he added. According to Dell, the changes in the partner strategy and programs have been based on feedback and recommendations from the various partner advisory councils globally. n

edit opinion Volume 3, Issue 04

What’s your resolution for 2014? dhaval valia

or the IT industry, 2013 will be historical in many ways. During the year we saw several emerging technologies take firm roots—cloud, enterprise mobility, big data analytics and software-defined networking. Simultaneously, the ongoing transformation in the IT industry became more visible, manifesting itself in several landmark developments. One that comes to mind straightaway is Microsoft acquiring Nokia’s smartphone business and announcing its transformation from a software company to a devices and services company which means that in the coming years we will see the world’s largest software company overhaul its internal organization and change its go-to-market. Dell’s privatization and IBM’s plans to sell its low-end server business (although that didn’t happen) are strong indications of the hardware market contracting and focus moving to software defined infrastructure and cloud services. The decline in the PC market has been alarming. It has shrunk from 380 million units in 2011 to 304 million in 2013. At this rate, it could contract to less than 250 million by 2015, and result in consolidation of the PC ecosystem in a major way. The next 2-3 years will see an upheaval and uncertainty in the market. With the IT industry in transition, vendors themselves are unclear what the future holds. Hence, over this period, we will see frequent changes in plans, strategies and organizational structures. We have already seen many leadership changes at IT companies. One reason for this could be underperformance, the other could be the leadership’s inability to force the pace of transformation. At the center of this transformation are the customers, who today are ambiguous about the future of their IT. New concepts and technologies have created confusion in their minds about which technologies to invest in, and how much. These factors, coupled with the economy, promise to make life challenging and makes it imperative for partners to transform. The next two years is a big opportunity for partners to transform their businesses and create leadership in new domains that will drive IT 3-5 years from now. This is also the best time to move out of low-margin, hardware-led businesses to a solutions- and services-centric model. As a new year resolution, each channel leader should identify at least two new-age opportunities, seed them into their existing business, and project at least 10 percent topline to come from the new domains. By 2016, the new domains should contribute at least 50 percent to the overall business. Let me know which two new-age opportunities you will seed for your company. n E-mail CRN Executive Editor Dhaval Valia at dhaval.valia@ubm.com 10

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edit opinion How to fix field engagement Robert Faletra

here are very few issues that are a universal problem across the channel. Generally there always seems to be some vendors that have figured an issue out while others struggle with fixing the problem. But there is one issue that the more I dive into it, the more I realize no vendor would get more than a passable grade, and most flat-out would fail the test. I’m talking about field engagement and what happens where the rubber meets the road. Most vendors push their partner account managers (PAMs, to do exactly what they shouldn’t be doing—that is, manage the partners. By managing, I mean treating them as though they report to them, and it is their job to report back what they have in the pipeline, what they expect to close before quarter’s end and other meaningless details that clearly help the vendor but do nothing to advance the ball in the market. I don’t believe this is the fault of the field-level players. The blame belongs much higher up in the channel management food chain and most squarely on the head of sales. There are many reasons why this happens. A vendor may want a salesperson to push certain products, but the salesperson may want to sell something else because it is easier or carries a larger commission. As a result, the salesperson’s agenda wins over the company’s. When it comes to what happens in the field, solution providers need engagement with PAMs that are focused on helping them go to market together. This, of course, is driven by PAM/ CAM compensation plans and general channel sales management techniques, which, in turn, are devised at high levels of any organization. This often does not align with, nor help, in building and executing a plan to go to market with the partners in the field. When I talk to solution providers and ask about field-level engagement, the feedback is generally more along the lines of things that need to improve, and it’s really more of a pipeline visibility discussion than driving new business. Fixing this issue takes determination and a focus that needs to start at the top of any organization. While I wouldn’t give any vendor an “A” in building a field-level structure that promotes the perfect field engagement, there are some that are making progress here. One vendor I believe is making real progress is HewlettPackard. Changes that have been driven by Meg Whitman’s focus on betting its future on the channel are making their way to the field and are sowing the seeds of change. It’s still early on, and we will talk more about the importance of field engagement in future columns, but there is hope here, and the formula for success isn’t all that complicated, but it does require commitment. n Email Robert Faletra at rfaletra@thechannelcompany.com 12

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4Vs of distribution I read the article by Ashok Pamidi on how distributors need to transform themselves in a cloud-driven servicesoriented world. He beautifully articulated the 3Vs of distribution— velocity, variance and volume. I would like to add another V to the equation and that is— visibility. In a cloud world, there is no product to sell, it is a concept which needs to be articulated based on the value it delivers. In here distributors will need to create visibility for new types of solutions and services among partners and customers alike in larger geographies and markets. Sasikanth Ramakrishnan Chennai

Adobe stops selling product licenses Adobe’s decision to move completely to cloud services impinges upon the most fundamental brand attribute—that of providing customers the options they want. Adobe with this move is providing only one option. In many cases customers will be forced to pay for upgrades and services they don’t want. Many customers don’t want to move to a new version of the software because they are comfortable with the GUI and features offered by the older one. But under the cloud model customers will have to get used to new versions, upgrades, and patches even if they don’t want to. Neal Gomez Mumbai

Send your feedback at editor@ubmindia.com or post your views on www.crn.in

Advertiser Index Company name

Page No Web site

emersonnetworkpower.com

Sales Contact

Emerson

Cisco

3 www.ciscogreatkiwiadventure.com

Canon

HCL

7 www.umange@hcl.com

india_sales@datacard.com

Rashi

9 www.rptechindia.com

feedback@rptechindia.com

Schneider

11 www.schneider-electric.com in-care@schneider-electric.com

www.canon.co.in

marketing.india@emerson.com

1800 180 3366

Juniper Advetorial

16 & 17

www.juniper.net

nikhild@juniper.net

Interop - Forecast

20 & 21

www.interop.in

salil.warior@ubm.com

25, 27 & 29

www.ibm.com

ibm.com/getstarted/in

www.quickheal.com

info@quickheal.co.in

IBM Quick Heal

Adata

36 www.adata-group.com

adata_in@adata-group.com

Cubix

37 www.cubixindia.com

marketing@cubixindia.com

Biz

38 www.indiaantivirus.com

sales@indiaantivirus.com

Microsoft

39 www.microsoft.in

1800-102-1100

EMC

40 www.emc.com

india_mktg@emc.com

special focus

The sky is the limit With the government opening up the retail sector for FDI, the opportunities for the partners will grow exponentially in the coming years n Amit Singh & Sonal desai

This amounts to an IT spend of $4.25 billion spread ccording to the India Retail Report 2013 from the through an estimated 1.5 crore retailers across the country. Images Group, the size of the Indian retail industry, “Retail is seeing consolidation and there will be fewer estimated at $500 billion in 2012, is expected players in the mid-to-large retail segment. The segment to increase to $800 billion by 2015. While 5 percent of will be mainly driven by multinationals, large Indian the market is addressed by organized players, the rest is retailers, and e-commerce sites which are investing in IT,” dominated by kirana stores and departmental stores. observes Sandeep Lodha, Director, Tyrone Systems. The concept of shopping has undergone a vast change Adds V Sreenivasan, Senior VP, ITC Infotech, “The in terms of format and consumer buying behavior due best part is that even unorganized small players are to increasing purchasing power and spending. This is looking for IT solutions because of their need to cut costs triggering the proliferation of large format retail as well and improve inventory management. Large players are as online retail. Modern retail is likely to increase from focused on offering a better experience to consumers and the current $27 billion to $220 billion by 2020. Moreover, identifying buying behavior.” according to Forrester Research, e-commerce revenue in There are opportunities for partners in solutions such India will increase by more than five times by 2016 from as billing and inventory management, e-commerce, ERP, $1.6 billion in 2012 to $8.8 billion in 2016. CRM, analytics and surveillance. In addition, modern retail is expecting a major boost as the government has notified 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail. Says Amit Bhatia, Head, Retail Business, NEC Billing and inventory management India, “The government recently diluted the mandatory Billing solutions through PoS billing printers are the 30 percent local sourcing for multi-brand retailers and largest commodity product line for retail shops. “The PoS permitted states to include cities with solution is the first step in automation Sector snapshot a population of less than one million for a retailer. Barcode scanning was for allowing such retailing. This will the first major technology application Industry size: `3,000,000 crore attract more FDI and hence more IT adopted by Indian retailers. It made ($500 billion) investments.” cashiers more productive, reduced Industry data: 1.5 crore retailers the number of errors at the register, and made inventory and buying Booming IT Demographics: Pan-India trends more visible and accurate,” IT investment in retail is primarily IT spends: 0.5-0.8 percent of says PB Ganesh Kumar, Head, Sales & driven by flourishing organized annual revenue Marketing, Chennai, TVSE. players. “Modern retailers spend Opportunities: Billing solutions, Moving ahead, NEC identifies a 5-8 percent of their revenue on IT. e-commerce, ERP, surveillance, trend toward NFC-enabled mobile Even unorganized players are now digital signage PoS solutions. Bhatia expects mobile spending 0.5-0.8 percent,” informs Source: Images Group; Fitch PoS to capture the market in the next Bhatia.

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special focus “The best part is that even unorganized small retailers are looking for IT solutions because of their need to cut costs and improve inventory management” V Sreenivasan

“As most customers now carry smartphones, NFC-based PoS solutions can decrease the transaction time by upto 80 percent. This is attracting retailers” Amit Bhatia

Senior VP, ITC Infotech

Head, Retail Business, NEC India

couple of years as the transaction can be done through NFC-enabled smartphones. “These solutions enable retailers to manage queues during peak hours because retailers can add more terminals as needed. It has been observed that about 40 percent of customers purchase less than 10 items at a time. Mobile PoS solutions are ideal for these small transactions.” NEC has installed this solution at PVR Cinemas and two large retail chains. “As most customers now carry smartphones this solution can decrease the transaction time by upto 80 percent. This is what is attracting retailers the most,” adds Bhatia. PoS solutions are also easing inventory management issues for retailers. “In a new trend, small-time retailers are opening super stores which are normally 400 sq ft. We have sold integrated billing and inventory management solutions to about 25 such retailers in the last one and half year. The trend is now catching across Gujarat,” says Sunil Bhavsar, Director, Parth Systems, Ahmedabad.

E-commerce E-commerce adoption is growing at a rapid pace with even small retailers keen to provide online shopping convenience to their customers. “More than just e-commerce, the retail industry is looking at adopting digital commerce which spans online, mobile and social channels. We expect this trend to grow over the next five

years,” states Sreenivasan. “Right now the large opportunities are in developing portals for retailers who are coming into e-commerce. Reliance and Lifestyle are two big names which are starting their own portals,” informs Vipul Dutta, CEO, Futuresoft Solutions, Delhi. More than a platform to sell, retailers are identifying e-commerce portals as a means to expand visibility and reach. “While most of the large players are establishing their own portals, many small players are rendering their products through large online marketplaces like Flipkart and Snapdeal,” says Bhatia. Many vendors are offering cloud-based e-commerce platforms to retailers. “Cloud-based platforms give scalability and the opex model which are attracting retailers. Even small retailers are opting for e-commerce platforms. We have over 20 national retailers, 200 local retailers and 1,00,000 consumers on Klisma, our cloudbased e-commerce platform. The platform can also be used as a customer management solution by mall owners,” says Ajay Aggarwal, Chief Customer Experience Officer, Klisma. Moreover, partners are seeing opportunities in the backend IT infrastructure upgrade requirements of the e-commerce plans of retailers. “Every large retailer wants an online presence and is spending heavily on the backend as well,” says Lodha.

Tyrone Systems: Crafting a solution for Fabindia

abindia, the garment and home furnishing retail chain, consolidated its distributed IT systems at 174 stores on a central site. Tyrone Systems, which executed the project for `3 crore, says that the investment is in sync with the retailer’s expansion plans. Notes Sandeep Lodha, Director, Tyrone, “Before the consolidation the management could take strategic decisions only at the end of the day because the information was updated only after business hours. There was no real-time visibility into the inventory of over two lakh products.” Tyrone deployed a unified storage solution connecting all retail outlets; this offered real-time Sandeep Lodha visibility of in-store and online transactions. The solution is built around Tyrone’s Opslag

FS2 unified storage architecture comprising eight blade servers running on an MS Windows server and an MS SQL database server, 72 bays with InfiniBand ports, 64 bays with SSDs configured on RAID 5 used for online transactions, and SAS drives used for volume backups. “The Opslag FS2 platform helped virtualize Fabindia’s file and block data and drive high I/O per second on retail transactions,” Lodha informs. As a result, Fabindia can now handle 2030 TB of data; the deployment of 40 GBPS InfiniBand takes care of latency issues. For future requirements Lodha says that Fabindia only needs to add more pipes on the Internet and put fresh links to the servers in the data center. n

Before the consolidation the management could take strategic decisions only at the end of the day because the information was updated only after business hours

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special focus “While smaller players rely on Tally, large players are adopting full-fledged ERPs. Average deal size ranges from `20 lakh to `40 lakh”

“While surveillance has been around in retail, retailers are now adopting IP to analyze customer behavior and footfalls, and compare results with actual sales”

Devesh Aggarwal

Gunjan Shah

CEO, Compusoft

Director, Insight Business Machines

Planning & analytics IT partners are seeing many retailers moving from home-grown legacy ERP to standardized full-fledged or mini-ERPs. “As more retail stores are opening there isn’t much difference in their product positioning, hence the focus is on creating customer loyalty, understanding the customer, and offering targeted schemes,” says Samik Roy, Director and Country Head, Dynamics, Microsoft India. According to Devesh Aggarwal, CEO, Compusoft, Mumbai, “While the smaller players are relying on financial management solutions such as Tally, large players are adopting full-fledged ERPs to gain insight into their inventory and supply chain. The average deal size ranges from `20 lakh to `30 lakh.” Besides ERP, customers are opting for CRM and analytics to offer a better customer experience. “Demand for big data and analytics is increasing,” says Lodha. “Retailers want to know what customers are buying, how frequently they are buying, their age and gender. This information forms the basis of various schemes that they introduce to target loyal customers.” Pune-based Mobien Technologies has developed a mobile application named Distribution Networking Automation, and in the last six months has sold it to large customers including Himalaya SKL, Kriti Industries and Birla Cellulose which are heavily dependent on their distribution and retail partners. “It provides the retailer

an interactive platform to increase cross-selling,” explains Ajit Gokhale, CEO, Mobien.

Surveillance “While surveillance has been around in retail for a long time, retailers are now adopting IP to analyze customer behavior and footfalls, and then compare the results with actual sales,” says Gunjan Shah, Director, Insight Business Machines, Mumbai. Besides analytical data, IP surveillance has become important due to the increasing incidence of shop-lifting. “While surveillance has become mandatory for retailers in most states, the demand for IP-based solutions is increasing due to their sharp images and analytics,” adds Shah. Seeing the opportunities, partners are now adding surveillance to their portfolio. “Till a year ago we were not offering surveillance solutions, and as a result we lost many large retail customers,” shares Vimesh Avlani, CEO, Graftronics, Mumbai. “But now we offer a complete solution comprising IP cameras, networking, MPLS and VPN circuits.” Retailers are also adopting signage solutions to disseminate schemes and promotional offers to customers. “Digital signages are normally deployed in large stores which are 1,000 sq ft upward. Larger retailers are adopting mature digital signage solutions with centralized data control and interactive customer feedback solutions,” says Bhavsar. n

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let’s build the best Data center networks

Data center transformation The nexus of big data, cloud computing and enterprise mobility is driving disruption and transformation in the data centers

he cloud, mobility and big data present new business opportunities that are driving IT transformation. Today, businesses are more dependent than ever on their data centers (DCs) to deliver efficient solutions. As applications are developed, deployed, scaled up and moved, DC networks are struggling to keep pace because of complex architectures and operational processes. In addition, single-site DCs have also been replaced by a more complex DC landscape that includes multiple distributed sites as well as services in the cloud. “The nexus of big data, cloud and mobility is driving disruption and transformation in the DCs. From being locked-down facilities with stable and regular workload needs, they are now dealing with an

explosion in demand for computing, storage and networking power as well as the impact of virtualization and cloud computing,” says Jitendra Gupta, Director, Channels and Alliances, India and South Asia, Juniper Networks.

Growth drivers The overall DC services market in India is expected to cross $3.85 billion by 2014 from $1.76 billion in 2010. Most analysts agree that the prime driver for DC transformation is the data explosion. The amount of digital information created annually will grow by a factor of 50 between 2010 and 2020 to 40,000 exabytes. Explains Gupta, “What makes it even more critical for organizations is the need to analyze this data with the advent of advanced BI tools

From being locked-down facilities with stable and regular workload needs, data centers are now dealing with an explosion in demand for computing, storage and networking power

and technologies. Mobility and social media are also playing a role in the way data is being managed within DCs. In addition, there is growing demand for computing power by newer applications. This is compelling IT leaders to look for robust, secure and dynamic DCs.” Another factor impacting the DC market in India is the changing regulatory requirements. The need for better BCP in volatile market conditions and disaster-prone environments is forcing CIOs to relook at their DR and BCP arrangements. Newer strategies such as BYOD and social media for the enterprise, and increasing Internet-facing businesses, are leading to more devices getting connected. This is forcing DCs to invest heavily in technology to provide not only the needed integration but also address the challenges related to management, monitoring and security. In addition, the spread of the Internet is driving the growth of

“MetaFabric enables a simple, smart DC” Jitendra Gupta, Director, Channels and Alliances, India and South Asia, Juniper Networks, spells out his company’s strategy to capture a sizable share of the data center market Take us through the evolution of the data center (DC). The DC has undergone several transitions from a single compute and storage resource to distributed client/server architecture to Internet computing. Now it finds itself on the precipice of yet another transition—that of virtualization. The transition to a virtualized DC will be the single biggest IT transformation of this generation.

What are the key trends in the DC market? With paradigms like the cloud, mobility and big data, organizations are looking at scaling up their IT infrastructure and integrating various new business modules with their IT. The DC is key to this transformation. However, the shortage of the expertise required to manage DCs and integrate various functionalities into a single system is hindering the adoption of new DC technologies.

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Keeping the various customer challenges in mind Juniper has launched a comprehensive DC network architecture, MetaFabric, which enables a simple, open and smart DC that accelerates the deployment and delivery of applications within and across multiple sites and clouds. It delivers the agility and efficiency required for IT transformation, and the business solutions of today and tomorrow. The architecture has the following key solution elements. Simplified operations: Rich automation solutions to eliminate DC complexities by streamlining operations for network provisioning, management and orchestration. Virtualization and the cloud: Innovative operations solutions to keep pace with server virtualization; private, public and hybrid cloud computing; and SDN transformation projects. Security: Dynamic DC security solutions that adapt to detect, defend and respond to targeted threats. Business continuity: Efficient

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CIOs will need an architecture which can seamlessly connect leveraging strong partnership multiple DC locations and clouds thus ensuring seamless access he winner of Juniper’s Best Services Award to applications and services even in the event of a disaster

Internet-centric businesses which are looking at the dynamic scalingout of DC resources and faster time-to-market.

Technologies driving transformation Two disruptive technologies impacting the future of DCs are virtualization and cloud computing. Aligned with the trend toward more powerful servers, more open application design, and the need to accomplish more with less, the adoption of virtualization in server infrastructure continues to increase. As the adoption of cloud computing grows it is becoming clear that organizations are going to leverage multiple cloud environments. This means the emergence of inter-cloud connectors that are open and standards-based. Software-defined networking (SDN) is another technology that will redefine the future of DCs. SDN will eventually spawn the new concepts of software-defined DCs and software-defined storage.

In conclusion, the future of DCs in India will be characterized by the CIOs’ need to consolidate their IT efforts in order to do more with much less, keep operations dynamic to be able to scale up or down faster, and be completely flexible in their approach to align IT to their business strategies. “This will require CIOs to look for feature-rich DC automation to help eliminate operational complexities for network provisioning, management and orchestration,” states Gupta. “They will require a network architecture that can keep pace with server virtualization, hybrid clouds and SDN transformation. They will need an architecture which can seamlessly connect multiple DC locations and clouds thus ensuring seamless access to applications and services even in the event of a disaster. Finally, they must not forget that they will require dynamic DC security solutions which adapt to detect, defend and respond to targeted threats.” n

The data center now finds itself on the precipice of another transition—that of virtualization. The transition to a virtualized DC will be the single biggest IT transformation of this generation” solutions to connect multiple DC locations and clouds, thus ensuring seamless access to applications and services even in the event of a disaster. Big data: It has the ability to collect, process and understand even your biggest big data projects. The entire architecture and solutions surrounding it are SDN-ready and support open standards such as OpenFlow and VXLAN.

What kind of growth are you expecting?

2013, Wipro is a leader in the DC transformation solutions business both in India and globally. Says Pankaj Gupta, General Manager, Head Business & Alliance, Wipro, “We share a strong relationship with Juniper whose networking technology portfolio complements our global experience in delivering complete solutions across the IT spectrum.” Wipro, which has executed several DC transformation projects for large enterprises around the world, believes that Juniper’s data center (DC) architecture has a considerable edge over its competitors because it offers a combination of switching, routing, security, software, SDN and orchestration all working in conjunction with an open technology ecosystem to accelerate the deployment and delivery of applications. “The key challenges faced by enterprises in the DC today are growing virtualization, real-time application availability and mobility,” explains Gupta. “The new DC network must address these needs by delivering a high-quality user-experience for real-time applications, greater agility for deploying new applications, integration with the cloud and economical scalability. Juniper’s MetaFabric architecture is a next-generation DC architecture which accelerates the deployment and delivery of applications for enterprises and service providers.” According to Gupta, MetaFabric is unique because it offers the freedom and flexibility to use any protocol, any orchestration platform, any SDN controller, for any DC application with the assurance of interoperability and minimal disruption. This combination of Juniper’s technology and Wipro’s expertise in offering complete DC solutions has led to the latter executing several large DC projects in the past 12 months. n

The demand for DCs is increasing due to the increasing volume of data being shared over the network and the outsourcing of the organizational infrastructure to third-party vendors. Also, organizations are opting for the centralization of all resources.

What is your SDN strategy? No customer or vendor is going to be immune to SDN-driven change. At Juniper we have built a comprehensive SDN strategy, an industry-first business model, and are delivering solutions that enable our customers to meet a pressing business and IT challenge. Customers are more uncertain than ever about market conditions, hence they need a more agile IT infrastructure which empowers them to adapt and take advantage of new market opportunities. n

Pankaj Gupta Special Technology Feature

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market focus

down but not out System builders have been written off several times in the past but system builders continue to survive. That is because every time one door closes for them another one opens elsewhere n RAMDAS S

t the beginning of the year Gartner India had predicted a market of 2 million-2.2 million white box PCs in 2013. While it currently says that those overall numbers remain more or less the same, it is projecting the market to dip by 10-15 percent over the next 12 months. According to Gartner, in Q32013 around 435,000 assembled desktops were sold in the country with those sporting Intel processors accounting for nearly 350,000 and the balance being sold with AMD. “White boxes, including parallel imports, which accounted for 40 percent of the overall desktop market, declined 26 percent in the third quarter of 2013 compared to the same period last year. This is a significant drop, but no one can say that assemblers are completely down and out,” remarks Vishal Tripathi, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner India. Nevertheless, he agrees that the desktop market is contracting. “A comparison of the third quarters of 2012 and 2013 shows the overall desktop market shrinking by about 15 percent, hence the white box PC market is de-growing faster than the overall desktop market.” Tripathi says the major reason why the white box market is dipping is the lack of enthusiasm among consumers for desktops—people are instead buying notebooks. Others point out that MNC brands have been aggressive over the past one year as PC growth rates have dropped. Notes Rajiv Soni, CEO, Opsic Consultants, Jamnagar, “Every major PC vendor has focused on building desktop SKUs costing around `20,000-`22,000

Revival hopes Partners and vendors see a number of reasons why the system builder market can bounce back. Some of these are specific to the trends in the Indian market, but even global trends indicate that the desktop market will not die any time soon. If one looks at mature and large markets like US and Japan, the white box desktop market continues to sustain. While the overall share may be less than 20 percent, it still is a huge number. Hence, I believe that the assembled market in India will continue to sustain, however it needs to be innovative and competitive,” says Suresh Pansari, CMD, Rashi Peripherals. Partners in India are betting on consolidation because a few local vendors such as Wipro and HCL have quit local manufacturing. Many expect these vendors to now source their desktop requirements from large regional system builders.

“The white box desktop market continues to sustain in mature markets. While the overall share may be less than 20 percent, it still is a huge number”

“While our vanilla desktop market has dipped, we have seen demand for specialized solutions around small form factors, thin clients, HPC and gaming go up”

Suresh Pansari

Harish Kumar RP

CMD, Rashi Peripherals

and sporting DOS, also models with Windows 8 Home at around `25,000. The price-points are very close to the average selling price of an assembled PC, and this is forcing a lot of users to rethink about buying an assembled desktop.” Another reason has been a lack of excitement around the new technologies from Intel and Microsoft. While a lot of hopes were pinned on Haswell, the fourth generation of core processors which was launched in June 2013, the market response has been less than enthusiastic. “We are not expecting any major revival around Haswell or Windows 8.1,” says Manish Yadav, Market Analyst, IDC India.

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CEO, Connoisseur Electronics

market focus There is also speculation in turn revive the system What system builders should focus on that one or two MNCs will builder market. Intel has The sub-`16,000-`17,000 PC targeted at small businesses exit the sub-`30,000 desktop been working with vendors and home users belonging to sub-`3,00,000 annual market to focus on the such as Creative, Leap income families. higher-margin mainstream Motion and Haptix over The high-end market targeting HPC, gamers and power desktop market. Channels the past two years to build users where assemblers enjoy a price advantage. feel that while vendors devices and peripherals will continue investing in that allow gesture control Niche segments such as POS, digital signage and low-end laptop SKUs, they of a PC. The vendor has surveillance with PC-like embedded solutions. will de-focus from entryalso acquired companies Small form factor solutions with products such as NUC or level desktops because such as Omek Interactive. Foxconn Nano PC. desktops are not a growth Meanwhile Apple, which category. This would help system builders to grow their is trying to grow the Mac-based desktop market, has marketshare. purchased PrimeSense, a motion-sensing chip vendor. An interesting point which some partners make is that Another technology which vendors are working on system builders still enjoy a price advantage over brands is voice control. Patrick Moorhead, Analyst, Moorhead in the mainstream desktop market, and a bigger price Insights, predicts that in three years Intel and others could advantage at the high-end of the market. “While at the make gesture and voice control as pervasive as the mouse. entry level some OEMs have taken a conscious call to Says Suryanarayanan B, Director, Sales & Marketing, be very aggressive, as the configurations scale up there Intel India, “We believe that emerging disruptive is a significant price difference between a white box technologies such as voice and gesture control could PC and a branded PC. For example, when a customer alter the way we use technology. For their effective use requires a Core i5 or Core i7 processor-based system, a consumers will require PCs which would need more horse white box PC would be upto 20 percent cheaper than power and added functionality which we will see in a branded PC,” informs Dinesh Nair, Director, BigC next generation core processors.” Technologies, Bengaluru. Another market Intel and AMD are likely to recapture Many point out that the consolidation among is the thin client market where over 80 percent share has vendors in the space has ensured more volumes for been captured by NComputing, clones of NComputing, the remaining brands. Says P Raghuraman, CEO, and cheaper thin clients from China sporting ARM Salezart, Delhi, “The news of Intel exiting the desktop processors. “However, customers across all segments motherboard market and of the consolidation among who want real desktop experience are looking at Intel hard drive vendors augurs well for the long run because Atom processor-based thin clients,” says Limesh Parekh, the vendors who survive will have reasonable numbers CEO, Enjay IT Solutions, Bhilad. “Today, almost 75 to ensure profitability.” percent of the VDI market is adopting thin clients based But Raghuraman is quick to point out that vendors on Intel Atom.” need to ensure that the first and second tier channels are also protected. “Channel hygiene will return once there is Niche markets consolidation at the first and second tier of distribution. Intel has been advising its channels to focus on niche This will ensure wider availability of the building blocks verticals such as digital signage, POS, thin clients and required by system builders.” surveillance. However, only a handful of partners have Many system builders admit that they still make more been able to make the transition to sell ultra small form money selling an assembled desktop than a branded factors as part of a vertical solution. While there still exists notebook. With online retail cutting into margins, system some hype around platforms such as Next Unit builders see enough reasons to continue pushing their of Computing, volume ramp-up could be still a few own white boxes. quarters away. AMD India believes that pricepoints matter, hence, Comments Harish Kumar RP, CEO, Connoisseur along with one of the motherboard OEMs, it is working Electronics, Bengaluru, “While our vanilla desktop on introducing an APU-motherboard combination at market has dipped, we have seen demand for specialized around `5,000 by Q12014. “Our idea is to offer a dualsolutions around small form factors, thin clients, HPC and core APU which can deliver mainstream graphics and gaming go up.” computing performance, and which would allow a While some of the large system builders have managed system builder to configure, build and price a system to source their own integrated monitor chassis to build at `15,000,” says Chandrahas Panigrahi, Director, AIOs, a majority of smaller systems integrators say they Consumer Business, AMD India. “India still has less than don’t have good suppliers. 10 percent PC penetration, so at these pricepoints we Panigrahi believes that while the next 2-3 quarters will create new markets.” might see numbers further slipping, the market may see a rebound toward the second half of 2014. “Don’t write off the system builder as yet. We are confident that the market Technology enablers will firm up, and while the excitement may not be the Gesture control is a technology which Intel has been same there’s still healthy business out there.” n betting on. It could potentially revive the PC market and

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THAN

FOR SPEAKIN

Manish Godha, CEO, Advaiya

Aniruddha Deswandikar, MTC Director, Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd

Prof. Dr. Pradeep Pendse, Dean IT, Wellingkar Institute of Management

See you Stay tuned for upda

Session Partner

Organised by

K YOU

G AT INTEROP.

Rajesh Saboo, Head IT Services, Future Value Retail Ltd

in 2014. tes on www.interop.in

Romi Mahajan, IT & Marketing Author, President, KKM Group

Vivek Bhaskaran, Founder, Ideascale

cover story

We list the technologies and events of 2013 that will significantly influence the IT industry in the coming year n CRN Network

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cover story The rise and rise of tablets

ne of the major trends of 2013 was the spurt in the growth in the tablet market while the PC market saw three continuous quarters of decline. This forced Gartner to revise its projections for growth in 2013 for tablets from 43.2 percent to 53.4 percent. The research firm, which had earlier predicted that the PC market would shrink by 7.4 percent YoY in 2013 revised the figure to 11.4 percent. At 184 million the tablet market has already overtaken the desktop market in 2013, and Gartner predicts that in 2015 tablets will eclipse overall PC sales. These trends have hit both traditional PC vendors as well as their OEM suppliers. AMD and Intel were forced to revise—a couple of times—their quarterly earnings projections in the wake of the slowdown in the PC market. Meanwhile, Intel, AMD and Microsoft have unveiled roadmaps that they say will help them make larger inroads into the tablet market where ARM-based chip makers such as Qualcomm and platform vendors such as Apple and Google have dominated. While it’s clear that tablets are cannibalizing a portion of the PC market, the PC is not expected to go away soon. About 78 percent of respondents in a CyberMedia Research survey said that the PC will remain their primary computing device. However, with 75 percent who use tablets saying that their primary use of tablets is to consume information and access social networking sites, some analysts predict a deeper impact on the consumer notebook market in 2014. “Tablets have been disruptive in many ways,” comments Umang Mehta, CEO, Roop Technology, Mumbai. “Despite the need for a PC refresh many PC users are not upgrading or buying new desktops or laptops; they are buying tablets instead. With pricepoints at `5,000-`10,000, and a wide choice of brands and models, consumers increasingly want to own a tablet.” The big hope for enterprise resellers is that while tablets have created new user segments in the retail, distribution, education and hospitality verticals, there are very few instances reported of a tablet replacing a PC in the commercial and enterprise market. n

Tablets have been disruptive. Despite the need for a PC refresh many PC users are not upgrading or buying new desktops or laptops—they are buying tablets instead

The talk of tech town

here is little doubt that the most talked about technology in 2013 was software-defined networking (SDN). The hype that started with SDN eventually transformed into software-defined everything, including software-defined storage (SDS) and software-defined data center (SDDC). While the concept of software-defined everything will take some time to mature, SDN is already catching the attention of customers. Many believe that SDN is a disruptive technology that will eventually transform our current idea of networking. “We have seen acceptance of SDN by enterprise and mid-market customers. Currently, customers are implementing the technology in a phased manner, but the SDN component will increase significantly in 2014. The migration to SDN will occur as organizations update their infrastructure and discover how it can help them to manage network resources,” says Umesh Shah, Director, Orient Technologies, Mumbai. “The future is in software controlled infrastructure,” forecasts Amarjeet Singh Walia, Director of the Gurgaon-based Targus Technologies. “Although traction is now limited to greenfield projects or customers refreshing their infrastructure, in 2014 we will see rapid uptake of SDN, and solutions like SDS and SDDC will pick up.” The perception that SDN will affect network hardware sales is being negated by vendors. They stress that hardware will always have its place in the network; they don’t see the industry’s shift toward software as a threat to hardware such as ASICs, switches or routers. Shah agrees. “SDN will enable a spurt in hardware becoming SDN-ready. Later, SDN and network hardware will co-exist similar to virtualization and the cloud which are growing with hardware sales.” However, a few partners have a different opinion about the long term. “SDN will eventually optimize network hardware. This will definitely affect hardware sales to some extent, but that is a distant matter,” says Suresh HR, Director, Central Data Systems, Bengaluru. While industry speculation that SDN will be a major hardware killer is still a matter of debate, with IDC predicting a global market of $2 billion for SDNready products by 2016 this is a trend which enterprise channels cannot afford to miss. n

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cover story Private Dell

The online challenge

The outcome of all the moves by Dell will eventually depend on how well the company executes its strategy on the ground with partners and customers

With the onslaught of online and large organized retail stores, many small retailers are likely to close shop in the next 2-3 years. Tier-1 cities will see the impact first

hroughout 2013, the big talk was around Dell’s decision to go private and the resulting conflict with a group of investors led by Carl Icahn. But Michael Dell, CEO, Dell, managed to navigate these challenges and finally took Dell private in October with the help of investors such as Silver Lake Partners. While shareholders approved Michael Dell’s $25 billion de-listing plan, the road ahead is not likely to be smooth. The main reason for Dell to go private was that it wanted to make investments without the constant scrutiny of shareholders, and without adhering to the compliance demands made on listed companies. Analysts point out that while Dell has made significant investments in acquiring companies and has an impressive portfolio of software and technology assets that could help the company grow, the market still sees Dell as a PC company, and links its fortunes to a shrinking PC market. While this obstacle is now done with, Dell’s challenges are far from over. While Dell has a portfolio of storage, security, software, virtualization and cloud assets, these acquisitions do not make Dell the market leader or even a close challenger in any of the verticals which Dell is targeting. One of the immediate goals for Dell is to be seen as a dominant player across the enterprise solutions product line and gain marketshare. However, it faces stiff competition from both established players as well as new-age start-ups. “We want to move faster on our transformation path, and as a private company we can go-to-market faster. We increasingly see ourselves as an indirect company, we will leverage our channel relationships to take our innovations forward, and we will grow our solutions business through channels,” explains Richard Lee, VP & GM, GCC, Dell APAC. Partners note that the decision by Dell to hire Alok Ohrie, former VP, Systems & Technology Group, IBM, as its India MD, is part of Dell’s strategy to expand its solutions business through indirect channels. However, they say that the outcome of all these moves will eventually depend on how well Dell executes its strategy on the ground with partners and customers. n

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n Q32013, according to a study commissioned by Google, online retailer Flipkart is said to have sold more IT products than India’s largest modern retail chain Croma which operates from 93 large format stores. Independent studies and estimates by eMarketer and Review42.com forecast the online marketshare of consumer IT products to grow from the current 6 percent to over 15 percent by 2015. More than 98 percent of the respondents in a recent CRN study on Online Retail Threat Perception said that their businesses have been cannibalized by online sellers. They said that the predatory pricing policies followed by large e-tailers has hurt the profitability of physical retail. Many fear that the growth of online retail could be the most disruptive trend that the domestic IT market has faced so far, one which could even force many physical retailers and smaller resellers to wind up their business. “With the onslaught of online and large organized retail stores, many of the smaller retailers are likely to close shop in the next 2-3 years. Tier-1 cities will see the impact first,” says Tirthankar Sen, Senior Analyst, Forrester Group India. One of the challenges for vendors is to create a model that protects the MOP and also ensures a level playing field for channel partners. This is not likely to be easy because almost all vendors are trying to increase their marketshare with several segments of the consumer IT market showing signs of negative growth. The developments have resulted in channel activism, with a number of groups trying to educate the industry, government, vendors and media about the long-term impact of predatory online retail. “We are working with channel associations, political parties and vendors to find a solution. We have even appealed to the Competition Commission of India, and are mobilizing efforts to bring in some sort of legislation that would protect the interests of physical retail channels,” says Hari Rastogi, founder of wewillact.com, an online group of IT resellers. Meanwhile, several vendors such as Quick Heal, Kaspersky and Netgear have announced initiatives to protect their authorized IT channels. n

cover story The CRO ripple

he government’s decision to implement the Compulsory Registration Order (CRO) created ripples in the IT sector in 2013 and is guaranteed to be a focal point for industry-government relations in 2014 as well. The CRO 2012 requires manufacturers to procure Bureau of Indian Standards’ certifications on electronics and IT hardware in 15 categories including laptops, AIOs, video games, tablets, plasma/LCD/LED televisions, printers, scanners, telephone answering machines, electronic music systems, thin clients and servers. CRO is an initiative to curb the import of spurious electronic goods into the country. Although the deadline for CRO compliance has already been postponed thrice, vendors are requesting further extension of the current deadline of January 3, 2014 because they are not confident of getting all their products certified by that date. Overall, the large IT vendors were receptive to the need for CRO, but are challenging the time-consuming processes involved in the necessary certifications. “CRO is good for the industry but the processes are too laborious and this could hit the industry badly,” says Anwar Shirpurwala, Executive Director, MAIT. “The government has reduced certain complications associated with the processes, but we want them to simplify things further.” While the large companies have mostly welcomed the CRO, the smaller players believe this will be devastating for smaller importers and assemblers. “The certification of each model will cost `1.25 lakh. While large brands can absorb this cost because of their large volumes, smaller importers will not be able to do so. As a result, they may have to shut their businesses. This means CRO is anti-small business,” argues Champak Raj Gurjar, Director, TAIT. Understandably, channel associations are lobbying with the government. “We have met bureaucrats and ministers, and have been assured that the government will not take any stand that will impact local manufacturers. We have requested the government to exclude AIOs, servers and thin clients from the list,” adds Gurjar. Will the government further extend the deadline? Will it take the interests of smaller players into account and redraft the CRO? We will have to wait for 2014 for the answers. n

The certification of each model will cost `1.25 lakh. While large brands can absorb this cost because of their larger volumes, smaller importers will not be able to do so 26

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The scope for enterprise mobility

nterprise mobility moved from being mere hype to a tangible opportunity for solution providers in 2013. Gartner, Ovum, Zinnov and Forrester all predict that it will be one of the top-5 CIO priorities in 2014. Zinnov forecasts that the enterprise mobility market will cross the $1 billion in 2015. With BYOD also gaining momentum, the Symantec State of Mobility Survey 2013 says that 72 percent of Indian enterprises are considering investments in enterprise mobility in next 12 months. Citrix has trained close to 50 partners to deliver VDI solutions for mobile phones and tablets. With Microsoft launching its Windows 8 and Windows 8 RT devices, several MS partners are pitching enterprise mobility solutions. Citrix and VMware partners such as Futurenet Technologies, Archon Consulting and NewWave have won BYOD orders worth $300,000-$2 million last year. “We believe that Windows-based tablets will gain momentum in the enterprise because many customers have built infrastructure on the Microsoft stack,” says S Rajendran, CMO, Acer India. Partners such as Team Computers, Shell Networks, Omnitech, Spaneos and Enjay have set up mobile application development teams. “We have built a CRM application for mobile workforce management. It runs on Android and has found acceptance across both enterprises and SMBs,” says Limesh Parekh, CEO, Enjay Solutions, Bhilad. MDM is also seen as a lucrative business by MSPs. Ganesh Mahabala, Senior VP, ValuePoint Systems, Bengaluru, says, “We bagged orders from existing customers to manage their smartphones and tablets. The average billing in MDM per node is around 30-100 percent more than for regular PCs because of the complexities.” Pune-based Mobien Technologies garnered `13 crore revenue and acquired 52 customers during the last fiscal. “We are platform-agnostic, and have signed on with Apple, BlackBerry, Google, Nokia, Microsoft and Samsung. Our focus is to provide a mobility facelift to existing enterprise applications,” says Ajit Gokhale, CEO, Mobien. Meanwhile, Mumbai-based systems integrator Orient Technologies has acquired for around $1 million, Bengaluru-based Orbis Media Technologies which specializes in mobility solutions and services. n

Enterprise mobility moved from being hype to a tangible opportunity for solution providers in 2013. With BYOD also gaining momentum, 72 percent of Indian enterprises are considering investments in enterprise mobility in the next 12 months

cover story The changing paradigm

long with the recent acquisition of Nokia’s smartphone business for $7.1 billion, Microsoft also announced one of the biggest internal transformation—that from a software company to a devices and services company. But Microsoft has offered scant details about the transformation roadmap. Partners however, believe that this is an existential transformation. “For a company which for the last three decades has been a dominant player in the client-server software space with revenues of more than $60 billion from software licenses alone, this transformation will be existential. Its not going to happen overnight and there will be a massive internal reorganization,” infers Suresh Ramani, CEO, Techgyan, Mumbai. Many analysts believe that the acquisition of Nokia was Microsoft’s last chance to make any impact in the mobility market. With Android operating system steering ahead with more than 70 percent of the marketshare, iOS at 20 percent, Microsoft has managed to acquire less than 10 percent marketshare despite being in the mobile OS segment for the last 5 years. The Nokia acquisition will allow Microsoft to make a more aggressive pitch in this market, now that it has full control of the GTM.

For a company which has been a dominant player in the client-server market for the last three decades, the transformation into a devices and services company will have its own set of challenges. The Nokia acquisition however, could prove handy “Microsoft has to make an impact in the smart device market. The PC market is shrinking and Nokia’s acquisition was Microsoft’s best bet to stay relevant in the post PC period. Over the past six months we have seen some good products being launched under the Nokia Lumia brand and Microsoft’s Surface tablet. With enterprise mobility gaining momentum Microsoft with its devices business can really do well,” feels Devesh Aggarwal, CEO, Compusoft. On the services front, Microsoft is betting on cloud services, including Office 365 and Azure, which has grown 12 percent from $2.87 billion in 2012 to $3.2 billion in 2013. Many analysts believe that in 2014 Microsoft could look at expanding its cloud portfolio either by acquiring companies or launching new services. Certainly 2014 will provide more clarity on how Microsoft eventually plans to make the transition from a software company to devices and services company. However one thing is clear that its not going to be easy. n

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role model The man who saw tomorrow Rahul Meher, MD, Leon Computers, walked away from the PC business way back in 2007 because he saw no future in it. He continues to be ahead of the times n abhijeet mukherjee

ahul Meher, Managing Director, Leon Computers, always wanted to pursue his own business. His father was the CEO of Aarey Dairy, Mumbai, but the son ventured into the IT business in 1996 and started Leon Computers as a system builder. Today, the Pune-based company is a name to reckon with for its managed services and software solutions, especially in the manufacturing sector.

The beginning After completing his BE (Electronics) from Pune University in 1994, Meher worked for two years in product development for a consumer electronics company, then as a sales executive for an IT firm where he picked up the nuances of business. Meher started Leon in 1996 with an initial investment of `3.5 lakh which was borrowed from his family. He operated from his outhouse in Pune. “We started as a systems builder assembling PCs for the SOHOs and SMBs which could not afford branded PCs in those days.” In 1997 Meher made changes in his strategy to get into the enterprise segment. He stopped assembling PCs and tied up with Compaq which gave Leon access to SMB and enterprise customers. “We acquired more than 15 SMB customers. Our first large deal was to supply 250 PCs to Alfa Laval which gave us a big boost. Around the same time we also invested in a 2,000 sq ft office in Pune.” 2003 was a turning point for Leon following the HPCompaq merger. “With Compaq we could sell only PCs. By contrast, the HP portfolio was huge, and it gave us the opportunity to pitch more products and solutions to large customers. We became solutions-centric and began

“We exited the PC market in 2007 at a time when PC sales contributed 70 percent to our `16 crore topline. Our topline shrunk very significantly, but I wasn’t bothered” 30

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bagging large deals from large customers who were earlier out of our reach,” recalls Meher. He takes great pride in the fact that Leon was among the first few partners in 2007 who decided to venture out of the PC market. “Today we see a lot of partners getting out of the PC business saying there are no margins. We made that decision in 2007 at a time when PC sales contributed nearly 70 percent of our `16 crore revenue. We saw our topline shrink very significantly, but I wasn’t bothered. It was important to invest in future business models rather than get stuck with box selling only because it gave you topline.” Following its exit from the PC business Leon began focusing on new technologies—virtualization, storage, network, security and software. It also ventured into managed services. “To become solutions centric we tied up with Microsoft, EMC, Check Point and VMware,” informs Meher. “We expanded into managed services, and developed storage, backup and security competencies. We also started increasing our focus on the automobile industry. We won a couple of large storage, virtualization, backup and archival deals from leading automobile companies. This gave us the confidence that we were on the right track.” The company also invested `16 lakh in setting up a PoC lab for virtualization, storage, archival and backup. To be more relevant to its customers Leon felt it was important to build software development and customization skills, and therefore in 2010 the company started a software solutions division. “The first customized software we developed was for an auto company to manage its shop floor activities, and we integrated it with the MRP/ERP,” says Meher. “This was deployed on custom-made handheld devices. The product was such a hit that we bagged eight projects around it worth `30 lakh-`40 lakh each in the same year.”

Current business The last two years have seen Leon consolidate and strengthen its solutions and services business. “We used the slowdown to consolidate our internal organization,

Role model

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2010

2007

2003

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servers and migrate them from one build new skillsets, and optimize MILESTONES data center to another. our service delivery. We stayed away from projects where we suspected payment to be an issue,” Future business Founded Leon Computers and says Meher. Leon aims to garner revenue of `20 started selling assembled PCs The company saw flat growth crore in FY2013-14 and expects to in FY2011-12 and FY2012-13. Stopped selling assembled PCs, grow at a CAGR of 25 percent over “Our topline remained stagnant the next three years riding on the tied up with Compaq for its at `17 crore, but we saw slight growth of its managed services and branded PCs improvement in our margins due to software solutions, and by adding our focus on services and advanced new services such as cloud, cyber Started selling HP products to solutions,” Meher informs. security and analytics. large corporates The managed services business The company already has a has been the biggest focus area. couple of software development Stopped selling PCs While it contributed only 20 projects in the pipeline to develop completely, moved to solutions software for manufacturing percent to the topline it contributed 40 percent to the bottomline. “In automation projects. “We are and services the past 18 months we have seen constantly working on improving Started a software solutions our managed services business our software platform and almost double from `2.5 crore to including more features for process division close to `5 crore,” Meher says. automation. We are tweaking our “We have started new services shopfloor management software Garnered revenue of such as client and server backup in for new verticals such as textiles, `17 crore addition to endpoint management.” chemicals and pharmaceuticals,” In the past 12 months Leon adds Meher. Increased the number of has increased the number of Leon is bullish about BI managed endpoints from managed endpoints from 15,000 solutions and has put in place a 15,000 to 25,000 to 25,000. Informs Meher, “Last team of four to plan its market year we bagged a 3-year services strategy. contract worth `4.5 crore for managing 8,000 clients Besides, Meher is betting on cloud computing. and their backup, applications and voice networks. It’s “In 2014 we expect to monetize the investments we a very comprehensive contract, almost like a complete have made in acquiring skillsets and educating our outsourcing contract.” customers in cloud computing. We are presently Software has been another performer for Leon, working with IBM and Microsoft for cloud computing, contributing nearly 25 percent of the revenue. “The and plan to add more vendors to the list.” software we developed in 2010 has seen several Leon has plans to build expertise in cyber security advancements and has today become a full-fledged shop services. “We would also like to focus on big data,” floor management solution that allows the customer Meher reveals. “We are working on a strategy to provide to connect with its OEMs, to another shop floor, or value added services in the next two years.” to the company’s warehouse. It manages the flow of automobile parts as per requirements. Our customers On a personal note have saved `7 crore-`8 crore annually with our Meher likes to involve himself in social work and finds software,” Meher says. time for the education of socially deprived children. He Systems integration continues to contribute 50 is currently associated with Rotary International and percent to its overall revenue. is working on a project to provide literacy to deprived In the last 12-18 months Leon has won some children across 15 countries. He is also developing complex systems integration projects. One such project, educational software for these children in different worth `4 crore, from a manufacturing company, was to languages. migrate its DR site from Sun to an IBM platform. He is also an eager reader, and spends a good deal of Leon also concluded a virtualization project for a his time reading. “I love to read spiritual and leadership US-based company to consolidate 150 servers to six books. At present I am reading Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani.” Meher loves driving and spends time going on long drives with his family. “Driving is one of my passions, “In the past 18 months we have seen our so I take 2-3 days off my busy schedule to drive to managed services business almost double nearby places.” He is also a great fan of Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore from `2.5 crore to nearly `5 crore. We have Kumar and Manna Dey, and loves to hear their started new services such as client and melodious numbers whenever he is not working. n

server backup”

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tech focus

strategic tech 10 trends for 2014

Gartner’s analysis of the top ten technology trends for the coming year n Sarah Kuranda

s 2013 wraps up, focus has already shifted to 2014. Surveying the IT landscape, Gartner analysts take a look at up-and-coming technology trends. Strategic solution providers must factor these tech trends to plan their future business growth strategies.

Instead, users will balance a variety of devices that are connected through a personal cloud. The job of the solution provider will be to manage and secure the user’s herd of devices through the cloud, Gartner said.

3D printing

Increasing demand for the cloud is shifting the balance between the cloud and client architecture models. The increased pressure on networks is causing enterprises to shift the load to cloud and reduce storage footprint. Going into 2014, businesses will be looking to leverage the client device to reduce the network strain.

Gartner statistics predict 3D printing to grow 75 percent in 2014 alone, with the number of unit shipments doubling in 2015. While it is a cool technology, what is the impact for the channel? Gartner says that the buzz in 3D printing’s consumer base will lead to it becoming a business solution that helps cut costs, improves products and speeds up manufacturing. Channel partners are pretty mixed so far on the adoption of 3D printing into their own businesses, but some are optimistic about its possibilities for opening up new high-margin product lines.

Smart machines Smart machines, from self-driving cars to computerized personal assistants, will be the most disruptive in the history of IT through 2020. For that reason, there is a lot of success to be found for those who jump on board the trend early, it said. This applies for both individuals and enterprise users. Despite consumerization, smart devices will have a big impact on both the enterprise and consumer segments before ultimately settling in the consumer space.

Web-scale IT What Gartner is calling Web-scale IT is changing the value chain in the cloud space through competition from big cloud players like Amazon and Google. Gartner said that enterprises should look to model themselves off of these cloud leaders, from designing the database center and facilities to architecting the cloud itself. Through a top-tobottom imitation of large cloud players, enterprises can attempt to achieve the same scale, speed and agility.

Software-defined anything As software-defined anything (SDx) grows, Gartner predicts that more and more standards and regulations will pop up over 2014. The research firm expects vendors in particular will be reluctant to adopt standards that will affect the bottom line. However, on the bright side, it said the end consumer will be the benefactor of simpler and more efficient products at a lower cost.

The era of personal cloud In what Gartner calls the shift to the era of the personal cloud, the PC will no longer take the lead in devices.

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Cloud/client architecture

Hybrid cloud, cloud service broker Hybrid is the name of the game for cloud in 2014. Even if working in the private cloud, enterprises should make sure they are ready to go hybrid in the future. Stepping in to take charge of this transition in 2014 will be the Cloud Services Broker (CSB). The 2014 hybrid cloud will be pretty static, but will get more and more dynamic as the market evolves and CSBs grow in the marketplace.

The Internet of Everything The Internet has its tendrils in almost every piece of our lives, from our appliances to our mobile devices to our cars. John Chambers, CEO, Cisco, said he saw the Internet of Everything as a $14.4 trillion opportunity. The problem, Gartner said, is that the enterprise has yet to fully jump on board with the trend. It recommends that enterprises to improve their businesses by adopting four basic usage models—manage, monetize, operate and extend.

Apps For mobile application environments, Gartner predicts the future lies in HTML5 and the browser due to continued JavaScript performance improvements. With more and more users wanting to work across multiple devices, Gartner recommended app developers work to create building blocks that can be assembled to fit the needs of different devices. Overall, it predicted that for 2014 there will be more popularity in smaller, more targeted apps than more comprehensive, one-size-fits-all apps.

Mobile device diversity, management A side effect of increasing mobile technology, BYOD is doubling or tripling the mobile workforce, the Gartner study said. As a result, enterprises need to revisit their BYOD policies to adapt to a changing technology environment in the workplace. The study recommends putting policies in place but staying flexible as mobile continues to adapt. n

channel buzz Quick Heal conducts 8-city partner event With the aim of educating its enterprise partners about its enterprise products, Quick Heal conducted an 8-city campaign which saw participation from a total of more than 300 solutions providers. Conducted in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Jaipur and Nagpur, the event provided info about the company’s new end-point and UTM products, discussed its market strategy for 2014, and trained partners on how to position the new products. Said Abhijit Jorvekar, Executive Director, Quick Heal Technologies, “While this event was for educating our partners about our new products and strategy, it was also for taking their perspective on how we could strengthen our presence in the enterprise segment.” n

n Sunil Grewal, Director, Sales, Gigabyte Technology India with Shiva Yang, Deputy Manager, Gigabyte Technology Taiwan, giving away the Star Performer, South award to Dharmendra Baid, Director, Mega Comp World

Gigabyte flies partners to SA 73 top-performing partners of Gigabyte were sponsored by the vendor for a fun trip to South Africa that included visits to the Table Mountain and Sun City besides a wild animal safari in the Pilanesberg Game Reserve. Named Gigabyte Lions, the jaunt also saw Gigabyte honoring its best partners for 2013 at the Star Performer Awards Night. Shiva Young, Deputy Manager, and Sunil Grewal, Director, Sales, Gigabyte, presented the awards. Generation Nxt Compumart, Earth Syscom, Suntronic Systems and Mega Compu World won the regional Star Performer Awards for the north, west, east and south respectively. Sybex Marketing won the Award for Excellence for its performance in the Intel motherboard category, while Neo Dynamics won it for the AMD platform. Generation Nxt Compumart won its second award as the Star Performer in high-end motherboard category, while Sybex also won the Gigabyte Lion Award for Best India Performance. Ingram Micro received the Best National Distributor Award.n

n Rajesh Goenka (center), VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, receiving the award

HP acknowledges Rashi’s contribution At the recently concluded HP Attach Partner Meet in Dubai, HP recognized Rashi for its contribution to it’s attach business. Jun Kim, VP, Worldwide Accessories and Displays, HP along with Sanjeev Pathak, Country Head, Emerging Business, HP India were present at the meet and presented the award to Rashi. Said Rajesh Goenka, VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, “We have been working closely with HP to drive the attach business, so this recognition has provided the Rashi team with a strong confidence boost. We will now work doubly hard to improve the HP business.” n

To feature your company’s events in CRN, send write-ups with photographs to editor@ubmindia.com

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New Products Apple iPad Air tablet A

1.2 MP front-facing camera with HD video recording and face-detection abilities. It is powered by a battery with the capacity of 10 hours of Internet browsing via Wi-Fi. For connectivity options it has BlueTooth 4.0 and lightning port apart from Wi-Fi and 3G port. The iPad Air Wi-Fi with 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB capacities are priced at `35,900, `42,000, `49,900 and `56,900 respectively. The iPad Air 3G 16 GB, 32 GB, 64 GB and 128 GB are priced at `44,900, `51,900, `58,900 and `65,900 respectively. The products carry a 1-year limited warranty. n

pple recently launched its iPad Air in Wi-Fi and 3G variants in India. The tablet sports a 9.7-inch retina 2,048x1,536 p resolution display with IGZO screen technology. Another feature of the device is that it has the most advanced chipset, Apple A7, a 64 bit architecture-based efficient dual-core processor. The company has planted another co-processor, M7, to independently handle the motionrelated tasks of the phoneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gyroscope and accelerometers. iPad Air comes with the new iOS v 7.0 OS. The tablet houses a 5 MP iSight camera with a 5 element lens, and a

Lenovo ThinkPad T440 ultrabook

enovo recently launched its new 14-inch HD ThinkPad T440 ultrabook with optional multi-touch display. The device is powered by an Intel Haswell core processor, comes with 1 TB of HDD and 512 GB SSD storage, supports upto 2 GB RAM, and runs on Windows 8 OS. For connectivity the ultrabook has a mini-display port, three USB 3.0, and a VGA port for projector connections. It comes with dual speakers with Dolby advanced audio which increases audio clarity for VoIP applications, maximizes volume output without distortion, and improves dialog clarity when watching videos. The ultrabook sports a built-in 720 p HD webcam. The device weighs 1.54 kg. Its Power Bridge battery provides more than 10 hours of battery life. The innovative roll-cage technology adds extra strength and rigidity to the notebook shell. The top cover comes with a carbon fiber top and magnesium bottom for maximum strength without adding weight. It also has military-specific durability and a glass fiber design for a tough yet light laptop. The device is priced at an MRP of `78,000, and carries a 2-year warranty. n

Asus-Google Nexus 7 tablet

sus and Google jointly launched a new 7-inch Nexus 7 tablet which comes with thinner bezels and a slimmer profile compared to its previous version. It has a 16:10 full HD display with a 30 percent wider color gamut and 10 finger multi-touch. The device sports a quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro, 2 GB RAM, upto 32 GB internal storage, and runs on Android 4.3 OS. It also features dual stereo SonicMaster speakers. The tablet comes with a rear-facing 5 MP camera. The device is powered by a battery that provides upto nine hours of HD video playback and 10 hours of Web browsing or e-reading. The Nexus 7 16 GB is priced at `20,999 while the 32 GB variant is priced at `27,999. They carry a 1-year warranty. n

The products featured here have not undergone any benchmarking or testing. The trailers contain information provided by vendors and distributors. To feature your companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s products in CRN, send write-ups with photos to editor@ubmindia.com

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shadow ram Unrest growing against e-tail

he unrest among brick-and-mortar retailers against online retailers is growing. The channel association of Kerala recently met the state finance minister and highlighted how online retail was negatively impacting the states’ tax and revenue collections. Reportedly the finance minister has agreed to study the revenue loss to the state treasury and assured the delegation that if the report indicates substantial revenue loss, it will bring a legislation against online retail. Another big campaign against e-tailers has been started by an online group Wewillact.com which aims to spread awareness on the impact of online retail on small traders and the country’s economy. “We feel that many of the online retailers in a bid to acquire more marketshare are discounting the product margins, which is affecting the MOP. We have lodged a formal complaint with the Competition Commission of India. We have also asked for information under the RTI Act on the raids conducted by enforcement officials on leading e-tailers earlier this year,” informed Hari Rastogi, Founder, WewillAct.com and CEO, Laptopwale. n

GET

Personal

“I’d make education free” Govind Rammurthy, MD & CEO, eScan, has been involved in developing products for the information security industry for more than 20 years. Prior to MicroWorld, he had a brief stint with a Tata Group company.

Govind Rammurthy

If not in the IT industry: I would have perhaps been an author.

Biggest passion: Understanding the wisdom of life and existence. Behind the wheel: Skoda. Gadget I can’t live without: My e-reader. Weekends are for: Reading. Favorite holiday destination: St Tropez. Hate the most: Laziness. Favorite movie: Men of Honor. Favorite stars: Tom Cruise and Jason Statham. Role model: Walt Disney. Ultimate ambition: To build a school and a hospital. Wildest thing I have ever done: None. Thing I most want to do in life: Travel in space. If I became the PM: I would make education compulsory and free for all. Celebrities I would like to spend a day with: Larry Page and Sergey Brin. One person I would like to meet and why: Richard Bach, to listen his talk about the tale of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. Deepest and darkest fear: Getting stranded in an elevator. n — CRN Network

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