EXCLUSIVE CHAT Page No : 10
“SOPHOS IS FORTUNATE TO HAVE ONE OF THE BEST CHANNEL COMMUNITIES IN INDIA” Sunil Sharma, MD - Sales, Sophos India & SAARC www. d i g italt erminal.in
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With the expanding attack surface and the growing sophistication of threats, just reacting to an incident is not enough. The only way to keep up with these changes is to build an effective Threat Intelligence program.
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CONTENT VO L -12, I SS UE -06 , J U N E 2 0 2 1
06 BRAND CONNECT Dell Brings New Range Of Inspiron PCs With Powerful Processors Anand Subramanya, Director- Product Marketing, Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies, India
Publisher & Editor : Rajeev Ranjan Executive Editor : Jyoti Janda Assistant Content Manager : Jai Prakash Consulting Art Direction : Vikas Sharma Visualiser : Akriti Arora
08 IT CHANNEL IT Channel Business Growth Amidst Unlock 2.0
Graphic Designer : Shubham Tomar Editdesk : Anoop Singh Bhandari Content Desk : Daraksha Khan Production Head : Rajiv Singh Marketing Executive : Balvinder Singh Circulation: Ashok & Raju
13 WFH Gartner Says 51% of Global Knowledge Workers Will Be Remote By The End Of 2021
14 BRAND FOCUS Kaizen Infoserve’s Technology Support Helping Brands In Achieving Higher Customer Satisfaction Murali Krishnan, Director, Kaizen Infoserve
18 INTERVIEW “There Is Going To Be Phenomenal Growth In The Indian Cloud Business” Jyotil Mankad, Director & Business Head – Cloud, Ingram Micro
24 NEW ARRIVALS Seagate Exos CORVAULT Storage System
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BRAND CONNECT
DELL BRINGS NEW RANGE OF INSPIRON PCS WITH POWERFUL PROCESSORS Dell Technologies in India launched an array of redesigned Inspiron models for a variety of users including families and students, enabling them to learn, work, and collaborate from anywhere. Revamped from the ground up, the new Inspiron devices are packed with innovations across all form factors allowing consumers to better adapt to the do-from-anywhere digital lifestyle. The new range comes with the latest PC innovations to help users remain connected anytime, such as Lid Open sensor that enables users to experience instant-on functionality when they open their laptop. Commenting on the launch, Anand Subramanya, Director- Product Marketing, Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies, India, said, “PCs have an increased relevance today making them the center of digital experience. The new Inspiron portfolio is designed to be lighter, with expansive screens and powerful performance to support remote work/ learning, streaming entertainment and keeping up with family and friends. With improved features including minimalist and modern design, slim bezel displays, spacious touchpads and larger keypads, the new Inspiron range delivers what matters most to users. Our customers can now keep up with all their creative, virtual, and social activities in style.” SALIENT FEATURES OF INSPIRON SERIES Optimized with technology that simplifies life, Inspiron laptops and 2-in-1s offer a range of easy-to-use features all packaged in a minimalist and modern design, so users can stay connected from anywhere: • Enhanced front of screen experience featuring 4-sided narrow border display and a screen resolution of up to QHD+ offering an immersive, virtually borderless viewing experience 6
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Anand Subramanya, Director- Product Marketing, Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies, India • Staying connected with up-to-date applications has never been easier thanks to Connected Modern Standby. Now the device stays ready, even when in sleep mode and users can quickly access files and applications whenever needed for an instant-on experience. • Turn on, boot up, and log in quickly. A lid-open sensor gets the laptop started when opened, even if completely off or hibernating, and a fingerprint reader will verify identity quickly for login using Windows Hello
• Using advanced algorithms and accelerometers, the device’s adaptive thermals are smart enough to know when it is placed on a stable surface, such as a desk, or an unstable surface like hands or lap. This allows the device to intelligently adapt its power and thermal profiles to the situation and keeps running, smoothly • Lift Hinge on the device is soothing on the hand and makes it easy to carry while also allowing for improved air circulation underneath and a more comfortable typing angle.
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BRAND CONNECT
• ExpressCharge™ minimizes the time spent tethered to an outlet and will recharge the battery in a flash (up to 80% in 60 minutes). • The HD webcam comes with Temporal Noise Reduction (TNR) hardware solution for high-quality video streaming, reducing pixelation and eliminating visual noise even in low-lit environments. Additionally, the camera comes with a mechanical camera shutter that protects against privacy invasion or accidental embarrassments on video calls INSPIRON 14 2-IN-1 Inspiron 2-in-1s are perfect companions to those looking for flexibility in form factor and switching from work to entertainment, easily. • Versatility: The Inspiron 14 2-in-1 models work in four versatile modes enabling users to easily switch between laptop, tent, stand, and tablet mode; so, they can choose which mode fits best to stay connected. • Virtually Borderless View: 4-sided narrow border thin bezels and the stunning 14” Full HD Wide Viewing Angle touch display delivers an incredible viewing experience to lean back to enjoy content from any angle. • Enhanced Design: Clean and consistent rounded edges offer increased comfort while holding, typing or in tablet mode. 9% enlarged keys compared to the previous generation makes typing experience more comfortable and a touchpad with new material offers a smooth, glass-like feel. • Compatible active pen provides a natural pen on paper feel while drawing, sketching, or writing. Inspiron 14 2-in1s come in different configurations and are powered by 11th Generation Intel® CoreTM processors or AMD RyzenTM Mobile processors with RadeonTM Graphics for a responsive experience that’s designed to match every computing needs.
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INSPIRON THIN & LIGHT RANGE Inspiron 13 offers an ideal blend of portability and productivity with best in class screen experience. • Portable Comfort - Made with lighter materials like Aluminum, it is an ultraportable weighing just 1.25 kgs, and a sleek 13.3” form factor makes it easy to carry • Maximized front of screen experience - With a stunning QHD+ resolution, four-sided narrow border in a compact 13” form factor, users get a delightful viewing. • Dell ComfortView Plus – An in-built TUV low blue light hardware solution that allows users to spend long hours in front of the laptop without straining their eyes. Additionally, it has enhanced thermal and lift hinge designs that improve air circulation under the laptop to adjust the thermal profile keeping the device cool no matter where it is placed. Inspiron 14 & Inspiron 15 offer a perfect balance of style, performance, and productivity to all kind of users • Maximized screen experience – Both Inspiron 14 and Inspiron 15 come with four-sided narrow bezel display for an immersive screen experience • Powerful processor – Powered by
the latest Intel H-grade processor that provides more muscle for high performance and aims to bring desktop-class performance to laptops • Latest NVIDIA Graphics - Inspiron 15 comes with an assortment of various configurations including the extra power offering of the latest NVIDIA MX450 graphics card • Multitask efficiently- Inspiron 15 powered by the latest AMD Ryzen™ Mobile Processors with Radeon™ Graphics delivers efficient response for seamless multitasking PRICING AND AVAILABILITY (INCLUSIVE OF TAXES) • Inspiron 14 2-in-1s will be available from June 17 at a starting price of INR 57,990 (Intel configurations) and INR 65,990 (AMD configurations) • Inspiron 14 will be available from June 18 at a starting price of INR 44,990 • Inspiron 15 (Intel configurations) will be available from June 18 at a starting price of INR 48,990 • Inspiron 15 (AMD configurations) will be available from June 22 at a starting price of INR 57,990 • Inspiron 13 will be available from July 7 at a starting price of INR 68,990
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IT CHANNEL
IT CHANNEL BUSINESS GROWTH AMIDST UNLOCK 2.0 As various State Governments have announced unlock in a phased manner after the horrific second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, channel partners across the country are now geared up to restart their business in full capacity. However, unlike the explosion in demand for IT hardware solutions post-first unlock phase, partners do not expect a similar surge this time. RP tech India reached out to prominent partners across the regions to understand business prospects, challenges and opportunities post-unlock 2.0. IT HELPED PEOPLE SURVIVE THE PANDEMIC The IT sector played a crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic. It was one of the industry, which grew multi-fold during the crisis due to an exponential increase in demand for IT hardware solutions and rapid adoption of digital services. Channel partners played a critical role in the fulfilment of IT hardware solutions and related services to various strategic institutions such as banks, hospitals, small and medium scale businesses etc. IT helped people continue their business and survive through the global slowdown. Partners say that the trend will continue post-pandemic and more organizations will embrace digitization to match the global pace. Mr. Biren Yadav, Managing Director of Mumbai based Bluecom Infotech Pvt Ltd says that every component of the IT business will grow consistently for the next couple of years. “We are surviving this pandemic because of IT and the industry is contributing towards the community to tackle the pandemic. As far as Bluecom Infotech is concerned, we are the system integration company and we serve some of the premier institutions in India. We were functioning during the lockdown as well and we were serving the community by supplying critical IT solutions to companies”, he says. Adding further he says, “IT is an essential element of any business and I 8
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don’t think the demand will go down post-pandemic. People will continue to explore the digital mediums to get their IT in place to match the world pace. NO BIG BOOM BUT GRADUAL BUSINESS Partners say that, unlike the first unlock phase, the demand for computing hardware will not see a sudden spike this time but the regular retail business will pick up gradually over the months. Though a majority of State governments have lifted restrictions, there are certain regions, which are still under lockdown and hence, there is a challenge of product availability and price. Assam based Mr. Vikash Agarwal, Director of Universal Systems who supplies IT products in the entire Northeast region says that markets are operating with limited capacity and most of the fulfilment of the product have already happened last year. Hence, there will not be a sudden surge in the business post unlock. “Contrary to the big boom in demand we saw during the last unlock phase, this year the scenario is different. Most of the buying has already happened, especially in the online learning segment. However, there is little demand from the regular retail segment. Once the working hours increase and the regular transportation resumes, we expect a rise in the demand. We expect business from the Government and Corporate sectors but price rise and scarcity of products remain the main challenges”, he says. FREE MOVEMENT OF GOODS CRITICAL FOR BUSINESS Partners say that free intra-state and inter-state movement of goods is very critical for business. They say it is important for partners to maintain sufficient stock of products to meet consumers’ demand. “Our entire business in the Government was stuck during the first lockdown due to restrictions on transportation and
physical movement. However, this time the Government allowed transportation of essential commodities including IT. Therefore, we were able to execute the B2B orders in the Government segment. This was a good step of the government, which enabled us to do the business”, says Mukesh Agarwal, owner of Lucknow based BM Computers. WFH/LFH CONTINUE TO DRIVE BUSINESS Last year the industry had seen tremendous demand for WFH and LFH solutions from the consumer and SOHO segment. But this year the demand will be limited as the majority of consumers have already bought the products. However, WFH and LFH will continue to drive the IT business along with Government and Corporate sector as many people embrace digital technologies. “Unlike the last lockdown, the demand for IT will not rise exponentially during this unlock phase. The demand will rise in the next one month but after that, it will again go into stagnancy. Therefore, the situation is critical but we are optimistic with the business in hard drives, computer peripherals and accessories. Notebooks, tablets, laptops, headphones, webcams are some of the products, which are currently high in demand and we will continue to generate revenue through these product segments”, says Mr. Jinkesh, Director of Chennai based Samkit Infotech. The COVID-19 pandemic is here to stay for the next couple of years and technology is going to be a game-changer in terms of how we adapt to the new normal. Therefore, it will be interesting to see how channel partners leverage the opportunity and grow their business. www.digitalterminal.in
CYBERSECURITY
SOPHOS EXPOSES NEW MALWARE NAMED “VIGILANTE” Sophos published new research, “Vigilante Malware Rats Out Software Pirates While Blocking The Pirate Bay,” which details a curious cyberattack campaign that targets users of pirated software with malware designed to block access to websites hosting pirated software. The developers disguise the malware as cracked versions of popular online games such as Minecraft and Among Us, as well as productivity tool such as Microsoft Office, security software and others. The disguised malware is distributed via the BitTorrent platform from an account hosted on “ThePirateBay” digital filesharing website. Links to the malware are also hosted on Discord. Once installed, the malware blocks the victim’s access to a long list of websites, including many that distribute pirated software. Unusual aspects of the operation uncovered by Sophos researchers include: • The attackers use an age-old approach of modifying the HOSTS file settings on an infected device to “localhost” a long list of websites, thereby blocking the user’s access to them. This approach is fairly easy to reverse and Sophos researchers are unsure why the attackers used it • Some of the many hundreds of sites that are being “localhosted” by the malware are unrelated to pirated software and some were shut down or became inactive in or around 2012/2013 • The malicious files are compiled for 64-bit Windows 10 and then signed with bogus digital certificates that wouldn’t pass more than a very rudiwww.digitalterminal.in
Source: www.freepik.com
mentary check • Once downloaded and installed by a user, the malware hunts for files named 7686789678967896789678 and 412412512512512. If it finds them it stops any further launch of the attack. Sophos researchers believe this could be designed to prevent the malware operators from infecting their own computers while they work on the malicious code • The malware also triggers a fake error message to appear when it runs, which asks people to re-install the software. Sophos researchers believe this could be to allay suspicion among users who wonder why the program they received didn’t contain the installers they were expecting Andrew Brandt, principal threat researcher, Sophos, said, “Sometimes it is easy to see clearly what an adversary’s end game is and why they have chosen a particular approach
to achieve it. This is not one of those times. “On the face of it, the adversary’s targets and tools suggest this could be some kind of crudely-compiled anti-piracy vigilante operation. However, the attacker’s vast potential target audience – from gamers to business professionals – combined with the curious mix of dated and new tools, techniques and procedures (TTPs) and the bizarre list of websites blocked by the malware, all make the ultimate purpose of this operation a bit murky. There may not even be an overall purpose to this attack at all. However, that doesn’t reduce the level of risk or the potential disruption for victims. To stay safe from such attacks, install a robust security solution that will spot such scams before they reach you, and avoid downloading pirated software or anything offering you suspiciously too-good-to-be true ‘legitimate’ software.”
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EXCLUSIVE CHAT
“SOPHOS IS FORTUNATE TO HAVE ONE OF THE BEST CHANNEL COMMUNITIES IN INDIA” Today, organizations are betting big on digital tools to boost their digital transformation journey. But the uptick in the amount of sophisticated cyber incidents create an alarming situation for such organizations. Moreover, the sudden rise in the ransomware attacks are posing serious threats towards a successful digital journey. These cyber attackers have developed new ways to deceive the security systems of enterprises who are persistently adopting effective measures to cop-up with the changing threat landscape. Sophos is one of the market players that offer effective security solutions to help organizations mitigate the risks of falling prey to cyber-attacks. In a quest to get crucial insights about the increasing cyber incidents and way forward for the organizations to combat these challenges, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal spoke to SUNIL SHARMA, MD - SALES, SOPHOS INDIA & SAARC. Sunil Sharma shared valuable information regarding the changing threat landscape, the factors supporting these incidents and best possible ways for organizations to safeguard their digital assets. Read below the excerpts:
RAJEEV: WHAT ARE YOUR VIEWS ON THE INCREASING RANSOMWARE ATTACKS ON THE ENTERPRISE SEGMENT DURING LAST ONE YEAR? WHAT ARE THE KEY REASONS FOR INCREASE IN SUCH INCIDENCE ACROSS INDIA? SUNIL SHARMA: The Sophos 2021 Threat Report flags how ransomware and attacker behaviors, from advanced to entry level, changed during 2020 and will shape the threat landscape and IT security in 2021. This report highlights how advance adversaries abuse legitimate tools, well known utilities and common network destinations to evade detection and security measures to launch sophisticated attacks like ransomware.
Ransomware 2021 survey report also gives some interesting insight into the ransom payment and average cost of Ransomware recovery. The report says: • 67% of the surveyed Indian organizations paid a ransom to get their data back, double the global average of 32% • The approximate cost for an organization to recover from the impact of a ransomware attack increased threefold in the last 12 months, from $1.1 million in 2020 to $3.38 million in 2021
There is no slowdown in ransomware attacks because these attacks are very successful. There are many reasons why ransomware gangs are successful: they are finding soft targets and second biggest reason is that people are still paying the ransom.
The survey report clearly shows that even after paying the ransom, the likelihood of getting all the data back is slim and for larger enterprises, the cost of full recovery could be millions of dollars. Paying ransom is not the solution to this problem. Until we improve our cybersecurity ecosystem and stop paying the ransom, the ransomware gangs are going to keep coming.
Our recently launched The State of
RAJEEV: HOW IS EDR/XDR PROVING
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TO BE A BOON FOR ORGANIZATIONS? HOW DOES IT HELP ORGANIZATIONS TO STRENGTHEN THEIR CYBERSECURITY STRATEGY TO PLAY SAFELY IN TODAY’S DIGITAL ERA? SUNIL SHARMA: The most sophisticated and evasive attacks leverage multiple access points to gain entry, move laterally to evade detection, and do as much damage as possible as fast as possible. The only way organizations can combat such attacks is by including active threat hunting which is a part of Detection and Response into their cybersecurity operations. Endpoint Detection and Response (EDR) and Extended Detection and Response (XDR) are the tools for threat hunting that helps organizations to hunt across their environment to detect indicators of compromise (IOCs) and indicators of attack (IOA). EDR are powerful tools but they are limited to detection and response on endpoints and servers. This isn’t necessarily a limitation. If organizations www.digitalterminal.in
EXCLUSIVE CHAT
had to choose one place to focus their detection and response efforts their endpoints and servers are a great choice. However, there are things organizations can’t do by working on them in isolation. After all, IT environment is an interconnected web of networks, communication tools, mobile devices, cloud applications and more. To defend IT infrastructure more comprehensively an integrated detection and response system is key. This is where XDR comes in. XDR takes the idea of EDR and extends it. It goes beyond the endpoint and server, incorporating data from other security tools such as firewalls, email gateways, public cloud tools and mobile threat management solutions. RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU SEE THE CHANGING THREAT LANDSCAPE? HOW DOES IT IMPACT THE MODERN CTOS & CIOS PLANNING? SUNIL SHARMA: Our daily threat intelligence from SophosLabs and our MTR and Rapid Response teams, indicates that the threat landscape is ever evolving. We live in a world where many cybercriminals have specialized and offer their unique services to others. Some focus their efforts on initial access by breaching companies with weak security on their externally facing services. Others are skilled at phishing which nets them valuable network credentials. Both these groups can resell their ill-gotten information to other criminals who are skilled at hands-on attacks and data exfiltration. We also see malware, mostly in the form of droppers, that provide this initial foothold and offer compromised hosts to other malware crews, like banking trojans. These banking trojans will, in turn, sell their access to ransomware crews once they have everything they need for financial fraud. Much of this world is automated, but it is supported by well-resourced criminals who have the time, money, and skill to deal with setbacks. What’s worse are the groups that offer everything-criminal-as-a-service to unskilled, wannabe-cybercriminals. www.digitalterminal.in
To defend against these attack trends, CTOs & CIOs need to have three main pillars in their cybersecurity: 1. Next-gen security solutions that provide layered security to prevent threats and unwanted software from infecting their devices and networks 2. A managed service that continuously monitors environments for organizations that don’t have a security team 3. Cybersecurity awareness within organizations (i.e., phishing awareness training) RAJEEV: DO YOU HAVE ANY TECH SUPPORT SYSTEM TO HELP CUSTOMERS/ COMPANIES IF THEY COME ACROSS ANY CYBERATTACKS? HOW DO YOU ADVISE THEM ON RESOLVING THESE THREATS? SUNIL SHARMA: Apart from providing preventive next-generation cybersecurity solutions that help organizations combat cyberattacks, we also offer Sophos Managed Threat and Response as a service to our customers that don’t have threat hunting capabilities and our security practitioners do 24x7 threat hunting and neutralizing for them. We have an emergency incident response service called Rapid Response, aimed at organizations hit with an attack to help them get through the incident and minimize damage. RAJEEV: WHAT ALL SUPPORT YOU ARE PROVIDING TO YOUR LOYAL CHANNEL PARTNERS DURING EXISTING PANDEMIC? HOW YOU ARE TAKING CARE OF THEIR WELLBEING?
SUNIL SHARMA: Sophos is fortunate to have one of the best channel communities in India and we are grateful to our channel partners for that. The support and collaboration that we have seen from our partners in the past year has been incredible. The main challenge channel partners are facing, like all of us, is isolation and learning to work in a new way as a result of the pandemic. Sophos has remained empathetic and connected to the needs of the channel, but we are solving this together as a community, not as channel and vendor separately. To make our partners not lose their perspective during the first phase of pandemic when the strictest lockdown was imposed, we had launched Engineering Happiness: A series of webinar to enable happier, healthier and prosperous life. These webinars were conducted to help our channel partners to turn lockdown into a positive experience by giving them the tools to unlock their happiness. The five-episode webinar series was to assist channel partners in transforming this worrisome time into an unforgettable experience of emotional enlightenment.
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MARKET REPORT
DELL CONTINUES TO LEAD INDIAN EXTERNAL STORAGE SYSTEMS MARKET WITH 27.0% MARKET SHARE As per International Data Corporation’s (IDC) latest Worldwide Quarterly Enterprise Storage Systems Tracker Q1 2021 release, India’s external storage market witnessed a decline of 6.0% year-over-year (YoY) by vendor revenue and stood at USD 83.0 million in Q1 2021 (Jan-Mar). Witnessed YoY growth in storage spending from BFSI, professional services, and manufacturing verticals, while saw a sharp decline in telecommunications, media, and government verticals in Q1 2021. “The pandemic has accelerated the digital transformation initiatives but to drive successful transformation organizations need to modernize their applications/infrastructure; provide seamless access to data; continuous optimization, and next-generation security all with ease of management and at a reduced cost. Enterprises are in search of intelligent infrastructure platform which can enable them in their transformation journey,” says Dileep Nadimpalli, Research Manager, Enterprise Infrastructure, IDC India. Adoption of All-Flash Arrays (AFA) is evident, contributing 40.5% to the overall external storage systems market in Q1 2021. Increased uptake of AFA specifically from banking organizations contributed to YoY
growth in Q1 2021. We expect this market to grow further as a majority of the enterprises are preferring only AFA for all their primary workloads. Entry-Level storage systems grew by 11.5% YoY due to increased investments from banking, government, and manufacturing organizations in Q1 2021. Midrange and High-end storage segments witnessed a YoY decline but expecting strong uptake of these storage segments in the near future. MAJOR VENDORS ANALYSIS Dell Technologies continued to be the market leader in the external storage systems market with a 27.0% market share by vendor revenue, followed by HPE and NetApp. Both HPE and NetApp have witnessed significant
YoY growth in 1Q 2021. IDC INDIA FORECAST The external storage systems market is expected to grow at a single-digit compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) for the 2020 – 2025 period. IDC forecasts that External Storage Systems spending is expected to grow YoY significantly in CY 2021 due to uptake from government, BFSI, and telecommunication verticals.
TP-LINK CONTINUES TO LEAD THE INDIAN WLAN MARKET WITH 27.2% MARKET SHARE According to IDC’s Worldwide Quarterly Wireless LAN Tracker, the Indian WLAN market had a YoY growth of 17.3% during 1Q21. The market stood at USD 58.3 million (by Vendor Revenue). The enterprise-class WLAN made a strong recovery of 7.4% YoY and 20.8% QoQ after a slow 2020. With enterprises realizing the future of work to be hybrid, there were strong investments contributed by professional services organizations during Q1 2021.
The consumer gateway router business grew by 29.5% YoY to support the growing demand of employees and students working out of their homes. However, from a quarterly standpoint, the gateway router business declined by 22.8%, owing to the excess supply available in the market.
Manufacturing also contributed strongly to enterprise-class access point revenues with investments from pharmaceuticals, automobiles, and industrial durables. Business from verticals like education and hospitality remained stagnant. IDC expects the enterprise-class access point investments to slow down again, with India going into the second phase of lockdown in Q2 2021.
The pandemic has also acted as a catalyst in driving cloud-managed wireless among Indian enterprises. India also saw a substantial increase in the Wi-Fi 6 adoption among enterprises over the last year. With a market share of 27.2%, TP-Link was the market leader in the WLAN segment during 1Q21.
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Within the enterprise-class WLAN segment, Cisco was the market leader with a 16.7% market share, followed by HPE with 16%. Both the vendors showed a strong recovery in Q1 2021. www.digitalterminal.in
WFH
GARTNER SAYS 51% OF GLOBAL KNOWLEDGE WORKERS WILL BE REMOTE BY THE END OF 2021 By the end of 2021, knowledge workers are expected to be remotely, up from 27% edge workers in 2019, to Gartner, Inc.
51% of all worldwide working of knowlaccording
Gartner also estimates that remote workers will represent 32% of all employees worldwide by the end of 2021. This is up from 17% of employees in 2019. Gartner defines knowledge workers are those who are involved in knowledge-intensive occupations, such as writers, accountants, or engineers. Gartner defines a remote worker as an employee working away from their company, government, or customer site at least one full day a week (hybrid workers) or who work fully from home (fully remote workers). A hybrid workforce is the future of the work, with both remote and on-site part of the same solution to optimize employers’ workforce needs,” said Ranjit Atwal, senior research director at Gartner. Remote working varies considerably around the world depending on IT adoption, culture, and mix of industries. In 2022, 31% of all workers worldwide will be remote (a mix of hybrid and fully remote). The U.S. will lead in terms of remote workers in 2022, accounting for 53% of the U.S. workforce. Across Europe, U.K. remote workers will represent 52% of its workforce in 2022, while remote workers in Germany and France will account for 37% and 33%, respectively. India and China will produce some of the largest numbers of remote workers, but their overall penetration rates www.digitalterminal.in
Source: www.freepik.com
will remain relatively low with 30% of workers in India being remote and 28% of workers in China working remote. IMPACT ON HOW IT IS PROCURED AND USED THROUGH 2024 The lasting impact of remote work is resulting in a reassessment of the IT infrastructure that shifts buyer requirements to demand work-anywhere capabilities. “Through 2024, organizations will be forced to bring forward digital business transformation plans by at least five years. Those plans will have to adapt to a post-COVID-19 world that involves permanently higher adoption of remote work and digital touchpoints,” said Mr. Atwal. Digital products and services will play a big role in these digital transformation efforts. This longer strategic plan requires continued investment in strategic remote-first technology continuity implementations along with new technologies such as hyperautomation, AI and collaboration technologies to open
up more flexibility of location choice in job roles. A hybrid workforce will continue to increase the demand for PCs and tablets. In 2021, PC and tablet shipments will exceed 500 million units for the first time in history, highlighting the demand across both business and consumer markets. Organizations also deployed cloud to quickly enable remote workers. Gartner forecasts worldwide end-user spending on public cloud services will grow 23.1% in 2021 as CIOs and IT leaders continue to prioritize cloud-delivered applications, such as software as a service (SaaS). SaaS applications are designed for remote access and aren’t constrained by the location of the workers using the application. Social and collaboration tools will continue to be a “must have” which will lead the worldwide social software and collaboration revenue market to increase 17.1% in 2021. JUNE 2021 I
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BRAND FOCUS
KAIZEN INFOSERVE’S TECHNOLOGY SUPPORT HELPING BRANDS IN ACHIEVING HIGHER CUSTOMER SATISFACTION organisation moving in the right direction for business continuity. At Kaizen, we offer special support & SOP in place to take care of moving the replacement part to the customer locations as required. Our resources are available on call/email for any kind of support during the pandemic.”
In the age of fast-moving world, the role of technology has become very crucial to succeed in any domain. Technology products have made the world much advanced and enabled people to work with extra efficiency. But keeping such technology devices working and updated is one of the key jobs for all technology brands. Moreover, any glitches in the functioning of the product attract trouble for the customers. Thereby, tech brands strive to deliver the best quality products and after-sales service to their customers. Also, to provide customers with best-in-class service support tech brands invest a lot and join force with some top-level companies who bring expertise in the field of technical services. Bangalore-based, Kaizen Infoserve (Operating PAN India) is one such company that caters to service support affair for leading brands and helps their loyal customers with the industry’s best service support. Especially during the pandemic when work from home (WFH) has become the new norm, Kaizen has worked extremely well in order to help the customers as well as brands. While talking to Digital Terminal, MURALI KRISHNAN, DIRECTOR, KAIZEN INFOSERVE said, “RMA / Technology support plays a vital role in managing the technical infrastructure for all size of organisations across country. Earlier even SOHO organisation had one technical resource to take care of any technical issues, but in current situation like WFH managing the laptop/desktop health is very key to keep the infrastructure for any
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Kaizen Infoserve has many leading brands on-board as partner for providing customer support across all region. Murali said, “We work with leading brands like Array, Cooler Master, Crucial, Corsair, Galax, Inno3d, Mercury, Micron, Nextron, Zotac. We see clear differentiation in terms of customer satisfaction since such brands are associated with us. These positive customer feedback directly helping brands in having excellent sales and marketing for the products. While on the other hand to improve the product performance, we too share the failure-related data with each brand to understand customer requirements and expectations from the brand.” Kaizen is successfully operating from the last 15 years and has built great repo and a robust infrastructure across the country. Its wide network of offices spanning from metro cities to smaller cities helping the consumers in a very effective manner. Murali added, “We have Bangalore as corporate office, Central warehouse and we also have regional hubs/branches in 10 other states. We are managing the activities efficiently in the respective regions. Also, we have more than 40 active Kaizen Authorised partners (KAP) in smaller cities that add additional value to our strength. Our homegrown ERP has the feature to add brands/SLA based on locations enabling to manage the Turnaround Time (TAT) as per each brand’s requirements.” Murali Krishnan had a clear vision and required passion since his early professional days. After completing his graduation in Electronics, he worked in leading brands like Micro Hard, Graphtec, Godrej Pacific, and Kobian. Consequently, his key strengths like technology understanding, customer support & traveling enabled him to provide the required deliverables to his clients and customers helped in associating with Kaizen Infoserve during 2007.
Inception days of Kaizen Infoserve was not very easy as he faced many obstacles at the outset. Briefing about the major challenges, Murali revealed, “Mobilizing the confidence of employees and brands were the two major hiccups. Initial 18 month time was spent to stabilize the infrastructure, look at every small opportunity to expand, give ears to feedback and work in removing the negativity. All this brought in the required confidence for the brands thereby the channel partners grew gradually over the decade and a half.” As far as competition is concerned, today Kaizen Infoserve is growing at a very good pace. Murali is leveraging the market opportunities and working very hard to put their partners forward which ultimately helps them grow. Kaizen Infoserve is positioned very well in the Indian market thus it plans to further accelerate its growth wheel. Elaborating about the key factors that help them attain a sustainable growth rate in the competitive market, Murali said, “Our focus on the deliverables, maintain clients in critical shortcomings, understanding the mindset of brands and customers, value for money proposition has all helped us to maintain the constant growth journey so far. With the same ideology and win-win approach, we are moving forward. Consistency in the deliverables, optimisation of resources are also key factor for us to maintain the growth momentum.” Further speaking about the future growth plans, he concluded, “With the requirement of technical infrastructure growing due to WFH, isolated work area, rotational shift, the role of organisation like us has to reach the remote parts of the country beyond regular working hours. We are well equipped and have geared up to provide the best required support to our existing and new clients. We will also eye to maintain our business at the same pre-pandemic level by adding more avenues to grow at much better leap during current year.” With a best service support infra, effective go-to-market strategy and vast expertise in the service domain, Kaizen Infoserve is looking to continue their successful growth journey in years to come.
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IT SECURITY
KASPERSKY ANNOUNCED EXPANDED CAPABILITIES OF ITS VPN SECURE CONNECTION Kaspersky has improved and expanded its list of available VPN Secure Connection capabilities. This includes the Kill Switch feature – which allows customers to spend time online safely and protects them from risky connectivity interruptions – being made available for iOS. The list of available streaming services has also grown, while the range of geographies through which users can route their traffic is also expanding, along with the number of servers. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, people are spending more time at home and using their devices more often. According to a DoubleVerify study, daily time spent on consuming content online has doubled globally since the start of the pandemic, from an average of three hours 17 minutes to six hours 59 minutes. Moreover, streaming services are increasingly beginning to differentiate content geographically, which means that users from different regions may not have access to important news and other content. This has led to VPN services becoming increasingly popular.
KILL SWITCH NOW ALSO ON IOS Kill Switch is a VPN safety feature that automatically disables the user’s internet connection should their VPN be disabled. This ensures the user’s digital privacy isn’t compromised and prevents data from being lost. Thanks to this option, consumers no longer need to worry about third-parties getting information about their online activities. The feature is now available for iOS, which means that a customer’s personal data is securely protected on all four platforms: Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS. The Kill Switch is available to users with a premium subscription.
BROADENING GLOBAL AVAILABILITY AND IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION In order to widen the availability of the service to users globally, Kaspersky is constantly expanding the number of supported countries. The Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection now has a network of over 2,000 servers in more than 53 regions and is available across all continents except Antarctica. At the same time, there is at
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least one physical server in the Kaspersky network in each location. This has allowed the company to improve the connection’s stability and provide users with a high-quality, fast internet connection. In 2021, Kaspersky added 19 new regions to the list of available locations. Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection can currently connect through 53 locations across the world, while there are plans to grow coverage to more than 70 this year.
ADDING NEW AVAILABLE STREAMING SERVICES AND EXTENSION OF COUNTRIES FOR NETFLIX Key updates also include providing access to local content. To expand the user’s experience and provide access to important news and information, Kaspersky’s VPN Secure Connection makes content from the US available on streaming platforms such as Hulu, Disney+, and Amazon Prime Video, while content from the UK is available on BBC iPlayer. If the local catalog is not supported for the location, then the user has access to the US directory for Netflix/ Hulu/Amazon Prime/Disney+ and the GB directory for BBC iPlayer. Kaspersky’s team also widened the geography for Netflix. The streaming platform is now also available to users throughout Germany and Japan. Consequently, customers can watch their favorite movies, shows, and sports programs privately, securely, and with no throttling.
“The explosion in data collection – not just the volume but also the variety and velocity – has led to consumers’ concerns around security and privacy. Considering the explosive growth of personal data stored online and the number of services that try to get access to personal information, one of the best ways to protect it and prevent access by third parties is to use a VPN during internet surfing. To strengthen users’ privacy level, Kaspersky is constantly improving all products, including Kaspersky VPN Secure Connection. The updated version of the solution lets users keep their personal data safe across all platforms while using services and sites around the world,” comments Marina Titova, Head of Consumer Product Marketing at Kaspersky. Chris Connell, Managing Director, Kaspersky (APAC) said, “As a cybersecurity and digital privacy company, we try to provide optimum security to our users by constantly updating our solutions. These regular updates enable us to offer new features and benefits to our consumers that can help them grow digitally, without the fear of losing their important/ sensitive data. Having a strong VPN connection does not only enhance a user’s digital experience to a great extent, but also allows them to visit different websites securely around the world that would otherwise not be available in their regions. Keeping this in mind our latest update is now available for all types of devices including: Mac, iOS, Windows and Android, enabling all our consumers to use the Kill Switch safety feature in the premium version to obtain utmost level of security.”
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CHANNEL FOCUS
MSI ON-BOARDS CREATIVE PERIPHERALS AND DISTRIBUTION LIMITED AS ITS NEW DISTRIBUTOR FOR INDIA
MSI has announced the appointment of Creative Peripherals and Distribution Limited as its new authorized distributor for the Indian market. Creative Peripherals is one of the largest technology distributors with a network of 5000+ partners, 26 branches and 200+ employees ensuring maximum penetration across the country. As per the partnership, Creative Peripherals will now be the official distributor for MSI’s innovative product lineup of Desktops, AIO’s and Mini PC’s. This product line will be extended soon with more cutting-edge products. Leveraging its extensive reach across India, Creative Peripherals will ensure the seamless flow of MSI’s products throughout India. MSI and Creative Peripherals will work together to address the burgeoning demand for modern PCs and its solutions. It is noted that MSI is one of the leading brands in gaming, content creation, business & productivity and AIoT solutions. Its comprehensive lineup of laptops, graphics cards, monitors, motherboards, desktops, peripherals, servers, IPCs, robotic appliances, and vehicle infotainment and telematics systems are globally acclaimed. Being one of the valuable distribution houses, Creative Peripherals brings value to this partnership. Now with Pan India presence and understanding of each region, Creative Peripherals will help MSI to accelerate the growth and grow its customer base across India. 16
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HP EXTENDS ITS GLOBAL PARTNER PROGRAM ‘HP AMPLIFY’
HP Inc. has announced the extension of HP Amplify — a first-of-its kind global channel program — to its vast ecosystem of more than 1350 online pure players, omnichannel, and brick and mortar retail partners. Launched in the fall of 2020 to commercial partners, the powerful new partner program, built on a single, integrated structure provides the insights, capabilities and collaboration tools needed to drive digital transformation and growth as consumer buying behaviors continue to evolve. HP will begin to transition retail partners to the HP Amplify program beginning August 2, 2021 and continue through the calendar year. “Spurred by rising demand for work, learn and entertain at home products accelerated by the pandemic, the retail industry has experienced an accelerated pace of change. The modern buyer is looking for streamlined, automated, and personalised experiences. To thrive in this changing environment, HP is not only transforming the purchasing experience but also the way technology is impacting retail by using data and analytics to support our partners in the current era. The new partner program, built on a single, integrated structure provides the insights, capabilities and collaboration tools needed to drive digital transformation and growth as consumer buying behaviors continue to evolve”, said Gurpreeet Brar, Head, Channel Sales & Distribution, HP India Market.
MICRO FOCUS APPOINTED RAH INFOTECH AS ITS NATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR
RAH Infotech announced it has partnered with Micro Focus to help enterprises in India as they start their digitalization journeys and build more agile, cyber-secure and analytics driven organizations. As a national distributor, RAH Infotech will leverage its pan-India distribution network to deploy Micro Focus’ entire suite of technology solutions around Hybrid IT, Security, Enterprise DevOps and Predictive Analytics. “The COVID pandemic changed the way businesses use technology and it helped to accelerate digital transformation across business verticals worldwide. The WFH and lockdown norms posed new challenges as enterprises worked to maintain business continuity and their operational stability. The Micro Focus portfolio of software solutions addresses these challenges with its industry-leading digital transformation solutions,” said Ashok Kumar, MD, RAH Infotech. “We are excited to distribute Micro Focus solutions because of our shared vision of delivering world-class digital infrastructure solutions to our customers.” “At Micro Focus, we strongly believe that customer success is linked to ours as well as our partners in designing and implementing solutions to solve customer business issues. At a time when enterprises are more reliant than ever on collaboration, we believe that partnerships are a competitive advantage” said Saurabh Saxena, Country Director, India, Micro Focus. “Micro Focus is committed to its partners and their success to help deliver outcome-driven solutions to the market. Our collaboration with RAH Infotech, fortifies our commitment towards innovation and customer-centricity.”
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CHANNEL FOCUS
SILVERSTONE TECHNOLOGY ROPES IN FORTUNE MARKETING AS ITS NATIONAL DISTRIBUTOR
SilverStone Technology has announced Fortune Marketing as its national distributor in India. SilverStone Technology provides the highest level of standards in designing and manufacturing gaming accessories. Fortune Marketing, an IT distribution company, headquartered at Delhi is a formidable player in the security surveillance, networking, IT hardware products including IP-CCTV, biometric, access control, computer hardware / peripherals, data storage and many more. Fortune Marketing operates across India with 24 branches which cater to end-to-end requirements of the customers. Their strong network of channel and partners covers 7000 towns across 664 districts in India. “India is one of our focus regions where we hope to expand our business even further. There is no doubt that a strong partner like Fortune Marketing will allow us to become more reachable with the local clients and offer impeccable customer services in the Indian market” adds Jenny Wu, Associate General Manager at SilverStone Technology Co. Ltd. To enhance the focus SilverStone Technology has recently appointed Bankim Aggarwal as its Country Business Manager for India. Bankim Aggarwal has a deep knowledge of the Indian IT industry and has approx. 20 years of professional experience. With this rich industry experience, he is all set to fuel SilverStone business Journey in the Indian market Continues. www.digitalterminal.in
IVALUE ROPES IN AMARJEET SINGH MANCHANDA AS VP - DATA CENTRE AND CLOUD BUSINESS
iValue InfoSolutions announced the appointment of Amarjeet Singh Manchanda as Vice President - Data Centre and Cloud Business. In this new role he will be responsible for the DC and cloud business division based out of iValue’s Delhi office. Krishna Raj Sharma, Director and CEO at iValue InfoSolutions said, “I am pleased to welcome Mr Amarjeet to iValue leadership team. I am confident that Amarjeet, with his distinguished track record of success, expertise and deep knowledge of technology & business will be delivering differentiated value to the organization and contribute towards the growth across all stake holders.” Mr. Amarjeet Singh comes with a rich professional experience of 24 years which he has built as a leader around his passion for business and technology. Creating value, excellence and thought leadership is what Amarjeet has excelled as a leader which also mirrors the company’s values. He comes with excellent experience in strong sales partnership, presales roles across industries and markets as well as service business. He has a diverse and rich experience from large Indian corporations and leading global multinationals. Prior to joining iValue, he was associated with Sysdig Inc as Regional Director - India. He has also worked with Redhat, Dell EMC, HCL and Sun Microsystems in leadership roles.
INGRAM MICRO APPOINTED AS OFFICIAL DISTRIBUTOR FOR SONICWALL INDIA & SAARC
Ingram Micro India has announced a strategic partnership with SonicWall to distribute their comprehensive range of cybersecurity solutions, offering organizations seamless protection against evasive cyberattacks. Under the terms of the agreement, Ingram Micro will distribute all Sonic Wall products, including next-generation firewalls (NGFW), email security, access security, cloud security, and endpoint security through its extensive partner network across India & SAARC. SonicWall’s award-winning cybersecurity solutions help distributed organizations create a secure and boundless workforce across all environments, eliminate silos through unified point-of-control access across multiple generations of IT and help organizations achieve lower TCO through built-in efficiencies. Commenting on the partnership Jayant Gundewar, Executive Director and Head of Advanced Solutions business at Ingram Micro said, “Ingram Micro is committed to constantly enhancing the value we deliver to our channel partners. The addition of SonicWall to our cybersecurity portfolio enables us to offer our partners and customers robust solutions that can protect their business from evolving cyber threats. From bundling SonicWall products with adjacent technologies to offering the full stack of cybersecurity services, we are excited to enable channel partners and customers with a comprehensive set of solutions throughout the cybersecurity lifecycle.
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INTERVIEW
“THERE IS GOING TO BE PHENOMENAL GROWTH IN THE INDIAN CLOUD BUSINESS” Since the Indian organizations have started accelerating their digital transformation journey, the significance of cloud solutions has increased multifold. The innovative cloud solution become more comprehensive in areas like security, applications and analytics whereas SMBs look for a trusted partner to help them choose right solution and deploy to accelerate their digital transformation journey. Ingram Micro, the leader in distribution business in India, serves the vast demand for cloud solutions through its wide solution portfolio. In line with getting valuable insights about the cloud ecosystem, Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal held an interactive chat with Jyotil Mankad, Director & Business Head – Cloud, Ingram Micro. He elaborated about the performance of their cloud business, growth driving factors, market opportunities and etc. Read below the excerpts: RAJEEV: HOW HAS THE REMOTE WORKING MODEL FURTHER ACCELERATED THE GROWTH OF YOUR CLOUD BUSINESS? JYOTIL MANKAD: Year 2020 brought in many new challenges for organizations which resulted in accelerated digital transformation across industries. This has proved to be a huge opportunity for us, our partners and customers. We have seen growth rates increase exponentially as remote working became the norm and businesses adopted cloud as the primary choice of infrastructure deployment.
Jyotil Mankad, Director & Business Head – Cloud, Ingram Micro
RAJEEV: PLEASE TELL ABOUT THE OVERALL PERFORMANCE OF INGRAM MICRO’S CLOUD BUSINESS IN INDIA OVER THE LAST FEW YEARS. WHAT IS YOUR STRATEGY TO CATER TO THE VAST INDIAN MARKET IN THE FASTCHANGING DIGITAL LANDSCAPE? JYOTIL MANKAD: Our India Cloud business has been one of the fastest growing businesses for many years now. Our focus and investments have helped diversify & expand our cloud offerings which has enabled us to grow 18
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faster than many of our competitors. Our strategy has always been to be at the forefront of the IT evolution and because of this we were prepared with teams and tools to help our partners rapidly deploy solutions for their customers from the early stages of the pandemic. There is a significant market opportunity that exists in India across various sectors, and we believe that we are well placed to contribute to this changing landscape along with our partner community.
We have been able to meet urgent customer needs to setup and augment virtual collaboration work tools for our partners and their customers. We’ve seen significant acceleration in adoption of collaboration, meeting and security tools. We’ve noticed a clear shift as businesses adopt “as-aservice” solutions and cloud-first is the way to go for many businesses. We also enabled our large community of partners to be “cloud-ready” as they pivoted their business models to serve their customers. RAJEEV: WHAT ARE THE MAJOR FUELLING FACTOR FOR CLOUD ADOPTION BY SMBS IN INDIA? JYOTIL MANKAD: Small & Medium Businesses (SMBs) are the backbone of the Indian economy. Given their significance, it is imperative that SMBs develop a resilient business model. However, they are also most vulnerable to disruptions vis-à-vis their www.digitalterminal.in
INTERVIEW
larger counterparts. To enhance their competitiveness, they can leverage cloud to address various problems such as scaling operations, enabling collaboration across widely distributed teams, to simplifying technology architecture, enabling business continuity and more. Cloud computing aids SMB growth for the simple reason that it sidesteps the need for capital investments in hardware and expensive IT. Moreover, cloud technologies are not only advanced but also affordable and easy to deploy and use. With Internet service providers having built connectivity infrastructure across India and a mature channel partner ecosystem offering tailor-made cloud services to SMBs, it has become easier for SMBs to bring about a paradigm shift in use of technology to improve their operations and productivity, in-turn enhancing their competitiveness and profitability. As the cloud solution sets become more comprehensive in areas like security, applications and analytics, SMBs will look for a trusted partner to help them choose right, deploy and help them accelerate their digital transformation journey. RAJEEV: HOW ARE YOU WORKING IN A QUEST TO DIVERSIFY AND EXPAND YOUR CLOUD OFFERINGS? WHAT IS THE MAJOR DIFFERENTIATOR BETWEEN INGRAM MICRO AND ITS COUNTERPARTS? JYOTIL MANKAD: We have over 30 diverse offerings as a part of our cloud portfolio and growing. Broadly, our offerings can be broken down into 4 areas viz. Communication & Collaboration, Infrastructure-as-aservice (IaaS), Security & Biz Apps. We work with most major global and local cloud vendors, and nearly all of these solutions are offered through Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace. We are enabling our partners with access to the best technology & teams. Our team of technical experts and professional services designated by different capability areas help www.digitalterminal.in
partners with continuous development by delivering enablement sessions, solution architecting and a suite of professional and managed services capabilities. The Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace is a one-of-its-kind platforms and a key differentiator that brings together partners, customers and curated cloud offerings. Partners can register for free and get access to the most comprehensive portfolio of ready to deploy cloud solutions. The Cloud marketplace has number of tools & features to help our partners grow their business irrespective of where they are in their cloud journey. Our marketplace has a host of powerful features like the GTM hub that allows our partners to run customized marketing campaigns on for all products by leveraging a full repository of white labeled assets and campaign automation tools.
SATISFACTION? JYOTIL MANKAD: We feel our partners deserve the best and we are putting our partners at the center of all that we do. We’re not just talking about small things here and there; Ingram Micro Cloud is making it happen in a big way. we’re initiating a series of sweeping changes to elevate our partner experience. And we’re calling it “Modern Support.” “Modern Support” is an initiative designed to elevate the partner experience and will facilitate in-house and in-country customer support to all Ingram Micro Cloud partners worldwide. This program strikes a balance between in-country and centralized support that will improve resolution times for both technical and non-technical issues by providing access to teams of local experts in both areas.
RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU LOOK AT THE MARKET OPPORTUNITIES THAT EXIST IN INDIA ACROSS SECTORS? WHAT ROLE YOUR PARTNERS WILL PLAY IN CAPTURING THESE ENORMOUS OPPORTUNITIES?
Below are some of the focus areas to support our customers.
JYOTIL MANKAD: There is going to be phenomenal growth in the Indian cloud business. The pursuit of higher performance, lower costs, easier integration and smoother cloud migration has made cloud services important for organizations of all sizes, across sectors. When we look at enterprises in particular, the cloud adoption rate is at an all-time high. We are helping our existing resellers as well as new partners to be cloud ready and add ‘as-a-Service’ solutions to their traditional set of offerings. This will help them transform their business model by capturing these opportunities and establish a steady stream of recurring revenue.
• Streamlining Ingram Micro Cloud Marketplace credits and refunds
RAJEEV: PLEASE BRIEF ABOUT YOUR NEW CUSTOMER SUCCESS FEATURE ‘MODERN SUPPORT’? WHAT ARE THE KEY BENEFITS OF THIS FEATURE THAT WOULD PLAY A PIVOTAL ROLE IN ENHANCING THE CUSTOMER
• Maintaining a dedicated in-house & local support team with enhanced Microsoft skills
• Modernizing credit line requests and increases • Ensuring better alignment with calendar billing • Simplifying invoices to make them more intuitive • Making ongoing improvements to Cloud Marketplace • Offering new learning opportunities via live chat & Cloud University These improvements will enable us to provide assistance to our partners more quickly and efficiently. All of this to allow our partners to focus more on running a profitable cloud business.
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SMARTPHONE SHELF
POCO M3 Pro 5G POCO unveiled its first 5G smartphone in India - POCO M3 Pro. Delivering a powerful and accessible 5G model for all, POCO M3 Pro comes with dual 5G support and offers an immersive 90Hz Full High Definition display, and flagshiplevel 7nm power-efficiency.
OS: Android 11 RAM: 4GB and 6GB Storage: 64GB and 128GB Display: 6.5” FHD+ Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 700 Rear Camera: 48MP Triple Rear Camera Front Camera: 8MP AI Selfie Camera Battery Capacity: 5000 mAh
POCO M3 Pro is priced at Rs. 13,999 for 4GB + 64GB variant and 15,999 for 6GB + 128GB.
iQOO Z3 5G iQOO unveiled the iQOO Z3 in India. With unparalleled performance, future-ready 5G capabilities, superb camera technology and strong hardware specifications, the iQOO Z3 is a true #Fully Loaded smartphone for the Gen-Z consumer.
OS: Funtouch OS 11.1 Global based on Android 11 RAM: 6GB and 8GB Storage: 128GB and 256GB Expandable Upto: NA Display: 6.58” FHD+ Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon 768G 5G Rear Camera: 64MP Triple Rear Camera Front Camera: 16MP Battery Capacity: 4400mAh iQOO Z3 is priced at INR 19,990 for the 6GB+128GB variant, INR 20,990 for the 8GB+128 GB variant and INR 22,990 for the 8GB+256GB variant.
Vivo V21e Vivo announced the launch of its design and camera focused 5G smartphone under V series - vivo V21e, in India. Designed to #Delight Every Moment, V21e is a trendsetter that is the perfect extension of the vivo V21 series portfolio. OS: Funtouch OS 11.1 Based on Android 11 RAM: 8GB Storage: 128GB Expandable Upto: 1TB Display: 6.44” FHD+ AMOLED Processor: MediaTek Dimensity 700 Rear Camera: 64MP Camera Front Camera: 32MP Battery Capacity: 4000 mAh The vivo V21e is priced at INR 24,990 (8GB+128GB).
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OPINION
3 TIPS TO APPLY WHILE ADAPTING TO NEW IT NEEDS Authored by Vikas Bhonsle, CEO, Crayon Software Experts India What do we need the most today to keep our businesses relevant and growing? One standard answer to this will be - a location-agnostic IT infrastructure. The need for a location-agnostic, remote-work friendly workspace has resulted from the recent developments after the pandemic. HR and IT departments across organizations had to create a solid but flexible remote-work IT infrastructure overnight. If one thing the pandemic has taught us well is to be prepared for the worst. So whichever work model we choose to go with, it is evident that the nature of work must be more collaborative, increase productivity and ease communication within teams. The good news is, today, we have a plethora of SaaS and PaaS products to choose from, and the number is only multiplying. This also indicates that hybrid cloud and Multicloud IT consumption for enterprises have shot up. However, different organizations have their needs and challenges based on their size and the solutions they provide. Companies thus need to revise their IT requirements and draft measures to enable a remote workforce and embrace cloud solutions while focusing on security and cost management. Here are three tips on supporting the changing IT needs of companies: IMPLEMENT A MODERN WORKPLACE STRATEGY The modern workplace is all about collaboration between employees. But creating an environment that supports team collaboration need not be any complex. However, all it needs is technology, changing human behavior and establishing a best-practices framework. There are many technologies available which can quickly speed up those processes to create a modern, collaborative workplace. Ensure that the solutions selected are
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easy to use, cost-effective and work well with the top e-learning tools. GUIDANCE IN RAPID CLOUD ADOPTION Any cloud environment, be it public, private, hybrid, or multi-cloud, essentially needs the organization to adapt while not compromising security and cost control quickly. However, this is not easy to achieve. An all-at-once move to the cloud is usually not the best option, but it is best to hire a team that specializes in cloud architecture, who can guide in assessing which workloads to migrate and how to do that according to best practices. Basically, to understand how to start small and plan big. STAYING OPTIMIZED BY DESIGN In reviewing the IT infrastructure of the enterprise, it is essential to have a critical eye on implementing quality
control and securing cost optimization. The best way to do so is to monitor the overall IT estate, have clear insights on such investments, and follow the proper governance to best leverage them. As companies are becoming globally distributed, such optimizations are crucial to success in today’s changing market. It’s also vital that these optimizations are implemented alongside technical support with guaranteed SLAs to minimize any risks. Thus, there must be processes and structures in place to maintain maximum efficiency and utilization. It is beyond any doubt that today and going ahead, all companies and organizations will be using various services with various degrees of governance and oversight. Therefore, presuming Multicloud and hybrid cloud to be our collective reality for the foreseeable future, leading-edge execution and implementation skills will be of the most importance. JUNE 2021 I
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“WE ARE LEVERAGING OUR INTELLIGENT INDUSTRY CAPABILITIES TO DRIVE THE NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH” The Indian IT industry is evolving at a very good pace where leading technology brands are serving the burgeoning demand for modern IT solutions and services. The innovations happening across the segments have enhanced the efficiency of organizations. Capgemini is one of the market player guiding organisations to manage their business by harnessing the power of technologies. Capgemini recently established its new arm ‘Capgemini Engineering’ to foster innovation, create new customer experiences and deliver new sources of value. Rajeev Ranjan, Editor, Digital Terminal held an insightful interaction with Shamik Mishra, Vice President, Capgemini Engineering – India, Capgemini. Read below the excerpts: RAJEEV: HOW DO YOU SEE THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING AND R&D IN INDIA IN BRINGING INNOVATION IN EVERY TECHNOLOGY SOLUTION, ESPECIALLY IN SUCH A FAST EVOLVING WORLD? SHAMIK MISHRA: In India, the engineering research and development services or ER&D currently generate $31 billion, including development centers of global companies and businesses of Indian companies, out of which $25 billion is contributed by the domestic market. ER&D is expected to become a more than $75 billion industry segment and create 10 lakh jobs in five years in the country. Experts believe that by 202526, global spend on engineering R&D (ER&D) is expected to cross the $1.5 trillion mark, of which $200 billion will be in the form of outsourced services. India being the largest exporter of ER&D services, this has huge implications for the country, and the opportunity could be as large as $100 billion. According to research, while the COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse effect on the global economy, India continues to find itself in a strategically advantageous position thanks to a sizeable domestic market, the country’s vast engineering talent pool and its strong focus on tech excellence, IP protection, ease of doing business, favorable demography and world-class infrastructure. Moreover, recent initiatives by the Indian government in the form of Make in India, Skill India, Digital India, and Start-up India have acted as catalysts in reinforcing India’s position as an appropriate destination for ER&D innovation. RAJEEV: WHY DID CAPGEMINI CREATE 22
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‘CAPGEMINI ENGINEERING’ RECENTLY? WHAT PURPOSE WILL THIS NEW ESTABLISHMENT SERVE? SHAMIK MISHRA: Launched in April 2021, Capgemini Engineering, Capgemini’s new global business line, consolidates a unique set of market leading capabilities in engineering and R&D. It was formulated by the Group with the vision to help the largest innovators in the world engineer the products and services of tomorrow, and cope with disruption by embedding into products digital and software technologies. Capgemini Engineering’s inception builds on the integration of Altran’s capabilities into the Group, a year on from its acquisition. Today, more and more leading organisations across the globe recognise ER&D as fast-moving and ever evolving - as the new battlefield. There is a need for an end-to-end partnership with clients for developing, launching, managing and modernizing breakthrough products. In order to optimize innovation and accelerate development, R&D must be connected and driven by data. At Capgemini Engineering, our services address the need to harness the power of data to foster innovation, create new customer experiences and deliver new sources of value. Numerous clients are benefiting from Capgemini Engineering’s ability to implement technology at scale, its deep product engineering skills and extensive industry expertise. RAJEEV: WHAT IS ‘INTELLIGENT INDUSTRY’ ACCORDING TO YOU? HOW DOES IT BRING VALUE TO BUSINESS? SHAMIK MISHRA: Technology, pow-
ered by data, is changing everything today, thereby compelling companies to transform every aspect of what they do and how they do it. Now more than ever, organizations the world over are focusing on embedding digital technology inside everything, driving digital continuity and convergence. Thanks to an abundance of new technologies converging at speed - 5G, AI, Edge computing and IoT, every type of company can run their businesses in a new way. These new technologies transform products and systems and connect them, so they can be improved continuously. At Capgemini, we call this ‘Intelligent Industry’. At its simplest, the term Intelligent Industry means harnessing the power of data and connectivity to foster innovation, make new and differentiated ‘smart’ products, improve supply chains, create new customer experiences and deliver new sources of value. To take an example, with the help of Intelligent Industry, autonomous vehicles will make mobility smarter and safer, manufacturers can access research and customer insights faster to launch hyper personalized products, making more productive use of fewer resources, meaning less waste. The combination of 5G and Edge will bring businesses and customers even closer and this zero distance means new experiences for consumers on how they move, shop, communicate, consume content and ensure healthy living. Businesses taking an Intelligent Industry approach will see a wide range of benefits, such as new and differentiated products, reduced costs, increased effiwww.digitalterminal.in
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ciency of production, new as-a-service business models, and faster times to market. RAJEEV: WHICH KEY TECHNOLOGIES ARE PLAYING A PIVOTAL ROLE IN DRIVING THE INTELLIGENT INDUSTRY REVOLUTION? SHAMIK MISHRA: Intelligent Industry, powered by data, is the evolution of Industry 4.0. The rapid development of key technologies like 5G, Edge computing, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and the Internet of Things (IoT) means that every type of company, in sectors as diverse as healthcare, automotive, manufacturing, even services, can start to do business in a new way. RAJEEV: HOW IS CAPGEMINI ENGINEERING WORKING TO ACCELERATE THE INTELLIGENT INDUSTRY REVOLUTION? SHAMIK MISHRA: Capgemini Engineering is accelerating the Intelligent Industry revolution thanks to a combination of three factors:
erage a broader body of clinical data and literature about drugs and conditions and incorporate it into their processes in real-time along with ‘real world’ data such as medical data, insurance data, even social media for valuable insights into patient needs, treatment adherence and outcomes. RAJEEV: WHAT IS YOUR FUTURE ROADMAP FOR GROWTH IN THE INDIAN MARKET? SHAMIK MISHRA: At Capgemini Engineering, we are leveraging our Intelligent Industry capabilities to drive the next phase of growth. To begin with, our focus will strongly remain on building global solutions for 5G and Edge, driving
automation systems validation and data-driven R&D to accelerate speed to market. In line with these technology focus areas, we have recently launched three Intelligent Industry offers to enable data driven business transformation, support automotive manufacturers and the wider industry to progress their roadmap to autonomous driving efficiently and help bio pharma companies to improve drug discovery and clinical trials. We are also driving the 5G and edge revolution in the telecommunication space from engineering connectivity products to innovating on new use cases that leverage data and connectivity.
Shamik Mishra, Vice President, Capgemini Engineering – India, Capgemini.
5G and Edge - Under this, we will enable Communications Service Providers, Network Equipment Providers and Enterprises across industries to implement 5G and Edge technologies at scale, so that companies’ products, assets and processes can unlock innovation and efficiencies within their business. This offering reflects our expanded ability to design, develop and deliver tomorrow’s products and services. Advanced driving automation systems - Through our deep engineering and IT expertise and assets, Capgemini Engineering’s Driving Automation Systems validation offer will enable Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), suppliers and the wider industry, to put in place the architecture and technology required for confidence, safety and trust in the driverless system. Life Sciences - This offering brings the power of Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI) at scale to the research and development (R&D) function thereby helping bio pharma companies to improve drug discovery and clinical trials. R&D teams can levwww.digitalterminal.in
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NEW ARRIVALS SEAGATE EXOS CORVAULT STORAGE SYSTEM
Seagate ® Technology Holdings plc, launched a uniquely intelligent category of mass-capacity storage designed to streamline data management and reduce human intervention for macro edge and data center environments. The new Exos® CORVAULT™ highdensity storage system offers SANlevel performance built on Seagate’s breakthrough storage architecture that combines the sixth generation VelosCT™ ASIC, ADAPT erasure code data protection, and Autonomous Drive Regeneration. Designed on the Seagate Exos 4U106 12Gb/s platform, CORVAULT offers “five nines” availability (99.999%) helping to deliver consistently high reliability. The maximum-density 4U chassis accommodates 106 drives in only seven inches (18 cm) of rack space. It is tuned to maximize drive performance by protecting against vibrational and acoustic interference, heat, and power irregularities. Seagate’s new VelosCT chip powers the system’s dual storage controllers, which optimizes all drive actuators in parallel, driving superior performance, while Seagate’s Advanced Distributed Autonomic Protection Technology (ADAPT) distributes data across every drive offering advanced data protection and fast rebuilds without sacrificing performance.
pioneering AMD “Zen” CPU and “Vega” GPU architectures in a seamlesslyintegrated SoC solution that provides extreme high performance, low power consumption and a more stable user environment to manage content easily. With the pocket-size, LIVA Q3 Plus can fit in any limited space, and it is designed specifically for enterprises to digital signage, smart office, edge computing, self-service counter and digital casino gaming solutions. LIVA Q3 Plus features with AMD Ryzen™ embedded V1605B processor by using the exclusive overlap mechanical design, which power scaling only 15W TDP compares to other high performance processor. In spite of its compact dimensions, LIVA Q3 Plus designs to embed an internal cooling fan to avoid overheating, which can keep your system stay cool and more stable.
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SYNOLOGY DISKSTATION MANAGER 7.0 AND C2 CLOUD EXPANSION
KINGSTON DC1500M U.2 NVME DATA CENTER SSD
LIVA Q3 PLUS MINI PC Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS) is proud to present the World’s smallest 15W Mini PC – LIVA Q3 Plus. LIVA Q3 Plus featured with AMD Ryzen™ embedded V1605B processor, which brings together the breakthrough performance of the
NVMe design, the DC1500M delivers predictable random IO performance as well as predictable latencies over a wide range of workloads. Kingston Technology announced the availability of the DC1500M, a U.2 data center NVMe™ PCIe SSD for mixed-use workloads. Leveraging a high-performance Gen 3.0 x4 PCIe NVMe design, the DC1500M delivers predictable random IO performance as well as predictable latencies over a wide range of workloads. DC1500M is built with long-term performance in mind offering a high-performance Gen 3.0 x4 NVMe PCIe interface to ensure high throughput and low latency in new and existing data center platforms. The drives are backed by Kingston’s legendary pre- and post-sales support and a five-year limited warranty. DC1500M is available in 960GB, 1.92TB, 3.84TB and 7.68TB capacities.
Kingston Technology announced the availability of the DC1500M, a U.2 data center NVMe™ PCIe SSD for mixed-use workloads. Leveraging a high-performance Gen 3.0 x4 PCIe
Synology announced the imminent release of DiskStation Manager (DSM) 7.0 and a massive expansion of the Synology C2 platform with four new cloud services. Focusing on enhancing security, system management capabilities, and improving data collaboration, DSM 7.0 is an enormous step forward for Synology’s NAS and SAN product lines. Building upon the success of C2 Storage, Synology is rolling out both hybrid and cloud-only products, including a new password www.digitalterminal.in
NEW ARRIVALS manager, directory as a service, cloud backup, and secure file transferring solutions. Together with platform improvements such as supporting up to 1 PB volumes for super-large tasks, DSM 7.0 also introduces security improvements in the form of Secure SignIn. This brand-new authentication system makes two-factor effortless and straightforward to use. New C2 solutions and DSM 7.0, which has concluded over 7 months of public testing, will be available soon.
WESTERN DIGITAL 2ND GEN UFS 3.1 STORAGE SOLUTION
Western Digital Corp. announced its second-generation UFS 3.1 storage solution for 5G smartphones. The new Western Digital iNAND® MC EU551 delivers the high-performance storage consumers need to be able to use their phones for emerging applications like ultra-high-resolution cameras, AR/ VR, gaming and 8K video. IDC expects 5G smartphone shipments to account for more than 40% of global volume in 2021 and grow to 69% in 2025. As networks continue to expand available bandwidth and offer lower latency to enable new user experiences, Western Digital’s iNAND solutions deliver the high-capacity, high-performance embedded storage needed to power these exciting new applications. The device is designed to meet the JEDEC www.digitalterminal.in
UFS 3.1 specification requirements and uses the latest Write Booster technology based on Western Digital’s 7th generation SmartSLCTM. It also features Host Performance Booster version 2.0, further combining the latest advancements in the standard.
PORTRONICS “SOUND DRUM 1” BLUETOOTH SPEAKER
Portronics launches “Sound Drum 1” -Portable Bluetooth Speakers. The newly launched premium wireless speaker delivers a whopping 10W powerful audio enhancing the musical experience for party animals. Since the pandemic came into existence, people are more inclined towards having house parties with close family members. Hence, Bluetooth speakers have gained a significant traction in the audio segment even more. Therefore, with amalgamating the advanced technology and premium quality, Portronics has brought in “SoundDrum 1”, to cater to such masses while offering a bigger and better sound experience. The Portable Bluetooth Speaker also boasts of True Wireless Stereo feature; can be connected with two speakers simultaneously. Simply, in other words, when a 10W of sound is just not enough, one can pair or connect the 2nd “SoundDrum 1” using Bluetooth technology to have a thundering experience. Portronics
SoundDrum 1 comes with a 2,000 mAh battery capacity offering 8 to 10 hours of Playback time if used at 60% to 70% volume.
DELL EMC VXRAIL HCI SYSTEMS
Dell Technologies announces Dell EMC VxRail hyperconverged infrastructure (HCI) systems with enhanced performance based on recently launched Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. The leader in HCI systems also delivers new software advancements and the introduction of dynamic nodes that evolve how customers use VxRail to more effectively use existing resources and support demanding workloads with Dell Technologies storage. As the only HCI system jointly engineered with VMware, VxRail delivers unique automation and orchestration capabilities that allow its more than 12,000 customers to accelerate business outcomes across core data centers, cloud and edge locations. According to IDC research, VxRail customers experienced 452% five-year ROI, 70% more productive IT teams and 92% less unplanned downtime compared to previous IT environments. New VxRail systems with the latest Dell EMC PowerEdge server technology, including 3rd Generation Intel Xeon® Scalable processors, deliver 42% more cores for faster performance when compared to previous generations.
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