February Issue 2023

AND GAS

EVREN OS SECURES DATA AND ENDPOINTS OF THE CUSTOMERS

Operating systems or OS market is dominated by the big elephants of the global IT vendors it is not easy to penetrate their bastions. However, there are a few brave hearted entrepreneurs and organizations who are trying to create a niche with their innovation

UNION BUDGET 2023: IMPETUS TO BECOME A US $5 TRILLION ECONOMY

Hello Friends.

India is heading towards becoming a US $5 trillion economy and the last full budget of this government tenure is a visionary roadmap towards the goal. The seven priorities of the budget ‘Saptarishi’ are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector. It shows the government’s vision and missionary zeal for a developed India. Most of the industry pundits welcomed this vision budget which highlighted clear focus on the infrastructure development and ease of doing business. It also took care of the make in India initiative. This Amrit Kaal budget is backed by consistent and well-planned strategy. India wants to be self-reliant in manufacturing therefore the budget has strong commitment towards electronic manufacturing sector. The budget shows clear intent to offer calibrated Customs Duty Rates to provide a graded rate scheme to facilitate domestic electronic manufacturing sector.

The government’s commitment to empowering the youth by introducing mandatory courses such as AI, coding,

drones, IoT, 3D printing, and other soft skills under Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana 4.0 and establishing of 30 Skill India international centers, will connect skilled youth with employers and leaders in the industry and encourage entrepreneurship. The budget also talks of ‘Surakshit Bharat’ (Secure India) through the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ (Self-Reliant India) roadmap.

From the security industry perspective, this is an industry friendly budget as it acknowledges MSMEs as growth engines of the economy, the Budget proposes enhanced limits for micro enterprises and certain professionals for availing the benefit of presumptive taxation. To support MSMEs in timely receipt of payments, the Budget allows deduction for expenditure incurred on payments made to them only when payment is actually made.

The revamped credit guarantee scheme for MSMEs to take effect from 1st April 2023 through infusion of Rs 9,000 crore in the corpus. This scheme would enable additional collateral-free guaranteed credit of Rs 2 lakh crore and also reduce the cost of the credit by about 1 per cent.

To make up for the lost education during the pandemic, the government has announced the commencement of Digital Libraries, which will give readers access to age-appropriate content for curricular and non-curricular spheres.

The budget 2023 is a foundation for India@100 and will strengthen our digital ecosystem, drive transformation, and fortify India as a leading digitalized nation.

Innovation is at the core of this year’s budget as the government takes its digital India initiative to the next level with the deployment of 5G services and a new program to promote R&D in pharma. In addition, the Data Governance Policy will be launched this year to enhance startup and academic research and innovation.

SANJAY MOHAPATRA SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

NEXT MONTH

The next issue is dedicated to the Industry 4.0. We would like to take feedback from the CIOs and OEMs and create our judgment on the same.

SUPPLEMENT QUOTES FROM TOP CIOS

The supplement story of the magazine would have relevant quotes from the top CIOs in India.

PLUS Interviews and Case Studies

Catch interviews, guest articles and case studies of recent applications from the Industry stakeholders, IT/ITES Vendors and IT leaders and CIOs from the Enterprise IT World CIO Community.

COVER STORY

NATIONAL IMPERATIVES DRIVING DIGITAL PURSUIT IN OIL AND GAS

Government initiatives to promote a gas-based economy and clean gas via different schemes is driving digital to connect systems for distribution and identification

28

INTERVIEW

SAURABH SAXENA

“Building efficient enterprise-wide cyber resilience: a key to upscale your business in 2023”

GUEST ARTICLE

30 SECURITY

SANDEEP BHARGAVA

“Dedicated cloud services with a service provider will result in increased performance, security and compliance”

33

JAGADEESH CHANDRAIAH

“Sophos Details First Fake Apps Found on Apple’s App Store Used by Cybercriminals for CryptoRom Schemes”

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34

INTERVIEW

DEB DUTTA

“The Role of Real-Time Data in Boosting Indian Businesses and Its Importance for Future Business Success”

ITWORLD ROUND UP

Kyndryl and Nokia Expand Global Network Alliance

Kyndryl and Nokia announced a three-year extension and expansion of their global network and edge partnership, with a focus on developing and delivering industry-leading LTE and 5G private wireless services and Industry 4.0 solutions to customers worldwide.

Kyndryl and Nokia established their global network and edge computing alliance in February 2022. The partnership has since grown exponentially, with more than 100 active engagements with global enterprises, from advisory or testing, to piloting, to full implementation, across 24 countries. With a shared vision and commitment to help enterprise and mission critical infrastructure customers accelerate their digital transformations with leading-edge LTE and 5G private wireless networking, 90% of the current engagements are enterprises in the industrial manufacturing sector – including multinational petrochemical, mining and

timber and utilities/energy companies.

Ssaid Paul Savill, global practice leader of Network and Edge computing for Kyndryl. “The success we have seen in deploying private wireless for customers like Dow Chemical over the pasts 12-months, along with the global expansion of our collaboration, is a testament to our belief that we can jointly help companies drive Industry 4.0 transformation across all industries, with speed and scale.”

“Kyndryl and Nokia have a shared vision for digital transformation, and as leaders in our respective industries we are driven to grow this market together. We are excited to build upon our existing success and strengthen our alliance targeting more enterprise customers across multiple industries,” said Chris Johnson, head of Nokia’s Global Enterprise Business.

Public Cloud Services spending in Europe will reach $148 billion in 2023 and will reach $258 billion by 2026

Source: Gartner

Hitachi Receives Positive Rating in 2023 Gartner Vendor Rating Report for Second Consecutive Year

Uber Selects Oracle Cloud Infrastructure

Hitachi announced an Overall Positive rating in the Gartner Vendor Rating: Hitachi report for the second consecutive year. Assessing the technology provider’s offerings and strategic direction against its business objectives, the report helps customers understand how Hitachi is performing and delivering against its vision and strategy aligned to its IT/Digital offerings.

Headquartered in Japan, Hitachi’s workforce accounts for more than 350,000 employees operating in a wide range of markets and business sectors across over 100 countries. In April 2022, Hitachi announced the formation of Hitachi Digital to fulfill the growing digital transformation needs in social infrastructure fields such as energy, transportation, and

industrial and manufacturing.

Hitachi brings a legacy in information and operational technology to its solid partner and channel programs, focusing on customer outcomes to guide organizations on their digitalization journey.

“We are extremely proud of the social and environmental heritage Hitachi was founded on and grateful to the partners and customers we work alongside as we bring the power of data to bear across industries,” said Gajen Kandiah, CEO at Hitachi Vantara. “Hitachi Vantara and the greater One Hitachi network are ripe with deep IT and OT expertise that set us apart as we build innovative solutions for some of the world’s greatest challenges.

Oracle and Uber Technologies has announced a seven-year strategic cloud partnership to accelerate Uber’s innovation, help deliver new products to market, and drive increased profitability. As Uber continues to grow and enter new markets, it is increasingly important for the business to focus resources on its core strengths and strategic initiatives. By migrating some of the company’s most critical workloads to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), Uber will be in a position to modernize its infrastructure while also accelerating its path to profitability.

Uber CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, said, “Uber is revolutionizing the way people, products, and services move across continents and through cities,” “To deliver on that promise for customers while building value for shareholders, we needed a cloud provider that will help us maximize innovation while reducing our overall infrastructure costs. Oracle provides an ideal combination of price, performance, flexibility, and security to help us deliver incredible customer service, build new products, and increase profitability.” This new strategic partnership with Uber along with recent analyst reports serve as powerful validation of OCI’s strategy and product vision.

BY: DWTC, DUBAI

Accelerators X Awards 2022

PLACE: EMIRATES TOWERS, DUBAI

BY: ENTERPRISE IT WORLD MEA

PLACE: MUMBAI, MAHARASHTRA

PLACE: DELHI PLACE: DELHI PLACE: DELHI

Coforge and Denodo to Offer Data Modernization for Banks

“We have built one of the world’s most comprehensive suites of cloud-native SaaS solutions so that banks of all sizes can innovate with speed, security, and scale without compromising their existing environments.”

Coforge Limited partners with Denodo, a leading data integration, management and delivery platform, to enable banks and other financial organizations to engage in agile modernization projects without affecting daily operations. Under the partnership, Denodo will bring its logical data integration and data management approach, powered by data virtualization, while, Coforge will bring its design and implementation expertise at BFSI clients, enabling companies to overcome challenges like security, compliance, systemic risks, downtime, and data migration quality, so they can gain the necessary agility to engage in migration or modernization projects in response to diverse business needs.

Commenting on the partnership, Suresh Chandrasekaran, Executive Vice President at Denodo, said, “We are excited to embark on this strategic collaboration with Coforge

QUICK BYTE ON

to help accelerate business transformation at banks and financial services organizations through agile self-service data delivery and data modernization, while also addressing key challenges such as security, governance, and migration risk. Denodo’s best in class data integration and management offering combined with Coforge’s 40-year long expertise in design thinking and implementation will stimulate data and analytics innovations among our mutual BFSI clients.”

Deepak Khetpal, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Data and Analytics, Coforge, said, “We are delighted to establish this relationship with Denodo, a leading platform in data virtualization and logical data management, in light of the growing relevance of data analytics, particularly in our fastest growing banking and financial services business.”

Akamai Unveils Akamai Connected Cloud and New Cloud Computing Services

"Acronis has announce the availability of the 2023 Acronis CyberFit Academy Certification program. The program will provide updated training for Acronis partners to improve their success and overall increase profitability. Partners who take training, on average, utilize twice as many Acronis products and require 30% fewer support requests, which in turn increases revenue and reduces support costs, while also increasing customer satisfaction. He latest Acronis CyberFit Academy curriculum features 22 new certification courses, including five recertification courses which reduce annual technical certifications from over 20 hours to less than three hours."

MELINDA MARKS, SENIOR ANALYST, ENTERPRISE STRATEGY GROUP (ESG)

“It is challenging for organizations to manage security risk while supporting faster cloud-native development cycles.”

SONNY SINGH EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT AND GENERAL MANAGER OF ORACLE FINANCIAL SERVICES

Trend Micro to Take on Automotive Security

Vulnerabilities in 2024 with Standalone Event

Digisol Systems Ltd. provided Copper and Fibre Cabling Solutions to Mumbai Metro Project

DIGISOL Systems has announced that they have contributed to one of a milestone development by supplying the DIGISOL Multi Mode Unitube Armoured Cable and DIGISOL Solid Cable, Cat6 UTP, 4 Pair for the networking requirement of Mumbai Metro.

The Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) launched two new Mumbai Metro lines, line 2A (Dahisar to Andheri West D.N. Nagar) and line 7 (Dahisar East to Andheri East) to benefit the Mumbaikars as they are expected to reduce traffic on the Link Road and Western Express Highway.

As these Metro Trains were aligned with the government’s vision of Vocal for local MMRDA decided to go

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

with products/ brands that not only provide high quality products but are also Made in India.

Digisol has also provided its products in various metro projects like Nagpur, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad and Lucknow city.

Digisol believes in constant innovation and has continued to strengthen its foothold in the IT networking industry by introducing a new range of IT networking products. The company has previously introduced many Made in India products under the Structured Cabling product category and have recently launched Made in India FTTH range of products. Digisol is committed to the government’s vision for Vocal for Local.

CrowdStrike Promotes Michael Sentonas to President

Trend Micro Incorporated announced that the Trend Micro Zero Day Initiative’s (ZDI’s) Pwn2Own bug bounty competition will launch a new event next year designed to make the connected vehicle ecosystem more secure.

In recognition of the growing importance of and threat to the connected vehicle ecosystem, a standalone competition – Pwn2Own Automotive – will take place in January 2024 at Automotive World Tokyo.

Sharda Tickoo, Technical Director India & SAARC at Trend Micro, said, “A car isn’t just a car today. New vehicles offer systems and components that deliver enhanced computing power but also broaden the cyber-attack surface. Through our VicOne subsidiary and now Pwn2Own, Trend Micro protects this fast-growing part of the connected digital world for all global citizens.”

Now in its 17th year, Pwn2Own challenges the world’s best hackers to find and exploit vulnerabilities in widely used software and devices before threat actors exploit them.

Confluent appoints Rubal Sahni as India country leader and increases local presence

Lenovo India appoints new leaders for Integrated Operations and Service Delivery

Brillio Appoints Navneet Narula to Lead Global Banking and Financial Services Unit

Emids Names Sean Narayanan as Chief Executive Officer with Founder Saurabh Sinha to Become Chairman

CMS IT Services Appoints Sanjeev Singh as CEO & Managing Director

harrison.ai Deploys NVIDIA DGX A100s on Platform Equinix to Accelerate AI Health Tech Development

harrison.ai, a clinician-led healthcare artificial intelligence (AI) platform and NVIDIA Inception member, has deployed eight NVIDIA DGX A100 systems in an Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centre in Sydney.

Through this deployment, harrison. ai launched annalise.ai, a Joint Venture with I-MED Radiology Network, and successfully developed its first solution Annalise Enterprise CXR; one of the most comprehensive AI clinical decisionsupport solutions for chest X-rays, capable of detecting up to 124 findings.

The high-power digital infrastructure is built on Platform Equinix® and the unprecedented compute density, performance and flexibility of the NVIDIA DGX A100. The universal system for AI workloads enables harrison.ai to combine its exceptional deep learning expertise with clinical experience to develop and deploy further healthcare AI solutions.

RBC Capital Market estimated that

approximately 30% of the world’s data volume was being generated by the healthcare industry, and the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of data for healthcare will reach 36% by 2025. Realising the urgent needs to transform and futureprove their digital infrastructure to handle the exponential health data, healthcare organisations are at various stages of digital transformation and embracing AI and data analytics.

Highlights/Key Facts

▪ harrison.ai’s mission is to make healthcare better for one million patients around the world every day. The company is tackling some of the biggest issues causing inequitable diagnosis and treatment today with rapidly developed AI products in chest X-rays, brain CTs, all with the aim of helping clinicians make the right diagnoses faster and treat patients sooner. Using petabytes of diverse data and highperformance compute power, annalise.

Oracle Unveils Banking Cloud Service

Oracle launches Oracle Banking Cloud Services, a new suite of componentized, composable cloud native services.

The six new services available today provide banks with highly scalable corporate demand deposit account processing; enterprise-wide limits and collateral management; real-time ISO20022 global payment processing; API management; retail onboarding and originations; and new self-service digital experience capabilities. Built on a microservices architecture, they help banks renovate and modernize their business capabilities faster and with less risk.

“Banks must innovate to succeed in today’s hyper competitive environment,” said Sonny Singh, executive vice president and general manager of Oracle Financial Services. “We have built one of the world’s most comprehensive suites of cloud-native SaaS solutions so that banks of all sizes can innovate with speed, security, and scale without compromising their existing environments.”

Venky Srinivasan – group vice president, APJ and MEA Sales, Oracle FSGBU said “Transaction volumes in India are anticipated to grow multifold, both on account of greater payments

Data Warehousing: Fundamentals for IT Professionals

BY PAULRAJ PONNIAH

PRICE RS. 660.00 (PAPERBACK)

About The Book

This book covers the fundamentals of Data Warehousing specifically for the IT professional who wants to get into the field. It covers every significant topic including planning requirements, architecture, infrastructure, design, data preparation, information delivery, implementation and maintenance.

About the Author

Paulraj Ponniah is a twenty-five year IT professional who specializes in the design and implementation of data warehouse and database systems. Among his employers and clients have been such companies as Texaco, Sotheby's, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, NA Philips, Bantam-Doubleday-Dell.

volumes as well as more and more penetration of banking services amongst the masses. Additionally, banks are continually looking to expand their portfolio of offerings and to acquire and serve their customers. Oracle’s investment in SaaS and our datacenters in Mumbai and Hyderabad provide banks the confidence and ability to rapidly transform their business, optimize operating costs and offer unparalleled customer service.”

The services can run standalone, work seamlessly together, and coexist with existing applications to help banks lower cost and risk while increasing innovation.

Tenable Urges Fashion

Industry to Strengthen Cyber Defences with Active Directory Security

With the increasing sophistication in cybercrime, the rise in regulatory demands, and customers’ high expectations for digital experiences, Tenable, the Exposure Management company is urging fashion brands to strengthen their cyber defences and make Active Directory (AD) security a strategic imperative.

Kartik Shahani, Country Manager, Tenable India, said, “AD determines who can access confidential company data. Once an attacker has a foothold into AD, they effectively have the blueprints to the castle to create new admin-level users, add new machines to the network and deploy malware,” “Considering the number of seasonal employees that the Indian retail industry turns over, managing access to data can be daunting. Indian retailers need to have AD security measures in place to identify and squash cybersecurity concerns.”

Infopercept And AdWeb Tech to Help Organization

Improve Cybersecurity Posture

Infopercept Consulting has entered into a strategic alliance with Adweb Technologies Pvt Ltd. Under this strategic alliance both the companies will help organizations to solve complex cybersecurity problems with the combination of their respective cybersecurity expertise. This strategic alliance will help both the companies to cover the entire IT landscape of customers under cybersecurity services like offensive security, DevSecOps, OT security, IOT security, cloud security, security compliance and Detection and Response. Adwebtech is one of the leading cybersecurity system integrators in India and has serviced the cybersecurity needs of over 2500 Indian enterprises, with a range of preventive and proactive solutions addressing both baseline and critical enterprise needs.

Jaydeep Ruparelia, CEO Infopercept, said, “This strategic alliance is for a longer term. We would like to change the perception of how cybersecurity is seen in India. Organizations need to start thinking and acting like adversaries and then build their cybersecurity defence. We call it ‘Cybersecurity with an attacker’s mind and defender’s brain’."

Check Point Expands its CNAPP with Risk Management Engine Giving Organizations

Smarter Prevention and Faster Remediation

Check Point® Software Technologies Ltd. introduces a new risk management engine along with enhanced capabilities to the Check Point CloudGuard Cloud Native Application Protection Platform (CNAPP).

The new capabilities add intelligent risk prioritization, agentless scanning, entitlement management and pipeline security. With a focus on context, speed and automation, the new capabilities operationalize cloud security, removing complexities and overhead noise associated with traditional standalone cloud security alerts, allowing security teams to focus on comprehensive threat preventions from code-to-cloud across the entire application lifecycle, while supporting DevOps’ agility.

Cloud adoption and digital transformation continues to accelerate. The 2022

DIGEST

SENTINELONE AND KPMG ANNOUNCE ALLIANCE TO ACCELERATE CYBER INVESTIGATIONS AND RESPONSE

SentinelOne announced an alliance with KPMG LLP, the audit, tax and advisory firm, to accelerate investigations and response to cyberattacks.

David Nides, KPMG Principal and National Cyber Threat Management Services Co-Leader, said, “Our customers are global in nature and find themselves rethinking cybersecurity,” “The future of cybersecurity is autonomous, and SentinelOne, coupled with the industry experience of KPMG, helps prepare enterprises for tomorrow’s threat landscape. SentinelOne Singularity XDR can help our customers respond to incidents as well as collaborate on preventive services.”

WHATFIX LAUNCHES PRODUCT ANALYTICS, BUILDING ON 2022 SUCCESS

Whatfix has recently launched new product line Product Analytics, which enables organizations to track, visualize, and analyze user engagement and behavior data with seamless instrumentation ensuring no-code event tracking and data consistency. While previously, product analytics was built for software vendors, Whatfix extends this capability to software buyers as well. Since its launch, in the last two quarters, Product Analytics has seen approximately 200% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) revenue growth and has been adopted by 100+ customers including large enterprises like Cisco and UPS.

Whatfix Product Analytics, empowers software owners to independently implement end-to-end analytics from tracking to insights, eliminating engineering dependency.

Cloud Security Report revealed that 35% of respondents are running more than 50% of their workloads in the cloud. However, 72% are extremely concerned about cloud security, and 76% are hindered by the complexity of managing multiple cloud vendors, which often results in misconfigurations, lack of visibility, and exposure to cyberattacks. Moreover, the study revealed that misconfiguration is seen as the number one cause of security related incidents, which can be attributed to the need for around-the-clock security operations and alert fatigue.

Melinda Marks, Senior Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG), said, “It is challenging for organizations to manage security risk while supporting faster cloudnative development cycles.

VARONIS ANNOUNCES PROACTIVE INCIDENT RESPONSE FOR SAAS CUSTOMERS

Varonis Systems, Inc. announced another milestone in its mission to deliver effortless data security outcomes with the launch of Proactive Incident Response. With this new offering, Varonis significantly reduces the pressure on customers’ security operations teams and improves their ability to prevent data breaches.

As part of their Varonis SaaS subscription, customers gain a global team of experienced incident response analysts who watch for suspicious activity, investigate alerts, and notify the customer of potential incidents.

NTT Enhances its Managed Campus Networks Portfolio

NETGEAR and Crestron to Support Streamlined AV Installations

to Crestron DM NAX and DM NVX endpoints as well. Most other network switches require complex and time-consuming configurations to function properly. M4250 switches provide an incredibly simple configuration for AV-over-IP deployments, enabling streamlined integration with Crestron DM NAX and DM NVX solutions. The result is less time spent configuring the switch and more time to focus on the other parts of the installation.

NETGEAR forms a strategic partnership with Crestron Electronics to support streamlined AV installations. As a part of the association, 4 models of the versatile NETGEAR M4250 AV Line Series switches would now be available directly through Crestron. A dominant player in the growing transition to AV-over-IP, Crestron will resell specific NETGEAR AV switches as a part of the Crestron DM NAX™ Audio-over-IP and DM NVX® AV-over-IP solutions.

NETGEAR AV’s M4250 line of switches is designed to work out of the box for most AV-over-IP installations which are similar

Marthesh Nagendra, Country Manager – India, ME & SAARC, NETGEAR said, “We at NETGEAR, see this partnership as a great opportunity for both the brands. Crestron, being a global leader in workplace collaboration, will not only provide value addition to our existing portfolio but also enhance customer experience through its extensive network to support our increasing demand for AV deployments.”

NETGEAR’s AV-focused division has been recently launched to concentrate on the needs of both the commercial and residential custom integration AV markets. This includes products that are only available in the AV distribution channel, design teams for Pro AV and Pro Wi-Fi installations, and software to help configure and manage wired and wireless networks.

OpenText Buys Micro Focus

OpenText has closed the previously announced acquisition (the “Acquisition”) of Micro Focus International plc (“Micro Focus”), a leading provider of mission-critical software technology and services that help customers accelerate digital transformation.

“I would like to welcome Micro Focus customers, partners and employees to OpenText,” said OpenText CEO & CTO Mark J. Barrenechea. “Digital life is life, and with Micro Focus’ great products and talent, we will help organizations of all sizes accelerate their digital transformation.”

Barrenechea further added, “With this

acquisition, OpenText’s corporate mission expands to help enterprise professionals secure their operations, gain more insight into their information, and better manage an increasingly hybrid and complex digital fabric with a new generation of tools that include Cybersecurity, Digital Operations Management, Applications Modernization & Delivery and AI & Analytics. This new generation of Information Management software will help organizations accelerate their digital transformation and drive growth while reducing costs.”

NTT has added Palo Alto Networks Prisma SASE to its Managed Campus Networks portfolio. The new offering is a comprehensive managed Secure Access Service Edge (SASE) solution that includes SD-WAN, cloud-delivered security, and enhanced automation and reporting. The end-to-end solution is designed to help enterprises meet current digital transformation challenges and enable more flexible ways of working.

By integrating networking and SD-WAN functionality with cloud-delivered security, the solution enables NTT customers to secure user access to applications and sensitive data irrespective of location, without compromising on performance and user experience. The platform’s advanced AIOps and automation capabilities also help improve operational efficiency and security outcomes.

“We are excited to partner with Palo Alto Networks to provide this end-to-end managed SASE offering that helps customers address the challenges that confront today’s enterprise operational environment,” said Sunil Kishore, Senior EVP Managed Network and Collaboration Services Division at NTT Ltd.

Major Closing Terms of the Acquisition

. Total purchase price of approximately $5.8 billion, inclusive of Micro Focus’ cash and debt, subject to final adjustments

. Total purchase price is 2.3x Micro Focus’ TTM revenues(1)

. Total purchase price is 6.7x Micro Focus’ TTM adjusted EBITDA(2)

. Immediately accretive to F’23 adjusted EBITDA dollars

. Expected to be on the OpenText operating model within 6 full quarters or sooner.

“Digital transformation isn’t a destination, it’s an ongoing evolution.”

Colleen Berube, CIO and SVP, Operations, Zendesk

NetApp Announces New Line of LowCost, Capacity Flash Storage for the Modern Data Center

NetApp announced the upcoming availability of the NetApp AFF C-Series, a new family of capacity flash storage options that deliver lower cost all-flash storage, and NetApp AFF A150, a new entry-level storage system in the AFF A-Series family of all-flash systems.

The new NetApp AFF C-Series delivers flash performance, while remaining cost-effective and efficient for a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and a smaller storage footprint. This family of capacity flash arrays are also offered with one of the industry’s most comprehensive software suites, ONTAP One, an all-in-one license that includes all available NetApp software. Customers can modernize their data center with the flexibility to choose the right storage (performance

flash, capacity flash, or hybrid) for their VMware, database, and file workload requirements, all running on NetApp ONTAP and managed centrally by NetApp BlueXP for a seamless hybrid cloud experience.

NetApp also announced, NetApp Advance, a new portfolio of storage programs and guarantees to deliver best-in-class customer ownership experience and cost-effectively future proof on-premises environments.* This gives customers the flexibility and choice to safeguard their storage investment – whether the C-Series, AFF A150 or other newly acquired AFF or FAS systems – with the ability to right-size on-premises environment and transition to storage as a service or cloud storage as their business requires.

Lumenore

enters into

a

strategic partnership with iQ Innovation Hub LLP

Lumenore, a platform that develops advanced analytics and business intelligence solutions incorporated with intuitive and AIPowered modules, has entered into a strategic partnership with iQ Innovation Hub LLP, an integrated technology partner specializing in consulting and delivering enterprise solutions. This move will help Lumenore increase business momentum and expansion into the U.S., EU and Indian markets.

Lumenore is conceptualized to make analytics simple and flexible to help organizations achieve more with data with faster access to actionable business insights. The platform’s unique features, like NLQ-powered conversational analytics (‘AskMe Anything’), AI-recommended insights (‘Do you know’), self-service solutions and building a data universe have helped enterprises across the globe accelerate their data transformation journey and empower data-driven decision-making across industries.

Under the agreement, Lumenore has authorized iQ Innovation to purchase and/or license products and to grant access to resell them in the regions. iQ Innovation provides end-to-end support in intelligent automation, cloud solutions, cloud migrations, web development, mobile development, API development, ETL and automation testing & blockchain in industries like healthcare, automobile, and e-commerce.

Sify Becomes India’s First NVIDIA DGX-Ready Data Center Colocation Provider

Sify Technologies Limited has been recognised as an NVIDIA DGX-Ready data center colocation provider. This makes Sify the first colocation provider in India to offer customers the option to host NVIDIA DGX A100 systems.

NVIDIA DGX is a platform purpose-built for enterprise AI and the universal system for all AI workloads – from analytics to training to inference. It sets a new bar for compute density, performance and scale, replacing legacy compute infrastructure with a single, unified system that can do it all.

Powered by NVIDIA Base Command software, each DGX A100 system features eight NVIDIA A100 Tensor Core GPUs that can be used together to run the largest jobs or divided into as many as 56 separate, fully isolated instances with dedicated high-bandwidth memory, cache and compute cores. The combination of dense compute power and complete workload flexibility makes DGX systems ideal for both single node deployments and large-scale clusters.

Sify will offer data centers where customers can host NVIDIA DGX A100 systems for private

cloud deployments. This includes NVIDIA DGX A100 platforms, NVIDIA AI and data science enterprise software and software development kits.

“Artificial Intelligence and deep learning are transforming every industry. NVIDIA offers industry-leading compute density and performance, which provides Sify a unique advantage to offer complete NVIDIA DGX-powered colocation along with NVIDIA’s leading enterprise AI and data science software,” said Tirthankar Mitra, CEO (West) at Sify Technologies.

CRAYON

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION STRATEGY: HOW TO CREATE ONE

Organizations across the globe are digitally transforming as they are challenged to improve business processes and develop new capabilities

and business processes. It is a continuous improvement and innovation process that enables companies to stay competitive in a digital economy. So the development and implementation of a digital transformation strategy is the key concern across industry verticals namely BFSI, Manufacturing, Retail, E-Commerce, Transportation, Healthcare or any other industry vertical.

IT Strategy vs Digital Strategy vs Digital Transformation Strategy

IT Strategy, Digital Strategy and Digital Transformation Strategy are different related concepts. Traditional IT strategy outlines the ways in which a business leverages technology to keep operations running and an IT strategy is an essential component of a robust enterprise digital strategy. While IT often starts with a technology solution, a digital strategy outlines how technology solutions can map to business goals. Digital strategy focuses on technology but not on culture. Digital transformation strategies are large-scale attempts to build entirely new business models using a combination of Digital technologies (AI, IoT, Blockchain, Industry 4.0, Cybersecurity ) and Digital tools like DevOps, AIOps, MLOps, Mobile Apps etc.

blocks for digital transformation include customer experience, operational processes, and business model. It mainly includes six key elements namely customer engagement, digital marketing, digital operations, digital innovation, transformational Leadership and data and analytics.

How to Develop a Digital Transformation Strategy

The formulation of the Digital transformation strategy focused on how value can be created and exploited using digital technologies keeping the customer at the center of the focus. Digital transformation strategy implementation includes a roadmap that outlines the steps an organization needs to take to adopt a digital transformation strategy. The roadmap should be tailored to the organization’s specific needs and should take into account the organization’s current state, its desired future state, and the gaps that need to be filled in order to get there. The Chief Digital Officer (CDO) needs to work closely with business unit heads along with the core business application or product owners to take a strategic approach to digital transformation. Below are the steps involved while building a digital transformation strategy.

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

DR. RABI PRASAD PADHY CTO, CRAYON

Digital transformation has become an important enabler for sustainable growth, innovation and disruption. Organizations across the globe are digitally transforming as they are challenged to improve business processes and develop new capabilities and create new business models from scratch. This can involve multiple or all departments

Key Building Blocks & Benefits of Digital Transformation:

Organizations are looking for digital solutions to help them make products faster, better, and cheaper than before using new age forward looking technologies. There are many benefits of digital transformation and some of the major benefits are increase customer insights, reduce cost, improve time to market, increase operational efficiency, transform existing business processes, improve customer experience, and introduce new digital revenue streams. The main building

Assess the Current Market and Industry Vertical: Understanding the industry’s level and doing research on specific market and industry segments at which digital transformation is progressing is very important to stay ahead of the game.

Establish Goals and Objectives: The overall digital transformation goals must be broken down into more specific objectives with timelines and understanding of all costs involved.

Identifying and Building Digital Leadership Team: Changing the way an organization operates requires leadership, teamwork and emotional intelligence.

“The formulation of the Digital transformation strategy focused on how value can be created and exploited using digital technologies keeping the customer at the center of the focus.”

especially as demand for data services continues to rise exponentially.”

expected to reach $5 billion per annum by 2025. DC industry is known to be power guzzler accounting for approximately 1% of global electricity demand. Therefore efforts are there to bring in sustainability to it with green energy, reducing power consumption and optimizing equipments

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL

FACTORS ENTERPRISES MUST CONSIDER WHILE SETTING UP A GREEN DATACENTER

Organizations across the globe are rapidly embracing sustainability goals and programs, recognizing that going green is not just beneficial to our planet but also good for business. The challenge, however, is to move from goals and promises to progress and action.

Over the past few years, the world has seen accelerated growth of data, digital transformation, and of the datacenter industry. In Asia Pacific, the datacenter segment1 was valued at US$25.58 billion in 2020 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.91% to reach US$59.83 billion by 2027.

Against the backdrop of sustainability, datacenters accounted for approximately 1% of global electricity demand, with global datacenter electricity use amounting to 200-250 terawatthours (TWh).

According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), datacenters are some of the biggest con-

Over the past few years, the world has seen accelerated growth of digital transformation. Therefore the hyper-scale datacenter industry has gained strong movementum globally and investment in India is

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Manish Gupta, Vice President at Dell Technologies

“According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), datacenters are some of the biggest consumers of energy globally,

sumers of energy globally, especially as demand for data services continues to rise exponentially.

The NASSCOM report titled, ‘India – The Next Datacenter Hub’ revealed that the shift towards cloud has pushed investments in hyper-scale datacenters with the global datacenter market investments expected to reach $200 billion per annum by 2025. India is expected to have a significant share in this growth with investments expected to reach $5 billion per annum by 2025 in the country. As India progresses towards becoming a global hub for datacenters, there is a need for green datacenters to take the lead, making it very important for enterprises to understand the various aspects that must be considered while setting up these sustainable facilities.

As organizations work towards improving their datacenter sustainability, there are 4 key aspects they should consider:

1. Environmental

There are various innovative ways that can be looked at to reduce total datacenter heat waste and the overall carbon footprint of infrastructure. This ranges from improved layouts to the implementation of more efficient cooling technology as well as the use of sustainable hardware solutions.

Futuristic technologies such as Direct Contact Liquid Cooling (DCLC) and Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC) significantly reduce the amount of energy required to maintain server temperature. With the help of coolants, these technologies bring down the datacenter’s carbon footprint marginally and help enterprises action on their sustainability goals, without compromising on data management and optimization.

A perfect example is PhonePe’s first green datacenter in India which is powered by India’s first smart cooling technologies. The 4.8-megawatt facility that is built and designed with DCLC and LIC capabilities, is positioned to substantially reduce the company’s carbon footprint, saving more than 25% on electricity. The data center has a planned Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.27 as compared to the industry standard of 1.6 for air-cooled datacenters. This results in a power saving of about 1.58 MW, which assuming that a typical household consumes about 18 units a day, has the ability to light up an additional 2000 houses, on an average, in the country.

India currently has an installed renewable energy capacity of 89.63 GW, with 49.59 GW capacity under execution and is already working

on expanding its alternative energy sources such as solar and wind. The use of renewable energy for green datacenters can further enable enterprises to take to the path of sustainability.

2. Financial

Any improvements in datacenter energy efficiency and reduction also can lead to significant reduction of total datacenter operating costs.

Any improvements in datacenter energy efficiency and reduction can also lead to significant reduction of total datacenter operating costs. By automating their datacenter operations, enterprises can focus on business and IT innovations to reduce costs and optimize manufacturing and business operations.

Through the use of superior technologies, renewable resources, and responsible consumption, organizations must invest in environmental integrity. By automating datacenter operations, organizations are free to focus on business and IT innovations to reduce costs and optimize manufacturing and business operations.

3. Compliance

At the 2021 UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, heads of state and climate experts gathered to take actions to get to net zero emissions by 2050 – reiterating the need for nations and organizations to ramp up on efforts to limit global warming.

The Indian government has initiated a mandate to reduce carbon output or the adoption of sustainable IT. Understandably, a similar emphasis has been placed at the organizational level to reduce the environmental impact of their IT infrastructure and meet national and industry standards.

By setting specific objectives to make their datacenters more energy efficient, businesses can look to reduce their overall carbon footprint as well as effectively meet compliance standards.

4. Efficiency

With an energy efficient datacenter, customers set out an objective to do more with IT infrastructure within a smaller physical footprint – in other words, they strive to approach a 100% utilization of rack and datacenter space.

Individuals and organizations are recognizing the need to take action to reduce the impact on the environment. As IT sustainability becomes a growing priority, organizations should design their datacenters to optimize energy usage. By working with the right technology partners and adopting a holistic approach that addresses the environmental, financial, compliance, and

efficiency considerations, they can successfully help safeguard the environment while lowering their long-term operating costs.

Futuristic technologies such as Direct Contact Liquid Cooling (DCLC) and Liquid Immersion Cooling (LIC) significantly reduce the amount of energy required to maintain server temperature.

The shift towards cloud has pushed investments in hyperscale datacenters with the global datacenter market investments expected to reach $200 billion per annum by 2025.

EVREN OS SECURES DATA AND ENDPOINTS OF THE CUSTOMERS

Operating systems or OS market is dominated by the big elephants of the global IT vendors it is not easy to penetrate their bastions. However, there are a few brave hearted entrepreneurs and organizations who are trying to create a niche with their innovation

One of those OS vendors is Evren. Its founders - Gaurav Nagar, CEO and Fabrice Marie, CTO appear to be very brave to challenge the hegemony. The Singapore based start up company which is globally available has a mission to solve the most complex end-user IT & Security challenges with simplicity and automation. Its objective is to improve productivity of the customers’ workforce. The other aspect of the OS is it is affordable and strong alternative to the existing OS in the market.

Evren provides a centrally managed Operating System (OS) for desktops & laptops in your enterprise to simplify your IT management and provide operational efficiency. The company secures the data and endpoints with their OS and provides peace of mind for IT security. The company saves the time and money from managing multiple IT solutions, letting the customers’ focus on pursuing their business goals.

Operating systems that are easy to access and facilitate communication with other systems are by their nature difficult to secure. Most often, though, the level of security that is actually

achieved is far below what it could be. This is due to many factors, the most important of which are the knowledge and attitudes of the administrators and users of such systems. On the other hand, Evren is a highly secure desktop Operating System (OS) that is purpose-built for enterprises to streamline IT and enhance security. It provides easy-to-use, centrally managed, and secure operating systems for enterprise end-users. It protects devices and organizations against Ransomware, Malicious Applications, Phishing, and other unknown threats, while saving IT costs for the frontline workers and the distributed

GAURAV NAGAR CO - FOUNDER & CEO, EVREN

“We will build localized features for the regions that we are in, especially India. Also, we will be doing our official product launch with our partners.”

workforce with ease.

Evren OS offers a unique solution deployed on the user’s endpoint devices but managed centrally from a cloud or on-premise web portal, thereby ensuring better cost-efficiency, improved user experience, with no latency issues, and complete end-point security.

It has been accepted quite well by enterprise companies for their call center, on-field sales agents, and logistics shop floor laptops that usually don’t require a windows endpoint. The end users are not that cybersecurity aware.

Evren fits in nicely to provide peace of mind to the IT managers regarding security and reliability while saving costs.

But the question comes whether the lilliput in OS market can make an impact against the likes of Windows and macOS. Evren provides an alternative to Windows and macOS that is secure and a cost-effective and user-friendly desktop solution for enterprises.

With Evren OS, enterprises don’t need to upgrade their old desktop and laptops from Windows 7 and 8, resulting in significant savings on license, hardware, and manpower costs. Besides cost savings, Evren protects devices against Ransomware, Malicious Applications, Phishing, and other unknown threats.

Gaurav said, “We do focus on the frontline workers’ use case within the enterprise (call centers, support agents, sales executives, recruitment executives, and any mobile staff)

These staff doesn’t usually connect back to the office network, and making sure their devices are up to date and patched is still a challenge for organizations that we aim to solve for organizations.”

Key Features

Evren offers full disk encryption to prevent misuse if a device is lost or stolen, as well as privilege access management, which allows only the IT administrator to have admin access through device-specific passwords valid only for 24 hours.

Other features, such as URL filtering and application sandboxing, are aimed at blocking harmful and malicious content and isolating and restricting attacks if an application is infected.

Evren also offers mobile device management features such as application management, remote wipe device, and configuration management to easily manage devices and policies centrally from the Evren Web Portal.

It provides access to asset management and usage data for organizations to understand usage patterns better and set policies based on zerotrust principles.

Fabrice said, “Evren has many others features that can help minimize end-user negligence and secure the organization’s valuable data and intellectual property.”

Use cases

Evren has been accepted quite well by enterprise companies for their call center, on-field sales agents, and logistics shop floor laptops that usually don’t require a windows endpoint.

Frontline workers within the enterprise (call centers, support agents, sales executives, recruitment executives, and any mobile staff).

These workers are paid the minimum wage, they have high staff turnover, and they lack cybersecurity awareness. We want to provide an easy one-stop solution to stop malicious and accidental data leaks from these users.

Opportunity in India

India has a high population of frontline workers in the world, and Indian companies are getting serious about cybersecurity risks. With Evren OS, CIOs can get started with protection from day one with a minimum investment of resources and manpower.

A CIO has a lot of things to worry about, and Evren wants them to have peace of mind regarding the endpoint security of their frontline, outsourced, and remote workers. Fabrice added, “We want to help them improve their organizational security posture while saving on IT costs.”

Availability

Evren is quite gung-ho about India as the founders are observing the development closely. At the same time, the company has set up an India support and an R&D center to make the product and after-sales support available to the customers. Gaurav added, “We are also setting up a distribution and channel network to make the product available to different markets and industries.”

Finally:

Today Evren only has the desktop version for now, while the desktop version for developers is now available in beta. As per Gaurav, for Evren 2023 is all about market entry, generating awareness, and building on the initial momentum in India. He maintained, “We will be doing our official product launch with our partners. We will build localized features for the regions that we are in, especially India.” At the same time, the company would spend time and money on creating market awareness campaigns to increase awareness about the product.

FABRICE A. MARIE CO-FOUNDER & CTO

“We want to help the customers improve their organizational security posture while saving on IT costs.”

NATIONAL IMPERATIVES DRIVING DIGITAL PURSUIT IN OIL AND GAS

Government initiatives to promote a gas-based economy and clean gas via different schemes is driving digital to connect systems for distribution and identification

Indian Oil started the internal transformation journey in 2014 to execute this mission. That project became the launching pad for more initiatives in a structured manner.”

Digital Transformation in the Oil and Gas sector in India has been accelerated under the Government initiative to reform the sector and rapidly meet the country’s energy needs with clean and renewable energy. A unified taskforce comprising of over 30 organisations came together unveil a vision of digital transformation and pave a way forward for the adoption and use of digital technologies in Indian E&P context.

For instance, government initiatives such as Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana to promote clean fuel in households with LPG connections spurred digitalization in organizations such as Indian Oil as this required massive digitalization of internal processes and digital identification verification to implement the scheme at the ground level. The Government is also pushing for digital transformation to meet with the rising energy needs of the country with a gas-based economy. Digital innovation across all energy systems is aimed at enabling the Government vision to meet energy needs with cleaner fossil fuel, push bio fuels for domestic purposes, promote renewable

energy, increase the contribution of electricity to decarbonize and adopt emerging fuels like hydrogen.

Globally the industry is undergoing turbulent times. The unprecedented Covid-induced disruptions followed by a sharp decline in oil prices have created significant challenges for oil and gas companies. The increasing presence of shale oil has further destabilized oil prices. Another pressure point is the imperative to accelerate global decarbonization and the flurry of activities around renewable sources of energy.

Things are rapidly changing for the industry as sustainability imperatives of the global population is pushing economies to shift towards renewable energy sources. Yet oil and gas will continue to remain a major source of energy in the years to come.

According to the BP Energy Outlook 2020, global demand for primary energy will only continue to grow, and oil and gas will remain the primary energy source until 2035. Although the share of oil and gas consumption in all energy sources will decrease after that point, the total volume will remain relatively stable

In face of these challenges digital transforma-

tion initiatives must step up to stem rising costs, get higher productivity, achieve sustainability goals and future-proof the industry. Digital interventions will empower the sector to evolve and grow by re-imaging business and management models, spot new opportunities and frequent experimentation. According to a whitepaper released by the World Economic Forum, digital transformation efforts can unlock more than $1.6 trillion in new value for the global oil and gas industry between 2017 and 2027.

Another study by PWC shows that industry leaders are aware of the benefits of digitalization. The 2020 Digital Operations Study for Oil and Gas Companies find that over the next five years, industry leaders expect a 10% increase in revenue from getting projects online faster and 8.5% decrease in costs from operational efficiency.

Digital will be crucial in realizing this vision equipping Indian oil and gas industry with the toolkit for the next wave of growth to unlock opportunity by transforming core business processes, operating model and new ways of working and embedding data in the fabric of all decision making.

Yet digital transformation in the industry is at

ALOK KHANNA

FORMER

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

OF INDIAN OIL CORPORATION WHO WAS HEADING THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION INITIATIVES

“DBTL was a massive project and it was possible only via digitization.

Digital sensors and IoT devices monitor equipment performance and detect anomalies, allowing maintenance teams to address issues before they result in costly downtime. This is a great benefit as the industry now relies on predictive maintenance and shut down for maintenance purpose becomes is a rare thing.

a nascent stage and it needs to further integrate digital to meet transformation goals such as boosting production, improving quality and efficiency, and reducing carbon emissions. The sector must address competing priorities to balance new investments while ensuring existing investments are scalable and blend with new initiatives. At the same time, deployments plans must be realistic and goal-oriented to meet specific business objectives.

According to Gartner’s report of CIO agenda in 2022, the oil and gas sector had failed to fulfil 2021’s deployment plans for many digital technologies because of a cautious approach and the uncertainty in the business environment as the world was returning to normalcy just after Covid pandemic. The PWC study also finds that National Oil Companies (NOCs), large international players and others are still in the early stages of digitalization with only 7% of the 200 respondents identifying as digital champions, having tools at multiple levels of the organization and integrated into partner and customer relationship.

There still remains pockets of rigidity with

traditional decision-making; legacy systems and siloed information that need to be digitized and brought up to speed with automation, modern infrastructure, intelligent systems to build resilience and competitiveness. The sector lends well to new technologies such as digital twins for seismic analysis and energy management, IoT platforms for asset performance optimization, along with large-scale data aggregation and adoption of analytics and other digital platforms for cost and performance optimization.

Digital Transformation in Indian Energy Sector

The integration of digital technologies is rapidly transforming the way companies in this sector operate and provide value to customers. From exploration and production to refining and distribution, digital technologies are enabling more efficient and cost-effective operations, as well as new business models.

Digital has particularly made its presence felt in oil exploration and production. Given that explorations activities are remote, expensive fraught with uncertainties, it requires extensive

data analysis to identify reserves, assess geological risks, and optimize drilling operations. Digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), and data analytics are making this process faster and more accurate.

For instance, the state-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC), India’s largest oil and gas exploration and production company, has been investing in digital technologies to improve operational efficiency and productivity while reducing costs. It has adopted AI and ML technologies to analyze seismic data and reduce the time and cost involved in drilling wells.

ONGC has also deployed digital twins in its oil and gas fields, which is a virtual replica of a physical asset that is used to simulate behaviour and performance. ONGC’s digital twin provides a real-time view of the production process, allowing the company to identify and address issues quickly and optimize production.

Refining is another area where the sector is leveraging digital technologies as the complexities in the process entails many variables with a high level of automation. Digital technologies are helping to improve operational efficiency and reduce downtime, while advanced analytics and ML algorithms are being used to predict maintenance needs and optimize equipment performance.

Digital technologies such as Industrial IoT (IIoT) and automation are helping refineries to improve efficiency, reduce downtime, and increase safety.

India’s largest oil refining and marketing company, Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), has been investing heavily in digital transformation to improve its operations. The transformation journey began when the organization had to implement the Direct Benefits Transfer for LPG (DBTL) for 15 crore customers. This required the organization to connect customers’ banks accounts and Aadhar for identification.

Alok Khanna who was then heading the digital transformation at Indian Oil as Executive Director says, “DBTL was a massive project and it was possible only via digitization. Indian Oil started the internal transformation journey in 2014 to execute this mission. That project became the launching pad for more initiatives in a structured manner.”

After the implementation of DBTL, IOCL embarked on a study of its system to strategically achieve digital transformation. It undertook a massive study of its infrastructure and application portfolio and decided on three approaches to transformation.

Says Khanna, “We looked at digital transformation from three pillars. We examined what

YASK SHARMA CISO, INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LTD.

“Earlier OT was isolated, and in a way, safe from attacks but now the connected systems increase the vulnerabilities by many times. Ensuring security in OT systems is way more complex than IT systems because OT systems are dispersed and requires OEM participation in implementing security.”

foundational capabilities were required; we looked at building capabilities to future-proof the organization such as tools to Intelligent pricing, integrated energy management system, network planning tools, etc; and we wanted to put in place transformational capabilities such as AIML, augmented reality, virtual reality, etc.”

IOCL has implemented advanced process control systems to optimize refinery processes and reduce energy consumption. Monitoring the performance of systems and controls help to optimize yield output and manage energy consumption thereby reducing cost.

Asset management is a huge challenge in the industry and IOCL has implemented IT-OT integration by tagging individual assets and transporting data to a central data management platform for easy monitoring and maintenance.

Speaking about the benefits of IT and OT integration, Yask Sharma, CISO, Indian Oil Corporation, said, “Digital sensors and IoT devices are being used to monitor equipment performance and detect anomalies, allowing maintenance teams to address issues before they result in costly downtime. This is a great benefit for the industry as shut down for maintenance purpose is a rare thing, and usually the industry relies on predictive maintenance.”

However, IT-OT integration is also giving rise to more security challenges. In recent times, the nature of attacks have been targeted at national infrastructure systems to disrupt operations and the integration makes the system more vulnerable to attacks.

Says Sharma, “Earlier OT was isolated, and in a way, safe from attacks but now the connected systems increase the vulnerabilities by many times. Ensuring security in OT systems is way more complex than IT systems because OT systems are dispersed and requires OEM participation in implementing security.”

Reliance Industries, one of India’s largest refineries, has implemented a comprehensive IIoT platform that integrates multiple systems and provides real-time data insights to improve the performance of its refining operations.

Another public sector organization, Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) has embraced digital to improve its downstream operations by digitizing its supply chain management system that uses IoT devices and AI algorithms to optimize logistics and improve the efficiency of its supply chain. A mobile app allows customers to order and pay for fuel delivery online, improving the convenience and speed of its services.

In addition to these examples, digital technologies such as Blockchain, Augmented Reality (AR), and Virtual Reality (VR) are also being explored in the oil and natural gas sector in India. For example, IOCL is using smart helmets to safety inspection at its manufacturing facilities and drones to inspect high towers.

IT-OT Integration Fuelling Digital Transformation

IOT solutions are empowering companies by making upstream, midstream and downstream operations safer, smarter and more efficient. IOT is making real-time monitoring of tanker and vehicle location and condition possible. Companies are tracking idle time and cargo status to optimize utilization and do predictive maintenance. Further technologies such as geo-fencing are enabling to remotely control fleets to ensure the vehicles stick to the pre-defined routes to optimize fuel consumption and time utilization. Transporting highly explosive crude oil and gas from extraction to refineries and for distribution is very risky and embedded IOT chips is enabling the sector to achieve higher safety standards by tracking parameters such as temperature, flow,

pressure. Data is analyzed to detect deviations and abnormalities to take pro-active measures and prevent accidents.

IoT solutions provide data which enables to create digital twins. These are virtual replicas of physical assets that represent processes, states, and lifecycle. Such scenarios help to predict failures by using a digital twin to study, understand the root cause, and develop a repair plan. It also helps in asset management and facilitates comparative performance analysis across assets.

IOT sensors are facilitating seismic exploration by mapping subsurface drilling sites and optimizing the process of oil exploration. It sets up a network of connected sensors to collect seismic wave data and transfers to remote servers, which process the data and provide an image of the subsurface site. The sensor-based system accelerates site selection data analysis and drives informed decision-making.

Well Entrenched Digital Transformation

Digital adoption in the oil and gas sector in India is well entrenched with IT-OT integration delivering exceptional benefits. The industry is also embracing advanced technologies such as AI and ML and AR/VR.

Digital is equipping oil and gas sector to efficiently manage its partner ecosystem such as transportation, distribution and supply chain providing transparency and data insights to take real-time decisions.

Industry leaders view digitization as key to unlock gains such as optimizing complex processes; track and monitor pockets of inefficiency; and respond more effectively to volatility, shocks, and disruptions.

According to the BP Energy Outlook 2020, global demand for primary energy will only continue to grow, and oil and gas will remain the primary energy source until 2035.

IOT sensors are facilitating seismic exploration by mapping subsurface drilling sites with a network of connected sensors to collect seismic wave data and transfer to remote servers, which process the data and provide an image of the subsurface site. The sensor-based system accelerates site selection data analysis and drives informed decision-making.

SAP CONCUR

HAVING A TECH-ENABLED ECOSYSTEM TO BECOME EMPLOYER OF CHOICE

For employees, it’s not only the workload that creates pressure. Having technological challenges, introducing unnecessary processes, and having an environment with no guidance also motivate an employee to move on from a well-paying job. Employees who feel stifled are finding it simpler and more fulfilling to move companies rather than to persist where they are. Here’s what employers can offer to retain the employees:

▪ Enhanced technological support

Upgraded technological support is one of the issues employees are facing globally. In a recent study with certain number of employees from Europe and Asia, it was revealed that 26 per cent of employees are considering quitting their jobs because they lack suitable technology. In a post-pandemic world, employees look for a high-performance device that can be utilised to work from anywhere – office or remote. A high-speed laptop with updated software and licensed version of relevant applications and software will be useful. Timely upgradation of the devices is of utmost importance. With any latest device, utilizing original software like Microsoft Office, Adobe, etc. provides smooth workable environment.

▪ Optimise processes to manage business expense

It is critical that employees focus on actual deliverables and not distracted with processes to ensure business expenses are justified. A one-point solution which can help them to file any expense related to business – reimbursement/ travel, etc. – would be preferred by the employees.

A lot of times it is experienced that employees do not file their business-related expenses on time. This could be because of lack of understanding of the processes or to save time for

work/ personal engagements. This gives undue pressure on the finance teams at the time of financial audit. There are a lot of expense management software provided by companies like SAP Concur to ensure automated the processes to efficiently run the business without any restrictions.

▪ Continuous training and guidance

Employees often experience saturation level in terms of their learning and growth. It is important to provide continuous training to keep up with changing policies and processes. In-system training and guidance can step employees through new learnings and process instead of grinding to a frustrating stop. They learn, adapt and process as they go, resulting in better output.

▪ Feedback and suggestions for an improved workplace Employees can expect much and vary widely. It can be a moving target. At this point, organizations should conduct regular conversations and surveys about what employees actually feel about the technological support within the organization. An immediate step would be to embed intuitive feedback tools within the technology solutions to collect feedback, respond, and adjust. This will ensure maintaining a positive image within the workforce.

Conclusion

Smart solutions for a smarter world is the need of the hour. Businesses are best served with right technological support provided to the employees. This will not only ensure uninterrupted support but will continued interest to be associated with the organization. Needless to say, word of mouth plays an important role in attracting and retaining the workforce.

“Employees often experience saturation level in terms of their learning and growth.”

It is critical that employees focus on actual deliverables and not distracted with processes to ensure business expenses are justified

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

KUMAR GAURAV GUPTA VP & COUNTRY MANAGER - INDIAN SUBCONTINENT SAP CONCUR

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION IS LIKE CHANGING THE TIRES OF A RUNNING CAR

The legacy systems will have to continue to run and yet you have to stay invested in the digital transformation acceleration, and transitioning is key to digital transformation success

Ramesh Jampula, is the Vice President, IT, India and APJC Regional CIO, at Dell Technologies. He looks after software engineering and solution architecture for Dell supply chain. As regional APJC CIO, he is also responsible for IT operations, including sales operations, call centre and tech support within the region. Ramesh has been with Dell for a little over 12 years and based out of Hyderabad.

In a conversation with EnterpriseIT world, Ramesh shares perspectives on digital transformation and how organizations can successfully achieve it.

Can you share some insights about digital transformation in Dell Supply Chain?

Supply chain is a big differentiating factor for Dell as a company and our focus being on the IT side is how can we continue to stay invested in digital transformation of our supply chain and all of the aspects that you have talked about right. Leveraging the right technologies to continue to drive the digital transformation of supply chain, by implementing Dell Data Lake where we bring in all data into a central repository using analytics tools to build the required insights and leveraging AI, ML technologies.

We continue to look at opportunities to streamline the overall supply chain processes so we can continue to leverage the right technology skill sets to map out our future state supply chain.

What were some of the legacy issues and how did you overcome. How are you enabling partners and suppliers to be part of the new system? Like any digital transformation, one of the key

things is how do you continue to run both the legacy systems as well as the transformative systems in parallel. I always say this analogy, digital transformation is like changing the tires of a running car.

You cannot, unfortunately, park the car and change the tires and go. You have to continue to run and stay invested in the digital transformation acceleration.

Like any large organizations which have been in existence for long, you will have to manage your legacy applications. We looked at the entire application portfolio, classified applications into three buckets. One thing is that you would retire at some point in time in the near future, things that you would like to replace with new modernized architecture and things that you want to live with because there is no point in investing in those areas.

They will eventually get retired, so you classify your entire portfolio into manageable areas and then you go focusing on the replace. Replace is where you’re literally looking at how to modernize either your applications, infrastructure or etc using the right technologies. So that you can do the digital transformation effectively and everything will have a transition phase like running the legacy while the new system is coming up.

Please share some guiding principles and best practices that formed the basis of digital transformation at Dell?

The three important tenets of digital transformation – people, process and technology are the most important things. Technology is very important, but what good is technology by itself if it doesn’t solve a business problem? So, you identify

a business problem and then you apply the right technology to solve that business problem to give you the right outcomes. So that’s the technology aspect of it. Now, as I’ve already said, process right, you know, either you are digitizing a certain set of processes or you are changing certain set of processes so that in the digital transformation it will give you the right business outcomes. So that’s the process piece of it.

And then underlying all of this is our people component and obviously you cannot deliver any technology transformation or process transformation if it is not for your people who are capable of driving this transformation. So, staying invested in your people both from a skill sets perspective and enabling them to be ready for this transformation. So when people process technology transformation comes together, you will be able to drive the right digital transformation.

What kind of applications did you retire and which ones did you modernize?

It is a work in progress for sure, but there are also a lot of things that we have eliminated, which is amazing. Retire is a very, very important component as you cannot continue to keep all the old ones and start building new ones. Then you will end up with much, much more than where we started. So effectively you are optimizing the footprint of your infrastructure as well as applications and software to drive equal or better results with lesser footprint.

We don’t necessarily need to have the same kind of physical infrastructure that we used to have in the past with the current VM’s and the way the virtualization has happened in infrastructure field, you can have even powerful machines occupying and consuming lesser space yet giving better outcomes.

So what is the path to modernization? Did you redesign application in house, or work with partners?

It’s a combination of again as one size doesn’t fit all right. Obviously we have to look at a decisioning point where it makes sense to go with off-theshelf products, a custom-built product or where it makes sense to have a combination as well. It’s quite possible to want to go with a custom built with an off the shelf product and build a lot of edge capabilities using technology.

It is possible today to still keep a loosely coupled architecture so we definitely looked at what is the best path for each specific scenario, and we chose to move forward in that direction. As a large organization we have internal capabilities and where we need support from our vendors and external partners, we collaborate with them.

What kind of more Cloud adoption and edge computing taking place within Dell Technologies?

Some of the key aspects that Dell as a company is

focused on is digital transformation as essential for business growth. We see a continuous trend of organizations investing in digital transformation with a data strategy using 5G, cybersecurity,

edge, multicloud. Even Dell Technologies as a company is invested in in all of these aspects to help our customers. I can give you one very simple example of the cloud related offerings that Dell offers called Project APEX which is primarily a portfolio of as-a-service offerings that simplifies digital transformation by increasing IT agility and control.

We have a similar consumption-based model that we leverage internally within Dell IT and we have a similar multicloud strategy. We have a cybersecurity strategy using Dell power protect cyber recovery solutions, the zero trust architecture, everything that you see as a product and services that we sell to our customers.

A lot of organizations have different teams for IT and digital transformation. Is that how it is organized within Dell as well?

No, this each team is responsible for everything. My personal view is if you differentiate digital transformation as a separate initiative, it will not go very well. You know these two could be very conflicting. Digital transformation is an integral part of how you are looking to transform your IT organization, in terms of infrastructure, application development. If you separate out these two, the challenge is one set of people are going and continuing to do the legacy work and there is only a set of people who are doing the modernization work that may not come together very well.

There could always be a small COE which kind of gives you directional guidance, tools, frameworks which is good to leverage for these kind of use cases etc. But execution and planning have to be in parallel.

RAMESH JAMPULA

VICE PRESIDENT, IT, INDIA AND APJC REGIONAL CIO DELL TECHNOLOGIES

“As a large organization we have internal capabilities and where we need support from our vendors and external partners, we collaborate with them.”

Organizations are investing in digital transformation with a data strategy using 5G, cybersecurity, edge, multicloud.

BY AMBIKA @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

BUILDING EFFICIENT ENTERPRISE-WIDE CYBER RESILIENCE: A KEY TO UPSCALE YOUR BUSINESS IN 2023

The emphasis on security is changing from perimeter-based to borderless workspaces as a result of the swift transition from on-premises to cloud systems. In the age of hybrid work, enterprises must safeguard their infrastructure, applications, and data to ensure business continuity. The downside? The growing digital interface has paved the way for hackers to seek dominion in the cyber world

As the war in Europe refuses to end anytime soon and China bubbles with uncertainty and the world economy yet to come out of the pandemic shock, what major market trends would forecast for 2023?

Businesses have faced huge challenges and have undergone an incredible amount of change over the past few years, and this won’t slow down in 2023. The industry will have to deal with the aftereffects of the global conflicts, the pandemic, and various economic challenges, as well as an ever-faster development of technologies. Major game-changing trends in 2023 throughout all businesses:

▪ Accelerated digital transformation: The continuation of innovations and developments in transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the internet of things (IoT), virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), cloud computing, blockchain, and super-fast network protocols like 5G, will massively alter business functionalities.

▪ Inflation and supply chain security: Companies will benefit by mapping out their entire supply chains and identifying any threat to supply and inflation risks.

▪ Cloud Security: Quantum computing will be the next big trend that will have a world-changing effect on cloud security and all

of the current encryption algorithms. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) estimates that a quantum computer will be able to break present-day cyber security infrastructure by, 2030. All modern algorithms used for global public key infrastructure are presently vulnerable to quantum attacks.

▪ DevSecOps: The transition from DevOps to DevSecOps will expedite much more. This market is expected to increase at a CAGR of 31.2% in 2023, reaching $5.9 billion. More firms will begin incorporating app security controllers into the software development cycle. DevSecOps enables developers to continually track, monitor, and resolve security problems throughout the development process, improving delivery speed and quality.

▪ Sustainability: In 2023, companies need to make sure that their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) processes are moved to the center of their strategy. This can be prioritized by companies with a holistic approach to CSR activities.

▪ Application security: The more devices we connect together and network, the more potential doors and windows exist that attackers can use to get in and access our data. In 2023, analysts at McKinsey predict, there will be 43 billion IoT-connected devices in the world. In near future, a number of governmental initiatives around the world should come into effect

designed to increase security around connected devices, as well as the cloud systems and networks that tie them all together.

▪ Increased Cloud Adoption: IT buyers will continue investing heavily in cloud products and services in 2023. The ubiquity of cloud services means IT buyers can benefit from a more competitive market, with many already gearing up to take advantage of this through multi-cloud adoption. They will also look to move on-premises applications to the cloud after years of the public clouds creating applications that, although built for generic consumption, can be tailored for specific workload needs.

▪ Immersive customer experience: AR/VR and metaverse will combine to develop unimaginable customer experiences. Incorporating the advancements of AI and VR into their operations, enterprises can accelerate their deliverables in an unprecedented manner.

▪ The talent challenge: Offering people fulfilling work, ongoing opportunities to grow and learn, flexibility, and diverse, value-oriented workplaces will all be essential in 2023. Enterprises need to realize the increase in demand for an inclusive, diversified, and upskilled workforce.

What key mega trends do you foresee emerging in the market?

▪ AI will detect and defend IoT and critical infrastructure attacks in 2023: Artificial intelligence techniques that work in security domains like insider threats will now rise to serve IoT and critical infrastructure use cases.

▪ The need for hardened and fortified applications before being deployed in the Cloud: Security teams will further realize the importance of applications being sanctioned and approved before being deployed and used.

▪ Knowing your consumers and what they need: Many firms are still learning about the cloud and consider cloud security as a very onpremises aspect. Businesses can truly transform when there are forward-thinking leaders who run on the cloud-first strategy. Decision makers as such are better positioned to mitigate arising risks and are best aligned with the evolving needs of the customers.

▪ The role of DevSecOps will increase along with the automation of critical steps in the process. CIOs will prioritize integrating security to detect flaws during the application development lifecycle.

▪ Implementation of Zero Trust Architecture: As organizations move to remote working, securing perimeters has become an afterthought. In this scenario, the need to implement borderless security based on a zero-trust architecture (ZTA) has gained strategic importance for CISOs.

create a highly distinctive value proposition with the support of our partner ecosystem with a focus on preserving existing revenue models and accomplishing new business goals.”

▪ Increasing the velocity of cloud deployment: When configured codes are combined with the overall nature of cloud being a softwaredefined infrastructure, it enables customers to implement CI/CD approaches for software deployment and configuration to enable consistency in their use of the cloud. This automation and increased velocity decreases the time customers spend waiting for fixes and features to be applied.

▪ A unified infrastructure will be a must for hybrid IT: The difficulty of harnessing and controlling IT resources distributed across on-premises and multi-cloud settings is spawning a new generation of unified infrastructure management solutions. The major goal of these platforms is to integrate the IT environment,

cloud administration consoles, and cloud management platforms that enterprises now utilise to manage various portions of the infrastructure into a single framework. The ease of access, seamless integration and the real-time updates, will largely popularize the unified infrastructure management.

How prepared are the Indian enterprises when it comes to cyber resiliency?

The digital revolution has rendered enterprises across industries particularly exposed to cyber security attacks. Cybercriminals are always developing novel hacks and vulnerabilities to disrupt companies and inflict data and reputation damage. The National Crime Records Bureau data

claim that cybercrime in India have increased 6% more than the year ago. In such an environment, having a strong cyber resilience strategy is critical to guaranteeing company continuity. The cornerstone of this cyber resilience strategy must be constructed on four main areas: anticipating possible threats, fighting assaults, recovering from any interruption, and changing protective capabilities based on the scale of the risk. With this foundation in place, dedicated IT teams in enterprises will be able to prevent and preserve susceptible assets from oncoming hackers.

With Micro Focus’ latest array of security solutions in the areas of Data Privacy and Protection (Voltage), Identity & Access Management (NetIQ) and Security Operations (ArcSight), Application Security (Fortify) offerings which include static, dynamic, interactive application security testing, and runtime application self-protection, while our latest offering, Galaxy is an immersive cyberthreat experience that aids business-centric intelligence and security teams to detect the most pressing cyberthreats to safeguard value chains while enhancing their immunity. We extend the expertise of one of the largest security portfolios.

What is the importance of digital transformation for enterprises of the modern age?

According to our most recent poll, since the pandemic, fast digital transformation, including cloud and data, has become the one priority CEOs prioritise for the board. According to Gartner, 81% of marketers want most of their choices to be data-driven by 2022. Enterprises now have more data at their disposal than ever before, and it must be used to extract insights and visions from clients, target audiences, rivals, and the industry as a whole in order to elevate business operations. Leveraging the enormous power of multiple communication channels have unlocked exponential growth for businesses throughout the world. A real-time and active insight into consumer preferences have altered business operations like never before.

According to a majority of the study findings, leading organizations in enterprise technology were expanding two times faster than the average company, and by recently doubling down on their IT investments, they are now growing five times faster. Leaders use essential cloud technologies, such as AI, to outshine their rivals. They adopt cutting-edge technologies faster and reinvest more frequently.

Thus, directing their IT budgets toward innovation. The benefits are more revenue and more growth—and the ability to stay ahead of the curve.

SAURABH SAXENA

COUNTRY DIRECTOR – INDIA, MICRO FOCUS

“We, as an enterprise firm, try to deploy solutions to address every issue of our clients and

RACKSPACE

DEDICATED CLOUD SERVICES WITH A SERVICE PROVIDER WILL RESULT IN INCREASED PERFORMANCE, SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE

The cloud has enabled businesses to innovate and build new revenue streams, deliver superior customer experiences, and create new work and collaboration models

or with a service provider will result in increased performance, security and compliance.

Organizations in India have used the cloud as a technology platform and a method of operationalization, leveraging the opportunity to spur collaboration between public cloud providers and traditional infrastructure providers to help business resilience and enhance digital transformations (DX). Adopting a mix of public cloud solutions with traditional infrastructure software and equipment providers has helped businesses gain the benefits of a private cloud but with the flexibility of a public cloud.

Running modern applications on on-premises databases requires overcoming expensive, time-consuming challenges around latency, throughput, availability and scaling. Migrating to Google Cloud databases gives organizations the agility they need to transform their business on a trusted platform. When organizations migrate to cloud databases, they stand to gain several critical benefits, including accelerated innovation, efficiency and operational stability, cost savings and the ability to customize their solution.

Here are Four Benefits of Database Modernization that organizations can take to simplify applications and other virtualized assets spread across a multi-cloud environment:

Organizations can access fully managed platform services, adopt auto-scaling and design self-healing systems that scale seamlessly through unpredictable traffic bursts and remain resilient despite unexpected failures. Google Cloud databases also lower security risks thanks to database replication across multiple geographical locations and several backup and recovery options.

Cost Savings

By leveraging the flexibility, convenience and power of cloud databases, organizations can reduce database licensing costs and vendor lock-in. With the right plan and design in place, businesses can execute their database migrations in a way that reduces the risks of unplanned downtime and costly business disruptions.

Complete Customization

SANDEEP BHARGAVA

GLOBAL SERVICES AND SOLUTIONS, PUBLIC CLOUD BUSINESS UNIT, RACKSPACE TECHNOLOGY

Accelerated Innovation

Today, disruption, digital-first approaches and digital ecosystems are the main drivers for cloud adoption in India. The cloud has enabled businesses to innovate and build new revenue streams, deliver superior customer experiences, and create new work and collaboration models.

According to IDC, by 2024, dedicated cloud services on-premises

With cloud databases, companies spend less time operating and managing their databases and, as a result, have more time to spend on innovation, including transforming their business, processes, and technologies for a modern, digital world. Often, vendors also provide database migration services to help address the complexities of database migration.

Efficiency and Predictability

Customized solutions mean that every migration to cloud databases is fully aligned with an organization’s business goals and timeline. The right cloud database partner and expert with a full suite of capabilities, can assist with an initial assessment, provide the necessary support, and help deliver continuous optimization to your database. For businesses to expand and meet the demands of their customers, migrating away from traditional and legacy databases become unavoidable. Many businesses are already taking the plunge into modern databases, and are enjoying cutting-edge capabilities leading to greater opportunities, a variety of new abilities and promising success.

As the business grows and the number of customers escalates, those that have abandoned their legacy databases will find more firepower and capacity to keep up with ever-changing customer expectations and will breathe a sigh of relief for the wise decision to migrate to the cloud.

“For businesses to expand and meet the demands of their customers, migrating away from traditional and legacy databases become unavoidable.”

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

BY AMBIKA @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

ADDED DLP SCAN CAPABILITY THAT DELIVERS VALUE TO THE CLIENTS

In line with growing cyber security risks, Data Resolve has grown in terms of client count across regions, sectors and global reach, empowering businesses navigate the threat landscape with confidence

As a company, how Data Resolve has performed in 2022?

We have grown as a company in terms of client count across region, sectors and globally. Since data leak threat landscape has changed, we augmented product with multiple leak control and monitoring capabilities. During client engagement process, we captured new data leak threat use cases from our clients and built features. Another interesting area that we are able to drive well from the product is multi layered reporting. In the process we simplified our product roll-out processes, we added DLP Scan capability that delivers value to our clients and started governance calls driven by our founding and Project team with our clients.

What are the major technologies you participated while coming to solving challenges in the market?

Key Achievements:

▪ Data Leak Threat Surface has changed, and we created mitigation controls around it. This includes messengers, conferencing tools etc., along-with new use cases.

▪ We added Multi OS Capability to support cross OS Support

▪ Onboarded multi-level reporting in the

product to offer flexible use

▪ Kickstarted use case co-creation model with clients

▪ Automated scan assessment of running DLP platform

▪ Dynamic rulesets we added in the product to reduce false positives.

Which industries have adopted your technologies?

There are 25+ Sectors on-boarded, key one’s: Healthcare – a key area where patient data is always vulnerable and hosted on disparate devices, so a key issue how we prevent leakage of this data.

Pharma – Securing leak of drug information across labs are critical. Information going to unknown domain or unauthorised ones are the key challenges.

Manufacturing – Product design, data leak of product codes, supply chain details etc are key challenges addressed.

Fintech – Regulated sector, data security of financial information, client information is the key

Retail – Product codes, SKUs, data exfiltration to competitors is the key issue, other than customer information.

Core Banking – Regulated sector, key areas where DLP helped banks, one is to meet compliance from regulator, second to protect sensitive information about internal processes, customer data, monitoring of data exfiltration from messangers like whatsapp, conferencing tools.

What is your revenue growth expectation for this year?

We have crossed 300 + clients in last two quarters. Added 100 new clients aross 25+ sectors, including international client acquisition.

Grow PAT this FY is the key indicator for us. Plan is to augment reveneus by adding Distribution muscle power in ASEAN region to drive revenue growth.

Explore new avenues like MSSP, Co-branding, PS are few engagement models to focus on.

What is your road map for 2023?

At a high level our plan is to continuously research & identify new data leak threat landscape and build controls around it, alongwith strengthen the base product with further architecture optimisation so it reduces TCO and add ease to implement and manage. UX too is our focus area that we are working.

DHRUV KHANNA, CEO, DATA RESOLVE

“With the fast evolving Data Leak Threat Surface, we have succeeded in creating mitigation controls around it, which includes messangers, conferencing tools etc., along-with new use cases.”

BY AMBIKA @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

CREATING END-TO-END DATA SOLUTIONS THAT CAN BE USED BY A BUSINESS TO DERIVE ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

As a company – how Lumenore has performed in 2022 in the Indian end-user market?

Lumenore registered strong growth in 2022, growing at 114% in markets like EMEA, APAC and the US. We have got ten new customers onboard in the past year. One of the most important collaborations was with the National Health Mission of India, which adopted Lumenore to utilize healthcare data effectively. We have also signed up 12 new partners. In a nutshell, 2022 has been a successful year for Lumenore in the domestic and international markets.

What is Lumenore’s suite of applications, and how is it helping organizations make sense of all the data they have at their disposal?

▪ Lumenore has a comprehensive set of solutions under its umbrella. The product is built by combining several key features. The suite of applications from Lumenore is as follows:

▪ Lumenore Connect: Allows you to bring data from multiple data sources to a single repository.

Lumenore Data Layer: Allows Data engineering and Data modelling to define data processes to streamline the data journey for analytics.

▪ Lumenore Self-Service: Helps business users build Dashboards and reports on the no-code framework.

▪ Lumenore Ask Me: Conversation Analytics module that allows instant analytics using a Google-like search engine (Natural Language querying).

▪ Lumenore Do You Know: Augmented Analytics enabled on no-code to create meaningful insights like Predictions, Correlations, trends, and outliers using the ML Algorithm without writing a single line of code.

Please share the key trends in AI and Data Analytics that you foresee in 2023?

Data literacy and data-driven cultures have been on the rise, and the pandemic has further accelerated the adoption of digital solutions. Self-service business intelligence solutions like Lumenore will continue to impact the market as it is required at all levels of an organization. Automation, predictive intelligence, augmented analytics, and AI-powered intelligence is expected to be the key trends in 2023.

How is Lumenore tapping these market trends for growth?

We have been focused on building these capabilities in our products. Our approach has been to create end-to-end data solutions that can be used by a business to derive actionable insights. We handhold companies throughout their data journey, from consolidating data to deriving values from it which helps in making successful decisions. This approach has helped achieve a solution that can create relevant organizational intelligence accessible to everyone in an organization.

What is your road map for 2023?

2022 was the year of realization of the importance of data analytics. As we move forward, data analytics will be mandated across all verticals in 2023. Lumenore looks forward to building an ecosystem where everyone insists on business intelligence in an organization. We plan to follow the product-led approach that helps develop more solutions for end users. We will build a sales team in North America in 2023 and expand in APAC and EMEA regions. We are also looking forward to collaborating with large system integrators.

Lumenore registered strong growth in 2022, growing at 114% in markets like EMEA, APAC and the US

NAREN VIJAY, EVP – GROWTH, LUMENORE

“2022 was the year of realization of the importance of data analytics. As we move forward, data analytics will be mandated across all verticals in 2023.”

JAGADEESH CHANDRAIAH SENIOR THREAT RESEARCHER, SOPHOS

Store. That’s why, when we originally began investigating CryptoRom scams targeting iOS users, the scammers would have to persuade users to first install a configuration profile before they could install the fake trading app.”

BY AMBIKA @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

SOPHOS

SOPHOS DETAILS FIRST FAKE APPS FOUND ON APPLE’S APP STORE USED BY CYBERCRIMINALS FOR CRYPTOROM SCHEMES

The report details the first fake CryptoRom apps —Ace Pro and MBM_BitScan— to successfully bypass Apple’s strict security protocols

Sophos released new findings on CryptoRom scams—elaborate financial fraud schemes that prey on and trick dating app users into making fake cryptocurrency investments—in its latest report, “Fraudulent Trading Apps Sneak into Apple and Google App Stores.” The report details the first fake CryptoRom apps —Ace Pro and MBM_BitScan— to successfully bypass Apple’s strict security protocols. Previously, cybercriminals used workaround techniques to convince victims to download illegitimate iPhone apps that were not sanctioned by the Apple App Store.

Sophos immediately notified Apple and Google; both have since removed the fraudulent apps from their respective stores.

“In general, it’s hard to get malware past the security review process in the Apple App Store. That’s why, when we originally began investigating CryptoRom scams targeting iOS users, the scammers would have to persuade users to first install a configuration profile before they could install the fake trading app. This obviously involves an additional level of social engineering—a level that’s hard to surmount. Many potential victims

would be ‘alerted’ that something wasn’t right when they couldn’t directly download a supposedly legitimate app. By getting an application onto the App Store, the scammers have vastly increased their potential victim pool, particularly since most users inherently trust Apple,” said Jagadeesh Chandraiah, senior threat researcher, Sophos. “Both apps are also not affected by iOS’ new Lockdown mode, which prevents scammers from loading mobile profiles helpful for social engineering. In fact, these CryptoRom scammers may be shifting their tactics—i.e., focusing on bypassing the App Store review process—in light of the security features in Lockdown.”

To lure the victim who was conned with Ace Pro, for instance, the scammers created and actively maintained a fake Facebook profile and persona of a woman supposedly living a lavish lifestyle in London. After building a rapport with the victim, the scammers suggested the victim download the fraudulent Ace Pro app and the cryptocurrency fraud unfolded from there.

Ace Pro is described in the app store as a QR code scanner but is a fraudulent crypto trading platform. Once opened, users see a trading interface where they can supposedly deposit and withdraw currency. However, any money deposited goes directly to the scammers. In order to get past App Store security, Sophos believes the scammers had the app connect to a remote website with benign functionality when it was originally submitted for review. The domain included code for QR scanning to make it look legitimate to app reviewers. However, once the app was approved, the scammers redirected the app to an Asian-registered domain. This domain sends a request that responds with content from another host that ultimately delivers the fake trading interface.

“In general, it’s hard to get malware past the security review process in the Apple App

BY AMBIKA @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

THE ROLE OF REAL-TIME DATA IN BOOSTING INDIAN BUSINESSES AND ITS IMPORTANCE FOR FUTURE BUSINESS SUCCESS

As technology has enabled digitally native consumers to access information, products and services at a faster pace, businesses need real-time data technologies to stay competitive and keep up with their customer

How can Indian enterprises leverage real-time data to effectively and efficiently bring products to market for sustained success, despite the complexity it may bring?

With real-time data becoming a game changer, the need for businesses to have the ability to harness data for insights is no longer optional but necessary for the success of the enterprise of the future.

In fact, real-time data can unlock a range of newfound efficiencies.

According to a report by Mckinsey, by 2025, smart workflows and human-machine interactions will become the standard for business, with employees using data to optimize every aspect of their work. Automation, artificial intelligence and machine learning can work hand-in-hand with real-time data to drive seamless interactions between people and technology, and will become the standard; requiring employees to utilize data to optimize every area of work.

Despite accelerated digitization in recent years, Indian organizations are not making the most of the data available to them. MMA Global’s report indicates that in 2022, only 54 percent of Indian businesses have leveraged consumer data in their marketing efforts. Indian businesses need to go beyond capturing and storing data from applications to advanced analytics – converting their data into insights – if they want to remain competitive and deliver personalized customer

experiences.

By tapping into the data streams directly as data moves, businesses can take a new approach to leveraging real-time data towards real-time intelligence and automation in any kind of operational or business environment. This provides the enterprise with the agility and optimization to detect and address operational or market challenges quickly, and have the opportunity to meet them with data-driven decisions and actions. This ultimately leads to having the insights to customize and personalize offers for the customer journey.

What are the main challenges in harnessing real-time data?

IT complexity from piecemeal architectures and silos make it difficult for the business to harness real-time data. Without effective and impactful digital transformation, switching to a real-time data model can incur unnecessary costs to the enterprise, and unintentionally create more data silos as a result. A haphazardly executed model would also produce poor and undesirable results for the business.

The challenge with real-time data lies in the fluctuation of data flows, and its unpredictable volume. And because data is flowing constantly, it is impractical to restart tasks when flaws emerge in the pipeline, causing a domino effect in the results.

An effective solution begins with maintaining

the quality of the data, with every stakeholder in any function comprehending the importance of accurate data, and being meticulous about it. Automated procedures with data must also be scrutinized for quality to ensure only reliable data are used; reducing the need for data processing during the analytics stage.

In your opinion, why do you think Real-Time Data is a Business Essential in 2023 and beyond?

As technology has enabled digitally native consumers to access information, products and services at a faster pace, businesses need real-time data technologies to stay competitive and keep up with their customers. Apart from improving internal processes, real-time data also enables the enterprise to track inventory, detect fraud, and even monitor their fleet deliveries—in the moment.

With India’s public cloud sector expecting to reach USD 13 billion by 2026, according to IDC, more and more businesses are waking up to the power of real-time data to optimize and improve their offerings – a clear signal that Indian businesses are eyeing technologies that offer them real-time data.

Real-time analytics enable the business to extract more value from their data, and set up automation to leverage on these insights. While cloud technologies have changed the speed businesses engage with customers, real-time data adds a layer of intelligence and relevance to the already seamless customer experience; turning casual browsing into a compelling sales pitch.

How is NoSQL important to machine learning & AI in data analytics?

Many businesses today have turned to the NoSQL database standard as a foundation for more advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This is driven by the need to access a high-availability, high-performance database to support the massive amounts of data needed to support highvelocity AI and ML algorithms.

NoSQL databases, including Apache Cassandra, address all the above, with some featuring in-memory data-processing framework, enabling the business to analyze data faster than ever. Some have even eliminated the need for an additional analytical layer by streaming data from AI databases in real time.

ML capabilities will also enable the enterprise to train, deploy and use abstractions to shorten development times. That’s because machine learning reduces the amount of backlog coding required when developers add new features to

DEB DUTTA

GENERAL MANAGER, ASIA PACIFIC & JAPAN, DATASTAX

analytics, resulting in a surge in data-driven models and the normalization of automation in operational processes.”

existing applications. At the same time, internal stakeholders can utilize the database easily and quickly for any tasks imaginable.

Please list down a few instances where real-time data analytics has helped Indian businesses?

VerSe employs DataStax-powered technology to enable more than 300 million of their users to consume content in their local languages, inspiring creativity and connection through digital empowerment. This has been the engine behind India’s fastest growing short video app, called

Josh. The utilization of DataStax technologies has elevated VerSe from a startup to one of India’s tech unicorns for local languages.

What are the most important data analytics trends that you see emerging across the globe?

The top three trends that are dominating today’s expanding marketplace are data science, big data analytics and artificial intelligence. With the adoption of technology, more businesses are expanding rapidly in data analytics, resulting in a surge in data-driven models and the normaliza-

tion of automation in operational processes.

At the same time, we are witnessing many businesses jumping on data analytics to support their enterprises with data-driven decision-making, adopt new data-driven models or simply to expand their businesses into previously untapped segments. We are also seeing a surge in interest in utilizing artificial intelligence to improve customer support, automate processes, and drive content and creation, as well as non-enterprise utility such as artificial intelligence-based fact checking.

“With the adoption of technology, more businesses are expanding rapidly in data

BUDGET 2023 ADDS IMPETUS TO INDIAN TECH INDUSTRY GROWTH

AmritKalBudget proposed by FM Nirmala Sitharaman focuses on 7 ‘priorities’ and 4 ‘emphasis points’. But most important is the budget for 2023-24 has allocated Rs 16,549 crore for the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which is nearly 40% higher on year and allocation of Rs. 3000 crore to boost Indian semiconductor business

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented her 5th budget straight in a row. People and industry pundits say that the Union Budget 2023-24 is a growth-oriented and inclusive one that lays a solid foundation and strengthens the economic outlook for India. The happiness of the industry comes at a time when there is strong headwind from macroeconomic uncertainties and there is huge pressure on the companies to book profit and retain their workforce. The first and foremost is one hundred labs for developing applications using 5G services in engineering institutions to create new range of opportunities, business

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

models, and employment potential. The labs will cover smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and health care applications. Second important announcement is setting up of 3 CoE for Artificial Intelligence. Third one is National data governance policy (NDGFP). As per Rajiv Srivastava, Managing Director, Redington Limited, an impetus to R&D for startups and academia that utilizes data for their growth will be secured under National Data Governance Policy (NDGFP).

As per him overall, the first budget of Amrit Kaal lays the foundation for a developed India by providing a framework of growth and

development through Skilling, Green Energy, R&D, and Technology, which will accelerate the country’s journey to becoming a $10 Trillion economy in the near future.

Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India terms the Union Budget 202324 as the visionary roadmap to put India on the path to become $5 trillion economy. The seven priorities of the budget ‘Saptarishi’ are inclusive development, reaching the last mile, infrastructure and investment, unleashing the potential, green growth, youth power and financial sector. It shows the government’s vision and missionary zeal for a developed India.

As per Piyush Somani, Managing Director and Chairman ESDS Software Solution, The Union Budget 2023-24 has put a lot of emphasis on Agritech, fintech, Co-operatives and future technologies like AI, ML, IoT and etc., signaling a positive push towards technologically advanced Digital India & a greener India. The government’s emphasis on digital infrastructure through 100 labs to facilitate apps employing 5G services will aid technology adoption that will help the country advance towards more digital applications like smart classrooms, precision farming, intelligent transport systems, and healthcare in order to realize new range of options, business models, and job potential. The national data governance policy to be released to encourage innovation and research by startups and academic institutions and will make it possible to obtain anonymous data. Overall, this budget focuses more on Capex spending from the government, while most of the technology related announcements had no budget allocated at the moment. We need to wait for next couple of months to see some budget getting allocated to the technology related initiatives.”

Balaji Rao, Area Vice President, India & SAARC, Commvault says, “The cumulative effect of all the initiatives will eventually generate enormous amounts of data that will intensify the need for reliable, unified data management and protection solutions. The budget 2023 is a foundation for India@100 and will strengthen our digital ecosystem, drive transformation, and fortify India as a leading digitalized nation.” Deepak Visweswaraiah, vice president, platform engineering, and site managing director, Pegasystems, India adds, “This year’s budget provides us with a forward-looking blueprint for India’s resilience, competence, and innovation. The Centre emphasizes on ensuring the community’s overall progress through technology and digitalization. By offering new-age courses in 3D Printing, drones, coding, Robotics, AI, etc, through Kaushal Vikas Yojana or developing 30 Skill India International centers, India could further strengthen its position as the ultimate destination of top talent.”

Pramod Sharda, CEO, IceWarp India and Middle East, added, “The Union Budget for 2023-24 is being proposed at a critical moment marked by geopolitical uncertainty, rising inflation, and plummeting global economic development. At this point, targeted actions to boost domestic sources of growth are critical to maintaining the stable economic growth track.”

Vishal Agrawal, MD, Avaya, said, “The introduction of three centres of excellence for artificial intelligence to enable ‘Make AI for India’ and ‘Make AI work for India’ is something to look forward to for the upcoming digital nation. In line with the GoI’s initiative to strengthen the MSMEs, we look forward to supporting them in creating a user-friendly space and helping them further to scale up with the help of our robust and collaborative solutions.”

Sanjeev Singh CEO & MD – CMS IT Services, said, “The infra and Capex push of the budget combined with a focus on creating a tech and knowledge-driven ecosystem will accelerate India’s journey to becoming a $ 5 trillion economy. This will also generate tremendous opportunities for the tech industry in multiple advanced domains like 5G, AI, digital, agri-tech & fintech.”

Vasudeva Rao Munnaluri, RVP India & SAARC, Zendesk, maintained, “The Union Budget’s focus on ‘Make AI work in India’ is a much-needed move to develop more skilled talent in the AI field and set new standards for India’s growth. Our recent CX Trends Report revealed a gap between consumer expectations and business priorities – 84% of Indian consumers expect AI interactions to become more natural and human-like over time, but less than half of Indian businesses (45%) plan to invest in such technologies in the next 12 months when it comes to their customer experience. The government’s move will accelerate the development of India’s AI ecosystem, especially at a time when businesses –particularly MSMEs – face budget constraints when making strategic investments into technology. The Rs 9,000 crore corpus fund and tax concessions made for this sector in the budget will help boost tech adoption among small businesses, and accelerate progress towards a Digital India.”

BY SANJAY @ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM

Increasing risk in the economic environment makes it more difficult to prevent fraud and other forms of economic crime. As organizations move quickly to adapt, bad actors see this as an opportunity to take advantage of weaknesses that may open in fraud defenses.

Fraud is an ongoing challenge for many businesses. Several years of anti-fraud policies, training, internal controls, and monitoring have helped businesses to fight internally driven fraud. New threats are popping up constantly, though. Organizations are doing the hard work of enhancing their technical capabilities and implementing stronger internal controls. Specifically, they have policies, procedures, and trainings in place to encourage employees to act responsibly.

Now the questions are:

Can the advanced technologies be deployed to control various kinds of internet-based risks?

Have enterprises created appropriate policies and incentives that can cater to today’s rapidly evolving economy?

The frequency of data breaches has increased, so companies should take all possible steps to protect the personal information of their customers. The major data breaches will challenge the knowledge-based authentication strategies that organizations have invested in to protect against fraudsters. The trend of law-abiding people joining up with criminal groups is also on the rise.

In the recent case of ransomware attack on the server used at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS)-Delhi was down for at least 9 hours, adversely affecting the center’s outpatient department (OPD) and sample collection services. With an increase in efficacy, cyber-criminals are extending their reach towards enhanced sophistication every day, making it more eminent to protect your business from such threats.

BIMAKAVACH

MITIGATING CYBER SECURITY THREATS WITH INSURANCE

Organizations are doing the hard work of enhancing their technical capabilities and implementing stronger internal controls

Amid this situation, we felt the need of customized cyber insurance policies and redesigning the cyber insurance product to provide maximum benefit to policy holders. Cyber insurance is a great way to safeguard your company in the event of a data breach or other cybercrimes. When you purchase cyber insurance, you are protecting both yourself and your clients from first- and thirdparty losses. Cyber coverage also includes services that reduce the impact of lawsuits and liabilities on your business.

A company that operates with internetconnected devices on premises, will always be at internet-based risks. A data or cyber breach is unpredictable and quite often unavoidable, even with the use of adequate technology. Cyber liability insurance could be the best bet to protect

businesses from losses or damages incurred due to cyber-attacks and data breaches. But make a wise decision while choosing an insurance company.

Business insurance is the mantra of peace and security for entrepreneurs. It adds credibility to the business, helps you attract top talent and raise funds. It reduces your risks and at the same time helps you grow rapidly. The cyber insurance policy covers investigation expenses, data restoration costs and crisis management fees. You do not have to worry much about the losses incurred after phishing, hacking and 3rd party liabilities. The time has come to treat a cyber insurance as a must-have safety measure and not just an afterthought to protect their business.

“With an increase in efficacy, cybercriminals are extending their reach towards enhanced sophistication every day, making it more eminent to protect your business from such threats.”

TEJAS JAIN FOUNDER, BIMAKAVACH