SME Channels November 2018

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Rashi Peripherals Rejuvenates its Corporate Identity / 06 www.smechannels.com

India’s leading IT magazine for channel business VOLUME 09 | ISSUE 09 | PAGES 40 | NOVEMBER 2018 | RS. 20/-

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Blockchain set to supercharge global supply chains by 2025 / 14 www.smechannels.com

india’s leading IT magazine for channel business ELITE PARTNERS

“AN ANALYSIS OF INDIA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL IT PARTNERS.”/ 18

SME CHAT/ 32

SECURITY/ 34

RED HAT: SAAS, PAAS

SKYBOX: “WE’RE SEEING APAC

AND IAAS OFFER GREAT OPPORTUNITIES TO CHANNEL PARTNERS.

AS EARLY ADOPTERS OF AI AND MACHINE LEARNING”

MY EXPERIENCE EDITORIAL

5G AND 8% GDP GROWTH IN INDIA WILL DRIVE THE IT GROWTH SANJAY MOHAPATRA

sanjay@smechannels.com

India is becoming a very powerful economy with US$2 trillion plus surpassing France with growth rate above 8% GDP. And the country’s easy of doing business has already surpassed 77 from 100 in last year index of easy of doing business. Therefore, the expectation is that from 2019 till 2025, the economy is going to be very interesting.

ICT is going to be a critical factor in changing the fate of the economy. Every organization – whether it is government, PSU or enterprises are going to become IT enabled. The cloud computing will drive the infrastructure market. IT services sector will grow faster than the industry average owing to the revival of US and European economy.

Domestic services market will also grow as OPEX model will be a choice of the enterprises. Already government and banking sectors have started investing into refreshing their infrastructure and embracing services and cloud model. Therefore, DC and cloud business is seen flourishing. Many of the DC companies are pumping in money to expand their racks and setting up new hyperscale DCs. As per these DC management, before their DC is built up, they are able to get customers.

The other thing which is going to drive the Indian IT market is the data privacy legislation. It means critical data has to remain in the boundaries of India. It would require massive requirement of storage and managing capability. Security will be another glue to bind the data and keep it safe from the hackers. So massive investment is going to happen on security technologies.

Start up and innovation incubation out of India will drive a lot in terms of consuming the infrastructure.

India being a channel first country, will have a great time for the channel partners but careful investment on right technology will be the need of the time. Acquiring skillsets and certifications will become a major differentiator from partner to partner. Specialization of domain skills will be key to the success of the partners.

Indian will certain see another revolution when 5G gets implemented as the bandwidth limitation will be eliminated. 100 gig / second will certainly open up the highway for all the heavy traffic, which will see the virtual world be becoming real world.

D-Link Whole Home Wi-Fi Solution D-LINK COVR-C1202 (pack of two) Dual Band Whole Home Wi-Fi System, offers seamless Wi-Fi solution that efficiently meets the connectivity needs of any modern home.

It features two high-performance Covr points that blanket every square inch of home with high-speed AC1200 dual-band Wi-Fi as well as two on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports (per unit) for wired connectivity. With COVRC1202, one can enjoy Wi-Fi that’s stable, consistent, and truly seamless.

SPECIFICATION: WITH THE DUAL-BAND AC1200 MU-MIMO AND SCALABLE SEAMLESS MESH WIRELESS NETWORK, THE DUO COVERS 3,500 SQ. FT. FINAL WORDING: Priced at Rs. 11, 499/-, this Wi-Fi system is currently available across the country, but our suggestion is the price should be sub Rs. 10, 000/- for the home customers.

OVERALL RATING

SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

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Trusted Advisor of Channel Business

VOLUME 09 ISSUE 09

2018

NOV

Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Associate Editor: Deepak Singh Associate Editor: Chitresh Sehgal News Editor: Prashasti Bhatt Designer: Ajay Arya Assistant Designer: Rahul Arya, Deepak Kumar Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Nidhi Kujur, Priyanka Circulation and Printing: Raj Kumar Hansa SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 / 8587835685 sanjeev@smechannels.com Bangalore #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004 Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 Mumbai Tahmeed Ansari 2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara, Andheri (west), Mumbai - 400 053.

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An Analysis of India’s Most Influential IT Partners. /18

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SME CHAT ROCKET SOFTWARE’S / 29

“Rocket Software eyes India’s Engineering talent pool to build its Centre of Excellence in India”

SECURITY THE CHANGING ROLE OF DISTRIBUTION / 26

“Distributors work with partners to leverage the possibilities of the new-gen technologies to help customers solve their business pain-points, thereby providing “true” Value Addition.”

SME CHAT CYBAGE

/ 30

”EMM Continues to Grow in India.”

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SNIPPETS PRODUCT | CHANNEL | CONSULTING | SERVICES

for more log on to smechannels.com

Dell EMC Organized Partner Marketing Summit - SPARK For the first time in Asia Pacific & Japan (APJ), Dell EMC brought together its channel marketers at its inaugural partner marketing summit - ‘SPARK’. The three-day event saw over 100 channel marketers from across different partner

types – distributor, titanium, platinum and authorized resellers – gathered together, alongside Dell EMC’s global and regional marketing leadership.

Held between 2 to 5 October 2018 in Da Nang, Vietnam, SPARK

comprised a dynamic line-up of regional industry figures, as well as marketing agency partners all under one roof to capitalize on opportunities for channel marketing excellence within the industry.

Attendees also benefited from

best practice sharing sessions by Dell’s channel and digital marketing teams. These activities culminated with a celebration of the extraordinary achievements of Dell EMC’s APJ channel marketers at the Gala Dinner & Awards Night. Team Computers from India was one of the partners who won awards for Excellence in Marketing Impact to Business for driving for driving highest ROI from their MDF programs and Redington India won Excellence in Marketing Innovation for driving innovations & improvisations in their marketing program for Optiplex All in One resulting in over-achieving sell targets.

“SPARK was a great first for Dell EMC to spearhead conversations on effective marketing and deeper engagement with our partner marketing community,” said Karinne Brannigan, Senior Vice President of Marketing, APJ, Dell EMC. “Channel is a very important go-tomarket strategy for us, marketing becomes critical.”

Check Point Software to Acquire Dome9 Check Point Software has acquired Dome9 of Tel Aviv, Israel. This acquisition enhances Check Point’s fully consolidated Infinity architecture and its Cloud Security offering with advanced active policy enforcement and multi-cloud protection capabilities.

As the use of cloud services significantly increases and cyberattacks on cloud data and resources

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SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

become more sophisticated than ever, this acquisition strengthens Check Point’s position as a global leader in Cloud Protection. It will enable Check Point’s customers to acquire an evenmore powerful security visibility and control across multi-cloud environments through its Infinity’s total protection architecture.

“Dome9 and Check Point’s

CloudGuard together provide the best cloud security solution in the industry. Dome9’s platform will add rich cloud management and active policy enforcement capabilities to Check Point’s Infinity Architecture, particularly complementing the CloudGuard security product family and make our broad solution even more differentiated in the rapidly moving Cyber Security environ-

ment,” said Gil Shwed, Check Point CEO. “As 5th generation cyber attacks increasingly target enterprise cloud environments, so our Gen V cyber security solution must effectively protect this vector. This acquisition will enhance our ability to deliver the benefits of Cloud with the critical security that must extend from the networks to the Cloud and Mobile enterprise-wide.”

SNIPPETS

Rashi Peripherals Rejuvenates its Corporate Identity; Now Known as RP tech India

In a bid to reinforce its core strengths and futuristic growth ambitions, Rashi Peripherals, India’s only value-added distributor has unveiled a new corporate identity. The company will now be known as “RP tech India”, while its new logo personifies forward and futuristic thinking.

The logo is the amalgamation of three strong colours Purple, Violet, Grey. The bold colour combination signifies Company’s forward, futuristic thinking. This colour combination indicates that the RP tech India as an organization, is rich in Credibility, Strength and Professionalism.

The 2 colour’s sleek font states that the Company is now turning from existing to new dynamic

NetRack Hosted SI Partners Meet in Bengaluru NetRack organized an exclusive partners’ meet for all its East India Partners at Windflower Prakruthi Resort, Bengaluru. The partner’s meet cum training program was conducted for 2 days which included the visit to NetRack’s ‘State-of-the-art’ production facility.

NetRack’s partners associated with various verticals like government BFSI, IT/ITES, Hospitals & Hospitalities made their presence at the meet. The spirit of two days meet was to exchange thoughts, ideas, challenges and opportunities in the market.

The sole agenda of the meet was to educate the partners on the latest trends in the datacenter space and how NetRack’s products and solutions can make their way addressing the requirements of customers.

Partners grabbed the opportunity to interact directly with Mr Ravi Raj, Brand Head, Director, Sales & Support at NetRack and shared the feedback/ concerns received from the customers.

Interacting with the partners,

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success phase.

Kapal Pansari, Director at RP tech India said, “As our business horizon continues to expand, we believe that it is the right time to reinforce our fundamental values and core strengths. We are very excited to announce the launch of our new name and logo that illustrates and amplifies our aspiration and futuristic thinking. We vow to become the One Stop Shop for the entire spectrum of the channel fraternity.”

Commenting on the rebranding, Rajesh Goenka, Director, Sales and Marketing at RP tech India, said, “Started business in 1989, we have come a long way to be the most admired value-added Distributor in India. This is a proud moment for us and we are grateful to our vendors and channel partners for their support and encouragement that led us to take the next big leap.”

RP tech India intends to reach out to 1000+ cities/town in the next 2-3 years.

The Company will continue to expand its breadth by opening branches in the emerging tier 3 and tier 4 cities and add top brands in its product portfolio. RP tech India is also developing an Enterprise business to cater to SMEs/SMBs and Government verticals.

MY POINT

“WE ARE HELPING CUSTOMERS IMPROVE THE PRODUCTIVITY AND PERFORMANCE OF THEIR OPERATIONS AND FREE THEIR STAFF TO DRIVE INNOVATION FROM EDGE TO CLOUD.” RAJESH DHAR, SENIOR DIRECTOR, HYBRID IT, HPE INDIA,

Tyco Security Hosts its 2nd Annual Partner Meet Tyco’s 2nd edition of its annual partner conference – Converge ‘18 saw 45 partner firms participate and more than 50 partner delegates. Held in Sri Lanka, the conference serves the dual purpose of knowledge exchange, learning and team building.

Tyco’s senior executives took the stage to present the awards to the company’s top performing partners. The presenters included, Kenneth May, Vice President, Sales-APAC and Rajeev Samanta, Regional Sales Director, South Asia “The security solutions market is on a high growth trajectory owing to emerging trends such as smart homes and smart cities. We have been able to capture and deliver on this market demand time and again due to the support and excellence of our partner network”, said Kenneth May, Vice President, Sales APAC. Rajeev Samanta, Regional Sales Director, South Asia said, “Converge is the biggest annual event for Tyco Security India and all our eminent partners. It offers us an invaluable opportunity to come together and share our thoughts with each other. The discussions during this event have been a good collaborative process.”

Unistal Delights Partners with ‘Trip to Thailand’ Opportunity Unistal Systems has come up with an offer to reward its channel partners with a 3N/4D trip to Thailand on the purchase of 11 boxes of Protegent antivirus per month for the next five months. The scheme is valid till 31st March 2019.

To be eligible for this offer, partners need to purchase 11 boxes of Protegent Antivirus for five months which should include a combination of 18 Antivirus- 10 user pack, 18 Total Security- 10 user pack and 18 Complete Security-5 user pack. Partners can also become eligible for the Thailand trip by purchasing a combination of 28 Antivirus-10 user pack and 28 Total Security-10 user pack in next five months.

Rajib Banerjee, National Sales Manager at Unistal Systems Pvt Ltd. said, “This scheme designed to help partners earn rewards as well as escalate their business profitability. The first 500 partners achieving the target will be eligible for this offer.”

SNIPPETS

Panzer IT Becomes Exclusive Distributor for Heimdal Security Panzer IT, a pioneer in providing IT Security solutions, and one of the best software distribution companies in India, is proud to announce the exclusive distribution partnership with Heimdal Security.

Heimdal Security is a Danish leading cybersecurity company that is actually focused on preventing attacks, not just mitigating the damages of a data breach or a ransomware attack. Heimdal Security provides cyber security intelligence to protect more than 600,000 users around the world and won the most educational security blog award in 2016.

Pankaj Jain, CEO, Panzer IT said, “tie-up with Heimdal Security will help us providing top-notch security to our clients across the segment be it large enterprise, BFSI, FMCG, Government, SMB & home users; as data security is concern for all. Most of well-known antivirus claim to be 100% effective but since quite some time we all know that conventional antivirus cannot provide protection against unknown threats.

Heimdal Security is perfect software solution, easy to deploy and easy to use – managed from cloud hence savings on server hardware too”.

Aujas and Endgame announce partnership Aujas and Endgame have entered into a new strategic partnership. Through the alliance, Aujas’ Managed Endpoint Detection, Response, and Prevention Service (MEDR) will be powered by Endgame’s best-in-class endpoint protection platform to stop targeted attacks before damage and loss can occur.

The combined offering will leverage Aujas’ managed security services expertise to offer joint customers the earliest threat prevention, fastest detection and response, and automated threat hunting to ensure the readiness of their cybersecurity posture.

Aujas MEDR combines endpoint agents that constantly monitor and hunt for known and unknown threats, a central command and control equipped with advanced analytics for investigation, and AI/automation for rapid response and protection against similar future attacks. This gives security teams the power to stop real-time threats and get back to business in minutes.

“Aujas solves this problem by marrying advanced automation usin Endgame and human skills to deliver next-generation endpoint protection” said Sameer Shelke, Co-founder and CTO, Aujas. “Endgame provides full stack endpoint protection and stops targeted attacks like exploits, phishing, malware, fileless attacks and ransomware, that help us stop attacks and prevent damage to our clients.”

“In today’s dynamic threat environment, rapid detection and response remains essential.

Unfortunately, most organizations don’t have the staff, expertise, or resources to put a mature program in place,” said Lyndon Brown, VP, Corporate and Business Development, Endgame.

“Aujas has emerged as a thought leader in managed cybersecurity services. We’re pleased Aujas has selected Endgame to help clients of all sizes accelerate their SOC maturity by adopting managed endpoint services.”

GLOBAL IT SPENDING TO GROW 3.2 PERCENT IN 2019 Worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.8 trillion in 2019, an increase of 3.2 percent from expected spending of $3.7 trillion in 2018, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc.

EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT

Airtel gets Adarsh Nair onboard as Chief Product Officer

Xerox names Vineet Gehani Technology and Channels Director India

35.0% 30.0% 25.0%

Aurus ropes in DJ Dutta to enhance sales and service for India & APAC markets

20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% 0.0% DELL INC

HEWLETT PACKARD ENTERPRISE

NETAPP

IBM

HITACHI

REST OF THE MARKET

An expected global slowdown in economic prosperity, paired with internal pressures to cut spending, is driving organizations to optimize enterprise external spend for business services such as consulting. In a recent Gartner study, 46 percent of organizations indicated that IT services and supplier consolidation was in their top three most-effective cost-optimization approaches.

10 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

Indian American Thomas Kurian is the new CEO of Google Cloud

SNIPPETS

Tata Communications acquires Teleena Tata Communications is acquiring Teleena, a Netherlands-based IoT connectivity specialist and mobile virtual network enabler (MVNE).

The company’s technology reduces the operational complexity and cost of mobility and IoT deployments for businesses.

The acquisition is an investment in technology and talent to complement Tata Communications’ growth strategy in the global mobility and IoT market. It gives the company full access to Teleena’s technology portfolio, including its MVNE platform, its Operational Support System / Business Support System (OSS/BSS) solution, and the expertise of Teleena’s mobility and IoT industry specialists. Teleena’s customers will now transition to become Tata Communications’ customers, and all Teleena employees will become Tata Communications’ employees.

GCR Announces Strategic Alliance with one more Technology Partner GCR has announced its strategic alliance with one more Technology Partner to onboard two new tracking solutions Field Force Management and Asset Tracking on its Partners Platform.

Elated with the strategic alliance for these two solutions Tony Tsao, Founder & CEO, GCR commented, “Offering the just-right experience to the customer is increasingly becoming vital in the industry. Gauging the customer’s preferences continually is the crux to success. These two tracking softwares will certainly create a wave in the market that will build an improved customer service experience along with strong and collaborative alliance of MSPs/ISVs/Sis on our partner’s platform”.

“The latest solution is a tool for field force management and is an advantage to any of the industry or organization for greater collaboration among the field service staff, simplifying the core field scheduling and ensuring productivity” quoted, Amod Phadke, Sales & Marketing Director, GCR. “We are excited to be partnered with GCR. They have an incredible team and a strong partner relationship to understand our objectives and can find not only the right channel friendly vendors more efficiently, but also can minimise our time to go-to-market. The key factor of GCR is that they have a revolutionary online partners’ platform where Integration Partner can find our SaaS enabled products and, in turn, lead us to the faster penetration in to their respective end-customer”s, said Vijay Mysore – Technology Partner of GCR for Field Force Management and Asset Tracking Solutions.

Huawei Releases AI Strategy and FullStack, All-Scenario AI Portfolio The third annual HUAWEI CONNECT, at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, themed “Activate Intelligence”, focused on AI: its challenges, opportunities, innovations, and practices.

At the event, Huawei Rotating Chairman Eric Xu announced Huawei’s AI strategy, as well as its full-stack, all-scenario AI portfolio. Huawei’s AI portfolio includes its new Ascend series of AI chips – the world’s first AI IP and chip series designed for a full range of scenarios (see below for more information).

The portfolio also includes new products and cloud services that are built on Ascend chip capabilities. With its full-stack AI portfolio, Huawei aims to provide pervasive intelligence to help drive industry development and build a fully connected, intelligent world.

WeWork accelerates expansion goals We Work opened its fifth location, K Raheja Platinum in Mumbai earlier this month, and unveiled its sixth location, Salarpuria Magnificia, in Bengaluru.

In tandem with its commitment to growing a stronger presence in India, WeWork is experiencing rapid growth with recently opening its fifth location in Mumbai, WeWork K Raheja Platinum and also launched its newest space, WeWork Salarpuria Magnificia, marking the latter its sixth location in Bengaluru. Aimed at uplifting businesses to the next level, Mumbai’s K Raheja Platinum thrives in its prime location and edge in the vicinity. Situated in a central part of a growing business hub, the new workspace provides quick access to the Marol metro station, providing members with easy transportation options in an otherwise congested business hub. Salarpuria Magnificia, a newly constructed building comes equipped with WeWork’s hallmark features: community bar, dedicated offices, unique conference rooms and a wellness/meditation room. With the location being pet-friendly, it also boasts an energizing game room, outdoor areas and easy access to the Tin Factory bus stop that ensures daily hassle-free commute.

12 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

CSS Corp Wins Gold at 10th Annual 2018 Golden Bridge Awards CSS Corp’s cognitive assistant platform Yodaa has been awarded Gold at the 10th Annual 2018 Golden Bridge Awards. The award will be presented in San Francisco on Monday, October 29, 2018, during the red-carpet ceremony.

CSS Corp’s Yodaa ties four crucial components of customer lifecycle management: 1.

Customer experience enhancement 2.

Digital journey orchestration 3.

Revenue generation 4.

Outcome-based delivery The company is investing significantly in its Yodaa platform to help businesses anticipate and resolve customer issues at scale and at manageable costs. The company recently released the enterprise version of the Yodaa platform that focuses on streamlining and modernizing enterprise support operations.

Speaking on the occasion, Manish Tandon, Chief Executive Officer, CSS Corp said, “Brands that master personalization and bring deep, intuitive customer experiences through smarter technology will thrive in the digital future. CSS Corp’s deep capabilities in digital, coupled with our obsessive focus on customer centricity has helped us to offer unique expertise to our clientele and aid in their transformation journeys.” “This recognition is another milestone in our innovation journey, as we continue to explore new frontiers in creating cognitive solutions for tomorrow’s business problems,” he further added.

SNIPPETS

Hitachi Vantara Completes REAN Cloud Acquisition Hitachi Vantara has completed its acquisition of REAN Cloud LLC, a global cloud systems integrator, managed services provider and solutions developer of cloud-native applications across big data, machine learning and emerging internet of things (IoT) spaces. Through this acquisition, Hitachi Vantara gains critical capabilities and industryleading expertise in cloud migration and modernization, instantly elevating its cloud offering portfolio and managed services capabilities.

Hitachi Vantara aims to address this gap with its new offerings, providing cloud migration and managed services that enable customers to operate across hybrid and multicloud infrastructure. Additionally, 47Lining, acquired by REAN Cloud last year, provides deep capabilities in cloud-based analytics and machine learning that powerfully expand Hitachi Vantara’s ability to maximize data-driven value for its customers focused on vertical IoT solutions.

“In the last year, we have expanded our investment in agile and flexible infrastructure as an engine for driving our customers’ digital transformations,” said Brian Householder, chief executive officer of Hitachi Vantara.

Eurotech Technologies Unveil BestNet Four Pole Open Racks

Zyxel’s new ATP firewall uses the cloud to make cutting-edge cybersecurity simple for SMBs Zyxel India unveiled a new firewall line that finally gives SMBs a costeffective way to protect their networks and their data—even from zero-day attacks that fly under the radar of conventional security solutions.Zyxel ATP: Advanced threat protection“Last year’s ransomware epidemic was a warning that you don’t need to handle sensitive information or large sums of cash to be targeted,” said Dean Shih, senior AVP of Zyxel’s Gateway SBU. “Compounding the problem are unknown threats. These can’t be stopped by conventional security solutions and they’re growing fast—up 40% in the second half of last year. Until now, the cutting-edge tech needed to fend off these threats has been prohibitively expensive for most SMBs.” This barrier to entry is no more with the ZyWALL ATP series and its multi-layer protection. On the front line is sandboxing, which executes unknown and potentially dangerous data packets in a safe, concealed environment to determine whether they’re safe before letting them in—or not.

Eurotech Technologies has unveiled next generation BestNet four pole open racks to support a variety of network and computer equipments. To accommodate a wide-range of components required in data, server and voice environments the racks are designed for high density application networking, telephone and voice mail equipment, routers, data centres, telecom and lab applications.

Made of heavy aluminum sections, powder coated and bolted with highest quality standards the network racks have been designed to meet the requirements of today’s IT infrastructure. The racks features open architecture for easy access to cable & unrestricted air flow, standard U marking for fast equipment mounting, static load capacity of 1,200 kg and highly adjustable to suite site conditions. The rigid construction and adjustable depths makes BestNet four pole open racks suitable for mounting heavy and deep equipment that may exceed the capabilities of a standard 2-pole bay rack.

“Relying on continuous innovation, while leading new transformations to help enterprises stay ahead in increasingly competitive markets, BestNet is committed to build strong ICT ecosystem,” said Mr. Anuj Jain, Managing Director, Eurotech Technologies.

Compuage concludes K7 Channel Scheme!

Compuage Infocom had released channel incentive program (April, May and June 2018) for K7 Antivirus products. The incentive scheme witnessed huge response and 1000+ channel partners qualified for various incentives ranging from trips to Europe and Tashkent alongside other gifts like TV, Fridge, Mixer Grinders and more. Compuage is K7 Security’s exclusive distributor for a range of consumer antivirus products in India and has been working towards channel enablement and engagement programs including incentive schemes for T3 partners and on ground activation programs.

Bhavesh H Mehta, Chief Operating Officer, Compuage Infocom Limited said, “K7 is one of the leading cyber security companies in India. The brand has been growing aggressively which stems from our solid partner base across the nation.

Programs like these are most rewarding for Indian resellers market today and we greatly value their contribution in the business. This certainly will motivate our partners to go into the market with renewed vigor”.

Citrix Acquires Sapho Citrix Systems has acquired Sapho, a leading micro app platform. The acquisition will enhance the guided work capabilities within Citrix Workspace, enabling people to work with even greater speed, intelligence and simplicity.

“In today’s tight labor market, advantage goes to companies that can recruit, develop and engage employees better than the competition,” said Tim Minahan, Executive Vice President Business Strategy and Chief Marketing Officer, Citrix.

“Employee experience will ultimately determine winners and losers and Citrix is committed to delivering intelligent digital workspaces that give companies an edge.”

In combining Citrix’s strengths in application delivery and security with Sapho’s focus on work automation and productivity, Citrix and Sapho can help companies create a superior employee experience that redefines the future of work and deliver it today.

SME CHANNELS 13 NOVEMBER 2018

SNIPPETS

Fujitsu adds Converged Virtual Infrastructure to PRIMEFLEX Portfolio Fujitsu has introduced PRIMEFLEX for VMware vSphere. The fully pre-configured, pre-tested and validated package of first-class hardware, software, integration and support services is designed to provide a fast track to maximum IT performance and agility while also reducing complexity for VMware-based virtual infrastructures. Fujitsu PRIMEFLEX for VMware vSphere combines the latest Fujitsu PRIMERGY RX dual-socket servers with a choice of either Fujitsu ETERNUS AF all-flash or ETERNUS DX hybrid storage.

The new PRIMEFLEX infrastructure is focused on enabling customers to reduce overall operating costs. Not only does it use the most

energy-efficient server and storage components, but also standardized firmware management and a ready-to-run system save on administrative time. The versatile Fujitsu Software Infrastructure Manager (ISM) manages system resources including network switches from Extreme Networks and Broadcom, automates service provisioning and simplifies day-to-day infrastructure management tasks. And a hallmark of the entire PRIMEFLEX family of integrated systems is standardized support around the globe, providing customers with peace of mind when technical support is needed.

Blockchain set to supercharge global supply chains by 2025 A new report by the Capgemini Research Institute revealed that blockchain could become ubiquitous by 2025, entering mainstream business and underpinning supply chains worldwide. Through investment and partnerships, the distributed ledger technology will dominate manufacturing as well as consumer products and retail industries, ushering in a new era of transparency and trust.

The report, “Does blockchain hold the key to a new age of supply chain transparency and trust?”, provides a comprehensive overview into the businesses and geographies that are ramping up their blockchain readiness, and predicts that blockchain will enter mainstream use in supply chains by 2025.

Currently, just 3% of organizations that are deploying blockchain do so at scale and 10% have a pilot in place, with 87% of respondents reporting to be in the early stages of experimentation with blockchain.

Despite the optimism surrounding blockchain deployments, concerns remain around establishing a clear return-on-investment, and interoperability between partners in a supply chain. The majority (92%) of pacesetters point to establishing ROI as the greatest challenge to adoption, and 80% cite interoperability with legacy systems as a major operational challenge. Additionally, 82% point to the security of transactions as inhibiting partner adoption of their blockchain applications, undermining blockchain’s status as a secure technology.

LogMeIn Delivers Proactive AI & Universal Language Capabilities with New Bold360 LogMeIn, Inc. introduced the next wave of intelligent customer engagement by adding proactive AI and language features to the Bold360 platform. LogMeIn has taken the world-class attributes of Bold360 and created an even more powerful solution with expanded use cases designed to help companies build a highly personalized and relevant customer experience across the digital journey. Bold360 anticipates customer needs and promotes engagements at the right time, in the right way and in the right language.

“Artificial intelligence has already shown great promise in reinventing how businesses tackle customer service and support both in direct communications with the customer and in supporting agents,” said Mary Wardley, VP Customer Care and CRM, at IDC. “The next evolution is proactive AI, where customers can get timely and relevant information throughout their entire journey. As companies continue to implement AI, they have a tremendous opportunity to use the technology – not just for call deflection – but instead to offer the type of concierge-level service that breeds long-term brand loyalty.”

14 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

DIGEST KNOWLARITY INTEGRATES ITS CLOUD TELEPHONY OFFERINGS WITH FRESHWORKS INC. Knowlarity has partnered with Freshworks Inc., one of the most rapidly growing SaaS companies in the customer engagement space. Knowlarity’s flagship product, SuperReceptionist, is now integrated with Freshdesk Mint. Once installed, SuperReceptionist brings in the cloud telephony features of Knowlarity into Freshdesk Mint. The app is available for download and can be directly installed inside Freshdesk from the Freshdesk Marketplace.

SuperReceptionist enables businesses to communicate with their customers with extreme ease by having a built-in phone system that can be accessed without ever leaving the helpdesk.

NEW VERSION OF ZOHO’S HRM APP SIMPLIFIES EMPLOYEE QUERY MANAGEMENT Zoho made a major update to its HR management system, Zoho People 4.0. This new version has significantly enhanced the core functionality of the application, providing employers with a centralized, integrated system that facilitates better connectivity between HR and employees. It allows HR departments to manage custom services, tailor complex leave policies to specific workplace scenarios, run advanced analytics, and handle employee queries through a centralized case management system.

[24]7.AI CEO PV KANNAN HONORED FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP Zoho Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS) has recognized Chief Executive Officer PV Kannan of [24]7.ai as one of the 100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs of 2018 at its Builders + Innovators Summit in Santa Barbara, California.

“I am honored by this recognition,” said Kannan.

ELEVATE YOUR MUSIC EXPERIENCE WITH PORTRONICS HARMONICS PLAY Portronics has unveiled “Harmonics PLAY” headphones, that will not only provide better sound, but are also comfortable to wear and more durable. With Bluetooth 4.1, Harmonics Play provides an extraordinary 10 hours talk/ play time with 300 hours of standby on a single charge of 2 hours. With superior noise cancellation AVRCP / A2DP/ HSF and HFP technologies and high end audio drivers, Harmonics Play not only gives you a great musical experience when streaming music or videos in smartphone or laptop but also offers amazing clarity in voice calls.

SNIPPETS

Skybox Security Signs RAH Infotech as National Distributor Skybox Security has signed an agreement with RAH Infotech to be the company’s national distributor. The software company experienced 433 percent year-over-year growth in APAC for 2017 — including 350 percent growth in India. The Skybox APAC channel program enables value-added distributors (VADs), managed security service providers (MSSPs), resellers and system integrators to meet the needs of the market by deploying and offering services that leverage the Skybox Security Suite. By adding the Suite to their offerings, local partners can continue to serve as trusted cybersecurity advisors to India businesses.

“We are excited to partner with RAH Infotech who have demonstrable knowledge of the India and SAARC marketplace with a great track record of execution for their vendor and reseller partners,” said Gerry Sillars, VP of APAC for Skybox Security.

“We’re looking forward to working with them as we continueto focus on the expansion of our footprint in the region, as well as evolving the company’s channel business.”

55% of APAC Organizations will be Digitally Determined by 2020 IDC unveiled its top predictions for Asia/Pacific excluding Japan (APeJ) at the IDC Asia/Pacific Futurescapes 2019 The event is one of ICT’s biggest thought leadership event every year where IDC unveils its top 10 predictions for ICT and industries for the next 36 months. This year, IDC shared that it predicts that at least 55% of organizations will be digitally determined by 2020, transforming markets and reimagining the future through new business models and digitally enabled products and services. Digitally determined organizations demonstrate the ability to vision, plan, and operationalize DX through ambition, grit, discipline, commitment and hard work. Ultimately, all digital determined organizations aspire to become digital native enterprises.

According to Ng, the top predictions that will impact the ICT industry and both technology buyers and suppliers in Asia/Pacific in the next 36 months are: 1: Digital determination: By 2020, at least 55% of organizations will be digitally determined, transforming markets and reimagining the future through new business models and digitally enabled products and services.

2: Data monetization: By 2020, 60% of large enterprises will create data management or monetization capabilities, thus enhancing enterprise functions, strengthening competitiveness, and creating new sources of revenue.

3: Digital KPIs: By 2023, 80% of entities will have incorporate new digital KPI sets – focusing on product/service innovation rates, data capitalization, and employee experience – to navigate the digital economy.

4: Digital twin: By 2020, 30% of A1000 companies will have implemented advanced digital twins of their operational processes

Dell Technologies Secures Hyper-Converged Infrastructure Certification Dell Technologies has revealed that Dell EMC VxRail hyper-converged infrastructure appliances, powered by VMware vSphere and VMware vSAN software, are certified by SAP for SAP HANA production environments. The certifications, for both VxRail and VMware software, reflect VMware and Dell EMC’s continued leadership in the rapidly growing HCI industry.

Dell EMC VxRail is the industry’s only jointly engineered, turnkey, fully integrated HCI appliance with VMware and pre-tested and pre-configured with the latest Dell EMC PowerEdge servers. These appliances are the easiest and fastest way to simplify a VMware environment for HCI with seamless integration with existing VMware tools.

HYPERX LAUNCHES ITS SAVAGE EXO SSD IN INDIA HyperX has unveiled its SAVAGE EXO SSD in India. It is a performance external SSD to store and run applications quickly and directly from the device. This new drive utilizes 3D NAND technology for better power efficiency and durability, delivering high read and write speeds, 10 times faster than a 7200RPM hard drive. The HyperX SAVAGE EXO SSD is available in online and retail stores with an MRP of INR 15,999 for the 480GB capacity and INR 30,599 for the 960GB capacity. Also, this drive is backed by a limited 3-year warranty7 with free technical support.

“HyperX strives to create innovative high-quality storage solutions custom tailored according to the needs of end of user,” said Mr. Vishal Parekh, Marketing Director, HyperX India. “With the new HyperX SAVAGE EXO SSD featuring 3D NAND technology we continue to offer the exceptional performance products in the HyperX SSD lineup.”

Commvault, HPE Team up to advance cloud backup and recovery Commvault has revealed full integration between Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery Software and HPE StoreOnce systems, including integration with HPE StoreOnce Catalyst. This joint solution allows Commvault to manage the full lifecycle of data management operations for HPE StoreOnce systems. Seamless integration between HPE StoreOnce systems using Catalyst Copy meets evolving backup, recovery, and compliance challenges, while tightening resource requirements and responding to the ever-expanding data growth, that customers are facing.

Together, the integration of Commvault Complete Backup & Recovery Software with HPE StoreOnce systems, optimizes storage costs, reduces network traffic, provides seamless data mobility and simplifies data management. The new solution from Commvault and HPE includes support for low bandwidth mode (source-side) deduplication that reduces redundant data, minimizes automated movement of data to lower cost storage as data ages based on user-defined policies, and includes support for synthetic, full backups using Catalyst Clone.

“Commvault and HPE are committed to our strategic global alliance and providing customers with industry-leading software and hardware solutions that are unmatched by the competition,” said Owen Taraniuk, Head of Worldwide Partnerships and Market Development at Commvault.

SME CHANNELS 15 NOVEMBER 2018

SNIPPETS

Xerox ConnectKey Printers Uplevel Productivity and Creativity Workers can spend more time collaborating and creating colorful marketing materials with two new Xerox workplace assistant printers that personalize work experiences and support mobility with secure, wireless printing.

Designed for medium and large workgroups, the customizable Xerox VersaLink C8000 and C9000 A3 Color Printers produce professional color quality, backed by benchmark reliability at an affordable total cost of ownership. In addition, the C9000 is equipped with precision color management tools, greater media flexibility and added productivity – must-haves for in-house graphic designers.

The exclusive 5-inch, tilt-capable, color user interface responds to taps, swipes and pinches, much like mobile devices, and can be personalized for different work environments or individual users.

This consistent user experience is available across all ConnectKey-enabled devices, enabling a standard workflow that fuels increased productivity.

Both devices provide professional color image quality with advanced EA Toner and high print resolution. For enhanced color management, the C9000 supports the Xerox Precise Color Management System, offering color accuracy and precise tuning of Pantone and custom spot colors.

Zyxel’s Multy Plus puts top grade security in the palm of your hand Zyxel India has unveiled Multy Plus, a wireless solution that changes the game for SMBs by delivering business-grade mesh WiFi at a more affordable price point and with easier, plug-andplay usability. Multy Plus is optimized for small businesses with large environments: it can be managed from a browser or an app, it has a dedicated security app, and it comes with industrybest mounting options right out of the box.

“Small businesses have long been relying on commercial access points to provide wireless internet to guests,” said Bill Su, senior AVP of Zyxel’s Smart Living SBU. “It’s a far from optimal solution as wiring these APs takes a great deal of time and money. Managing them is equally difficult given their complex interfaces, which even experts can struggle with.”

Multy Plus is raising the bar for cybersecurity with AiShield, a dedicated security app that takes numerous GUI functions and packages them for convenient mobile use.

AiShield makes real-time insight and security options accessible from any mobile. AiShield’s security features include access control, which lets you restrict access to tens of thousands of categories of inappropriate websites and up to 500 apps.

Barco to enable smart meeting rooms in PHD Chambers Barco has revealed its partnership with PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry to make their meeting room experience more secure and seamless. As part of this partnership, PHD Chamber’s four meeting rooms across Delhi, Chandigarh and Lucknow will now be powered by Barco’s state of the art wireless presentation system – ClickShare.

Barco ClickShare, a key technology upgrade for meeting rooms across businesses, is known for making meeting rooms more flexible, efficient and secure.

Commenting on the tie-up with PHD Chambers, Rajiv Bhalla, MD, Barco India said, “We are excited to partner with PHD Chambers of Commerce and Industry and deploy ClickShare in their meeting rooms. This partnership will not only help us showcase what a smart office looks like, but also help us penetrate deeper into key markets like Delhi, Chandigarh and Lucknow.”

Cloudera and Hortonworks Announce Termination of HartScott-Rodino Waiting Period for Proposed Merger Cloudera and Hortonworks jointly announced today that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission granted early termination of the waiting period under the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended (the “HSR Act”), in connection with their previously announced merger.

The termination of the waiting period under the HSR Act satisfies one of the conditions to the closing of the merger, which remains subject to other closing conditions in the Agreement and Plan of Merger and Reorganization, dated as of October 3, 2018, by and among Cloudera, Inc., Surf Merger Corporation, and Hortonworks, Inc. Cloudera and Hortonworks plan to hold their respective shareholder meetings to vote on the proposed merger in late December 2018 with the completion of the merger to follow soon thereafter.

16 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

Elisa, F-Secure to Simplify Connected Home Security F-Secure and leading telecommunications company Elisa have joined forces to simplify how people can secure the internet-connected devices finding their way into homes. Elisa is planning to implement a new internet service that includes routers powered by F-Secure Connected Home Security, making them the first network operator in the world to include F-Secure’s innovative smart home security solution in the routers they provide to customers.

“The internet-connected devices finding their way into people’s homes aren’t the same as they were ten years ago, and these internet-ofthings devices don’t have the same security software people are used to having on their mobile phones and computers,” said Kristian Järnefelt, F-Secure’s Executive Vice President of Consumer Security.

According to Matias Castrén, Business Director of Elisa’s Broadband Services, Elisa intends the new offering to meet the demands of customers for a simple, reliable solution to secure all their internetconnected devices. Elisa has a long and successful co-operation with F-Secure’s existing security products.

GCR

EMPOWER BUSINESS WITH DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION Business transformation, by definition, refers to the fundamental changes that are either brought in or inflicted upon by an organisation to uplift its face in the industry

“THOUGH TECHNOLOGY DOES FORM ONE OF THE MOST CRUCIAL FEATURES TO ELEVATE AN ORGANIZATION, IMPROVED PROCESSES AND HIGHER PRODUCTIVITY ADD UP TO THE SUCCESS OF AN ORGANISATION.”

T

hough technology does form one of the most crucial features to elevate an organization, improved processes and higher productivity add up to the success of an

organisation Businesses have been inventing and reinventing themselves from time immemorial to come up with new aspects in the field of business.

Transformation in any aspect is profound for businesses, organisational activities, competencies, processes as well as a number of models to fully leverage changes and opportunities in their respective fields. Digital Business Transformation is one such aspect that has taken the market to the heights which one could have never imagined.

“You have to constantly be reinventing yourself and investing in the future”Reid Hoffman once said.

Business transformation, by definition, refers to the fundamental changes that are either brought in or inflicted upon by an organisation to uplift its face in the industry. It not only talks about the technological aspect but also various others that in some way or other do affect an organisation in the long run.

Though technology does form one of the most crucial features to elevate an organization, improved processes and higher productivity add up to the success of an organisation. There exist a number of trends that lie in the list of Business Transformation. The trends include; Innovative Technology, Market Demands, Consumer- Customer Behavior, and Environmental Factors.

Innovative Technology: Technological innovations lead to technological disruptions which are

AMOD PHADKE very valuable for any company that plans to ace in their respective market. Modern technology, for instance, the cloud system is being adopted by various MNCs to flourish at a comparatively high pace.

Market Demand: The main objective of a company/organisation is to withstand the harsh conditions of the market and to meet the end-customer’s demands. Market demand usually describes the demand for a particular product by the customers who plan to purchase it, in this case, Technology. It is therefore determined by the willingness of a consumer to buy or avail a particular product or service.

Consumer-Customer Behavior: Customer demands, Customer expectations and meeting business needs are essential for the growth of any company. Increased technological capabilities and the desire to use these technologies is something what customer demands. The technological changes when met the customer demands bring about a major facelift for the particular organisation.

Environmental Factors:Environmental factors can be both internal and external to an organisation these include factors ranging from political to legal factors and all in between. While an organisation can gain control over the internal factors, it is yetchallenging to control the external factors unless they have a strong business strategy for it. Environmental factors, therefore, possess the capability of running over a well-established organisation if not taken careofs. The transformation in business is inescapably essential for any organisation to reach the highest peak of success.

An organisation which is not lagging behind in

SALES & MARKETING DIRECTOR, GCR

technology has the highest scope of retaining a stronghold in the market.

Apart from the quoted trends, ‘Digitisation’ or Digital Transformation in Business World is taking a positive troll on the current scenario of the market. With the evolution of technology, we get to witness and explore better and superior technology with time.

It is proven, that change is the only thing constant, which implies that digital transformation has become domineering for all businesses be it small, medium or large. Due to the implementation of these new technologies, enterprises are able to deliver custom applications to the desired consumers in a very short span of time. This in return lowers the operational costs which further enhances the experience of a customer. All of these constitute the core of digital transformation.

To infuse suchdigital business transformation,GCR (Global Channel Resources India Pvt. Ltd.) supports and aims at bridging the gap between Solution Providers and System Integrators, for the ultimate end-customer’s delight through its unique online “Partners Platform”.The company collaborates with worldwide cloudbased or networking solution providers to enable channel partners providing IoT solutions.

To access complete story, Pls. log on to.... www.smechannels.com

SME CHANNELS 17 NOVEMBER 2018

ELITE PARTNER

AN ANALYSIS OF INDIA’S MOST INFLUENTIAL IT PARTNERS CORPORATE INFOTECH PVT LTD Vinod Kumar MD & CEO SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS CIPL has continued the upward trajectory. Over 10 years CIPL has gained recognition in the IT industry on the grounds of dedicated professionalism that translates to customer satisfaction being the highest priority. Today, CIPL is a front runner in quality as well as quantity.

CORPORATE INFOTECH’S MILESTONES IN 2018 It achieved a turnover of 328 Crores (INR).

WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR? Enterprise IT Sales, Facility Management services

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?

As CIPL moves on the growth path, it has a very strong plan and roadmap for its vendors, partners and customers. It has the passion, the tools, the infrastructure and the vision to provide complete IT solution at one stop. Vinod Kumar, CEO, Corporate Infotech Pvt. Ltd. feels, “The journey of CIPL is never ending. But with the support of my team and clients, I am confident that the company will continue to scale milestones of excellence for years to come.”

The organization has set a turnover target of 500 Crores (INR) for 2019.

18 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

ELITE PARTNER

INSPIRA ENTERPRISE INDIA PVT LTD Manoj Kanodia CEO INSPIRA’S MILESTONES IN 2018 l One of the significant ways for business to grow is when it expands internationally. Inspira’s expansion into international market i.e. Dubai & Malaysia marks a milestone moment. l Partnered with AWS & IBM to offer cloud solutions l Partnered with Guardtime to offer KSI based Blockchain Solutions in India l Partnered with i-RAM Technologies to offer smart city solutions l Partnered with Algonox to offer RPA Solutions

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?

The company has successfully carved a unique market position as system integrator of hardware, software and IT services (a.k.a IT Aggregator).

“Inspira’s expertise and resource pool address end customer requirements.

With a determination to go an extra mile to ensure customers achieve the desired outcome, the company envisions to constantly making an impact on the Indian IT industry by promoting innovative, high quality, priceperforming technologies.

We are expecting some big projects in next financial year.

We are expecting some big Cyber Security and SOC Projects next year.

channels.

We should move towards more consumer-centric solutions, delivered through the adoption of technology – a trend expected to have wide-

WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR?

reaching implications for emerging markets such as India.

In today’s digital age, cybersecurity has become critical for large organiza-

WHAT WILL DRIVE GROWTH?

tions and small startups. New risks are being created as real and virtual

In B2B market lot of significance is given to the brand, reputation and

worlds strike and digital ecosystems expand. Inspira focusses on fast-

social proof case studies & testimonials that convey integrity, reliability

moving IT trends such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence

and consistency.

(AI), Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, Blockchain, evolving security

At Inspira, we are strengthening our digital marketing communication

technologies and a world class dedicated Security Operation Centre in

for the coming year with clear focus on brand positioning along with our

Mumbai running 24 x 7 x 365 days.

COE’s (Center of Excellence). Marketing strategies like content marketing, social media, search engine marketing & search engine optimization

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING THE REGIONAL CHANNEL? Digital India holds the potential to transform India from a developing into a developed economy & nation. ICT infrastructure lies at the very groundwork of the success of Digital India. The robustness and the quality of ICT infrastructure will govern the success of digitization of Indian economy and success of Digital India. We should focus on Technology-driven innovation, which involves the development of new advanced technology systems, Market-driven innovation, which includes disruptive products that create personalized value propositions and Operations-driven innovation, which includes innovation in process which can be achieved by adopting costefficient & effective practices or by creating new supply and distribution

play crucial role for successfully building the brand Inspira.

Building strategic content around Networking, Unified Communication, Security, Cloud, Blockchain, Smart city & Healthcare Solutions – our COE’s, would help us to reach the relevant target group.

Overall, apart from organizing events with OEM Partners, Inspira focuses on digital marketing. The key objective is to promote brand, build preference, engage with customers and increase sales through various strategic digital marketing initiatives.

Our marketing strategies are now getting much focused, we have now started working towards the future of marketing concept i.e B2ME. Inspira Enterprise marketing communications are now completely focused on Account based marketing, which will be replicated on all our social media platforms.

SME CHANNELS 19 NOVEMBER 2018

ELITE PARTNER

PROGRESSIVE INFOTECH Prateek Garg MD & CEO

progressive infotech

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019? l

Managed Services Provider (MSP) for all the three

Hyperscale Cloud Services Providers viz. AWS, Azure and GCP l

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning based

solutions. l

SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS

Global Expansion

Trusted IT partner since 1998, Progressive Infotech

WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR?

provides comprehensive suite of transformation and

l

DC Migration

support services. The offerings span across cloud, digital

l

Enterprise workload on Cloud (SAP)

and support operations, delivered through a matured and

l

Managed IT Security services

scalable service delivery model. In every client engagement,

intrinsic value of existing IT investments and are better

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING THE REGIONAL CHANNEL?

prepared for emergent market changes.

l

Progressive ensures clients realize higher ROI, stretch the

Value based selling/buying should take precedence over

discount based selling/buying.

PROGRESSIVE INFOTECH’S MILESTONES IN 2018 l

WHAT WILL DRIVE YOUR GROWTH IN 2019?

MSP, amongst the 32 global MSPs to get this recognition.

l

Application Performance Management

Gartner lists progressive infotech as a notable vendor

l

Managed IT Security Services

in Magic Quadrant for public cloud infrastructure managed

l

DevOps

service providers, worldwide 2018- Asia/Pacific context

l

Enterprise workload on cloud (Microsoft & SAP)

l

DC Migratio

l

l

20 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

Progressive Infotech became Microsoft Azure Expert

Gartner’s Market Guide on Cloud Service Brokerage lists

ELITE PARTNER

QUANTM Pawan Khurana CEO SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS Over the last few years QUANTM has been making various strategic investments with a vision to become a formidable IT player across services, cloud, security, analytics, AI and IoT. QUANTM always make strategic efforts to create new growth opportunities by entering into new market segments. We have been always two steps ahead in the world of evolving technologies and in providing innovative solutions to our customers.

TURNOVER l

March 2015: 64 Crore

l

March 2016: 70 Crore

l

March 2017: 75 Crore

TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIZATION Big Data Analytics IOT Mobility Security Technology Specializations QUANTM.

PROACTIVE DATA SYSTEMS PVT. LTD. Rajiv Kumar MD & CEO SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS Backed by more than 25 years of IT experience, Proactive is a recognized solution provider with a certified team of sales and technical professionals who have the skills, product, knowledge and commitment to help clients develop and implement the right solutions to solve their business needs.

TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIZATION Big Data Analytics IOT Mobility Security

SME CHANNELS 21 NOVEMBER 2018

ELITE PARTNER

PC SOLUTIONS PVT LTD DEVENDRA TANEJA CEO

MSP, Mobility solutions, App developments etc.

Structure created to be serious player is Data security space.

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?

Aggressive growth in Public Cloud based Solutions & services.

Focussed unit for Data security offerings / Services.

WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR? l

SI business,

l

Govt sector projects.

l

Cloud related services.

SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS range of technology services. We offer a comprehensive

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING THE REGIONAL CHANNEL?

range of IT solutions to our global portfolio of clients across

l

Managing customer expectation.

diverse industries such as Banking and Financial Services,

l

Adopting to revenue streams as per annuity billing due

Insurance, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Retail,

to market shift towards pay as you consume model.

Healthcare, IT/ITES, Power, Media, Education, Distribution

l

and many more. PC Solutions has extensive experience

new style of IT consumption (cloud era).

in providing end-to-end IT services, integrating various

l

PC Solutions is an established and reliable source for a wide

Transitioning Organisation , teams and skills pool for

Needs for upskilling for high value niche services.

complex technologies and delivering solutions in multiple geographies for over 28 years.

WHAT WERE PC SOLUTIONS’ MILESTONES IN 2018?

l

SI offerings of Digital transformation of the

organisation.

Clocking more than 30% growth YOY. Revenue increased

l

to 302 Cr.

solutions, Managed Services offerings.

Strengthened and enlarged Cloud offerings & team. Ready

l

Mobility solutions, Multi cloud management etc.

for quantum leap in next two years in Cloud services space.

l

Data security services.

22 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

WHAT WILL DRIVE YOUR GROWTH IN 2019?

Cloud & associated services like BI/AI/Chat bot ; IoT

ELITE PARTNER

TEAM COMPUTERS Ranjan Chopra CEO SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS For Managed Print Services (MPS), Team Computers enjoys an esteemed relationship with Xerox that began back in 2016. With an experience of 30 years in managed services, Team Computers brings an expertise in understanding of customer’s needs and consult them on the best print related solutions with Xerox on-board as one of the product experts.

The solutions have recently undergone a futuristic turn with Xerox also rolling out its new age Secure Print and usage tracking applications. With MPS market in India expected to grow at a CAGR of 13%, the strength in this association could be something catching the eyes of other leading MPS providers. Nevertheless, it shall certainly be a promising bait for companies looking for MPS solutions.

WHAT ARE THE TECHNOLOGY SPECIALIZATIONS OF TEAM COMPUTERS? Big Data & Analytics, Mobility, Security, Server and Storage, Cloud and DC, Applications and Networking are the Technology Specializations of Team Computers.

TURNOVER OF TEAM COMPUTERS 800 Crore (INR)

VELOCIS SYSTEMS PRIVATE LIMITED. Atul Bansal Managing Director SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS Velocis helps organizations to leverage IT for competitive advantage and to derive business value. its competencies are Networks, Data Center, Collaboration, Mobility and Cloud.

Velocis Key differentiator lies in its depth of skills and its speed of delivery. Its new initiatives are in the domain of Cloud and Mobility.

Its Cloud offerings ensure a seamless transition to cloud/hybrid cloud by helping customers in their Cloud Assessment and by offering Cloud Infrastructure Services, Cloud Application Migration Services and Cloud Managed Services.

SME CHANNELS 23 NOVEMBER 2018

ELITE PARTNER

HITACHI SYSTEMS MICRO CLINIC

Rajan Bhandari COO

WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?

Increasing and strengthening the portfolio of managed services l Expanding Globally l Focusing on the targeting BFSI and Govt verticals l Contributing towards the Hitachi Group’s vision of Social Innovation through OT (operational technology) & IT (Information Technology) l

WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR? Our focus on securing the Large deals Cloud Security l New Customer Acquisition in Government and PSUs verticals l l

SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS Hitachi Systems Micro Clinic is a renowned brand in India for Integrated IT Solutions with advanced technology driven solutions in the field of Infrastructure, Networking, Security and Availability to clients across different industry verticals.

HISYS-MC also provides expertise service solutions in Cloud Services, Managed Services and Professional Services across PAN India and globally.

WHAT IS THE BIGGEST CHALLENGE FACING THE REGIONAL CHANNEL? Biggest Challenge – Consolidation of technologies Sell what we can deliver an implement and manage l Come out of traditional box selling and transforming towards solution selling purely l l

WHAT WILL DRIVE YOUR GROWTH IN 2019?

Expanding our SOC Capabilities Cloud and Security on cloud l Managed Services l Contributing towards society through Social Innovation Business l Digitization Using OT & IT l IT Security l

HITACHI SYSTEMS MICRO CLINIC’S MILESTONES IN 2018 Investment in workforce adding service delivery and technical capabilities l Geographical expansion l Focusing on Managed Services, Cloud Solutions and Infrastructure SOC l

24 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

l

ELITE PARTNER

PROGRESSION INFONET J B Hooda MD

Now in its 23rd year of operation, Progression’s motto is whatever IT takes. Whatever IT takes is the attitude that can solve challenges faced by clients, night or day, workday or not. This is the attitude that helps Progression’s team find easy workable solutions where others can’t spot one. This is the attitude that ensures infrastructure is always available for business.

SME CHANNELS THOUGHTS Ever since its inception in 1995, Progression has been at the forefront of technology, delivering outstanding IT infrastructure services to create significant business value for its customers.

Today, Progression is a leading IT infrastructure service provider and managed cloud services company. Progression delivers a comprehensive range of cloud offerings, remote management services, managed hosting and DR services to its valued customers across.

Progression was honored with the Partner Elite award at SME

With the ISO 27001: 2013 certified Tier III+ Data Center in Gurgaon,

Channels Conclave this year.

Progression is leaving no stone unturned to provide the industry leading

2. WHAT ARE YOUR PLANS FOR 2019?

Managed Private Hosting for SAP & SAP S/4 HANA, Disaster Recovery as

Preempting & adopting latest trends to continually delight to our

a Service (DRaaS) and Remote Infrastructure Monitoring & Management

existing and new customers. We would continue to significantly

(RIMM).

add new clients in the areas of Managed SAP HANA Hosting,

Commenting on the Partner Elite award, Hooda said, “Our focus has

DRaaS and RIMM. Progression is also investing in increasing its

always been and will always be to take on IT challenges & requirements

footprint in newer geographies and would also be expanding its

and enabling our clients with agility they aspire for. We continue to

sales and managed services delivery teams.

evolve based on our foundation of “whatever IT takes” attitude and this award has added more fuel in our journey.”

1. WHAT WERE PROGRESSION INFONET’S MILESTONES IN 2018?

Progression continued its legacy of keeping customers on the front and

3. WHAT WERE THE MAIN REVENUE DRIVERS LAST YEAR? Managed Cloud Service expansion, Managed Services and our Systems Integration were the main revenue drivers in 2018.

Expanding cloud business with offerings like Managed Private Cloud for

4. WHAT WILL DRIVE YOUR GROWTH IN 2019?

SAP HANA, Disaster Recovery as a Service and Remote Infrastructure

There would be increased focus on Marketing in the form of brand

Monitoring & Management through their State-of-the-Art Tier 3+ Compli-

amplification, enabling our Sales team and accentuating our GTM

ant Data Center in Gurgaon. Progression won many multi-year deals for

& digital activities.

Managed SAP Hosting coupled with Managed Services and is building on

Staying clear and different from our competition and focusing on

that momentum for this and the coming 3-4 years.

what we do best—enabling organizations to capture larger market

doing whatever IT takes to ensure our clients achieved competitive edge.

share through our deep IT expertise of more 23+ years.

SME CHANNELS 25 NOVEMBER 2018

SECURITY

THE CHANGING ROLE OF Distributors work with partners to leverage the possibilities of the new-gen technologies to help customers solve their business pain-points, thereby providing “true” Value Addition.

T

he role of the distributor is no more limited to being a facilitator of credit and logistics into the market.

It is changed much beyond and is going to change even more in the next couple of years. The reason for this change is the changing dynamics of technology deployments by the customers. Today the distributor needs to work as an extended arm of the OEM more than ever – he is looked at as a virtual channel manager, with the operations or the

26 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

transaction piece being a very small piece. Even the reseller partner looks upto the distributor beyond just the requirement of credit or discounting. The reseller looks upto the distributor to open new market opportunities and increase his share of wallet in his existing customer base. There is now a need for every player in the system to add “true value” to the stake holder – be it the OEM or the Reseller partner.

The basis of any organisation today is technology which is becoming an integral part of the

business model of companies and businesses across verticals are positioning themselves as digital companies. HCL recognises that these companies have chartered their next phase of growth with technology as their core differentiator. Cloud, Mobility and Analytics are here to stay now – it is a reality. Many of the partners have jumped on to the bandwagon and adapted themselves to this reality. Every partner has to do this – there is no choice. These new developments in the customers’ deployment

SECURITY

HARIKRISHNA PRABHU, COO AT TECHNOBIND

strategies and environment gives rise to a lot of challenges for the customer. “The way we looked at this at Technobind is that these challenges are OPPORTUNITIES for we marketers … meaning we said we will build a business model which focuses on identifying and taking into the market these technologies which helps customers solve these specific business problems arising out of rapid changes in the technology. We call it the “USE-CASE” based sales motion. And this approach has given us tremendous success in the field as we have taken many a customer’s business pain points and helped drive campaigns with our resellers to address this market opportunity,” says Harikrishna Prabhu, COO at TechnoBind.

Over the years there has been quite a change in the role of an IT distributor. With the advent of more technology options it is critical to understand its suitability in meeting the needs

of specific customers or organizations. The distributor is expected to work very closely with the customer (and the channel) to understand its specific needs and accordingly provide a customized and right technology solution. The level of engagement to find the best technology solution has definitely increased.

Related to this is two aspects. One, by providing the right technology, the distributor is expected to improve productivity and efficiency thereby sustaining competitiveness for the customer. To be competitive in today’s environment, organizations are looking at disruptions in their respective business by bringing technology solutions and processes to the core of their business. The other is educating the customers on new technologies and, of course, suggesting on best suitable solutions that solve business objectives.

Distribution is no more box- selling. The

SME CHANNELS 27 NOVEMBER 2018

SECURITY

V.K. BHANDARI,CMD, SUPERTRON dynamics of business have changed. Moreover, it is providing end-to-end product distribution with strong logistics network and supply chain systems. The role of a distribution house is majorly brand promoting arm of a vendor in particular region. Today business is depending on customer relationship with the service and solutions.

Challenges facing the India Channel Today’s complex business environment demands companies to be agile and innovative. This innovation is being primarily being driven by technology which is becoming an integral part of the business model of companies. Businesses across verticals are positioning themselves as digital companies. These companies have chartered

28 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

their next phase of growth with technology as their core differentiator. The role of the channel is changing wherein the customer expects its partners to understand deeply their business and help them re-conceptualize their business models.

Your channel partner should feel enough value in the partnership for them. There is no denying that the basis of any organisation today is technology. Technology is becoming an integral part of the business model of companies and businesses across verticals are positioning themselves as digital companies.

A HCL’s spokesperson says, “We have a program called as the P3 program, whereby we leverage our System Integration expertise to enable the Channel Partners to provide a complete business aligned IT solution to their respective customers.

HCLI P3 is designed to enable our partners to

confidently offer appropriate new technology products and solutions that fit in with the new digital business model of the Customer.”

He says, “HCLI P3 empowers the Channel Partners through a suite of exclusive benefits including Subject Matter Expert (SME) support, Demand Generation Campaigns, Priority Response, Financial and Operational Support Services. This programme provides an extra edge to our channel partners.”

With the rise of several high profiled brands across nations, logistics system, business practices, and other such streams are increasingly facing unprecedented challenges. Supertron has been encompassing the Indian market with the minutes of these channels to deliver one of the most unparalleled and transparent brandings.

SME CHAT

SHANTANU GHOSH,

MANAGING DIRECTOR AND VP OF ROCKET SOFTWARE’S CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE IN INDIA AND CHINA

ROCKET SOFTWARE EYES INDIA’S ENGINEERING TALENT POOL TO BUILD ITS CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN INDIA Rocket Software is a technology company that helps organisations in the IBM ecosystem build solutions that meet today’s needs while extending the value of their technology investments for the future.

US based Global Application Modernisation leader Rocket Software entered the India market early this year by opening up offices in Bengaluru and Pune. Rocket Software is a technology company that helps organisations in the IBM ecosystem build solutions that meet today’s needs while extending the value of their technology investments for the future.

Thousands of companies depend on Rocket to solve their most challenging business problems by helping them run their existing infrastructure and data, as well as extend those assets to take advantage of cloud, mobile, analytics, and other future innovations.

The company has named India a Centre of Excellence for the whole company and is on hiring spree in both Bengaluru and Pune locations.

How has Rocket been able to change mainframes industry?

Rocket Software was founded 28 years ago in Boston and has been focused on mainframes for our entire history. Mainframes continue to be the workhorse of the technology world – they’re used by just about every bank,

”WE ALSO BUILD TOOLS THAT LET PEOPLE PROGRAM MAINFRAMES IN ANY LANGUAGE. THIS ENSURES THAT ANYONE CAN USE A MAINFRAME, WHICH EXTENDS THE VALUE OF THESE SYSTEMS EVEN MORE”

government and hospital in the world because they are a combination of fast and secure. The key to the mainframe’s longevity is that it is continuously being modernized, and that’s the role that Rocket plays in the big iron ecosystem.

When mainframes were invented there was no such thing as the cloud or mobile – email didn’t even exist! What Rocket does is build applications and tools that modernize the mainframe.

Today’s mainframes support mobile, cloud, BYOD, and all of the current approaches to computing. We also build tools that let people program mainframes in any language. This ensures that anyone can use a mainframe, which extends the value of these systems even more.

What has been your journey in India so far?

Rocket started in the US and has slowly expanded its footprint around the world. India is our newest location, and the company is very excited about the opportunities here. We opened our first office in Bengaluru in early 2018, and we now have a second location in Pune, which is where I’m based. In fact, we’ve

named India a Centre of Excellence for the whole company because our leadership team sees our labs in Bengaluru and Pune as critical to our overall success. A lot of global companies open offices in India because of our engineering talent, but Rocket actually sees us as a source of business leadership. There are already a number of Indians in senior roles within the company.

You have recently announced the launch of Centre of excellence In India. What is the rationale of doing so?

Rocket started off with two engineers (the co-founders, including CEO Andy Youniss), and for many years the company only had one location. About 15 years ago Rocket started acquiring companies all around the world and build up a “lab” structure based on the specific products that were being built in each region.

We’ve hit a size where that no longer made sense, so the entire engineering organisation has been rebuilt to reflect the much broader mission of Rocket. There are now six global Centres of Excellence, and I’m proud to say that India is one of them. .

SME CHANNELS 29 NOVEMBER 2018

SME CHAT

JAGAT PAL SINGH, CTO, CYBAGE

EMM CONTINUES TO GROW IN INDIA. EMM provides a common, cross-platform baseline to set, contain, validate, enforce and update device policies.

What is the current opportunity of Enterprise Mobility in India?

India moved up the ladder in ease-of-doing business as part of the World Bank latest survey. Last few years have seen the use of data and decision making, shortening the cycle of approvals, majorly for the government organizations. And this can be seen as a beginning & a great opportunity for the public sector as well as privatised industries.

The major opportunity for businesses are to balance the human intensive operations while digitizing, personalizing and mobilizing the decision making, anytime, anywhere. For example, for financial industry, it means that a field agent can make decisions based on some real-time inputs from the system, accelerating the loan application and hence the customer conversions. Capturing the documentation electronically over the mobile phone, and running validations based on backend systems, has even allowed the loan process to shorten from few months to just few days.

There are enough opportunities in India for mobility solutions. With the mobile data usage spreading to rural areas, amidst the competitive telecom operators, there is ample data that is available at the finger tips. If there is a mobile literate farmer, they can strategize with creating groups and forum and build on the power of social media for a much needed help, say in times of water crisis.

Industries have been mostly using the mobile for Emails, Calendar, SMS/Texting. But now customer engagement or vendor engagement over mobile Chat/messaging, mobile Social networks has started to grip. Many organizations are spending to build mobile apps to create job specific apps, say expense tracking & approvals too. Organizations are leveraging the BYOD concept to scale to heterogenous mobile environment while minimizing the investments too.

30 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

There is still a very large base of users, on the feature phones. The opportunity is to convert those for smartphones, so that users can be engaged with the device features & the larger world of mobile applications.

What are the new global technology trends in the space?

The advancement in this area has been both on the hardware side as well as software upgrades.

Every few months new mobile handsets are rollout with upgrades to camera, processor and the data storage, amongst other things like hardware security (finger print scanning ability or face recognition). Mobile phones and the inbuild sensors are more accurate & provide data capturing features. With every release of the a mobile OS, say for iOS or Android, there are new features, that the mobile apps can leverage.

The mobile app global trend is to moving towards l Use of AI based voice assistants (like Google Assistant or Alexa or Siri) that can integrate with the mobile apps and provide contactless use of the app features . l The availability of immersive technologies, specifically mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR), on consumer and employee mobile devices will facilitate mass deployment for multiple use cases. l Virtual Reality is evolving to become a new form of “story telling”, but it has complexities on how to unroll the environments & the development of the same, so that time to market and the adoption rates are faster. l Rise in communication and collaboration apps built for an immersive technology With the rise in IoT, mobile phones are increasingly used as controllers for smart homes or to check on various end points / sensors to

further customize these for monitoring and personalization.

What are some of the main challenges for Enterprise Customers in mobility management?

Mobility management or say Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) is the starting point, to manage anything on a mobile platform, as it’s the logical choice to broker policies for other services and tools. EMM provides a common, crossplatform baseline to set, contain, validate, enforce and update device policies. EMM configures devices and applications for deployment and use, manage updates, and assist with device upgrade and retirement. It also tracks inventories & verify compliance to policies.

It is a tough challenge for IT department to set up the provisioning policies, which are lean and easy to control, for the mobile devices, given that there are various BYOD scenarios adding to complexity.

Security being a central component, both physical device based policies and software data loss & controls need to be validated.

MDM is a key requirement for the mobile devices. A given EMM vendor might support what they call “MAM only” use cases, in which app policies can be applied to apps on devices that aren’t enrolled in EMM, whereas another may not. Such containment use cases must leverage controls built into the application, SDKs or wrappers, because the native OS APIs can’t be accessed without the “trusted relationship” of an EMM enrolment.

Ultimately, one of the toughest aspect for IT department is to troubleshoot the mobile device problems through inventory, analytics and remote actions.

SME CHAT

“MOBILITY MANAGEMENT OR SAY ENTERPRISE MOBILITY MANAGEMENT (EMM) IS THE STARTING POINT, TO MANAGE ANYTHING ON A MOBILE PLATFORM, AS IT’S THE LOGICAL CHOICE TO BROKER POLICIES FOR OTHER SERVICES AND TOOLS.

What are the new technologies influencing the mobility space?

The way we interact with technology is undergoing a radical transformation. The new technologies are disrupting not just by influencing the mobility space, but rather an entire digital journey for the users & organizations alike.

Artificial intelligence (AI) opens up a new frontier for digital business. This is because virtually every application, service and Internet of Things (IoT) object incorporates an intelligent aspect to automate or augment application processes or human activities. The expansion of AI technology has allowed mobile users to completely reposition the value benchmark of existing user experience. Users are beginning to expect more in-depth and predictive mobile app performance.

The major tech companies are integrating these AI algorithms into various products to strategically secure users further into their brand ecosystems.

Some cloud implementations use an approach that distributes functionality to the edge.

This approach is being used more frequently as cloud vendors push further into the IoT market.

Although the IoT is a strong driver for a cloudto-the-edge approach, this approach is benefitting mobile, as it is an important channel for the edge implementations. In longer term, we should anticipate to see more edge implementations The user experience is undergoing a significant shift in how users perceive the digital world and how they interact with it. Conversational platforms are changing the way in which people interact with the digital world. Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) are changing the way in which people perceive the

digital world. This combined shift in both perception and interaction models leads to the future immersive user experience.

Blockchain technologies offer a new paradigm in how businesses and individuals interact and transact, offering the promise of transforming business and society. From its origins in bitcoin &bitcoin mobile wallets, blockchain has evolved to become a collection of technologies that offers the potential of value generation across all industries. Blockchain aims to improve current business processes, and records management. While these two areas are important, we believe that investigating the possibilities of digital assets and the new business and computing paradigms of decentralization offered by blockchain holds significant potential.

What should be the approach of any partner when adding more solutions to their mobility portfolio?

Before development can begin on user stories, it’s advisable to refine the level of details to an extent that even the specifics of functionality & the success criteria of each requirement is documented.

Its best to avoid a big bang approach & make Minimum Viable Product (MVP) integral to this process because it will represents the core features that will bring benefits to the users.

Mobile analytics will accurately prioritize highvalue features and improve the overall UX during initial development, as well as provide benefits after release as a standard component of the app’s business-as-usual activity. This ensures that continuous integration efforts focus on features that add value.

The mobile apps should have the agenda to increase revenue, reduce costs & engage with customers. Hence measuring the end goal, with the intended solutions, is a continuous effort for each feature increment.

What is the way forward for the channel in this space? Where do you see the mobility market in the next three years?

With the accessibility of immersive technologies across billions of mobile devices, it is anticipated that the adoption of immersive technologies over the next few years. We see this getting reinforced

by Apple & Google, by the widespread availability of AR development kits such as ARKit for iOS and ARCore for Android. Both are platforms have been very aggressive to deliver AR capabilities to users’ mobile devices & should continue to do so. Going forward, consumers and employees may not even be aware & will assume experiencing immersive technologies, like a more natural/ default part of the apps.

Use of bots in mobile apps & other immersive experiences for collaboration & communication will only be on the rise. And applications of mixed reality use cases for the same should further drive the need.

Commerce, entertainment, gaming and social will drive the adoption of immersive technologies in the nearer future, through training, data visualization and simulations. This should drive wider adoption as the technology & user experience improve.

Social media analysis points to a continual increase in conversations across multiple disciplines for immersive technologies. Major ecosystem providers like Microsoft, Facebook, Apple and Google, will continue to drive the intrinsic value.

SME CHANNELS 31 NOVEMBER 2018

SME CHAT

SAAS, PAAS AND IAAS OFFER GREAT OPPORTUNITIES TO CHANNEL PARTNERS As the world’s largest open source solution provider, Red Hat offers enterprises cloud solutions which can be customized to meet their diverse and growing business needs

NEERAJ BHATIA,

DIRECTOR, CHANNEL AND PARTNER ALLIANCES RED HAT, INDIA AND SOUTH ASIA

“CLOUD COMPUTING IS THE FUEL FOR DIGITAL DISRUPTION THAT HAS ENABLED BUSINESSES TO PURSUE THEIR JOURNEY OF DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION.” What is the opportunity and challenges in the SMB space?

Pls. provide some example of how cloud solutions have enabled channel partners to augment business growth?

The SMB market in India has witnessed a significant growth over the past couple of years and

32 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

plays a critical role in the growth of the country’s economy. SMBs need to compete at a global level and to do so, they need to focus on their core competency which is primarily making their products accessible and acceptable by leveraging technology. So, enabling business through technological innovation is the biggest challenge

that they face today. Owing to the increasing competition, SMBs need to identify solutions that streamline operations, improve efficiency and productivity to offer quality products and services to their consumers.

Therefore, we see Indian SMBs increasingly adopt cloud solutions and rapidly exploring

SME CHAT

business models that make use of SMAC (Social, Mobility, Analytics, Cloud) technologies in order make their businesses more stable. One of the biggest advantages that cloud technology offers to these SMBs is the ability to control costs and scale a lot faster. A study shows that through the adoption of cloud computing SMBs witnessed a two-fold improvement in customer advocacy and loyalty and three-fold improvement in reaching new customers.

By possessing service capabilities to maintain and continuously enhance applications for customers, partners are delivering solutions around the cloud. This not only allows channel partners to maintain a higher bottom-line but also to expand their market share. Being skilled in the concepts such as containerization and mobility, partners will have the foresight to make more informed decisions as well as fulfil the role of system integrators while providing services to their consumers.

Out of SAAS, PAAS and IAAS, which one offers larger opportunity for the channel partners? The key for the channel industry to continue to grow in the cloud economy is specialized services. What do they need to do to develop capacity and capability?

All the three categories of cloud computing SaaS, PaaS and IaaS offer great opportunities to channel partners. While different specializations are required, if one had to grade them then I would say SaaS and Paas offer the highest opportunities.SaaS remains the largest segment of the public Cloud market in India, whilethe PaaS market in India is expected to grow. IaaS also offers opportunities to channel partners,to offer hosting services to enterprises for building their DR, Peak load platforms and peripheral applications.

Agreed that specialized services are key for the channel industry to continue to grow in the cloud economy. In order to do this, it is essential for them to enhance their ability to hire and train the right kind of talent.

What all services your company is providing as cloud offering?

(Pls. provide a list of services). What is the USP of your company?

As the world’s largest open source solution provider, Red Hat offers enterprises cloud solutions which can be customized to meet their diverse and growing business needs. Our offerings can be broadly classified under three pillars: Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Native Applica-

tion Platforms and Cloud Management and Automation.

With a 20-year legacy in the open source space, our open source technologies bring a consistent foundation to any cloud deployment: public, private, hybrid, or multi. With a standard operating system that works the same in any environment, a container platform that packages and moves apps from cloud-to-cloud, and tools that help enterprises manage and automate it all, we provide enterprises around the globe the portability needed to succeed on more than 600 certified public cloud platforms. Our solutions let enterprises prioritize their needs and manage operations in a cost-effective manner while boosting efficiency.

What is your present partners’ number and how many more would you like to onboard by the end of this year? What is your present partner engagement and onboarding process?

We at Red Hat, believe that strategic partnerships are fundamental to ensure our customers’ success.

In India we have over 600 registered partners, out of which about 35 are cloud partners. This includes our global partners such as Azure, Google Cloud, AWS and local partners such as Tata Communications, Sify and NetMagic. We partner with OEMs (such as HPE, Lenovo, Dell, Cisco and IBM), GSIs (Accenture, Wipro,TechM, Fujitsu, TCS and Infosys), ISVs (SAP, Comviva, MFX, Mobilium, IMA Mobile) and several others.

Red Hat Connect is a 2-pillar partner program consisting of Red Hat Connect for Technology Partners and Red Hat Connect for Business Partners. The former is focused on providing partners early access to technology and enabling certifications, while the latter is focused on go-to-market activities. We also offer Red Hat OPEN Training which is role-based online training courses ensures that partners are trained according to their roles. Successful completion of the training results in a partner earning a Red Hat Accreditation. We also have an online technical library which provides partners access to the same content as Red Hat experts.

We have the Certified Cloud and Service Provider (CCSP) Program focusing on our cloud partners. Like the Connect program, it is available online to our cloud partners for registration and review. The tracks are all specific to their domains and are tailormade to meet their requirements.

Interestingly, we just released our OpenShift distance integrator practice builders program for

partners in APAC. This program is designed to help our partners in the region build out a practice on OpenShift that then brings together all the things around app modernization, app migration, cloud related development, microservices, modernizing ESPs etc.

What are the trends with regards to the growing cloud market share? As the cloud model of delivering IT services continues to gain popularity, what are the new opportunities that cloud computing offers to channel partners?

Cloud computing is the fuel for digital disruption that has enabled businesses to pursue their journey of digital transformation. Digital technology requires constant evolution and cloud acts as the catalyst for this innovation.

Cloud offers a platform for experimentation, deployment and distribution of technology.

Today, India is second only to China as the largest and fastest-growing cloud services market in Asia Pacific. For continuous innovation and agility to scale-up in an increasingly competitive market, majority of enterprises and governments are adopting cloud to run their businesses. As the adoption of cloud products increases, it becomes imperative for channel partners grow as well. This growth of channel partners needs to be aligned with the needs of both enterprises as well as the ISVs. Historically cloud products were sold to customers who then integrated it all together in their own data centers, nowthese data centers have moved to the cloud. Thus, it becomes necessary for channel partners to possess the capability to maintain mission critical applications for the customer and continuously enhance the applications.

There is tremendous opportunity for partners who can deliver around the cloud. With the right service capabilities partners can generate higher profits as well as retain and grow their customer base. Partners skilled in the concepts of containerization, automation and mobility would be able to implement their expertise and foresight in making more informed transitions and fulfil the role of system integrators while providing services to their consumers. Red Hat offers a range of cloud computing solutions - from Hybrid Cloud Infrastructure, Cloud Native App Platforms to Cloud Management and Automation - that enable partners to identify solutions that align with their business strategies and allow them to ease their way into a scalable cloud infrastructure.

SME CHANNELS 33 NOVEMBER 2018

SECURITY

GIDI COHEN

GOUNDER & CIO, SKYBOX SECURITY

34 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

SECURITY

WE’RE SEEING APAC AS EARLY ADOPTERS OF AI AND MACHINE LEARNING APAC’s style of “leapfrog” technology and drive for digital transformation is particularly significant in the cybersecurity space.

S

kybox Security has once again emphasized its focus on India.

Skybox Security CEO and Founder Gidi Cohen was in India to strengthen channel partnership and customer relationship in a region of growing significance to the leading security management software provider. Cohen says APAC’s style of “leapfrog” technology and drive for digital transformation is particularly significant in the cybersecurity space.

Founder & CEO Gidi Cohen comments, “We’re seeing APAC as early adopters of AI and machine learning in cybersecurity, according to a recent survey we conducted, outpacing the EMEA and US counterparts by nearly 20 points. The same is true for fully automated workflows and processes, with APAC leading the bunch by 16 points; this is despite APAC having the lowest ratio of total employees in an organization vs. those dedicated to firewall and security policy management. What this shows us that APAC understands the advantages automated technology brings not just in terms of time-savings, but the intelligence it can yield and assist humans in those roles.”

“Automation, visibility and context underlie so many processes in managing firewalls, security policy, vulnerabilities, threats — and is at the core of Skybox’s technology. We see the increasingly sophisticated and fast-growth APAC region as a perfect fit for Skybox solutions, whether it be for the end user, MSSPs or other channel partner,.”

Cohen added.

AI is Changing Cybersecurity It’s no surprise that artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most searched technological terms in

Google; however, ironically this function itself is also executed by AI. This emerging technology has made its presence felt in every conceivable domain. Automation is changing the way businesses operate — from the factory floor to backend IT — automated services and machines are increasing speed and productivity while freeing workers up to focus on more skilled tasks.

Automation often used synonymously with artificial Intelligence, although automated machines can use AI, they are very different.

While automation is rule-based, i.e. if A, then B — conversely AI can be trained to learn, develop and grow using data input.

Since, an AI system is continuously in a state of change it leads to the notion that artificial intelligence is an excellent fit for cybersecurity, where malicious actors are continuously developing new attacks. The old signature-based style of defence can no longer efficiently protect companies’ crown jewels: their data.

AI has seen many significant break throughs.

One of the biggest seen in the improvement of security in smartphones such as the AI-based algorithm for Face ID device unlocking system.

Using AI processing, smartphones such as iPhone X identify the user’s faceeven withvariations over time, such as spectacles or facial hair. Huawei Technologies has also adapted its face recognition technology which they assert is superior to Apple’s technology, but we have yet to validate their claim.

Cybersecurity, one of the main concerns for today’s highly digital world, has every sector trying to master AI for data protection and it’s creating more opportunities in their respective fields, be it corporate or government.

Many companies have started using AI as a

powerful defense against any potent cyberattacks.

It automates the detection of athreat, allowing the data to stay securewithout the involvement of human operation. Since AI is completely machine-language driven, it assures complete error-free cybersecurity services. Moreover, companies have also started to allocate more resources to boost AI driven technologies.

Ron Davidson, CTO of Skybox Security states, “Signature-based systems are built around the concept of recognising and blocking the exploit and may require a new signature for each variant. The signature-based system doesn’t fix the underlying weakness, though it could shield it for a while.”

He adds, “Organisations using traditional methods to deal with their own massive volumes of vulnerability occurrences will only see problems compound. Even with automation, there still needs to be human oversight. Automating patching or change provisioning bring their specific risks to the equation that must be weighed against the reward of any potential time-savings.

Considering errors that could be compounded via automated action and the potential for business disruption, a human element in these execution processes may still be best.”

Cybersecurity is constantly developing and so are the cyber-criminals. Security-driven AI systems can easily detect and identify any unusual behaviour in the system. As these systems constantly learn and develop, they can work alongside human engineers to identify threats and prevent any malicious threats. Mobile technology and open source software are only making traditional cybersecurity more daunting, and thus, AI seems to be the way to go.

SME CHANNELS 35 NOVEMBER 2018

SME CHAT

DATACENTERS NOW PLAY MORE CRUCIAL ROLE IN AN IT SET-UP. Citrix has the ability to aid organizations in achieving the right balance between flexible access to data stored on cloud while maintaining a layer of security over it, says Ravindra Kelkar - Senior Director, Enterprise & Public Sector, Citrix India.

“COUR SOLUTIONS ARE THEREFORE BEST EQUIPPED TO OFFER THE COMPLETE INTEGRATED WORKSPACE THAT ALLOWS SECURE” ACCESS TO APPS, DATA AND DESKTOPS ACROSS DEVICES AT ANY LOCATION THROUGH ANY NETWORK”

RAVINDRA KELKAR , SENIOR DIRECTOR, ENTERPRISE & PUBLIC SECTOR, CITRIX INDIA.

through any network. Our strategy is therefore to continue innovating and provide secure solutions to enable the future of work.

What are some of the most significant changes Data Center landscape has experienced over the past few years?

The digitized economy that begun to take root a few years ago is now turning into a full-fledged mission for organizations to make the strategic shift towards technological solutions. With further impetus given by the government to adopt such solutions, businesses are making the most of the resources at hand to use tools like cloud, AI and data analytics to store, collect and analyze petabytes of data and drive actionable insights from them. Since organizations now have the tools to derive such insights from data, datacenters now play a more crucial role in an IT set-up.

The emergence of convenient and secure mobility systems has ensured that work is no longer limited to a physical workspace.

Therefore,datacenters that allow employees to access work data from a remote location areslowly migrating from physical systems to virtual cloud

36 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

based solutions. This shift is also challenging the existing datacenter industry to re-innovate and introduce newer solutions.

What is your data security strategy?

Employees within an organization require easy access to data in order to derive insights from it. This mobile access however createsscope for infiltrations from an external source. Therefore, owing to the recent rise in ransomware attacks, it becomes even more important to have a stringent security strategy in place. Citrix has the ability to aid organizations in achieving the right balance between flexible access to data stored on cloud while maintaining a layer of security over it.

At Citrix, we have extensive knowledge on businesses across various markets and what makes them work. Our solutions are therefore best equipped to offer the complete integrated workspace that allows secure access to apps, data and desktops across devices at any location

What impact does Cloud have on data centre? What is the play of public cloud in the Data Center growth?

While technological innovations and their adoption have been growing at an unprecedented rate, this also means that malicious third parties can breach your systems quite easily and steal or mishandle your sensitive data. Therefore, businesses have now become more aware of their security posture and have been revamping their infrastructure to adopt cloud, especially multi-cloud solutions that distribute data across a number of storage platforms.

Organizations have also been adopting cloud computing solutions like public or hybrid cloud; this has affected how businesses shape up and utilize data centres. We have seen the emergence of a number of cloud solution providers who build and lease cloud spaces. These cloud spaces streamline the IT environment by serving the dual purpose of being cost effective while also reducing power usage and appliance storage.

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SME CHANNELS 37 NOVEMBER 2018

PRODUCT

NEW ARRIVALS

ASUS

ASUS NEW VIVOBOOK S15 (S530) AND S14 (S430)

MATRIX

VIVOBOOK S15 AND S14 are the first in the VivoBook Series to feature the new three-sided NanoEdge design that has even narrower bezels along the top and sides of the display. This gives S15 an 86% and S14 an 84% screen-to-body ratio, offering an unrivaled immersive experience in a compact package. The panels also feature wide-view technology and exceptional color reproduction for lifelike visuals even when viewed from extreme positions.

Best fit for the on-the-go generation, S15 and S14 are smaller than other laptops in the series, cutting a thin and sharp 18mm profile. The 15.6-inch S15 weighs only 1.8kg, while the 14-inch S14 is of 1.4kg. Powered by up to 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processors and NVIDIA GeForce MX150 discrete graphics, both S15 and S14 supports easy multitasking, multimedia editing, or casual gaming. S15 and S14 has a dual-storage design. All VivoBooks now feature a high-quality battery with all-day battery life and a lifespan that’s up to 3X-longer than standard lithium-ion batteries. Fast-charge technology ensures up to 60% charge in 49 minutes.

MATRIX AADHAAR ENABLED BIOMETRIC ATTENDANCE DEVICE - COSEC VEGA FAXQ

Price: S14 starts from Rs.54, 990 & S15 starts from Rs.69, 990 Warranty: Limited Lifetime Warranty Contact: https://www.asus.com/in

Price: on reuqest, Warranty: on request, Contact: www.MatrixAccessControl.com

MATRIX COSEC VEGA FAXQ is an Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance Device. It is believed to be the first of its kind device, which enables employees to directly mark their attendance, without having to manually enter their Aadhaar number. They can either use a smart card or the keypad on the device followed by their fingerprint authentication to mark their attendance. If using the keypad, the Aadhaar number needs to be entered, whereas with the smart card, the Aadhaar number will already be stored in it. Hence, smart card becomes an easier option.

This Linux - based device takes multiple authentications. Also offers multiple language support. Also it is enabled with Ethernet, PoE, Wi-Fi, 4G/3G Mobile Broadband.

ACER

ACER ASPIRE 5S LAPTOP WITH THE LATEST INTEL PROCESSOR. WITH THE LATEST INTEL WHISKEY LAKE PROCESSOR, ACER’S NEW THIN AND LIGHT LAPTOPS- ASPIRE 5S AND SWIFT 3 14” AND 15.6” 2019 EDITION edition offer next generation performance with great efficiency and style.

The Aspire 5 line features the latest Intel Whiskey lake 8th Gen Core i3 and i5 processor, one of the fastest U series Processors. With the Intel Optane memory and NVIDIA GeForce MX150 graphics, Acer Aspire 5s ensures that complex the task is completed within seconds.

Similarly, the Swift 3 line has been updated with host of new features including a vibrant Full HD 14-inch display with ultra slim bezels, and an all-day battery back-up of 12 hrs for great mobility and freedom.

38 SME CHANNELS NOVEMBER 2018

n Price: .40,999/- for Aspire 5s and Rs. 64,999/- for Swift 3. n Warranty: On request, n Contact: https://www.acer.com/ac/en/IN/content/series/aspire5 Adding to the user experience, the laptop supports Windows Hello through fingerprint readers for fast and secure logins, while Skype for Business certification ensures crisp and lag-free communication and a great Cortana with Voice experience. It also offers ultra-fast 2x2 MIMO 802.11ac wireless technology, providing seamless connectivity.

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