E-Magazine February issue

Canon opens new retail outlet in India

Fuji Xerox Joint Venture to merge with Xerox

Acer taking the TFT Monitor segment by storm VOLUME XIX

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Red Hat to buy CoreOS

Kyocera announces multifunctional devices BRIDGING DIGITAL DIVIDE

UNION BUDGET

2018

Union Budget 2018 – IT industry hails it as forward-looking

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VOLUME XIX

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Cyber Security & Citizen of 2030

20pg

Alibaba Cloud opens its 1st datacenter in Mumbai

A

libaba Cloud, the cloud-computing arm of Alibaba Group, opened its first India datacenter in Mumbai. Alex Li, General Manager - Asia Pacific, Alibaba Cloud said that the new datacenter is a megascale one that could support the regional cloud needs for the next 3-5 years. The datacenter in Mumbai will cater to all companies looking for support in India. The datacenter will specifically cater to India and regional customers in the Indian peninsula.

"We believe this is the right time to establish our presence in the market. We aim to bring our technology expertise and comprehensive cloud offerings to empower Indian enterprises to unlock their business potential," said Alex.

Google India announces #"SecurityCheckKiya"

G

oogle India has launched a public initiative "#SecurityCheckKiya" to protect young and first-time web users from account hijacking, safeguard Android devices from malicious apps and secure all their personal data if they lose their device.

The company said that with a large base of unsuspecting first-time Internet users now coming online through easy access modes but lacking technical literacy, Indian users are increasingly vulnerable to bad actors and abuse on the web.

"Just like in the physical world, users in India should take precautions while engaging with the online world. While security is built into all of Google services, keeping the web safe for everyone is a shared responsibility," said Sunita Mohanty, Director, Trust and Safety.

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February 2018

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HELLO INDIA

A Positive Union Budget ……….Data safety however remains a challenge The Union Budget showcases a master plan for rural and agricultural development by dovetailing the financial resources available with 10 ministries. Secondly, the government is using a lot of data analytics in Budget preparation.

They must have seen that the largest companies are anyway paying less than 25 percent. It is the smaller companies which have been paying higher rates; this clearly shows that Indian Inc. didn’t live up to the expectations. However, the government has managed to take its first step towards resolving issues around the Insolvency and Bankruptcy code (IBC) 2016. Increase allocation towards cyber security products and data compliance services is really a good move in the Union Budget 2018.

The budget overall is positive. There is visible support for the Fintech industry as the FM specifically mentioned that Fintech is playing an important role in the country’s growth and hence announced setting up of a working group for its growth. The announcement of the long-term capital gains (LTCG) on equity investments and 10% DDT however saw the Sensex plunge 1% within minutes.

There is no denying the fact that digital technology delivers growth, where companies in every sector are discovering digital solutions to traditional problems. Both consumer and business applications are contributing to the growing dominance of cloud services over the Internet. It is however a big confusion about who is responsible for protecting sensitive data stored in the cloud. The growth of Internet of Things (IoT) applications such as smart cars, smart cities, connected health and digital utilities requires scalable computing and storage solutions to accommodate new and expanding datacenter demands.

The Internet has greatly impacted the customer’s buying and decision-making process by providing more information than ever to consumers. Talking about internet, if you think of it as a unified, single entity, then no one owns it. This is true because the internet has come to occupy such a central role in our lives as a way of connecting and as a means to access services, but they don't have any ownership over the Internet itself. No government can lay claim to owning the Internet, nor can any company.

Going forward, social media has become a hotbed for cybercriminal activity. Social media is the biggest disruption in the way people receive their information, social updates. The youth segment in the country are the third highest number of Internet and social media users after China and the U.S. with an estimated over 381 million mobile phone subscriptions with Internet connectivity. Facebook ruling the list, with over 2 billion active users holds the majority market share. The Facebook-owned, WhatsApp was leading second; however, YouTube now jumps to second place with 1.5 billion active users.

Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp follow behind in the 3rd and 4th place. To complement the growth, cyber terrorism has now become a gruesome activity.

No one can guarantee data safety in a digital world. When dealing with personal data, it is also necessary to consider the potential impact to the individuals concerned.

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CONTENTS Website: www.varindia.com

Publisher: Deepak Kumar Sahu Editor: S Mohini Ratna Executive Editor: Dr. Vijay Anand Copy Editor: C. M. Dutta Deputy Editor: Samrita Baruah Sub - Editor: Aparna Mullick Correspondent: Abha Singh Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera BUSINESS: Commercial Manager: Amit Kumar Jha Sr. Marketing Manager: Ashok Ranjan Dash Circulation Executive: Manish Kumar Marketing Manager: Dipendra Kumar CORPORATE OFFICE: VAR House, A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi - 110030 Tel: 011-41656383, 46061809 Email: edit@varindia.com Bangalore: Bureau office Marketing Manager: S. Kamala kar Correspondent: L. G. Swami D-103 G.F., Ashish JK Apartments Thubarahalli Extended Road Bangaluru- 560066 Tel: 080-49530399 | Mobile:09886280836 E-mail: kamlakar@varindia.com Mumbai: Bureau office Regional Manager (West): Anil Kumar Sr. Correspondent: Mamta S. Anurag Residency, 203 - “B” Wing, Plot No-5, Sector-9, Kamothe, Navi Mumbai-410 209 Tel: 022-65561292, Mobile: 08108017479 E-mail: anil@varindia.com, mamta@varindia.com Chennai: Bureau office Branch Manager: Parthiban K A2, R.C.Residency, Cholambedu Road, Thiruvenkada nagar, Ambathur, Chennai - 600 053 Mobile: 098400 55626 E-mail: barani@varindia.com Hyderabad: Bureau office Branch Manager: Sunil Kumar Sahu 32-161/3, 202 Neha Paradise, Nr. Maissamma Temple, Venketeswara colony Ramakrishna Puram, Hyderabad - 500056 Telangana, Tel: 040-32989844/ Cell No. 08100298033 E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Kolkata: Bureau office Marketing Officer: Sunil Kumar Correspondent: Kiran Kumar 67 Sarada Park, Garia, Kolkata - 700084 Mobile: 08100298033, E-mail: sunil@varindia.com Mobile: 09903088480, E-mail: kiran@varindia.com Printed and Published by Deepak Kumar Sahu on behalf of M/s. Kalinga Digital Media Pvt. Ltd. and Printed at Pushpak Press Pvt. Ltd. Shed No. 203 - 204, DSIDC Complex, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-I, New Delhi-110020 and Published at A-84A/3 Rose Apartment, Paryavaran complex, Ignou Road, New Delhi - 110030, Editor - S Mohini Ratna.

42pg VAR SECURITY 20|

Cyber Security & Citizen of 2030

25|

Are organizations prepared for the ransomware threat?

* All disputes are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of competent courts and forums in Delhi only.

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BUDGET SPECIAL 50|

Union Budget 2018 – IT industry hails it as forward-looking

VAR MOBILITY

35|

58|

ZTE aims at bracing its PAN-India reach

60|

Is Apple losing its Sheen?

48|

‘India as a unique country is progressing at an impressive pace’ Convergence of Physical mail and Digital channel to be a big growth enabler

VAR SPECIAL 38|

GST Voice of VARs – Bengaluru

40|

GST Voice of VARs – Kolkata

INDUSTRY EVENT 42|

VARINDIA OITF 2018 opens up new Smart city avenues for Bhubaneswar

REGULARS CHANNEL GURU

10

CHANNEL CHIEF

12

Round About

14

Hot Bytes

16, 18

On the Ramp

28, 30

VAR ANALYSIS

Voice N Data

34

Channel Buzz

36

46|

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

47

Movers & Shakers

62

56|

8th edition of ISODA TechSummit - An excellent opportunity for VARS to interact with industry leaders

KALINGA DIGITAL MEDIA PVT LTD © All rights are reserved. No part of this magazine may be reproduced or copied in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publisher. (1999-2016)

GDPR to bring newer opportunities in the Global security arena

FACE TO FACE

For Subscription queries contact: info@varindia.com Subscription: Rs. 500(12 issues)Rs. 1000 (24 issues)

All payments favouring:

54|

The Cloud WAR – who will win it?

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So your network now has the power to truly accelerate your business.

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Cost Optimization

February 2018

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9

Lenovo – A Partner-first company Partners have always been important for Lenovo and the company considers them as its strength to position the brand in the competition. The company is presently focusing on geographical expansion through partners and channel enablement. In a chat with VARINDIA, Pankaj Harjai, Director – Small and Medium Business, Lenovo India, also discusses about Lenovo’s channel structure and strategy A partner-first company with transparent channel policies is the guiding principles of Lenovo which differentiates the company from competitors. Partners are always instrumental in the growth of a company as they represent a particular company to the end-users. Lenovo considers its partners as its strength and also believes that they are the company’s ambassadors to customers.

“Lenovo’s biggest strength is its channel partner community and we strongly believe that this differentiates us from the rest of the brands.

They are our extended arms and ambassadors in front of the customer.

We have always taken pride in being a partner-first company and boast of having one of the most transparent channel policies in India which has led to an all-time high channel satisfaction and NPS scores with our partners,” views Pankaj Harjai, Director – Small and Medium Business, Lenovo India.

Channel Structure

Lenovo’s partner base is comprised of commercial and distribution channel which sums up to 3,500 partners. The partners are divided into tiers according to offerings which will help them to realize their potential and flourish their business.

“Our commercial and distribution channel base comprises of closeto 3,500 partners. We have a tiered partner structure with differentiated offerings that helps partners grow and realize their full potential. The tiering is segmented into Platinum, Gold and Silver for our Channel which is standard across all markets. In addition, we have introduced unique initiatives for our core partner base such as medical insurance and other motivational tools to keep them engaged and involved with day-to-day business at Lenovo,” explains Pankaj.

Partners help a company to expand its reach among customers.

Similarly, they have helped Lenovo to reach maximum customers and offer superior Lenovo products. Through partners, Lenovo is aiming to reach 30,000 customers both in the enterprise and SME space.

“Our partners have always led the way in reaching out to customers and provide world-class Lenovo products to them. We intend to reach out to 30,000 customers in the enterprise and SME space leveraging our partner strength,” adds Pankaj.

Channel Strategy

Engagement, enablement and ease of business are the three pillars of Lenovo, depending on which the company wants to have a Year-on-Year (YOY) growth in the commercial and consumer segment. In the coming financial year, the company will focus on medium business segment and will increase its footprint to 200 cities.

“Our core channel strategy is three-fold – Engagement, Enablement and Ease of business, guided by which we want to grow our business YoY whether it is commercial or consumer. In FY 2018-19, we will focus on medium businesses which are expected to grow significantly. We will also aim to increase our penetration from 170 cities to 200 cities and extend our reach to smaller businesses. The priority will also remain to leverage the channel reach to address end- customers, build the skill levels of channel

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Pankaj Harjai Director – Small and Medium Business Lenovo India

Message for VARs “My advice to VARs in the country is that customers like to sway to vagaries in pricing in the short term, but over a longer term, they look forward to transparency and dependability from their partners. My expectation from the commercial channel partner community is to stick to the basics – deliver on commitment and be transparent on meeting expectations. Similarly work with OEMs which are transparent and fair over a longer term.” partners and to make our customer experience better this year,” aims Pankaj.

Focus of the company

The company is currently focused on geographical expansion and partner enablement. Lenovo wants to become a popular brand among customers. It is also witnessing opportunities in the country with initiatives like Digital India, Skill development, Smart cities, etc. It is planning for a considerable amount of investment in resources and expansion of reach to meet the escalating requirements.

“Our energies are focused on two specific areas. These are being geographical expansion and enabling our partner community to win more customers. We aim to become a household brand in the segment of ICT. The emerging states in the country are seeing a rise in demand and PC penetration. Initiatives like Digital India, Skill development and Smart cities have created a lot of opportunities. The rise in internet penetration and education is also spreading awareness. We plan to make significant investment in terms of resources and building our reach and capability to address this growing requirement. We are also making efforts to spread awareness on the benefits of using PC,” concludes Pankaj. n

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February 2018

11

Channel Chief

Acer taking the TFT Monitor segment by storm The TFT Monitor has been a growing segment for Acer. Thanks to the differential strategy, Acer successfully jumped to the 3rd position in the TFT monitor market in a matter of just 180 days.

Throwing more light on how this has been successful for Acer, Sanjoy Bhattacharya, National Head for Display Products - Acer India tells VARINDIA of its success mantra and also about its channel strategy for 2018 Acer has created a disruption in the Indian TFT Monitor market in the last six months. Because of its differential strategy, Acer was able to jump from 6th position to 3rd position within 180 days!

“Acer salutes channel for that,” says Sanjoy Bhattacharya, National Head for Display Products - Acer India. “Channel is the next big thing for us after product. We consider Channel network as the key for success. We always have a cordial business relationship with our Channel partners. The Acer TFT business Group has been very sensible about each channel demand, need and expectations. Each of them has supported Acer wholeheartedly to make Acer No 3 TFT brand in OND’17 quarter.”

Acer today has focus for each of the segments - Government, BSFI, ICT & Education, Transportation, Hospitality, Healthcare, Enterprises etc. For each of the vertical, Acer is closely working with its Partners and empowering them by giving training and coaching new product information, new technology and solutions. “We are working together with VARs, System Integrators, consultants to explore new opportunities every day,” says Sanjoy.

As a strategic vision for 2018, empowering the channel is most important agenda for Acer. The next big agenda will be to sell out orientation across the channel eco system as Acer management believes that Sell out is the only answer for each problem. Effective from 1st January’2018, Acer has moved sell through module to sell out module.

“We are working with our channel partners on DIO planning, support them on ageing SKUs and move over creating ease of sell out for them,” Sanjoy says.

Recently Acer has announced its largest T3 loyalty program called Acer Monitor Premier League (AMPL) Where T3 partner can get big awards like Motorbike, Foreign Trip, LED TV, Laptop etc.

Massive Geo expansion is going to be another main direction this year to reach out to 3000+ channel partners across India at 300 cities, towns and district level. Acer is using its distributor and gold Channel partners for further expansion.

Channel structure...

At Acer, each channel has its own role to play. T1 is primarily the National Distributor, Supertron is the TFT distributor, who is working on the right product to distribute it to the T2 partners. “They keep stock at all locations of all SKUs so that T2 partner will not miss any sales opportunity. Apart from that at “C”/“D” category they drive WOD (width of distribution),” he says.

T2 partners have been further classified as Gold & Silver Class Partners. Gold Partners are concentrated in top 10/12 cities of India.

Each market would have 3 to 4 partners, who in turn do micro level distribution to T3 partners (Dealer, VAR, System assembles, Retails etc.). “We value T2 heavily as they are the influencer in the marketplace.

They know Acer TFTs by model and by feature and they are guiding the T3 to pick up the best from our TFT basket,” points out Sanjoy.

“T3 partners are like mini brand ambassador for us. They are the last mile connect with end consumers.”

Acer has dedicated one portal named www.ampl.in through which Acer drives loyalty programs and one window contact with them.

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Sanjoy Bhattacharya National Head for Display Products - Acer India

Going forward...

With India becoming a global hub of content creation, Acer is anticipating high demand for high resolution monitors. Quantum display, QHD, 4K UHD, HDR ready Curve, 21:9 aspect ratio, USB-C featured Monitors are in high demand. Acer is eyeing on this segment as main focus area and is introducing world’s first and best products in these categories. The company has launched 12 new models since Q4’17 and is going to introduce another 8 more new SKUs within Q2’2018. e-Sport is another area of future growth. Professional and mutual gaming is increasing in India by leaps & bound. Acer is already a leader in the gaming Industry for its Predator series. “We are bringing more and more sophisticated monitors especially in the 34” 35” size to meet the requirement of the gamers,” says Sanjoy.

Surveillance is another area which is growing very fast. The need for this segment is Mid-Size & bigger size screen size Monitor with HDMI connectivity with better frequency. Acer has 2 dedicated SKUs for this segment and it is going to increase more in 32”, 42” screen size within Q1’2018.

For Home segment Acer is expanding its portfolio in 22” & 24” segment with webcam, FHD, HDMI features for those who use video chat with family and friends. This will give better multi-media and internet experiences. For Small office, Shops, MSME segment Acer expanded its range in 20” segment, in which it is offering VGS, HDMI, Speakers in 3 different varieties.

“Very soon we are going to be VGA free. We will be the first to market with world best products for Indian customer,” sums up Sanjoy. n

Windows 10 Pro means business.

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Forged from carbon fiber the ThinkPad® X1 Carbon is incredibly thin and immensely powerful.

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© Lenovo 2017. All rights reserved. Lenovo, the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo.

Microsoft and Windows are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and other countries or both.

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February 2018

13

ROUND ABOUT

Did Budget 2018-19 omit IT? Budget in India is a big affair. The budget build-up starts much before its presentation. Media and people immediately get affected by the Budget proposals thereafter, speculating about various fiscal provisions the Finance Minister may resort to.

Every group or industry segment or trade union has their own axe to grind. I still have to find an industrialist who would happily say, “Hey Finance Minister, our sector is doing well. You may withdraw the sops that have been extended or impose new levies on our profits or revenues.” As humans, our aim is to maximize from every opportunity that is presented before us.

I must confess that I am not a great follower of budget pre-build-up and post comments. But this year’s Budget was somewhat different. One of the IT magazines sought my comments on the impact of proposals on the IT sector in the Budget.

My effort to gain some insight into the Budget proposals on IT did not bear any positive results. I did not hear any comment by an expert on the impact of Budget proposals on the ICT sector. I got more educated by reading the tickers in the TV channel that I watched, which displayed that there was an increase in the import duty on certain goods like mobile phones, medical devices and a few more items primarily to create an enabling situation for the domestic industry to produce more as a part of the “Make-in-India” program. Luck would have it while penning this piece, I read about the first rollback of the Budget proposals. Even before anyone has pointed out the incongruity, the increase in import duty on medical devices was withdrawn. There was a twist in the story.

It attributed the withdrawal to the pressure being exerted by the US medical device lobby.

IT industry is going through a radical transformation. According to reports published by major consulting organizations, approximately 100,000 IT professionals will be rendered obsolete every year, and they need retraining in new technologies. The Finance Minister during his Union Budget 2018 said that the government will explore Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies.

He added that the global economy is transforming into digital economy, thanks to the development of cutting-edge technologies in the digital space. “Technologies like Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, 3D Printing, and initiatives like Digital India, Startup India and Make in India would help in establishing itself as a digital economy,” he said. He added that Niti Aayog will establish a national program to direct the efforts in the area of AI, including research and development of its applications. “We would invest in research, training and skilling in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Digital manufacturing, Big Data Analytics, Quantum communications and others,” he said. In addition, the Finance Minister should have provided financial initiatives to the private sector in setting up retraining programs in these new technologies. Necessitating skilling of IT employees as they have been lately burdened with the pressure of feeling redundant, will go a long way in curbing job loss by creating and defining new roles for employees. Not only will this help in job creation but will also advance the nation in the competitive global space. These efforts will also assist the government to move towards its Digital India vision.

One can take any budgetary proposal and can find elements of IT and technology built into it, either directly or indirectly. Agriculture, particularly auction platforms for produces, linking of agricultural huts proposed to be set up or online credit facilities to the micro, small, medium enterprises or startups, or creation of the proposed confidence level index for MSMEs or tax proposals like widening the tax base, strengthening of GST network, tracking shell companies and I can go on and on, are, in one way or the other, dependent on the creation of a strong digital network. Does it mean, IT and technology are omnipresent

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in the Budget? I am convinced that it is so and I can assure you any future policy or governance measure will have digital network as the cornerstone for the implementation and monitoring.

But the apprehensions expressed from different quarters should merit our consideration. The primary concern is about the intrusion into the privacy of a person, family or community by using technology. A technology platform will have two uses. One for using it for the welfare of the people, such as extending civic facilities online to cut down the drudgery, such as ticket booking which can be done from the comfort of your office or home. Earlier, you would have bored a hole in your pocket while making a lightning call from Delhi to Chennai or any other stations.

Now, one can call at any time anywhere at a fraction of that cost. There are several such examples, which one can take up from ordinary life.

Then, what is the flip side of technology? First and foremost, the loss of privacy since technology can be used to peep into your private life. Why should state know about what you buy from a medical store or the disease that you like to disclose only to your doctor, family and loved ones. Why should your health profile land up in the hands of your business competitor? At a macro level, why should a country’s secret be in the public domain, particularly with your enemy country? Wiki leaks behind us the media trials and tribulations that it has triggered, one should draw a line between the information that can be shared and one that it should be exclusively protected – be it about an individual or a society or a state?

Then, what is the solution? I do not think anyone has a straight answer for that. I feel it has to evolve. The society where technology plays the major role in connecting and blending the ethos of different groups and segments should come out with unique cultural moorings that balance people’s needs for welfare and progress to that of the requirements of the statecraft. That cannot come through an authoritarian disposition or court rulings or fiats. Maybe, it has to evolve through consultations, compromises and understanding each other’s needs and deeds. n

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February 2018

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HOT BYTES

HCL wins 5-year IT infrastructure contract with Cadent

H

CL Technologies has entered into a five-year IT infrastructure services and application management

will provide IT Service Management, Service Desk and Managed Workplace Services.

HCL will deliver these

contract with Cadent. The groundbreaking “cloudfirst” multi-service deal will see HCL provide integrated public cloud hosting and SAP and Application Maintenance Services, including the migration of a significant applications portfolio to Amazon Web Services public cloud. HCL

services to support Cadent’s business operations which distribute gas to 11 million homes and businesses in the North West, Midlands, East and South-East of England. HCL will provide MWS support to approximately 4,500 staff, including 3,500 field- based engineers.

Azure Power to electrify Government Buildings of Udaipur

A

zure Power has won the mandate to install the first-ever 2MW rooftop solar projects for Udaipur Smart City Limited (USCL). As per the mandate, Azure Roof Power will design, supply, install, commission and operate the grid connected rooftop solar PV project for 25 years at various government buildings in Udaipur. The project is estimated to save 25% of USCL’s existing electricity cost.

Inderpreet Wadhwa, Founder, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Azure Power, said, “Rooftop solar forms an essential part of the smart cities development and serves as remedies to the growing infrastructural problems of India to build a smarter and more sustainable future.

Azure Roof Power helps lower the energy costs of our customers and meet their greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction targets.”

Tata Communications to offer enterprises digital transformation

T

a t a Communications has collaborated with Oracle to offer enterprises from more than 150 countries dedicated and private access to Oracle Cloud, helping them innovate through new services and business models and drive their digital transformation on a global scale.

Through this collaboration, enterprises worldwide will be able to access the Oracle Cloud Infrastructure via the FastConnect service using Tata Communications’

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February 2018

IZO Private Connect. The combination of IZO Private Connect and FastConnect allows enterprises to bypass the public Internet altogether and provide employees with more reliable, seamless access to data and applications using their WAN. With 10 Gbps connectivity, IZO Private Connect ensures a predictable and consistent end-user experience for bandwidth-intensive applications regardless of location or device, while helping to safeguard businesses against external threats.

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Essar deploys Nutanix Cloud Platform

N

utanix has announced deployment of the Nutanix Enterprise Cloud Platform at Essar, a company that operates a number of world-class assets diversified across the core sectors of Energy, Metals & Mining, Infrastructure (comprising ports and EPC businesses) and Services (primarily comprising Shipping business). The aggregated revenues of the Fund’s portfolio companies total US$15 billion (projected for FY2017-18), and the Essar group companies employ more than 50,000 people.

With the deployment of Nutanix, Essar will be able to virtualize and manage their entire line of business applications and SQL database solution hosted in the DMZ landscape.

Fuji Xerox Joint Venture to merge with Xerox

F

UJIFILM Holdings Corporation and Xerox Corporation have entered into a definitive agreement to combine Xerox and their longstanding Fuji Xerox joint venture. The combined company will be a leader in innovative print technologies and intelligent work solutions with annual revenues of $18 billion and leadership positions in the key geographic regions.

This proposed combination provides Xerox shareholders with significant cash at closing, as well as a substantial interest in the significantly enhanced combined company. Xerox shareholders will receive a $2.5 billion special cash dividend, or approximately $9.80 per share, funded from the combined company’s balance sheet, and own 49.9% of the combined company at closing.

Canon opens new retail outlet in India

C

anon India has launched a Gen-Z version of its retail outlet – Canon Image Square 3.0 in India.

C a n o n Image Square (CIS) 3.0 aims at offering a fullfledged customer experience, with an input to output approach. The idea is to transform retail outlets into a destination, attracting customers to experience a whole new imaging revolution. The objective is to familiarize them with cameras and help them

indulge in an extraordinary click-to-print experience with Canon’s new-age

technologies and software.

CIS 3.0 would be an “imaging store”, that would allow consumers to make memories and be allured by the magic of photography.

India's Software / services Exports Clocks at US$ 111 billion-ESC

T

he computer software/services & IT enabled services (ITeS) has grown by 3.83% to US$ 111 billion during 2016-17 as against US$ 107 billion in 2015-16, according to the estimates released by Electronics & Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC).

Highlighting the major findings of the Statistical Year Book of ESC, Kohli, Chairman, Indiasoft Organizing Committee and Past Chairman, ESC

said, “USA remains the top destination of India’s export of software/ services, accounting for 57% in India’s total exports in 2016-17. In value terms, it translates into US$ 63.51 billion as compared to US$ 61.51 billion in 201516. The UK remains top second top destination with a share of 18%. In value terms, it works out to US$ 20 billion, followed

by Singapore (US$ 4.43 billion), the Netherlands (US$2.49%)”.

Sophos upgrades “Intercept X” with Advanced Deep Learning

S

ophos has a n n o u n c e d availability of Intercept X with malware detection powered by advanced deep learning neural networks.

Combined with new a c t ive - h a cke r mitigation, advanced application lockdown, and enhanced ransomware protection, this latest release of the next-generation endpoint protection delivers previously unseen levels of detection and prevention.

“We are particularly impressed with Intercept

X. In evaluating security products from other vendors, Sophos is the only company offering this level of automated anti-exploit and anti-ransomware protection. The addition of

deep learning will enhance the level of threat analysis.

We look forward to rolling out Intercept X across our organization,” said Siddharth Gupta, Manager, Network Operations Centre, Vaibhav Global Limited.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

17

HOT BYTES

Iris Computers sees huge potential in Digital India Education

I

ris Computers is leading the national digital literacy program by distributing computers in different states of the country. States are today competing with each other going in for a smarter way to provide basic services to the common man whether in the fields of education, health or social welfare.

Iris Computers has delivered and installed software-loaded desktops in digitizing education in language laboratories. This has been a gargantuan

logistical task that has been delivered and installed in schools across the length and breadth of the country.

Sameer Choudhary, Senior VP - Iris Computers, said that they expected around Rs.80crore business by the end of this financial year from the digital education sector.

In the coming financial year IRIS expects one-third of its turnover to come from this vertical which includes E-education, E-governance and E-panchayat.

Dimension Data to extend its cybersecurity protection

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imension Data has extended the company’s protection from ransomware, phishing attacks, bot networks, and all types of malicious software, with Cisco Umbrella, the Secure Internet Gateway (SIG) in the cloud. The decision to incorporate Cisco Umbrella follows the company’s firsthand experience protecting its own 28,000 employees and addresses its clients’ requirement to support an increasingly mobile workforce.

Cisco Umbrella is a

cloud security platform that provides the first line of defense against threats on the internet.

“In today’s expanding threat landscape, it is critical to have powerful security tools that effectively support mobility and cloud.

With Cisco Umbrella, we are able to proactively stop threats on any mobile device before they happen with a secure solution that is easily integrated with existing infrastructure,” said Chris Panzeca, Senior Director, Global Strategic Partner Sales, Cisco.

Mphasis to provide cloud solutions with HPE’s Cloud28+

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phasis has announced its membership in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)-driven Cloud28+.

Cloud28+ provides an online platform for Mphasis’ specific solutions and services in the cloud marketplace.

Mphasis is further strengthening its hybrid capabilities across cloud environments. “Mphasis is thrilled to join Cloud28+’s trusted community to accelerate our X2C2TM framework that combines a unique formula of integrated cloud and cognitive

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technologies, providing agile digital innovation for our customers. This partnership enables a collaborative approach as we can showcase our deep

domain expertise through our hyperpersonalized services and offerings,” said Elango R, President – HPE Business Unit, Mphasis.

“By leveraging Cloud28+’s unique online platform, we are able to establish new partnerships and build customer relations.”

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Red Hat to buy CoreOS

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ed Hat has signed a definitive agreement to acquire CoreOS for a purchase price of $250 million.

The transaction is expected to have no material impact to Red Hat's guidance for its fourth fiscal quarter or fiscal year ending February 28, 2018.

Red Hat’s acquisition of CoreOS will further its vision of enabling customers to build any application and deploy them in any environment with the flexibility afforded by open source. By combining CoreOS’s complementary capabilities with Red Hat’s already broad Kubernetes and container-based portfolio, including Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat aims to further accelerate adoption and development of hybrid cloud platform for modern application workloads.

Microsoft’s AI-powered desi chatbot Ruuh turns 1

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n today’s fast-paced world, it becomes extremely difficult to find time and make a lot of friends. Well, here’s someone who has made over half-a-million friends and had over 40 million conversations in just one year. It is none other than Ruuh, Microsoft’s AIpowered, desi chatbot, who has turned one year old.

Ruuh has a persona of a 21-year-old female who is intelligent and is capable of empathizing with her audience. Entertaining the youth with discussions on Bollywood, music, humour and travel, the past year has seen Ruuh’s popularity grow exponentially. It’s no wonder she gets almost 600 “I love you” messages every day and spends several hours chatting with her friends, with the current record standing at 10 hours.

Google with L&T to set up 150 hotspots in Pune

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oogle has entered into partnership with Larsen & Toubro, to bring 150 Google Station hotspots to Pune, as part of the Pune Smart City Development Corporation's Smart City project.

After successfully benefiting 7.7 million users at over 270 Railway Stations through its RailTel Wi-Fi project, Google for the first time is deploying Google Station outside of the railways.

Vinay Goel, Product MD, Google Station, said, “Today marks a big step

for us as we expand Google Station hotspots from railways to cities. Our aim with Google Station is to bring fast Wi-Fi to more users in more places within India. We built Google Station to be both the highest-quality and easiest Wi-Fi service for users and the easiest for partners to deploy – and we think this makes the Station a great connectivity partner for the Indian smart cities.”

GoAP selects Pegasystems as the technology backbone for e-Pragati

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egasystems has announced that the Government of Andhra Pradesh (GoAP) has selected the Pega Government Platform as the technology backbone for e-Pragati – a new centralized government portal that aims to integrate all departments, streamline services, and drive higher citizen satisfaction. As one of the world’s largest and most complex government digital transformation projects, the initiative will help connect the state’s beneficiaries to

33 departments, 315 agencies, and 745 citizen services.

The GoAP chose Pega Government Platform with its leading Digital Process Automation (DPA) technology to rapidly build these integrated digital services on a powerful unified platform. As part of the extensive selection process, GoAP evaluated four vendors over three months. In the final evaluation task, Pega was the only vendor able to effectively build a robust application within 24 hours.

Oracle witnesses traction for its Cloud Services

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he Cloud services spanning SaaS, PaaS and IaaS of Oracle are experiencing a surge in demand in the country.

Large companies and SMBs are selecting Oracle

businesses and new ideas to be future-ready, to innovate and to succeed with cloud. The simplicity of our comprehensive cloud solutions, their UX and quick deployment abilities

Cloud as they embark on their inevitable, digital transformation journeys.

“Customers are able to experience immediate benefits from Oracle Cloud. Be it enterprise digital transformation or an SMB, we are enabling

– some in as little as 30 days and a 600-strong partner ecosystem to support them, are some of the factors attracting customers to Oracle Cloud,” said Shailender Kumar, Regional Managing Director, Oracle India.

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February 2018

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VAR Security

Cyber Security &

Citizen of 2030

Cyber Security & Citizen of 2030 was jointly organized by the Center For Knowledge Sovereignty (CKS), Center for Joint War Studies(CENJOWS) and two schools - DPS Bhagalpur and DPS Ranchi. The knowledge partner was Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC). The topic for discussion was - Cyber Security and the citizen of 2030.

Shekhar Dutt SM Chairman Angika Development Former Governor of Chattisgarh

Society

Life cannot exist without challenges. There are security difficulties, challenges in technical solutions, but the entrepreneurs and enterprising people will identify those challenges, meet them squarely and come out as a winner. In fact I remember during a discussion at Harvard School, the man addressing young entrepreneurs said that if one does not find challenges on the horizon, go beyond it, seek out challenges and then deal with it. When I used to serve in a desert area, someone asked me what is so unique about the desert. I said that when you go up to a sand dune, you will find another sand dune before you, and as you go up that, you will find another dune and so on. So that is the principle of life; you keep meeting new challenges and deal with them as you go about. It was a team of young people who had invented the Internet in the mid 30’s, and thereafter it was young entrepreneurs who launched various applications for the internet.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, 2 enterprising youths of Estonia found Skype. This is indeed encouraging.

Lt. Gen Vinod Bhatia PVSM, AVSM, SM (Retd.), DG – Centre for Joint Warfare Studies I would like to quote our honourable PM, who while addressing the Combined Commanders Conference of senior military leaders in December 2015 on board our aircraft carrier Vikramaditya stated “Beyond the immediate, we are facing a future where security challenges will be less predictable; situations will evolve and change swiftly and technology changes will emerge. The threat may be known but the enemy will be invisible. Domination of cyber space will become increasingly important.”

It is not just the borders that need to be guarded, but cyber space is the new area that equally needs to be protected. The enemies at the borders are however visible but the cyber enemies are not.

Every nation faces the same threats. Cyber or security is not confined to India alone. Some of the countries have taken steps to mitigate these threats. In our case we have been little slow but we have been taking slow and steady steps. It is noteworthy that there are 450 million internet users and so the threats appear to be even more intense. Also we have not incorporated cyber education in our curriculum.

Lt Gen. Dr D B Shekatkar PVSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd.), Chairman -CKS If you are well in life, India will surely do well -this was stated by Swami Vivekananda 100 years back. And you the students will be the one who will abide by this principle. By 2030, most of you who are studying in schools would reach the age of 30 and will be in the peak of your career of your life. Today social media is impacting the minds of people very fast. It is both horrifying and alarming at the same time. Most of you are aware that all the good things in the world started from India. The things which start from India remain for a long time and they don’t disappear- that is the power of India. We have our cultural roots and heritage and the world is looking at India with great hope. This brings me to the next point that knowledge is power.

While 19th century was the century of muscle power, 20th century when we were born is the century of money power; we could buy anything with the power of money. The current 21st century is the century of knowledge power. And this knowledge power will be threatened by cyber security.

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Lt. Gen. V M Patil AVSM, PVSM (Retd.) Vice Chairman – CKS The 20th century saw 2 world wars and a number of regional conflicts. But the form of warfare was very different back then, like Soviet Russia was dismantled after 45 years of cold war without firing a single bullet. But that has changed with the coming of technology. An established Egyptian government was thrown to winds by Arab Springs entirely by social media; now in our own country in the last few years we have seen social media playing hell with the university campuses here in Delhi and other parts of India. Implication of all these is that there is a potent danger from the social media and the emergence of cyber technology.

Let’s not shy away from it and also let’s not adopt the practice of banning. Banning is not the answer and ignoring is not the solution. Time has come for us now to bring in cyber technology as part of the educational system, may be not from the earlier standards but when children reach 8th and 9th standard and thereafter make it a part of their curriculum.

Lt. Gen. Vinod Khandare AVSM, SM, DG – Defence Intelligence Agency The wars of today (in view of national security) and tomorrow will be a combination of kinetic and non-kinetic wars. The requirement of military hardware will continue. When we look at our understanding or concept of warfare, we look at planes, satellite, submarine, ships, tanks and guns. That will continue because it is one of the most importance things for resistance where you have to keep you national interest safe. What is most important now is the non kinetic means which is regulating and controlling these kinetic majors. So while it is the man behind the weapon system it is also the technology which the man behind weapon system is going to use. Today if you carry a mobile phone, willingly you are carrying an identity card without being forced to do so; voluntarily you are surrendering you data, location with all the technologies available to the super powers without naming anyone. The location of each of the important and very important person is known, their itinery is known and it requires no miracles to know who is moving where.

Vinit Goenka Member Governing Council - CRIS, Secretary - CKS If we keep our data in someone’s house, he is going to use it and according to a famous Marathi phrase - the one who protects the pond will always taste the water. If my data is outside my precinct, it is going to be used for their purpose against my wish. Can we have the data within my precinct? I am not talking about the censorship that China loves to talks about, but I would like everyone to visit every websites on this earth. But then we need to see that any kind of data is not going outside the precinct and we strongly advocate it.

The myth of ‘Vasudev Kutumbhkam’ does not hold true anymore.

This myth should be broken in front of the students of today. There is no such thing, we live in a real world and our neighbours are our real challenge. We are a nation and we cannot afford to become weak.

Rear Admiral S Y Shrikhande AVSM (Retd) Technology remains the primary instrument for cyber security and cyber offences. I had learnt long ago that ‘loose lips sink ships’. The unsaid thought of ‘loose lips sink ships’ rightfully points out to the need for prudence. This is my first and over arching proposition that prudence as an individual means you are cautious about what you speak in the context of where you speak. It encompasses the attitude of building caution in ensuring security of information that has to become second nature. It is difficult to say that how long these will save the future of children. The safety of the individual, the safety of the institution, of the society and the nation are all linked in a hierarchy. It is believed that once the prudence is internalized, it becomes an attitude which is linked to virtual connectivity. And we must remember that in the earlier days when we used to pay for calls, there was the element of fiscal prudence. But today it is free and that creates its own problems.

Brig (Retd) Manjeet Singh DACIDS (DIARA) The cyber world is a hugely complex word.

Today we have 3.7 billion of users, 500 million in our own country. Added to it are the mobile devices which are all across. We have one billion mobile devices, out of which 30% are smartphones. And to add to that we now have one billion IoT on the network. So see the complexity which has been added. IoT is going to become 50 billion across the world by 2020. So it’s a hugely complex world of cyber space in which we have to operate as common cyber citizens and the cyber warriors of tomorrow. There are two types of network on which we operate and function - first is the Air gapped networks which have also been built on imported hardware. So how much we are secured is a question mark. Second is the dependence on internet, like any other citizen we at the army too have to function by depending on the internet.

Jayadeva Ranade Cabinet Secretariat - RAW We have a new kind of warfare in cyber space - sci-war, cyber threats and media. Our biggest challenge other than China is Pakistan.

China has set aside $90 billion for expanding its footprint across the globe for propaganda and moulding the people’s mind. It is primarily including the cyber domain to extend its reach.

80% of the main service providers in our telecommunication industry are Chinese companies. Huawei and ZTE complete them and they today cover Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Maldives. It is their system that is operating there, whether it is a landline or a wifi. So, we need to really look at it and start thinking how we can set up either a parallel system or a system that in course of time will take over.

We say that we have a problem of manpower, but I can rightly point it out where this manpower is. All our best designers and developers are sitting abroad. We all are IT coolies who are living here. We are doing backend operations for all the large MNCs which indeed are very low end and we need to upgrade that. And the way to upgrade this is by starting cyber security, cyber training and cyber awareness.

Amitabh Mathur, IPS Former Head Aviation Research Centre - RAW I speak more as a novice on the subject of security but also as a concerned human being or as a concerned citizen of the country. I say that change is inevitable. Technology is upon us and in many manifestations of this cyber world; we are getting constantly overwhelmed by technology. Hyper connectivity in our daily lives has the potential to erode our humanity in unprecedented ways. Now phones, screens have changed the way we interact with each other. A study was conducted in which it revealed that 89% of people are interrupted by their telephone, WhatsApp and SMS messages while they are in a conversation. 82% of the respondents have said that use of devices had a negative impact on their social interaction. These are very important statistics. Science gathers knowledge faster than the society gathers wisdom, so we must learn from this and I think this is the lesson for the younger students who have these gadgets in hand which allows them access to anything in the world.

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February 2018

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VAR Security Dr S D Pradhan Former - Joint Intelligence Committee I would focus only on what is happening beyond the borders particularly in the last 5 years in USA, Russia, UK and China as they have all linked it with cyber force and have all come up with a national cyber strategy. I think we as a nation must also take into account cyber force for developing a counter attack to the threats as this is what is happening in all the four countries. There are three things in common - one, they have linked it with national security and they talk of cyber warfare. Second, they talk of deterrents that while using cyber force what deterrents they can use and accept surrender from the adversary.

And third, reliance on domestic equipment - China has done it in a very methodical manner. It has developed a strategic support force which is mainly for cyber warfare that gives support to the PLA and PLAAF.

Pradeep Arora Chairman of cyber security group If you look at the users today - the users of internet and all the mobile devices are exploding day by day. As the tariffs of data and calls have started fallen, the users have also started moving on to the cities, and this included not only the literate population but also the people who are semi literate or illiterate. We are forcing them today to use these mobile devices for accessing their own financial assets, accessing their own data as we already refer to it. And as we all are trying to find the solution, there are challenges that citizens are going to face in accessing their own data and what we on behalf of the government is delivering to them. So possibly one of the solutions lies in providing them a safe environment - maybe we need apps, safe frameworks which can also be made available to the children.

Dr B V L Narayana Director - CRIS I was looking at two things and these two really worries me. I am from a public service system. I give services to every citizen of India and therefore I am always worried when a citizen doesn’t get a service. For me security and safety do not distinguish itself, it is always a problem when both are merged. Whether my technology fails and I don’t give a service is a problem, whether a citizen creates a problem and then doesn’t allow other citizens to get service is always a problem. Therefore I don’t distinguish between safety and security in any manner. My other problem is as technology progressed, we have also adopted technology and IT in a very -very large way. I don’t know how many of you know that all the trains which are running on our systems come under computer control. The entire network - planes and trains are running on systems today. We are now even trying to run trains without manpower in some system. This might create a challenge again if we do not monitor these systems 24x7.

Dr Vipin Tyagi Executive Director – C-DOT There are some cyber tips. Like ‘Laalach nehi karna’ (don’t be greedy on the net). There are honey pots deliberately placed to get all the information out of you. If you find something too good, verify it first. Always have 3 different strategies to verify it, especially when you share something that is very private or dangerous for you if it is divulged to a 3rd person. You are dealing with a stranger till the time you don’t get your 3 factor verifications done. Pornographic sites have embedded mechanism for capturing the mindset that you have. They take you gradually to a stage where you start getting harm. So draw a line when you realize that you are experiencing something which is anti-social.

Also you should switch off your location data on your mobile phone, so that your location does not get tracked. Too many apps on your phone also create problems. Delete the apps that you do not use much. Anything that has foreign characters in it, try to avoid it because that particular mail or message is designed to trap you into revealing something.

Avadhesh Mathur, IPS Cabinet Secretariat - RAW I would like to highlight 3 challenges with respect to cyber terrorism which impinges upon national security – • The character of terrorism has changed. With passage of time, terrorism has transformed into cyber threat. We have also seen that now newer technologies are emerging - machine intelligence, big data, robotics which we see as a boon to mankind.

But at the same time, we should be aware of the challenges that these technologies might pose for us.

• The 2nd challenge is the invisible element. We know that the hacker who is sitting thousand miles away from us is invisible to us. In most of the cases cyber crimes are committed with the cyber criminal remotely operating everything.

• The 3rd challenge is that of sensitization. I remember we used to visit different organizations and speak about the security of their computers.

They are simple scientists who only are involved in their work. If you try to tell them these things, they won’t try to understand.

Dr. Vatsala Joshi Pande OSD (Research) to Hon’ble Speaker – Lok Sabha Secretariat We cannot handle cyber world in the way the nation handles agriculture and industry.

When we got independent, we were into agriculture and only looked into only 1 aspect of production – which is to increase production to feed our citizens. It was a similar case in industries too, where we looked at increasing GDP without understanding the pollution effects. But in case of cyber world we have to look into totality. Cyber world is both a very individual and collective point. So as an individual and as a nation, we have to be very well versed in using the internet. This point should go into policy decisions as well. Personally I feel that the public representatives should be aware about these cyber threat aspects in totality, so that policies can be framed accordingly and a general awareness is created among the masses. Knowing the cyber world properly will bypass half the danger of cyber threats.

Rajesh Kumar Srivastava Pro Vice Chairman - DPS (Bhagalpur & Greater Ranchi) There is a contradiction in whether you adopt technology to a limit or not. Technology has taken us in its grip whether we like it or not but there is also the need to make our youth aware of the use of technology – both defence and offensive mechanism. I am proud to announce the creation of the first Cyber Forensic Lab machine intelligence analysis across the country with the help of NTRO. The creation of an intelligence agency coordinating the intelligence arms of 3 military services that has long been called for by senior intelligence Indian military officers was formally recommended by the cabinet group of ministers headed by the then Deputy PM of India, Shri Lal Krishna Advaniji. The committee also recommended a national security doctrine that is yet to be adopted. The cabinet group of ministers investigated the various intelligence lapses during the Kargil war and recommended a comprehensive reform of the Indian intelligence agency.

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Uma Sudhindra Member Governing Board – IIM Vizag Since the Kargil war we have relearned the timeless lesson that we always do not get to fight wars which we are prepared for or inclined to.

On June 27th this year, terror struck at a place not far from Mumbai; however, unlike 26/11 most people did not even realize that a terror has struck. 26/11 was witnessed by the whole world. This attack of 27th June was a quiet attack but yet crippled India’s largest container port - the Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust. The terminal with the capability of 1.8 million container units came to a complete halt. The attacker was a malware called Petya and the hackers were faceless attackers from an unknown place. Fortunately, the damage was contained. Now imagine if this has happened in an airport, Delhi Metro, electricity grid or even our nuclear stations. Since the beginning of internet revolution, more than 26, 000 defaced websites and 91 lakh infected systems have been detected in India. This is despite the fact that 77% of cyber attacks are still going unreported. The smartphones, laptops, applications that we use and search engines all are hackable. Nothing is impregnable.

Pavitran Ranjan Cyber Security Research Center When you start looking at cyber security from the perspective of information warfare, it’s a totally different perspective. We are one of the oldest civilizations in the world but we are a very young nation. There is a reason behind it, because in the last 1000 years we have been repeatedly invaded and ruled over.

If you study history you realize most of our wars were lost by treachery from within. One of the topic is “Can national security be outsourced?”

We cannot outsource national security to China or to any other nation.

While we think about China, we immediately see a red flag. They have an authoritarian regime and have open laws as far as cyber security is concerned. Information warfare is a concept which is primarily American.

By 2030, if we do not do a drastic course correction, I see a very difficult time again. Our entire infrastructure is being built on compromised multinational MNC appliances, hardware and software with relevant and confidential documents all at the backend. So you realize how much we are at a danger.

Dr. Arunima Chakravorty Principal - DPS (Bhagalpur & Greater Ranchi) Nowadays we do almost everything online like shopping, banking, emotional mapping to socializing and card making. All of these make the internet which we call the cyber space very vulnerable and attractive target for criminals.

We should be focusing more on cyber essentials and cyber experience while teaching and its consequence as students are very vulnerable to cyber crime. In a very recent study conducted by Uninor in some of the states, it highlighted that one-third of the school going students have experienced cyber crime in the form of cyber stocking, deformation, cyber bulling and hacking.

Children rarely speak about their online activities and experience and in case if they do so parents are very ignorant about it and take it as a small happening. Parents remain under the impression that children are on the net doing their projects assigned by the school. But this should not be the case. Parents should closely monitor of what their kids are doing while they are online.

Ajay Ranjan Mishra Director - Digital Transformation Consulting at Ericsson One of the reports says that in 2013, 4.4 trillion gigabytes of data were generated, in 2020 we would have 44 trillion gigabytes of data and by 2030 there will be an annual increase of almost 54% of data. So that would be a huge amount of data. Mark Zuckerberg bought WhatsApp for $20 million. Children know that it is free to download, yet he paid that amount. The defense budget for our country was around $53 billion this year. But Zuckerberg invested $20 billion which is more than 1/3rd of the budget that we have for defense. Couple of days ago there was a report that President Obama told Zuckerberg about fake news element on the Facebook which might have impacted the US elections.

The kind of data that would be generated in another 13-15 years is mindboggling, if we do not try to address the threats or mitigate those threats from today itself, it would become a major problem as compared to what we might have seen or experienced on the borders.

Bharat Panchal Head – Risk Management SVP, National Payments Corporation of India When we are talking about civil society, the major talk is around application, device and public infrastructure that we are using as a citizen. The fact remains that Mobile Disruption has recently taken the country by storm. We have today close to 1bn mobile handsets, but there are 10% or more that are routed devices which we are not aware of. The incident that happened last year - the data of 3.2mn debit cards getting breached is an example to show. The maximum incidents were reported from China and the maximum withdrawal that happened outside India was in China. The major issue what we are facing today is that today’s generation and the next generation is a complete disjoint. Today’s generation is not educated enough on how to take care of cyber security. I think this is the right time to adopt a policy that we have mandated to have a cyber security defense system.

Dr. Savita Kakar Chief Scientist - DRDO Indigenization is one solution we have in hand and DRDO and other organizations are taking steps towards it. But for doing that the private industry, DRDO and academia have to come together because I have found that there is a lot of knowledge lying barren but they are in the form of compartments. So we have to come together to do work of such magnitude. It is very easy to say that we want to indigenize things but it is very difficult to accept. Generally we are more overwhelmed by imported stuff. Whatever products we are indigenizing, when they go to the user, instead of accepting and giving any suggestions, they start comparing them with the imported stuff. People have to change this mentality and they need to start accepting things. We have suddenly started doing indigenization and we might not be able to deliver the products of imported level. So, definitely some motivation is needed to accept these things.

Sanjukta Mookherji Sahani NGO JaagoTeens & Cadence Before you do anything on the web/internet, please be sure that you do not fall into wrong hands. Think, whether you would like the same things said about you. There are a whole lot of rules and norms that can be followed while you are online.

Just because you are anonymous on the web does not mean that you are not traced.

You need to get this into the mindset of your children that whenever they are into trouble or into any embarrassing situation, they should first come to their parents or teachers. The second thing is when you accept friends request, you see that you know him/her personally. Always have a second channel of verification whether you know that person or not. Always have a passion for learning as young students and a passion for science and technology. By 2030, you can be rest assured that you are going to face huge competition from intelligent robots.

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VAR Security Sumitra Goenka Member - CKS As a parent I feel a lot needs to be done in India today. We have a population who are not technology literate or tech savvy but their children are exposed to technology to such an extent that parents have no idea about how alarming the situation is. So I believe that more interaction with all the stakeholders is necessary and the government and academia should come together to make sure that the cyber security threats and problems that the people are not aware of is addressed at the grassroots level.

The second area which I see is the cyber security targeting technology and the agriculture industry. India is an agrarian society; there are a lot of upcoming technologies in the food sector. It is becoming smarter with use of smart containers, AI and IoT. So this sector is most vulnerable to such attacks, especially the supply chain management. If we don’t have safeguards to protect ourselves then the entire country and food security will be compromised.

Professor Chandan Chowdhury Associate Dean – Indian School of Business On 22th September, when I used to be a managing director in an MNC, I received an email that I have to do a remittance to HSBC bank for acquiring a company. My president then got into a call with me telling me to do it immediately. It was actually not my president but a robot; the email was a fake email. My point is that the size of the cyber world is increasing. We cannot run away from it and we have to protect it. We know about in US this month the identity and confidential data of 143 million people have been hacked.

The government of India might have removed 500, 1000 rupee notes but now cryptocurrency like Bitcoin is becoming very popular. The value of Bitcoin in 19 months has increased by 10 times which resulted in many people investing in it. Now if you look at Bitcoin itself, we had a huge catastrophe with a company called Bitfinex where 65 million dollar worth of bitcoin was actually hacked.

Ambika Khurana Public Policy - Government and Regulatory Affairs, IBM We cannot outsource our security to China.

The world has been talking about ‘China Plus One’ model but we as Indians are absolutely tired of Chinese products. So while we try and shun the usage of these Chinese products, we absolutely must understand that it is time that our Make In India campaign that our Prime Minister Modi started with a lot of fervour and excitement is really supported. It is very crucial time for all of us as Indians whether we work for Indian companies or other multi-national companies, that we completely support Make In India. We also firmly want the Government of India to strengthen public private partnership so that our knowledge, expertise which has been gained over multiple years of working across geographies can be leveraged within India. I represent a company that is 107 years old. India is one of our base in terms of employees, research and software labs. We are very enthusiastic about working closely with the Government of India.

Commander L R Prakash (Retd) Director – CDAC Why do we need indigenous and open source initiative? First is money, which is going into the software industry. One thing common with all the software companies is that none of them has an Indian flag. Where is this money going then – if it is going in the license fee, or research fee abroad then we are directly spending our money in enriching other nations. There is a set of 3 Microsoft products which every PC has - the windows operating system, the patch management system that gets your windows updates and Microsoft Office – they put out disclaimers stating that they don’t collect any personal data from you.

But the truth is that they basically are collecting everything from its users.

A combination of these three software essentially means that they map your entire network; they map your entire organisation, your users and your users’ network.

Rahul Aggarwal Director - PWC In 2030, technology will be 13 years old from now. By using technology you can control anything. We hear of Driverless cars, which will gain momentum in coming years; or electricity in a house being controlled, this is how technology is changing. Our dependency on technology and IT is very high. You can access information services and transaction services online by merely sitting at home. So if all this is happening, how are we going to manage it? What are the areas as a govt., as a private corporate and as a society we need to address? That’s what we need to discuss. But from our perspective, whatever research we have done, most of the countries will always have a critical infrastructure for the financial sector, defence sector, transport sector etc. Every country has defined it. If the critical infrastructure is not available for the society at large we have a major disruption. From the govt. perspective, critical infrastructure always needs to be protected.

Prof. Dr. Sharad Sinha National Council of Education Research and Training I feel like we are in a world where technology is outnumbering technology. The technology which is in place to make us secure is making us more insecure. There are a lot of challenges as an academician which I see that are coming up in the years to come. In a class room we see a lot of things happening nowadays. Children are biologically becoming isolated, but getting united with their smartphone and other devices. They are becoming more psychologically challenged. They talk to their devices, but do not communicate or do not talk to their parents or teachers. Even if they talk, the communication has become very less. I foresee in the forthcoming years that all our books will be digitized, robots will take up as teachers and will have a new role of a digital guru in classrooms and schools and teachers especially will disappear from the scene as all the information will be available online to study.

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VAR Security

Are organizations prepared for the ransomware threat?

When ransomware like WannaCry and Petya wreaked havoc on global organizations last year, many were left seemingly defenseless against this relentless, but not entirely new, threat.

After all, ransomware has been doing the rounds for several years and its potential for disruption and harm had been widely discussed within the security world and beyond. Despite this, many organizations were still not able to effectively defend against the attacks.

In order to understand the scope of the threat, the defensive gap against ransomware, and its root causes, Sophos commissioned a survey to find out the state of endpoint security and ransomware defense readiness from respondents spanning industries across five continents.

The survey focused mainly on mid-sized organizations, with half of respondents in organizations 1000-5000 employees in size, and the other half 100-1000 employees in size. Regardless of organization size, however, the survey was remarkably consistent in its findings.

• Over half of organizations (54%) were hit by ransomware in the past year, with two attacks per organization on average.

• A further 31% of respondents say they expect to be hit by a ransomware attack in the near future.

• The median impact of a ransomware attack is $133k per organization affected – which includes not only the ransom paid but also the cost of resource to resolve the issue.

• 77% of organizations that report being hit by ransomware say they were running up-to-date endpoint security when attacked.

• Over half (54%) of organizations say they do not have any dedicated ransomware protection in place.

Much of the common thinking with IT security is once an organization encounters a specific threat, they learn from it, shore up their defenses and are better prepared against it next time. But the survey results show that ransomware throws this paradigm in the bin: Survey respondents say they were hit by ransomware again and again, and expect that they’ll fall victim to it again in the future.

Certain industries were especially pessimistic about their chances of evading a future, repeated ransomware attack: Healthcare, energy/ utilities, professional services and retail respondents were amongst those who were hardest hit by ransomware in the past, with 76% of healthcare respondents saying they’ve been the victim of an attack.

After a ransomware attack takes place, it can be easy to point fingers at the breached organization: What kind of defenses did they have in place? Were their systems updated and patched correctly?

But yet again, when talking about ransomware, the old paradigms shift, as more than three-quarters of survey respondents say they were running up-to-date endpoint technology when ransomware hit. This reveals one of the key findings of this study: traditional endpoint protection alone cannot and does not stop the latest in ransomware attacks.

Last year’s headline-grabbing ransomware attacks made investigating anti-ransomware technologies a greater priority for many organizations, but it still hasn’t necessarily motivated these organizations to implement these technologies. 45% of survey respondents said they realize that anti-ransomware technology is important and that they plan to implement it in the future, but haven’t done so yet. (Another 7% said they realize the value of this kind of protection but have no plans to implement it.)

As not all anti-ransomware technologies are equally effective against the ever-evolving threat of ransomware, organizations may find themselves invested in technologies that offer little protection when the attacks occur.

When talking about ransomware, the old paradigms shift, as more than threequarters of survey respondents say they were running up-to-date endpoint technology when ransomware hit. This reveals one of the key findings of this study: traditional endpoint protection alone cannot and does not stop the latest in ransomware attacks.

The report dives deeper into this, asking survey respondents to identify the statement – out of a choice of four – that correctly defines what anti-ransomware and anti-exploit technologies do. Less than one third of respondents (31%) were able to select the correct answer. With this lack of understanding, a significant number of organizations may believe they are adequately protected against the ransomware threat, but in fact are not.

If this all seems overwhelming, take heart in the fact that you’re not alone: 87% of respondents said the malware threat had grown more complex in the last year. To effectively stop ransomware in its tracks, traditional endpoint security isn’t enough. Organizations need the strongest defense against these persistent threats, and should investigate anti-exploit and anti-ransomware technologies in order to be fully prepared against future attacks.

By Sunil Sharma, Managing Director for sales - Sophos India & SAARC

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February 2018

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VAR Security SECURITY

ClearPass secures network access for highly secure environments Cyber attacks have become increasingly more intelligent, more targeted and more damaging. With a rapidly expanding attack surface that features mobile, BYOD, cloud and IoT, the likelihood of successful attacks continues to grow. Whether it’s a government agency protecting vital infrastructure or a healthcare provider concerned about patient information – no organization is immune from the stress of preventing these attacks.

While government agencies have taken the lead in defining the criteria and processes by which products are certified, security teams need to know that the products they deploy to protect their organizations conform to a validated set of security standards.

Since 1999, governments around the world have participated in an ISO Standard Common Criteria testing and validation program. This program evaluates and ensures that Information Technology products perform to high and consistent standards, and contributes significantly to confidence in the security of these products. Today, 28 countries participate in the Common Criteria consortium through initiatives such as NIAP in the US, Agence nationale de la sécurité des systèmes d’information (ANSSI) in France and the Australian Signals Directorate.

And as a result, Common Criteria certification is listed as a requirement on many government procurement RFP lists.

Aruba has been at the forefront of Common Criteria certification across its product portfolio, including wireless access points, controllers and remote (VPN) connection software. As a key element in Aruba’s 360 Secure Fabric of leading-edge security solutions, ClearPass Policy Manager carries both FIPS and Common Criteria certifications.

The ClearPass family of secure network access control products provide uniform, comprehensive and precision profiling, authentication and authorization for users, systems and devices seeking access to IT resources. ClearPass is designed to address key security challenges associated with an organization without IT boundaries including: • Complete visibility. When network access can be granted from almost anywhere, at any time, with any device, knowing what is on the network is the first challenge.

ClearPass provides extensive discovery and profiling to enable not just the security team, but all of IT to see who and what is connected. This is particularly important as IoT-type devices connect to the network.

• Proactive control. With ClearPass Policy Manager, every user, system and device on the network is given access to only those resources that their role requires. ClearPass authenticates every entity and assigns access privileges through policies that adjust permissions based on location, device used, time of day, type of user and other factors.

• Closed-loop response. Think of ClearPass as the gatekeeper of the network. The same policy engine that enables network access can be used to respond to a cyber attack. When an alert from the security ecosystem (firewalls, sandboxes, endpoint detection and response, SIEM, UEBA, etc.) is received, ClearPass can take a variety of policybased actions from a re-authentication, bandwidth throttle, quarantine or block.

The ClearPass Advantage

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Providing security assurance through Common Criteria certifications.

ClearPass is Common Criteria certified for the Network Device collaborative Protection Profile (NDcPP), covering all aspects of access control including encryption, physical security, certificate validation and processing and TSL/SSL processing, representing a security baseline for any network-connected device or system. In addition, ClearPass

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received Common Criteria certification for the Extended Package for Authentication Servers which tests functionality and security specific to RADIUS authentication servers. This level of certification enables customers with extremely security sensitive environments, such as government classified networks, to use ClearPass to securely authenticate wired, wireless, and remote access users and devices.

Open and seamless integration. Unlike other access control solutions that require a commitment to a single vendor’s infrastructure, ClearPass is optimized to operate in any network. In addition, ClearPass integrates with over 120 security and general IT solutions to enable them to leverage the profiles and device context that ClearPass generates. Security teams are also utilizing ClearPass to either manually or automatically take action in response to a cyber attack.

• One network, one view, one policy. The ability for ClearPass to control the access to IT resources is not only independent from the vendor supplying the equipment, but also whether access is wired, wireless or remote. Organizations design and implement one policy per user or device and ClearPass seamlessly enforces this policy across the entire network topology. This provides time and cost savings that can be applied to other IT and security projects.

Optimized networks. An ROI benefit of ClearPass is it’s a policy-based enforcement of port access and utilization. Instead of designating ports for specific use cases (for connecting printers, servers, etc.), organizations can utilize a “colorless port” strategy where any port can connect to any device while ClearPass enforces the appropriate role based access controls. This simplifies switch set-up and configuration and optimizes port utilization.

Ironclad access. Verify, then trust. Some access control solutions allow any user or device onto the network and then take action if something goes wrong. This “laid back NAC” approach invites lightening quick cyber attacks where it only takes a second for malware to break into the network and launch a prolonged, highly damaging attack.

ClearPass takes the approach where no user or device can gain network access without positive authentication and the appropriate policy authorization. When seconds matter, access control must start at T-zero.

• Attack intercept. The axiom is: “you cannot protect what you cannot see.” One of the benefits of ClearPass discovery and profiling is total visibility. But in a world where every second counts in attack response, you also cannot remediate what you cannot see. By utilizing ClearPass to set up pre-determined responses to cyber attack signals from the security ecosystem, security teams can interrupt attacks before they do damage, while they continue to investigate and determine the extent of the breach. 

Everything you need to know to stop ransomware.

67% of Indian organizations were hit by ransomware in the last year.

91% were running up-to-date endpoint security at the time of the attack.

Protect against Ransomware with CryptoGuard The proven CryptoGuard capabilities in Sophos Intercept X block ransomware as soon as it starts trying to encrypt your files, returning data to its original state.

“Intercept X stopped all ransomware attacks we tested against it in seconds.” - ®ESG Labs “Since deploying Intercept X we’ve had zero ransomware infections.” - ®Flexible Business Systems

For more details visit www.sophos.com/intercept-x Tel: +91 79 66216838 Email: indiamarketing@sophos.com www.varindia.com

February 2018

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ON THE RAMP

EPSON introduces Multi-Function InkJet Printer for Enterprises

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pson has announced the launch of their first highspeed linehead MultiFunction InkJet printer for enterprise printing in India.

The newly-launched Wo r k Fo r c e Enterprise printer, WF-C20590, prints at breakthrough speeds of up to 100 pages per minute (ppm). The printer offers one of the fastest speeds in inkjet printing, reinventing business printing in the office and ushering new levels of productivity.

Siva Kumar, General Manager, InkJet Printers Epson India, said, “With the revolutionary WorkForce Enterprise printer, we are bringing high-speed, highproductivity printers that deliver outstanding quality inkjet printing to enterprises, while helping companies lower total cost of ownership. We see inkjet as the future of business printing and this year to be the tipping point as many more businesses make the switch away from laser."

Palo Alto Networks unveils new cloud capabilities to its security platform

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alo Alto Networks is infusing new cloud capabilities into its Next-Generation Security Platform designed to prevent successful cyber attacks in the cloud. The forthcoming advancements will provide customers operating in hybrid and multi-cloud environments with a comprehensive, consistent security offering.

The cloud evolution demands a new model

of cybersecurity that is specifically designed to address its nuances and enable security, operations, networkinganddevelopment teams to meet the demands of agile organizations.

Palo Alto Networks Next-Generation Security Platform will extend cloud workload protections to the Google Cloud Platform, in addition to enhanced capabilities for AWS and Azure environments.

Veeam introduces Veeam Recovery to Microsoft Azure

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eeam Software has announced availability of Veeam Recovery to Microsoft Azure with Veeam PN (Powered Network). This new, on-demand turnkey solution ensures Business Continuity that is fast, easy to use, simple to deploy and affordable. It includes the new FREE product, Veeam PN, an easy-touse, lightweight softwaredefined networking (SDN) solution to eliminate complicated VPN installation and simplify network configuration to create the ultimate recovery site on Microsoft Azure.

Veeam Recovery provides a simple, highly

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secure means to recover on-premises workloads to the public cloud. With it, IT can automatically spin up an Azure cloud instance, and securely connect the business to customers, partners, and employees regardless of their location, all without the cost of a redundant standby system. With Veeam PN, it provides complete cloudbased data recovery to help organizations overcome the high capital expense and challenges of building and maintaining a remote recovery site.

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Kyocera announces multifunctional devices

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yocera Document S o l u t i o n s has unveiled ECOSYS M2040dn, a device with an integrated technology of print, copy and scan.

This affordable choice of document solution is studded with duplex unit for double-sided printing in a blistering fast print speed of 40 pages per minute.

Its compact design and low-noise printing makes it a must-have for offices looking to attain efficiency in minimal investment. With toner capacity of about 7,200 pages per cartridge and paper capacity of up to 850 pages through two paper feeders, ECOSYS M2040dn is a smart tool to enhance productivity and profit of business operations.

Cisco releases new HyperFlex Platform Innovations

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isco has announced p l a t f o r m innovations for Cisco HyperFlex with the 3.0 software release that delivers performance and simplicity for any application, on any cloud, at any scale.

Enhancements include support for Microsoft Hyper-V, stretch clusters, containers, and new multicloud services that enable applications to be deployed, monitored and managed in any cloud.

Other hyperconverged solutions neglect the crucial roles that networking and distributed file systems play in the performance and scaling of clustered servers. Cisco redefined hyperconvergence with a complete end-to-end approach that engineers high performance server and networking technology, with a purpose-built file system.

Lenovo rolls out “YOGA 920 Limited Edition Vibes” Laptop

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enovo has announced the launch of the Yoga 920 limited edition Vibes, a 2-in-1 glass convertible laptop.

The new and premium Yoga 920 is an illustration of the increasingly natural interface between humans and machines through its stand-apart and premium features.

A key feature is a digital pen with 4096 levels of sensitivity, and a feather-like touch, capable of capturing creative potential with penon-paper sensitivity. The device comes equipped

with far-field technology, enabling Cortana, a voice-activated intelligent assistant that recognizes voice commands from up to 4 metres away and in standby mode. A first-ofa-kind feature in Lenovo’s consumer portfolio is the 2x thunderbolt ports, UHD IPS display and a colour consistency at all viewing angles of up to 178 degrees.

SUSE releases new offerings for its customers

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USE has announced expansion of its portfolio of businesscritical computing infrastructure solutions.

It unveiled SUSE Linux Enterprise Live Patching for IBM Power Systems and SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 12 Service Pack 3 to maximize the availability and responsiveness of business-critical IT systems. Building on the success of Live Patching for the x86 platforms, SUSE is the first to provide Live Patching for IBM POWER.

Live Patching for IBM Power Systems lets customers apply Linux kernel fixes on the fly without interrupting service in IBM POWER environments.

Live Patching keeps businesscritical applications like in-memory database using SAP HANA running in the event of critical kernel security updates. SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 12 SP3 is a complete realtime operating system that provides precision timing for critical application workloads.

BenQ announces launch of ZOWIE XL2546 in India

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enQ ZOWIE has launched the Zowie XL2546, a 240Hz e-sports monitor with DyAc technology, shield and S-Switch. The ZOWIE XL 2546 with DyAc made its tournament debut at DreamHack Atlanta 2017 where it was selected as the official monitor.

On this occasion, Rajeev Singh, MD, BenQ India, said, “At ZOWIE, we are dedicated to providing unprecedented gaming experiences to the professionals. We strive to offer the best and foster the growth of e-sports gaming

in India, which we believe is an area that is evolving exponentially.

Providing top-end gadgets that are equipped with innovative technology is just one way that BenQ Zowie aims to promote and nurture e-sports in India.”

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ON THE RAMP

Check Point introduces Infinity Total Protection

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heck Point Technologies has announced Infinity Total Protection that enables enterprises to prevent Gen V cyber-attacks.

D o u g Cahill, Group Director and Senior Cybersecurity Analyst, Enterprise Strategy Group, said, “Enterprises need to protect themselves from sophisticated – and dangerous – attacks on all fronts: network,

endpoint, mobile and cloud. These latest, fifthgeneration attacks require a comprehensive fifth generation cybersecurity solution, such as Check

Point’s Infinity Total Protection, to keep critical business data safe from potentially devastating attacks across the entire enterprise.”

ManageEngine introduces cloudbased Patch Management Solution

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anageEngine has announced strengthening of its endpoint management offering by bringing Patch Manager Plus to the cloud.

The automated patch management solution for Windows and third-party applications is available immediately. Patch Manager Plus on Cloud enables admins to automate the entire patch management process, from patch detection to deployment, without any infrastructure investment, thereby securing devices from multiple vulnerabilities and cyberattacks at less than a dollar

per computer per month.

Rajesh Ganesan, Director of Product Management at ManageEngine, said, “With dynamics of digitalization fast changing and massive adoption of cloud technology, there is a greater need for automation in the endpoint management space, as endpoints are the major entry points of cyberattacks.

ManageEngine’s new cloud-based patch management solution is engineered to meticulously look out for such threats on the move, thereby keeping both data and endpoints secured.”

Vertiv launches Liebert ITA2 UPS System

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ertiv has introduced Liebert ITA2, a compact, three-phase, 8 and 10kVA uninterruptible power supply (UPS) system designed for local and remote IT deployments at the edge of the network.

The latest addition to the Vertiv UPS portfolio gives customers powerful, efficient battery backup solution with three-phase input and output for 208/220V IT requirements.

The system is available in various models globally and through Vertiv channel

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partners.

The Liebert ITA2 is a true on-line UPS that can be used in rackmount or tower arrangements, with a compact design allowing easy installation and flexible placement in the tight spaces typical of edge deployments. The Liebert ITA2 saves utility costs by operating at over 93per cent efficiency in dual conversion mode and up to 99 per cent in eco-mode.

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HP Inc. expands Samsung launches its 860 PRO its 3D printing and 860 EVO SSDs in India India has portfolio Samsung announced the

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P Inc. has expanded its 3D printing portfolio with the introduction of its new Jet Fusion 300/500 series of 3D printers. Depending on configuration and colour preference, the Jet Fusion 300/500 series is available starting in the $50,000s, enabling small- to mediumsized product development teams and design businesses, entrepreneurs, and universities and research institutions to access HP’s industry-leading Multi-Jet Fusion printing technology.

The new Jet Fusion 300 / 500 series complements HP's existing industrialgrade Jet Fusion 3200 / 4200 / 4210 3D solutions which deliver the lowest cost per part and are designed for manufacturing environments.

Intel launches Xeon D-2100

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ntel has introduced Intel Xeon D-2100 processor, a system-on-chip (SoC) processor architected to address the needs of edge applications and other data center or network applications constrained by space and power.

The Intel Xeon D-2100 processor extends the recordbreaking performance and innovation of the Intel Xeon Scalable platform from the heart of the data center to the network edge and web tier, where network operators and cloud service providers face the need to continuously grow performance and capacity without increasing power consumption. The new processors will also enable CoSPs to deliver higher-capacity workloadoptimized networking services with enhanced performance at lower power in virtual customer premise equipment (vCPE) such as VPNs and encryption services.

launch of 860 PRO and 860 EVO solid-state drives (SSDs), the most up-to-date additions to the company’s SATA interface lineup.

860 PRO and 860 EVO are aimed at consumers who require fast, reliable performance across various applications, from everyday computing to heavy workloads and graphicintensive operations.

Building on the successful launch of the 850 PRO and 850 EVO, the 860 PRO and 860 EVO achieve industry-

leading performance for SATA SSDs, offering enhancements in speed, reliability, compatibility and capacity. The 860 PRO is available in 256GB, 512GB, 1TB, 2TB and 4TB[5] capacities, with the 4TB memory storage holding up to 114 hours and 30 minutes of 4K Ultra HD video.

Fujitsu expands its Storage portfolio with new offerings

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ujitsu has announced its next generation of ETERNUS AF S2 all-flash storage arrays and ETERNUS DX S4 midrange hybrid systems. The new storage systems are designed to meet the high-performance requirements for digital business growth, continuity and efficiency, while providing a maximum of interoperability and an easy migration path between hybrid and all-flash storage.

Equipped with larger caches, faster processors, 32GB fibre channel

technology and highly optimized algorithms for utilizing multicore, multithreaded processors, the ETERNUS AF250 S2 and AF650 S2 both maximize all-flash performance for applications that require the highest storage speeds.

With 30-per cent more performance headroom, they enable businesses to radically consolidate their storage systems, support fast data growth and deliver reliably short data response times for analytics and business-critical applications such as SAP HANA.

Dell launches XPS 13 Laptop

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ell has launched its new 13-inch laptop, the latest XPS 13 (9370). Seeing technology as a desire from fashion forward customers to blend technology into their lifestyle, the new XPS 13 is a perfect fit to its “thin and light Inspiron” portfolio. With a robust configuration,

unrivalled cinematic experience and eye-pleasing aesthetics, the XPS 13 addresses the need for stylish and powerful machines that deliver quality content on the go.

Ray Wah, Senior VP & GM - Consumer and Small Business Product Group, Dell, said, “From innovations in design p h i l o s o p h y using

smarter materials to performance-driven design construction, the new XPS 13 is an absolute delight!

This machine is tailored for savouring an ultimate entertainment experience.”

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VOICE-N-DATA

DIGISOL unveils 300Mbps Ceiling Mount Access Point Router

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IGISOL Systems has announced the release of the 300Mbps Ceiling Mount Access Point Router. The DGWM2003SIE complies with IEEE 802.11n standard and is backward compatible with IEEE 802.11b/g standard.

The DGWM2003SIE wireless AP router can provide wireless data transmission rate up to 300 Mbps which enhances the sharing of files, photo, audio, video and gaming experience over wireless network.

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The DG-WM2003SIE can also be used as router when configured in gateway mode. It supports PoE, which helps in easy installation by eliminating the need of a dedicated power source.

It enables communication between wireless and wired notebooks/desktop computers in the network.

Ericsson completes its 5G platform with new solutions for operators

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ricsson has finalized 5Greadiness for operators by enhancing its 5G Platform for the radio and core network. The company has launched 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) commercial software, based on the recently approved first 3GPP 5G New Radio (NR) standard. It also introduces a new category of radio products called Street Macro – a new site type that addresses the need of operators to grow in cities with limited available

radio locations.

To capture growth opportunities presented by new 5G use-cases, Ericsson expands its 5G Core System offering with new capabilities to support 5G NR and also enhances its Distributed Cloud solution.

Ericsson introduced its 5G Platform in February 2017 with additions made in September the same year. It comprises the 5G core, radio, and transport portfolios together with OSS/BSS, network services and security.

Draft NTP 2018 to be available in public domain soon - DoT

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A draft National Telecom Policy 2018 that is liberal and non-prescriptive in its licensing approach in Machine to Machine (M2M) communication is being given final touches.

The policy should be in the public domain in the next two to three weeks for discussion and responses from stakeholders,” said Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications.

Aruna Sundararajan said, “M2M is the next big opportunity for India in terms of its impact and the

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Tenda releases “Nova MW6” Wi-Fi system

quantum change that it will bring about in the quality of services and delivery.

The favourable impact of M2M on job creation had already set in as seen by the arrival of the first set of start-ups in the areas such as agriculture, smart cities, healthcare and water management.”

www.varindia.com

enda Technology has launched new Nova MW6 True Mesh WiFi system, which has been built to optimize users’ home network, eliminating connection frustration, by blanketing users’ home with fast, efficient and stable WiFi coverage.

Mesh technology is growing currently with multiple Mesh devices available in the market.

Nova MW6 also supports 802.11v and 802.11r for seamless Wi-Fi Roaming around home.

The Nova MW6 kit includes three Wi-Fi nodes that provides wireless coverage for spaces up to 6,000 square feet. Each node is capable of performing as a router or an extender and connects seamlessly with each other to provide whole home wireless coverage.

Vodafone announces VoLTE services

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odafone has rolled out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) services across Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Gujarat (Surat and Ahmedabad). Accessible on popular 4G mobile devices with a Vodafone 4G SIM, customers can make calls using Vodafone VoLTE and enjoy HD quality crystalclear voice with super call connect.

Sunil Sood, MD & CEO, Vodafone India, said, “In line with our commitment to introduce the bestof-breed technologies and consistently enhance customer experience, we are delighted to launch our VoLTE service across our three key circles of Mumbai, Delhi-NCR and Gujarat.

Vodafone VoLTE will empower our customers to enjoy seamless connectivity of a higher level, enabling them to explore newer possibilities with their smart devices.”

Intel and Huawei collaborate to achieve 5G Interoperability

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ntel and Huawei have joined hands to achieve 5G interoperability and development testing based on the 3GPP R15 Standard with a commercial base station. This successful test, based on Huawei's 5G commercial base station and Intel's thirdgeneration 5G NR Mobile Trial Platform (MTP) is a critical step towards the full commercial launch of Huawei and Intel solutions supporting millions of devices in 2019.

The three parties have jointly verified

the fundamentals of the new 5G 3GPP NR standard, including new synchronization,

coding, frame structure, and numerology components underlying the interconnection of the NR-compliant terminal and network.

Amdocs announces 5G-ready Online Charging System

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mdocs has announced a 5G-ready online charging system. This new solution enables service providers to process traffic from multiple network slices through a common online charging system, in accordance with the 5G standards guidelines published by 3GPP in December 2017.

Network slicing is a key capability in 5G networks, as it allows service providers to run multiple logical networks that meet the varying performance needs of different services – from eHealth and autonomous

vehicles, which demand the lowest possible latency, to less-critical but bandwidthdemanding virtual and augmented reality applications.

The latest release of Amdocs’ market-leading digital monetization suite provides a centralized charging entity for the monetization of all service configurations made possible by network slicing.

It includes an innovative isolation mechanism that ensures the level of activity in one network slice does not impact another.

A billion smartphones to feature facial recognition by 2020

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acial recognition solutions are expected to come to a wide range of handsets in 2018 following Apple’s FaceID and Samsung Galaxy Note 8’s Face and IRIS unlock technology. More than one billion smartphones are expected to feature some form of face unlock solution in 2020.

When Apple announced Touch ID in 2013, it set a trend in consumer mobility.

Smartphone OEMs around the world followed Apple’s example and integrated fingerprint sensors into their own devices. And they

did so to such an extent that fingerprint-based security is now considered standard issue on even budget-priced smartphones. More than

a billion smartphones are estimated to be shipping in 2018 sporting fingerprint sensors.

FACE TO FACE

‘India as a unique country is progressing at an impressive pace’ T.V. Mohandas Pai, the Chairman of Manipal Global Education and a former director of Infosys has been an active persona in the field of promoting quality education and also reforming the business ecosystem in the country. Sharing his views on Digital India and India 2020, Mohandas Pai tells VARINDIA of how India with its unique set of problems still manages to take small strides in the path of development -

What are your views on Digital India?

Digital India is an initiative of the PM of this country to create one single virtual nation. As a country, we have 29 large states, many of them bigger than most of the countries in Europe. These states have large population and it becomes very difficult to link them all together into 1 single country, because we are divided by state borders, by groups, by distances and most importantly by lack of access. Digital India seeks to create one single, virtual nation by making sure that every Indian has a smart device with a good data plan, which will help them to connect with each other. Through this connectivity, Digital India will deliver eGovernance services to every single Indian.

Every Indian would then be able to get government services, certificates like birth or death, medical services, appointments to government hospitals, meetings with government officials, admissions into government schools, and all such government services for which people had to earlier stand before an officer.

Digital India will give access to high quality education to every child in India. If the govt. of India gives every child a tablet with rich multi-media content connected with 3G/WiFi, every child will be able to bridge the digital divide. This will level the field between the rich and poor, between good schools and schools that don’t have teachers, between urban and rural areas and give access to every child the equal quantum of information.

Digital India should also give access to health for all Indians. Our health records could be kept digitally and we can retrieve these records to go to any hospital of our choice for treatment. We could be getting information about health, and get access to health services at low cost including medical insurance.

The next area of activity for Digital India is eCommerce. India is a land of large number of artisans, close of 2 million of them who do handicrafts, sculpturing, and so on. The major problem for them is they are very lowly paid and fail to get the raw material at reasonable rates, reason being they are not connected to the market. Digital India will give each artisan their exclusive web page, connecting them to an eCommerce

portal which can be connected to a payment gateway. This will also rid of middle men.

The next area for digital India will be financial services, through which every Indian will have a bank account, a DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) for any government money that they get as subsidy, and the government on its part will also be able to monitor if the money is being routed to the proper person.

Being linked electronically, they can make payments through UPI without incurring any charges. So every Indian would have access to credit and financial services.

Hence Digital India is a massive initiative to get every citizen in the 21st century access to services, education, health that would help in making their lives much richer.

As a technology evangelist, how do you see cyber security in India?

Cyber security is not a big issue. There is enough security software available, except in the case when you have a cyber attack of a deep intensity. If we take simple precautions, then we can avert cyber attacks. If we work with proper intuition, it should not be a major problem.

With India moving to digital payment system, how prepared is the country to handle any major cyber threat?

The payment system is secured, since it is controlled by the Central Bank of India. It is automated, you can encrypt information,

and the data can move safely. There have been very few cyber attacks if you are aware that have been aimed at stealing someone’s money. But most of the time people have lost money because of carelessness. It is not because of system issues. Even in the Aadhaar case which was reported recently, the journalist purchased a stolen password to hack into a network. So I would say that UIDAI should be careful in letting out passwords in public.

How do you see India 2020?

I think India is doing very well, especially those parts that are connected. It would be unwise to compare India with Singapore or any other advanced nations because we know Singapore has only 5 million people, while Bengaluru itself has 10 million people, and UK has got 65 million population while India has 1.3 billion population. The only country we should compare ourselves with is China, and we are possibly 10 years behind China in terms of network connectivity, use of internet or use of any technology. But I would still say that India is a very unique country and is progressing at an impressive pace. It has its own set of complex problems. It has people in different stages of development. India has a high quality IT industry. We have 32,000 start-ups getting $95 billion in investments. So if we compare India with China, the path for us is very clear. Things are improving and with initiatives like Digital India succeeding, there would be no looking back. n

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CHANNEL BUZZ

Compass conducts its annual cricket event – Compass Premier League

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he Compass Premier League 2018 was held at IB Park, Salt Lake on 20th & 21st January, 2018. Epson was the main sponsor of the event, while AOC and Acer Monitors were Associate sponsors, Seagate the Prize sponsor and Canon the CSR sponsor.

A total of 8 teams

participated in this event – Acer Predator, Dell Warriors, HP Super Giants, Lenovo Leaders, Supertron Lions, Toshiba Tigers, Western Digital Warriors and Compass. The final match was played between Dell Warriors and Western Digital Warriors.

Western Digital warriors lifted the cup. The chief guest for the event, Khalid Anwar, Sr Joint Commissioner, Commercial Tax Department, Government of West Bengal, handed over the winning trophy.

CPL registered more than 2,000 guest participants in two days. Almost all the industryleading OEMs and members supported the event to the fullest.

The main attraction of the event was the Kids Corner and CSR activity on 21st January, where close-to 75 kids from orphan homes participated. Compass

arranged for lunch as well as gift hampers for all the visiting kids.

The effort was appreciated by all.

Compass has, thus, taken a step forward and tried to match up the feel and expectations of the game with any good national/international cricket event. The sponsors delivered all the branding and promotion needs through CPL 2018 and they have acknowledged it with assurance for participating in the next year CPL 2019 too.

Avaya concludes Edge World Tour partner event in Mumbai

A

vaya has concluded its premier channel partner event – Avaya Edge World Tour in December, 2017 in Mumbai. The event which saw participation from more than 180 channel partners across the country was organized to reward the top-performing regional ecosystem partners, training and discuss strategy moving forward.

Avaya Edge World Tour is a premier Avaya event to discuss the journey, strategy and way forward for Avaya and give the partners the flexibility to meet their customers’ needs in today’s fast-paced digital marketplace to help them achieve their Digital Transformation goals.

It also serves as a platform to provide greater rewards for those

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partners that deliver exceptional value for Avaya.

During the Tour, the company executives explored how Avaya and its industry partners can design enhanced customer experience solutions that go beyond the digital experience, namely through the application of Artificial Intelligence, Analytics, Blockchain and Internet of Things. The event also showcased multiple demos of Avaya’s existing solutions catering to the needs of various sectors like BFSI, contact centre, hospitality and more to showcase how customer experience is changing across these segments, Avaya’s solutions and products being at the forefront of this transformation.

www.varindia.com

TAIT inaugurates Launchpad Pro

T

AIT, in yet another pioneering move, has inaugurated Launchpad Pro. This is a platform where a member can showcase his own product or services to TAIT members during a TKS (TAIT Knowledge Series). This platform is exclusive for members’ own brands and is slated to deliver excellent RoI. You can invite all your prospects among 300+ TAIT members in the TKS event and offer them delicious dinner too. TAIT board urges members to take optimum benefits to grow their business in multifold. In each TKS event, there will be maximum slot for two members for Launchpad Pro and will be strictly on a first-come, first-served basis. The allotted time including Q&A will be 15 minutes and will come at an irresistible price of Rs.11,000 plus GST. The next session was from Relationship-based referral marketing expert Bharat Jethani, well-known as “Human Connector”. He gave thoughtful presentation on “Why are YOU in your business to Where do you

see yourself in this business in the future, are you driven by money in your business or driven by your passion”. This was a mesmerizing session which holds members on their seat for more than 1 hour.

Transforming The Business was guided by CA Kiran Garkar.

He is a practising Chartered Accountant mainly in Sales Tax, MVAT and GST. He was member of Managing Committee of Sales Tax Practitioners’ Association of Maharashtra from 1996-97. Garkar explained about the E-Way Bill in simple language and answered all the questions of members to understand the nitty-gritty of the E-Way Bill, which will become operational with effect from 1st February, 2018.

Rashi Peripherals initiates “SI Training Program” for enablement of Partners

V

alue-add has always been at the core of Rashi Peripherals’ business philosophy.

So, the company has rolled out a unique SI Training Program for partners. The SI Training Program aims to provide partners in-depth product training and guide them on a right sales pitch.

Under the program, Rashi Peripherals, along with its strategic vendor partners, reaches out to target SIs in across the regions and conduct extensive training sessions for partners. The distributor recently conducted multi-city training programs in association with Intel, Logitech and Western Digital. Around 300 SI partners so far have received training on the latest product lines from the respective brands and the plan is to train 1,000 SIs in 2018.

Rajesh Goenka, VicePresident – Sales and Marketing, Rashi Peripherals, said, “The beauty of this training program is that instead of having a generic training, we are targeting select key

partners and giving them training on the latest technologies and market trends. Though currently at a nascent stage, we are very bullish over this initiative and aspire to take it to a larger scale aiming to reach out to our 9,000plus channel partners. We are also very thankful to all of our vendors who have cooperated with us and look forward to having their continuous support.”

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February 2018

37

VAR SPECIAL

Seven months after the implementation of Goods & Service Tax (GST) across India, there has been a mixed bag of reactions among the businesses. Though people have embraced GST with doubts in their minds, they are slowly getting swiped out as government is starting to consider recommendations regarding GST. While discussing the impact of GST with the IT Value Added Reseller (VAR) community of Bengaluru, they showed their support towards GST and pointed out the benefits of it like growth in business, ease in inter-state transactions, reduction in cascading effect of taxes, inclusion of GST in Custom Duty and Right to Use of Goods etc. Inspite of these benefits the VAR community also highlighted issues like high tax slab, complicated filing process, bleeding IT infrastructure of GST portal which need to be addressed.

K.V. Arun Kumar Managing Director, Atul Enterprises:

Bharat Nanda Owner, RX Solutions:

The introduction of GST has proved favourable for IT industry as a large number of companies which were not buying IT products have started investing because they are getting GST credits because in VATs they were not getting any credits. But the most disappointing factor is that the tax rate is 18%. My suggestion is that the levy of GST tariff for all the products should be at a slab of 12–15%.

So the norm of one tax, one services should be preferred. But we are finding difficulty in uploading forms GSTR1 and GSTR2. We have not been able to upload GSTR3 and it got postponed again. So they should have a better website, bandwidth and servers.

S. Ashok Kumar Purchase Manager, Supreme Computers:

Supreme Computers has been engaged in HP peripherals business for over 15 years. Post GST implementation, I do not find any changes as far as my business is concerned. It is the same thing that used to happen during the VAT regime and also in GST. I do not find any difficulty in sales.

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The benefit of GST implementation is that we have come almost at par with those companies which used to import materials through different channels without paying customs duty. Since GST has become a part of the customs duty, we consider it a great move by the government.

With high GST tax slab of 28% on laptop batteries and power banks which are our common products, we find this as an issue because 28% is a very high slab, whereas the margin is between 5% and 8% for distributors and the complete network.

Deepak HS Proprietor, Pentagon Automation:

The challenges that we faced before GST was like inter-state transactions because there was no input credit that was available. We used to have confusion in some of the products whether we should charge Sales Tax or Service Tax or dual tax.

As a retailer, we used to face challenges in terms of offsetting the input credit for Service Tax. So we always used to land up with an excess credit of Service Tax which we were not able to offset. Post GST, we have seen a lot of these anomalies have been addressed. One is inter-state purchases. Since it has become Goods and Services Tax, we have been able to set off credits whether it is goods or services.

Dinesh Dhanapathi President, Association for Information Technology:

From the perspective of Association, we have done justice in trying to ease in GST for our 320 members. We have conducted various fellowships before and after GST by inviting Joint Commissioners of Commercial Taxes to address the members. After GST was implemented, we organized some workshops for helping our members to get comfortable with it and clarifying doubts.

I run a company called Symentrics Computer Systems which is involved in system integration basically focussed on services. When it comes to business dealings, it has not really changed for us, maybe costs. Taxation has gone up but we continue to get the same business as customers need services. I personally feel that what is good for the country is good for us and we are happy with what is happening.

Harish Sales Head, Intellic Systems:

We have been in the business for the last 15 years. We are partners for Dell, Lenovo and HP. As anything which gets newly implemented, there is a lot of confusion and it was same with GST also.

It took some time for us to understand GST. Now we are used to it and things have been sorted out to a large extent.

The GST structure needs to be corrected.

From my business point of view, I was doing business in the state but with GST coming in we are doing business in other states also. We are also facing competition from other states. It is an open market. We are not witnessing grey market much now.

Murlikrishan Managing Director, N.J. Dataprint:

GST has proved a boon for our business. The advantage of GST is single billing and can sell products anywhere in the country, particularly when I import the duty is not being calculated for our production because we are manufacturing servers. Whenever we start something new it has some teething problems but we are going to enjoy the benefits of GST soon, not only nationally but also internationally as I am an exporter also.

As an exporter, I get benefit while billing when I pay GST. Because of GST, I get more credit for more business.

Nalin R. Patel Managing Director, Ankita Electronics:

After the introduction of GST from July 2017, there was a panic in the market.

People did not know what is happening, government was changing information every month but now problems have started falling in shape. There are still some problems with public sector units as the government is holding the GST amount. But GST is helping people and

business has also increased.

N. Prakash Director, Towers Infotech:

GST is good in one way but going in a way of one tax, one nation, especially if you talk about one particular sector will be better.

People of Karnataka are early adopters of GST regime and we have also organized so many seminars in regard to that. So it was a very easy transition for us, but in spite of that we have faced several issues as technically it is difficult and the government was not prepared with respect to infrastructure, servers, software. GST is like a premature baby.

R. Sridhar CEO, Triangle Technologies:

Regarding GST, it is good in a way for us because earlier in the VAT regime all our products were in Right to Use of Goods which is treated as a sale in 22 states, of which Karnataka is one. With GST coming in Right to Use of Goods comes under Service Accounting Core and from the business perspective there is a lot of clarity. What I have noticed with GST implementation is that the capex of many corporate has come down and the rentals have increased. Here in Bangalore, the IT rental market has picked up for the last two-three months.

GST is the way forward. There is no escape from this.

Sairam Shetty

Director, Orchids Network & Systems:

I think GST is a good thing to go forward. Initially, there was no clarity but as of now I see there is a good amount of transparency that is happening.

Government is not clear on certain things which will take some time to give more clarity in terms of taxation. One tax gives the flexibility to do business in any state of the country. Previously, we had to register for every state. But we do not have to do much as we can sell it from our state to different states. One nation, one tax is the way to go ahead and I would be happy if GST is implemented in the right way.

Nemi Chandra Tejaswin Proprietor, Computer Mine:

There are a large number of problems with the usage of GST portal. The main purpose of GST is to avoid the cascading effect of taxes. In a scenario where I am still not sure whether my suppliers will really pay the tax which they have collected from me and the payment is made through bank. I am still not confident whether I will be held responsible to pay the tax once again. Our margin in this industry is definitely less than 18%. If somebody wants to close the business and run away, he can simply take 18% and run away without uploading the invoices. Then, we are supposed to pay the tax which we have already paid. We should have the bills.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

39

VAR SPECIAL

Since Independence GST has been the biggest tax reform in history of Indian economy. With every new implementation some challenges come to surface. Likewise, with GST implementation in India few challenges have cropped up. IT industry, especially the VAR (Value Added Reseller) community welcomed this economic reform with open arms and considers it as a path breaking initiative but there are few aspects that need to be considered by government. After discussing at length about GST with VARs of Kolkata we would like to uphold few key take away: ·

GST is driving IT growth

·

Tax slab should be reduced

·

It has made inter-state business easy

·

IT infrastructure of GST portal needs to be improved

·

Reduction of grey market

·

GST filing should be simplified

Pradeep Biyani

Proprietor, Suntronic Systems

With IT industry, GST should have been a very easy migration because we had prepared ourselves during the VAT regime itself. Whenever new things are introduced, there is always some teething trouble. The filling part is a little difficult for the trader partners.

Otherwise, we were prepared for this regime. The site also does not allow to rectify any mistakes. So the government has to come out with some patience and bear with us. The trader, comsumer, user should be given an opportunity to rectify if they have made some mistakes. They should not be penalized and I think the norms are still very harsh.

Like mobile revolution made India one, so the GST has made India one. So the movement of material from one territory to other has become easy though it has created trouble for some business but it has opened up the market also.

Nikhil Deora Branch Head Rashi Peripherals

GST is the biggest tax reform after Independence and it is a very important step. So, according to me, it is a very good sign for the Indian economy going in the right direction.

The expectation from GST was of simplified tax, though the government has tried to keep things very simple but because of tax evasion issue the government has to keep all the parameters checked. This means the system is now getting complicated day by day. It is not by choice but by resilient force of government so that they can bring more tax into the system, more people to file return into the system. They have

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kept all the checkpoints and now being an honest citizen and a tax payer, I am feeling that the system is very wrong and complicated. But if the government’s standpoint is taken into consideration, they have kept the checkpoints and for me it is good.

Pawan Jajodia Proprietor - Mohit electronics

GST means One Tax, One Nation, which typically meant that the new taxation system would support the business ecosystem in the country. It also meant that rates of the goods would not get impacted, irrespective of where they are sold or purchased. The only challenge that we are facing is that, earlier under the VAT regime we were supposed to pay our taxes monthly but file our return once in 3 months; while now in this system the government has made it complicated by issuing several forms. My only suggestion is that the government should look into doing away with so many forms and include just one document in which we can furnish our details.

Neeraj Agrawal Director, Nimbus Computer:

As a commoner, GST has been interpreted in various forms – Goods and Services Tax, as per our PM, Goods and Simple Tax and last as per the opposition – Gabbar Singh Tax. As a trader, we are with our Prime Minister and we want a goods and simple tax. After GST coming into operation, it was good but down the line we are facing problems relating to GST site. It is not optimized. Also, it was assured that it will be one form which will make a trader’s life easy, but in reality there are a number of forms that we have to upload in GST site which is linked with each other.

The Government is also extending the time frame of GSTR1 and GSTR2. So at present we are not clear about the input and output and how we are going about.

As a trader, with the change of slabs we were facing some difficulties, but we were expecting from the government that it should be a single tax slab. The Government is emphasizing on One India, One Tax regime. So for mobile or computer, the tax slab should be 12%. Since GST is online, the portal has to be very dynamic and it should be optimized properly.

Second, according to our Prime Minister, it is a goods and simple tax and as a trader we want a simple tax.

Umang Lalani

Director, Lalani Infotech

GST is path-breaking, but there have been speed breakers. We have not been able to implement it in the best possible manner. But going forward, it will be good for the country. After GST, our business has grown considerably and we foresee more growth in the coming year. But the growth has come at the cost of expansion.

Overall, our margins have come down, but the volumes continue to grow.

We thought that IT would attract lower tax slabs, but it is between 18% and 28% which, I think, could have been better. It could be one tax. To make it better, we should have a uniform lower rate and it should be applied across all products and all categories, not just IT and telecom. It will be difficult to achieve, but that is what is needed for good implementation and simplification. So once that happens the entire GST process would be simplified and that will be a comforting factor.

Although we know that GST has a bleeding IT infrastructure, it has to be improved at a faster pace so that filing can become easier and better.

Furthermore, there should be more call centres and helplines provided by government so that we can have our doubts clear whenever there is confusion.

Debasish Biswas Director, Technocrat Infotech

As we are in the IT industry so we had a high expectation with regard toGST. When everything will become digital, the requirement for computers, printers, etc will rise. Initially, the demand was there.

As everything is in black and white so business will also grow as the grey market will not be there and everything will be in shape.

For a particular product, we are paying 18% GST. So our investment in business has increased, but our total turnover on selling the particular number of products which we used to sell last year has come down. Another challenge is that we are facing infiltration from the other parts of the country. All the IT products should come under the same tax slab. Previously, mobile has a different tax structure. Some attracted 5% and others 14.5% tax slab. But after GST all mobiles whether it is feature phones or smartphones, come under the12% tax slab.

Narendra Dhanuka Galaxy Computech

GST is a very good thing which has happened to our country. There were a lot of taxes and instead of paying so many different taxes we have to pay just one tax. Any major changes will take some time because if the government is trying to make some changes it is not possible to do it in one day. So it is a really good initiative for the country. There are not many challenges.

The only suggestion is that, since IT is very important for the country, the tax should be reduced to 5%.

Asis Choudhury

Director, DIS Techno & Information Systems

After the implementation of GST till date initially we faced a few issues but gradually we have overcome those difficulties. I hope that in future it will be good for us. The calculation process is a little difficult and we have to do it based on HSM code etc. The filing of GST is a little complicated as I think it is a plan of action and before implementation of GST there should have been some awareness that must have been done by the government to make us more accustomed with the situation. There are a lot of complexities which we need to understand. Then, it is quite easy. The simplicity in filing the form is the only mandate for us.

Nandini Sharma

Director, Comnet Resources

V.K. Bhandari

Chairman & MD Supertron Electronics:

GST has managed to grab attention in recent times. The basic purpose of GST was a uniform and transparent tax structure in the country. It improves the way we do business and also the tax structure because it is one tax and one nation. Second, it will minimize the cascading effects of taxes. So the prices will be reduced eventually.

We expected a reduced price and expecting a reduction of tax slab to 15% as a reduced cost means an increase in consumption so that means more business. I was looking for some ease also which never happened because of too much of documentation. The government predicted that before implementation of GST that tax payers can file return sitting at home which never happened.

We were expecting that the government should have 24-hour helpline with the experts on GST over there. Instead of forwarding the queries to website or to write a mail, they could have given the help over the call.

GST is a very good initiative and we were expecting it for a long time as through it doing business becomes easy and all taxations all over India are same. It is also good for inter-state trade. So overall GST is good for India. But there is a lot of challenges and the main problem of compliance is very strict and the awareness is very less from both trade and industry side. In IT we were expecting a low tax slab. Most of the IT products are under 18% tax slab, but we expect it to be 12% so that some benefits would be there for the IT industry. We are expecting that through GST economy will grow.

On their part, the government is also changing some things, but still compliance is still very strict. So the government must understand our problem and we can manage as we are a mid-size organization but while discussing with small organization we find it very difficult to comply with the GST norms. We request the government to consider minimizing the compliance and make it simpler for everybody.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

41

INDUSTRY EVENT

(From Right to Left): Mr. Soubhagya Routray, President-ITAO; Mr. Subramaniam Narayan, Regional Sales Manager - Cambium Networks; Mr. Harjinder Singh, Zonal Business Manager (East)- Acer India; Mr. Jigar Sanghvi, CEO- Sanghvi InfoTech; Mr. P V S Rao, General Manager- Quadgen Wireless Solutions; Mr. Uday Bhaskar Rao, M.D.- iRam Technologies; Mr. Dhiru Khandwal, CEO- Esquare Technologies; Mr. Ayashkant Mohanty, M.D.- Tatwa Technologies; Mr. Priyadarshi Mishra, MLA, Bhubaneswar, North- Govt. of Odisha; Mr. Rath, Chief Engineer, Government of Odisha; Mr. R.N Palai, ITS, Spl. Secy. to Govt., IT Department, Govt. of Odisha; Mr. Manas Ranjan Panda, DirectorSTPI, Bhubaneswar; Mr. Deepak Sahu, Chief Editor and Publisher VAR INDIA; Mr. Rudra Satapathy, In2IT Technologies Pvt. Ltd; Mr. Ashok Mohapatra, Chairman, Organising Committee; Ms. S. Mohini Ratna, Editor, VARINDIA

VARINDIA OITF 2018 opens up new Smart city avenues for Bhubaneswar The VARINDIA 10th edition of Odisha Information Technology Fair - OITF 2018 was recently concluded in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. The event provided a platform for the IT industry to come together and discuss some of the key vital issues concerning the state and transforming the city of Bhubaneswar smart and liveable.

The invitees to the event included IT & Telecom honchos, senior Government officials, industry leaders, VARs and SIs. The evening commenced with the ceremonial lamp lighting ceremony in the presence of high profile guests that included Sri. Priyadarshi Mishra, MLABhubaneswar (North), Govt. of Odisha; Sri. R.N Palai, ITS, Spl. Secy. & CEO, OCAC, Govt. of Odisha; Sri. Manas Panda, Director-STPI, Bhubaneswar, Govt. of India; Ananta Narayan Jena, Mayor, Bhubaneswar, Govt. of Odisha; P V S Rao, General Manager-Quadgen Wireless Solutions and Mr Deepak Kumar Sahu, Chief Editor, VARINDIA. In his opening speech while addressing the audience, Deepak Sahu, Publisher – VARINDIA spoke about start-ups that are emerging in cities such as Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Ahmedabad. “As per our survey there are around 5,200 start-ups in the country. India continues to rank third in the global pecking order of start-ups ecosystem, after the US and Israel. It is largely due to the availability of talent, state government initiatives, local investor confidence and infrastructure support has been on a rise.

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During our survey, I visited few start-ups we found that out that they are aiming at solving immediate issues that are affecting people at the grassroot level.”

The evening saw a number of important government officials, as well as top industry executives speak on topics concerning smart city. The first speaker for the evening was R.N Palai, CEO, OCAC, Govt. of Odisha who enlightened the audience on the opportunities

in Odisha, while Manas Ranjan Panda, DirectorSTPI, Bhubaneswar spoke in length on the opportunities in Bhubaneswar and on how Bhubaneswar could emerge as the smart city.

Shri Priyadarshi Mishra, MLA, Bhubaneswar, North- Govt. of Odisha in his speech gave his prospective on how he is seeing Bhubaneswar transforming as a livable city.

In the corporate presentations, IT Corporates shared their vision for the state and how to make

it smarter. Hajinder Singh, Zonal Business from Acer India and P V S Rao, General ManagerQuadgen Wireless Solutions presented the views of their respective organizations on how technology can be implemented to make the city smart and liveable.

To complement the topic of Smart City, Uday Bhaskar Rao, M.D - iRam Technologies also spoke about his company’s smart offerings for smart parking and other smart devices.

However the most awaited part of the event was the award ceremony that witnessed the felicitation of 9 Regional VARs from Odisha being awarded in different categories of Best VAR, Odisha; Best Software Distributor,

Odisha; Best Reseller, Odisha; Best System Integrator, Odisha; Best Distributor, Odisha; Best Technology Services, Odisha; Best KPO; Emerging IT Services Company and Best Sub Distributor, Odisha. The names of the winners respectively are – Nigama Comptech, Tristar Software and Solutions, Info care Solutions Pvt. Ltd, ESquare Systems & Technologies Pvt. Ltd, Printlink Computer and Communication Pvt. Ltd, Tatwa Technologies Ltd, BPO Convergence, In2IT Technologies Pvt. Ltd. and Power Max. The event also took the opportunity to felicitate the winners of the 8th VARINDIA Cup 2018 Cricket Tournament. In the semi final match played between Aabsys and Tatwa,

Rajnikanta Swain of Tatwa Technologies was awarded the Man of the Match. In the second semi final match played between TCS and Exilant, Bibek Singh won the Man of the Match award. The Final match was played between TCS and Tatwa, in which Tatwa Technologies clinched the title, while TCS emerged as the Runner-up of the 8th VAR INDIA IT CUP. The man of the match award went to Santosh of Tatwa Technologies. Rajanikanta Swain of Tatwa Technologies won the Man of the Series of the 8th VARINDIA IT Cup 2018.

The winner of the Champion trophy was Tatwa Technologies who has been winning this title for 3 consecutive years.

SPEAKERS & DELEGATES Priyadarshi Mishra

MLA-Bhubaneswar (North), Govt. of Odisha “Bhubaneswar is the #1 smart city and we have designed many programmes to make it liveable and smart. The first and foremost is to make it Open Defecation Free (ODF). For this project, we have built many toilets (both individual and community) which is required to keep this city clean.

Also, when the voting for Smart city was going on, many citizens had given preference for public transportation. BMC (Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation) and the Govt. of Odisha have together purchased 400 buses that will ply in different parts of the city. We have also planned for separate lanes and by-lanes for senior citizens. We also face the challenge of energy crisis in the city. 10% of the energy should be clean, as it is one of the components of the smart city.”

R.N Palai

ITS, Spl. Secy. & CEO, OCAC, Govt. of Odisha “The e-Governance initiative of the Govt. of Odisha is aimed at providing citizen centric services and the internal processes of the government be on an online mode. In this endeavour, the entire industry as well as the government and citizens are equity partners. If you today look at the eGovernance scenario, as per Right to Public Service Act, we have to provide 330 services within a stipulated time frame. And these services can only be provided and benchmarked only when they are made available online. The government has on its part taken steps to make these services available online. Around 35 services are till now have been made available online. In next 1 year period, there are several such activities that are in the pipeline from different departments.”

Manas Ranjan Panda

Director-STPI, Bhubaneswar, Govt. of India “The city of Bhubaneswar has undergone a drastic change in the last 1 decade thus emerging as the top IT leading city in the country. In the past also, recognizing the IT potential of the state government, the Govt of India had established the 1st STPI center in Bhubaneswar along with Bengaluru and Pune during 1991. It is needless to say that STPI has played a phenomenal role to promote companies in IT exports, IT software & development and electronics hardware through its flagship program STP scheme. STPI has made every effort for promoting IT exports and boosting IT-ITeS exports from the state. The export turn-ver from the state has grown from 91 crore during 1994-95 to 3, 400 crore in 2016-17. Odisha occupies a position among the Top leading 10 Indian states in IT exports.”

P V S Rao

General Manager-Quadgen Wireless Solutions “If we look at the various IT initiatives that have come up in various sectors and segments, they have been catching up over the years. We had seen many IT implementations happening in all the sectors. The way we look at the changes happening in the banking sector, in the last 15-20 years we would not remember when we had visited a bank. Now the vision and mission of making the city smart and digital is to bring us to a situation where we have not visited a bank for any banking activities many years. The entire city of Bhubaneswar has to be made smart and digital and for accessing any of the citizen-based activities or services in the G2C, G2G, G2B segment, we provide the infrastructure, create the facilities and make it smart.”

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February 2018

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INDUSTRY EVENT

Hajinder Singh

Zonal Business - Acer India “Acer is one of the leading OEM brands in the world and we have been associated with the state of Odisha for a very long time now. It’s been 40 years that we have been doing business globally and we keep on growing in the sector. We focus in 3 parameters – hardware, software and services and they are the 3 pillars of our growth. The mission that we have been carrying since ages is breaking barriers between people and technology. The overall idea of the company is to launch such a product that is affordable for the people. Today we are talking about design, affordability and every kind of IoT devices that we have in the market today. We are today present in 160 countries and our offices are there in 70 countries.”

Uday Bhaskar Rao

M.D - iRam Technologies “I started my start-up into IoT in 2009 and we came up with certain products and protocols for it. I was also the advisor for the Govt. of India to set up the IoT draft policy for India. We identified certain elements and thereby advised that certain IoT products should be there into the Smart city projects. Some of these products are Smart Street Light which is a street light automation system, environmental sensors, parking automation and so on. I have seen smart city tenders coming in for last 3-4 years since the time the programme was announced, and I am also tracking the smart cities that are happening. The state of Gujarat seems to be ahead of others and so do Rajasthan in this project. But the tender documents or the requirements laid down by the Bhubaneswar Smart city are astonishing.”

AWARDS CATEGORY Best VAR,Odisha

Tristar Software and Solutions Pvt. Ltd Best Software Distributor, Odisha

Info care Solutions Pvt. Ltd Best Reseller, Odisha

E Square Systems & Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Best System Integrator, Odisha

Printlink Computer & Communication Pvt. Ltd Best Distributor, Odisha

CSM Technologies Best Software services, Odisha

TATWA Technologies Best Technology Services, Odisha

BPO Convergence Best KPO

In 2 IT Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Emerging IT Services Company

Powermax Best Sub Distributor, Odisha

SPONSORS

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INDUSTRY EVENT

8th VARINDIA IT Cricket Cup

SGO Complex, Indira Ground, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar

It is a fact that sports plays a crucial role in making a city smart. Sports recognize the place, state and the organization they work for and it helps in brand building and brand recall. It also brings out the hidden talent of every hard working employee who spends maximum hours sitting in 4 x 4 cubicles and 24x7.

The Tournament drew an overwhelming response from the IT majors in Odisha. The objective of the tournament was to bring all the corporate together on a single platform, where they get to know each other and experience the real spirit of the game.

To realise its objective of promoting sports in the IT fraternity, VARINDIA organized its annual cricketing event - the 8th VARINDIA IT Cup 2018 and the VARINDIA Champion Trophy 2018. The matches were played at SGO Complex, Indira Ground, Nayapalli, Bhubaneswar.

In the semi final match played between Aabsys and Tatwa, Rajnikanta Swain of Tatwa Technologies was awarded the Man of the Match. In the second semi final match played between TCS and Exilant, Bibek Singh won the Man of the Match award. The Final match was played between TCS and Tatwa, in which Tatwa Technologies clinched the title, while TCS emerged as the Runner-up of the 8th VAR INDIA IT CUP. The man of the match award went to Santosh of Tatwa Technologies. Rajanikanta Swain of Tatwa Technologies won the Man of the Series of the 8th VARINDIA IT Cup 2018.

The winner of the Champion Trophy 2018 was Tatwa Technologies that has been winning this title for 3 consecutive years.

The cricketing tournament was supported by OCAC and STPI.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

45

VAR ANALYSIS

The Cloud WAR

Who will win it?

The Cloud WAR – who will win it?

Storing data and applications remotely rather than on one’s own premises can cut IT costs dramatically and speed up operations.

Business leaders are looking to optimise and grow their businesses, and cloud can give them the scope of reducing costs and providing better customer experience. Smart businesses are asking what’s driving the rush to the cloud by keeping customized applications in the cloud.

India is emerging as the battleground for global e-commerce Internet conglomerates.

While Amazon’s boss Jeff Bezos had committed over $5 billion for its Indian arm, biggies like Alibaba, Tencent and SoftBank are excited about their Indian story. Large Internet groups from the US and China are thereby competing for taking a bigger share of the market.

Despite the rise of public cloud platforms offered by the likes of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud, it is a fact that only 10% (or may be less) of the world's data is currently stored in the cloud.

Alibaba Cloud ranks as the third largest public cloud service providers globally and is the leading cloud provider in the China market. It is ranked as China’s largest public cloud service provider and the third largest worldwide. Alibaba Cloud will soon enter India, to take on Amazon, Google and Microsoft. Alibaba’s Mumbai datacenter can support regional cloud needs for the next 3-5 years. It will help Alibaba tap small and medium enterprises that are increasingly moving towards utilising new age services.

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How to choose a good cloud provider?

It all depends on what you want it to do. Certain cloud providers specialise in specific functions 1. Amazon Web Services provides on-demand cloud computing platforms to individuals, companies and governments, on a paid subscription basis with a free-tier option available for 12 months.

2. Azure is a comprehensive set of cloud services that developers and IT professionals use to build, deploy and manage applications through its global network of datacenters.

Integrated tools, DevOps and a marketplace support the customer in efficiently building anything from simple mobile apps to internet-scale.

3. Google Cloud Platform not only allows customers access to one of the largest networks in the world, but also ensures them less downtime by utilizing live migrations of virtual machines. The biggest advantage when it comes to cloud computing is its experience as the world's leading search engine.

4. IBM Cloud allows customers to choose where and how he wants it. IBM Cloud has been built to help solve problems and advance opportunities in a world flush with data.

Whether it’s data the customer possesses, data outside the firewall, or data that’s coming, the IBM Cloud helps protect it, move it, integrate it and unlock intelligence from it — giving the customer what it takes to prevail in a competitive market.

5. Alibaba Cloud provides a suite of cloud computing services that covers elastic computing, object storage, relational database, big data analysis, and artificial intelligence in fifteen geographical regions around the globe.

6.

Salesforce for sales and customer data; Workday for finance and human resources.

The company, through its e-commerce arm, already works with thousands of small and medium-sized businesses, providing the group an opportunity to further monetise them.

When it comes to revenue growth in the arena of public cloud business, Chinese giant Alibaba is giving a solid competition to all big three U.S. cloud companies—Amazon, Microsoft, and Google, in worldwide cloud revenue by more than doubling it last year.

Amazon Web Services dominates the public cloud market with a 47.1% market share. In its most recent earnings statement for Q4 of 2017, AWS reported revenues of US$ 5.11 Billion, but Amazon lost cloud market share to Microsoft in the fourth quarter.

Growing security concerns, overall confidence is high…

It is fact that when businesses are connected to a cloud communications platform, they get access to the latest communication applications and developments, like customizable business workflows and business continuity is made easy. A million dollar question is how the big cloud providers could protect our data from the cyber-attacks? Who can give 100% security to our data? If there is any compromise in the data protection, will they sign any SLA (Service level agreement) to give the penalty?

Security concerns may be the largest barrier to cloud adoption, but generally speaking, IT professionals view public cloud providers as being secure. A majority of respondents (62.9%) say that public cloud is as secured or more secured than their own datacenter.

This increasing confidence in cloud security could be one reason why enterprises have rapidly moved these applications out of the datacenter to the public cloud. It may also be due to the fact that 3rd party security solutions such as CASB (Cloud Access Security Broker) has overcome the security gap between what an enterprise can achieve in their on-premises IT infrastructure and what they get from a cloud service provider.

Going ahead…

All major corporate including Google has spent $30 billion in infrastructure investments over the last three years to build its datacenter presence around the world. Diane Greene, CEO, Google's cloud businesses, says, “We crossed a billion a quarter in 2017 and according to publicly available numbers, we are the fastest growing cloud.”

Alibaba has been placing its bets on several start-ups ranging from verticals such as entertainment, food ordering, grocery

and logistics among others. Alibaba along with its payment affiliate Alipay had invested about $425 million in e-grocer BigBasket and foodtech major Zomato. Recently, it also invested $35 million in Xpressbees, a Pune based company into logistics.

Going forward, Alibaba is planning to launch an over-the-top (OTT) video service (less than 20 minutes) in India in collaboration with its Indian portfolio Paytm and its media and its own entertainment unit UCWeb. Besides Alibaba, Softbank had invested about $6 billion in companies competing against Amazon.

It has also invested $2.6 billion in Flipkart, with all these investments expected to play a pivotal role in determining the future of Internet business in India.

The introduction of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which takes effect from May 25, 2018 to protect personal data online and has been designed to unify data privacy requirements across the European Union (EU) is a new development in the area of global business. Under this regulation, companies could be fined heavily if they fail to provide adequate IT security to protect personal data.

So let’s wait and watch of how it will impact businesses.

PRODUCT OF THE MONTH

Lapcare Wireless Keyboard Solo Plus LKB701 With Lapcare Wireless Keyboard Solo

Plus LKB701, convenience and control are comfortably right at your fingertips. With softly rounded keys, a full-size layout, and a palm rest, this keyboard treats your hands right. LKB701 contains a universal and an ergonomically designed 2.4G Wireless Keyboard bundled with a host of new contemporary features. It’s a great combo of style, quality and technology. LKB701 comes with membrane technology that gives silent key operations, cushioning effect to your finger and hence adds comfort for prolonged working. This keyboard comes with Plug and

distance of 8-10 meters. It also has an auto-

Play Nano receiver with USB dongle, is easy to

sleep function. Life The overall feel of the

set up and no driver is needed. You can forget

keyboard and its comfortable keys made it a

about fading letters as the Keyboard comes

favourite among its testers. It also includes an

with Printing+UV coating letters. Users

unpadded palm rest without sacrificing the

can operate this keyboard from a maximum

keyboard's slim profile or portability.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

47

FACE TO FACE

Convergence of Physical mail and Digital channel to be a big growth enabler Pitney Bowes is a 98-year-old global technology company. Its competence lies in helping clients navigate the complex and always evolving world of commerce.

“For us, getting it right matters,” says Venkat Rao, Country Director, Pitney Bowes India.

“We deliver accuracy and precision across the connected and borderless world of commerce to help our clients create meaningful impact.

A lot of development is today happening on the customer communication management. The trend that the industry is witnessing is actually a synergy of physical and digital. While physical mailing is declining, Pitney Bowes sees a huge growth opportunity around the synergy of both physical and digital channels. To leverage this opportunity, the company has big thrust on verticals like Government, Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, Publishing Houses, NGOs/ Religious Institutes and E-commerce.

“Customer communication management enables efficiently managed communications to customers, partners and external agencies through omni-channel (Physical letters, emails, SMS, web publishing on social platforms, etc), delivery of batch, interactive, and on-demand communications. We are observing an omnichannel route being taken on the part of our customers to meet their client’s needs. For instance, the BFSI is looking at meeting the needs of their clients on an omni-channel platform today by combining both physical and digital communication. A major disruptive growth for us is also happening in the e-commerce space, both in the hardware and software side. In the government vertical too, initiatives like Smart innovations in smart cities and Digital India are driving our growth. While new-age verticals like e-commerce are bringing us new growth options, our sustainable growth, however, still comes from traditional verticals – government and BFSI,” Venkat observes.

Go-to-market strategy for 2018...

In 2018, Pitney Bowes is redefining its Channel strategy that would enable Pitney Bowes reach broader markets, grow revenue, and embrace new business models. In India, it is serving some of the largest government organizations – Central and State Governments, banks, insurance companies and financial services companies. 90 per cent of the Fortune 500 and more than 1.5 million small and mediumsized businesses in approximately 100 countries around the world rely on products, solutions and services from Pitney Bowes. In India, the company wants to expand its footprint in small and medium businesses and seamlessly across states.

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“We are going to reach the customers through web, channel partners and even direct sales. Though we will try to become a 100% channel company in 2018, however, to a large degree, customer connect will rest with Pitney Bowes. For the traditional verticals, channel is more like a fulfilment agent, but for new-age verticals channel is going to play a much bigger role. I believe that this journey needs to be travelled together because neither the principal nor the channel has evolved to a stage to understand this segment so well,” says Venkat.

Pitney Bowes has a robust Services and Supplies partner network as part of its 2018 strategy, and has reinvented its Partner program to strengthen Channel value proposition. The company has signed up 35 partners in cities like Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata (covering East).

“The newly-introduced Channel Value Proposition (CVP) program will try to create a monetary win-win proposition for both us and the channel. We are also opening up a huge market through our brand for the partners to leverage. Take for instance, in the smart city initiative, each smart centre in a smart city has our products. And, that is an opportunity that is coming up predominantly in the tier-1 and -2 cities and partners are looking at new avenues for business. We also have sortation and automation products catering to e-commerce companies. Brands like Amazon and Flipkart use the volume metric devices of Pitney Bowes. Because of the e-commerce revolution, India Post is also seeing a big growth. Franking machines that are used in post offices are from Pitney Bowes. So if India is processing 1.5 billion direct mail pieces in a month, 75 per cent of these mails will be franked on Pitney Bowes machines,” asserts Venkat.

The Channel Partner Program of Pitney Bowes consists of Registered and three membership tiers – Silver, Gold and Platinum.

Their rewards grow along with the growth of their PB rewards. Partners gain benefits and rewards as they develop advanced sales expertise, engage in joint business planning and proactively market Pitney Bowes solutions.

The brand recognition and integrity of Pitney Bowes, established through more than 98 years of innovation and success, is believed to add credibility to the partners, allowing them to reach broader markets and achieve high-value revenue by embracing new business models. With the rollout of the CVP program, India revenue from the partner community is expected to be doubled. “We are making the right investments to enable our partner community,” Venkat says. n

Venkat Rao Country Director Pitney Bowes India

As a Pitney Bowes partner, organizations gain –

• Collaborative

sales

engagement: Ongoing, strategic guidance to identify key areas of opportunity, as well as the ability to specialize in relevant Pitney Bowes shipping and mailing solutions.

• Comprehensive training and support: Sales kits, technology exchanges, video tutorials.

• Marketing: Demand generation tactics can be planned for lead generation and partner enablement activities.

• Diverse solutions: Client-centric solutions from Pitney Bowes to help businesses make the most out of every transaction and interaction, accurately and securely.

• Worldwide

reach:

Global

presence spans across several continents across 100 countries.

CP PLUS Showcases at INTERSEC 2018 CP PLUS has staged an elaborate showcase at INTESEC Dubai 2018. Hosted at the Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre from 21st to 23rd January 2018, the 3 day event saw more than 1300 exhibitors and thousands of security patrons come together under a roof.

CP PLUS put up a grand showcase with some of its best products on display.

“Despite being a part of this show for many years now, INTERSEC still holds the same excitement and energy for us. This time around, we had some distinct solutions on display such as the BodyWorn solutions for the armed forces, paramilitary forces, and other security forces; 4K Ultra HD resolution for detailed imagery; intelligent and integrated software solutions; and cloud based solutions among others”, mentioned Aditya Khemka, MD - CP PLUS. CP PLUS showcased some of its latest innovations, including integrated software solutions with advanced analytics; 4K high definition surveillance solution; Video Door Phones; Time & Attendance solutions; Home on Phone solutions that offer a range of compact cameras that offer hassle free surveillance on your smartphone; PoE switches; BodyWorn professional security solutions; and Mobile Vehicle surveillance solutions.

With its innovative range of security solutions on display, the CP PLUS arena saw a packed audience throughout the 3 days of the exhibition, and also received immense appreciation from the security patrons present, thereby concluding another successful show at INTERSEC Dubai.

Dell EMC celebrates completion of one year of its partner program Dell EMC has achieved the milestone of completing one year of its partner program.

Both Dell EMC channel business in APJ and partner’s businesses witnessed a double-digit growth. The company has been instrumental in driving partner growth through new lines of business, acquisition of new customers, and larger and more profitable solutions. Dell EMC has also announced its 2018 framework, including a new rebate structure with more opportunity for increased profitability, improvements to training, and changes to Marketing Development Funds program.

“Our partners in APJ are integral to our success as a business, and we’re constantly striving to improve our offering of support, incentives and resources to help our partners to grow hand in hand with Dell EMC,” comments Tian Beng Ng, Senior Vice-President & General Manager, Channels, Asia-Pacific Japan, Dell EMC. “The success of our program in APJ, where customers and partners are taking advantage of the opportunities presented by digital transformation and emerging technologies, as well as advancing their digital transformation capabilities through IT, workforce and security transformation, is a testament to this.”

Dell EMC has announced refinements to the Partner Program in response to partner feedback. This includes • Driving consistency and simplicity: 2018 Partner Program will continue with three tiers, Gold Platinum and Titanium, and an elite Titanium Black Status, annual

tier eligibility, and two paths to profit with simplified training.

• Increased profitability with refined rebates and a simpler rebate structure.

• Training requirements that are simplified and unified, with the rollout of eight Solutions Competencies in 2018, starting with Software-Defined Infrastructure, Hybrid Cloud, and Connected Workforce competencies in Q1.

• Changes to the Marketing Development Fund (MDF), simplifying the ability to track future activity or planning requests, and decreasing MDF administration.

• A focus on industry verticals that offer the largest opportunity for partner

growth: Healthcare and Life Sciences, Energy (Oil & Gas, Utilities), Video Surveillance and SLED (State and Local Government, Education). In the next year, Dell EMC sees significant opportunity in helping partners build solutions in some trending areas, including IoT, AR/IR and machine learning.

Within the last year, Dell EMC has continued to enhance its program – for example, with an extended Future-Proof Storage Loyalty Program offering. The offering helps ensure confidence when buying performance storage products, whilst partners gain strong competitive differentiation within the channel, with a solution that can facilitate shorter sales cycles and strengthen relationships with customers.

www.varindia.com

February 2018

49

BUDGET SPECIAL

BRIDGING DIGITAL DIVIDE

UNION BUDGET

2018

Union Budget 2018 – IT industry hails it as forward-looking With the release of the budget for year 2018, top leaders across the Industry were quick to react to it. While reactions came out mixed, the budget was hailed to be crucial for the Technology sector, especially as it was seen as significant in realizing the PM’s vision of a fully connected and empowered Digital India -

Jatin Dalal Chief Financial Officer, Wipro Limited

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The Union Budget of 2018 was in line with the Government’s mission to transform India by strengthening agriculture, rural development, health, education, employment, Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) and infrastructure.

A series of structural reforms, as pointed out by the Government is believed to propel India to be among the fastest growing economies of the world. IMF, in its latest update has forecasted that India will grow at 7.4% next year in the backdrop of services resuming high growth rates of 8% plus, with exports expected to grow at 15% in 2017-18.

This year's Budget has brought significant changes, focusing on various key aspects which are largely stressed upon the country’s overall economic growth with the aim of stimulating and strengthening it – Rural, Agriculture, Ease of doing business, skilled based education, job creation, healthcare, housing, Structural reforms and infrastructure development. The Union Budget 2018 has been hailed by many

Snehashish Bhattacharjee Global CEO and Co-Founder, Denave

Sumeer Chandra Managing Director, HP Inc. India as a shining example of fiscal prudence with an investment focus on Infrastructure Sector and Railways.

“It has been a balanced budget this year. The Government will contribute 12% of the wages of the new employees in the EPF for all the sectors for next three years and has proposed to make amendments in the Employees Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952.

The women employees’ contribution to EPF will also be reduced to 8% for first three years of their employment against existing rate of 12% or 10% with no change in employers’ contribution.

A sum of Rs. 3794 crore has been provided for giving credit support, capital and interest subsidy and for innovations. Lastly, by doubling the budget of Digital India to INR 30 billion in FY 2018-19 shows the Government's vision and commitment towards digital economy,” says Deepak Kumar Sahu, Publisher & Chief editorVARINDIA. “The Budget has largely delivered on the socio-economic agenda of strengthening the agricultural and rural economy, healthcare, infrastructure and education in the country.

We welcome the greater push for digitization and increased transparency in administration,” says Jatin Dalal, Chief Financial Officer, Wipro Limited.

“It can be said as quite a people-centric budget balancing nicely between a clear developmental focus without losing the sight of containing the fiscal deficit. The focus on agriculture, healthcare and education is welcome and much needed in a country like ours. The education (apart from Skilling India) investments should help realize the benefits of the demographic dividend we boast of as a

Deepak Kumar Sahu Publisher & Chief editor-VARINDIA

Rajiv Bhalla MD, Barco Electronic Systems country,” says Snehashish Bhattacharjee, Global CEO and Co-Founder, Denave.

“The Government’s vision to move from black board to digital board schools by 2022, revitalization and upgrading of education sector through increased fund allocation and focus on education related research will create a brighter future for the young. We are also thrilled with the Government’s emphasis on promoting research and use cases for digital manufacturing and 3D printing,” asserts Sumeer Chandra, Managing Director, HP Inc. India.

“The increased focus on higher infrastructure spends, smart cities, digital India, and healthcare is a step in the right direction. With 99 smart cities being selected and an amount of over Rs. 2 lakh crore being allocated, it will give the nation a significant opportunity to upscale its Infrastructure as a growth driver,” observes Rajiv Bhalla, Managing Director - Barco Electronic Systems.

States V Ramakrishnan, CFO, TCS, “Several programs announced in the budget represent big strides in building a Digital India: the outlay for the smart cities program; the plans to explore blockchain technology; the national program for adoption of artificial intelligence and for research, training and skilling in cyber-physical systems; the innovative use of technology to digitally reimagine agricultural markets to empower small and marginal farmers; and the extending of broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens to bridge the digital divide."

The Budget was however crucial for the Technology sector, especially as the country continues to scale many milestones in the field in realizing the Hon. PM’s vision of a fully connected and empowered Digital India.

Rajesh Maurya Regional VP, India & SAARC, Fortinet

Ashish P. Dhakan MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India Though many expectations remain untouched, the budget took some bold reforms in areas such as blockchain, security, 5G infrastructure, AI and machine learning that are applauded by the industry.

Fate of Blockchain decided, No to crypto currency…

Companies across industries are now looking at Blockchain as the next game changing technology. With the Finance Minister highlighting the potential usage of Blockchain for Digital India as a part of his Union Budget speech, it can already be seen its potential reaching across non-financial sectors. The exploring of the application of blockchain in governance is a strong indicator of the government's intent to improve citizen services without compromising on security, especially as Aadhaar gets linked to citizen accounts.

The Finance Minister’s in his statement also read that cryptocurrencies are not valid tender.

With the Reserve Bank of India repeatedly issuing warnings against investments in cryptocurrencies, the decision to ban it was seen as a logical one to prevent this sector from further growing.

Says KK Mookhey, CEO & Founder Network Intelligence, “The move to make cryptocurrencies illegal is a major announcement; it is likely to create a negative impact on the price of these currencies, especially Bitcoin. A better idea may have been to come out with some sort of a regulatory framework around cryptocurrencies. On the other hand, the point raised by the Finance Minister about exploring the usage of blockchain technology for payments is a very good initiative. It will support home-

Shrenik Bhayani GM, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia)

www.varindia.com

February 2018

51

BUDGET SPECIAL

Ramesh Mamgain Area VP, India and SAARC Region, Commvault grown technologies that have already invested in the technology and will attract new investments in this technology.”

New opportunities in area of security…

The initiatives in the Infrastructure Sector (` 5.97 Lakh Crore) and Railways (` 1.48 Lakh Crore) will drive the security industry in a whole new growth phase, according to many in the industry.

“Redevelopment of 600 major railway stations has been taken up. All stations with more than 25,000 footfalls will have escalators.

All trains to be progressively provided with WiFI, CCTV and other state-of-the-art amenities.

UDAN shall connect 56 unserved airports and 31 unserved helipads in the country. A fund of ` 60 crore has been allocated for disaster resilient infrastructure. These initiatives will boost the prospects of security and surveillance industry in India,” reiterates Ashish P. Dhakan, MD & CEO, Prama Hikvision India.

However, there is the need felt for strengthening the cyber defense mechanism and policy. In today’s age of data, protection of this data is seen as a top priority.

“The Wi-Fi hotspots, new Smart Cities, internet connectivity, investments in Telecom infrastructure and Digital India expansion are going to witness proliferation of online devices.

But the hyperconnectivity towards which India is heading needs to be secured with a very sound cybersecurity policy. Data Protection is a top priority, and a security approach that leverages the power of automation, integration, and strategic

Prakash Mallya Managing Director, Sales & Marketing Group, Intel India

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February 2018

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Rahul Agarwal CEO & MD - Lenovo, India

segmentation backed by threat intelligence are critical to the implementation of the above programs,” says Rajesh Maurya, Regional Vice President, India & SAARC, Fortinet.

The views of Shrenik Bhayani, GM, Kaspersky Lab (South Asia) are more or less on the same lines. “The aim to setup 5 lakh hotspots is a great step, which also calls the need for being alert on the cybersecurity front. People need to be educated about antivirus solutions and be made aware about not falling for phishing attacks.”

"Doubling allocations towards Digital India and enhancing the National Mission on Cyberspace Security sets the tone to protect the data of India Inc. and its citizens,” says Ramesh Mamgain, Area Vice President, India and SAARC Region, Commvault. “Unique IDs for companies will definitely go a long way in contributing towards interest of the nation and increasing transparency by corporates.”

Boost to Make in India...

The increase in customs duty on Mobiles is believed to encourage local manufacturing.

As India is becoming the global hub for manufacturing, the measures taken by the government will surely grow confidence amongst the manufacturers which will eventually create business opportunities.

“We are bullish on the ‘Make in India’ initiative and expect the budget propositions to provide an impetus to the manufacturing sector,” suggests Rahul Agarwal, CEO & MD - Lenovo, India. “The revision of import custom duties on smartphones from 15% to 20% will significantly

KK Mookhey CEO & Founder Network Intelligence

Ajey Mehta Vice President India, HMD Global

strengthen the manufacturing ecosystem within the country and increase domestic value addition.

However, there is an immediate need to provide similar manufacturing incentives to the PC sector and accelerate the vision of Digital India.”

Agrees Ashwin Bhandari, CEO iVOOMi India, “In last 2 years, the ecosystem in India has already taken first level growth and the situation has improved a lot. All the required resources for making the phones in India are stable; hence this will fuel industry growth, boom localisation to next level. However further incentivising the higher level manufacturing (Surface Mount Technology, Injection Moulding, Optical Electronics) is recommended to expedite the design and development within Indian ecosystem.”

“Since the announcement of Make in India program 3 years back, over 85% of smartphones sold in country are now produced locally. So, this is opportune time to introduce next set of regulations to attract investment in the manufacturing sector and establish India as a global hub for electronics. At OnePlus, we are fully committed to the Indian market and welcome the proposed regulations,” says Vikas Agarwal, General Manager at OnePlus India.

“HMD Global continues its strong emphasis on PM Modi’s Make in India campaign. While the import duties for mobile phones increased to 20%, along with a 15% duty on key components, this will have a minimum impact on our business, as our entire current portfolio of Nokia phones are manufactured in India,” says Ajey Mehta, Vice President India, HMD Global.

Rajesh Rege Managing Director, Red Hat, India and SAARC

GB Kumar Vice President – India and APAC - Prysm

Bridging the digital divide…

Digital India continues to be the thrust of emphasis in the Union Budget 2018. The government’s move to invest in over 5 lakh WIFI Hotspots and broadband access to 5 crore rural citizens will enable rural India to have Broadband access which in turn will be a significant stepping stone in the Digital India movement and will supplement the IT penetration in the country.

“There is a clear focus on creating a digital economy through sizeable strategic investments

V Ramakrishnan CFO, TCS in developing the requisite infrastructure,” says GB Kumar, Vice President – India and APAC at Prysm Inc. “A commendable announcement was the allocation of INR 10,000 crore to the BharatNet project. The government’s announcements that promote digitization through greater connectivity will fuel uptake for collaboration and remote working solutions resulting in a more productive and connected India.”

"The Government of India has made great strides towards digital enablement over the last few years. Setting up of half a million WiFi hotspots, and push for digital payments are definitely positive signs,” comments Gaurav Agarwal, Managing Director, India & SAARC, Symantec.

Jay Chen, CEO, Huawei Telecommunications India says, “We applaud the forward looking Union Budget 2018 where the Hon’ble Government is extensively focusing on digitalization with further support to initiatives like Digital India, Smart Cities, Swachh Bharat among others.

The Union Budget laid down plans to connect additional 1.5lakh gram panchayats with fibre optic networks under the BharatNet. This will

Rajan S Mathews, Director General COAI create access and affordability and will help in bridging the digital divide even further.”

More impetus to machine learning, AI, 5G infrastructure…

The government’s move to double the allocation on the Digital India programme to ` 3,073 crore will help in research and skilling in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Internet of Things (IoT), among others. The government in its budget also resolves to support the establishment of centres of excellence for Research, Training and Skilling in Robotics, AI, Digital Manufacturing, Big Data Analytics, Quantum Communication and IoT. “Today’s Budget clearly pivots on a digitalfirst India, and the recommendations made by the FM relate directly to the potential we see in the country. The NITI Aayog’s effort to institutionalize research and development in artificial intelligence reinforces the value that machine learning can bring to issues of national importance. If synergized with the work being done by the academia and industry, we can expect fast emerging use cases that can democratize AI in India. Finally, the DoT’s establishment of an indigenous 5G center is an encouraging sign of the government’s view of collaboration with the broader technology ecosystem as the best strategy to accelerate the rollout of 5G infrastructure in India,” says Prakash Mallya, Managing Director, Sales & Marketing Group, Intel India.

Rajesh Rege, Managing Director, Red Hat, India and SAARC too congratulated the Budget by stating it to be a well-rounded budget.

“Emphasis on education, entrepreneurship & healthcare was much needed and is welcome.

FM’s comments on AI & Blockchain are a step in the right direction & we look to an early implementation of these initiatives,” he said.

“The emphasis is on establishing a programme to bring in direct efforts towards building a holistic ecosystem for Artificial intelligence. The focus on AI is a welcome move towards technological advancements in India and an allocation of INR 3073 crore for the Digital India scheme will certainly propel digital adoption and smartphone adoption in the country,” says Rajesh Aggarwal, Co-Founder, Micromax.

“The last few years have seen large initiatives designed to bring about substantive change.

The focus on wide scale broadband access, on Machine learning, AI and robotics, on R&D as

Anil Valluri President, NetApp India & SAARC well as skilling, and on Smart Cities will keep pushing India’s Digital agenda, well supported by the additional fund allocation. It is a quietly progressive budget, and timed well to focus on readying all cross sections of Indian society to reap the benefits of the future,” says Anil Valluri, President, NetApp India & SAARC. "We applaud the government’s vision and commitment towards Digital India and the Digital economy. We are also enthused to see that Niti Aayog, will now be spearheading a

Rajesh Aggarwal Co-Founder, Micromax

national program to direct efforts in Artificial Intelligence, Quantum Computing, Blockchain, Robotics, and Digital as a way of life. The industry welcomes these timely initiatives.

The support extended to IIT Chennai for an indigenous 5G test bed is also a welcome move,” contends Rajan S. Mathews, Director General COAI. However, according to Rajan Mathews, none of their key asks pertaining to the telecom industry have found mention in the FM’s budget. “We had sought a reduction in levies and taxes, and an urgent intervention is critical for resuscitating the sector, which is currently experiencing its worst financial health and hyper competition.

While, the FM has emphasized the importance of moving to a digital economy, the actual digital highway, which is telecom has found no mention in terms of substantive support, unlike road, railway, highways, electricity, which have received substantial mention. We are saddened to see that telecom which is the bedrock for moving the Digital economy forward, continues to remain an Orphan.” n

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February 2018

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GDPR to bring newer opportunities in the Global security arena

Every organisation relies on the use of information in their daily work. For this reason, organisations need to ensure that their information assets i.e. any piece of data which has value to the organisation such as employee record, analysis reports, financial data, trade secrets, contracts, etc., are suitably protected. This has given rise to the concerns around privacy and personal data protection.

Data security of the information will take the center-stage in 2018. Privacy and personal data protection will be the focus in 2018 for every organization.

Organizations will refocus on protecting what is really important. Information Security is a difficult task as most organisations are faced with an ever changing landscape affecting their operations - market development, advances in technology, discovery of new vulnerabilities, changing legal regime and so on. Gartner forecasts worldwide security spending will total USD 96.3 billion, that’s an 8 percent spike from 2017.

Companies are becoming more and more reliant on digitization and the threat landscape is becoming complex. Hackers are launching targeted attacks on different organizations and their users, organizations are gradually realizing the need to add security layers designed for them or by their in-house.

Information Security Risk Management (ISRM) is the specific process that helps those responsible for Information Security to manage the uncertainties which might affect the security of their organisation's information over time and indicates how to best react to

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these uncertainties within the constraints of their work environment.

As India creates its path to a digital future, an increasing number of governments, consumers and enterprises are spending more on ensuring a robust IT infrastructure for smart cities, smart vehicles, smart systems and digital society. To complement, businesses are increasingly adopting digitization, artificial intelligence, automation, all of which lead to products and services increasingly becoming an amalgam of technology-enabled functions.

A recent Symantec survey covering 1,100 CISOs across 11 global markets revealed that cloud security remained a top concern for Indian CISOs. One of the biggest challenges faced by Indian CISOs was to ensure cloud applications that meet compliance requirements.

To complement, the Supreme Court of India’s ruling in favour of ‘Right to Privacy’ will also influence the security landscape. With this many organizations will start showing significant interest in advanced encryption and key management technologies in order to secure customer data.

The advent of GDPR…

The EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) comes into force as of May 25th, 2018. With the advent of new privacy laws and GDPR regulations, the activity of managing privacy will become one of the core tasks of the CISO. Any company doing business with EU entities will be brought under the new regulation; for example, global

companies that maintain a website to solicit sales from potential EU customers will be subject to GDPR requirements.

General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) of the EU will also have a considerable impact on the multi-nationals and companies serving/doing business with the companies in EU. Frankly, if you haven’t started your preparations to be compliant yet, you are in trouble. Though chasing every company for million-dollar fines isn’t the intent of the regulation, the threat of a bill equal to 4% of global revenue is very real, and one that blatant rule-breakers should be afraid of.

With these new regulations, along with other industries, global hotel businesses will also have approximately ten months to set their data privacy and security policies in line with the strict GDPR compliance or face crippling fines of up to 4% of annual global revenue or €20 million Euros, whichever figure is greater.

It is a fact that no one can be guaranteed data safety in a digital world. Companies need to know less about what happened, and more about what is happening, what is likely to happen, and what needs to be done – the possible scenarios, decisions, and constraints.

As the security landscape is evolving cybercriminals are constantly testing defences; hunting for hidden weak spots and new ways to get in. Unless you make resiliency a priority, your data and reputation will remain at risk.

Having said this, it will be wise to say that GDPR is making its advent at just the right time, unless it ends up helping scammers and hackers.

FACE TO FACE

‘Dell EMC going a step ahead to protect customers against cyber attacks’ Ripu Bajwa, Country Manager- Data Protection Solutions, India, Dell EMC shares with VARINDIA of how the shift to software defined environment and rise in data thefts has inspired Dell EMC to come up with advanced data protection and back-up solutions There is at present a wave of change sweeping across IT infrastructure.

With the shift to cloud and Software Defined datacenter, there is a need for data protection to transform too, and to be able to transform effectively, data protection must be automated.

“We have seen an entire era of physical appliances and then virtual world and virtual servers. The storage infrastructure has to grow beyond a particular physical infrastructure and therefore extracting the software is definitely the flexible way to deploy a particular platform. Software defined is being adopted by large service providers and they look at commoditizing the servers with software taking care of everything,” says Ripu Bajwa, Country Manager- Data Protection Solutions, India, Dell EMC while explaining the software defined environment.

Having said that there are some performance oriented limitations, when looked at heavy applications. “We at Dell EMC have our own software and software defined storage. Software Defined Storage gives enterprises a path to effectively address the explosive growth of data as it offers far greater flexibility due to its distributed computing architecture.

There is a faster way to restore data, which brings us to the fact that in case of any DR drill or recovery process, your recovery objective will now be shortened to the point that it will give you efficiency as much as that of a granular recovery,” he explained.

Dell EMC today is a leading data protection company in the world in terms of solution, both hardware and software. On the hardware side, it has its flagship product which is a purpose-built back-up appliance. On the software side, Dell EMC has a couple of back-up software which does very efficient, catalogue-based automatic back-up of applications.

“We have a very unique way of backing up of very large files using a technology that does source deduplication. We have multiple use cases of deduplication at source site in enterprises. We have a suite of other product line that covers archival, availability and long-term retention (which means that even tape data can be kept on disk). We are now going one step ahead and helping organizations protect against cyber threats.

There are new norms where in case of an attack in an organization, we can help them retrieve very old data. The only way of doing it is by following a systematic air gap by which data can be protected and even recovered.

We are very unique in providing the entire spectrum of data protection capabilities,” he says.

Dell EMC provides a wavelength of data protection as well as security solutions for SMBs which range from Integrated Data Protection Solutions to Disaster Recovery Solutions • Integrated Data Protection Appliance (IDPA) is something it has recently launched. IDPA is a purpose-built, pre-integrated and turnkey appliance that converges protection storage, software, search and analytics in a single appliance. It provides data protection across a wide ecosystem of applications and platforms, and offers native cloud-tiering for long-term retention.

• Isolated Recovery Solution provides complete protection against attacks and safeguards the data. This creates isolated/backup copies of the data & stores it in an environment which is totally detached from the primary data storage network.

• Disaster Recovery Solution (DR) is another solution which Dell EMC provides to protect the precious data of any organization in case of a cyber-attack.

Is your PC being used for cryptocurrency mining?

It is a fact that, new technologies in the Information age will bring newer challenges and risk at the same time. There is a potential risk in adopting newly emerged technologies. For instance, Artificial Intelligence (AI) holds tremendous potential to automate daily risk activities, and rationalize costs. Blockchain technology will enable companies to manage and share GRC information faster than ever, whether it is around vendor risk assessments or continuous auditing. Robotics is all about automation, increasing efficiency and providing intelligence that cannot be seen with the human eye. The cloud, in turn, is enabling the seamless flow of data and Information assets include personal information. Security is one of the main enablers of data protection. It is an absolute fact that about millions of PCs are being used for stealth of cryptocurrency mining. It is advisable to block cryptocurrency mining in your browser.

The threat landscape is constantly evolving and the biggest cost associated with mining is the hardware to mine and the electricity to power the mining hardware.

By leveraging malicious miners attackers can take both of those costs out of the equation altogether. Since

they are able to take advantage of computing resources present in infected systems, there is no cost for power or hardware and attackers receive all the benefits of the mined coin. Your PC may be used to find cryptocurrency with or without your consent.

The biggest challenge is however on the IoT devices that makes it easy for you to control devices around your home) and bots (Bots allow users to consume a service without the need to download and ‘learn’ a new app0. Bots also operate using natural language, so the barrier for a new user to interact with a bot is really low. Bots provide the ideal interface for an IoT-enabled smart devices, and with their lack of monitoring and lack of day to day user engagement, they are fast becoming an attractive target for these attackers, as they offer processing power without direct victim oversight. While the computing resources within most IoT devices are generally limited, the number of exposed devices that are vulnerable to publicly available exploits is high which may make them attractive to cyber criminals moving forward.

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February 2018

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INDUSTRY EVENT

8th edition of ISODA TechSummit

An excellent opportunity for VARS to interact with industry leaders With the perfect theme designed for this year, Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) is in its 8th edition of TechSummit. Held in Hotel J W Marriot Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 1st to 4th of February, 2018, this year, TechSummit is sponsored by Cisco as the Platinum sponsor.

Checkpoint and Kaspersky as the Gold sponsors, while other vendors which include Red Hat, Sophos, Radware, iPSwitch and Stratus are the Silver sponsors. LG has participated this year as the Associate sponsor. The event is attended by 100 key decision makers of the VAR community and the members of ISODA, who have been working tirelessly to onboard technology sponsors, create an interesting agenda, maximize participation and create the most interactive platform for discussion on Tipping Point: Breaching the finance barrier.

Atul Modi, Chairman of ISODA TechSummit 8 said, “This year’s TechSummit promises to be a mega networking opportunity for the partners and sponsors of the event. We have arrived at the theme after long deliberations amongst partners and vendors. Financial planning, execution and profitability are in the minds of all members and how to work towards minimizing losses and maximizing finance is a very interesting topic. We

Tushar Parekh Chairman - ISODA

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welcome the new ISODA members for joining us in Kuala Lumpur. This is the time of the year when friends across different regions get to meet and network among themselves. So the excitement has built up to a level of crescendo!”

For the first time ISODA has given the platform to the Sponsoring Companies and the VARS to come face to face over the round table to understand on how to enhance the business and learning from them if there is any scope of improvement. ISODA has opened the gates for newer opportunities for the participating VARS to come closer to the Corporates.

The event also witnessed the award ceremony in the categories of * ISODA Award for Business Excellence - Winner: one award, prize money Rs 21,001/* ISODA Award for Business Excellence - Upcountry Achiever, one award, prize money Rs 10,001/* ISODA Award for Business Excellence - Inspirational Achiever, three awards, prize money Rs 10,001/- each “We have 12 sponsors this time with

Rajeev Mamidanna President - ISODA

CISCO as a platinum sponsor and Kaspersky and Check Point as Gold sponsors. There were 5 silver sponsors – Red Hat, Stratus, LG, Radware and Sophos. There were close to 85 members participating this time. We have also changed some of the concepts this year. The vendor/sponsor went to every table and interacted with the partners for 7-10 minutes. This idea was really liked by everyone as everyone get a chance to interact with the vendors,” says Atul Modi, Director, Modi Infosol & Chairperson - TechSummit 8 “It is an exciting time for all of us at ISODA because we get to meet our friends, meet new vendors and above all work as an association with a single motive – growth. I have really looked forward to it,” says Alok Gupta, Director - Softmart.

“I have been part of most of the TechSummits at ISODA. This is one association I will always cherish as I have come back every time with new knowledge of trends, new alliances and new friends,” says Amarnath Shetty, Director - LDS Infotech.

Atul Modi Chairman Tech Summit - ISODA

Partner Round Table Discussions

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Shrenik Bhayani, GM - Kaspersky Lab (South Asia) “I should appreciate ISODA as an organisation in terms of taking the efforts for organizing this TechSummit. For us, the vision for our channel in 2018 will be coverage, geographical expansion and effectively expansion of our enterprise business. We are building our teams at a territory level, which effectively will means that the teams would go and interact more with the channel community of that specific territory and then focus on the enterprise business for Kaspersky. The channel needs to be coached in terms of making them understand what more they can sell into an account. For instance, they have been selling endpoint for ages, but they can build up their capabilities in a way that they can sell security to a SME customer on a virtualised environment.”

Jaspal Sharma Technical Head - India & Middle East (Govt, PSU) - Radware “If you go through the Radware history, primarily our business is provided and driven by the big system integrators. So here it’s a great platform to interact with the people, partners and the channel who are not competing with the big SIs but they are focusing on specific accounts and specific geographies. And this is where Radware is trying to work and emphasize more into the channel.

This is a great opportunity for us to represent our solution. Of course everybody loves the business and we see a lot of potential and positive vibes from the channel partners.

From the security point of view, there are lot of illegal activities selling in terms of denial of service (DoS) as a service, hacking as a service which people are availing. As far as our channel vision for 2018 is concerned, we will try to spread user awareness as much as possible among our customers and partners and the pros and cons of using these services.”

Srinivas Sitaram Country Manager – SMB, Check Point Software Technologies “We have been a 100% channel company always selling to channel partners only. But given the fact that ISODA as an organisation community is growing, we also thought that this is the right time we should also participate in it.

Also given the fact that we are now foraying into SMB, we had to come at this time as a sponsor.

Check Point is currently focussed on 3 areas- Print, Mobile and the cloud.

Earlier our focus was primarily on the enterprise space but now we are slowly starting to cater to small and medium enterprises too. Our focus areas are also on the emerging technologies primarily cyber threat, mobile and cloud. We see a lot of value for partners who sell directly to customers, build services around it and make more margins. We want to make sure that it is profitable for them.”

Rajeev Gupta Director - Sales (India & SAARC), Sophos “This is a 5th consecutive year that we are participating, and I feel that this platform has come a long way in delivering result-oriented initiatives. For us the main priority is to enable all our partners for the entire Sophos portfolio, because we have a lot of Cyberoam partners

who have now started selling Sophos products. Many of the partners are very good on selling UTM and network offerings, but since the focus at Sophos is primarily to sell endpoint products, we need to enable our existing partners in selling these products. But the good thing is that this will eventually help them to build their competency in offering an end to end product portfolio to their customers. Today there are solutions which are working in silos, so manageability of different solutions from different OEMs has become a great concern. So at Sophos we are focusing on managing the entire portfolio of solutions with a single console and with machine learning.”

Vikramjeet Bhatti Managing Director - India & SAARC, Stratus Technologies “We pick and choose partners. And if we choose to work with any partners, it means that they should have some amount of control on their businesses. Selling strategies require a certain skillset and not every partner would be able to do that. We enable our partners to regain control of the account they are doing business with. We are talking to CIOs and Managing Director of a customer account and for that there is a certain class of partners who can do that.

Once we get the partner on board the primary objective is to help them gain significant trust in their set accounts with our solutions and secondly improve their profitability not just in terms of margins but in terms of improving and reducing the service cost. We depend on our partners for services and then come the reach. We also depend on the partners for educating customers about options which are available.”

Sanjay Joshi Country Manager (India & the SubContinent) - Edimax Technology “It is our 2nd participation at ISODA and the experience has been tremendous. Particularly the round table session with the partners has been very fruitful. Competition has gone up to a level that today it become necessary for a partner to not just stick to security or networking alone.

But they should be focusing on end to end. As a provider of networking solutions, Channel hygiene is also something which we at Edimax are very particular of and I think every vendor should think of it. On the partner perspective, especially the SMBs, the pain areas are their expertise and how easily can they make a deployment. So for us the need is to provide education and training to our enterprise channel and partners who in return would be able to help their SMB customers.”

Lyn Kwek Marketing Director – Ipswitch “ISODA Tech Summit 2018 is a great platform for us to engage and work with the top partners and resellers in the India Market. It’s a very fantastic environment where everybody has time away from work to restrategize and gain knowledge about the latest trends in the market.

We tried our best to talk with every partner and there were a lot of engagement opportunities. So the event actually gave us ample opportunity to get to know each and every one of them on a more in-depth level. My only suggestion for improvement is that there should not be just business talks but there should be interactions happening at a personal level too, like organizing some games and sports.

But otherwise I think this event has really been a good endeavour on the part of every ISODA member.”

awards Best Managed Services - Best Security Software Solution Provider - Best Cloud & Software Services Provider - Innovative Strategy Achiever - Business Excellence -

Futurenet Technologies India Pvt Ltd Macaws Infotech LDS Infotech Pvt Ltd Dev Information Technology Ltd Umbrella Infocare Pvt Ltd

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ZTE aims at bracing its PAN-India reach In an exclusive interaction with VARINDIA, Sachin Batra, National Head of Marketing and Sales ZTE Corporation India, discusses on the company’s transformation from online to offline channels India remains one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in Asia Pacific and is now the second largest smartphone market after China, thanks to a spirited recovery in shipments in the third quarter of 2017. As a matter of fact, Indian smartphone market outshone other emerging markets like United States and moved to second position behind China.

According to the KPMG Survey & Canalys report, major urbanization is converting the new consumption hubs, especially in the tier II cities. New investments are leading to better connectivity and generating new employment opportunities in these cities, further increasing consumption in these markets. There is still a huge room for growth with over 300 million people sitting on a 2G Device wanting to move to smartphone which presents huge growth opportunities.

ZTE is a technology brand and the company believes in giving a product at the right price to a customer. In 2018 the company plans to go all out to expand its portfolio. With the current line-up of 7 devices and increase in marketing spends for 2018, the company is poised to strengthen its presence pan-India in terms of launch of products, and widening into offline space.

Strategy around brand positioning and service support….

ZTE plans to launch 3-4 devices every quarter in 2018. It is going to categorize the products into three parts now. First part would be where the brand will have price-sensitive smartphones which would give them a good ground in the budget and mid-budget segment. The second category of smartphones will focus on battery while the third will be around dual cameras. “The first device will be launched in January 2018,” tells Sachin.

In 2017, ZTE launched its first product in the month of February which was online. Post that it did a couple of soft launches with offline channels. Speaking about the company and its product portfolio, Sachin Batra, National Head of Marketing and Sales ZTE Corporation India says, “Offline channels went out to be pretty region specific geographies where we started doing our business, so that at least we can test what is in India, understand how ZTE brand is been taken by the consumers without doing much of a marketing. We currently have a line-up of seven phones and will pump up more money into marketing in the coming year and open exclusive stores as well. Going forward, ZTE will widen its presence PAN-India.”

Sachin reveals that the company has put in place a strategy that includes both online & offline to seek 2-3% market share in 2018. They are aggressively setting up the distribution model in India and have already started working with 100+ partners. Discussing on this, Sachin further adds, “We foresee to expand our channel to 350+ partners by mid of 2018. Simultaneously we are in discussion with online partners like Flipkart, Amazon for few exclusive launches. This year we will also focus to have ZTE’s exclusive stores in the key cities, which will be of its kind and customer walk in to experience all the category of products available in our portfolio.”

ZTE currently has more than 300 service centers across India.

It intends to massively expedite the entire procedure and offer an unmatched experience to its customers by expanding its customer service support team. “We plan to set up 500 + number of service center across India in order to bring down the waiting period during

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Sachin Batra National Head of Marketing and Sales ZTE Corporation India after sales from week to days as positive customer experience is our primary objective,” he says.

Focus on being cutting-edge amidst the competition….

The company is currently focused to being the best amidst its competition. Commenting on this Sachin sums up, “ZTE is a technology brand and the company believes in selling a product at the right price to a customer. I would like to mention that India is a price sensitive market, so getting into the right price points where we can target tier 3 and tier 4 cities will hold the key for success in the current market scenario. As once you have a right product with right pricing you start to gain the market share automatically. We treat smartphones as an extension of a user’s taste, personality, and daily requirements.

Therefore, with changing times, we will keep changing the features and looks constantly to stay relevant as a brand to our customers.” n

Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

VAR MOBILITY

OPPO unveils A71 3GB equipped with AI

O

PPO has announced its latest addition to its A Series portfolio – OPPO A71 (3GB). The A71 (3GB) comes equipped

with an upgraded AI Beauty Technology and a much powerful Qualcomm Snapdragon 450 processor.

The A71(3GB) a versatile product is available in Gold and Black at a price of

Rs.9,990 on online partners – Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal from 10th February, 2018.

"We invest immense focus on bring our fans and consumers the best photography experience together with exquisite design. We have been leading the selfie industry in the Indian market with our products for which we have received an overwhelming appreciation, especially from the youth. With the launch of OPPO A71 (3GB), equipped with AI Beauty Technology and stronger performance we are confident to take our efforts a step ahead in our selfie journey," said Will Yang, Brand Director, OPPO India.

The OPPO A71(3GB) is equipped with OPPOspecific AI Beauty function, which captures more than 200 facial features.

Vivo presents Infinite Red V7+

V

ivo has collaborated with fashion designer Manish Malhotra and launched "Infinite Red" Vivo V7+ limited edition smartphone targeting millennials in

consumers to express their love in a more elegant and captivating manner."

Vivo V7+ features an 18:9 aspect ratio with “Full View” display and

India. The selfie-focussed flagship smartphone comes with 24MP front shooter features a heart-shaped motif at the back. The device was launched in champagne gold and matte black coloured variants in September.

Kenny Zeng, CMO, Vivo India, said, "With the launch of V7+ Manish Malhotra Limited edition, we are providing an opportunity for

sports a 5.99-inch IPS display (1440x720 pixels) in a unibody metal body.

The device is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon450 chipset and there is 4GB RAM and 64GB internal storage that can be expanded up to 256 GB via a dedicated memory card slot.

Priced at Rs.22, 990, the device will be available in all off-line stores across India and on Amazon.

Xiaomi unveils Sony launches new Xperia L2 smartphone Redmi Note 5 ony India has and Redmi Note S announced the launch of its premium smartphone, the Xperia L2.

5 Pro in India

X

iaomi has announced the launch of three new products – Redmi Note 5, Redmi Note 5 Pro and Xiaomi Mi TV. According to the company, these latest additions to Redmi Note series will exceed expectations in terms of design, camera and performance.

In a significant move for Xiaomi globally, Mi TV is making its way outside of China for the first time ever. Mi LED Smart TV 4 138.8cm (55”) is the world’s thinnest LED TV at just 4.9mm slim, and comes with an intelligent content – first PatchWall software completely redesigned from the ground up for India.

Starting from Rs.39,999, Mi LED TV 4 is set to completely transform the TV industry in India.

Manu Jain, VicePresident, Xiaomi and Managing Director, Xiaomi India, said, “At Xiaomi, we work with the value of providing best specs, highest quality at honest pricing for all. All our products are perfect examples of our values and we have worked hard to outperform each time. We are excited to kick off 2018 with three exciting products – Redmi Note 5, Redmi Note Pro and Mi LED TV 4 – and hope that Mi fans will enjoy the new technology we are bringing to the table. 2017 was an incredible year in the chapter of Xiaomi India and we will work endlessly to make 2018 equally exciting for our users.”

Redmi Note 5 Pro features the octa-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 636. As part of the Snapdragon 636 package, Redmi Note 5 Pro features Qualcomm Kryo cores which are typically only seen on the flagship-grade Snapdragon 800-series of SoCs.

A brand new addition to Xperia family, the Xperia L2 packs a 13.9cm (5.5”) Wide Screen HD Display along with two powerful cameras, an 8MP 120degree Super-Wide Angle Selfie Camera and 13MP f2.0 Main Camera.

Featuring a stylish sleek design, this smartphone promises a full-day performance with 3,300mAh battery and enhanced camera function that lets you capture memorable moments with ease. The device sports a Rear Integrated Fingerprint Sensor and a 13MP F2.0 rear camera that ensures clear and crisp mobile photography even on most spontaneous moments.

This superior camera combination on Xperia L2 gives users access to a powerful blend of superior

low-light quality imaging and accurate focussing speed, therefore resulting in better and brighter pictures.

The Xperia L2 is crafted with a sleek design its expansive 13.9cm (5.5”) HD screen delivers vivid colour output and detailed images to deliver crisp and sharp viewing experience which is ideal for enjoying videos, browsing content and enjoying social networks on the go.

The new Moto Z2 Force comes bundled with Moto TurboPower pack

M

otorola has introduced its most advanced smartphone ever in India – the limitededition moto z² force. The moto z² force shatters limitations with the only screen guaranteed not to crack or shatter and comes bundled with Moto TurboPower Pack for up to a combined two days of power (6220 mAh)1.

The device sets high innovation standards with a slim all-metal design, two 12MP cameras, the fastest possible data speed and Qualcomm’s fastest Snapdragon processor, and instantly transforms with moto mods, allowing users to engage in their passions and connect with the world in meaningful, intentional and purposeful ways.

With Moto ShatterShield technology and a 13.97 cm (5.5) Quad HD AMOLED

display, you don’t have to worry about breaking the phone screen. The slim, polished design of the new moto z² force is reinforced

with the strength of 7000 series aluminum allowing it to withstand the wear and tear of everyday life.

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February 2018

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VAR MOBILITY

Is Apple losing its Sheen?

Despite a 12.63 percent year-over-year growth, the iPhone sales witnessed a significant drop in Q1 2018, particularly due to the supply constraints of the device which had a pronounced impact on the brand’s revenue With ever evolving new technologies people often get perplexed in understanding which phone is better, the contemporary Android phones or the modish iPhones? Both the category of devices hold their special place in the market, both rule in their arena as the two have their own unique followers. However they may seem look similar but are very different from each other. The OS, hardware, support and factors like battery etc make the two a lot different from each other. Both the phones have their separate religious fanatics as some people who prefer more security and brand value opts for an iPhone over the Android handsets, while some people who like to have the latest updates with stylish features in their budget go for the Android phones over the iPhone devices.

Apple possesses a strong brand value in both national and international market regardless of a fall in revenue. According to market reports, Apple earned a hefty amount of profit on every iPhone sold over the third quarter, which is five times higher than what brands like Samsung

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phones earned during the same period.

However, regardless of its popularity, the brand has faced a tough Q1 globally in terms of sales as iPhone X didn’t make an appreciable difference in sales figures.

According to the market reports the total revenue of Apple in Q1, 2018 has increased by 12.63 percent year-over-year growth which means that the brand’s revenue has risen to $88.3 billion from $78.4 billion. Although, the revenue increased, sale of the iPhone has dropped.

The brand in a statement revealed that it sold 77.3 million iPhones in Q1 of 2018 — a decrease from the 78.2 million iPhones it sold at same time in previous year. It said that the average sale price for an iPhone jumped to $796 compared to the $695 in corresponding quarter of last year.

Also, last year Apple posted a message on

its site apologizing to its customers for how its latest rolled-out update slowed down older iPhones. In order to make it up, the brand offered cheaper battery replacements. This action was taken when several customers started complaining that the new software update is slowing down their devices and impacting performance, as because of the software updates there were battery issues in older Apple devices. However, the company called this as part of a power management feature meant to prevent older batteries from shutting down suddenly. It has also been reported that many users are switching to the Android devices, most preferably to Samsung as they look for better performing devices.

To compensate this, the brand has also slashed prices for its iphone6 devices. As per the company, the slower process contributed to the chemical aging of the lithium ion batteries. In its defence the brand said that the batteries were meant to be replaced and upgraded to a new battery which will also solve such slowdowns

related to these updates. But this doesn’t seem to be easy due to the complicated design of iPhone devices or limited Apple stores in some regions.

Apple in India...

Since its inception in the Indian market, brand Apple has recorded amazing sales numbers, and the brand’s revenue has been dominated majorly by the iPhone devices. According to Counterpoint’s report, “the Indian premium smartphone segment (priced Rs 30,000 and above) grew 20 percent annually by volume and 28 percent by value in CY 2017." Brands such as Apple, OnePlus and Samsung contributed 94% to the overall premium market segment.

While OnePlus was the fastest growing brand in the year, the report has named Apple as the segment leader with 47% share in the OctoberDecember quarter and 38% share for the entire calendar year, driven by strong shipments of iPhone 7 as compared to the premium range devices of OnePlus and Samsung. Apple iPhone 7 was also the top selling smartphone globally during the first six months of 2017.

But despite topping the charts there were several issues in many iPhone devices, which might are contributing in the sales slump of the devices. Also, the iPhone X sales were not as much as everyone expected. According to the media reports this is due to the high cost or can be because of the supply constraint as Foxconn couldn’t ship satisfactory amounts.

The brand has witnessed a drastic percentage dip in iPhone users from Q1, 2017 to Q3, 2017. According to a report published on a website, “For the October-December quarter, iPhone sales in India fell to 810,000 units from 890,000. However, for the full year 2017, iPhone shipments grew 23 per cent in India at 3.2 million units from 2.6 million units in 2016.”

Counterpoint too in its latest report said

Apple, OnePlus and Samsung continue to dominate the Indian premium smartphone segment with total 94% share but Apple succeed to maintain its top spot in the chart with its 47% share in the October-December quarter and 38% share for the entire 2017 calendar year in spite of a decline in sales.

Table Source: Bloomberg

India China UAE Canada US

Price (iPhone X 64GB) In USD Rs 89,000 $1390.82 8,388 yuan $1283.83 4,099 UAE Dirham $1115.98 C$1,319 $1085.95 $999 $999 Price of iPhoneX in different countries

that the iPhone sales slumped in the OctoberDecember quarter. The brand has witnessed a drop of 9 per cent in volume terms and 7 per cent by revenues during the quarter compared to the same quarter of last year.

It is believed that the dip in sale is led by factors such as high price and limited promotion.

The sale of Apple iPhones is believed to further get dampened with the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announcing an increase in the customs duty on phones to 20 per cent from 15 per cent in his budget 2018. This applies only to devices that are not assembled in India such as the iPhones.

And so...

One cannot ignore the fact that the brand continued to maintain its top spot in the global smartphone shipments which is mostly

contributed by the dedicated fans of the Apple devices. Apple users continue to use Apple devices owing to their loyalty towards the brand and upgrade their handsets with the brand’s latest devices. Also some people consider using Apple devices as a status symbol while some prefer these more over the Android phone due to its rich security feature, hence contributing to significant revenue of the brand.

The brand in comparison to the devices and in context of its market share definitely succeeded in maintaining its premium position but compared to its own revenue of corresponding quarters of previous year, the sale of iPhone devices are not as appreciable as it was. Now the big question that arises here is: Has Apple's poor performance in India been on account of high excise duty or the significant decline in number of its users? n Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

Factors influencing iPhone sales Price Point High prices coupled with lack of innovation in new handsets affecting the sales of iPhone devices

Custom Duty Increased custom duty from 15% to 20% will impact the iPhone sales adoption in India

Software Update The latest upgradation lagging the old devices and raising battery issues

Supply Factor Limited supply of iPhoneX due to a considerable supply and demand gap

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Movers & Shakers

A.P. Hota is now an independent director with EPS Board

Electronic Payment & Services Pvt. Ltd (EPS) is pleased to announce the onboarding of Abhaya Prasad Hota as the Independent Director on the Board of Directors panel. This was a unanimous verdict proposed by all the shareholders of the company. He will now be overlooking various focus areas at EPS, which requires effective leadership in relation to the company’s strategy, performance, and risk management as well as ensuring high standards of financial probity and corporate governance.

Hota had remained as the Managing Director & CEO at National Payment Council of India (NPCI), prior to his long service with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for an extensive tenure.

Umang Bedi is new President of Dailyhunt

Umang Bedi has joined Dailyhunt as its President.

Umang Bedi has recently concluded a successful tenure as the Managing Director of Facebook for India and South Asia. His contributions were instrumental in India emerging as amongst the largest markets for Facebook globally. The Harvard Business School Alumnus, reported for being a change agent is a sought-after name for his ability to scale businesses. Having led global enterprises such as Adobe, Intuit, Symantec in India and South Asia, Umang has championed collaborative cross-functional management.

Anthony Noto resigns as COO of Twitter, Joins SoFi as CEO

Neeraj Arora steps down from Paytm's Board

President, Neeraj Arora has stepped down from the Board of Paytm. He was a member of the board of directors since 2015. The development comes hours after Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma had tweeted an attack on WhatsApp, accusing it of “killing beautiful open UPI system with its custom close garden implementation.”

Vijay Shekhar Sharma criticized WhatsApp’s payments product and also claimed that it did not follow the UPI guidelines. In an article shared by him, it said that WhatsApp did not sufficiently allow for interoperatibility on its payment solution. Also, WhatsApp iOS app didn’t have the option to send payments to people outside WhatsApp, the option was hard to find on its Android app.

Sarang Suhas Deshpande joins Videonetics as its General Manager

Videonetics has appointed Sarang Suhas Deshpande as General Manager – Strategic Alliances and Pre-sales. He will be playing an instrumental role in defining and implementing strategies for expanding business along with fostering deeper engagement with key influencers comprising consultants, system integrators, end users to name a few. Additionally, as a strategic focus, Sarang will continue to further strengthen company’s business in Smart & Safe city vertical along with large enterprise market.

Sarang brings nearly 20 years of experience in Security Engineering, Security Audits, ERP, eGovernance and Networking.

Arindam Mukherjee joins Sify as Regional CEO – West

Twitter in a recent announcement has stated that its COO Anthony Noto has resigned to join SoFi as CEO. Commenting on this, Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO, said, "On behalf of the entire team, I want to thank Anthony for his passion and his impact, and congratulate him on his new role."

Noto's responsibilities for Twitter's business operations and revenue generating operations will be assumed by other members of the leadership team.

Sify Technologies has announced appointment of Arindam Mukherjee as Regional CEO for the West region, India, to strengthen its regional customer engagement leadership who will drive strategy and transformation and build an organization closer to the customer on all fronts.

Arindam brings to Sify a 20-year career dotted with leadership positions in top tier companies across sales, operations, strategy and channels. In his career span with reputed organizations like Cisco, Intel and HCL, Arindam has held varied positions across Enterprise, Commercial & Communications business. He has led large businesses, teams and country initiatives across India and SAARC.

Ajeet Khurana to head BACC India

Dimension Data appoints Kiran Bhagwanani as CEO

Ajeet Khurana has been named as the head of the Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee of India (BACC). With previous stints as CEO of the business incubator at IIT Bombay, advisor to Kalaari Capital and ii5 Ventures, among others, Khurana is a familiar face in technology ventures and innovation. Khurana became a prominent voice in the Bitcoin space in 2017.

Ajeet Khurana, Head, Blockchain and Cryptocurrency Committee, says, "BACC propels digital financial innovation by promoting Blockchain technology, digital assets, and cryptocurrency. We will use advocacy, outreach, best practices and standards, and customer education to drive robust and healthy growth of this sector. Given our strength in the information technology and financial services, I have no doubt that India can take a leadership position in transforming money and financial institutions.”

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Dimension Data has appointed Kiran Bhagwanani as Chief Executive Officer for Dimension Data South Asia, Japan and New Zealand, one of the three sub-regions in the Asia-Pacific region. Bhagwanani will report to Dimension Data's APAC CEO, John Lombard.

He will be responsible for maintaining and growing Dimension Data's business, client base and scaling outcomedriven offerings for the said countries.

Before the current role, Bhagwanani was leading Dimension Data's India business as its CEO since February 2011. Under his guidance and in line with his vision for Dimension Data India, Bhagwanani established a strong leadership team that has ensured that the Indian business has been amongst the fastest-growing and most profitable businesses for Dimension Data.

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RNI - NO 72399/1999

Printing Date 18 & 19

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Reg. No: DL-SW-01/4030/18-20

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64 pages including cover

Date of Posting 20 & 21 every month