E-Magazine October - 2017

Palo Alto Networks enhances its Security Portfolio

SAP teams up with PwC

16th STAR NITE AWARDS 2017 3rd Nov. 2017 Hotel The Lalit, New Delhi VOLUME XIX

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LG India joins hands with Marg ERP

Ricoh unveils new series of innovative projectors

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Lenovo DCG visions to be the Most-Trusted Advisor for Partners 28pg

Google buying a part of HTC team under an US$1.1-Billion deal

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oogle and HTC Corporation have signed a definitive agreement under which certain HTC employees, many of whom are already working with Google to develop Pixel smartphones will join Google. HTC will receive US$1.1 billion in cash from Google as part of the transaction.

T h i s agreement also supports HTC’s continued branded smartphone strategy, enabling a more streamlined product portfolio, greater operational efficiency and financial flexibility. HTC will continue to have best-in-class engineering talent, which is currently working on the next flagship phone, following the successful launch of the HTC U11 earlier this year.

Tata to merge CMB business with Bharti Airtel

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harti Airtel and Tata have entered into an understanding to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of TTSL (Tata Teleservices Limited) and TTML (Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited) into Bharti Airtel. he proposed merger will include transfer of all the customers and assets of Tata CMB to Bharti Airtel, further augmenting Bharti Airtel’s overall customer base and network. Bharti Airtel will ensure quality services to Tata CMB’s customers, while offering them the added benefits of its innovative product portfolio, access to superior voice & data services, mobile banking, VAS and domestic/ international roaming facilities. Tata CMB’s operations and services will continue as normal until the completion of the transaction.

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HELLO INDIA

Connectivity is increasing every day

……. technology could create ways to a smarter world

Connectivity is increasing day by day. A question is: can we leverage strengths readily available in the market to our advantage? It is an absolute fact that now companies have been deploying sensors in machines and wearable devices to use the computing capability available today to make sense of the data.

The digital universe, which is witnessing growth of 40% a year, is expanding to include not only the increasing number of people and enterprises doing everything online, but also all the “things” – smart devices – connected to the Internet, unleashing a new wave of opportunities for businesses and people around the world. When it comes to digital data, one needs to use very secured software to make their personal data secured, otherwise photos, conversations, health information or finances cannot remain private.

Secondly, a recent analysis by PwC suggests that the expected Indian market size in lending through P2P platforms alone will be $5 billion. There will be an opportunity to use the online digital payments channel to deliver credit to ensure that collection of payments also happens faster. In fact, millennials, as one of the most dynamic consumer segments, will be keen to build their internet profiles to build creditworthiness and not just Tinderworthiness. These creditworthy internet consumers will demand recognition and credit. Be ready to deliver.

A strong belief in technology will enable greater efficiency, network security and ecosystem synergy for endusers and businesses everywhere. Hence, big tech companies have been actively buying AI startups, not just to acquire technology or clients but to secure qualified talent. Artificial intelligence is a hot market for tech, with many companies using it to power services such as digital voice assistants like Siri or Alexa.

Tech giants and digital native companies such as Amazon, Apple, Baidu, and Google are investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence for their own applications, such as optimizing searches and personalizing marketing. A firm belief in AI can deliver significant competitive advantages by providing better forecasts for their supply chain and design better offerings, but only for firms that are fully committed to it.

Amazon has achieved impressive results from its $775-million acquisition of Kiva, a robotics company that has automated picking and packing. Netflix has also achieved impressive results from the algorithm it uses to personalize recommendations to its 100 million subscribers worldwide. Now, Alibaba has announced to invest $15 billion over the next three years in "cutting-edge technology", including quantum computing and artificial intelligence.

As the digital landscape makes room for more users, the same would be the favourite haunt for cybercriminals who are always on the prowl.

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CONTENTS SPLURGE ON

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GREAT DEALS

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 Art Director: Rakesh Kumar Network Administrator: Ashok Kumar Singh Manager-IT: Subhash Mohanta Manager-SEO: Bidyadhar Behera

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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

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Lenovo DCG visions to be the Most-Trusted Advisor for Partners

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InterraIT at the forefront of digital transformation

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“Threat landscape is getting more sophisticated and pervasive”

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.

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Infor eyes on Tier 2 cities for growth Salesforce brings the power of predictive analytics to businesses

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Indian enterprises leveraging the power of hybrid cloud

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Hitachi Vantara to take the IT industry by storm

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Digital penetration pushing the UPS market in India

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Demand for security boosts Indian Surveillance Industry

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Kult strives to empower Millennials through its new Innovations

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Cloud and hyper-converged infrastructure will intensify the growth of the datacenter market - Lenovo Lenovo’s aim is to become the most trusted datacenter advisor to its customers. Whether it is from a product reliability and customer feedback, or from a security and product innovative perspective, Lenovo has always been at the forefront in the datacenter business. In fact Lenovo as a datacenter player controls its own manufacturing and supply chain, featuring among the top 25 Gartner Supply chain companies in the world. Speaking to VARINDIA, Vivek Sharma, Managing Director - Lenovo Global Technologies India throws more light on some of these aspects -

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enovo has made a big transformation from where it was a few years back. The IBM x86 business that Lenovo acquired almost 3 years ago is considered a wonderful legacy. It brought Lenovo not only a strong customer base but a team of excellent engineers and R&D centres across the globe. But from a GTM perspective, Lenovo preferred to continue with a hybrid structure.

“So our GTM for both the DCG (datacenter group) and PC business are the same,” says Vivek Sharma, Managing Director of Lenovo Global Technologies India. “We tried to focus on future-defined datacenters, and so we have split the business into 4 clear focus areas – hyperscale, hyperconverged and software defined datacenter, HPC (high performance computing) & Artificial Intelligence and lastly datacenter infrastructure.

So the DCG has become an entity on its own now and the 4 areas are the ones that we will focus on dedicatedly. We have services spanning across all these 4 segments and each of them run worldwide. This is the structure we have created from a datacenter perspective. These 4 segments have a new leadership team that has been roped in from across the industry,” he says.

A bigger focus on datacenter business This brings the focus on what alliances to work on, which partners to work with and the services it will offer that will bind them all together.

Besides, Lenovo has also created a separate sales & marketing team for the datacenter Group that focuses only on the datacenter business.

“As a consequence of this, we have done the largest launch in Lenovo’s history in New York – we call it the Lenovo Transform. The launch has been described as taking “the best of the x86 heritage”. Simultaneously we have done a number of roadshows across the globe, where we launched 26 new platforms in the areas of server, storage and network - about 14 new server platforms, 7 storage platforms and 5 network. We also introduced 2 brands – ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile. While ThinkAgile addresses the hyper-converged and software defined datacenter space, ThinkSystem caters to the datacenter infrastructure area, which is storage, server and networking. Since there has been a slow and steady shift to software defined and hyper-converged infrastructure, our whole focus will be on consolidation and transformation,” explains Vivek.

In fact as Vivek puts it, there is no more ‘Rip and Replace’ of datacenters, but in the last 5 years Lenovo instead ripped and replaced the infrastructure. Customers are slowly and steadily moving workloads to software defined or hyper-converged environments. Hyper-converged

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has given the customer the freedom of creating a virtualized and a hybrid cloud environment and the datacenter can be controlled very well now. And this trend is seen happening within both the mid-market and enterprise customers.

In terms of segments, BFSI and Government will continue to be strong markets for Lenovo. Mid-market is seeing a huge explosion in terms of cloud adoption – whether it is pharma, airlines where there is a lot of action happening. “In fact they are early adopters than most of the large corporates,” points out Vivek. “We have a wonderful story to tell from a HANA perspective, because for SAP HANA, Lenovo is one of the largest datacenter infrastructure base. They do lot of R&D with us and they do endorse us openly.”

As a matter of fact, Lenovo also happens to be one of the fastest growing supercomputing companies in the world; from 0 in 2014 it has risen to #100 in 2017 according to Top500 listings. “We are doing a lot of innovations in this area,” supports Vivek. “We have recently completed the delivery and implementation of the world’s largest, next-generation Intelbased Supercomputer at the Barcelona Supercomputing Center. This new system is listed at #13 on the latest TOP500 list.”

And as Vivek sums up, everything Lenovo does has to revolve around customers and keep them happy. The next focus is to work with partners and the channel to focus on expanding the business with a specific focus on future defined datacenter. n Samrita Baruah samrita@varindia.com

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Channel Chief

Digitization opens wide opportunities for eScan Partners The cybersecurity market has been triggered by the new government initiatives and the recent cyber threats. This has widened the opportunity for eScan partners

Sunil Kripalani Senior Vice-President – Global Sales & Marketing, eScan

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ybersecurity has emerged as an important pillar in any IT project due to factors like rapid digitization of businesses and smartcity projects. It has become imperative for every business irrespective of verticals as ransomware, DDoS and APTs are causing damage to businesses across India and globe.

“With the rapid digitization of businesses and smart-city projects in India, cybersecurity becomes the cornerstone of IT infrastructures.

Cybersecurity is now becoming an integral part of all IT backbones and an essential across sectors like government and PSUs, BFSI, education, healthcare, defence, manufacturing, etc. One of the key security trends observed in the recent past is that of ransomware, DDoS and APTs (Advanced Persistent Threats) attacks, which are causing havoc across India as well as globally, pushing the demand for strong security solutions,” explains Sunil Kripalani, Senior Vice-President – Global Sales & Marketing, eScan.

Strategy

To stay ahead of the competition in the competitive and innovative world of technology, eScan focusses on offering a robust security and protection from the evolving cyber threats. The company has come up with new technologies which provide real-time protection to customers.

“The IT landscapes are highly competitive as well as innovative, due to its inherent quality of changing technology every 6–12 months. This change also brings new business opportunity in terms of upgradation of technology. However, with this the cyber threat landscape also has become more complex. Hence, innovative methods such as usage of AI to detect real-time cyber-attacks or to defend against ransomware attacks have evolved. eScan, in its relentless efforts to provide robust security and protection from growing cyber threats such as DDoS, APT, Ransomware, has been constantly innovating and updating its product range to be at the forefront of IT security solution for next-gen threats and stay ahead of its peers. Some of our recent innovations are PBAE Technology, Containerization of Mobile Workspace, EMM solutions, EPP solutions, etc, which provide real-time protection to a large number of enterprise customers,” reveals Sunil.

Channel Strategy

eScan believes that channel partners play an important role in the growth of the company. As the adoption of digitization is on a high, IT security at the same time has become important for every business which opens opportunities for partners.

“We have been a channel-centric organization from the beginning.

We strongly believe channel partners are integral part of our growth story. As India is poised to embrace digital as part of the economic

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growth story, IT security has become the backbone of every business.

This, in turn, opens up large opportunities and demands for security product and solutions across industry verticals. Hence, we see a great opportunity for channel partners to join hands with one of the fastestgrowing security solution provider like eScan for mutual business growth,” views Sunil. eScan aims to be the brand leader in security products and solutions.

It constantly works to provide resources to its partners and increase customer protection and profitability. The company is realigning its channels and product policies to boost the channel community and increase loyalty. While discussing this, Sunil says, “As part of our Vision 2020, to be the brand leader among security products and solutions in India, we are now consolidating our presence across the channel segments. As our commitment towards channel partners, we are realigning our channel and product policies to increase channel confidence and loyalty. One of the key initiatives is to have close engagement with our channel partners and our sales teams more regularly and continuously. We consider our channel community as an extension of our business and are continuously working to provide them with resources to enhance customer protection and profitability.”

Focussed verticals Though SMEs and MSMEs are fragmented verticals, but government initiatives like GST and digitization, triggered by the recent cyberattacks have influenced these segments to adoption of IT. “SMEs and MSMEs in India are highly segmented and fragmented with various stages of IT adoption. However, with the recent GST and digitization drive by the Government of India (GoI), the SME and MSME segments are adopting to IT rapidly to be compliant with the government standards. Apart from these, the recent spate of ransomware attacks also created awareness among these segments to take security implementation seriously to protect their data and assets. eScan, with its vast presence across SMB to enterprise segments in India, has already had customer bases spread from 50–15,000 endpoint users. We are now taking further steps to consolidate and expand our presence in these segments with our well-established technology and solutions in IT security,” concludes Sunil. n

Aparna Mullick aparna@varindia.com

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October 2017

13

ROUND ABOUT

Body Language – Is it a Myth or Reality?

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n a casual conversation with a friend of mine, the topic of the importance of body language came up. Body language is an important barometer of measuring comfort with a person. It is not an exclusive perquisite of all and mighty. People at every level try to feel comfort or discomfort with the presence of people. My feeling is that the first impression always carries weight, though such approximations or conjectures are mostly ephemeral.

Let me explain a situation that I am mostly aware of and that is about how the US businessmen look out for their comfort zone while meeting a person, such as business partners, potential employees, strangers or a casual meeting with a buddy in the street.

I think the Americans give a lot of importance to handshakes. A firm handshake and exchange of pleasantries can make a lot of difference. Even the raising of hats to greet each other has a style and tenor. We have seen films where business executives attend the official meetings. They are nattily dressed and impeccably keep their exterior.

Let us look at Japanese. They bow in a peculiar way, while exchanging the visiting cards. They also tend to bow even while making a statement or while acknowledging someone else’s statement.

Indians, particularly from the traditional business families, touch the feet of the elders and seek their blessings before they set out for any business deals. There are myriad ways in which people go about doing such things.

Soft skills definitely have relevance in a setup where marketing is a sole criterion and nothing more is expected from the person.

Can everyone be impressed with that put-up gestures, articulation and politeness? What is the guarantee that a person who is good in impressing others can continue to do so every time? Let me take an example. A few years back, there was a spree of recruitments from IITs and IIMs. The B-schools of all hues and colours used to come out with enticing salaries being offered. I am not questioning the sanctity of those figures. But my genuine concern is that if a boy or a girl drew rupees one crore annually five or six years back, calculated in a progressive manner, that person’s salary could have perked up to rupees three crore per annum by now. The moot point is that anyone keeping track of such developments can trace their present status of such persons. I am told that, in many cases, such persons have languished due to a variety of reasons, particularly on account of higher expectations from them. But their body language would have remained the same, as before.

At this juncture I am reminded of the real-life experience of Lord Maynard Keynes, considered to be the doyen of economic theory and was the main architect of the revival of the world economy after the Great Depression of 1930s. He appeared for the Indian Civil Service Examination, which used to be held in London and the precursor of the Indian Administrative Service Examinations. He cleared in all papers, except in Economics and did not come to the expected level in the interview. As a result, it denied him the coveted ICS. Later, he became the world’s famous economist and the branch of economic theory he propounded is known as Keynesian economics, which still has got the relevance in the modern world. Here the question is how you can link body language with intrinsic worth of a person.

Is there any generational gap that would have subsumed the conventional concept of body language? Quite possible! Look at the number of Chinese and Japanese students studying in the US universities or elsewhere in the developed world. Some of them

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study there from the undergraduate level to the their postdoctoral or get their businesses started there or become an American citizen after their studies, etc. They slowly acquire the attributes of an American in their social behaviour. No longer do they get grooved into the traditional customs and body language.

Can education dictate the body language of a person? Certainly, it can. To a very great extent, education can change the outlook of a person. But one cannot generalize on that. I have seen so many people who are highly educated becoming superstitious and believing in the art of mumbo jumbo. That type of people one can see across the world. I do not want to enter into a debate as to what are the reasons for such skewed behaviour. It could be uncertainties in life or the indomitable will to succeed in whatever they enter into – be it business, profession or even academics by hook or crook.

I am intrigued to know what is the body language of people who reverberates such characteristics: meek, aggressive, plinth, sober or laidback? I do not know.

Finally, does the body language of a technocrat different from a generalist. It is often said that a technocrat is laidback, while a generalist is aggressive. But I have seen people who are reverberating the opposite of these attributes: scientists who are very aggressive and generalists or administrators more sublime. Then, all these things have something to do with DNA. Now the DNA also can be manipulated. Does it mean body language also can be manipulated?

Frankly speaking, I do not have an answer.

BY FORTUNE GLOBAL 500 COMPANIES*

* Red Hat client data and Fortune 500 list, 2014 Copyright Š 2016 Red Hat, Inc. Red Hat and the Shadowman logoare trademarks of Red Hat, Inc., registered in the U.S. and other countries.

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October 2017

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HOT BYTES

Hitachi unifies all its operations under Hitachi Vantara

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itachi has launched Hitachi Vantara, a new business entity to leverage the broad portfolio of innovation, development and experience from across Hitachi Group of companies to deliver data-driven solutions for commercial and industrial enterprises. This new company will unify the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business as Hitachi Vantara to capitalize on Hitachi’s social innovation capability in both

operational technologies and information technologies.

Toshiaki Higashihara, President & CEO, Hitachi, Ltd, said, “Hitachi has been helping customers harness the power of their data to support meaningful business action for years.

Now as the world is being transformed by digital tools and processes, we are unifying our strongest digital solutions companies together as a new Hitachi company."

Dell EMC with Ingram Micro to launch HaaS model

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ell EMC has worked with Ingram Micro to launch Hardware-as-aService (HaaS) to help accelerate IT adoption among organizations across the country. HaaS comprises hardware and premium services, including notebooks, desktops, servers, networking equipments and tablets coupled with payment options up to four years customized to individual organizational requirements.

This effectively helps organizations to shift

towards operational expenditure while building out their IT infrastructure from the edge to the data center.

Anil Sethi, VP, Channels, Dell EMC India, said, “The World Economic Forum has stated that the world is moving into the Fourth Industrial Revolution – one that will be driven by how well businesses, and people in general, capitalize on the digital economy. Dell EMC wants to work with organizations to accelerate their digital transformation journeys to remain competitive."

pCloudy establishes data center in Australia

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Cloudy.com has launched its new device data center in Melbourne, Australia, in an effort to enhance their customer base.

The launch of the data center is aimed at tapping the Australian App market helping our customers increase their App coverage to the ANZ region.

Avinash Tiwari, CoFounder of pCloudy, said, “It has been a great year for us in terms of customer acquisition. We received

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overwhelming response from our customers for our last data center in California, US. Furthering our success, we are happy

to announce the launch of our new device data center in Melbourne, Australia.

This launch is a strategic step which will help us increase our customer base in South-East Asia and Australia."

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Cambium Networks appoints ND

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ambium Networks has signed a distribution agreement with Ingram Micro India to provide reliable, cost-effective wireless narrowband SCADA, broadband backhaul, last-mile access and WiFi solutions to connect industrial, enterprise, and rural locations. Cambium Networks and Ingram Micro India will work together across India and other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries.

Says Navneet Singh Bindra, Executive Director, Advanced Solutions, Ingram Micro, “Cambium Networks’ proven solutions and reputation for technical innovation give our partners and customers industry-leading solutions at competitive prices.”

BT enters into collaboration with Hitachi

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T and Hitachi Vantara have entered into global partnership to co-create innovative solutions in the area of industrial and enterprise IoT. The partnership aims to drive better business outcomes for global customers. The companies will initially focus on exploring and designing asset intelligence and predictive maintenance solutions to deliver the desired outcomes for customers in industry sectors such as manufacturing and transportation.

The partnership unites BT’s global network infrastructure, cloud capabilities and cybersecurity expertise with Hitachi’s extensive operational and information technology (OT/IT) expertise, next-generation Lumada IoT platform software and integrated IoT services and solutions portfolio.

SAP teams up with PwC

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AP has announced that it has collaborated with PwC to jointly go-to-market with next-generation field service solutions, specifically for India. Developed on top of SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer (C4C), the solution will provide companies the advantage of end-to-end field service management, back-end integration with SAP ERP and front-end application for the mobile phone of the field service agent.

“Many organizations today are at a critical crossroads, determining whether their customer

service remains merely a ‘hygiene factor’ or produces a step change towards a truly customer-centric organization,” said Sam Alkharrat, Global Chief Operating Officer, SAP Hybris. He added, “Our collaboration with PwC on SAP Hybris Cloud for Customer, aims to innovate our offerings and improve customer satisfaction through superior field service solutions.”

NEC and Hortonworks deliver distributed processing platform

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EC Corporation and Hortonworks have expanded their partnership in the field of distributed Big Data processing platforms.

The companies are combining NEC’s “Data Platform for Hadoop” with Hortonworks Data Platform (HDP), powered

by Apache Hadoop and Apache Spark that allows enterprise customers to process structured and unstructured data on a single platform.

This strategic relationship between NEC and Hortonworks allows

each company to leverage its core competencies and maximize the benefits delivered to their enterprise customers and partners.

Through this extended relationship, Hortonworks will certify NEC’s Data Platform for Hadoop with HDP as a Big Data Appliance which is build and optimized for Big Data workloads. NEC will leverage the knowhow of Hortonworks in the integration of Big Data as well as its best-in class Hadoop expertise and support services.

Amazon introduces a new Business Marketplace

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mazon.in has announced the launch of Amazon Business, a new marketplace to meet

supplies at our doorstep along with a GST invoice which helps avail tax credit against our purchases. The

the procurement needs of SMBs such as technology and service companies, manufacturers, universities, schools and offices.

Manas Das, VP, Infiniti Power said, “With Amazon Business, we can get all our technology and office

selection is vast, at good and transparent prices and covers all our needs and helps get products delivered at our convenience. We have saved on both time and money using the service and the experience so far has been great!”

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HOT BYTES

Microsoft donates cloud services to 90,000 nonprofits globally

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i c r o s o f t Philanthropies has declared that it has donated cloud services to 90,000 nonprofits globally.

The company has also

reached its $1 billion Public Cloud for Public Good commitment a year ahead of schedule. Microsoft had committed to donating $1 billion in cloud computing resources, over three years, to help 70,000 nonprofit

organizations digitally scale their impact and serve the public good.

The company revealed that it has donated millions in cloud services across the country as part of this program.

This includes organizations such as Akshaya Patra and Habitat4Humanity that fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India and works with low-income families to build new homes and incremental housing, respectively.

Adobe integrates Aadhaar-based authentication in Adobe Sign

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s t u d y commissioned

by Adobe for India reveals how e-signatures are set to fundamentally change the way India does business, and augment the Government’s national digital transformation drive. Featuring data from a September 2017 Adobecommissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting, the Adobe E-signatures Indian Market Study found that the market for e-signatures in India is growing at a CAGR of 57%, and is expected to cross over a massive

90 million transactions by 2020.

“More than 85% companies in India are looking at investing in e-signature solutions in the next 12 months.

With around 30% market penetration, and about 70% of companies yet to start their e-signature journey and reap the many rewards, the Aadhaar-based authentication built in Adobe Sign is the industry’s first solution to make e-signatures legally binding in India,” said Kulmeet Bawa, MD, South Asia, Adobe.

Kaspersky Lab project receives investment from Singapore Government

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aspersky Lab has announced that the Singapore Government has awarded its research project on an innovative method of identifying source of APT malware with a grant as part of the city-state's bid to step up its cybersecurity research and development (R&D) capabilities. In collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS), the research project by Kaspersky Lab is one of the nine cybersecurity projects awarded by the Singapore

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National Research Foundation with a total of $15.6 million grant.

Launched in November 2016, Singapore's National Cybersecurity R&D Programme Grant Call highlighted the potential for translational and deployability of cybersecurity ideas and technologies. It identified three priority areas, namely national security, critical infrastructure and smart nation.

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eMudhra to set up R&D Facility

e

Mudhra has launched an R&D center in blockchain-related technologies to further enhance Blockchainbased systems for Smart Cities. According to the company, a Blockchain fundamentally deals with secure transactions using cryptographic keys and this development is in line with the company’s mission to develop cutting-edge technology that brings smarter governance for smart cities.

The company also plans to introduce solutions that will help various industries which require identity verification and authentication in conducting transactions across smart cities. eMudhra will also hire about 100 people to help accelerate efforts to bring about blockchainrelated solutions through its R&D center.

Airtel announces its online store as part of Project Next

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of its latest digital innovation – the Online Store [www. airtel.in/onlinestore] that will offer a range of premium smartphones with affordable down payments, instant credit verification and financing, and bundled monthly plans.

Airtel’s Online Store went LIVE with Apple’s iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus variants and the company plans to add devices from all the leading brands to the store’s offerings in the near future.

The monthly installments have a builtin high-end post-paid plan which offers 30GB data, unlimited calling (local, STD, national roaming), and Airtel Secure package that covers the device against any physical damage and offers cyber protection.

Cloudera powers Cargotec with Enterprise Data Hub

C

loudera has announced that CargotecOyj is using Cloudera Enterprise Data Hub to power IoT offering to enable predictive maintenance and develop insightful, data-driven services.

Cloudera, along with TCS has built a cloud-based IoT-as-aService platform that will usher in a new era of digital connectivity for the company’s cargo handling operations and enable operational excellence using machine learning.

Cargotec offers solutions and services

through various businesses in the areas of cargo and load handling that ensure

its customers continuous, reliable and sustainable performance. With sales of EUR3.5 billion in 2016, the company and its subsidiaries have delivered half a million loader cranes to customers.

LG India joins hands with Marg ERP

L

G Electronics India has tied up with Marg ERP business solution software provider to provide attractive offers on GST-compliant accounting, ERP and POS solution. With a vision to making technology available and affordable to all, LG, in association with MARG, is providing a 6-month free subscription worth Rs.7, 500/- of its full suite of ERP on LG PC on monitor. Moreover, after six months, the product can be

registered on a discount of 20% of the original price.

MARG ERP9+ solution also includes comprehensive online support for on-boarding and training for first-time users. This tie-up will provide MSMEs easy access to the required software and facilitate a seamless transition to GST. It will enable small businesses and entrepreneurs to choose from attractive offers of GST-compliant accounting, ERP and POS solutions.

Red Hat solutions will now be available on Alibaba Cloud

R

ed Hat and Alibaba Cloud will join forces to bring the power and flexibility of Red Hat’s open source solutions to Alibaba Cloud’s customers around the globe. “ O u r customers not only want greater performance, flexibility, security, and portability for their cloud initiatives; they also want the freedom of choice for their heterogeneous infrastructures. They want to be able to deploy their technologies of choice on their scalable infrastructure

of choice,” says Mike Ferris, Vice President, Technical Business Development and Business Architecture - Red Hat.

Alibaba Cloud is now part of the Red Hat Certified Cloud and Service Provider program, joining a group of technology industry leaders who offer Red Hat-tested and validated solutions that extend the functionality of Red Hat's broad portfolio of open source cloud solutions.

www.varindia.com

September 2017

17

ON THE RAMP

Palo Alto Networks enhances its Security Portfolio

P

alo Alto Networks has announced enhancements to its Traps advanced endpoint protection offering that

strengthen current ransomware prevention by monitoring for new techniques and ransomware behaviour and, upon detection, prevent the attack and resulting encryption of

data.

Traps offers effective ransomware protection and helps organizations avoid the business productivity losses associated with inaccessible data.

Ransomware attacks will continue to increase in frequency and sophistication for the foreseeable future, and with the new capabilities, Traps is better able to pre-emptively stop these attacks and protect our way of life in the digital age,” said Lee Klarich, Chief Product Officer, Palo Alto Networks.

Salesforce introduces Sales Cloud Einstein Forecasting

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alesforce has announced the next generation of Sales Cloud Einstein, bringing AI to every step of the sales cycle, from building pipeline and closing deals, to growing the business. With the new Einstein Forecasting, sales leaders gain visibility and intelligence to more accurately predict sales revenue at every stage in the sales cycle.

From the head of sales to the CFO, Einstein Forecasting delivers a breakthrough innovation that drives business predictability. Sales leaders

still rely upon incomplete spreadsheets and antiquated systems to forecast sales projections, resulting in inaccurate forecasts, underperformance and a disconnected business.

In fact, less than half of deals close as forecasted, leading to missed quotas for sales teams and revenue shortfalls.

In addition, Salesforce also introduced Einstein Opportunity Scoring and Einstein Email Insights, ensuring sales reps stay focussed on the most important deals.

Cisco introduces Cisco Intersight for UCS and HyperFlex

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isco has unveiled Cisco Intersight, a management and automation platform for Cisco Unified Computing System (Cisco UCS) and Cisco HyperFlex Systems, marking the start of a multiyear strategic program to provide customers with clear IT advantages that support their competitive business goals.

Cisco has invested years of R&D into software innovations to bridge the gaps. With the cost of an unplanned data center outage estimated at thousands of dollars

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October 2017

per minute, and the extraordinary costs of corporate security breaches, often due to human error, IT leaders welcome new advances in intelligent automation.

Customers are already participating in an engineering preview of the Intersight platform, connecting thousands of UCS and HyperFlex systems for testing and feedback.

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NTT Security VMware new offerings to empower brings in IT/ Cloud Provider Partners Mware has unveiled Cloud Infrastructure OT Integrated V new innovations technologies, operating in help VMware Cloud more than 110 countries.

Security Services toProvider partners migrate VMware Cloud Providers

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TT Security Corporation, has launched “IT/ OT Integrated Security Services”.

The new services will be taken to market globally through the NTT Group companies, Dimension Data, NTT Communications and NTT DATA, forming part of its suite of integrated services.

Jun Sawada, CEO, NTT Security, says, “In the era of IoT, cybersecurity incidents can cause huge impact and damage on enterprise business operations and society. In addition to conventional cybersecurity measures, OT Security measures will protect critical assets and ensure business continuity as part of a continuous approach to cybersecurity."

SAP introduces its Leonardo portfolio to boost digital transformation

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AP SE has announced a digital ecosystem with the SAP Leonardo portfolio exclusively for India. To fuel the trillion-dollar digital economy of India, SAP is collaborating with technology powerhouses to extend a holistic innovation system and initiatives across industries.

The announcement was made at the SAP Leonardo Executive Summit in Mumbai.

SAP Leonardo is a digital innovation system that brings together machine learning, IoT, blockchain, analytics and big data on SAP Cloud Platform using design thinking services.

SAP will enable companies to rapidly innovate and embed digital innovation into all their applications and business processes.

VMware workloads, expand service offerings to drive revenue and growth, lower cost through automation and more efficient operations, and create unique differentiation through VMware’s Cloud Provider program.

VMware Cloud Providers represent more than 4,000 partners building services using VMware

give customers the flexibility to choose the ideal cloud

provider based on the needs of the business and the needs of IT. Customers can select from a variety of offerings with the optimal set of services and expertise while also managing costs and selecting services.

Dell EMC strengthens its entrylevel SC series models

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ell EMC has declared that it has extended a full range of enterprise-grade capabilities to its entrylevel SC Series models, providing unprecedented access to advanced storage technology for businesses of all sizes and budgets. The affordable new Dell EMC SCv3000 arrays complete an end-to-end refresh of the overall SC portfolio, offering greater automation, integration and more shared capabilities with the larger SC Series products.

SCv3000 Series includes many of the key SC operating system features that have made SC9000, SC7020 and SC5020 popular with a diverse range of midrange storage customers. The SCv3000 hardware platform is also significantly upgraded compared to the previousgeneration SCv2000. New 6-core Intel processors, 2X the memory and 3X greater bandwidth result in a 50% performance boost, with tested maximums up to 270,000 IOPS.

Western Digital expands Mobile Memory Solution with SanDisk Android smartphones.

Dual Drive Khalid Wani, MD India,

W

estern Digital Corporation has launched its latest mobile memory solution for Android devices, the SanDisk Dual Drive. The new offering adds to the c o m p a n y ’s portfolio of mobile s t o r a g e solutions, a pen drive designed for Android smartphone users who want an easy, instant way to free up space on their OTG-enabled

Western Digital, said, “Our endeavour is to deliver the best and the most reliable products to consumers. The new SanDisk Dual Drive is yet another testimony of our commitment to the Indian consumers.

Paired with the SanDisk Memor y Zone app, we have an excellent solution to help users free up space and manage their photos, videos and files across their favourite devices.”

Everything you need to know to stop ransomware.

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Ransomware is a $1 billion dollar business that often evades traditional anti-malware.

Sophos InterceptX is proven to stop ransomware in its track by blocking unauthorized encryption of files.

Stop Ransomware with Sophos Intercept X 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: • Protects endpoints from ransomware attacks • Automatically rolls back encrypted file changes with no loss of data • Stops both local and remote file encryption

For more details visit www.sophos.com Tel: +91 79 66216838 Email: indiamarketing@sophos.com

www.varindia.com

September 2017

35

ON THE RAMP

Ricoh unveils new series of innovative projectors

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icoh India has launched its new series of innovative projectors – PJ S2440, PJ X2440 and PJ WX2440.

Compact, lightweight and extremely versatile, the projectors boast Ricoh’s advanced technology, functionality and reliability.

The entry-level projector, RICOH PJ S2440 can be used for big screens, still images, PowerPoint presentations and projections of desktop or computer screen. At a brightness of 3,000

lumens and a high contrast of 10000:1, this model doesn’t compromise on quality, thus promising outstanding performance.

With the PJ S2440, one can project images with SVGA resolution at up to 800 x 600 dpi with a 4:3 aspect ratio for easy viewing.

This model is simple to set up and use, weighs 2.6kg and comes with HDMI connectivity option.

GIGABYTE presents Z370 AORUS Motherboards

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I G A B Y T E

T E C H N O L O G Y has unveiled the new GIGABYTE Z370 AORUS motherboards based on the Intel Z370 chipset. These supercharged motherboards are equipped with a servergrade digital power design which fully support 8thgeneration Intel Core processors. The Z370 AORUS Motherboards are compatible with memory modules rated for 4133MHz. With unique features like an ESS Sabre DAC, Smart Fan 5 and RGB Fusion, there’s no

doubt why gamers turn to AORUS for the ultimate gaming motherboard.

“Following Intel‘s release of the Z370 chipset platform, GIGABYTE has designed a new, groundbreaking motherboard,” said Vincent Liu, Senior Associate VP of GIGABYTE’s Motherboard Business.

SonicWall announces new offerings to its Security portfolio

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onicWall has announced a range of advanced network security products and services that accelerate speed thresholds for its Automated Real-Time Breach Detection and Prevention Platform across wired, wireless and mobile networks.

SonicWall President and CEO Bill Conner said, “In a modern, hyper-connected world, there are no compromises.” He further added, “Our customers, and their end-users, expect the best in real-time security, performance and

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October 2017

analytics – regardless of network, device or physical location. This automated, real-time breach detection and prevention platform ensures organizations can build smart, consistent and sound security postures while meeting the speed, performance and cost-ofownership demands of today’s businesses and their users.”

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Oracle brings HPE makes available ProLiant Cloud service for for Microsoft Azure Stack ewlett Packard Data Center and Hybrid better Customer H E n t e r p r i s e Cloud, HPE India. “HPE (HPE) has announced and Microsoft have a shared Engagement general availability of HPE vision for making it easier

O

racle has announced Oracle Live Experience Cloud, a customer engagement service for mobile generation. The company said, with the mobile and digital landscape shaping the way customers interact with businesses, companies must quickly adapt to changing expectations to deliver frictionless, realtime, contextual experiences across channels.

“Nothing is more aggravating than dealing with a call centre or service desk where you are stuck in a long, dehumanized loop of menu options with a slow resolution,” said Doug Suriano, Senior VicePresident, General Manager, Oracle Communications.

Fujitsu introduces new solution in Hyperconverged Systems

F

ujitsu has announced a new solution to extend onpremises hyperconverged systems to the cloud. The Fujitsu Software Enterprise Service Catalog Manager (ESCM) bridges the gap between on-premises infrastructure and the cloud by enabling branded, multi-tenant, self-service portals for hybrid cloud services, with automated provisioning.

The introduction of ESCM to the SUSE partner catalog builds on the strategic alliance between Fujitsu and SUSE, where the two companies agreed to commit resources, from development to marketing and sales, within the opensource community to foster the development of hybrid cloud products.

ProLiant for Microsoft Azure Stack at Microsoft Ignite. It enables customers and service providers to run Azure-consistent services on HPE infrastructure in their own data centers to help simplify their hybrid IT environments.

“Our customers live in a complex hybrid world that requires tools to simplify and optimize their hybrid IT environment,” said Vikram K, Senior Director,

to manage hybrid clouds.

By extending our softwaredefined capabilities to Microsoft Azure Stack, we are simplifying and speeding-up deployment of on-premises cloud capabilities, enabling customers to succeed in their digital transformation initiatives.”

SUSE launches Enterprise Storage 5 with new capabilities

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USE has introduced SUSE Enterprise Storage 5 with enhanced ease of management, improved performance and expanded features, including new disk-to-disk backup capabilities for enterprise customers.

SUSE Enterprise Storage 5 will enable IT organizations to accelerate innovation and reduce costs by efficiently transforming their enterprise storage infrastructures.

"Every generation of enterprise infrastructure innovation is now being built on open source,"

said Gerald Pfeifer, VicePresident of Products and Technology Programs, SUSE. He further added, "SUSE is expert at both contributing to and using upstream innovation to create enterprise-grade, secure solutions that can be combined with other technologies to best address customer needs.

This approach applied to software-defined storage delivers highly scalable solutions that radically reduce storage costs in terms of both capital and operations expense."

ECS Elitegroup unveils Z370Lightsaber Motherboard

E

l i t e g r o u p Computer System (ECS) has launched the new Z370-Lightsaber motherboard supporting Intel 8th-generation Core “Coffee Lake” LGA 1151 desktop processors.

ECS Elitegroup Z370Lightsaber is built in the ATX form-factor, supporting up to 64GB of dual channel DDR4 memory rated at 3200MHz+.

On the power and audio side, the motherboard comes with DiGi Power – Digital power designs with durable chokes and MOSFETs, offering more

stable power delivery and more stable overclocking across the board, and Superior Audio – featuring Realtek ALC 1150 8-channel (7.1) HD Audio along with independent power delivery for the audio chip to avoid electromagnetic interference and golden audio connectors to provide an exceptional audio experience.

www.varindia.com

September 2017

49

VOICE-N-DATA

Zyxel presents Multy X to deliver fast WIFI coverage

Z

yxel has announced Multy X, a tri-band AC3000 whole-home WiFi Mesh System designed to provide fast, reliable WiFi coverage throughout the home.

The Multy X utilizes WiFi mesh network technology deliver seamless coverage throughout the home and eliminate WiFi dead spots. Multiple Multy X nodes work together to provide a single network that envelops homes of all sizes in reliable WiFi coverage. Multy X nodes work together as a single network to deliver full

bandwidth and speed to the connected devices.

Multy X uses the third band for the overhead communications between nodes that robs dual-band solutions of bandwidth and reduces the overall performance. Multy X provides the full bandwidth for connected devices on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands to ensure maximum performance and reliability.

BSNL inks deal with Aeris over IoT solutions

B

harat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has entered into an agreement with Internet of Things (IoT) solutions provider Aeris to jointly tap the IoT market in India.

Together the companies will offer packaged IoT solutions and services to enterprises, small and medium businesses and public sector undertakings among other segments in India.

Shri Anupam Shrivastava, Chairman and Managing Director, BSNL says, “As a leading Indian telecom player, BSNL

has taken many steps to leverage technology to launch new services in line with the changing needs of our customers. IoT is an enabling technology that bears the potential to take India to a whole new level of development and our vision is to play a significant part in this endeavor.

Our tie-up with Aeris Communications is our first step in this direction.

In the days to come we will, through this partnership, translate the potential of IoT into tangible benefits on the ground.”

Samsung presents Bixby in India

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amsung has a n n o u n c e d availability of Bixby voice capabilities in India, allowing consumers to experience a smarter way to interact with their smartphones.

Bixby, Samsung’s intelligent interface, will enable consumers in India to get things done faster and easier.

Commenting on the same, Asim Warsi, Senior Vice-President, Mobile Business, Samsung India, said, “At Samsung, we listen to our consumers

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October 2017

and bring in meaningful innovations that help make their lives better. With Bixby, the phone adapts to you and not the other way around. It is a smarter way to use your phone and

get more done. Keeping in mind the diversity in Indian accents and our commitment to ‘Make for India’, Bixby has been optimized to understand Indian accents.”

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Huawei partners ALE enhances its mobile with Airtel campus solution

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aving the way for 5G realizations in India, Huawei, together with Bharti Airtel, has recently announced the country’s first Massive MIMO technology implementation.

The Massive MIMO solution can potentially increase spectrum efficiency by six to ten times, significantly decreasing networking costs.

Huawei released its 5G-oriented mobile bearer solution X-Haul. This solution has four core values: providing flexible access capabilities that can match the scenario of any site, implementing agile network operations based on cloud architecture; enabling new service innovation through end-to-end network slicing, and supporting smooth evolution from 4G bearer networks to 5G bearer networks.

Nokia empowers Idea Cellular to meet bandwidth demand

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okia has announced that it will help Idea Cellular meet ever-increasing bandwidth demand by deploying Nokia’s 1830 Photonic Services Switch (PSS) based Wavelength Division Multiplexing solution.

Anil Tandan, CTO, Idea Cellular, said: “With the roll-out of Idea’s panIndia wireless broadband network in the last one year, we have witnessed massive data growth leading to high bandwidth demand.

We have a long standing partnership with Nokia and we are confident that Nokia will bring the same expertise and commitment in deploying optical network as it does in Radio, Core and IP domains. This collaboration marks a new phase in our relationship, and we look forward to leveraging Nokia’s strength."

A

LE has introduced new products for the mobile campus. New access points, edge switches and network management capabilities create an optimized n e t w o r k infrastructure to accommodate the digital tr a n sfo r ma tio n of businesses, including next-generation mobility services and IoT. The showcase of the expanded AlcatelLucent Enterprise Mobile

Campus solution family is the new Alcatel-Lucent OmniAccess Stellar WLAN family of products.

Stellar access points use a controller-less architecture with distributed control intelligence providing more reliability, better scalability and reduced cost.

GfK study finds one in ten of India’s internet population is hyperconnected smartphone.

“This study

I

mproving internet infrastructure across India, rising ownership of smartphones, and its ubiquitous usage have made the mobile device the gateway of choice for the internet. A recent GfK study, focussed on the top users of the country’s internet population, the hyperconnected consumer is defined as someone who owns a smartphone, at least one other connected device, accesses the internet daily, and spends more than four hours daily on the

has uncovered an emerging category of connected consumer who is embracing and actively opting for digital modes of lifestyle,” highlighted Nikhil Mathur, Managing Director for South Asia, GfK. “This evolution of the ‘hyper’ segment takes consumers’ connectivity level up by a notch, proving that digitization is indeed taking place at a rapid pace, with smartphones being instrumental in the process.”

Telecom sector facing pressure: Arundhati Bhattacharya State Bank of India in a recent report has commented that the telecom sector has been staggering under huge stress and the bank was doing extra provisioning for this.

According to a published report, when asked about whether TRAI's decision to reduce the IUC charges would affect present operators like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea which were already feeling the heat of Reliance Jio's disruptive move.

SBI chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya

said, "The telecom sector is undergoing a lot of stress and the bank is extra provisioning due to this."

Bhattacharya said, "We have probably reached the bottom. Slippages are under control although new sectors like telecom were showing stress."

www.varindia.com

October 2017

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CHANNEL BUZZ

Rashi Peripherals organizes MultiCity Enterprise Partner Meet

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ashi Peripherals, in association with Intel, has concluded multi-city Enterprise Partner Meet. The meets organized

in Ahmadabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, and Bengaluru were aimed to increase awareness about Intel’s Data Center Blocks (DCBs) offering among Enterprise partners.

The increasing IT spending in the Enterprise segment across the domain is boosting the server market in India. Considering enterprises’ need for fully integrated servers that cater to the variety of business demands, Intel has introduced Data Center Blocks.

DCBs are fully validated blocks

that address a variety of business challenges and deliver performance, reliability, and quality for solutions to handle customers’ cloud, HPC, and business-critical workloads.

During the event, Rashi Peripherals explained market prospects in the server market in India and business scope in high potential regions in the country. Rajesh Goenka, VicePresident, Sales & Marketing, said, “Rashi Peripherals is taking lead in developing Enterprise business in India and these partner meets are a part of the same strategy. We are very happy with partners’ response and their keenness to learn and experiment with new solutions. This is also a new business opportunity for all.”

The four-city partner meet concluded on a very positive note where partners got new insights into the server business.

Kaspersky Lab conducts training module ‘Secure Hands’

K

aspersky Lab has conducted three ‘Kaspersky Secure Hands’ training events to help engineers stay equipped to fight the newest cyber threats. These were held in Chennai, Cochin and Mumbai in association with Kaspersky’s partner, Ecaps Computers.

Altaf Halde, MD, South Asia – Kaspersky Lab said, “Over the years, we’ve learned that time is everything while responding to online threats. In a bid to equip our partners with the knowledge of the latest risks and how to use our solutions to fight them, we curated the Kaspersky Secure Hands module. Training our partners in using it ensures that we get the best results for the security programs we have, saving our customers huge

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October 2017

costs. It was an invigorating session and we are sure the participants greatly benefitted from it. Every threat that can be neutralised through these sessions, is a victory for all of us.”

The training sessions were conducted all through September, viz. September 8 in Chennai, September 15 in Cochin and in Mumbai on September 21, 2017. The sessions were for handpicked participants, with over 40 companies joining in the three sessions.

Kaspersky Lab specially designed the module along with Ecaps, to make threat identification and resolution as simple as possible. The training covered both, endpoint and nonendpoint products. The daylong event covered the newest, preliminary and advanced risks that companies can run into. The participants were also explained how Kaspersky’s products would help them manage these exposures.

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Dassault Systèmes conducts SIMULIA Regional User Meeting (RUM) India 2017

D

assault Systèmes organised its 13th annual Regional User Meeting (RUM) for SIMULIA community in Bengaluru.

The company revealed that the SIMULIA RUM 2017 focused on addressing customer requirements of Multiscale-Multiphysics simulation solutions for next level of product development and offering flexible cloudbased licensing for customers.

3DEXPERIENCE on the Cloud is a flexible, fast, convenient way to scale up simulation workflows and give them broader reach within the customer organization.

Dassault Systèmes SIMULIA RUM 2017 is a part of a global series of meetings that runs from the end of September through mid-November worldwide. The conference provided an invaluable platform for industry and research community to learn how the latest simulation technology and methods can harmonize product, nature and life. The meeting saw participation of over five hundred delegates and featured case studies from over twenty customers spanning a wide gamut of industry relevant topics like multi-disciplinary optimization, test correlation, material modeling and light-weighting. This year’s theme emphasized on the SIMULIA community that has been growing

exponentially innovating their ways through complex and challenging problems.

The 3DEXPERIENCE playground showcased at the SIMULIA RUM 2017 highlighted how the 3DEXPERIENCE platform provides a unified interface for a multidisciplinary end-to-end additive manufacturing workflow.

Experts from the SIMULIA CoE (Center of Excellence) shared their insights on new technology acquisitions. They discussed a wide range of topics, such as durability, process automation, design optimization, multibody simulation, as well as SIMULIA solutions on the 3DEXPERIENCE platform.

SIMULIA RUM 2017 ended with a lot of promise to push the limits of simulation in today’s connected world driving fast-paced innovations that improve everyday life.

Fujitsu kicks off its World Tour 2017 in India

T

he Fujitsu World Tour is on the road again for the 10th consecutive year, this year highlighting how Fujitsu is partnering with customers to cocreate the digital future. In 2017, the biggest ever Fujitsu World Tour is extended into Asia for the first time and began the Indian chapter today. The theme is Digital Cocreation, focusing on how Fujitsu works in tandem with customers to connect the digital dots and support business growth. In total, Fujitsu expects to welcome more than 14,000 attendees.

Fujitsu addresses these digitalization challenges headon, with the Fujitsu World Tour demonstrating innovative, holistic solutions that encompass and enhance existing technologies and investments – grouped into themes such as Workplace Anywhere, Hyperconnected Business and Infrastructure for the Digital World, and addressing industry

megatrends like Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence and the Internet of Things.

This year World Tour focuses on immersing customers in the exciting opportunities presented by teaming up with Fujitsu to co-

create future technology solutions.

As well as gaining inspiration from keynotes by Fujitsu executives, customers and partners, Fujitsu World Tour attendees can become co-creationists by interacting with demonstration technologies offering creative approaches for different business scenarios, including end-to-end solutions for vertical sectors such as healthcare, manufacturing, transport, retail and banking.

FACE TO FACE

InterraIT at the forefront of digital transformation How has InterraIT performed in the enterprise and government sector in FY2016-17?

We faced challenges due to tough economic conditions. Overall, however, we performed well in FY 2016-2017.

Please name some of the project orders bagged

by InterraIT in FY 2016-17?

In FY 2016-17 we have a couple of new projects as well as renewals from existing clients e.g. Large Application support projects, ServiceNow implementations and support, AWS migration and support, Mainframe modernization and digital transformation projects.

How will InterraIT succeed in Idea Economy and what will be the role of InterraIT for its global success?

We are living in the age of relentless disruption driven by technology, connectivity and new business models. The ability to turn an idea into a business through technology is more plausible today than it ever was. Organizations need to realize that each of them has to act like a technology company – they can no longer escape the evolving technology landscape and aggressive competition in the midst of the Idea Economy.

InterraIT can help them beat their competition with advanced technology solutions.

InterraIT’s long and successful engagements with global customers & start-ups across North America have provided us with the requisite thought process and expertise to fully harness these disruptive technologies (Cloud, Automation & Social) and avoid the pitfalls while transforming our clients’ businesses.

Would you tell us about some interesting solutions from InterraIT which is of much needed in India?

InterraIT has groomed technical personnel and developed practical solutions in the field of IoT, Cyber Security, Fintech, Big Data, Automation and Cloud. Our strong competencies in these emerging technologies have led us to solve problems in Digital inclusion, financial integration of Banks & SMEs and E-governance – the much needed solutions for “Developed India”.

How big is the datacenter, IoT, Intelligent edge and cloud opportunity in India? How is InterraIT positioned to leverage the Indian market?

These are emerging technologies and are catching up fast in the Indian domestic market. The public cloud market is slated to touch USD 1.8 Billion in 2017, while the data center market is estimated to reach USD 4.5 Billion by 2018 and IoT should catch up to USD 9 Billion by 2020. These are rough estimates but looking at them, we can expect a sizeable business for InterraIT from emerging technologies in the domestic market. This is an exciting time for us since it provides us with the opportunity to leverage our global experience in these technologies with startups and technology vendors abroad.

We are building solutions on these technologies and have delivered business transformation projects solving the most intriguing business problems for clients in North America & Europe. Our strong competency and past experience provides us with a strong footing in the domestic markets and we look forward to tapping it.

How big is the services market in India? How is InterraIT positioned to leverage the Indian market?

According to Nasscom, India’s IT-BPM domestic market has reached US$ 38 Billion in FY 2017. This presents us with a huge opportunity in the Indian domestic market.

We at InterraIT have always been at the forefront of Digital initiatives and have helped Organizations globally with Digital Transformation initiatives. With past record of having delivered path breaking technology

Ranjan Guha, President, North America - Interra Information Technologies tells VARINDIA of what he thinks about the current opportunities in India and how is his company positioned to leverage them with help of its competencies, solutions and most importantly its strong legacy in the North American and European markets solutions for global clients successfully across North America supported with our advanced CoE (Center of Excellence) for Digital Technologies at our Noida campus, we intend to develop and offer similar technology solutions for the domestic markets that make a difference to India.

Can you share some of the global success story, how you are looking forward to leverage?

Here are a few recent success stories where we delivered immense business value for our clients: • We undertook a Business Transformation project for a North America based client which involved Legacy & Business Transformation with solutions based on AWS, Data Analytics & Cloud. The project concluded with a marked decrease in IT costs, optimal utilization of the cloud and re-vitalizing the client’s business model.

• Another engagement we had was for a North American Automotive giant which involved Cloud, Mobility, UI/UX, Data center & Mobile security solutions. The project outcome helped simplify user acquisition, vastly improved process transparency and provided greater control to the user during the customer journey. This had remarkable effect on the clients’ customer acquisition, conversion and revenues from the application.

• Another engagement was with one of the largest furniture manufacturers in North America and involved deployment of Analytics, Business Intelligence, Machine Learning and AMS solutions for the client.

The complete technology solution helped improved reporting solution, timely delivery of decision making intelligence reports and Improved CRM. This led to a quantifiable improvement in product launches and revenue for the client. n Samrita Baruah samrita@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

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VAR CORPORATE

Lenovo DCG visions to be the Most-Trusted Advisor for Partners L

enovo has always been known for its PCs, servers and reliability. But as the market is transitioning, the company is also shifting its focus from PCs and servers to data center solutions. With its solutions like ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem, a dedicated sales team, after-sales service support, Lenovo has positioned itself as a dedicated data center solutions company. With the legacy of reliability, Lenovo in this segment wants to address the pain points of its customers.

This, in turn, has broadened the opportunities for its partners as well.

“We bought IBM business about three years ago. We are one organization where we have PC and enterprise business. We believed that we could have a combined workforce that could actually sell both PCs and servers. Hence, we were known as a PC company. The market transformed, the customer wants more than just a server and we realize it very quickly. In Lenovo, when we do execute something, we realize that maybe this is not the right strategy, we look at it very carefully and we recalibrate and it is about us going dedicated. Today, we have a dedicated organization under Lenovo which just focusses on data center group. This is a very big change. So the data center group has its own sales, support, technical resources.

We also wanted to make sure that our people are able to articulate the value propositions of our solutions. We have launched two new brands – ThinkAgile and ThinkSystem,” says Sumir Bhatia, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Data Center Group, Lenovo.

Lenovo wants to take its pedigree of reliability for servers forward with building solutions, especially for the data center market.

“The market is transitioning and the data center is transitioning from workload to workload. What it does to us is taking that pedigree and that reliability that our servers are known for and building it specifically for the solution market,” asserts Vivek Sharma, Managing Director, Lenovo Technologies India.

Talking about the solutions, Sumir adds, “ThinkSystem is our standalone servers and ThinkAgile is our software-defined data centers.

This really talks about our entire solutions and with partnership with software vendors, ISVs, this brings a complete solution to our customers.

It is all about customer’s pain points and how we can remove them. From the server perspective, we are the number-one company for the last four years from reliability. From the system perspective, it has the lineage that we have in bringing in reliability. It is also about bringing the entire solution whether it is ERP, softwaredefined, cloud, hybrid solution. It is a big focus and a huge opportunity for our partners.”

Data center market growth

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There are good reasons for the data center growth in the Indian market. The factors that are playing a major role as a booster are digitization, data center expansion, smart city projects and also mid-market which is fast adopting it.

“IDC called out India to be the second fastest-growing market from the data center perspective in Asia-Pacific. There are a couple of points that play up to the government’s focus on digitization, data center expansion, smart city projects, etc. There is a vibrant midmarket. From the SAP perspective, SAP HANA is the fastest-growing market and that growth is coming from mid-market. We have seen a lot of uptake for software-defined and hyperconverged infrastructure. From a traditional VDI perspective, if the enterprises are using it whereas in the midmarket we see consolidation of the computing storage. It is playing out fairly well from India perspective,” says Vivek.

Lenovo is observing a pull in the data center market from areas like software-defined data center, hyperconverged, HPC, AI, and also hyper scale. Although traditional on-premise data center is on the decline, it still acquires a large part of the market. Lenovo is focussing and working on the growth areas in this segment.

“There is growth in the data center market, but where the growth we are seeing is in the softwaredefined data center area, hyperconverged which is part of software-defined data center, HPC, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and also on the hyper scale side. The traditional on- premise data center market is on the decline, but it is still a very large part of the overall market. We, at Lenovo, have our business units which focus on these growth areas. We focus on hyper-scale, software-defined data center, HPC, artificial intelligence and also data center infrastructure. Around this we have our services,” explains Sumir.

Addressing hyperconverged infrastructure demand

There is a growing need for hyperconverged infrastructure in the market and Lenovo is addressing this need with its broad portfolio of products and trained teams who work with customers. To address this need in the market, working with the right partner is also very important, who understands the solutions to offer to the customers.

“With the fantastic and best in the industry portfolio, we have teams that are trained and work with our customers. We have a lot of partnership because hyperconverged is not just about infrastructure but also about the application on the top. Another one is working with the right partners that want to take advantage of this broad portfolio that can also bring in solutions or applications that they are strong in, join together

"The traditional onpremise data-center market is on the decline, but it is still a very large part of the overall market. We, at Lenovo, have our business units which focus on these growth areas. We focus on hyper-scale, softwaredefined data center, HPC, artificial intelligence and also data-center infrastructure. Around this we have our services,” explains Sumir Bhatia, Vice President, Asia-Pacific, Data Center Group, Lenovo and take it to the customers. We are one of the fastest-growing hyperconverged infrastructure organizations globally. We are adding new customers and for us this is a big focus area,” states Sumir.

Go-to-market strategy (DCG)

The major focus of the company is to become the most-trusted advisor in the data center market which includes software-defined data center, hyperconverged, traditional data center infrastructure along with HPC. “Primarily for us, it is to become the most-trusted advisor from the data center perspective. This could be on the transition

and transformation of data center and also software-defined, hyperconverged to a large extent because that stands both mid-market and enterprise. The other thing would be the traditional data center infrastructure. Those two areas combined with HPC are the focus. HPC is moving from traditional university domain to enterprise. It depends from vertical to vertical but we have seen a very clear shift in the market,” says Vivek.

As the major part of Lenovo’s revenue comes from the partners, the go-to-market strategy for the company is with partners. It is about collaborating with the right partners and offering the relevant solutions to relevant customers.

“95% of our business is through partners.

So very clearly, our go-to-market is with our partners. Again, we want to make sure that we are very close to our customers. There is a huge transformation in the market – digital transformation, cloud, etc. The go-to-market is primarily partners, but it is about developing and working out with right partners, offering

software-defined. We see government is bringing efficiency which is very helpful,” highlights Sumir.

Service support

Customer requirements and service support are most important elements for Lenovo. To make things easier for its customers, the company has only one helpline number for its hyperconverged infrastructure. Also, it is introducing premier support for its latest offering ThinkAgile. Lenovo is committed to enhance the customer’s service support experience.

“For hyperconverged, software like Nutanix , we have one number for service support. We are also launching a premier support for our ThinkAgile solutions. Customer requirements and support is very critical for Lenovo. So all this is available here in the country and we continue to enhance it,” Sumir Further explaining it, Vivek puts forward, “Primarily, one is, of course, the call comes to us but we also have service partners. So there

About the Latest Products: • ThinkSystem is designed to plug into existing infrastructure and adapt to workloads.

• ThinkAgile is a series of integrated, pre-built and pre-tested systems that are automated. ThinkAgile SX is for the Microsoft Azure Stack and there are ThinkAgile SX rack systems.

• Lenovo's ThinkSystem and ThinkAgile systems are also designed to be flexible as an enterprise's workloads change.

• The company is launching the ThinkSystem DS2200, DS4200 and DS6200. The three systems run on the latest Intel Xeon processors. Lenovo's DS2200 is a SAN array for small to mid-sized businesses. The DS4200 is a SAN array for branch offices. The DS6200 is a SAN array for I/O intensive applications.

• On the networking front, Lenovo also launched a series of switches, the ThinkSystem NE1032T, NE1072T, NE2572T and NE10032.

the right solution for the right segment. So we are trying to segmentize whether its enterprise, government, SMB, mid-market and also looking at what are the right sort of solutions that these partners can work with to go bring it out,” describes Sumir.

Game-changer Verticals

Lenovo is focussed on providing solutions around cloud, software-defined data center with the advantage of Nutanix HX series as these solutions are being adopted by various verticals like government, BFSI, etc. Mid-market is becoming one of the leading segments, which is adopting these solutions and services and leveraging it.

“Our focus is looking at a lot of horizontal solutions like cloud, software-defined data center leveraging Nutanix HX series, software-defined storage, etc. We take these solutions horizontally into various verticals. A lot of verticals are adopting these compared to others. We are seeing BFSIs which have to adopt change as customers are demanding it. We are also seeing a lot of mid-market leapfrogging and taking a lot of solutions and services around the softwaredefined data center and leveraging it. We are also finding government organizations looking at consolidation. We are working with some partners to see that government is consolidating their data using hyperconverged infrastructure,

are specific community who would actually go and execute on the ground. The partnership is not only from the sale perspective but also from service.”

Vision and Roadmap

Lenovo visions to be the most-trusted partner for customers. So the company will continue to come up with innovative solutions to remove the pain points of the customers. The company is optimistic with the new partner programme that it has introduced which addresses three areas so that partners can be productive.

“Our vision is to be the number-one trusted partner for our customers. We are going to make sure that we are providing the right solution for our customers and not sell something that they do not want as we do not have any legacy.

We have recently launched 14 new servers, seven new storage devices, five new networking solutions with our new transition. Our portfolio has 142 new record benchmarks. From the solution perspective, we will continue to come up with new solutions based on our partnerships to resolve the customer pain points. We are very excited about the opportunities and the new partner programme that we have launched. It is very simple. It covers three areas where partners can earn. It is very simplistic as partners want to sell simple solutions. We have a global dedicated DCG partner programme. The three areas where

“The market is transitioning and the data center is transitioning from workload to workload. What it does to us is taking that pedigree and that reliability that our servers are known for and building it specifically for the solution market,” asserts Vivek Sharma, Managing Director, Lenovo Technologies India a partner can earn – growth (revenue target), acquisition (acquiring new customers) and the last is solution set. If the partner sells any solution that Lenovo has identified, then the partner can get incremental incentives,” mentions Sumir.

He further adds, “We have realigned our DCG business around five segments that target several of the largest and fastest-growing market opportunities to strengthen our ability to be an end-to-end, customer-centric organization – Data Center Infrastructure, High-performance Computing and Artificial Intelligence, Hyperscale, Software-defined Data Center and Services.”

In conclusion, Vivek adds, “We are the fastest-growing supercomputing company in the world and we intend to be the number one by 2020.” n

Aparna Mullick aparna@varindia.com

www.varindia.com

October 2017

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FACE TO FACE

“Threat landscape is getting more sophisticated and pervasive” In a chat with VARINDIA, Joergen Jakobsen, Senior VP & MD, AsiaPacific and Japan, Sophos, mentions that cybersecurity is the fastestgrowing segment and the company sees huge opportunity in the Indian market. The cybercrimes are becoming more sophisticated and structured with each passing day

T

he recent cyber-attacks that took place across the globe have been a wake-up call for all the companies to pull up their socks and undertake necessary measures to combat threats. Sophos solutions have been successful in identifying the threats in recent attacks for its customers.

“For cybersecurity it is a huge opportunity.

The market segment itself is growing fast. It has a lot of momentum because in the last couple of quarters there has been some very high-profile breaches like WannaCry and such other attacks that have been a wake-up call for many customers that they need to do something for cybersecurity.

For Sophos specifically, it has been a challenging environment because the solutions that we have are playing very well in the case of ransomware, for example. The solutions that we have built are very easy for partners to deploy at customer’s place,” says Joergen.

Sophos is a 100% partner-driven company and it designs its products for partners as it becomes easier for the channel to sell solutions.

Due to the vast geographical arena and to reach a broad customer base, Sophos works through partners in India. The opportunity in the AsiaPacific market is immense as everybody is shifting to digital enterprise and is interrupted by cybercrimes.

“So, in Asia-Pacific we sell 100% through partners and we design our products in many cases for partners so they can easily sell them to customers. That is why there is a lot over a couple of years in Asia-Pacific because of places like India. A lot of businesses are done by partners because of geographical requirement in India. So the way to get to a very broad customer base is through partners with products that are easy to deploy. It is always right from the vendor’s point of view to enhance our products, build better security products for customers and I foresee that it continues because one of the things that are happening on the line is everybody is moving to digital enterprise.

To reach every customer, Sophos has a wide partner base and the company also focusses on training and enablement of them. The company invests significantly in partner enablement.

“In India, we have a broad partner ecosystem because geographically it is a very large country.

So we try to balance two things – one is having

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a partner coverage so that our customers all over India will have a partner in their proximity. The other thing which we are working on is depth of the partners, the level of expertise that the partners have and we have a very significant amount of investment around enablement of the partners. So we do a lot in training and enablement, motivating partners in terms of promotion, incentives, etc. We are quite unique in Sophos for the fact that there is a customer design centre where we develop products. We also have a partner design centre. So we spend time understanding the requirements of partners for them to be successful,” elaborates Joergen.

Security landscape Cybercrimes are becoming more sophisticated and well structured. There are provisions easily available to conduct an organized crime. The most common ways of attacks in recent days are ransomware and hacking.

“Cybercrime is getting relatively well structured and organized. It is not difficult to go into the dark web where it is almost an organized crime, you can go into certain websites and with what is available there you can go and attack companies. The people who would do it on our behalf will take a share of what you get in ransom. The threat landscape is getting more sophisticated, pervasive and easier to do. A lot of attacks that we see today are around either ransomware because that is the good way for cybercriminals to monetize the effort or hacking/ stealing information,” describes Joergen.

To combat the cyber threats, from the technology point of view the cybersecurity companies required to come up with more sophisticated solutions. Sophos is uniquely positioned as its broad portfolio provides security at both endpoints and network.

“To protect customers from these attacks, we need to up our game which means from the technology point of view our technology becomes sophisticated. We look at behaviours that are happening and the latest thing about Sophos products are, the companies that enjoy artificial intelligence and machine learning which will be able to automate at a higher level some of these things. Sophos is actually unique that we have a broad portfolio of security products at endpoints and also at network. If there is

a problem happening on one product then that product will communicate to all the other products and identify the breach and inform the firewall and it will communicate with the encryption tool. All of those habits are integrated and automated,” states Joergen.

Digitalization, risks and measures While India is becoming a digital society, every individual and organization should consider them as risk and this is the best way to think about cybersecurity. When people go through revolution, they only look at the opportunities but do not think about creating a safe and secure infrastructure.

“The Indian Government is aspiring to become a digital society and a lot of initiatives are being taken in that direction both at the government and enterprise level. Everybody – be it the government entities, customers or individuals – should consider them at risk because it’s the best way to start thinking about cybersecurity. It has been a couple of years when internet was taking off and people look at the opportunity when they go through a kind of revolution going into digital world, they really do not think about creating a safe infrastructure at the same time. So I think it’s a good advice to everybody to start thinking that they are vulnerable,” explains Joergen.

Discussing about the measures, he says, “To talk about what people can do to protect themselves better, I often talk about the three Ps – People, how do people look at this, I think everybody needs to consider that the company has the responsibility of security of the company. The first defence will be to create awareness among the people of the risks. The second P is Patching software. It is relatively easy but not always done. If you are running a software, then you need to patch the software to the latest version because in the new version a number of security risks are taken care of by the vendors. The third is Protection. There are a number of products and technologies that help protect against cybercrimes. In Sophos, we have a suite of those technologies. The companies need to have cybersecurity strategy to protect themselves.” n

Aparna Mullick aparna@varindia.com

FACE TO FACE

Infor eyes on Tier 2 cities for growth Kindly brief about Infor.

Infor is world’s third largest enterprises application software company and we are leaders in cloud applications. Our major differentiation in the market is we develop software which is industry specific with last mile functionality, connects to the last destination of customers and which also is science driven. So if you put all aspects together we are a clear differentiator when we bring our application to the market place and in today’s age if anyone wants to do business with somebody he has to understand customer needs very specifically. Everything is getting consolidated, every aspect of the business is getting more and more complex and customers are demanding simpler services. So if that is what the world is heading to, it is important for the companies like us to focus on the complexities and deliver them simply. And it is the only way we can do that when we have a specific industry focused application and adaptability of these applications.

What are the solutions you offer?

We started with providing solutions for manufacturing segment and then we moved on to supply-chain management which is warehouse management. Then we acquired a company called GT Nexus which is into the network side making sure that all constituents of the economy talk to each other seamlessly and then we got into the business intelligent and recently we have announced our AI initiative (Artificial Intelligent) called Coleman and that is the major milestone in Infor in 2017 after we announced our cloud strategy of CloudSuite in 2014. So AI is going to change the world. We say that AI now is the new user interface (UI). So these are the areas that we are specializing in and we want to make sure that all these things that we bring to the table makes the customer’s life easier. The customer’s job is to run business, our job is to make sure that the IT part of that business run effectively.

What are the focused verticals in India for Infor?

So from India standpoint, manufacturing has become an evident growth market. Everybody is talking about how to make in India, the government is incentivizing organizations for that, whether it is aerospace in defence, helping the companies to move from very small business to medium size business to an enterprise level business, techs start-ups. As per McKinsey report of last year, 71% of India’s GDP is contributed by 49 Tier 2 cities like Ludhiana, Tirupur, Chandigarh and if you look at what the government is saying and the data coming in it is making a lot of sense. These are the cities that are boosting the growth of India. So that’s where our strategy is because fortunately we are at the right place at the right time, even though we have been in India for last 20 years. With the new acquisitions and the strategy we have which is very industry specific, these industries are overlapping from where our strategies is. We have clear focus now in going into specific verticals in specific industries which are in Tier 2 cities and I am confident that there will be the next major growth face within India. From last one financial year we have done a triple growth year on year and also on quarter on quarter as compared to last quarter of last financial year. We have just put the right focus in place and it is helping us to ramp up our business.

How innovation is helping Infor to grow?

For us innovation is very important. We are constantly investing into acquiring businesses which augment our technology initiatives. If you look at Infor’s mantra, it is all about industry specific and science driven software for years now. AI is a complementary part now. Business is getting complex and they are consolidating and the customers are demanding a surplus and easier service. AI is going to help us in that.

That is the announcement which we did in a customer forum in 2017 and it is named as Coleman. It is going to take us to the next level.

What is the Digital Transformation strategy for Infor?

In a chat with VARINDIA, Ashish Dass, Vice-President & Managing Director, South Asia, Infor upholds that AI is going to change the world and the company is focusing on it. He highlights that the major growth in India is coming from the Tier 2 cities and it has a strategy around it. Dass also mentions that digital transformation is very important for the company and it sees India as a huge opportunity Digital transformation strategy for Infor is critical and it’s been there for a pretty long time. And if you look at the digital revolution in India people are talking about, we want digital transformation from two aspects – one, improving efficiency within our process. Second, taking a brand to the next level and the only way to do is digitization. So our strategy is in line with that. We have got our own digital initiative which is called Hook&Loop. So we are doing larger products with companies and we are doing that in India also where larger organizations are talking to us for the digital initiatives and saying that if we can use that digital transformation from an end user perspective and not just from IT perspective, that will create a lot of difference.

How do you see India market as an opportunity?

I am excited with India and it is a place where the action is, so there are two three simple parameters. India as a country is growing and the government is spending right amount of money in transforming India from where it was five-six years back to where it is today. Manufacturing sector is also growing and that is our key area of growth. India’s contribution to the region is very substantial and it is a main focus area for this sub-continent by Infor. n

www.varindia.com

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VAR SPECIAL

SPLURGE ON

GREAT DEALS

THIS FESTIVE SEASON

This festive season, technology gadgets are witnessing enormous demand with major brands lining up special discounts on their products to woo their customers and pinning up big hopes on generating huge sales-

A

s another festive season winds up, the new deals and discount scheme has made headway in the market to meet the festive season demands. Festive season is the time when vendors and dealers come up with lucrative deals, offers major discounts, schemes and other such benefits on their products to lure their customers to get more profits.

Customers on their part hold a sentimental approach towards the purchase of this time, as they consider such purchases auspicious for their family and wealth.

On these festival days, the Indian market witnesses an evident growth due to the seasonal impact on various products.

Gadgets generate more leads...

In context of the market, the IT & Telecom gadgets and electronics in particular spurts up and witnesses a boom in sales each year due to change or development of new technology.

Talking on this trend and current consumer behaviour, Chandrahas Panigrahi, CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India says, “These days, technology is playing the multifunctional role in people’s lives, it has led customers to unveil a demand for more from their technology companions. Keeping this in mind it is expected that demand for personal technology devices to continue to grow this year as Indian consumer are becoming more tech-savvy and knowledgeable.”

Agreeing on this, Ritu Gupta, Director

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– Marketing, Dell India shares, “Customers have been upbeat about bringing home the gift of technology this auspicious season, as they recognize and accept the various ways in which technology is woven into their lives.

With a deep desire to be an integral part of the celebrations, as customers soak in the spirit of festivities, Dell has curated exciting offers across a diverse portfolio, ensuring that the offer caters to customers across different age groups and user segments.”

Expectations from this season....

The festal days are also the time when brands witness high growth revenue. With a visible increase in new launches and marketing activities, the fourth quarter generally tends to generate more revenue for the companies that contribute a large share in total profit.

Subsequently, the enterprises also hold large expectations from this season.

As Vishal Parekh, Marketing director, Kingston Technology, HyperX says, “For us, the festive season has always shown a steady rise, boosting sales and revenue. With the new launches and buzz around it we are expecting a healthy rise in Sales expecting a good business.

Overall we shall see positive sentiments and buying spree among the audience considering the festive buzz and our new launches timed during the season.”

Panasonic is looking forward to offer great deals on its array of products. Discussing

on this, Ajay Seth, Head- Sales & Services, Panasonic India says, “This year, the market is expected to grow by about 15% and Panasonic is aiming to grow by 30-40% by end of this festive season. Our festive sales started from Onam and we achieved a decent growth of around 30%. We are expecting the same momentum to be carried during Diwali days.”

“Similar to the last year, we are expecting good growth in both urban and rural areas this festive season. Our offers and product planning has been done catering to all customer/market segment. Such offers allow us to establish a strong customer connect and be part of the festive celebrations,” he adds further.

“Festivities in India during this time of the year witness a significant traction in terms of market sales for almost all industry verticals.

We would be offering special discounts as well as bundled offerings on discounted prices to help bolster the festive mood of consumers.

We are also expecting an encouraging growth in terms of our overall sales figures during this festive time period as our partners across India will strive to offer the most relevant products to consumers as per their requirements at attractive prices,” says Kuldeep Malhotra, Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication) Konica Minolta Business Solutions India as he also expects a healthy traction in number of sales this time.

Samsung’s expectations are also high with this festive season, as the brand counts on its

A sneak- peek on Hot Deals As the festive season feel is in full swing, here are some of the deals that are currently offered by prominent brands: ACER The mega offers from Acer include Premium Blaupunkt speakers worth Rs.2,990, Saregama Caravan Music System worth Rs.6,490 or 1TB External HDD, Bata Gift Voucher worth Rs.1,000, first-year accidental damage protection + two-year extended warranty worth Rs.6,999 and EMI benefits worth Rs.3,000, depending on the purchase of model from its range of laptops, desktops, 2-in-1s, convertibles, desktops and All-in-One PCs. OnePlus OnePlus Diwali Dash 2017, where users can avail the Bullet V2 earphones & Sandstone back cover free with purchase of any variant of the OnePlus 5 between 9th-19th October, from its online store, i.e. oneplusstore.in Alternatively the brand also offered discounts on OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 3T. Such as additional cashback offer of Rs.1, 500 on HDFC bank credit and debit cards and up to 12 months of zero EMI on OnePlus 5 and OnePlus 3T. Moreover, on the purchase of OnePlus 5 during this period, customers are eligible for extra Rs.3, 000 off on exchange of their old phone and domestic and international travel vouchers from Cleartrip worth Rs.25,000.

Zopo ZOPO together with GrabOn, will be running a campaign named, “Bachat Wali Diwali”. The campaign will comprise of a 4-day online gaming event from 14th October to 17th October 2017.

Within these 4 days of the Bachat Wali Diwali campaign, the people of India will have a chance to win the latest ZOPO Smartphones.

Apical Apical announces new offers on its Thecus solutions, will be available starting from September 2017 and will go on till the end of October 2017. If you happen to buy 2 Thecus N2350, N2810 or N4350 or N5810Apical is offering a Thecus Laptop Backpack for free.

Vodafone Vodafone India has tied up with itel Mobile to offer complete cashback worth Rs.900 on the purchase of new itel handset for its customers in Bihar and Jharkhand. The offer, valid till 31st October, 2017 is available for both new and existing Vodafone customers. The offer is applicable on the selected models of itel feature phones. iVOOMI iVOOMi is offering a bunch of deals to its customers for the “Big Diwali Sale” on their smartphones at e-commerce portal, Flipkart from 14th October till 17th October, 2017. Special discount up to 25% on its smartphones along with free screen replacement on its newly-launched flagship products Me3 and Me3S are there for up to 180 days. With this offer, customers will also get extra Rs.200/- supercash from MobiKwik on all iVOOMi smartphones.

Infinix Infinix is presenting a Special discount offer of Rs. 1000 and an additional exchange offer of Rs 1000 on its Note 4 handset which is priced at INR 8,999, while on Hot 4 Pro the Special offer discount is of Rs. 1500. After discounts the phones will be available at Rs. 6999 and Rs. 5999 respectively.

The brand has also announced a bonus discount of 10% on using HDFC debit or credit cards for the customers.

Sony On the purchase of Xperia XZ Premium, Sony customers will get a free Bluetooth Speaker (SRS-XB10) worth Rs. 4990/- and a Style Cover Stand (SCSG10) worth Rs. 3490/-. This exhilarating offer starts from 7th October and is valid till 31st October, 2017.

This exhilarating offer is applicable across all Sony Centers, Sony Mobile retail partners like Croma, Reliance, Ezone, etc. and key mobile retail outlets. Sony has also come up with attractive price offers across several categories to add to the festivity cheer.

Vivo Vivo announces the first-ever Vivo Diwali Carnival starting 10th October. The three day carnival will witness exciting offers on the selected range of Vivo smartphones such as the latest V7+, V5Plus, V5s. exclusively on Flipkart. The Vivo Diwali Carnival offers some attractive exchange offers, zero cost EMI and cashbacks. Customers can avail up to Rs.2000 off on an exchange of any smartphone against the recently launched flagship V7+ and up to Rs.5000 off for V5 Plus and V5s. Additionally it offers a 12-month no-cost EMI and 10% cashback across all HDFC credit and debit cards for customers who place pre-paid orders on Flipkart. Other exciting offers include BookMyShow couple vouchers up to Rs. 500.

digital appliance business to exhibit strong growth. This year, Samsung is expecting a healthy double digit growth from its range of Television, Refrigerator, Air Conditioner, Washing Machine and Microwave categories across India.

Same expectations are from Acer as it feels encouraged with the current response from its customers. The company believes that it is not just the positive business, but also the channel relations it builds and nurtures with the customers and partners during this time which makes this time of the year special to the brand.

Considering this time propitious to make big purchases, many companies start coming up with special offers to gratify the special demands of the consumers. Many brands have launched their season exclusive campaigns and initiatives to add to the fervour of celebrations.

Sales war B/W online and Offline During this time the brands also try to manage their presence on both the channels through their uniform retail strategy. This Diwali, major brands are offering loads of discounts with a host of benefits on both the online and offline platform. Also, through these offered benefits, customers can avail special discount on whichever platform they prefer to shop. This indicates that the companies generate a good portion from both the channels. When asked from the companies about which channel is contributing more shares to the revenue, Vishal from Kingston technology discusses, “We are a channel friendly brand, we deal with both retail and etail stores globally. While the Online Market has seen more aggression during the festive season, we also believe in promoting our channel partners on to the online platforms.

With best in class quality and discounts being offered, the consumers are more inclined to Kingston and HyperX in general.”

For Samsung as well, both the channels are flourishing thoroughly as Rishi Suri, Consumer Electronics, Samsung India recalls.

“Samsung products are sold across the country and across channel, built through 22 years of strong partnership. A strong distribution network along with healthy relationship with retail partners has enabled us to sustain our market leadership across categories.”

He further adds, “We have a very strong retail network coupled with excellent customer service that has been a pivotal in retaining loyalty for the brand. Samsung has maintained a strong presence across all major towns and cities. We will continue to grow our extensive dealer network comprising of Samsung Distributors, Samsung Plaza, Samsung Smart Cafés, large retail format and multi brand outlets.”

Similarly iVoomi also believes that both its channels are growing at the same pace, as Ashwin Bhandari, CEO, iVOOMi says, “on the basis of our products experience we see both the channels have similar growth interms of numbers. Although, we being an online-focused brand the traction online has been bigger and higher if not less compared www.varindia.com

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VAR SPECIAL Honor Till 22nd October, consumers can purchase the Honor 8 Lite smartphone with Triple Zero benefits - zero down-payment, zero interest and zero processing fee. Additionally, Honor brand in association with Bajaj Finserv, is also offering the customers “No cost EMIs” on the purchase of the Honor 8 Lite. Consumers can opt from 3 easy finance schemes - 1800 payable for 10 months, Rs. 2000 for 9 months and INR 2,250 for 8 months. In case you miss the date of 22nd Oct, there is still a window of opportunity for those aspiring to own an Honor 8 Lite. From Oct 23- 31st, this premium phone can be purchased availing the Double Zero Offer of Zero % interest and Zero processing fee.

For Honor Holly 4 & Holly3 smartphones the Double Zero Offer continues right until Oct 31st, whereby both models of these popular devices can be purchased at Zero % interest and Zero processing fee.

Paytm The four-day sale starting from 10th October will offer up to 70% cashback across various categories including Appliances, Mobiles and Fashion including Apparel, Footwear and Accessories among others. The platform will also host limited period Flash offers that will run from 12pm to 4pm and 8pm to midnight during this four-day sale and bring customers handpicked offers across all categories.

Dell For the festive season, Dell launched the real celebrations campaign. To leverage the festive sentiments this year, Dell is offering an array of exciting offers on the entire range of Inspiron notebooks, desktops, all-in-one’s and gaming PCs valid from September 21 to October 20, 2017.

Honeywell Honeywell is giving 2 years extended warranty (total warranty being 3 years) during the festive season on some of the products along with special scheme based prices on the entire portfolio.

LG

LG offers a campaign titled ‘‘SaathRishtonKa, which includes offers worth 20 crores on products, special offer to pay Rs 20 and remaining balance in easy instalments, a 20% discount and upto 20100% cashback offers on various products. The brand is also offering free backcover and screen replacement on the purchase of LG smartphones. Additionally, the company is offering a 7.5% cashback offer with HDFC Bank, zero down payment and zero processing fee with Bajaj Finserv and an easy EMI with no additional costs.

Samsung Samsung is offering a number of discounts on its array of products including home appliances, gadgets etc. Customers can avail offers ranging from free Soundbar worth INR 23,990, Level U Bluetooth Headphone worth INR 2,999, Borosil Tea Set, extended warranty or cash back on its selective product models.

The brand has also announced attractive finance offers such as Flexi EMI Scheme, Long Term Tenure schemes and zero down payment schemes available for consumers on selected products.

There is an additional bonanza for customers purchasing Samsung products from September 11 to October 22 as the brand is offering 5% cash back on all purchases done by State Bank Debit and Credit Card during this period.

Lenovo Lenovo has exciting offers and schemes line up for its customers such as additional 2 years warranty, Shopper Stop gift vouchers, easy EMIs and more worth up to INR 13,990. Under this festive scheme, the brand also provides Premium Care support on its premium range of notebooks worth up to Rs. 3499/- at Rs. 499/-. Users can avail McAfee Live Safe with 1 Year of Accidental Damage Protection on select laptops.

This offer is applicable on Lenovo’s new range of consumer laptops including the Yoga 720 & Yoga 520, Ideapad 520s & 320s, Ideapad 520 & 320 and Legion Y720.

Paytm Mall Paytm Mall celebrates Diwali Maha Cashback Sale, four-day sale starting from 10th October offer up to 70% cashback across various categories including Appliances, Mobiles and Fashion including Apparel, Footwear and Accessories among others.

The Diwali Maha Cashback Sale will host up to Rs 20,000 Cashback on Refrigerators, up to Rs 15000 Cashback on Washing machines, up to 50% Cashback on Kitchen Appliances and up to 40% Cashback on Personal Care Appliances like Trimmers, Hair Dryers and more. Intel Core i3 Laptops will feature Min Rs. 4,000 Cashback, DSLRs will host minimum 20% Cashback and Printers will be available at up to Rs. 8,000 Cashback.

Canon Canon is providing a Motorola Bluetooth headset on each purchase of EOS 200D, EOS 1300D and EOS 750D. Additionally, 1000 lucky customers will win a chance to secure a ‘Make My Trip’ voucher worth INR 10,000 on each of these purchases. Not stopping at this, its Consumer System Products team has announced a 50 city roadshow ‘SPARKLE’ as well.

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to the offline market.”

Kuldeep from Konica Minolta shares, “Both offline as well as online channels are observing a considerably higher traction in sales this festive season. While online channels are offering the customers with ease of delivery at their doorstep, offline partners are furnishing the customers with a real world experience of the offerings to help them pick the best offering as per their budget and requirements.”

Sudhir Pillai, General Manager, Homes, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies, India also mentions that the brand is selling aggressively already both online through e-commerce platforms including Amazon, Flipkart, and PayTM, as well as large and small format retail stores.”

However Acer, as a brand believes in co existence of both the platforms, but places confidence more in its retail presence, as it gives the brand a chance to directly connect with their customers. On this, Chandrahas asserts, “We believe, both the platforms-Online and offline have their own positives. We endeavor to build Acer community on each of these platforms and make the brand seamlessly accessible anywhere, anytime. Acer is constantly strengthening retail presence in order to ensure easy availability of their products. While already having a robust presence on e-commerce stores, we have simultaneously increased our retail stores with over 2000 stores and approximately 100 exclusive Acer stores.

"We believe retail stores give our customers the opportunity to interact with the brand and to get the first-hand experience of the products.

Besides being available at Acer Exclusive Stores, Acer products are also easily available at all leading technology stores as well. As these online and offline platforms continue to coexist, we would also be leveraging both for our ultimate focus of ascertaining convenience for our users,” he further adds.

Sharing her thoughts on the channel presence, Ritu from Dell points out, “We make it a point to be present on all platforms where customers want to access the brand – online or offline. Customer choices tend to vary across these platforms based on their preferred method of purchase. We see a large number of first-time buyers of technology, who prefer to touch and feel the product before a purchase. They may do this at the Dell Exclusive Store or the multibrand retail outlets. Seasoned technology buyers prefer the online route as they can compare prices and specifications online and make informed buying decisions. Some consumers also prefer to compare products online, but when it comes to buying, they will make their final purchase at a store. As the environment becomes increasingly digitalized, consumers see PC’s as the ideal gift in the form of a tool that aids individual’s growth and productivity, and acts as a digital companion.” n

Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

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Festive quotes from major brands Chandrahas Panigrahi CMO and Consumer Business Head, Acer India In a market like India, the festive enthusiasm grips consumers, and purchases are made across product categories.

We welcome our customers to avail these special offers across our range of products. We hope that these great offers will usher in a joyous occasion for all our consumers.

Ajay Seth Head- Sales & Services, Panasonic India Major part of our festive sales comes from offline channels.

Online sales are also expected to do well in this season, We have announced our ‘India Ka Tyohaar.

Panasonic Ka Uphaar’ festive offers and ‘Maha Phone Utsav’ for the customer on Panasonic’s wide range of products.

Kazutada Kobayashi President and CEO, Canon India Festive season is that time of the year when celebrations are in full spirit.

We are profoundly committed towards our customers, partners and the community, this festive season we are providing each one of them with increased reasons to rejoice. While we are spreading the culture of imaging among our customers, through theme based photography workshops, our partners would attend dealer meets across the country.

Our employees are engaging with the community with increased vigor, through our CSR programs.

Amit Gujral Chief Marketing officer, LG Electronics The festive season is the best time for us to strengthen our relationship with our consumers. SaathRishtonKa offers campaign is a token from LG which will enable all consumers to enjoy the much-awaited festival season even more, as they get to bring home their favourite gadgets and appliances at never-before prices.

Sudhir Pillai General Manager, Homes, Honeywell Home and Building Technologies, India Diwali, every year brings about great cheer and we are ecstatic for the season. We are expecting (and already noticing) an increase in the demand of air purifiers as the pollution level is increasing by the day. We are expecting an increase in sales of our products, which will impact the company’s overall growth.

Ritu Gupta Director – Marketing, Dell India

Rishi Suri Consumer Electronics, Samsung India

As always, Dell hopes to add value and empower its customers and partners by providing them with a complete package to celebrate the gifting spirit of the festive season.

This season, Dell is offering a wide range of products with attractive offers and EMI options and a robust support and training for channels.

The post-monsoon festive season is a bonanza time for the consumer durable market in India. A good monsoon has further improved the sentiment with people in smaller markets having higher income at their disposal from a good agricultural return. This, coupled with our increased focus in tier-2 and tier-3 areas, has made us very confident of the coming months.

Ashwin Bhandari CEO, iVOOMi, India We are pleased to see the colour of Indian market this festive season. There is a huge spike in the overall consumption/ demand for all our products for last 2 months. We see this as a big booster for us, we have almost grown to 3 times and this gives us confidence in the Indian market and further growth can be achieved.

Nidhi Markanday Director, Intex Technologies At Intex, we eagerly wait for this time of the year as festiveseason is the best time to connect with consumers and be part of their joy & happiness.

During festive season, we make concerted efforts to make sure to give consumers a special and exceptional buying experience throughout our product categories. This year, we have come up with some special offers and gifts, which will surely prove to be a delight for consumers.

Kuldeep Malohtra Vice President (Sales Planning & Communication) Konica Minolta Business Solutions India As Konica Minolta pre dominantly runs through indirect channels like dealers in Indian Market. There are lot of festive schemes which they are running for the end customers. We have been targeting all products across categories, though schemes are offered by the dealers & distributors to end customers.

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Festive quotes from major brands Anish Kapoor CEO, Infinix India As the consumer sentiments amidst the festivities is already on a high and Diwali is the best time for us to be a part of this celebration to make it bigger and better. We are giving another reason to our consumers to buy their favorite Infinix all-rounder smartphones at the best festive price on Flipkart “Big Diwali Sale”. We wish all our customers the very best and look forward to serving many more customers this festive season.

S.M Ramprasad Executive Vice President, Graphic Arts Division, Fujifilm We have some of the exclusive customer offers on various ranges of products varying from Rs. 3000 to Rs. 10000 as discounts along with other offers that as being offered by Fujifilm. We feel there is a lot of traction and demand during this time. We have already seen a lot of spike in sales in the last couple of months. And I believe because of festive season it will peak in this month as well.

Satish Padmanabhan Sales Head, Sony India In this auspicious season, we are ready to enhance the festivities of our customers with incredible consumer promotion offers. The assured gifts on the purchase of every Xperia XZ Premium will not only delight our customers, but will also add more excitement to their festive shopping.

We are ready to delight our customers and enhance their festivities in this auspicious season with incredible consumer promotion offers.

Vishal Parekh Marketing director, Kingston Technology, HyperX One of the trends we noticed this season is ‘Value based Perfection’. Yes, we do understand that Gifting purchase revolves around emotions but now we see the consumers going the extra mile to gift the right gifts for their loved ones. A clear performance pressure and extra effort is seen, where exchanging gifts is no longer just a custom.

Vikas Agarwal General Manager, India, OnePlus We are excited to announce our first wave of offers on the onset of this festive season, giving more reasons to the OnePlus fans to celebrate. Diwali is the most auspicious time of the year and we hope to be the go-to choice for those looking to gift and own premium smartphone experience with best-inclass design and performance.

Tejas Sheth Director at Apical on offers on Thecus solutions

Amit Sinha Chief Operating Officer – Paytm Mall

At Apical, we aim to provide solutions that offer more value to our customers. Adding greater joy on Diwali, this year Apical brings in assured gifts offer on selected Thecus products. Through these offers, we want to ensure that our customer’s joy last long and this is a small endeavor on our part to add sparkle to this festive season.

This Diwali, we want to cater to the festive shopping needs of the widest set of customers. Our platform will host a vast range of festive offers in partnership with thousands of retailers across India.

This will allow us to serve more customers and ensure that our partner retailers are able to drive massive order volume ahead of Diwali.

Rajshekhar Metgud Business Head – Bihar & Jharkhand, Vodafone India With the festive season around the corner, we are confident that the complimentary offerings from Vodafone will make the experience more seamless at affordable rates to our valued customers in the region. Also, the collaboration with itel will enable our existing and prospective customers to make the most out of their new device purchase. We also take this opportunity to wish all our customers Happy Diwali and Chhath Puja; and will continue to delight them with such differentiated offerings in the days to come.

Kenny Zheng CMO, Vivo India We are delighted to host the first ever Diwali carnival during this festive season. It is that time of the year when festivities bring an unparalleled joy to people and it is essential for us to engage with our customers during these moments. India is a key market for Vivo and we are humbled to receive much love for the brand and our products. We are confident that our exciting offers on various flagship devices will be a great shopping experience.

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Sanjeev Bhatia CEO, ZOPO Mobile India We are pleased to partner with GrabOn to offer our fans a perfect Diwali gift. The best part of it will be the involvement of the people in this activity.

Our partnership with GrabOn will definitely help the fans and followers of both the sides.

Salman Khan to be the brand ambassador of CP PLUS 



CP PLUS has signed up Salman Khan as CCTV ambassador. CP PLUS, which is already riding the wave in the country with its innovative campaign “Upar Wala Sab Dekh Raha Hai”, adds another feather to his cap with this association.

CP PLUS aims to reach out to the masses with this partnership, further making them aware of the need for intelligent security and surveillance in the society at all levels. The brand will come up with the evolved communication on Security & Surveillance through its new campaign, taking it to the next level with Salman Khan in action.

On this partnership, Aditya Khemka, MD, CP PLUS, said, “We are excited to partner with Salman Khan as he exhibits the same Passion, Trust, and Reliability as CP PLUS. Both Salman and CP PLUS are action-oriented brands and believe in reinventing from time to time. With Salman, we intend to reach out to the masses and generate awareness on Security & Surveillance in India. Our aim is to inform people about the intelligent security systems available with us, which is of immense importance in the present times.”

Hence, this association and the forthcoming campaign will be aligned with the company’s plan to further position CP PLUS as an Intelligent, Smart and Reliable

brand. The partnership with Salman Khan is  planned to further enhance the deeper reach  in the Indian market and bring in top-ofmind recall for reliable CCTV solution with CP PLUS. CP PLUS range of solutions and products

are monitoring millions of locations across India, in diverse geographies, from highly sensitive defence locations, government buildings, vital infrastructures, transportation, hotels, and educational institutes to homes with the satisfied customer base.

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37

COVER STORY

Private Cloud

Public Cloud

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Indian enterprises leveraging the power of hybrid cloud Hybrid Cloud is the way to go as Indian enterprises intensify their reliance on a hybrid Cloud setup, eyeing substantial cost savings and organisational benefits. To better serve the needs of Indian enterprises and SMBs, most cloud companies have either set up local data centres in India, or are in the process of doing so -

Meetul Patel GM, Marketing & Operations Microsoft

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Hybrid Cloud represents the cloud model which orchestrates the mix of on premise Cloud, Private Cloud and Third party Public Cloud models to scale, meet and widen the data deployment options. This model offers several key advantages over using only private/ public cloud, especially for large enterprises that have considerable existing investments in IT infrastructure.

“This synergy benefits an organization to deploy high critical projects on an ‘On premise Model’, dynamically changeable workloads on a “Private Cloud” and customer facing, less critical projects on the third party Public Cloud,” says Aniketh Jain, CEO & Co-Founder of Solutions Infini Pvt. Ltd. “This segmentation basis on organizational requirements ensures resourceful usage of cloud models to enable high end flexibility and scaling. Enterprises benefit through the customization and flexibility, while Service Providers operate at moderate business costs.”

Hybrid cloud’s climb to the ranks of an important IT infrastructure pillar can be attributed to the unprecedented benefits it provides in terms of deployment flexibility, resource utilization efficiencies, lower costs, as well as lower management overheads. These benefits, therefore, are responsible for truly delivering the best of both worlds.

Nikhil Bagalkotkar – Chief Technologist, Citrix observes that public clouds are here to stay but moving lock stock & barrel onto the public clouds for organizations is a difficult transition and this perhaps is eventually leading to the rise of hybrid cloud. “Most organizations

Nikhil Bagalkotkar Chief Technologist Citrix are seriously looking at public cloud but have so far only managed to move Tier 2 and Tier 3 applications onto the cloud. Even large conglomerates continue to host and run their Tier0/Tier1 applications in the datacenter where they have a finer degree of control. This balanced approach of moving some workloads onto public clouds while retaining the core business applications in the datacenter/private cloud has led to the rise of hybrid cloud,” he says.

Comments Hitesh Arora, Director Strategy and Customer Advocacy – CRMNEXT, “With Hybrid Cloud, businesses have the flexibility to keep the core business logic on premise while adopting latest cloud technology for faster market

Anshuman Rai Director Sales– Converged Platform & Solutions Division (CPSD) - Dell EMC coverage on cloud and thus bringing agility and stability together. We are seeing increasing interest of customers evaluating hybrid cloud depending on the type of system, no. of users and integration capabilities needed.”

According to Gartner, by 2020, 90% of organizations will adopt hybrid cloud solutions.

“This projection further highlights the advantages brought to an organization through deployment of Hybrid Cloud which not only includes finding the right fit solution for a business’ specific requirement but also reduces trade-offs, technical glitches and breakdowns that result in deterioration of the overall performance. The liberty of availing technology according to your operational needs and revenue pattern is what makes hybrid cloud spearhead overall cloud adoption, as stated by Gartner,” explains Nikhil.

A Microsoft-Zinnov study done on hybrid cloud reveals that the hybrid cloud market is fast becoming a new standard for delivery of digital transformation.With the substantial cost as well as organizational benefits, enterprises are increasingly intensifying their reliance on a hybrid cloud setup.

“The report observed that hybrid cloud deployment at a steady rate could result in cost savings of anywhere between 5% and 30% for an enterprise (depending on the growth of virtual machines in an enterprise’s data centre and a proportion of workloads moving from private data centre to public cloud infrastructure), based on the output of its proprietary cost modeller." contends Meetul Patel, General Manager, Marketing & Operations, Microsoft.

He further continues that as per the survey conducted, over 40 percent of enterprises have

planned or are planning to build a hybrid cloud infrastructure or transform their existing IT infrastructure. The primary reasons cited for adopting hybrid cloud solutions include, lowering total cost of ownership (54 percent), facilitating innovation (42 percent), enhancing operational efficiencies (42 percent), and enabling companies to respond to and meet customer expectations more readily (40 percent).

“Today, it is widely accepted across enterprises that there is no single, optimal solution for all workloads,” asserts Vikram K, Senior Director, Data Center and Hybrid Cloud (DCHC), HPE India. “Additionally, customers are no longer willing to wait weeks and months to deploy new applications and services. They expect infrastructure resources and services to be available to them on-demand. Hence, most businesses seek to implement a right mix of private, public, and managed cloud along with traditional IT to speed innovation and growth.

It also helps address the challenges related to security and data privacy by providing flexible options where sensitive and client data can reside on a private cloud. Companies from

Vikram K Senior Director, Data Center and Hybrid Cloud (DCHC), HPE India across industries including financial services, public sector, retail, social media, and healthcare view this as an effective IT strategy for the foreseeable future.”

According to Anshuman Rai, Director Sales– Converged Platform & Solutions Division (CPSD) - Dell EMC, hybrid cloud provides the foundation for a cost-effective and successful digital transformation. “Today's most innovative organizations are enthusiastic adopters of hybrid cloud. The best platform for digital

business is hybrid cloud, and its implementation can dramatically reduce the operating costs of IT. A global survey of business and technology leaders by IDG puts the average savings at 24%, and the average enterprise reinvests 40% of those savings in new technology-driven business initiatives. A fully configured hybrid cloud can be implemented in three months or less, unlocking new benefit streams of business agility, IT efficiency, and digital business. Companies with significant workloads in hybrid cloud have been able to implement digital transformation initiatives faster and grow revenue up to 2x.”

While Public Cloud Services are estimated to grow at 40% in 2017, Hybrid Cloud continues to dominate the Cloud Industry. Hybrid Cloud creates an intuitive framework for the service providers, and its adoption is expected to grow due to new early entries and high preference from global enterprises.

But is cloud a reality in India?

While discussing hybrid cloud, it also becomes pertinent to discuss on how popular has cloud become among Indian businesses.

Deepak Pargaonkar, Senior Director – Solutions Engineering, Salesforce India believes that India has welcomed or embraced cloud really well. “I understand customers will have a lot of questions in mind before trying any new technology, but the end result has always been great. Like any customer using our Salesforce cloud can focus only on doing his business, without having to worry about when and how to upgrade the latest software to the next version. The curious customers always make the decisions to go on cloud. The cloud journey has started but as we see now, thanks to whatever efforts we took, lot of others are following suit. Today we do not have to spend time convincing or spending time on having a conversation with the customer of what cloud is. Today everyone knows that to transition to cloud is possibly the best way.”

With the increasing prominence of the Digital India movement, enterprises from various sectors like government, banking, healthcare and education have been making their journey towards cloud and reaping significant benefits along the way. “SMB segment in particular has been increasingly open to adopting cloud services due to their disposition to focus on their

Hybrid clouds are a good fit for companies that: • Have considerable existing investment in private datacenter and legacy software solutions • Have unpredictable spiky traffic to their digital assets, typically driven by seasonal buying patterns • Have to compete with one or more disruptive player in the market, forcing them to innovate and improve their offering constantly • They are also a good fit for Indian companies that want to access markets outside of India, and provide their global customers with a fast and seamless experience • Travel and Transport, Retail, BFSI and Entertainment are going to be the most likely sectors to lead the pack on adoption of a Hybrid Cloud model.

Deepak Pargaonkar Senior Director – Solutions Engineering, Salesforce India

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COVER STORY certainly permeated through the industry, there are still several myths that need to be overcome before Indian customers can truly reap the benefits of public and private clouds.

Some of these myths are: ● It will mean a loss of jobs since fewer people can manage virtual servers than physical ones ● Customers are not able to see what they are buying, how can they guarantee that their investment is safe. ● Moving to the cloud will make them digital/ agile/ make them disruption proof ● Will have to scrap all existing infrastructure /applications if moved to the cloud.

Sharath Satish Office Technology ThoughtWorks India

Principal

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core competencies and simplify the rest of the processes. As more and more institutions adopt SaaS, they are inching closer to achieving greater flexibility, control and visibility,” tells Nikhil.

Rapid growth in internet adoption – fueled by government initiatives like demonetization and GST, growth of mobile data (the number of mobile developers is estimated to double from the current 300,000 by 2020), and digital transformation, led by the emergence of disruptive start-ups, especially in areas such as fintech, e-commerce, SaaS, are stated to be the key reasons for the deployment of cloud.

To better serve the needs of Indian enterprises and SMBs, most cloud companies have either set up local data centres in India, or are in the process of doing so.

But despite that, enterprises hang back from opting a full fledged cloud strategy due to compliance, data sovereignty and lack of direct connections with vendors involved in the process. Cloud Systems obligate partial or complete access to enterprises information, which few enterprises aren’t liable to vouchsafe.

“There are many reasons customers may not be able to adopt a full-fledged cloud strategy,” points out Sharath Satish, Office Technology Principal - ThoughtWorks India. “Some of which are: ● They have core legacy systems that cannot be moved to a public cloud due to incompatibility of the packaged software solution they have licensed ● They have an innate distrust of the public cloud, from the perspective of security & performance ● They believe it requires heavy investment in data center and IT assets likes servers and network infrastructure ● They are wary of the regulatory / policy issues around storing data on shared servers and data centers not operated by the company ● There is a lack of capability / knowledge in how to work with the public cloud within the current IT team.”

Traditional Indian Businesses on the other hand are still building an understanding of what the public cloud is all about. While the buzz has

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The views of Nishikant Nigam, Chief Delivery Officer at CSS Corp are also somewhat the same. “Cloud is increasingly changing the way business is done,” he observes. “But despite the increased cloud adoption, enterprises are finding it difficult to identify the right cloud strategy and model, and still lack clarity in segmentation and prioritization of applications

Aniketh Jain CEO & Co-Founder Solutions Infini Pvt. Ltd. for cloud migration. Scores of enterprises are still struggling with critical questions such as What applications should I move to the cloud?

Which type of cloud is best suited for my requirements – Public? Private? Hybrid?

Which provider can offer me the most flexibility and support?”

Prasad Natu, Sr. Vice President – Infrastructure Services, ITC Infotech puts it that it is the perception concerning the security of the cloud deployment that seems to be the primary reason for caution for deploying cloud. Cloud companies, consultants and security companies are making a significant effort in increasing the awareness about the right models that can be considered by customers in developing the cloud strategy. “The other reason that is put forward by some of the customers is concerning the initial investments. There seems to be a lot of internal debate on the overall business case about the cloud adoptions. But nevertheless, Indian customers are investing in preparing for

the high velocity cloud adoption. The benefits are being vetted out against the business needs with a very sharp focus on overall cost of ownership. There is a bit of uncertainly and concern over the initial spend , however, the business drivers over the next 24-36 months on the back of digital transformation of aspects of doing business will most certainly put to rest these concerns on initial spend.”

Organizations, if not all but most of them are investing in their internal IT/private cloud/ data centers, making a significant shift to public cloud non-viable from a RoI perspective. In this context, a hybrid IT arrangement could be a viable option that could drive cost optimization and help organizations maintain a balance of security and convenience.

Hybrid Cloud adoption in India market...

Cloud with its digitization capabilities has steadily become a core ingredient of modern day business IT set-up. Indian organizations are also slowly realizing that cloud gives them an edge in terms of cost efficiencies, business agility as well as delivering differentiated value. Hybrid cloud is uniquely placed here since it empowers organizations to leverage the cloud for services which can yield immediate value while freeing up resources to work towards optimizing the heavy, complex and legacy workloads in the datacenter.

The growth of the cloud industry has been spurred by the funding and investments in cloud tech startups, which have increased exponentially.

In 2016, the cloud market saw an estimated 370+ deals with the average investments growing at CAGR 15% between 2012 to 2016. The hybrid cloud deals accounted for 45-50% of the total cloud deals that happened from 2012 to 2016, and these primarily focused on storage, automation as well as hybrid cloud management solutions.

“Indian customers are looking forward for solutions that provide them high end virtualization with reduced commercial complexities of dealing with multiple vendors.

Hybrid Model provides them a right blend of Public and Private Clouds on the same platform.

Through a fully aligned Hybrid Cloud Model, enterprises are freed from managing day-to-day

Hitesh Arora Director Strategy and Customer Advocacy at CRMNEXT

tasks that a data center environment demands.

This holistically reduces maintenance and infrastructure costs and enables business to focus on other strategic measures,” supports Aniketh.

“Many Indian conglomerates are widely recognized as the early adopters of technology.

In fact, many Indian start-ups are at the forefront when it comes to using cloud hosted technologies to disrupt established business models. As India’s footing in the global business landscape strengthens, we are posed to be the hotbed of cloud first companies that deliver business capabilities on a scale and speed unheard of earlier,” says Nikhil.

Anshuman believes that as Indian IT organizations race to keep pace with the demands of the modern and rapidly changing business, they need to leverage a mix of both private cloud – because it is trusted, controlled and reliable – and public cloud – because it’s simple, low cost and flexible. “Hybrid cloud models help companies spend less on operational upkeep and more on innovative new projects. Hybrid cloud not only makes IT—and the entire company— more agile but it also streamlines operations and frees up budget for the things that really make a difference for corporations.”

When it comes to total IT spends, the organizations’ finance departments are quick to realize that embracing hybrid cloud not only lowers IT spends but also helps organizations run workloads at greater efficiency in the private cloud.

However according to Sharath Satish, Office Technology Principal - ThoughtWorks India, Hybrid Cloud is still a nascent concept for customers whose private clouds / data-centers are based in India. Out of the many reasons for this, the top two are ● Lack of access to high-speed WAN connections between their data centers and

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Public cloud r

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r

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Nishikant Nigam Chief Delivery Officer CSS Corp.

Leverage scale and elasticity of public cloud for innovation and burst / spike capacity Provide edge services to improve user experience for customers by leveraging cloud sites closer to end users, but retaining sensitive / key data and services in private cloud Using hybrid as a model for testing out if public cloud is a viable option for your organization Use hybrid as a way to get a disaster recovery site without investing in a whole new datacenter

Private cloud r

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hyperscale public clouds ● Lack of availability of Public clouds whose data centers are based in India, which some business require, due to regulatory restrictions around where they can store / process customer data Enterprises who manage to be present on both online and offline channels prefer cloud over others. Major hybrid cloud industry contributors are from Logistics, Aviation, Telecom and BFSI. It’s also interesting to see that some of the Government Organizations have been preferring Hybrid Cloud and experiencing rapid growth.

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Store regulated / sensitive data that you are not sure about moving onto a public cloud Retain and maximize value of investment in existing IT infrastructure by using it to handle regular traffic Use private cloud for workloads that require hyper-specialized hardware

full-fledged cloud services in the country. Also there are integration and scalability challenges with public cloud for large implementations requiring complex integrations with back office systems.

Nonetheless, while there are concerns that still remain unsolved, hybrid cloud is the present and clearly is the future as it provides best of both the worlds for business as well as end customer, guaranteeing the customer high scalability, reliability, and security. n Samrita Baruah samrita@varindia.com

In the end…

The cloud journey in India is evolving but data security, vendor lock-in period and less availability of quality IT hardware infrastructure in semi-urban regions across the country are some of the challenges faced while deploying

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                             

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Advantages of using Hybrid Cloud

                 

              

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 

 

 

 

 

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   

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 

 

                 

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  

              

           

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OPEN YOUR EYES

Hitachi Vantara to take the IT industry by storm Hitachi has launched Hitachi Vantara, a new business entity to leverage the broad portfolio of innovation, development and experience from across Hitachi Group companies to deliver datadriven solutions for commercial and industrial enterprises. This new company will unify the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business as Hitachi Vantara to capitalize on Hitachi’s social innovation capability in both operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT).

Throwing more light on this, Vivekanand Venugopal, Vice President and General Manager, Hitachi Vantara India tells VARINDIA of how the new entity would address some of the latest technologies like Edge Analytics and Fog Computing and how is it driving its channel along with to address major transformational concerns in the industry -

With new technologies like IoT, Analysis of Things (AoT), AI, Cloud, Big data and predictive analytics, many organizations are rethinking their strategies. As organizations digitize their businesses, the demand for immediate access to information has soared, thus forcing IT departments to focus on modernizing their core IT infrastructures. With the rising adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) and digital business transformation, new doors of opportunities have emerged that calls for associated risks to be mitigated. Gartner sees IT as the lead when it comes to management of governance in a future harmonized IT/OT environment.

The integration of IT and OT will see a major trend in the coming years, especially in the field of data analytics. Most of the analytics that is done in batch mode and vertical integration of industry silos require rich metadata that can be mined and have applications brought to the data rather than moving it to the applications.

The efficiency lies in the amalgamation of IT, OT and the data mining process which Hitachi Vantara lays its expertise on.

Birth of Hitachi Vantara

The journey for Hitachi has been widely exciting. Hitachi is number one worldwide for patent applications in foundational technologies for Big Data analysis. These patents are in key Big Data technology categories (e.g. distributed file system/DB, parallel distributed systems, and data falsification protection).

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“If you look at our financial reports, our Lumada business which is essentially the IoT business was about 900 billion Yen which translates to about 8.3 billion US dollars. With the recent launch of our new business entity, Hitachi Vantara, we aim to leverage the broad portfolio of innovation, development and experience across Hitachi Group companies to deliver datadriven solutions for commercial and industrial enterprises for their Digital Transformations.

This new company unifies the operations of Hitachi Data Systems, Hitachi Insight Group, and Pentaho into a single integrated business as ‘Hitachi Vantara’ to capitalize on Hitachi’s social innovation capability in both operational technologies (OT) and information technologies (IT),” says Vivekanand Venugopal, Vice President and General Manager, Hitachi Vantara India.

In the coming months, Hitachi Vantara will continue to provide superior infrastructure and analytics technologies that enterprises rely on for their mission-critical data in their data centers, cloud and at the edge of new innovations. With no clear winner in the emerging IoT market, Hitachi Vantara aims to fill this market gap and create an opportunity that will harness businesses and machine data across OT and IT environments to build comprehensive, datadriven solutions. In addition, it will also be driving the development of strategic software and services solutions, including Hitachi Smart Data Center software and services, Lumada and Hitachi co-creation services.

“Our mission is to help businesses transform into an agile information center with low-risk, rapid, non-disruptive and accurate deployments of our robust infrastructure,” says Venugopal.

“With the help of emerging technologies like big data and Internet of Things (IoT), we enable enterprises to find new revenue streams, operate more efficiently, deliver outstanding service and minimize risk.”

Hitachi Vantara - a new entity...

The world’s leading enterprises trust Hitachi Vantara’s products, services, and solutions. This includes more than 70% of the Fortune 100 and more than 80% of the Fortune Global 100. The company’s success is fuelled by its innovation engine. “Our combination of experience and expertise qualify us to help customers truly realize Digital Transformation, bringing it together in a single data management strategy – managing, governing, mobilizing and analysing data to create powerful insights and outcomes,” Venugopal states.

Hitachi Vantara has been launched with the intention of growing, evolving, and further expanding the company’s expertise on Digital Transformation to its customers and partners.

It has unified three Hitachi companies that were working on similar tracks but are now working together to bring forth the ‘power of One Hitachi’ through HDS’s data center infrastructure, Insight’s big data software, and Pentaho analytics. Hitachi Vantara has an edge over the competition, given its depth of understanding about the operational needs of various vertical markets as it brings with it a combined expertise of 150+ years in OT & IT. Its next-generation Lumada IoT platform demonstrates Hitachi Vantara’s unparalleled expertise in both OT and IT, and reinforces Hitachi’s commitment to being an innovation partner for our customers in the IoT era.

Hitachi Vantara will continue to provide superior infrastructure and analytics technologies that enterprises rely on for their mission-critical data in their data centers, cloud and at the edge of new innovations. “In addition, we will also be driving the development of strategic software and services solutions, including Hitachi Smart Data Center software and services, Lumada and Hitachi co-creation services. The company will focus on serving global Fortune 1000 companies with best-in-class data management, infrastructure, content, and analytics products and industrial IoT

solutions for several industries including financial services and insurance, government, industrials/ manufacturing, telecom, and transportation,” explains Venugopal.

India market and Hitachi Vantara...

The Indian market has seen significant success and acceptance as Hitachi Vantara continues to combine technology and expertise to deliver data-driven solutions that enable better customer experience, create new revenue streams and drive down business costs.

“Our revenue portfolio has changed with a greater focus on software that enables customers to achieve business outcomes. We have solutions designed to handle the entire Digital Transformation journey. Our infrastructure liberates data from underlying systems and makes it easy to add new capabilities. Our data protection solutions help to govern and secure it. Our mobility solutions make it available anywhere, anytime. And our analytics solutions provide real-time analysis, so businesses can instantly adapt,” says Venugopal.

He further added, “Customers and partners who have invested in our trusted, proven experience in data management are expanding their business partnership to include Infrastructure Modernization, build the digital workplace and drive business analytics. Our customers and partners work with us as Hitachi Vantara is the bridge between legacy and digital.

We bring greater relevance in today’s market by bringing stability with a combined 150+ years of expertise in IT & OT and disruptive innovation.”

Summarizing, Hitachi Vantara elevates innovation advantage by merging operational and informational experience with leading IoT expertise to offer businesses a data partner with unprecedented range and depth. We are data management, analytics, industrial expertise, technology and outcomes rolled into one great solution provider.

Targeting the Indian channel business...

Hitachi Vantara has transformed and moved beyond being just a storage company by diversifying its product and solutions portfolio.

Today, it offers end-to-end digital transformation solutions to its partners to help them have a strong presence across markets to remain costeffective. Hitachi Vantara’s vision is to create a self-sustaining, value selling and profitable ecosystem of partners which forms the crux of its new and enhanced channel strategy in India.

“We strongly believe that market transitions and opportunities can be delivered by expanding channels to reach customers,” says Venugopal.

“We have brought about significant changes in our channel play and go-to-market strategy with our partners in India. We have segmented our partners into 3 pillars namely - transformational, strategic and growth partners. We are focusing on further enhancing our backend operations and building our systems to support the effort of our partners. Our vision is to create a selfsustaining, value selling and profitable ecosystem of partners which forms the crux of our channel strategy in India. One of our key objectives is

to bring about more clarity on partner roles by outlining clear expectations.”

Hitachi Vantara has leveraged a collaborative channel program with a select few VAR’s called – HEAT partners. They are managed directly by Hitachi Vantara giving them access and benefits, comparable and in most cases better than industry standards. The company has been working on a reverse engineering model where it is exploring to do more with less, thereby giving enough market opportunities to its partners to address and grow their business.

“The key differentiator here is Hitachi Vantara’s innovative models of selling to customers via these focussed partners. This has been extremely disruptive and we are confident this will continue to transform the way customers buy from our partners. We are actively investing in building a capacity and capability matrix which will help us in achieving our vision of a self-reliant, value selling profitable ecosystem of partners capable of addressing the requirements of every segment of the market. Our enhanced channel framework aims to help partners collaborate and help create more value for their customers,” asserts Venugopal.

By 2020, an estimated 50 billion physical objects will be consuming, generating and communicating data; thus turning the world into a giant Datacenter. Hitachi Vantara combines technology, intellectual property and industry knowledge to deliver data-managing solutions that help enterprises improve customers' experiences, develop new revenue streams and lower the costs of business. It elevates the innovation advantage by combining deep information technology (IT), operational technology (OT) and domain expertise.

“We believe in bringing value to our customers through our partner network and understand that a full Digital Transformation is not possible without a strong partner ecosystem. We have transformed our partner landscape to meet the demands for diversified solutions from our customers. Our strategy

encompasses all channel facets where we have devised programs and policies for Cloud Service Providers (CSP’s), Master System Integrators, Large System Integrators, Value Added Resellers and Distributors. This has also enabled us to bring about more clarity on mapping the right solution, catering to the right segment via the right channel.

The Hitachi Vantara Services program focuses on building capacity and capability of partners across our offerings, helping them increase relevance to their customers thereby becoming more profitable,” says Venugopal.

Edge Analytics & Fog Computing

Edge Analytics and fog computing are important technologies that are being leveraged to deliver solutions from the edge to outcomes for its customers. When data analysis is done at the edge of a network, that’s known as Edge Analytics - a way to optimize cloud computing systems by processing data near the source of the data i.e. at the edge of the network. Edge computing gives IoT a competitive edge. For example, in smart lighting in smart cities or smart factories in manufacturing, the edge devices capture streaming data that can be used to prevent failures, optimize production, and prevent operational defects.

With its many applications in self-driven cars, remote monitoring in manufacturing hubs & factories, consumer behaviour analysis in retail IoT will drive compute to the edge. Hitachi has been pivotal in addressing this with the formation of a new company - Hitachi Vantara, which integrates Hitachi Data Systems Infrastructure and cloud, Hitachi Insight Lumada IoT platform, and Pentaho analytics. Hitachi Vantara is a new company, purpose built, to address the IoT market and all points in between. n

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Hitachi – leading the ‘disruptive' transformation Being described as the era of ‘disrupt to survive’ the IT market is changing faster than ever before. IT organizations face a choice: Lead transformation or become irrelevant. Businesses today are fast at embracing Digital Transformation to achieve cost efficiency and accelerate time to market. Across all industries, digital disruptors are using analytics, mobility, social and smart, connected devices to transform operations, customer experience, and business models. Like any major business initiative, digital transformation requires changes in process, people, skills, and technology. To succeed, business and technology leaders should completely re-think traditional approaches.

The Intercity Train project in the UK is a fine example that demonstrates the “Power of One Hitachi”. The UK Intercity train systems are an over 40-year-old diesel system. They needed to refresh the trains or convert them to electric. As in IT, technology transformations require virtualization. Hitachi created a “virtual Train” which is a modern electric train with a diesel engine built in the undercarriage so the train can run on existing tracks or electric tracks until they are all converted to electric. Once they are converted the diesel engines are removed so the lighter electric trains will have less wear on the tracks. This train is provided as “Trains as a service”.

The UK Network Train system only pays Hitachi for on-time service. Hitachi takes on all the capital risk of the rolling stock and maintenance. This is a 27-year project worth $20B. This was managed by Hitachi Consulting, Hitachi Rail built the Trains, Hitachi control systems for the ETC, Hitachi Smart Systems for sensors and analytics, and Hitachi Vantara for the information infrastructure, which was based on the UCP for fast application test and deployment.Big Data projects of this size utilize the “Internet of Things” and require deep expertise and experience in many vertical disciplines. Very few companies will have the scope and scale to deliver these types of Big Data Projects. Fortunately, Hitachi is one of the few companies that can. www.varindia.com October 2017 43

LEAD STORY

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DIGITAL INDIA SURVEILLANCE

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DATA CENTRE

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SMART CITY ICT SCHOOL

Digital penetration pushing the UPS market in India The power deficit in the country along with the adoption of digitalization in everyday life has become the primary factors that are driving the growing trend of UPS adoption as a power backup system

P

ower, an imperative element of everyday life has eased the daily workflows of human beings. But a developing country like India is still struggling to provide round the clock power supply to its citizens.

Though the country coped a lot with the power deficit but still there is a gap between the demand and supply of power. This has been a major driving force for the power backup industry.

Moreover, there is a continuous growth observed across all the verticals which demands for uninterrupted power supply.

Government initiatives like Smart City, Digital India along with other factors like economic growth, Co-location Data Centers, healthcare, education etc are stimulating the power backup market.

It is also noticeable that the power backup industry is expected to record a slow growth which consists of inverters, UPS and DG sets.

Out of these, the UPS segment is showing

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a steady growth in this market backed by a developing IT sector and digital penetration.

Power backup market landscape

India, a developing country, often faces the problem of power deficiency which in turn has geared up the power backup market.

All the organizations use computers to ease their workflows and the uncertainty regarding power supply in the country has pushed the UPS systems market.

“India being a power deficit nation has a large market for power backup products.

There has been a growing trend in recognizing UPS systems as an essential power backup device as nearly every organization today uses computers to smoothen their workflows.

The demand in the Indian inverter/ UPS market has increased due to constant power shortages, and a strong push from the government to accelerate the National Solar Mission. As the country moves towards

high power back up requirement, the entire critical load needs to be backed up without any downtime. At Vertiv as well, we have witnessed a significant rise in >200kVA Modular and Monolithic segment for the Colocation Data centers, MSC’s, etc.” says Vikas Srivastava, Director, Product Management, Vertiv India.

Reiterating similar views, Gurudutt M, Director – Channels, India & SAARC, ITD Sales Building & IT Business APC by Schneider Electric says that there is a gap between demand and supply of power in many states which is boosting the power backup industry.

Other factors like economic growth, rise in income etc are also acting as a catalyst in the growth trajectory. He adds, “As per industry estimates, the INR 10,000 crore industry is projected to grow at a rate of 15-20 per cent year on year basis. Inspite of recent policy reforms in the power and energy segment, there is a huge demand supply gap existing in

the industry. In many states, people get power for just 6 to 8 hours a day.

This impending power shortage has given a push to the power backup industry. Other factors driving this growth includes vigorous economic growth, rise in income etc. Indeed, products like power generators, inverters, uninterrupted power supply (UPS) systems and storage batteries are finding an expanding market.”

Though the power backup segment is expected to grow in a slow pace but the UPS segment is witnessing a steady growth in the market. Within this UPS segment the speed of growth are different for various product categories.

“The power backup sector is expecting to grow slowly but steadily. The UPS segment has been witnessing a consistent rise owing to the rapid development of the IT sector and digital penetration. However, the pace of growth is different within the various product categories. Line Interactive is witnessing a de growth, Single Phase growth is flat whereas Three Phase is growing aggressively,” explains Palash Nandy, Chief Commercial Officer, Numeric India.

Contradicting the above views, Manoj Jain, Vice President, Microtek International says, “Power backup market in India is not growing much as the increasing demand in power is taken care by the solar power.”

Market Size

The Power backup industry consists of inverters, UPS and DG sets and the market is anticipated to grow from USD 1.5 billion to USD 2.6 billion by the end of the year.

“The power backup industry, which includes products such as inverters, UPS and DG sets is expected to witness an upward trend from the current USD 1.5 billion to USD 2.6 billion by the end of the year.

Though India’s power deficit has come down to some extent, the power backup industry is still on a high growth trajectory. Demand for power generation equipment and components are also growing,” predicts Gurudutt.

Factors like power deficiency, increase in income and rapid industrialization have increased the spending on power backup products and the market is projected to grow at 15-20% year on year. The Indian UPS market is gaining momentum in the market and is growing at a CAGR of 9.8% in 2014- 2019. This traction is coming from IT penetration, pharma, banking, enterprise segment etc.

“Power shortage, increase in income levels and expansion of industries have resulted in increased spending on power backup products in India. According to experts, the power backup segment is valued at Rs 10,000 crore and is expected to grow at a rate of 1520% year on year basis. According to Ken Research’s latest publication titled ‘India Inverters and UPS Market Outlook to 2019’, India’s inverter market is projected to grow at an appreciable CAGR of 9.4% by 2019. The increasing disposable incomes of households, the sales of electrical equipments like ACs,

refrigerators, televisions and microwaves is expected to increase and inadequate power supply will drive consumers to opt for inverters. Indian UPS market is also projected to scale new heights, expanding at a CAGR of 9.8% in 2014- 2019. This is due to shortage of power, expansion of IT, banking, pharma and small, big and medium enterprise segments and increasing income levels of consumers,” views Kunwer Sachdev, Managing Director, Su-Kam. Talking about the India UPS market size, Palash says, “India’s power sector is one of the most diversified in the world and is undergoing a significant change that has redefined the industry outlook. The total size of the UPS market in India has been established at Rs 2200 crore (This is only UPS market without taking into consideration the batteries that form a part of the UPS system.).”

Kunwer Sachdev Managing Director Su-Kam

Growth drivers

The power backup market is expected to see a double digit surge in coming years and the boost which is observed in the market is fueled by many factors like industries with critical power need such as servers, data centers, electronic & medical equipment etc.

“India’s power back up segment is expected to witness a double-digit growth in the coming years. Products that will dominate include high power range, yet eco-friendly UPS systems, batteries and storage products.

Growing industries with critical power requirement such as, data centers, servers, and electronic & medical equipment will is further boosting the demand.

Another factor for growth is the server power cuts that happen across the country.

There is also lack of adequate power grids to meet our domestic & industrial usage.

This makes the need for micro-grids strong.

Moreover, rural India is no more willing to bear power cuts of 8-10 hours. India’s rural poor is increasingly opting for affordable backup solutions these days,” highlights Gurudutt M. Apart from industries which requires critical power need, other factors which are influencing the growth of UPS segment are Digital India initiative, Smart City, growth of surveillance, necessity of clean power across industries etc.

“The factors that are driving the growth in the UPS segment are the need of uninterrupted power supply and also CLEAN power to run basic infrastructure both in the industrial and private sector. The widening gap between the demand and supply of electricity in India is also a major factor driving the UPS market.

Other factor includes Government of India’s Digital India initiative, Smart Cities initiative, ICT@ Schools, the need of clean power across Industries, various infrastructure projects, the growth of surveillance needs, distance education projects, digitalization of entertainment penetration of sensitive electronic gadgets at homes to name a few which further increases demand for a clean and uninterrupted power supply. The fast growth of IT/ITES, Govt, Infrastructure

Manoj Jain Vice President Microtek International

Gurudutt M Director – Channels, India & SAARC, ITD Sales Building & IT Business APC by Schneider Electric

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LEAD STORY & Education segments also is creating the demand and faster growth of the UPS sector,” describes Palash.

Vikas is of the same view and finds Smart City and Digital India projects as the drivers of the power backup segment. He adds, “Currently, Smart City Build and Digital India initiatives are picking up and driving the growth in this segment. These two initiatives have been gaining traction from the Government as well as the community at large. In the past few years there has been substantial activity in the Smart City project to ensure that we reach our target of powering maximum homes by 2020.

Considering the government’s commitment to delivering ‘24x7 power for all’ will prove to be beneficial to the power back-up industry.

Similarly, the economy has been shifting towards a digital approach in terms of secure software solutions aided by sturdy hardware and financial technology with the advent of the Digital India mission. Therefore, India is expected to witness a major shift over the next few years.”

Growth Verticals

In the UPS segment, three phase and modular UPS have moved up the growth ladder. The modular UPS offers flexibility to design solutions, ease of maintenance , lower operating expenses etc.

“While closely monitoring the market we have noticed that the three phase and modular UPS segment has seen an upward growth between 5-8%. Modular UPS which not only offers flexibility to its customer to design his solutions but provides ease of maintenance and safety; capital preservation and reduce operating expenses is witnessing traction in the market,” observes Palash.

As per Manoj, “In online UPS and extended back up UPS/inverters we see a major traction.”

Eco-friendly products

Vertive has always stressed on sustainable development and energy efficient products.

The company as an organization is very conscious about its responsibilities towards society so it keeps a check on its products to make sure the safety of environment and communities.

“With the amount of waste generated, especially by electronic providers, there is a considerable risk to the environment due to radiation poisoning. In such a scenario, it is important for us as an organization to take stock of the products we provide and how we are doing our bit to ensure safety of our environment and communities. Vertiv being a global multinational, emphasizes on sustainable development and energy efficient products. All our latest products in the UPS segment like, EXM, EXL S1, Trinergy Cube are highly energy efficient, with less heat dissipation which helps in low CO2 emissions, “ comments Vikas.

Energy efficiency and making the most out the products by customers are two important aspect of Numeric. The company makes the most energy efficient products and

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few of them records an energy efficiency of up to 96%.

“At Numeric, we believe in maximizing the product value and energy efficiency is one of the important key drivers. This starts from the choice of raw materials, the manufacturing process, choice of manufacturing unit and transportation means. Products that are available at Numeric are most energy efficient products in the Indian market. Some of the offerings have an energy efficiency levels are up to 96%,” states Palash.

For Schneider Electric, energy efficiency is the most convenient way to address challenges like energy demand, rising energy costs and climate change etc. It is committed to reduce carbon emissions and its products and solutions are made keeping it as a focus.

“At Schneider Electric, we belive that ‘energy efficiency’ is the cheapest, cleanest and most abundant form to overcome the challenges of growing energy demand, rising energy costs and climate change. We are a global specialist in energy management and automation helping our customers manage their energy and process in ways that are safe, reliable, efficient and sustainable. From simple switches to complex operational systems, technology, software, green building solutions, all are pivoted on sustainability. We are committed to reduce carbon emissions and all our products and solutions are targeted towards that,” explains Gurudutt.

Su-Kam is being guided by the principle of innovation. It is at the core of the company.

Most of the products of the company are based on solar energy as it reduces carbon footprint, lower power bills etc.

“Our products are completely ecofriendly. Innovation is our guiding principle.

From manufacturing plastic body inverters to leveraging the Internet of Things and Artificial Intelligence, our products are synonymous with innovation.

Most of them are powered by solar energy which is the future of India’s energy roadmap due to its ability to bridge power gap, reduce carbon footprint and minimize burgeoning power bills,” says Kunwer.

While talking on the eco-friendly products, Manoj mentions, “Microtek is continuously focusing on developing products and technologies which save energy and are ecofriendly.”

Vikas Srivastava Director, Product Management Vertiv India

The Indian UPS market is gaining momentum in the market and is growing at a CAGR of 9.8% in 20142019. This traction is coming from IT penetration, pharma, banking, enterprise segment etc.

To Conclude...

There are several factors which are playing up for the growth of the power backup market but still it is expected to go through a slow and steady growth in the country. The UPS segment is faring well in the market and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 9.8% in 2014- 2019.

The growth of the UPS market is mainly guided by the government initiatives that are undertaken by the Government of India and it is expected that more of these projects along with economic growth, infrastructure projects and surveillance needs will further enhance the market. n

Aparna Mullick aparna@varindia.com

Palash Nandy Chief Commercial Officer Numeric India

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October 2017

47

Demand for security boosts Indian Surveillance Industry In a talk with VARINDIA, Robbin Shen, Director, India & SAARC Region, Dahua Technology, highlights the growth of the IoT-enabled surveillance industry and the growing demand for security in the country In the twenty-first century when India is facing a huge number of security issues because of late adoption of technology in India, various nation-building initiatives of the present Indian Government such as “Digital India”, “Smart City”, “Safe City”, and “Make In India” have accelerated the rate of technology adoption process in the recent years. Though Analogbased surveillance systems have accounted for majority of the share (68%) in the overall market, yet IP-based surveillance systems are expected to increase in the next five years due to increasing IP infrastructure, declining prices and demand for remote access. The shift from analog to digital is making steady progress due to crystal clarity, superior technological features, flexibility and affordability.

IoT enhancing Surveillance…

In the era of IoT, the use of internet and wireless communication has seen a paradigm shift. With current trends including 4K video surveillance, HD-SDI (High Definition – Serial Digital Interface), Body Cameras, Drones, Mobile Video Surveillance, IoT in Video Surveillance, Automated Intelligent CCTV Surveillance and Advanced Analog CCTV, video surveillance through CCTV can now be used and watched anytime from anywhere in the world.

“With the emergence of network video and remote monitoring devices and the advent of advanced applications in security products, surveillance is now a tool for gathering business intelligence and other applications,” opines Robbin Shen, Director, India & SAARC Region, Dahua Technology. “Take the example of student security in schools. For that one cannot fault surveillance cameras alone as they can only help in forewarning and identifying culprits.

Besides installing CCTV cameras, the school management should enforce strict policies and make them known to all students, parents, other stakeholders and visitors to prevent unsavoury incidents in schools. It should establish Safety & Security Department, Crisis Management Cell, Law Enforcement Coordination Team, and Policy Development & Volunteering Unit and have regular media relations. Security devices are only means to protection and not the end.”

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Security is a matter of concern

The concern regarding security has risen over the years. Therefore, people want security everywhere like office buildings for IT/ITeS, infrastructure development, new airports, banks, schools, colleges, universities, hotels, hospitals, shopping malls, which is contributing to the demand for security products in India. “What Indian customers want is durability, seamless performance and instant customer support.

And also the consumers are opting for more and more integrated solutions than standalone one. Though the device is bought for safety and security, consumers do expect add-on values like energy savings, business intelligence and mobilebased operations,” points out Robbin.

“In the era of IoT the rising demand of security and government initiative’s opens up humongous opportunities for Indian surveillance market,” says Robbin Shen, Director, India & SAARC Region, Dahua Technology.

That is also the reason why the Indian Surveillance Equipment market is moving toward integrated security solutions, created by integrating multiple systems, including video, intrusion, video analytics, fire, access control, HVAC, chemical and biological sensors, etc.

Also, the rise in terrorism and crime rates has triggered the demand for security and surveillance products. All trains in India are getting CCTV cameras installed to prevent crimes and to increase safety of women passengers/ commuters. Likewise, all school buses have to mandatorily install CCTV cameras inside the vehicles to protect children.

The Indian Government’s “Smart City” Initiative has further opened up humongous opportunities for the surveillance market as all major sectors in this mammoth project such as aviation, bank, education, energy, health, hospitality , housing, Infrastructure, real estate, retail, road, telecom, 24x7 transport need to have surveillance for safety, security, sustainability and success.

Robbin Shen Director, India & SAARC Region Dahua Technology “Video surveillance will have a critical role to play in India’s ‘Smart City’ initiative and its development,” says Robbin. “India is a young, buoyant and fastest-growing market in the world.

The Union Government has taken a number of initiatives to modernize or revamp the ailing infrastructure by announcing new airports, ports, railway stations, expressways, educational institutions to build 100 smart cities across the nation. Hence, these will lead to a great demand for the safety and security products and services across different segments.”

Opportunities for Partners

The security industry provides plenty of opportunities for channel partners to expand in the existing markets and to explore new geographies for many cutting-edge solutions.

These include opportunities to identify strategic goals, develop sales and support programmes, hosting events to increase security awareness, decreasing sales cycles, winning business consistently through quick and effective adoption of technologies, corporate culture and customercentric focus. Such valuable opportunities leverage both strengths and help differentiate products, services, values and vision vis-a-vis the competition. Like many companies, Dahua is partnering with leading distributors across the world to expand their market through domestic and global distribution channel. n Megha megha@varindia.com

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VAR MOBILITY

Kult strives to empower Millennials through its new Innovations In a chat with VARINDIA, Nitesh Gupta, Director, New Product Development, Kult discusses how the growth of the Indian Smartphone market and the Digital India initiative will boost the demand of this market further. Nitesh also talks about the company’s strategy around support, expectations from future innovations and much more -

T

he Indian mobile industry over the past decade has been witnessing a significant growth. The new technology advancements are believed to be a driving force for the growth of this industry. It is also believed that in near future, addition of new specs and upgradation will further boost the industry.

Talking about the current Indian mobile phone industry and the company’s future plans, Nitesh said, “The Smartphone market in India is growing at an exceptional pace and the opportunities therein are limitless, with affordability combined with high specifications being one of the prime drivers.” Stating IDC’s Q2 report, he discussed that the industry registered 3.7 per cent quarter-on-quarter growth. Nitesh also believes that the latest Digital India initiative and the increasing nationwide 4G penetration will also accelerate the smartphone demand in the country.

Talking about the company’s future plans, Nitesh discussed that today’s hyper-connected millennials demand high performance smartphones with great camera quality. He thus asserted, “At Kult, our endeavor is to offer madein-India and best in class smartphones at very compelling price points. Having an exclusive tie-up with Amazon.in for distribution helps us to reach every corner of the country, which is important for the sustainability of our business. We will continue to constantly innovate ourselves and launch products that offer great experience to the customers.”

Product & support strategies…

When asked about the company’s strategy on how to address competition in the market, Nitesh discussed, “Consumers these days are much more evolved and are looking at buying smartphones which have high specifications and are available at a competitive price. Thus, for smartphones, the factors affecting a consumer’s purchase decision, apart from the strong build quality, amazing features and premium experience is the price of the device. We at, Kult, want to reach out to the tech-savvy, on-the-go young consumers who are socially active, clicks

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selfies, and require longer running battery on their smartphones.”

He further added, “If you look at the last two launches from the company, they are designed for today’s youth and they have been best sellers in the category. The phenomenal success of Kult Beyond and Kult Gladiator exhibit the confidence customers have in our products and the focus we put in quality control at every stage of product development. We at, Kult, are continuously working to provide innovative products to empower millennials to have a great user experience. In the next few months, we have aggressive plans to expand the brand’s product portfolio ranging from smart devices to other utility products.”

While discussing its strategy Nitesh also spoke about Kult’s strategy around support. He said that Kult’s endeavor is always to provide best quality service to its customers through widespread network of 750+ service centers across India. “We would be extremely focused on increasing this number in coming days to ensure that our customer care experience sets

new benchmark in the industry.”

Sale from channel and new innovations …

On its preeminent approach against competition and future new innovations he commented, “In coming days, we will bring more products to the market and each one will stand out among competition. KULT, itself personifies today’s millennial culture and promotes Alternate Thinking and all the products that the company will launch will be an extension of brand’s philosophy. In the next few quarters we will be launching products in multiple categories with innovations at the core of every new product development.”

Kult has partnered with Amazon.in to cater to the growing customer demand. Its recently launched smartphones were very well received with KULT Beyond getting sold out within few hours of its launch. “This proves that online is a successful channel and by offering Kult smartphones online, it gives us the opportunity to reach out to a wide range of consumers across the length and breadth of the nation,” he said. He further added, “As we are moving towards a smartphone only economy, it has become extremely crucial to be present on an online platform so as to connect with the digital consumers. Kult is a new age smartphone brand and we want to focus on providing innovative products to today’s hyper-demanding youth at a compelling price point.”

Nitesh concluded by saying that smartphones act as a forerunner in terms of technology adoption and with smartphones’ shelf life of anywhere between 18-24 months, it has become extremely important for one to offer the best user experience. “We are focused on constantly innovating and empowering consumers with mobile solutions that allow them to achieve more,” he said. n

Abha Singh abha@varindia.com

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September 2017

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VAR MOBILITY

Nokia MD 8 now in India market Global has

H

announced Nokia 8 in India. The Nokia 8 brings three world-firsts to Android smartphones, including a debut collaboration with ZEISS

optics. With performance and pure Android at its heart, as well as the most advanced aluminium unibody design to date, the Nokia 8 incorporates all the hallmarks of a true flagship Nokia smartphone.

The Nokia 8 now enables Dual-Sight video to be livestreamed natively and in real-time to social feeds such as Facebook

and YouTube. Dual-Sight simultaneously harnesses both the front and rear cameras in a split screen visual for both photos and videos. With just one touch, this world-first livestream capability gives more immersive experiences for those who love to create and share special memories.

Powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 Mobile Platform, Nokia 8 doesn’t compromise on performance.

The Nokia 8 has been designed from the ground up with the consumer in mind to deliver unique content capture and sharing experiences.

The result is a full-length graphite shielded copper cooling pipe that dissipates the heat generated by the high performing system across the full length and breadth of the handset.

LAVA unveils new Z series Smartphone

L

AVA International Limited has launched its in-house designed and manufactured smartphones in the “Z Series” – Z60, Z70, Z80 and Z90. The Z series from LAVA focusses on

providing great product experience with high-end camera features like Dual Bokeh Mode and Dual Camera.

Taking forward its brand philosophy of offering products that are high on reliability and experience, the company has launched the first-ever-

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in–the-industry offer called the LAVA Money Back Challenge. Under this offer, a customer can buy any LAVA phone, experience the product for 30 days and in an unlikely event of not liking the product

for any reason; can return the phone within 30 days from the date of purchase and get his money back!

Customers can walk into any LAVA service centre to get an on-the-spot refund for their returned handset.

The challenge is valid from 1st October to 31st December, 2017.

www.varindia.com

LG presents its new Honor 9i Smartphone Q6+ featuring G Electronics has in India." four cameras L launched its new For the selfie lovers, variant called the LG Q6+ Q6+ offers a wide 100smartphone hits upgraded to a 4GB RAM degree selfie camera and 64 GB in-built storage. instant social share features Indian market and LG Q6+ is a perfect device which allows to take great

H

uawei's subbrand Honor has launched its new smartphone Honor 9i in India. It is Honor's first smartphone with four cameras – two at the back and two at the front. The new phone comes with a near bezel-less design, an edge-to-edge display, fairly powerful specifications and a metal unibody design.

On the imaging front, the Honor 9i has a dual camera setup at the front with a 13MP primary shooter and a 2MP secondary shooter, the addition of which allows for the capture of images with depth of field effects.

On the front, the phone comes with a feature Honor calls a “smart selfie toning flash” which provides a uniform and consistent light. Huawei claims it intelligently adjusts the brightness level according to the surroundings. The phone also allows you to take selfies via gestures.

The smartphone allows to set the focus point even after taking an image. The smartphone also comes with a bunch of photo effects preloaded. Other features on offer include time lapse, slow motion capture and so on.

The Honor 9i has 5.9inch FullHD+ edge-to-edge display with an aspect ratio of 18:9. The “FullView” display, as Honor calls it, has a resolution of 2160 x 1080. The display is covered by 2.5D curved glass which aids in-hand feel. The smartphone has a screen to body ratio of 83%.

The Honor 9i has a metal unibody design with minimal bezels and a matte back that looks sleek, especially in the Graphite Black colour. It is available in two more colours – Prestige Gold and Aurora Blue.

for multitasking. The device is an amalgamation of great features and will give the consumers a renewed and latest smartphone experience.

Q6+ has redefined the viewing experience for Indian users via its best-in-class Full Vision Display technology as well as one-time free screen replacement within six months.

Commenting on the occasion, Amit Gujral, Chief Marketing Officer, LG Electronics India, said, “The new LG Q6+ sets the benchmark in bringing the best of technology at an accessible price point to the consumers

selfies and also share them with friends and family. LG Q6+ features some of the most desired innovations

from LG’s premium G6 smartphone and packages them in a sleek, stunning body highlighted by its Full Vision display with minimized bezels.

Xiaomi debuts Mi MIX 2 in India

X

iaomi has come up with a full screen display smartphone in India with Mi MIX 2. The 5.99inch screen with an 18:9 full screen display delivers a stunning appearance with the screen almost entirely filling up the front surface, allowing content to seemingly pop. Mi MIX 2 underscores Xiaomi’s commitment to being at the forefront of technological innovation while making these innovations affordable to the widest possible range of consumers.

Manu Jain, VP, Xiaomi and MD - Xiaomi India, said, “With Mi MIX, we gave everyone a glimpse of what the phone of the future would look like. Mi MIX 2 has evolved from a conceptual design into a user-friendly phone catered to a wider consumer audience while retaining the wow factor. We are so proud to have brought Mi MIX 2 for our fans in India within a month of our global launch."

Mi MIX delivers an unprecedented screen-tobody ratio that heralded a turning point in the design

of smartphones. Mi MIX redefined the smartphone user experience as the first Android-based device with a 17:9 aspect ratio high-definition screen and rounded display corners, which helped pave the way for Google’s Android CDD (Compatibility Definition Document) eventually allowing screen aspect ratios beyond 16:9.

FACE TO FACE

Salesforce brings the power of predictive analytics to businesses M

arc Benioff founded Salesforce on the basis of very simple principles.

He observed that enterprise applications are complex, difficult to deploy and takes time to implement. His vision was to make application buying as simple as buying a book on Amazon.

With that concept he introduced a disruption around cloud computing for enterprises and that’s when Salesforce came into existence.

“Salesforce was born on cloud,” says Deepak Pargaonkar, Senior Director – Solutions Engineering, Salesforce India. “Started in 1999, the value proposition of the Salesforce solution was very appealing and compelling. Over the last 18 years, Salesforce has done quite a bit in areas of innovation, customer success and philanthropy. This led to its huge adoption.

Fast forward to 2017, we have globally 1, 50,000 customers. Today the organization is more than $8 billion organization. By the end of the financial year, it is possibly going to be a $10 billion organization, the fastest company to reach this mark. It’s the 4th largest enterprise software company in 18 years of its existence.”

Salesforce gives the ability to its customers to connect with their customers in a whole new way. Today’s consumers are changing, and so are their expectations. Besides technology has hugely disrupted the world today. Under such circumstances, the organization has to adapt to such expectations of B2B as well as B2C customers. Salesforce has a comprehensive portfolio of solution platform catering to the needs of sales, service, marketing, IoT, Social, analytics and Artificial Intelligence and its customers are using these solutions to transform their business.

India – a focused market for Salesforce...

India is one of the important markets for Salesforce. It has been present in India for more than 10 years now.

“India is a focused market for Salesforce.

As the country embraces digital transformation, we are there to help our customers transform their business and be an important part in the Indian ecosystem. It is in fact one of the great markets for us; we have made great investments in our Hyderabad Center of Excellence,” reiterates Deepak.

Salesforce has key customers in India across the geography – in north, south, the west and across all the verticals and across all segments. “So you talk about financial services, IT-ITeS, manufacturing as well as the new age e-commerce, we are present everywhere. It may even be large enterprises or mid-market customers or they might small SMB customers too,” he says.

The mushrooming of e-commerce sites

has been a big game changer moment for Salesforce. “eCommerce is changing the way in which lot of things are happening.

Customer retail buying habits, shopping or even other things are changing. There are a lot of innovative companies that are coming up to create a marketplace or ecommerce sites. Any ecommerce site has 2 major aspects – supply side where they have lot of vendors who are interested in selling their products and the services part in which customers like us buy these products and vendors manage the service aspects of the customers. These ecommerce companies are leveraging Salesforce to manage the journeys of their suppliers and vendors as well as connecting the latter with the customers for any kind of marketing initiatives and manage their relationships with important stakeholders,” he says.

Growth of Artificial Intelligence...

Artificial intelligence has now become a part of our day to day life. Salesforce is bringing the power of AI to all its business stakeholders through the introduction of a comprehensive AI called Einstein. Salesforce Einstein is a comprehensive AI for CRM and is an integrated set of AI technologies that makes the Customer Success Platform smarter.

“Sales people in an organization will get the power of AI to make them smarter,” explains Deepak. “Say I am a salesperson, and out of the 100 leads, I am told that these 20 are the leads that I should work on, because they have the higher probability of getting a faster response. Einstein works in the background and tells a salesman of where to focus on. This is the intelligence that Einstein is bringing in the lives of business stakeholders that address customer requirements in an appropriate and timely manner and delight the customer.”

If a company had to do this on their own, they would need a lot of data, had to write algorithms, take the help of many data scientists and then come out with the output and deliver.

Salesforce is doing all these jobs and at the same time providing the customers a platform that can leverage AI and build intelligent apps on it.

And so...

There are a lot of digital transformations happening. There is not a particular vertical that has not embraced this innovation, but the transformation is happening across verticals. Leveraging this opportunity Salesforce has positioned itself well to address its customers’ needs and help them with a seamless transformation with the help of its technology. n

Samrita Baruah samrita@varindia.com

Deepak Pargaonkar, Senior Director – Solutions Engineering, Salesforce India tells VARINDIA of the journey that Salesforce has traversed in the country and how it has adopted AI to move its customers to the next level of transformation www.varindia.com

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Movers & Shakers

Dinesh Malkani joins Smarten Spaces as CEO and Founding Partner

Harsh Marwah joins Check Point as new Country Manager of India

Smarten Spaces has appointed Dinesh Malkani as Founding Partner and worldwide CEO. He will lead the pioneer team responsible for shaping the blueprint to design, define, develop and deploy the company’s strategy worldwide. He will also be a member of the Smarten Spaces Board.

As Founder and CEO of Smarten Spaces, Dinesh brings a differentiated perspective on the future evolution of organizations and industries as they adapt to the opportunities the FourthIndustrial Revolution will bring.

Smarten Spaces is getting the solution conceptualized and designed in Singapore.

Check Point Software Technologies Ltd has appointed Harsh Marwah as Country Manager for its India region. Managing all aspects of Enterprise business, Harsh will work effectively with the leadership of Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, Managing Director, India and SAARC, Check Point.

“Hailing with an experience of leading organizations like Verizon India and BT India in majority of his 25 years+ of scintillating experience, he is not only going to expand the footprint of Check Point solutions across the region, but also drive the inorganic growth aspirations of Check Point India,” said Bhaskar Bakthavatsalu, MD, Check Point, India and SAARC.

Kaspersky Lab appoints Shrenik Bhayani as the new GM for South Asia region

NetApp appoints Kaushal Veluri

Kaspersky Lab has appointed Shrenik Bhayani as its new General Manager for the South Asia region covering India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, and the Maldives. He is joining the company's Asia Pacific leadership team effective October 18, 2017.

With over 17 years of sales leadership experience across the information & communication technology sector in the South Asia market, Shrenik lists channel sales, distribution, business development to solution design, and support services among his areas of expertise. He also has a strong record of building channels and generating sources of revenue for a variety of system integrators, enterprises and SMB companies.

Dilipkumar Khandelwal joins as President of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud

SAP SE has appointed Dilipkumar Khandelwal as President, SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud. He will be reporting to Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board, SAP SE, Products & Innovation. Dilip will have a global responsibility for the deployment of SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and will oversee its adoption and customer success.

SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud empowers business and IT operations to unlock the full value of SAP HANA in the cloud. It is the only endto-end solution of its kind, delivering comprehensive cloud infrastructure and managed services for SAP’s in-memory applications, database, and platform.

Umang Bedi quits Facebook after a short stint of 15 months

Umang Bedi who had joined Facebook as its Managing Director just 15 months back has stepped down from the position. The social networking company said this in a statement released.

Umang Bedi joined the company in June 2016. While at Facebook, Umang was responsible for the South Asia region where he built and maintained strategic relationships with top clients and regional agencies in the country.

Facebook confirmed the development in a statement - “We confirm that Umang Bedi will be leaving his role at Facebook at the end of this year. He has built a really strong team and business during his time with us, and we wish him all the best.”

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NetApp has strengthened its leadership team with the appointments of Kaushal Veluri as Director of Channels & Alliances for India & SAARC. According to the company, Kaushal joins NetApp post an entrepreneurial stint running his own marketing consultancy firm – Kanso Consulting. In his current role, he will oversee channel strategy for NetApp in India and SAARC. With over 23 years of experience in organizations like 3M, IBM, Oracle & Citrix, he is well known in the partner community, largely due to his relationships across resellers, regional/global system integrators, distributors and alliance partners.

Samsung CEO steps down from his position

Citing an "unprecedented crisis", Samsung Electronics Chief Kwon Oh-hyun has stepped down from his position. His resignation comes on the same day the firm forecast record quarterly profits, citing higher memory chip prices.

As per news reports, Kwon said that he was thinking about this exit for quite some time and could not delay it further.

He also added that as the company is confronted with unprecedented crisis inside out, it is time for the company to start a new with a new spirit and young leadership to better respond to the challenges arising from the rapidly-changing IT industry.

He will remain on the board of Samsung Electronics until March 2018.

Sophos names Adel Eid as Channel Sales Director for APJ

Sophos has appointed Adel Eid as Channel Sales Director for Asia-Pacific and Japan. Adel brings more than 20 years of experience in channel management, having worked with global organizations, ranging from start-ups to Fortune 100 companies.

Adel joins Sophos from CyberArk where he managed a channel sales team and developed a comprehensive strategic alliance, enhancing its partners’ security expertise and ability to drive new business opportunities.

Prior to CyberArk, Adel spent 9 years with Cisco where he held various roles, including sales responsibilities for distribution in Southeast Asia.

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RNI - NO 72399/1999

Reg. No: DL-SW-1/4030/15-17

Printing Date 18 & 19

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56 pages including cover

Date of Posting 20 & 21 every month