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CLOUD COMPUTING:Fear is paving way for euphoria in the cloud

STRATEGY: IT managers prefer smaller firms for quick growth

INTERVIEW:McAfee’s Sentonas on managing security threats

BIG QHow to drive server efficiency Pg 49

26 34 38

Vinay Mehta CIO, Escorts Construction

Equipment Ltd

Mahesh KumarAssistant General Manager- IT Infrastructure, Operations & Support, Maruti Suzuki

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The entire environment, be it political, cognitive, financial, social, information technology etc., is subject to several ambiguities, making it tough for the players to breeze through. Technology is not an exception to this rule and it is more so as

there is no rule of thumb in addressing its complexities.What is that element which is missing that leads to ambiguity in any

structure? It is obviously the inadequacies in the information flow. While the other verticals have been trying to bridge the gap in addressing the ambiguous elements, the IT industry, and in particular, the IT heads and senior IT managers, are caught up in this web where the ambiguities get manifested in different forms.

The common rhetoric from across the IT manager fraternity is about ambiguity and confusion prevailing in the IT business transaction and deployment process. Most of the IT projects get fizzled out because of ambiguity surrounding the discussion between vendors and customers. It gets critical to understand each other’s language which synchronizes the thought process and freezes the deal.

The current cover feature on ‘Software Licensing’ enabled us to look into certain ambiguous situations that the IT managers dealt with during business transactions. One of the IT heads was very categorical in saying that most of the time the vendors’ language is vague while transacting the deals. “There is so much ambiguity between their statements and their actions, which leads to frustration,” says a senior IT manager.

The reason for this is inadequacy in information. However, the IT managers have been smart and making smart moves to play around these uncertainties. They seem to be evolving fundamental project management strategies to address the so called transactional ambiguities that are thrown up from time to time.

One of the key initiatives that the IT managers are advocating is to evolve methods within a project management or any transactions or procurement process, which ensures provision of adequate information. The second would be to look into the internal process of what is the current structure and need, and a have tool to judge the adequacies and inadequacies. The

“IT managers are evolving strategies to address transactional ambiguities.”

Playing with ambiguities

Blogs To Watch!Leadership and Social Effects:http://www.dlaka.com/leader-ship-skills/Top 10 Benefits Of Leadership:http://briandoddonleadership.com/2011/04/28/top-10-benefits-of-leadership/

Celebrate Failure: www.smartplanet.com/blog/business-brains/-8216cele-brate-failure-8217-manage-ment-tips-from-a-computer-game-visionary/616enefits Of Leadership

Leadership: The way to life http://www.caclubindia.com/share_files/leadership-the-way-to-life-37917.asp

Your views and opinion matter to us. Send your feedback on stories and the magazine at editor@itnext..in or SMS us at 567678 (type ITNEXT<space>your feedback)

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INSIGHTS

22 Remote AccessRemote access is becoming more popular, more complex and more risk-prone, necessitating IT shops to understand the issues involved

26 From Fear to EuphoriaWhile security and regulatory concerns may still keep some skeptics away from the Cloud, fear is paving way for euphoria

29 Smartphone or PC : How about both?Motorola’s Atrix 4G Android 2.2 smartphone can use the Lapdock to turn the device into a complete computer.

32 A Speedy, Multiplatform Browser The latest version of Firefox matches Google’s Chrome.

34 Small is the new BigIT managers want to work in smaller firms in order to learn and grow.

05 Win the Confidence | Dinesh VictorManaging Director, SIP Academy on how to win em-ployee confidence

BOSS TALK

38 Potential threats are increasing | Michael Sentonas, VP, CTO - APAC, McAfee, on managing security

INTERVIEW

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OPINION10 Tech Talk: Mobile Malware Monster looms large | by Berjes Eric Shroff, Manager – IT, Tata Services

15-MINUTE MANAGER43 F-1 apps for mobile | The screaming V8s have come back to town! With one or multiple apps, keep up with the F-1 action

44Tips and Tricks | Find out apps that could make your mo-bile safe

47 Myths of the cv | You’ll be surprised to know that many things you thought were essential to your resume are not that important...

THE BIG Q49 Business Case: Server | How to increase over all opera-tional efficiency?

CUBE CHAT54 Follow Your Instinct | “It’s the inner soul that guides and inspire people,” says Manish Kumar Sinha, Head IT, On Dot Couriers & Cargo

OFF THE SHELF56 Creative Launches Ziio Tablets | Wireless enter-tainment beyond music listening

34Page

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SMALL IS THE NEW BIG | More and more IT managers are choosing to work in smaller firms in order to learn and grow in a better way.

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IT MANAGERS TAKE THE CUEThe panacea lies in how they adapt to the changing trends, accept cloud and do intelligent provisioning while going green.BY N GEETHA

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This refers to the boss talk article written by Vishnu Gupta, “Save time, not money to excel.” I must say that the article is written in a simple and effective manner, throwing light on some very important points. These small notes can change the way we do our daily activities.

SHWETA MUKHRJEEEngineer, ITDC

I’ve found the article “What Chokes My Internet” very impressive and interesting. Today, modern networks are very complicated and proliferation of different internet-enabled services has added to this. A step by step analysis of the problem would always help, provided the base work is already done. In the case mentioned in the article, I am assuming that a good corporate level UTM box or firewall is already placed between the ISP router and company intranet. The first thing Ravinder should do is to check the MRTG graph provided by ISP for getting the bandwidth utilization report of upload and download from the company’s internal network. He can confirm whether the problem is from his internal network or it is the ISP who should be taken into account for not providing proper bandwidth or latency for the cus-tomer’s internet traffic. From the MRTG graph, you will get a graph of both upload as well as download, based on the utilization.All firewalls are equipped with strategic tools like ACL (Access Con-

trol List), QOS and policy based management of available band-width. Configuration of JFLOW and CFLOW is one thing the network administrator should do in advance, along with SNMP in all network enabled devices. With SNMP, malfunction in any of the device can be displayed on the dashboard along with an alarm generation. With JFLOW/CFLOW information captured through network management software like NetFlow Analyzer, Solar-Wind will give information about which service, which IP and which user is utilizing the inter-net bandwidth and in what ratio. The router, firewalls, gateway devices can show the online ses-sions passing through the device with information like source/des-tination IP, port numbers session utilization, the duration of the active session, etc. From here, he can catch the culprit responsible for getting the internet band-width to its bottleneck. Now, this culprit can be a user trying to download a big movie or a virus/Trojan that is generating unso-licited traffic from inside the net-work Also, further analysis of the JFLO/CFLOW information will help him understand the network traffic.

PERTISTH MANKOTIAHead-IT | Sheela Foam

This refers to the article “CIO on demand”. My sincere thanks to the author who has explained the entire theory so well. I am sure there will be a very large size of SMEs looking for these types of solutions to protect their business interest from SME ERP vendors.

SHEELA GUSAINIT Manager, BlueTech

—EDITOR

(Note: Letters have been edited mini-mally, for brevity and clarity)

APRIL 2011

www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=

2261770&trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

300 members

I agree that a manager should treat the subordinates well. An effective manager should be able to inspire people down the line to get their work done rather than rebuke or toss the information. A person delegating the task should be in a position to set the example by ‘doing’.The written text provides comprehensive information on management gestures which is of great help to people.PARVESH KUMAR

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4 7A P R I L 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

Strategy: The Art of Managing THIS PAGE

Tips & Tricks: Speed Up Browsing PAGE 48

Personal Development: Give up to be successful PAGE 51

Training Calendar Career booster courses PAGE 52

The market is getting demanding day by day, which is increasing the pressure on businesses and IT. In this ever grow-

ing business environment, numer-ous different processes, activities, and systems are used to run the business. These include numerous workflows and procedures; some manual, some automated; that may or may not be for-mally documented including a variety of departmental applications and legacy databases that are likely disjointed and not well-integrated. Moreover, difficulty in getting accurate data, timely infor-mation and improper interface of the complex business functions have been identified as the hurdles in the growth of any business.

So, time and again, depending upon the velocity of the growing business needs, one or the other applications and planning systems have been introduced into the business world for crossing these hurdles and for achieving the required growth. They are:

Management Information Systems (MIS)

Integrated Information Systems (IIS) Enterprise Wide Systems (EWS) Material Resource Planning (MRP)

TRAININGEDUCATIONWORKPLACE

COMPENSATIONWORKFORCE TRENDS

SKILLS DEVELOPMENTPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

WHAT TO

LOOK IN A

TABLETPAGE 50

STRATEGY

THE ART OF MANAGINGEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

facilitates flow of information between all of a firm’s business functions

15MINUTEM A N A G E R

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“Handling issues with objectivity, fairness & absolute transparency in communication will win employee confidence.”

The greatest challenge that the head of every organisation faces is to win the employee confidence. The jour-ney to being good and reach the path of greatness is really tough. Innu-

merable hurdles that are hazardous in nature confront the heads, which demand a matured mind to deal with.

In my opinion, it is the responsibility of a CEO or a managing director in every organisation to ensure that the organisational values are appropriately adhered to by the entire project and team leaders etc., and not just restricted to HR alone. Constant message to these team heads from the top is mandatory to ensure that they maintain absolute transparency in communication with their teams.

Build the TrustClarity in the thought process is an absolute need for any organisational head. More than that, it is vital to communicate this in a coher-ent manner to the entire organisation, preferably to every employee. The message could be about anything, be it a welfare measure, organisational restructuring, financial status, new initiatives etc. My experience has been that it is best to be open with your employees while making them feel that they are the family members of the organisation. It is important to empower them to take decisions on critical aspects, which will build their confidence levels and make them more responsible. One should ensure that the organisation has nothing to hide except the criti-cal business secrets.

Way to doMutual confidence could be built through con-stant dialoguing and communication with the employees. It is crucial to balance between infor-mation confidentiality and employee involve-

Win the Confidence

M A N A G E M E N T

ment. Experience is the best teacher. Having experience combined with internal discussions with the senior management will provide more clarity in going forward.

I’ll give you the example of a situation that I deal with as the head of an academic organisation. Working with nearly 80 franchisee operations, the task is huge as far as winning the confidence of my community is concerned. The confidence of the employee and the academic fraternity depend upon the kind of infrastructure that both the administrative and IT team could provide, besides my support.

In my view, employee confidence cannot be managed independently. It needs to be managed holistically, and if employees believe that their future is secured and the organisational top management is capable of dealing with issues in complete fairness, the confidence will improve.

In this regards, the book, “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don’t” from Jim Collins is thought provoking. It helps the team leaders in organising themselves better and not to lose control over their temperaments during a crisis situation and not to give up.

This book aims to describe how companies transi-tion from being average compa-nies to becoming great ones.

SUGGESTION BOX

WRITER:JAMES C. COLLINSPUBLISHER: WILLIAM COLLINSPRICE: INR 730

BOSS TALK | DINESH VICTOR

UPDATE

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TECH TRENDS| The partnership between Nokia and Microsoft is apparently proceeding on schedule, according to public comments by one executive. In turn, that suggests Nokia smart-phones running Windows Phone 7 could arrive by their scheduled release date some-time in 2012.

“Negotiations have progressed very well,” Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s Head of Corporate Development, told Reuters on April 4. “They will be concluded well on schedule,” he added.

Nokia Phones with Microsoft OS on way

But according to Nokia’s publicly released Form 20-F 2010 report, the deal continues to carry some substantial risks.

“If we fail to finalise our partnership with Microsoft or the benefits of that partnership do not materialize as expected, we will have limited our options and more competitive alternatives may not be available to us in a timely manner, if at all,” reads one section of the report. “Our expected transition to the Windows Phone platform may prove to be too long to compete in the smartphone market longer term,” it adds.

That aside, the deal also presents some potential benefits for the two companies, as they both seek to challenge Apple’s iPhone and the Google Android smart-phones that currently dominate the market.

Under the terms of the agreement, Nokia will apparently leverage its expertise in hardware and design to “help bring Windows Phone to a broader range of price points, market segments and geographies.” It will also collaborate with Microsoft on development and joint marketing initiatives.

“We expect the transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform to take about two years,” the document continues. “While we transition to Windows Phone as our primary smartphone platform, we will continue to leverage our investment in Symbian for the benefit of Nokia, our customers and consumers, as well as developers,” it adds.

Nokia and Microsoft’s

negotiations over their

smart-phone partnership

are apparently proceeding on

schedule.

UPDATEI N D U S T R Y

SOURCE:IT NEXT SURVEY

59% of the IT managers surveyed are of the opinion that the iPad definitely makes a good enterprise device.

Do you think the iPad makes a good enterprise device?(NUMBERS IN %) MOBILITY

59% Yes

35% No 6% Don’t know

7M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

TECHCOM’S MULTIMEDIA SYSTEM Techcom has introduced the SSD 7000R – 5.1

channel multimedia home theatre system.

It has a Vacuum Fluorescent Display (VFD),

built-in digital FM

radio & tuner. It

is available for

Rs. 3,400.

JABRA SPEAKTM 410 UNVEILED Jabra has launched the Jabra SPEAKTM

410 in India. As per the company, the Jabra

SPEAKTM 410 is small,

powerful and designed for

portability. It includes the

industry’s only truly 360-de-

gree microphone.

SMC LAUNCHES ATM ROUTERS SMC Networks has introduced ATM routers.

This router connects to 3G

networks using the user’s

existing USB wireless mo-

dem. It also connects with

many wireless peripherals

and other Wi-Fi devices.

TECH TIDINGS| While smart-phones have become an indis-pensable tool to communicate, work, share and collaborate, if not addressed, its risks can make you sweat with worry. A recent survey by Norton reveals that 53% of adults in India are victim to mobile phone loss or theft. Despite this, only two in five Indi-ans currently have a password to protect their data. The report adds that the need for mobile protection is becoming impor-tant with users losing or having phones stolen an average of 1.5 times over the past five years.

As annoying as it is to lose their mobile phones, 77% of

Loss of Smartphones Poses Big Enterprise Risk resolve the situation. However,

in reality, victims end up paying nearly three times that amount to resolve the situation. Despite this, almost 3 in 10 users said that the situation was never resolved and in cases where it was resolved, 12% said that it took more than a week.

“Mobile phone loss and theft is a significant issue for Indians today,” said Gaurav Kanwal, Country Sales Manager, India, Symantec. “As smartphones become more pervasive in our lives, there is a greater need to protect the data on such devices. This is one of the reasons why Norton is taking security beyond the PC to develop solutions that protect consumers, regardless of the device they use,” he added.

Survey reveals 1-in-2 Indians is victim of mobile phone loss or theft

In “The Ideaman, a memoir by the co-founder of Microsoft”, recalling those early days when the company was founded, Allen makes some damning allegations against Gates, who apparently not only cheated him of his ‘fair share’, but also was keen to upstage Allen during his weakest period in life, when he was afflicted by Hodgkin’s disease.Mainly, Allen touches upon his partnership with Gates when they first met at Seattle’s Lakeside School in 1968.

AROUND THE WORLD

“Gates cheated me,” alleges Microsoft Co-founder

AKIO TOYODA, PRESIDENT, TOYOTA MOTOR CORP ON PARTNERING WITH MICROSOFT TO INTEGRATE WEB SERVICES WITH TOYOTA’S VEHICLES, PROVIDING ‘TELEMATICS’ AP-PLICATIONS FOR CARS.

“This new partnership is going to develop future mobility and energy management for consumers globally.”

victims considered the loss of contact information the worst part of the experience.

Not surprisingly, more than half of the victims said that they were willing to pay a ransom to

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TECH TRENDS| AFCOM, the inter-national association of data center managers and enterprise IT executives, has confirmed that a high number of data centers are not fully protected from potential disasters. This problem has the potential of bringing enterprises to their knees.

The March 11 earthquake and tsunami, which knocked out or severely damaged many data centers in northeastern Japan, has brought this issue into clear focus for the entire industry.

The top-shelf issues have remained the same for several years. Chiefly, the problems relate to the proper use of energy, physical and digital security, space limitations and convergence of functionality into smaller devices.

According to AFCOM, hundreds, possibly thousands of data centers are not prepared well enough for potential disasters.

More than 15% of respondents to AFCOM’s survey said their data center has no plan for data backup.

TECH TRENDS | The market for Business Intelligence (BI) soft-ware in India is forecast to reach revenue of $65.4 million in 2011, up 15.7% over 2010, according to Gartner. Worldwide BI software market revenue is forecast to grow 9.7% to reach $10.8 billion in 2011.

Business intelligence ranked number five on the list of the top 10 technology priorities in 2011, according to Gartner’s annual global CIO survey.

“It’s a sign of the strategic importance of BI that investment remains strong,” said Bhavish Sood, Research Director at Gartner. “This market segment has remained strong because the dominant vendors continued to put BI, analytics and performance management at the centre of their messaging, while end-user organisations largely continued their BI projects,

Data Centers Unprepared for Disasters: AFCOM

India BI Market to Grow 16% in 2011: Gartner

IT NEXT: What is the kind of growth you are seeing in the storage market in India? What are the key drivers for growth?

MUNGLANI: The external controller-

based disc market in India grew at 17.8%

in 2010 over 2009 and we expect the

growth to continue in 2011 at 16% over

2010. The government vertical would be

the biggest driver for growth in the storage

market in India in 2011. While the govern-

ment spending on storage contributes

about 8-9% of the overall storage spend

in India, going forward, we expect its con-

tribution to increase to about 18-20%. We

also expect to see increased traction in the

SMB market that would fuel growth. The

BFSI and telecom sectors would continue

to drive storage demand.

What do you think would be the key storage technologies for the next two years?

Companies have seriously started looking

at technologies that improve efficiency

in their storage infrastructure. Therefore,

while data deduplication is still at a nas-

cent stage in India, we expect to see good

traction for it in the Indian market. Storage

virtualisation, on the other hand, would see

slower adoption, as it is not a one size fit all

solution. While it may make sense for some

enterprises, it may not be suitable for other

enterprises and SMBs. Automated storage

tiering will be the most important technol-

ogy in 2011. Organisations are realising the

importance of tiering.

By Varun Aggarwal

INTERVIEW

AMAN MUNGLANIResearch Director, Gartner

BI ranked number five on the list of the top 10 tech-nology priorities in 2011, accord-ing to Gartner’s annual global CIO survey.

hoping that the resulting transparency and insight will enable them to cut costs and improve productivity and agility down the line,” he added.

Gartner’s view is that the market for BI platforms will remain one of the fastest growing software markets despite sluggish economic growth in most regions. Organisations continue to turn to BI as a vital tool.

Source: AFCOM

15PERCENT SAY THEIR DATA

CENTER HAS NO BACKUP PLAN

UPDATE

8 B M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

TECH TRENDS| A survey of 7,000 busi-nesses reports that 25% of enterprise IT systems suffered unplanned outages of 4 hours or more during the past year, costing billions of dollars in profits.

IT systems integrator CDW, on March 22, released results of a study about business continuity/disaster recovery methodology that indicates 25% of all enterprise IT systems suffered unplanned outages of 4 hours or more during the past year.

Based on this data, CDW said it estimates conservatively that such network outages cost U.S. businesses $1.7 billion in lost profits last year. In

Billions Lost Due to IT Network Outages in 2010

its Business Continuity Straw Poll, CDW queried about 7,000 medium-size and large U.S. enterprises about significant network disruptions they had experienced since July 2009. The survey aimed to ascertain how well businesses reacted to disruptions and to determine the measures IT managers are taking to improve their business continuity and disaster recovery capabilities.

“The survey confirms that while many businesses believe they are prepared for an unplanned network disruption, many are not,” said Norm Lillis, CDW VP of System Solutions.

AT&T is buying T-Mobile USA for

$39 billion in cash and stock, a

move that would make the carrier

the largest in the US and acceler-

ate its 4G LTE network deployment

to catch Verizon Wireless.

AT&T agreed on March 20

to purchase T-Mobile USA from

Deutsche Telekom AG, paying $39

billion in cash and stock for the

struggling phone carrier to help

accelerate its 4G LTE (long term

evolution) network plans.

AT&T will pay Deutsche Tel-

ekom $25 billion, with the remain-

der to be paid in AT&T stock for

T-Mobile in a deal both companies’

boards approve and expect to close

in 12 months. Deutsche Telekom

will take an 8% equity stake in

AT&T, according to the deal terms.

The blockbuster deal makes

sense on a number of levels, start-

ing with the fact that both run GSM

technology, an important charac-

teristic for network compatibility.

T-Mobile has 33.7 million mobile

subscribers, but finds itself strug-

gling to compete with top carriers

Verizon Wireless and AT&T, which

serve over 94.1 million and 95.5

million subscribers, respectively.

The buyout would stand to make

AT&T the largest U.S. carrier if the

deal passes regulatory muster.

M&A

AT&T buys T-Mobile USA

A new survey reports that 25% of enter-prise IT sys-tems suffered unplanned outages of 4 hours or more in 2010

WIN PHONE TO OVERTAKE IPHONE BY 2015 WINDOWS PHONE PLATFORM TO CONTROL 19.5% OF SMARTPHONE MARKET by 2015, according to research firm Gartner

According to Gartner, Microsoft’s strategic partnership with Finnish mobile phone maker Nokia will drive wider adoption of a variety of Windows Phone models over the next several years. Gartner isn’t the only independent market research firm predicting this. In late March, IDC predicted that Windows Phone will vault into the No.2 spot worldwide by 2015 with nearly 21% of the market.

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The threat that unmanaged mobile devices pose to the enterprise is quite visible now. Businesses widely support organisational use

of mobile phones to improve productiv-ity, reduce the costs and for a range of other benefits.

The popularity of smartphones and the increase in the number of services they offer means a parallel increase in the number of malicious programmes used by cybercriminals to make money from mobile device-users.

Currently, some of malware’s most prolific transport methods – instant messaging, IP network traffic, web browsers and email attachments – have made their way to the common user on a mobile platform. Many of these applications had been available previously on smartphones and on windows mobile, but the mainstream user-base had not adopted the technology.

Now, iPhone and Android-based applications have ushered in a much more seamless interface that allows even the everyday user to quickly load and use applications, as well as use instant messaging and social media sites, through their phone. As the user base grows, so will the number of threats posed against it.

Spectres to Mobile Security Due to their ubiquity and functional-ity, smartphones will most likely cause an increase in criminal research and development efforts. Cloud-based ser-vices may also represent a new target, not only for data theft, but also for cheap

as well. Unlawful schemes, such as redirecting mobile internet banking-users to phishing sites and stealing passwords sent by banks to mobile phones, are being used. Mobile threats have become more complex and include the emergence of mobile bots and other remotely controlled software.

Making Money out of Malware As usual, the world of mobile malware is dominated by programmes that send text messages to fee-based short num-bers. The use of SMS trojans is still the easiest and most effective means for malicious users to earn money. How-ever, last year, sending fee-based text messages ceased to be the only illegal money-making scheme for virus-writ-ers developing threats targeting differ-ent platforms. Kaspersky Lab last year detected a Trojan that makes calls to international fee-based numbers.

What Lurks AheadSMS trojans unfortunately put in place no pre-conditions that would facilitate a downturn in the number of SMS tro-jans. The law in some countries still needs improvements and cybercrim-nals can still use short numbers with complete anonymity.

The Android platform is gaining popularity among users, and as a result, cybercriminals will show an increased interest in it. There will be an increase in the number of vulnerabilities detected in a variety of smartphone platforms, and possibly the launch of attacks using these vulnerabilities.

Additionally, we should not forget about tablet PCs. We will have streamlined devices with larger screens running iOS, Android, BlackBerry, etc, which means malware will be able to run on smartphones and tablets.

There is also the fact that most people who own tablets will also own a smartphone, driving up the number of potential victims and increasing the number of threats targeting them.

The author is Manager – IT, Tata Services

The popularity ofsmartphones andincrease in thenumber of servicesthey offer means aparallel increase in malicious programmes

infrastructure or resources within criminal enterprises.

The growing popularity of the Android platform has inevitably drawn the cybercriminal’s attention. Most mobile threats continue to target the Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME) platform, which is supported by a huge number of mobile devices. That means it is not only smartphones that are at risk of infection, but basic mobile phones

TECH TALKBERJES ERIC SHROFF Manager – IT, Tata Services

Mobile Malware Monster looms large

AD

Vinay Mehta CIO, Escorts Construction

Equipment Ltd

Mahesh KumarAssistant General Manager- IT Infrastructure, Operations & Support, Maruti Suzuki

1 4 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

IT managers squeeze the most out of software licensing options

using best practicesBY N GEETHA

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Repeatedly, there have been reports around the absurd nature of software licensing structures that vendors throw up. The vendor

and customer relations have ever since been strained as the former is eager to lock the later for ever, while the later insisting on cutting non-value adding maintenance and license cost. How-ever, with technological changes such as cloud, virtualisation and mobility, coming into vogue, there are bound to be certain changes in the software pricing and licensing models. The com-mon refrain that I hear from the ana-lysts and customers alike is that the software licensing and pricing is not customer friendly and needs modifica-tion. Perhaps the launch of multi-cores from chip vendors too has intensified the challenges for the customer. While the ambiguity is the result of many manifestations, the senior IT manag-ers and the IT heads have been making smart moves in unfolding the licens-ing mysteries, while making judicious decisions to drive the cost benefit.

While efforts are on to monetize

cloud based services,

the cloud invariably adds to the

customers’ agony and confusion

with regards to software licensing

model. A consensus on how it

should be put into effective use still

dodges the industry.

While most IT heads get euphoric

about the cloud and its cost reduc-

tion techniques, the challenge lies in

getting clarity on license usage for

every software and hardware con-

figuration used and its compliance

to the licensing policies. Getting an

account of effective patch manage-

ment, upgrades and security strat-

egy involved is also a challenge.

“With the capex model getting

stronger, the customer gets locked

in with the vendor under the cloud

model and the dilemma would be

around the usage or non-usage of

What’s the fuss?It is all about the challenges that the customers face in procuring software licenses irrespective of the product range, which escalates the cost and drains the kitty.

Vikash K Agarwal, President, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd., finds the ambiguity about various options available for customers without a common yardstick for comparison. “Most often than not, software licenses for similar or competing products differ in nature, as in some could be a “perpetual license” while some are “time based”, some could be “number of users” based while some are “server/CPU” based. Adding to it is the complexity of bulk discounts. Services get included in the license cost and all of these put together results in ambiguity for the customer during the buying process,” admits Agarwal.

Sandip Chakraborty, VP-IT, Bharti Axa General Insurance has experienced vendors’ monopolistic attitude towards pricing concepts who are eager to win the price war. According to Chakraborty, the problem starts in the second year when the IT team is saddled

“Problem starts in the second year when the first AMC bill is slapped even before the software has moved into production”SANDIP CHAKRABORTY, VP-IT, BHARTI AXA

“Service providers will buy back to back licenses as per user need, and customer will pay for the license”SANDEEP MENON, COUNTRY MANAGER, NOVELL

with a huge amount of customization and project over-run when the first AMC bill is slapped even if the software has not moved into production. The software vendors are not concerned as to whether the business objectives of the customer are with the software. Their start date of AMC never coincides with the actual ‘go live’ date of the customer.

Chakraborty opines that while the hardware manufacturers are increasing the processing power of servers at no steep increase in the price, the license cost of software to run in those servers is being increased quite substantially by the software vendors. For example, IBM has stopped manufacturing X-series quad core servers and has brought the much powerful 6-core server at a price difference, which is hardly in the range of Rs 2 lakhs to Rs 4 lakhs.

Cloud

1 6 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

that organisations of all sizes are getting increasingly frustrated with the procurement complexities and time commitments normally associated with managing a myriad of software licenses and renewals from numerous technology vendors.

Naik argues that limited resources, maintenance, support, variations in terms and conditions, boxed products, complex contracts, compliance fears and cost constraints, however, have made software licensing an increasingly challenging discipline for both procurement and IT departments.

For Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construction Equipment Ltd., convincing the management to upgrade to the newer versions of the software licenses is a challenge, as it is associated with new investments. His peer Pertisth Mankotia, CIO of Sheelafoam, admits

cloud based subscription model, and the

ratio is likely to increase,” avers Gupta.

LICENSING IMPACTCloud computing too does not allow the

customers or vendors to track the licenses

with regards to the number of CPUs or

cores, as they tend to be variable on the

cloud. But, it may be different from a

private cloud stand point.

Prince Sudersanam E, GM - Base Com-

ponent Development, Ramco Systems Ltd.,

argues that if the customer has a private

cloud, he would be paying for both the soft-

ware license and also for the cloud sub-

scription. “If he looks at pure software as

a service, he would pay for the software us-

age over the cloud, where his data resides

along with others,” says Sudersanam.

Sandeep Menon, Country Manager,

Novell India, says that service providers

will buy back to back licenses based on

the user who will pay for the license too.

Ganesan Arumugam, Director-Partner

Sales, VMWare India, finds virtualisation

impacting the cloud based licensing model

where the service provider will not take

perpetual license. VMware has rolled out

a pricing model as part of its VSPP (Vir-

tual Service Provider Programme) where

the cloud service providers will offer vir-

tual machines on the monthly usage and

charge them on that. “About 15% of our

customers have moved to the public cloud

model to deploy our VMs and I would not

see any change in the licensing cost,” main-

tains Arumugam.

Akash Deep Vashishta, Head-IT, Care

India, argues that cloud computing is

expensive in license procurement too.

“We tried to negotiate with Google Doc to

source some of the services through cloud

model, but it is priced heavy,” says Vash-

ishta. Most agree that meaningful service

levels and service credits will help miti-

gate the inherent risks.

Sandip Chakraborty, VP-IT, Bharti Axa

General Insurance, points that the cloud

solution may not be best suited for com-

panies that require greater control due to

corporate constraints and data sensitivity.

the current infrastructure licenses.” ob-

serves Mahesh Kumar, Assistant General

Manager- IT Infrastructure, Operations

& Support, Maruti Suzuki. “The TCO may

still be a concern for customers under this

model, as there are no straight instances

which makes cloud a proven initiative as

far as licensing models go,” adds Kumar.

Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construc-

tion Equipment Ltd., believes that it is still

a selective decision amongst the custom-

ers to move to the cloud as per the cur-

rent scenario. ISVs too seem to be doing

little to simplify or adapt to the licensing

demands and changes in the virtualised

environments to generate interest.

However, Rana Gupta, Business Head -

India & SAARC, SafeNet India opines that

ISVs are encouraging SaaS based sub-

scription models with regards to software

licensing demands. “Currently, 20% of the

customers are going in for the traditional

SaaS model, who will now move to the

However, because of Oracle’s software licensing policy, which is attached to the core factor of the hardware, the software cost has gone up as high as Rs 80 lakhs (difference between quad core and 6 core) which is making the projects unviable. The CIOs have to make a painful decision as to whether to hard partition the servers up to quad core and degrade the server performance or to invest much on virtual machine configuration. Chakraborty’s agony is not without a reason, as the company spends Rs 4.5 crore towards software license procurement and maintenance, with an annual incremental cost on the rise.

The hardware-based approach to licensing server software, according to Chakraborty, is giving rise to additional cost of software in case of hardware upgrade and virtualisation year on year.

Open source vendor Sandeep Menon, Country Manager, Novell India, finds the ambiguity in the traditional licensing model, which is not designed to handle the current procurement process where the finance head drives the opex model.

Anand Naik, Director, Systems Engineering, Symantec India, admits

Economics

of the cost would be incremental on software license

procurement

40%

SOFTWARE LICENSING | COVER STORY

1 7M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

“I strike a balance between open source and proprietary software which will balance my cost”PERTISTH MANKOTIA, CIO, SHEELAFOAM

“Several software licensing options without proper yardstick for comparison leads to ambiguity”VIKASH K AGARWAL, PRESIDENT, TALLY

SOLUTIONS

One can observe that the software

licensing models are being disrupted by

the emergence of the cloud, virtualisation,

multicore processors etc. Alternative

licensing schemes or models, though not

ubiquitous, are emerging from the familiar

open source and SaaS to other models,

which are based on pricing.

While the battle between open source

and proprietary software is on, many

companies have attempted to solve this

puzzle in their own capacity. Both are

equally vital for the IT heads and co-exist

in every organisation. However, the point

of debate would be to understand in what

ratio it is being deployed in any organisa-

tion and about its growth strategy. The

open source vendors have been consciously

influencing the customers across the indus-

try segments in adopting to open source by

showing better return on investments.

Sandeep Menon, Country Manager,

Novell India reiterates that open source

is gaining prominence with the cloud and

hosting models coming into vogue, as cus-

tomers opt for a Linux based platform to

host their solutions. “I noticed customers

using 70% of proprietary software and 30%

of Open Source, but this is narrowing. I would

easily find a 50:50 ratio in consumer prefer-

ence,” says Menon.

Menon observed more SLAs being signed

around email, storage, printing services,

CRM etc., on the Linux platform.

COST COMPONENTThe trend observed amongst most custom-

ers is that they rely on open source software

products as well, while core deployments

have already been made around closed

software. Some non-critical functions are

deployed on open source.

Interestingly, Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts

Construction Equipment Ltd., has deployed

the RedHat Enterprise Linux platform to

drive the firm’s ERP solutions in an effort to

lower the total cost of ownership.

Mehta finds open source making in-

roads into various segments around the

ERP environment, particularly vendors like

IBM, Oracle, Novell, Red Hat etc., encour-

aging open source. Pertisth Mankotia, CIO,

Sheelafoam, directly advocates to shift to

OS if the proprietary software vendors try

to arm twist. “I chose a 50:50 ratio in the

deployment of open source, as my front end

applications run on Linux,” claims Mankotia.

“Our desktops run on open source,” he adds.

Invariably, the cost factor plays a big

role, as the trend goes that about 20 to 25%

of the total IT spend goes towards procur-

ing software licenses. The IT heads opine

that about 10% to 15% of that goes towards

open source deployments, which is likely to

increase in the future.

For an organisation such as Care India,

an NGO, it hardly matters if it is an open

source software, as far as the functional

requirements are met. As per Askash Deep

Vashista, Head-IT, Care India, the entire

document management systems is de-

ployed on the Open Source framework.

The factors that are fueling interest

amongst the IT managers are around cus-

tomization capabilities of open softwares,

that the cost of software, be it from Oracle, Citrix or others, turns out to be quite expensive, and is rising at an alarming pace.

Akash Deep Vashishta, Head-IT of Care India, a NGO, faces a strange situation where there is no clarity in discussion from vendors. “While procurement, renewals and auditing happens as a routine, we are not clear about their terms and conditions,” he says. In another instance, Vashishta claims that Microsoft, which outsources its audit to KPMG, doesn’t have a single clue as to which customer is using what, and hence makes random checks and snaps a huge service fee.

Challenges are umpteen and there have been certain changes too in the vendor approach as new licensing patterns evolve.

Solving the Open Puzzle

COVER STORY | SOFTWARE LICENSING

1 8 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

access to the vendor’s technology, which is referred to as ‘Buffet’ deals.

Symantec’s Naik believes that the licensing models should offer corporate customers and clients in the academic and government arenas a simplified purchasing process. “Our programmes enable procurement with a single purchase order, with products delivered in a single shipment, and on a single invoice,” claims Naik, and adds, “This reduces administrative costs, accelerates procurement capabilities to suit business requirements, It provides customers a single Symantec Agreement Number (SAN), which enables them to view, track and manage the license and renewal agreements.

Vendor like VMware provides greater flexibility to customers in buying the licenses as per their requirement based on the number of CPU licenses they would need.

“To get the price benefit, the chassis is given to the customer as a straight license sale,” maintains Ganesan Arumugham, Director-Partner Sales, VMware India.

Mahesh Kumar, Assistant General Manager - IT Infrastructure, Operations & Support, Maruti Suzuki, finds changes evolving in the usage pattern where the customers are going in for three year ELAs to derive greater benefits. However, Kumar says that the licensing renewal definitions vary from vendor to vendor and are sometimes vague.

Tally’s Agarwal agrees that the emergence of virtual licensing and cloud based licensing are examples of such changes, besides the examples of various software offered as a

“Technical evaluation and negotiation skills combined to get OS bundled along with hardware will save huge cost”MAHESH KUMAR, AGM-IT INFRA, MARUTI

which could be used to develop further hav-

ing a copy of the source code.

With Indian organisations giving a shot

at open source, Dhananjay Chandrashekar

Rokde, Practice Head-Information Secu-

rity, Arcon Risk Control, finds the advent of

distributed applications such as office ap-

plications over the wire and online produc-

tivity suites posing a threat to proprietary

software vendors.

Arcon is in its final phase of testing

MySQL at an enterprise level.

Andy Karandikar, Head Marketing,

Red Hat finds the subscription model

drawing customer attention, as they

can avoid paying the upfront cost, which

forms 80% of the cost in case of pro-

prietary software procurement. The

customer trend towards transition to

opex model is paving way for more open

source deployments.

Karandikar recommends the customers

to avail subscription benefits, a large portion

of it being custom built, which he considers

as a competitive necessity.

“The advantages that customers

could see is that it keeps systems se-

cure, acts as a trusted access support,

automates every day maintenance

tasks by the vendor, gets the latest soft-

ware faster, allows to keep the tech-

nology under control, acquires better

performance and support, protects the

investments and enables to grow the

technology infrastructure responsibly,”

according to Karandikar.

Novell’s Menon agrees with his peer

and says that the subscription model, as

against the traditional AMC, would drive

down the cost substantially. “Customers

will be paying just one-fourth of the cost

towards subscription in open source cat-

egory as against proprietary software an-

nually and run mission critical applications

on these platforms,” Menon reiterates.

From a spend standpoint, according

to Sandip Chakraborty, VP-IT, Bharti

Axa General Insurance, the company

spends about 9% of the total IT spend

in procuring open software.

Progression with LicensingThe traditional vendor-client licens-ing models, such as single user-single license, multiple users-shared license and temporary or fixed period licenses, are paving way for newer models. The cloud revolution is throwing up several questions and excitement amongst both the vendors and customers alike (see the box – Cloud Economics).

BEST IN ACTION Eye on concurrent usage and

scalability

Balancing open versus

proprietary

Good negotiation skills

Differentiate between

corporate licensing and others

Negotiate to bundle with

hardware for better cost

Co-ordination in procurement,

legal and IT critical

Dhananjay Chandrashekar Rokde, Practice Head-Information Security, Arcon Risk Control witnesses that most software vendors are beginning to work on a trust model and signing up ELAs (Enterprise License Agreements). According to him, this is a good change from the old ‘buy as you use’ model, as it provides an umbrella cover for the whole year.

The industry is witnessing usage-based models, a transition from traditional vendor-client model to classification models, pay-per-use model; remix models and technology partnerships, to provide unlimited

SOFTWARE LICENSING | COVER STORY

1 9M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

“combined pack”, which creates a win-win scenario, both for the provider (multiple software are sold together and customer retention) and the customer (better pricing and a higher integrated experience).

Andy Karandikar, Head – Marketing, RedHat India, finds increased use of the subscription model, which is built around the Opex model where the onus lies on the vendor to constantly deliver value for five years with no major rise in the cost. “A different flavor of subscription model is being evolved to address small enterprises, which would lower the total cost of ownership for the customer,” confirms Karandikar.

Smart MoveAs the business expansion is happening across organisations, the need for addi-tional licenses also rises. The IT spends towards procuring licenses also go up, thus posing a challenge to the IT heads. Certain insights into understanding the customer spend on software licensing revealed that on an average, every com-pany spends about 20% of its IT budget on software licensing, which turns out to be huge, besides the annual maintenance, which is about 22% of the solution cost.

There are always new licenses around security and virtualisation that is not part of the allocated budget. The eyebrows can rise on every request that the IT manager places before the management to procure additional licenses or an enhanced version.

One way for the customers to check the cost, as Prince Sudersanam E, GM - Base Component Development, Ramco Systems Ltd. recommends is to study the current requirement and needs in terms of scalability and concurrent usage while revisiting the licensing needs.

The IT managers and heads firmed up their position by working out best practices that could save their cost. The IT heads seem to be striking a proper balance between proprietary and open software, subscription model versus AMC to drive better benefits. (See box on Open Puzzle).

For instance, Sheelafoam’s Mankotia who spends around Rs 80 lakhs on ERP

One way of getting more clarity around the software licensing model for Dhanan-

jay Chandrashekar Rokde, Practice Head-Information Security, Arcon Risk Control,

would be to make it direct and idiot-proof. It means to make it as a commodity, which

once bought or sold, will be entirely a customer’s property.

Commenting on the vendors’ arm twisting approach, Rokde says, “I would cel-

ebrate the day software license procurement becomes like buying a shirt. You like

the brand (software vendor) and the color (software variant), then pay up and it is

yours forever.”

The point of mention is that vendors carry unnecessary frills around their licensing

models, having too many flavors and business requirements, squeezing everything

into one, which multiplies the confusion.

COST FIASCO Rokde finds that about 80% of the cost is associated to being the incremental cost in

software procurement, which would be towards renewal and new purchases.

Arcon is spending about Rs 25 lakhs on software licensing this year, and for Rokde,

the top challenge is convincing the senior management that just buying one CD and

installing it across all PCs is illegal, even in case of having professional teams.

Of course, amongst the myriad of issues, the most irking aspect for him is capacity

planning, while managing the count of licensing based on utilization. Rokde provides

an instance of a company growing at a rate of nearly 15% year on year having 400 us-

ers and 20 power users. The question that arises is how many desktop licenses need

to be bought? The firm zeroed in on procuring 400 licenses, with a 5 to 10% surplus. If

the company adds another 20 users for an adhoc project, the additional licenses come

at a premium and are too costly to justify to the management. This results in a major

cause for non-compliance to software licensing, which puts the company in trouble.

WAY OUTWhile there is no straight answer to counter the vendors, there are methods that

Rokde finds would help save some cost and result in optimal usage of the licenses.

For instance, keeping a strict vigil on utilization, frequent audit for license count and

actual utilization would bring in transparency. “It is critical to prevent system admin-

istrators from installing any software without a proper workflow and integrating this

with change management,” he says, and opines that the priority would be to procure

a license management system if the environment is too large.

“I would celebrate the day software license procurement becomes like buying a shirt”DHANANJAY C ROKDE,

PRACTICE HEAD-INFORMATION SECU-

RITY, ARCON RISK CONTROL

CASE STUDY: DHANANJAY CHANDRASHEKAR ROKDE, ARCON

Idiot Proof Licensing

COVER STORY | SOFTWARE LICENSING

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and adds more licenses for additional users has gone in for OEM boxes from the OS standpoint to address the cost factor. “I am also maintaining a balance between proprietary software and open source, which would balance my cost as well,” says Mankotia.

Escort’s Mehta has spent about Rs 3 crores on software licenses. Besides a 22% recurring support cost, he opted to go for the Linux based platform for running ERP. Mehta believed in having good negotiation skills, which resulted in a major discounting process.

Maruti’s Mahesh Kumar, who spends 40% of the IT budget on software licenses, believes that having awareness

The Rs 3500 crore Escorts Group believed

in balancing its software-licensing portfo-

lio and deployment strategy. Not deterred

by the proprietary software critics about

open source not providing sufficient per-

formance, Escorts did go in for Open plat-

form Linux to deploy its ERP solutions.

Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construction

Equipment Ltd., found the software licens-

ing cost soaring high with increased use of

proprietary software. However, he had the

task of striking a balance and justify the

cost. He had the challenge of working with

tough senior management who did not be-

lieve in enhancing the software versions

owing to the cost being very high.

OPEN INITIATIVEWhile Escorts depended upon proprietary

software such as Microsoft for its desktop

and laptop OS and other security software,

Mehta tried out Linux platform from Red

Hat to deploy ERP on to it.

“While I had the options of going in for

HP Unix and SQL, I intended to go in for

Linux and recently implemented Linux 4.5

version from Redhat,” Mehta reiterates.

Since Escorts used Oracle ERP solu-

CASE STUDY: ESCORTS GROUP

“Effective negotiations with vendors will result in procuring a discount upto over 70% in the ERP space on open platform”VINAY MEHTA, CIO, ESCORTS CONSTRUCTION

EQUIPMENT

tions, it was essential to be certified by Or-

acle to rule out any interoperability issues.

NOT WITHOUT A REASONOpting for the open platform was not

without a reason, as Mehta observed

substantial cost reduction in software

licensing. It was easier to migrate to

Linux based solutions and the support

was very consistent.

Mehta pointed that besides saving a

substantial cost and also convincing the

management, the room for negotiation on

licensing cost for ERP and related plat-

form is concerned is immense. “We will be

in a position to negotiate skillfully on ERP

software and also open source subscrip-

tion acquisition, which is another reason for

getting attracted to open source,” Mehta ob-

serves. “Sometimes, the negotiations result

in procuring a discount upto over 70%. In

this case, too, we are paying for the func-

tions we use with a conviction of having

constant support from the vendor,” he adds.

SOUGHT AFTERWhile Escorts spends about Rs 12 crores

on an average on IT infrastructure, about

20% goes towards software licensing.

“Had we gone in for proprietary software

for ERP platform too, it would have esca-

lated our IT cost,” remarks Mehta.

about differentiating corporate license structure versus perpetual license is critical. “Technical evaluation skills and

effective negotiation skills to bundle OS along with hardware would result in huge cost savings,” points out Kumar.

Care India’s Vashishta and his team have learnt the tricks of the trade and recommend having a software assurance programme in place, signed by the vendors, which involves special discounting and on-going support for three years at a marginal cost.

Bharti’s Chakraborty believes in having complete co-ordination with procurement, legal and IT, and work in harmony to procure, negotiate licenses and maintenance contracts and installation and de-installation by the respective departments.

Open can save cost

of the ITbudget in every organisation goes for software license purchase

20%

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INSIGHT | NETWORKING

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BY NICK KOLAKOWSKI

Remote access is becoming more popular, more

complex and more risk-prone, necessitating IT

shops to understand all the issues involved.

PresentsSecurity

Remote

NETWORKING | INSIGHT

2 3M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

“For companies trying to figure out whether they’re going to build internal apps for their employees, should they bet on iOS and Android and PlayBook? It’s a challenge.” —Chris Fleck, VP, Solutions Development, Citrix

Once upon a time, remote access wasn’t a press-ing concern for most IT administrators. A com-bination of on-premises

servers, desktops and phones met the needs of workers commuting to a cen-tral office.

However, as with nearly everything in the world of enterprise IT, technology evolved to the point at which this centralized model no longer applied to most businesses. More workers began telecommuting remotely, sometimes from a continent away, while road warriors

developed a culture of rarely visiting the home office.

With a VPN and a corporate-issued laptop, these employees could interface with their company’s network. For IT administrators, remote access became a larger and more complicated task.

Even that model, however, looks simplistic and antiquated compared with the one burgeoning across the enterprise landscape. With more employees clamoring for tablets and smartphones—and wanting their IT department to integrate their personal devices into the corporate network—the task of offering secure, simple

remote access threatens to become a monumental challenge for IT pros at every level.

Nonetheless, ubiquitous remote access provides many advantages. These solutions, in conjunction with the Cloud, can make remote workers more flexible, while lowering an organisation’s costs.

“The ability to pay as you go is a big plus,” says Mike Pugh, Vice President of Marketing for J2 Global Communications, which offers businesses a variety of communications services such as e-mail and unified messaging. “If it works, businesses can keep it and ramp it up, or else round it down,” he says.

“On the enterprise side, you get the ability to work it within the enterprise environment. For smaller companies, the ability to adopt what you please is somewhat easier,” he adds.

That appeal could be driving what industry experts see as a significant uptick in the number of businesses that are gravitating toward remote- access solutions.

“Over the past six months to a year, it has become really wild,” says Martin

AccessComplexity, Issues

INSIGHT | NETWORKING

2 4 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

Hack, Executive Vice President of NCP Engineering, whose products include a centrally managed VPN solution and personal firewall. “The demands of users have increased dramatically in terms of people wanting to connect anytime, anywhere,” he adds.

“Before we started using NCP’s technology, our 180 home health aides were not connected to the corporate office when they were visiting patients,” Fred Cruz, IT director of American Hospice, a hospice service provider, wrote in an e-mail to eWEEK. “This meant, after a long day in the field, they still had to fill out paperwork and update each patient’s physician and nursing team. This manual process could take hours,” he added.

That changed after the introduction of remote-access technology. “Today, after patient visits, the home health aides simply connect to our enterprise application from their mobile phones and upload the latest information and activities,” Cruz says. “This data is available to the patients’ primary physician and nursing teams,” he adds.

But the explosive growth in iPad and Android-based device usage also caught some IT pros by surprise. “They had a VPN gateway somewhere, and now these users are coming out of the woodwork and saying they want to connect,” Cruz says. “It became very evident that people were not prepared for it at all, and now they’re dealing with the aftermath: Endpoint security is basically nonexistent,” he adds.

In addition to security issues, the latest remote-access model threatens to swamp IT administrators, and possibly workers, in a rising tide of complexity. On the back end, much of this complexity is due to the need to introduce four or five different applications or platforms in order to enact a single solution.

For example, a server from one vendor may run software from another, delivering applications or services to a variety of devices built by still other manufacturers. Adopting a cloud service can alleviate some of this unnecessary intricacy,

but many organisations remain bound to on-premises or hybridized legacy systems.

Fortunately, tech companies have been working on ways to alleviate these issues, even beyond making sure their VPN is secure and warning employees about clicking on possible malware links.

The need for security“IT administrators care about data at the end machine,” Tom Quillin, Intel’s director of Security Technology and Initiatives, told eWEEK. “That means data encryption. In 2011, every machine ought to be taking advantage of data encryption. Our policy is that every pri-mary end-user machine must have data encryption,” he added.

In previous years, data encryption was liable to drag down a machine’s performance in significant ways. Helping alleviate that issue are newer and faster processors, including

Intel’s, whose latest versions have the mathematics of the encryption operations built into the processor instructions.

Another security issue revolves around introducing a streamlined and reliable method of end-user authentication into a network. To that end, companies such as Intel have focused on developing anti-theft technology that can remotely wipe a smartphone or render a laptop totally unusable.

On top of that, new hardware is introducing an additional security factor into the password process. Intel Identity Protection Technology embeds a token that creates a six-digit number, which is valid for 30 seconds and acts as a second password.

Hewlett-Packard’s new EliteBook p-series includes a fingerprint reader and proprietary face-recognition software that scans the user’s features via the webcam. Other dual-factor password systems require the user to carry a token or key-fob that generates a new secondary code every few seconds or minutes.

Virtualisation and isolation are other strategies used to make remote access a safer proposition. “Isolated virtual machines allow IT to compartmentalize different spheres of operation,” Quillin explains. “Now I can create spheres where workers manage their corporate e-mail accounts and connections to the CRM to do their real work. The advantage of that architecture is that you’ve created isolation between work

“Over the past six months to a year, it has become really wild. The demands of users have increased dramatically in terms of people wanting to connect anytime, anywhere.”— Martin Hack, Executive Vice President of NCP Engineering

The task of offering secure, simple remote access threatens to become a monumental challenge for IT pros at every level.

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and personal tasks, and isolation enhances security,” he adds.

Still another security issue involves keeping up-to-date on which remote workers can access their corporate network from offsite. “I hear almost every day about people forgetting to deactivate employees after they leave the company,” NCP’s Hack told eWEEK. “The biggest security breaches over the past five years were attributable to people still having VPN access after leaving an organisation,” he added.

Businesses with large numbers of remote employees may find themselves forced to periodically cull their access lists by hand, painstakingly deleting ex-employees one at a time. Introducing a management system that keeps tabs on employees and their access can limit the time and hours spent on that sort of security maintenance.

Reducing complexityThat ties in with the second issue con-fronting IT administrators in this new paradigm: complexity— and the ways in which it can be winnowed from ever-expanding remote-access networks.

“Corporate IT is saying, ‘I’m already stretched to the gills, and you’re bringing in these other smartphones and PBX and password issues and administrative issues,’ and it’s an unwelcome burden on them,” says Kevin Gavin, Chief Marketing Officer for ShoreTel, a purveyor of unified communications. “They see it as a potential nightmare that adds to their increasingly complex infrastructure. The vendor that wins is

the one that makes it simple,” he adds. “Consider the complexity factor: When systems are complicated, they’re more costly to manage. But there’s a more enlightened group of IT users who are asking: Why does it have to be so complicated?” he says.

A simplified system also has the benefit of appealing more to both IT administrators and end users, which can help increase the rapidity of a remote-access solution’s adoption into both SMBs and the enterprise. That requires a drive from IT to streamline the component chain involved in remote access, or giving serious consideration to porting associated applications to the Cloud.

“I think it’s a combination of awareness and, at the same time, making the life of users as seamless

and easy as possible: not seven to 10 clicks to get to the VPN connection, but one click,” says NCP’s Hack. “We’ve seen the best results come from making it easy, where the user has a good feeling,” he adds.

More and more, employees want to bring their personal tech into the enterprise—or else have their IT department procure the latest and greatest consumer devices for business use. The proliferation of tablets and smartphones throughout the enterprise virtually ensures a certain amount of complexity built into the system, no matter how strong the efforts to minimize it.

In the end, IT administrators may find themselves forced to select from a smaller number of platforms to support—particularly when it comes to developing proprietary applications that allow employees to perform company-specific functions from a remote location.

“We’re a small example of what companies have to do now, in terms of selecting a winner,” says Chris Fleck, Vice President of solutions development for Citrix. “For companies trying to figure out whether they’re going to build internal applications for their employees, should they bet on iOS and Android and PlayBook? It’s a challenge,” he adds.

That challenge has led to some companies adopting a wait-and-see attitude toward iOS and Android. Vendors like Citrix also offer solutions that give remote workers ubiquitous access to applications from a broad range of devices.

In the end, the solution for many of the complexity issues associated with remote access may lie in the Cloud, with services that spare IT administrators the costs and time associated with managing on-premises support for workers’ devices in the field. Whatever the ultimate solution, though, it’s clear that remote access is not only here to stay as a business model, but also burgeoning in popularity—and, in the process, becoming a major issue for IT shops everywhere.

“In 2011, every machine ought to be taking advantage of data encryption. Our policy is that every primary end-user machine must have data encryption.”— Tom Quillin, Intel’s director of Security Technology and Initiative

Earlier, data encryption was liable to drag down a machine’s performance in significant ways. Helping alleviate that issue are newer and faster processors.

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BY G JOSLIN VETHAKUMAR

While security and regulatory concerns may still keep some skeptics away from the Cloud, fear ispaving way for euphoria

Euphoria

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FromFear to

It is now hard to imagine life without the convenience of online banking and trading, with the ‘Anytime and Anywhere Banking’ phenomenon having

weaved magic into the operations of financial institutions and wooed the investor community. Yet, security con-cerns have been a deterrent to net-based transactions for long, even threatening to hinder the growth of e-commerce that now holds great hope for business – both retail and wholesale.

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CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT

However, things have changed for the better because foolproof encryption, firewall technologies and multi-layered security mechanisms have helped erase apprehensions and led to sustained growth in electronic trading and business. To add to it, financial markets, generally prone to cyclical recessionary storms, are now increasingly open to the idea of even embracing cloud-based services.

While security and regulatory concerns still inhibit the foray into cloud, particularly when it concerns transactional data, the fear is combined with ecstasy in trying out this model.

Buoyant Market Even NASDAQ uses the Cloud for data storage. Reports say that NASDAQ adds up to 80GB of data everyday to the cloud. Many of the world’s top exchanges, security firms and invest-ment managers have already thrown their weight behind managed infra-structure and have begun evaluating various cloud options.

Market data demonstrates that cloud computing has well gone past the realm of hype. Gartner report projects worldwide cloud services revenue to reach US $148.8 billion by 2014 from $58.6 billion in 2009. The report also points out that the financial services sector is among the largest early adopters of cloud services. Significantly, they are beginning to go beyond emails and archiving, as these alone cannot make a persuasive business case for cloud computing.

Tall projections are coming from Springboard Research, which has determined that 45% of organisations in Asia Pacific, Excluding Japan (APEJ) are either currently using or planning cloud initiatives, which is up from 22% in 2009.

Secure trading revolves around 3CsThe three Cs are Collaboration, Com-munication and Compliance platforms that facilitate secure trading.

When market players pitch themselves on a combined cloud-based communication, collaboration and compliance platform, they are in effect

enabling secure trading, immediacy and ubiquity.

These critical attributes demand and thrive on real-time data.

One area that holds the potential for rapid acceptance in financial markets involves collaboration services. This does not necessarily have to be viewed within the narrow confines of voice, video telephony and messaging. While communication and collaboration services in a cloud are increasingly gaining momentum, add the compliance layer to it and the result is a compelling and integrated delivery mechanism.

As the world has begun the shift from a capex environment to an opex model, with focus on a secure cloud, the value from converged collaboration,

communication and compliances services for the finance vertical is multi-dimensional, going beyond the cost factor. Collaboration, after all, is not just about software and technology; services also play a significant role in keeping businesses connected.

For telephony, the cloud may just be business as usual. In fact, it may well be described as one of the earliest cloud services, delivered through equipment located somewhere in operator networks. The range is a lot wider now than when it was just voice, having evolved into Communication as a Service (CaaS) mechanism – telephony, email, conferencing (web, audio video), instant messaging and so on.

As an outsourced model for business communications, CaaS includes telephony and associated services, such as VoIP, call centre applications and voice/video conferencing. In fact, institutions can go for bundled offerings with the Everything-as-a-Service (EaaS) model.

A vital advantage is the flexibility it affords them to go with a usage-based “pay-as-you-go” approach while simultaneously helping them avoid building a dedicated technology infrastructure that entail huge capital expenditures. With cloud technology delivering service elasticity, they can scale up and down with ease, depending on their requirements and the budget.

The dynamic changes even further the tradinng in an environment where voice-trading capabilities are in play. A unified suite will give market players a cost-effective and flexible option, even while offering enhanced collaboration through multiple channels of communication, while making sure

Financial markets brace up for collaboration cloud not just to cut costs, but for enhanced communications and trading services. Identity and trust management are key components for trading.

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TOP 10 STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR 2011

Cloud Computing

Mobile Applications and Media Tablets

Social Communications and Col-laboration.

Video.

Next Generation Analytics

Social Analytics

Context-Aware Computing

Storage Class Memory

Ubiquitous Computing

Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers

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there is no compromise on compliance with evolving regulatory requirements.

Agility and Resilience This assumes greater significance with innovations in trading systems that are integrated into the communication platform and housed in a cloud. In fact, with systems that leverage the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) to deliver col-laborative multimedia capability (voice-enriched trading, web communications, e-commerce, etc), firms can realize maximum agility, cost-effectiveness, resilience and interoperability.

SIP is a signalling protocol used to establish various forms of communication sessions in an IP network and help transform the network into one capable of delivering innovative, next-generation converged services.

Dashboard for Value-Add-ed Collaboration Clearly, multiple elements are at work in delivering a rich and wholesome experi-ence for investors – various channels of communications and live market infor-mation (from voice, video and messaging systems as well as from market data and trading applications) at their fingertips.

How can it all be glued together to give users a cohesive, simplified experience while networking the global financial community with a collaboration suite that addresses their mission-critical requirements? This is crucial, as market situations may change within fractions of a second, thereby making quick opportunity-spotting paramount. This can very easily be addressed through a dashboard, at the desktop or on mobile devices. This is an integral part of trading, facilitating swift and effective decision-making while allowing users the ability to deal with multiple real-time events.

Importantly, be it data delivery or end-to-end collaboration, everything needs to be 100% secure in financial markets. So, identity and trust management are key components of a new-generation trading platform.

Compliance and Trading What makes the cloud even more all-encompassing is its potential to go beyond communication and collabora-tion and enable financial companies to take on the challenge of ensuring com-pliance with regulations that can evolve and vary from country to country.

Various tools available through the cloud give them the power to fulfil all regulatory requirements. These compliance services equip them with the ability to record, tag, store and retrieve all forms of communication data, regardless of location and device. The result is not just better audit trails, but also simplicity in adherence to demanding policy controls.

In an environment where revenues are shrinking and regulatory restrictions are applying enormous compliance pressures on market professionals, one cannot shy away from cutting costs and enhancing profitability.

This is one of the reasons why the financial community is paying serious attention to cost-effective

The financial community is paying serious attention to cost-effective cloud-based services, besides next-generation trader voice services.

cloud-based services, including a next-generation range of trader voice and collaboration services. Besides helping them lower expenditure, the cloud also gives them the flexibility to interact, collaborate and trade securely - and with greater compliance.

Moreover, market players can retain the look and feel of their existing interface, as the cloud does not require them to rip off their current technologies. They can pick the services they want and migrate at their own pace. They have the leeway to choose either a complete migration to the cloud or a hybrid configuration for collaboration, communication and associated services. These are business-critical solutions, but their optimal delivery and maintenance are enabled by remote monitoring and enhanced resilience options available through the cloud, housing all required management tools.

Top service providers with a global footprint have ramped up their offerings to take both multinational corporations and small and medium business enterprises through the paces in this space. The financial sector will find greater appeal from end-to-end collaboration and secure trading than from mere email and storage services.

Besides improved collaboration, other significant offshoots for them include reduced financial risks and the ability to quickly seize opportunity from enhanced interactions. In short, it is about transforming business while realizing dramatic economies of scale through delivery of ‘Anything as a Service, anytime and anywhere’.

$149 billion: The projected world-wide cloud services revenue by 2014 from $58.6 billion in 2009, according to a report by research firm Gartner.

40% Is the projected CAGR growth of cloud computing market in India by 2014Source: Gartner

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Motorola’s Atrix 4G Android 2.2

smartphone on AT&T’s network can

use the Lapdock to turn the device into a

full-fledged computer. Read on...

HOW ABOUT BOTH?

SMARTPHONE or PC?

Motorola’s Atrix 4G is the first Android-based smartphone avail-able on AT&T’s network that’s capable of giving the Droid family of Verizon Wireless smartphones a run for their money. The device, which began shipping last month and is priced at $199 with a two-year service contract, arrives just in time to counter the launch of

the once AT&T-exclusive Apple iPhone 4 on the Verizon Wireless network.Boasting snappy applications and network performance and a high-

resolution display, the Atrix 4G easily holds its own with the best Android devices I’ve tested so far. For road warriors, it may well surpass that competition when combined with its optional Lapdock accessory.

AT&T sells the Lapdock bundled with the Atrix 4G for $499, plus $45 a month for data tethering. The device turns the Atrix smartphone into a full-fledged computer by simply plugging the device into mini USB and HDMI (High-Definition Multimedia Interface) connectors built into the dock’s phone cradle.

The Lapdock looks like a full laptop—complete with a large display, keyboard and pointer—but it lacks most of the software of

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Supported by AT&T’s HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) network, the Atrix 4G is super fast.

Using the webtop applica-tions and compatible docking stations (sold separately), you get the kind of large screen, rich web browsing experience one would expect from a PC.

Just look at your home screen to find real-time Facebook updates, incoming

email - all at the same time. Resizable widg-

ets let you prioritize and personalize.

Motoblur easily keeps you up to date with your Facebook and Twitter friends, in real time, in one place.

a typical personal computer, with the exception of Mozilla’s Firefox browser and Adobe Flash Player. Instead, the Lapdock relays the applications running on the Atrix 4G, on which the device also depends for WiFi or wireless WAN connectivity.

The concept of enabling traveling workers to carry their Android phone and a lightweight 2.4-pound Lapdock (there’s also a desktop version that resembles a traditional docking station) to any remote location without begging for an ad hoc computer setup is compelling. However, in my tests, I found room for improvement in its execution.

In particular, the Webtop application that enables the connection between the pieces of hardware, performed a bit slowly at times. Also, switching between apps and views was not always smooth. For example, I’d click

on the button to add something to the software’s app tray, and it would “think” for several seconds.

Overall though, AT&T customers looking for a high-end Android handset (or an Android customer looking to go to AT&T) should strongly consider the Atrix 4G. At a $300 premium over the handset alone, the Lapdock is a bit pricey, particularly when combined with an additional $45 per month for tethering. However, users can achieve a similar result by opting for the $99 HD Multimedia Dock and sticking with WiFi alone for use with the Webtop app, thereby avoiding the tethering fee.

Speed is impressiveSupported by AT&T’s HSPA+ (Evolved High-Speed Packet Access) network, the Atrix 4G is super fast. The only Android device I’ve tested to date

that was comparable in network per-formance was the Android 2.3-based Samsung Nexus S on T-Mobile’s net-work. On the downside, call quality on the Atrix device was unremarkable.

The Atrix 4G is 4.6 inches long, 2.5 inches wide and 0.4 inches thick—the perfect size for my hand. At 4.8 ounces, it’s heavier than it looks, but not so heavy that you’d fumble it in surprise. The phone’s corners are rounded, much like the Samsung Galaxy S devices I’ve tested.

Unlike other Android devices I’ve tested, the power button for the Atrix sits atop the phone in a sort of bezel, which I found cumbersome when switching on the device. I much prefer the raised button on Droid X for powering on and off.

The Atrix 4G’s 4-inch screen sports a new technology from Motorola: qHD (quarter high-definition) with a 960-by-540 resolution. While the Atrix 4G screen won’t be mistaken for the brighter (but lower-resolution) Samsung Super Amoled display, it’s close. It’s very crisp, very bright. I could really tell the difference in screen quality holding it next to the Droid X.

For example, “Angry Birds”—one of my standby test applications for display quality and responsiveness—was gorgeous on the Atrix 4G. It was faster and crisper-looking than on my Droid X.

Between the unit’s responsiveness, its 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage (expandable to 48GB), the Atrix 4G provides a solid platform for the current slate of Android applications. In fact, every app I tested performed well, including Facebook and Twitter for Android, YouTube, Google Places, Google Latitude, app launcher, Google Maps and Gmail.

As for the OS, I’m more than comfortable with Android 2.2, which in my opinion is the first decent Android smartphone OS build. The touch-screen keyboard is something I’m very accustomed to with my Droid X, but others have found the keys too narrow for their taste. Fortunately for those users, Motorola has said that the Atrix 4G will be getting the bump to Android 2.3 later this year. The Gingerbread

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keyboard is certainly superior to the one in Froyo devices.

There are different search provider options configured on the Atrix 4G: While Yahoo is the default search, the voice search icon in the Yahoo browser bar offers Google Voice Search when you tap the button. So if you input text with your fingers, you get Yahoo results, but your voice-powered searches are handled by Google.

Moreover, Vlingo’s voice search app has been pre-integrated to provide spoken search commands. Finally, the Atrix 4G employs a Google search bar across the top of one of the seven customizable home screens, so you can always tap that to search by hand or voice.

The Atrix 4G camera is a 5-megapixel tool with digital zoom and LED flash. Pictures were crisp and bright, and snapping shots was quicker with this handset than with my Droid X, whose 8-megapixel camera suffers from some latency. The Atrix 4G captures video in 720p, with playback at 720p at launch, but Motorola said this will be upgraded to 1080p over the air later.

Battery life for these smaller Android handsets keeps getting better, and the Atrix 4G (which uses a 1,930 mAh) was better than my 4.3-inch-screen Droid X, which tends to chomp a bit more power.

Plugging into the LapdockFor enterprise workers, the Atrix 4G experience isn’t complete without the Motorola Lapdock, a device that looks like a typical notebook, but which sports a small phone cradle just behind the unit’s display. It comes with a power cord and two USB ports on the back for plugging in a mouse or flash drive.

When I plugged the Atrix 4G into the dock, the two devices took a

few seconds to communicate before the unit’s Linux-based Webtop application began rendering the home screen of my test Atrix unit on its 11.6-inch display.

In addition to the home screen, the Webtop application displayed a tray full of application icons across the bottom of the screen. Using buttons on the laptop dock’s touchpad, I was able to toggle between a “mobile view” and a “step-back view,” with which I could scroll through my open apps and browser screens. There are also buttons for the phone dialer, phone contacts, e-mail, Motorola’s HD entertainment center, file manager, Firefox and Facebook.

Users may add apps or web pages, sort of like bookmarks, by clicking a button in the lower right-hand corner of the display.

I tested Facebook, Google search and Gmail, which updated to the latest mobile Gmail version on my Atrix 4G

directly to the dock. The file manager lets me sift through my phone’s files easily enough, pulling them up in a familiar file menu. The true gem here for enterprise workers is the ability to work in their Atrix 4G’s Gmail or Microsoft Exchange messaging and documents on the big screen.

Moreover, when a user gets a call, he or she can simply mouse over to the dial app on the Webtop, click a button and answer a call. Users may make calls the same way, accessing their contacts on the dialer on the Webtop and clicking a button—all hands free. The sound quality is solid: In my testing, it was akin to a user being on speakerphone.

I could power down the Lapdock by closing the screen, but the Webtop app on the Atrix 4G kept my apps in state. That enabled me to return to work when I reopened the dock screen or plugged the phone back into the dock. This is a big bonus for corporate road warriors who need to dash off to that meeting at the last second.

While attached to an Atrix 4G, the dock accessory charges the handset, even when the dock is not plugged into an electric outlet, which was handy. But, I found that the Atrix 4G got super hot when I had it in the dock for 30 or more minutes. It felt like a piece of toast when I removed the phone from the dock.

Motorola’s Atrix 4G is the first Android-based smartphone available on AT&T’s network that’s capable of giving the Droid family of Verizon Wireless smartphones a run for their money.

While Yahoo is the default search, the voice search icon in the Yahoo browser bar offers Google Voice Search when you tap the button. So if you input text with your fingers, you get Yahoo results, but your voice-powered searches are han-dled by Google.

Widgets can actually combine and continously sync your most-used content, including your contacts from your personal and work phone-books and from Facebook and Twitter, your email accounts from Yahoo and gmail.

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The latest version of Firefox matches Google’s Chrome on many fronts, but lacks its Group Policy-based management support.BY JASON BROOKS

A Speedy, Modern, Multiplatform Browser

Firefox 4, the first full-point release of Mozilla’s popular open-source web browser in nearly three years, combines user-interface, performance

and web-standards support enhance-ments, along with new provisions for making user data both more and less accessible across the network.

On one hand, the browser ships with a newly integrated Firefox Sync feature, which enables users to synchronize bookmarks, preferences, browser state and passwords between Firefox and Firefox Mobile browser instances through a server that’s either hosted by Mozilla or self-hosted. On the other hand, Firefox 4 builds on the private browsing features included in previous releases with new “do not track” functions for users concerned with the trails they may be leaving as they traverse the Wwb.

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As a speedy, modern, cross-platform Web browser, Firefox 4 is well worth evaluating for any organisation, par-ticularly those with a heterogeneous mix of client operating systems. On this multi-platform front, however, organisations should also keep an eye on Google’s Chrome, which tends to match Firefox in features and perfor-mance, and also offers the Group Pol-icy-based management support that Firefox 4 lacks.

For those already running earlier versions of Firefox, Version 4 will be worth the upgrade—provided that any of a user’s indispensable add-ons are compatible with the new version.

Firefox 4, which I tested in release candidate form, is available for free download at www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/. It comes in versions for Windows, OS X and Linux.

Testing Firefox 4Speed is one of the most important evaluation characteristics for any mod-ern browser, particularly concerning JavaScript, on which most web applica-tions depend.

With Firefox 4, Mozilla debuts a new JavaScript engine, called JägerMonkey, which in my tests delivered significant speed increases on JavaScript benchmarks. I tested the x86 versions of Firefox 3.6.15 and Firefox 4 RC1, downloaded straight from Mozilla’s website, on my Ubuntu Linux notebook.

On the SunSpider 0.9.1 Java-Script benchmark hosted at the project site for the WebKit rendering engine, Firefox 4 turned in an overall score that was more than four times faster than Firefox 3.6.15. On Google’s V8 JavaScript benchmark suite, Firefox 4 turned in overall scores that were over eight times faster than version 3.6.15.

Firefox 4 has also come closer to Google’s browser in its appearance. Many of the user-interface changes in the latest Firefox edition are aimed at reducing the amount of real estate the browser occupies, putting more emphasis on the web content.

Like Google’s Chrome, the tab bar in Firefox 4 moves to the top of the

interface, and the traditional menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc.) can collapse into a single “Firefox” button—a much thriftier use of space for these seldom-clicked menu items. I particularly appreciated these UI changes while testing Firefox 4 on a netbook machine, where vertical space is in short supply.

Refining tabbed browsingThe Mozilla team has continued refin-ing the tabbed browsing feature in Firefox 4.

The first of these refinements to catch my eye was the “App Tab” feature, which allowed me to convert any browser tab to a narrowly sized tab, pinned to the far left of my tab bar, which would automatically open in future browser sessions.

Elsewhere on the tab-management front in Firefox 4 is Panorama, a tab-grouping feature that was previously known by the code name “tab candy.” Panorama is designed to help users deal with large numbers of tabs, which, as any web user can attest, can quickly multiply out of control in a typical day’s browsing.

I used Panorama to arrive at a zoomed-out view of my open tabs, and to drag related tabs into separate groups, which I could then dive back into individually. I used Panorama’s search feature to locate particular tabs from the zoomed-out Panorama view.

Affecting my browser habits is the integration of Firefox Sync in Version 4. Sync, which was previously available as an experimental feature under the handle Mozilla Weave. It enables users to synchronize their browser settings, bookmarks and passwords in an encrypted form to a central server.

I tend to browse the web from a handful of different machines, and the Sync feature made it much easier to switch between these systems.

eWEEK Labs Editor in Chief Jason Brooks can be reached at jbrooks@eweek.com.

Firefox 4 features an integrated settings and password sync utility that works across separate desktop and smartphone Firefox installs.

Firefox 4 combines user-interface, performance and web-standards support enhancements.I

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More and more IT managers are choosing to work in smaller firms in order to learn and grow in a better way.BY JATINDER SINGH

Small Newis the

Bigis limited opportunity to put such learnings into practices at these places.

The consensus shared by most of the IT managers suggests that while working with large corporates reduced the risk factor initially, it’s the young enterprises that nurture the aspirations of an individual by giving him new roles and responsibilities. Considering the various challenges involved in moving up the hierarchal ladder and learn things out of the box in a traditional setup, it seems wise decision for many IT Managers to prefer working for smaller firms. This would help them involved in multiple projects which will

provide new experience and enhance their competency.

Think BigIn the complex business environment, success follows those employees who are ready to take on challenging roles, which gives them the opportunity to grow in terms of technical, managerial and humanitarian expertise.

“A big picture focus, process understanding, adoption and refinement and networking are sufficient for one to successfully manage challenges in a bigger organisation, while in a small

ince the inception of the theory of organisational structure and behaviour, management gurus have relentlessly worked upon the

hypothesis that could aid and assist young managers to learn new things to scale up fast. This involves planning, training, development, taking new responsibilities and initiatives.

Many people think that to be groomed as a leader, one must need to understand the dynamics of the profession in a well established set up where processes and scope are well defined. It is also true that there

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Having said that, one need not forget that success also depends upon individual skills, appetite for success and how innovative one wants to be in life?

“I guess it’s more to do with passion. I would rather prefer to work with a team of two passionate people than doing mundane things in an organised set up,” says Vishal Bisht, an IT manager turned CEO of Marksman Technologies.

Look for Quality of Experience (QOE)“There is no point working as a small fish in big pond after a while. After gain-ing certain experience, if you fulfil the job criteria, even a bigger organisation should be fine to hire you at a desired position,” says Tanu Kaur, Senior HR Consultant, SPPN.

And once you enter the organisation, your career graph might have a slope directly proportional to your performance.

Consider a case where one individual is working as a delivery manager in a large firm and another individual is working as CIO in a smaller firm. Now assume both have the same experience and similar qualifications. Suppose there is a third large firm that needs a CIO; then, it will probably give more weightage to an individual who is already working as the CIO.

“Smaller firms typically don’t have many senior positions or managerial roles. Also, it has been observed that

people in smaller firms, especially at managerial levels, stick on for a longer period than larger firms. Therefore, moving up the hierarchy chain is a little difficult, and many times, it is very predictable that who will be the next in line boss,” says Jatinder Aggarwaal, Project Manager, HCL Technologies.

Additionally, it is also not very difficult to move up the ladder in small firms, as every person from the top to the bottom knows you and your work, and whenever an opportunity comes by, it is very easy to put yourself forward. Whereas, in large firms, you are working as a hidden employee, which would result in some key members of the management not knowing you.

More so, in terms of job security, the recession has taught us that it’s at the large corporates where employees are more vulnerable to job loss rather than small and medium firms.

Also, for an IT manager who can come up with new ways of doing things, a smaller firm is certainly the best way to take ideas to the board. However, in a large setup, even finding out whom to suggest ideas to, can literally be a dogfight.

The other sideNevertheless, the journey to the top is full of challenges even in smaller firms. First of all, there are no well defined systems and procedures, and there-fore, work is more manual and people

“In larger firms, moving up to the hierarchy chain is difficult and it’s predictable that who will be next in line boss,”Jatinder Aggarwaal, Project Manager, HCL Technologies

organisation, one needs to think and act like an entrepreneur and constantly be on the toes to look out for new opportunities in all the areas,” shares Tarun Gugnani, Head of Engineering, CustomerXPs Software, who shifted from a large organisation to a nimble and smaller one.

While one may need to forego the fortune of having a good salary package, convenient working environment and steady growth opportunities in a traditional set up, it’s the job role and responsibilities that drive the aspirations to work in a startup or a new organisation.

What’s more, there have also been many instances where new firms have helped managers in becoming successful and established entrepreneurs.

“I am happier now because I can put my learnings to use and lead from the front – and I am proud to be making a difference,” Gugnani adds.

Is Small Really Big for You?

PROS:Quick decision making because of

limited hierarchy

Ease of communication

More recognition of your work

Challenging but flexible working

environment

Exciting opportunity to drive New

projects from the scratch

Easier to get recognized

CONS:Lack of Good Infrastructure

Limited Man power and

equipment

Frequent Changes in goals

and vision

Challenges related to revenues

No paid vacations, retirement

benefits and full-coverage health

insurance

STRATEGY | INSIGHT

3 7M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

are more dependent on you, unlike in larger firms. Also, in smaller firms, one has to play multiple roles, includ-ing that of sales, presale, engagement management, account management, programme management, people man-agement, admin etc, while in larger firms, almost all of these are well defined roles.

Since large organisations have a good amount of IT budget that can be used to buy and manage latest IT technology, it has some negative sides as well. Also, as each person has a defined role in his area, i.e. network manager is looking after only the network, a security person can only work for the security, it’s very difficult for a person to gain knowledge of other areas in this kind of environment. On the other hand, despite providing immense opportunities, small organisations have a limited budget for IT, which sometimes stops them to accept new technology.

Another critical factor is the budget and limited resources (i.e. men, machine etc). As the resources in small level enterprises are limited, a person needs to be involved in almost all sorts of IT activities. This helps them to learn more on every type of trouble shooting, which is not at all possible in a large firm.

Factors to considerBefore trying hands at a new venture, especially on their first job, it is advis-able that an IT manager should consider the financial stability of the company, the role, customer portfolio and the growth opportunities. According to the experts, the probability of having these is much higher in medium and large organisations. Also, there are certain other benefits that may follow in bigger organisations. You get much more expo-sure and there are immense opportuni-ties for learning and growth.

For a smaller firm, an IT manager should be capable of managing work using limited resources. At times, there is lack of processes, which lands you into an adhoc working environment. Another factor where the impact is limited is the growth opportunities, which is because of

“I am happier to have experienced working in both large and small set up because I can put to use my learning(s) and lead from the front.”Tarun Gugnani, Head of Engineering, CustomerXPs Software

opportunities to learn and apply the learning there as well. However, when I moved to a bigger organisation, I realised that the opportunities, the learnings, the challenges and the risks were of a higher magnitude than those in smaller organisations,” says Chirag Srivastva, Head, Mobility Centre of Excellence, CSC, India

“So, I had to spend some effort in getting new capabilities to address the new challenges. The learning curve was smaller because of access to a lot of resources to help you learn and perform, and the organisation’s growth model that sets you up for success,” he adds.

The IT industry is more of a people oriented industry. The most important resource that you have are people. So, people management realted issues form the basis- be it client, senior management or the team. For any manager, being a good leader is very important. “With regard to the IT industry, the motivating factors would be self passion to excel and work closely with the cusotmers, besides building new acquaintances. A manager should be a good team player, should be pro-active and innovative,” adds Srivastva.

More importantly, to make yourself dependable even in the best of times, one needs to be aligned with the company’s processes, culture and ethics, and should be able to set the right expectations and manage expectations of all the stake holders to grow as a leader of tomorrow. After all, it’s not the pond, it’s the quality of fish that matters in a longer term.

Nevertheless, at the end of the day it’s all about handling ambiguity, ability to transform the business with limited resources, meet deadlines in all circumstance. It is equally important to have good energy, enthusiasm, passion, perseverance in the growth journey. Is is always recommended to be leading the team while working along with them which would help the organization meet its goals. This will also enable the individual to build the self esteem. Smaller firm will always push you to the forefront which may not be the case in large firms.

a smaller pyramid. This results in lesser opportunities for your resources and you, leading to lesser motivation and higher attrition. Job security is also one of the challenges that might be there.

“There are people who complain about benefits and perks being quite less or non-existent in a small setup. While beneficial packages like insurance, vacation time leaves may not be as ample with smaller employers, this same group may have more flexibility when it comes to other perks such as flexible work schedules or working at home,” observes Deborah S. Hildebrand, Columnist, Career Advise.

However at times, it may be the opposite as well. “I started my career with a smaller organisation and had

INTERVIEW | MICHAEL SENTONAS

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“POTENTIAL THREATS ARE INCREASING”

How has the security landscape panned

over the past few years? What have been the defining factors?Specific to the threat landscape, we see a very sizable amount of growth of malicious software every year, which are hitting the internet and organisations glob-ally. At the moment, we typically analyse 1,00,000 malware sam-ples per day. And we catalogue 60,000 new threats every single day and that’s a significant num-ber if you look at what it means at an hourly level or even down to a per minute level. It’s around 41 threats per minute and that is significant because people at homes, larges enterprises and government networks use the internet every minute of the day. That means you’re not up- to- date as far as protection against the latest threats is concerned. Now some people might argue that out of 40 odd threats per minute, there might be few that

actually hit the network. Even if it’s 10 or 5, if you don’t update your anti – virus, that’s 5 threats that you have a risk to every sin-gle minute of the day. It is very hard for people to keep up with all the malware and vulnerabil-ity threats. If you look at the year 2010, we detected more threats in that one year than in the pre-vious 20 years combined; so that causes some significant stress, as to how can you protect yourself internally and keep up with the latest security threats. Another interesting trend that we have seen in the last 12- 18 months is that a real focus of the attack is to solidly compromise a firm’s net-work. In some cases, we have seen that people don’t know that these attacks are actually inside their network for more than 12 months. We released a report called “Night Dragon”. It was a specific attack that focused on oil & gas sector. In that particular example, there had been networks that had been compromised as early or as late

as 2007, and if you look at that as an example and compare it to the threats that we see today, in sev-eral cases, peoples’ networks has been compromised for more than 2 to 3 years and they were losing information all along. It’s quite a common technique or a common threat landscape that we are start-ing to see.

How can enterprises cope up with threats?Though a lot of people are taking a traditional approach by deploy-ing 12 – 15 products from differ-ent vendors, it has not worked. If you look at security courses, they always try the defence and death method. If one product gets it wrong or one vendor gets it wrong, the other product will catch up. But typically, what I saw was that a lot of organisations use the exact same technology to detect the threat that is bought from 5 different vendors, and that model has not worked. What it actually creates is a management

The security threat landscape has been changing quite drastically in the past few years. In an exclusive interaction with Shashwat DC, Michael Sentonas, VP, Chief Technology Officer - Asia Pacific, McAfee, spells out the challenge before the IT managers and the ways they can cope with it.

“STITCHING A COMPREHENSIVE LOUD”

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INTERVIEW | MICHAEL SENTONAS

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“What I saw was that a lot of firms use the exact same technology to detect the threat that is bought from 5 different vendors, and that model has not worked.”

overhead because people end up looking at 5 different places every time there is a threat. Now imagine having a criti-cal incident; all your security technology does not collate any of these information, so some-body has to sit there eyeballing the system trying to pull infor-mation over the phone, which doesn’t work. So what I recom-mend to people is to have a look at technology, to have different detection techniques over differ-ent products. There is no point in implementing the same type of blacklisting on your desk-top, server, gateway, and even on some of your network secu-rity appliances, because you are reactively trying to look at what’s happening at your net-work. Use different types of technologies. The benefit is that if you can get all of those technol-ogies from one vendor or from a small number of vendors that carve out the information, you can see everything that’s hap-pening across from your mobile device to your server all in one place. In case you update your patches, everything is consolidated on a single platform and that is typi-cally a more efficient way. We are finding a lot of people are now looking for such a technology globally as well as on the Asia Pacific Level, since it takes a lot of complexity out of our network.

One of the prime concerns these days is Stuxnet and the likes. How valid are such concerns?Firstly, Stuxnet is an interest-ing piece of malware that we would be studying for the next few years and would be talking about it for a few years. The level of complexity of Stuxnet is very high. Individuals that developed it were extremely competent and extremely intelligent. What made

Stuxnet interesting was that it was designed to target networks which showed how vulnerable our critical infrastructure could actually be. It also used legiti-mate digital certificate that had been stolen. Once a device is con-nected to the network, it caused a significant damage. Hence, I think that it’s showing people that our networks are very fragile. The risk is increas-ing, the vulnerabilities are increasing, the potential threat is increasing, but the amount of money people are spending on security is not increasing and that is going to be a recipe for disaster at some point of time. We want to be spending a little more time to make sure it does not happen.

How has the security landscape changed with the addition of mobile devices like iPad, etc.?It’s another interesting and excit-ing area to look at the benefits that these technologies provide us. The benefits are huge and I think there is a typical consumer technology that is now coming into the workplace. The defini-tion of what an endpoint inside every organisation is fundamen-

MICHAEL SENTONAS | INTERVIEW

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Find other inter-views online on

the website www.itnext.

in/resources/interviews

tally changing and will continue to change in the following years. The operating systems of various tablets have been introduced by Google, Samsung, Symbian. It has become a situation where a con-sumer technology has ended up in the workplace and you have to manage 5 to 10 operating systems. Some of these technologies have no security. For example, you can‘t buy a full anti – malware technol-ogy for your Apple iPhone, nor can you install a firewall or a data loss prevention technology for it. So we might have an issue at some point of time with these devices, like IT management, support and security. I am not sure if a lot of organisations are ready to man-age the complexity of the types of Endpoint. How do they man-

age the fact that if somebody in an organisation loses corporate information from their iPad? The firm would want to make sure that the corporate data is not lost. From an IT support perspective, if you don’t install an app and you’re trying to use that app to connect your phone to you busi-ness, is your company ready to configure that app? So it is going to stretch out the traditional sup-port model and the security area as well. For example, the Android platform has had a number of malware examples developed for that platform and Google had to remove more than 50 malicious apps from their marketplace that were downloaded 50,000 to 1,00,000 times. This shows the complexity and vulnerability of these platforms.

There is also this perception that Apple devices, namely iPads, are more robust and secure in comparison to Android tablets. What is your view?It is a good thing that people are deciding which device to support and which not to. Let me give you a different perspective; if you allow 10 users of a company to remove the security technology and let them browse the internet for a day and let them download whatever they want, they will be vulnerable to security risks. But if you use an iPad and download applications for the device with no security, it is a risky propo-sition because you may have to jailbreak your device to access it, which makes it vulnerable to security risks. But even if you use it without jail breaking and put corporate information into it, it is vulnerable to security risks, as it doesn’t have any anti-mal-ware technology. So, there are a whole range of issues people are going to start to deal with if they are not already.

What are your views about the threats from social networking? How valid is the concern?As a result of a huge rise in social networking, the threats in social networking are definitely on the rise. It is one of the threats predictions of 2011 and obvi-ously the malware rise will tend to follow the technologies and the applications that people use more and more. Social network-ing websites like Facbook and Twitter are used more and more. So unfortunately, the malware developments will be seen on those platforms. A lot of mal-wares and scams that are served on Facebook have got nothing to do with the social networking site itself, but preys on the gen-eral public, like phishing attacks and other scams pretending to be emails from Facebook or Twitter.

Over the years, with rapid adoption of consumer devices and technologies within the enterprise, the line between enterprise and personal threats has blurred. Now, a malaware on Facebook is as much as a threat to an individual as it is to the enterprise. What’s your take on this?The lines between a consumer and a network threat have defi-nitely blurred. A threat won’t discriminate by nature. It doesn’t pick and choose a network. If a piece of malware is developed to exploit, it doesn’t discriminate between Adobe Acrobat or Win-dows Internet Explorer. It is going to attack a government network, large enterprises and small & medium businesses. What has changed is the targeted attack. Now there are focused attacks that are targeted at specific net-works or certain people within those networks. Hence, it is a sig-nificant challenge.

AD

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F1 Apps for Mobile THIS PAGE

Apps to make your mails safe PAGE 44

Myths of the CV PAGE 47

Training Calendar : Career booster courses PAGE 48

The Formula-1 season is well and truly under way now. The action is going to be extremely riveting. However, you may not

always be around a television to catch up with the live action. In such a sce-nario, use your smartphone. With one or multiple apps, you can keep up with the action on the track. Download the correct app and get complete tim-ing boards, sector times, full lap time charts, and even the track position of the cars on a virtual track.

F1 2011 Timing App CPEevery F1 fan will love to have access to this app. Open the app and the first screen offers a mix of the lap time boards on half the screen and the com-pletely active 3D map of the track the race is being held on. This map shows car positions on the track, with corner numbers. Users can either see the bird’s eye view of the positions on the track, or select a driver or corner.

To select a driver, click on his name on the lap time board on the top half of the screen. The view will be zoomed in to focus on the car of that driver, be it while he is on the track, or in the pits.

Click on the name again to zoom back out. Click on any corner number to

TRAININGEDUCATIONWORKPLACE

COMPENSATIONWORKFORCE TRENDS

SKILLS DEVELOPMENTPERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

ZOMATO APP FOR

FOODIEPAGE 46

APPLICATIONS

F-1 APPS FOR MOBILE

The screaming V8s have come back to town! With one or multiple apps, keep up with the F-1 action!

15MINUTEM A N A G E R

BY VISHAL MATHUR

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Security for smartphones is crucial now that

so many of us use them to make business

calls, check work e-mail and store informa-

tion. We sampled several apps designed to

take the risk out of computing on your phone.

Here are the results:

Iris ScanningTo use the eyeD Biometric Password Man-

ager, you take a picture of one eye using the

app and your phone’s camera. You can then

store sensitive data on the app, which will

unlock only after you take another photo of

the same eye. We tested the app with several

people, including siblings, and it blocked out

impostors every time.

Remote Lock and Wipe If a thief tries to swap out your SIM card,

McAfee WaveSecure locks your phone,

rendering it unusable. You can also log on

to the WaveSecure site to locate your lost

phone on a map, lock it, and remove contacts,

text messages, and media. The app, which is

available for Android, BlackBerry, Nokia, and

Windows Mobile phones, quickly pinpointed

our phone on a map and locked it.

Voice Encryption Kryptos uses military-grade 256-bit encryp-

tion to scramble smartphone calls, making

it difficult for eavesdroppers to listen in.

The app, which is available for iPhones and

Android phones, provides a separate calling

interface that you can use to make secure

calls over Wi-Fi. The app was easy to use,

and calls sounded mostly clear.

Security for smartphones is crucial now that so many of us use them frequently.

APPS TO MAKE MOBILES SAFETIPS & TRICKS

zoom the map in on that particular part of the track. Click again to zoom out.

Just above the map is a scroll box with text based updates of what is happening on the track, drivers heading into/out of the pits etc. All data here is regularly updated, for the practice sessions, qualifying as well as the race.

Rotate the device to landscape mode and the map occupies most of the space, with the chart moving to a little space on the left, vertically, while the scroll text updates shift to the bottom of the screen.

Any updated are flashed on the map. For example, during the first practice session, we saw the flash “every driver has an extra set of hard tyres to use this session”.

However, once a new session starts, the app downloads anywhere between 3MB and 5MB of data, before it starts pulling in the updates.

Not only this, the F1 2011 Timing App CP also updates users with the latest news updates. The full text based commentary of the various race weekend sessions is also available, with only important updates flashed for the practice sessions, and much faster updates available for the qualifying and the race itself.

While this is a perfect app for the F1 fans, the price may put off quite a few. The price of £19.99 on Android Market and the Apple App Store is a bit steep, considering the fact that this is essentially an annual subscription cost. Once the 2012 season gets underway, you will need to pay more to download the updated version of the app for that season.

However, if you have money and have an Android phone or any of the iOS devices? Well, then you definitely need to get this application! The fun of watching the race unfold on the 3D map will be worth the entire moolah you rake up for this app.

By Soft PauerAvailable for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPadPrice: Rs 1,455 on Android Market; £19.99 on Apple App StoreDownload size: 11.28 MB to 15.1 MB

OTHER ESSENTIALSThe easiest way to secure your smartphone is with a password, making it the best place to start. For example, an alternative to standard alphanumeric passwords, Android Pattern Lock, lets you create a passcode by connecting four to nine dots on your phone’s screen. To unlock the device, you must redraw the same pattern. The feature is included on Android phones.

15-MINUTE MANAGER

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Formula1.com 2011This is one app which is available on a wide variety of smartphone platforms. Chances are you will get this app for your phone. And the best part is that it is free. Before you can access the appli-cation, there is a one-time sign up pro-cess which you need to complete with Formula1.com. The app starts with the

latest race weekend details on the home screen, be it the in progress weekend or the next upcoming one. For those of us who are constantly confused when the race starts, this one shows all session start timings, both in the user’s local time as well as the race location’s local time.

Click on the Live Timing tab, and this opens up the lap time leaderboard,

with the option of reading text based commentary as well. Track data is available as well, with the info about Track Temp, Air Temp, wind speed, humidity and even wind source. Lap chart feature is only updated during the race. The lap chart attempts to graphically illustrate the difference in lap times between most drivers, but can be a bit daunting for most people at first.

Also available for instant access is the race weekend dates for the entire year. This is good news for those of us who want to book tickets for the Singapore Grand Prix! The drivers and constructors standings (championship points table) are also available for access.

While this app does not have the frills of the F1 2011 Timing App CP, the fact that this app is available on more smartphone platforms, and doesn’t

You may not always be around a television to catch up with the live F-1 action. In such a scenario, use apps on your smartphone.

“IT managers need to adopt a platform for security that confirms to their deployment needs” — Michael Sentonas, VP and CTO, Asia Pac, McAfee

“With various collaboration models, one need not wait for months to complete the project”— Ponani Gopalkrishnan, VP, IBM

FREE APPS FOR BLACK-BERRYThe Blackberry smart phones offer

you a host of free applications ranging

from Amazon Application to Neosistec

CarFinder. Here is the top 5 on the list:

BBNotePad: This acts as a text editor.

You can use the app to write full-length

documents or code.

BeeTag: You can use 2-D barcode

scanner to scan barcodes on ads or

product brands. After scanning, this

app will give you product information,

text and URL information for the

particular products.

Amazon Application: The app allows

you to shop for your day to day needs

from Amazon.

BlackBerry Messenger: The apps

use BlackBerry OS’s PIN to send

messages to your friends and relatives.

Boopsie: This mobile application

searches your data in seconds.

Source: Honeytechblog.com

15-MINUTE MANAGER

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Zomato is possibly the ultimate application for the foodie! Restaurant menu, loca-

tion, contact details and even user reviews are available in an instant. The applica-

tion will also identify your location and offer a choice of restaurants in the area, if

that is what you want. It is time to make the smartphone search for food!

PROS: Simple layout, easy to navigate and use, determines the location and

offers restaurant results accordingly.

CONS: Menu card images do not always show up properly.

GETTING THE APP: Very simple

Downloading the app is pretty simple. From the phone’s web browser, just head

to the website http://www.zomato.com/blackberry. Use the Wi-Fi or 3G/EDGE/

GPRS, whichever you wish to, and download the 400kb application. Installation

takes a couple of minutes post downloading.

LOOK AND FEEL: Simple elegance

The Zomato app essentially has a clean layout on offer. On the home screen, there

are three options available. “Discover” lets Zomato identify your location via the

phone’s built-in GPS (or cell tower location) and offer a random restaurant for you

to try out. The “Explore” option lets you search for restaurants either via the au-

tomatic location discovery method or by manually entering a location and getting

a list of restaurants in the vicinity. The third is the “Search” option, which lets you

search according to a restaurant name, cuisine type or by location.

The theme of white and red is prevalent throughout the app. The white back-

ground with red icons lends it a clean, yet catchy look.

PERFORMANCE: The food finder!

While the Zomato app works only in certain cities at the moment, it does work

wherever it is supposed to work! Currently available in Delhi NCR, Mumbai,

Kolkata, Bengaluru and Pune, Zomato will not disappoint. Download the app and

sign-up/sign-in to the Zomato account.

OUR TAKE: For the foodie

cost a thing, may well make this the preferred app for most F1 fans.

By Formula1.comAvailable for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad, Blackberry and SymbianPrice: FREE (on all platforms)Download size: 1.1 MB to 2.3 MB

ESPNF1One look at the ESPNF1 app and you will be amazed at the extremely clean inter-face, and the fact that it still manages to pack in so much information. Live race commentary, news updates, complete race season calendar, drivers and con-structors championship tables and even an image gallery. On the home screen, you will usually get a countdown timer for the next race, with the news articles below it. These are the latest news items available.

The News tab takes you to more news articles as well as features, which can be filtered by date, team or driver. The content here is completely immense, and some of the featured articles available for your reading pleasure are actually world class.

The Calendar tab lists all the races of the season. Users can access the race commentary from here, by clicking on the race currently in progress. There are live timesheets during the race, commentary is available for all sessions (including practice sessions), photo gallery from the race weekend and all circuit details.

The circuit details include current conditions, the profile of the racetrack, a historical lowdown on that particular circuit, how the Grand Prix has evolved at that racetrack and the schedule of the events during that race weekend this year. This is a lot of information, something anyone with an interest in historical events would love to read up on.

This app is also available on three major smartphone platforms, and the price of FREE makes this a very good app to download.

By ESPNAvailable for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and SymbianPrice: FREE (on all platforms)Download size: 1.8 MB

ZOMATO - THE PERFECT APP FOR THE FOODIE!

REVIEW

15-MINUTE MANAGER

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F1 2011 Live24 (also known as Livesports24 F1 Racing)This is the app which is meant for the complete F1 fanatic. This has blended complete functionality and colourful graphics, along with a lot of features. On the home screen, there is a lot of stuff. Multiple boxes offer a lot of info. The first box shows the countdown to the race and the race updates when it goes live, the venue and the track weather conditions.

The second tab shows the date and time of the various sessions scheduled

for that race weekend. Below that is the drivers championship standings box, with the driver’s individual cars. You need to flick through this horizontal box to see the driver positions, signified by their cars. The navigation tabs are at the bottom of the page. Click on News and you get all the updates for the F1 world. Races tab has the schedule of races for the entire season. Click on an event, and that takes you to a page with detailed results from qualifying and the race sessions, circuit details as well as the weather conditions.

The image gallery is also available, and so are dedicated profiles for all individual drivers, complete with their career stats.

F1 2011 Live24 is a superb app, which offers a lot of info, in a very colourful interface.

By Genera MobileAvailable for Android, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPadPrice: FREE (on all platforms)Download size: 1.1 MB to 1.6 MB

MYTHS OF THE CVYou’ll be surprised to know that many things you thought were essential to your resume are not that important...

BY YOGESH BANSAL

Your resume is your mar-keting tool, which acts like an ice breaker and builds your brand. A resume gives facts and

benefits that highlight how your abili-ties and skills that can be of use to the employers. The resume is not meant to impress your future employer, as impressing the interviewer is YOUR job. Having a beautiful resume alone cannot fetch you a job. It will help you get acquainted to the employer. Craft-ing a winning resume is a myth; there is actually no perfect resume for any job type. A useful resume is a docu-ment in which the employer can clearly see how your experience and ability can help them.

There is another conviction that you’re not supposed to rewrite your resume, but the fact is that resume is not irreversible. There are always new elements added to your resume which provides new perspective to the employer. Having new perspectives would always help the employer in understanding your goals and aspirations and set his own expections.

While the mention of personal information and objectives are important, it is critical to comprehend what the employer would expect from you. Also, the belief that a lengthy

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

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resume will not yield effects is a myth. The one-page rule is probably the most common myth about a resume. Candidates resort to a myriad of unhealthy practices to restrict their resume to just one page. Many well-meaning college counselors also advise their students to be concise and limit their resume to one page. If you have held only one job, then don’t try to create a five-page resume, but if your background merits are lengthier, then don’t try to fit everything on to one page.

Another misconception that people have is about cover letters. People have a concept that nobody reads cover letters, but the fact is many managers and recruiters DO read them. Cover letters can tell potential employers a lot about your individual communication and organisational skills, as well as how committed you are towards finding the right job. Prospective employers read cover letters with one critical question in mind: What’s in it for me? So, answering that question in a way that is clear and concise will increase the likelihood that you’ll pass through to the next stage of the screening process.

Another critical area is personal interests. Job seekers feel that employers want to know about their hobbies. Your resume is a tool to express your interest in the position and to get the opportunity for a face-to-face interview. Before you list your personal interests, ask yourself if adding them makes effective value addition to your resume space. During the face-to-face interview, there will likely be very natural opportunities to discuss your personal interests. Your resume, however, should showcase your professional value to the employer. The answer is finding a balance.

Why a resume fails is because the applicant forgets the basic rule of getting a job; the process isn’t about showing how good you are, but showing how you can help the employer achieve their goals and how you can be an asset to the organisation.

The author is Founder & CEO, ApnaCircle.com

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4 9M A y 2 0 1 1 | itnext

thebig

Your responses count. Log on to www.itnext.in/bigQ to submit your replies. The best entry will be published in the next print edition.

The SiTuaTion...Witnessing the major growth of computing power on servers in the last few years, Aswini Rao, who heads the IT desk of her firm, has a major task on her shoulders, which is to drive the efficiency of these servers.

It is said that servers are far more powerful than they once were, unless the company has grown at the same rate. The organisation has in-variably added a huge amount of servers to the in-frastructure. The firm perhaps followed the trend of deploying more servers as part of the three or five year budgetary plan. As most organisations face the problem of surplus deployments, Aswini’s firm too is going through the similar phase with the cost of maintenance going up.

However, she opines that the servers are prob-ably underutilized at this point of time.

Aswini is faced with the challenge of increasing over all operational efficiency, reduce capex and find a way to utilize the servers more optimally, which could help reduce future investments and

rule out new deployments. Obviously, a series of interactions with her colleagues and peer groups compelled her to look at server virtualisation as the solution.

Aswini’s thought process revolved around break-ing up those servers into virtual machines and addressing that utilization rate. This led her to opt for server virtualisation, as she felt it made sense at this point of time.

To give a background, Aswini’s organisation, for instance, has 50 servers. Her problem is to find how many physical servers and Virtual Machines (VMs) can she move and at what periodicity, so that she can see good savings.

Besides, escalating server utilization rate, she intends to witness benefits around driving en-ergy efficiency with savings on power and carbon emissions. She intends to drive higher utilization of servers and reduce cost.

She also intends to implement disaster recovery in virtual environments to store copies of virtual machines in comparison to physical servers. The idea is to take a 360 degree approach.

MAnISH SHAHSGM-IT, InduSFILA

VInAy HInGeMAnAGInG PARTneR – VH COnSuLTInG

BInu LAkSHMAnMAnAGeR IT, HOndA SIeL CARS IndIA LIMITed

EXPERT PANEL

NeXt

VIRTuALISATIOn

busiNess Case: server

Cu

T I

T

FR

OM

He

Re

the big q

FiRSt AnSWeRFirst of all, Aswini will need to assess her existing servers in terms of:

1. Compute and other resource availability2. The percentage of utilisation3. Criticality of the applications on servers4. Age of the servers, i.e., support available, etc.Post assessment, Aswini might find that 10% of the servers

are running very critical applications, which should not be virtualised. However, Aswini can consider replacing these servers with newer and greener ones. This will involve capex, but in turn will contribute to the overall reduction in power, cooling requirements and heat generation.

Servers, which are running at around 60% of utilization and are not too old and are not out of support, can be continued as it is, subject to power and cooling utilization, heat generation, etc.

The rest of the servers can be moved to a virtual environment. Assuming that the existing servers are about 2–3 years old, running at 25–40% utilization, they can be virtualised in 1:3 to 1:5 ratio, thereby requiring 6 – 8 new servers.

Reduction of the total number of physical servers from 50 to about 16 (8 new, 8 retained) gives a 70% reduction in the overall number of servers.

These new servers, which are more power efficient and less heat dissipating will,1. bring down overall power consumption by about 80%.2. Heat reduction (and hence cooling requirement) by about 70%.3. Require lesser server admin so to manage the environment.4. Require lesser racks and lesser rack space.Aswini might find some of the current entry level blade server offerings from the

leading vendors ideally suitable for her organisation. A six blade server with SAN storage might be the right fit for the organisation.

SeCOnD AnSWeRThe actual DR plan will depend on the RPO and the RTO of the organisation. A simple solution will be to create snapshots of the VMs at regular intervals. These snapshots can be restored to any of the physical servers in a matter of minutes. This will give a very low downtime, leading to increased efficiency and very low manage-ment overhead.

For those applications requiring high availability, cluster instance can be implemented in an active/active or active/passive mode.

This solution will not require investment in any additional hardware, as the instance can be brought up on any of the existing physical servers, thereby saving a great deal of money, in terms of hardware, cooling and manpower.

The big queSTionS...? If AswINI dEPLoys sERvER vIRTuALIsATIoN, how MANy sERvERs shE

shouLd sTART wITh ANd how MANy vM’s doEs shE NEEd To usE? whAT ARE ThE cosT sAvINgs shE wouLd dERIvE?

? cAN shE IMPLEMENT dIsAsTER REcovERy IN A vIRTuAL ENvIRoNMENT ANd sToRE ThE coPIEs of vMs? how? whAT ARE ThE cosT bENEfITs ThAT

shE cAN AchIEvE?

here are The anSwerS...

Manish shah

gM-IT, Indusfila

about me: designed and deployed the IT

infrastructure for various small to medium companies across India. he has been with Indus fila for nearly 9 years

now, and has a total work experience of over

20 years.

‘reduce no. of phySical ServerS’

5 0 itnext | M A y 2 0 1 1

the big q

5 1M A y 2 0 1 1 | itnext

FiRSt AnSWeRImplementing server virtualisation is very similar to any significant IT initiative a company goes for. Creating a business case is many a times challenging. I would recommend Aswini to go for a pilot proj-ect, document the learning, generate data to prepare a business case, demonstrate the benefits, and, prepare a plan for a large scale rollout.

It is not possible to arrive at a formula about how many physical servers can be moved as virtual servers on a single host system. The factors that influence the sizing include: OS and its versions, application architecture, database, I/O requirements, number of users and peak load, and, current processor and RAM load trend.

Similarly, your choice of virtualisation platform is equally critical. By taking into account your goals, business context and technical skills availability, one needs to select the platform. There has been ample material available in the public domain to narrow your choices and also consulting a peer from another user organisation will educate Aswini on the issues that come up once the solution enters production phase.

Based on my personal experience, it is possible to arrive at 15% to 40% cost savings by going for virtualisation.

SeCOnD AnSWeRWhen it comes to a disaster recovery strategy, I always recommend that you should think about your data and operating environment separately. Whether your applica-tion is running in a virtual or non-virtual environment, you need to look at your data backup policy the same way. Based on your DR and backup policy, you may go for a local or remote backup and may use a media strategy such as: Direct to Tape, Disk to Disk, Disk to Disk to Tape, etc.

When it comes to taking backup of the system stack, you need to have your change management processes in place. After every change in the system stack, the backup can be done by way of cloning the virtual machine in the production environment and restoring it in the DR side infrastructure.

The cost benefits will be notional in nature such as reduction in risks associated with manual configuration/deployment of apps to the DR side in the absence of virtualisation..

Vinay hinge

Managing Partner – vh consulting (a shared

cIo service) formerly: vP-IT at dmart and gM-IT at Raymond

about me:have 10 years of experience in

online marketing and 12 years of experience in

information architecture.

‘plan for large Scale rollouT’

NeXt

top Security Concerns Related to VirtualisationSeCuRitY

SOuRCe: FROST & SuLLIVAn

business and IT executives across 15 countries reported serious security concerns about virtualized IT Environments100

80

60

40

20

0

37%

73%

81% 85

%

compliance issues

hypervisor Privilege

data sprawl

cloud privacy

nOTeS

the big q

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FiRSt AnSWeR Virtualisation enables consolidation of servers, as it allows all the

necessary tasks to run on fewer servers that are being utilized to near capacity levels. This reduces overall energy consumption, cooling requirements, and data center space requirements.

If Aswini goes for server virtualisation, she should consider:n The vital parameters of the servers. n She can put 40-50 VMs on a single physical environment for test

and development environments.n 12-15 production VMs should be moved to one physical machine.

SeCOnD AnSWeRAswini can go for disaster recovery in virtual environment and store the copies of VMs. First, she has to identify the applications and sys-tems that are business-critical and then focus on their recovery effort. She would have to go for DR software. There are several advantages

of doing DR in the VM environment:1. Hardware savings: Instead of spending money on buying or upgrading new servers

for each application, Aswini should create 5 VMs on each physical machine. 2. The virtualisation software provides hardware independence, so Aswini does not

need to standardize on one hardware vendor or platform. 3. Optimized disaster recovery process: VMware virtual machines back up servers

at the disaster recovery site in real time. If one machine needs rebooting or fails unexpectedly, another machine with redundant virtual machines takes over.

More resourcesSLA Best Practices: http://www.cisco.com/en/us/tech/tk869/tk769/technologies_white_paper-09186a008011e783.shtmlWhat about SLAs?: http://www.itbusinessedge.com/cm/blogs/all/saas-bpo-convergence-what-about-slas/?cs=38590

‘you can Save reSourceS wiTh dr’

Binu LakshMan

Manager IT, honda siel cars India Limited

about me: have handled prestigious ERP

implementations for clients like schindlers India Mumbai, Kellogs

Mumbai, honda siel cars India Limited, super

cassettes Industries .

nOteS

AD

5 4 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

“It’s the inner soul that guides and inspire people--be at any level and therefore one should never even try to dupe the same,” says Manish Kumar Sinha, Head IT, On Dot Couriers & Cargo

FollowYour Instinct

While many people contend to have different faces for their personal and pro-fessional lives in order to be successful in the long

term, it’s not the case with Manish Kumar Sinha, Head IT, On Dot Couriers. For him, it’s the inner soul that guides and inspire people - be at any level, and therefore, one should never try to dupe the same. “Whenever you decide to do something, ask yourself if it is the way you want to do every-thing,” he says.

A firm believer of making his presence felt through hard work, Sinha considers hype as just a tool that can be used to create awareness among the target customers. “At times, a perfect combination of both is required to win and contribute towards organisational goals. However, the taste of this recipe would be

always good, as you have worked hard for it,” he adds.

He however cautions that in the growing competitive scenario, it’s just not hard work, but also innovation that helps one to outlast their competitor. “It always works when you keep publishing new initiatives, notices, alerts and policies to highlight the importance of your work and contribution,” he says.

When not at work, Sinha enjoys writing poetry, watching movies, and cooking. For him, God is the best friend who always talks with him. Sinha is also a stern disciplinarian and has a dream of Time magazine interviewing him for a feature one day for his social contributions.

He takes his inspiration from Mahatma Gandhi and his quality of unshaken faith. “No matter what the circumstances were, but with his

Have faith and give your

best in whatever role

you are assigned with.

MY SUCESSMANTRA

CUBE CHAT | MANISH KUMAR SINHA

BY JATINDER SINGH

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solid faith, he was able to spread the vision of freedom in the entire nation,” he says.

Each one of us must have faced some problem or the other that seemed like a coloosal challenge. Similarly, Sinha has also had his share of challenges. He recalls, “In 2004, when I joined On Dot, the previous IT manager left the IT Department with stolen hard drives, source code, no documentation, deleted websites, changed panel passwords and modified financial entries. Within 1 month of my joining the firm, the government increased the tax calculation and it was really a tough task to create an application patch that picks processed data, reprocess it in a new format and prints the bill after studying the database table flows. With just me, 1 developer and 1 functional guy,

we implemented the system at the national level. Because of budget constraints, we created small teams of computer operators and transformed them into system administrators. That motivated them, and in just 2-3 months of training, they become skilled professionals, without having any certifications or degrees. This idea generated a win-win equation for all 3 business units, i.e. management did not have to spend money for extra talent, we got a great team of individuals without increasing the cost, and operators got free training and a career break as well.

According to Sinha, no problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking. “That’s why I keep myself more aware at all levels in order to keep learning and moving forward,” he signs off with a smile.

FACT FILE

NAMEMANISH KUMAR SINHA

CURRENT DESIGNATIONHEAD IT

CURRENT ROLESTRATEGIC TECHNOLOGY PLANNING, SYSTEMS & VENDOR MANAGEMENT, IT INFRASTRUCTURE DEPLOYMENT & OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT

EXPERTISEERP, CRM, E-COMMERCE, & MANUFACTURING SOLUTIONS – IMPLEMENTATIONS

WORK EXPERIENCE2009 –PRESENT HEAD IT, ON DOT COURIERS & CARGO

2007-2009MANAGER SYSTEMS, AMENSYS INC. (IT SERVICE COMPANY), PLANO (TX, USA) AS MANAGER SYSTEMS

2005 -2007SYSTEM ENGINEER, PENTAGON SYSTEM, MUMBAI

2004 SYSTEM ADMINISTRATOR, PANACEA BIOTEC (PHARMACEUTICAL)

2002-2004 HEURISTICS INFORMATICS (IT SERVICE COMPANY), GURGAON, INDIA

1998 -2002 MAWAI INFOTEC LTD. (IT SERVICE COMPANY), NEW DELHI

FAVORITE QUOTESO WHAT, I WILL WIN

FAVORITE BOOK“MY EXPERIMENTS WITH TRUTH” BY MAHATMA GANDHI, “THINK & GROW RICH” BY NAPOLEON HILL.

No problem can stand the assault of sustained thinking. That’s why I keep myself more aware at all levels to keep

learning and moving forward in life.

CUBE CHAT

5 5A P R I L 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

UPDATE

5 6 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

Creative Launches Ziio Tablets Creative takes wireless entertainment beyond music listening

OFF THE SHELF A sneak preview of enterprise products, solutions and services

MOBILITY | Creative Technology has announced the release of a new wireless entertainment solution comprising of Creative ZiiO 7” and 10” Pure Wireless Entertainment Tablets.

“With the release of the Pure Wireless Entertainment range of devices, we have brought personal entertainment beyond the confines of a single room to the entire house,” said Ernest Sim, Regional Sales Manager for the Indian subcontinent at Creative. The company claims that the Creative ZiiO tablet is the world’s first apt-X enabled touch screen tablet — which runs on Android 2.2, delivering one of the most proficient wireless audio performance that one can expect from an Android-based tablet in the market, differentiating it from similar devices.

The Creative ZiiO is available in 7” and 10” display models. The 7” model is in white, while the 10” model is in black. Both models come in 8GB and 16GB memory capacities.

Creative ZiiO 8GB tablets will be available in India at select outlets at suggested retail prices of Rs 17,999 (7” tablet) and Rs 21,999 (10” tablet).

Asus has launched the Asus GTX 590

graphic cards, which use the dual Nvidia

GF110 cores. With Asus exclusive Volt-

age Tweak to drive the card at 918MHz,

it enables DirectX 11 gaming in the high

resolutions and with all details and

effect, as well as smooth and realistic

3D gaming and movies through Nvidia

3D Vision Surround for three-screen

displays.

According to Vinay Shetty, Country

Head, Asus (India), “The ASUS GTX590

will provide superlative graphics per-

formance to discerning users and along

with various unique features like Volt-

age Tweak, Smart Doctor and Gamer

OSD maximize the power and func-

tionality of the GPU to provide gamers

with the much needed edge over their

competitors.”

As per the company, Dual GF110 GPUs

boost performance over the former

top-of-the-line GTX 580 reference

design, enhancing graphics processing

capabilities for the strongest Nvidia

Fermi-based product delivered to date

on a single circuit board.

Asus releases new graphic cards

PRODUCT FEATURES

• The ASUS GTX 590 uses a core that runs at

612MHz. Asus exclusive overvolting utility

Voltage Tweak takes advantage of this new

power, allowing users with aggressive cooling

to push the card further for up to 50% faster

clock speeds at 918MHz.

• Full support for Nvidia 3D Vision Surround,

driven by the capabilities of this dual-GPU

card, easily handles full HD 3D output simul-

taneously on three displays.

KEY FEATURES* Compact touch screen tablet

* 16.8 million (7” version ) and 262K

color (10” version) display for

laser sharp images

* Android 2.2 Operating System

* Bluetooth 2.1 EDR

(with apt-X and A2DP)

UPDATE

5 7M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

KEY ADVANTAGES* 50mm drivers for high-quality

audio reproduction

* Detailed audio reproduction with

clean, accurate bass and clarity in

mids and highs

* Circumaural, closed-back earcups

for superior noise isolation

* Memory foam earpads provide a

custom fit

* Includes two sets of earpads to

customize user comfort

* Noise-cancelling microphone with

flexible, rotating boom works good

for in-game chat, Skype, and other

VOIP applications

Techcom Unveils New Speaker System

Buffalo Technology has

unveiled their

power packed

Drive Station Duo.

Built in with USB

3.0, USB 2.0 and

eSATA interfaces,

it is best suited for

home as well as

smaller working

environments, which require large

data storage. Offering an easy raid

configuration, this device provides a

speed of 5.0 Gbps for USB 3.0 and

480 Mbps for USB 2.0 and 3 Gbps

with eSATA Interface.

“With data transfer speed of up to

10X faster as compared to USB 2.0,

this unit is a two bay RAID enabled

drive with RAID 0 for performance

and RAID 1 for redundant storage.”

said Susumu Kobayashi, Country

Head, Buffalo Inc. The Drive Station

Duo also gives additional storage to

quickly backup the user’s multimedia

files. DriveStation Duo is available

in combination of two variants –

HD-WLU3/R1 Series with USB 3.0

Interface and HD-WLSU2/R1 Series

with USB 2.0 and eSATA interface.

Buffalo launches Drive Station Duo

AUDIO | Aditya Infotech Ltd has announced the availability of the Corsair HS1A headset for gamers and enthusiasts in India.

“Since Aditya will be exclusively distributing the Corsair HS1A headset in India, we are already geared up with our sales & marketing strategy to create interest amongst the target users and to boost up sale of this new offering,” commented Sanjay Gogia, Country Manager at Aditya Infotech Ltd.

As per the company, the HS1A uses 50mm drivers to deliver detailed audio reproduction with clean, accurate bass and sparkling clarity in the mids and highs. The HS1A uses replaceable memory foam earcups for a custom, reliable fit. The extra-large diameter and deep-dish design help prevent them from touching the user’s ears. The Corsair HS1A Headset is priced at Rs. 4200.

AUDIO | Techcom’s latest offering in the consumer electronics market is the SSD 3300 FM, which as per the company, is a hi-tech 2.1 multimedia speaker system.

The 3300 FM offers a friendly user interface coupled with a fully functional remote control for ease of operations.

According to Techcom, the LED display adds to the clarity and crispness of information and subsequent control of the system.

The company says that the digital MP3/CD player enables playback of sharp, digital quality music for an enriching experience. The built-in digital FM radio allows the users to tune into their favourite station as per their convenience. The USP of the device is its SD/USB facilities.

The SSD 3300 FM by Techcom is now available in the market at a price of about Rs. 1,550.

FEATURESThe SD/USB input facilities

provided in the system enables

direct playback of music from

memory cards and data storage

devices – so users can just plug

in a pen-drive or an SD Card

and enjoy their favourite music.

That is convenient, especially

when people like to carry their

favourite stuff in portable and

mobile devices.

Aditya Infotech Unveils New Corsair Headset

NEW

UPDATE

5 8 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

The future is here! Get ready to see movies like never before with the Phillips Cinema 21:9 Gold TV. Or click some awesome pictures from the 40 megapixel Hasselblad H4D-40 Ferrari Edition camera.

Like something? Want to share your objects of desire? Send us your wish-list or feedback to editor@itnext.in

INDULGE The hottest, the coolest and the funkiest next generation gadgets and devices for you

CABASSE LA SPHERE

These speakers have a spherical design, making them cool!

HASSELBLAD H4D-40 FERRARI

With a 40 megapixel

sensor, this camera

can capture truly

life-like pictures.

MEGA HURTZThis is the ultimate

paintball machine, which

you can use to run some

havoc on your friends,

though in a fun manner!

PRICE: $1,76,000

PRICE: $29,499

PRICE: $3,600

HOT

PHILLIPS CINEMA 21:9

GOLDSurf the net, record live

TV, or update your FB.

PRICE: TBA

UPDATE

5 9M A Y 2 0 1 1 | ITNEXT

UPDATE

A platform to air your views on the latest developments and issues that impact you

RAVINDER DAGAR, MANAGER DMS & AV/CV AT VIDEO-CON TELECOMMU-NICATIONS LTDThe entire telecom

industry is struggling

to retain its margin and

sustainability in the

market, which results in

the selection of average

vendors who compro-

mise on quality. An iota

of doubt crops up if it is a

good option to outsource.

With telcos going all

out for the outsourcing

model, the driving point

being the cost pressure,

it invariably results in

wrong selection. Speed

being the buzzword in

telecom where things

change overnight, a cer-

tain amount of outsourc-

ing is a viable option.

BHAVITA SAXENA, IT MANAGER, HCL TECHNOLOGIES Bharti TeleVentures

outsourced its IT and

network infrastructure

to IBM and Ericsson

respectively. It turned

out to be successful as

it was not a traditional

outsourcing model, but a

business transformation

set up. The model was

based on ‘On-Demand’

finanancial pyament

model that gelled with

Bharti’s growth strategy.

Outsourcing for the sake

of just cutting down on

cost is not a great idea,

unless the deal brings

in new capabilities and

reduce the total cost of

ownership in an intel-

ligent manner.

CHARU BHARGAVA ASSISTANT MANAGER-IT, SHEELA FOAMGlobally speaking, the first

successful outsourcing

case in telecom was that

of the Bharti Group, pro-

vider of network, resource,

equipments, and IT. These

services were outsourced

to IBM, Ericsson, and,

Siemens. Many Indian

operations followed suite

to outsource services

prior to their launch. It is

not about just outsourc-

ing that brings valu; it is

about the value built over

the long run which drives

operational efficiency. It

goes with the experience

that the service provider

carries, which results in

judicious outsourcing deci-

sion and profitability.

Can outsourcing be considered a viable option for telcos?

OPEN DEBATE

Your views and opinion matter to us. Send us your feedback on stories and the magazine to the Editor at editor@itnext.in

BOOK FOR YOU

The India WaySuccess lies in the world learning from Indian businesses

STAR VALUE:

AUTHOR: PETER CAPPELLI, HARBIR SINGH, JITENDRA SINGH AND MICHAEL USEEMPUBLISHER: HARVARD BUSINESS PRESSPRICE: RS 695

IT NEXT VERDICTThe book, pleasantly heavy with insider

accounts, will help Indian businessmen

understand themselves in the global scheme

of things. It will also inspire managers .

The “unbridled pursuit of self-interest”,

hallmark of the American model of

economic development, popularly

called the “Washington Consensus”,

led to deep, self-inflicted injuries. Glo-

bal financial meltdown, the result of

unrealistic business ventures seeking

profits, has offered enough reason to

unlearn what was learnt over the past

50 years from western economies.

Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan

Greenspan, one of the biggest votaries

of this model, admitted that he had

made a mistake in pushing for “greater

reliance on market forces and reduced

government controls”. The initial suc-

cess of the US model, according to

The India Way, published by Harvard

Business Press, which drove business

restructuring was not received well.

Business leaders looked at tips from

Indian businesses. A compilation of

top 105 interviews, the book depicts

Indian approach to “running compa-

nies centred on a concern for multiple

stakeholders and their needs.”

6 0 ITNEXT | M A Y 2 0 1 1

MY LOG

Many years ago, a certain bard from Avon had famously proclaimed in one of his many masterpieces, “What’s in a name?” Post that defining proclamation, mankind has kind of internalised the philosophy. There is but little attention paid while nam-ing products, services or even companies for that matter. It is hard to digest that some of the brand names that we have come so much to love, were mere acts of coincidence than those of deliberation. Let me share with you some such geeky tales.

Urban legend has it that after many months of racking their collective brains, the geeks at a California garage were given time till 5’o’clock in the evening to come up with a credible name for their new firm, pending which the chief geek, Steve Jobs, would go ahead and name the company on his sole discretion. Since no one was able to come out with a nice innovative name, Jobs made true his bluff. As the clock stuck 5, the only thing a hungry Jobs could think was of his favorite fruit, the Apple. Little wonder, ‘Apple’ was the best that he could come up with.

Somewhat similar is the tale of Marc Ewing, who was given a cap with red and white stripes by his grandfather. Since Ewing also happened to be a genuis of the bits and bytes domain, he was much in demand for sorting things technical and was dubbed as the guy in the red hat. By

the time he wrote the manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux, he had lost the cap. So, the manual included an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found.

On the other hand, some names are crafted with much thought and yet destiny plays its dubious hand. So, back in 1997, when a couple of Stanford University geniuses thought of setting up a search engine based on page ranks, they creatively named it as Googol, a term for 1 followed by 100 zeros. Sadly, the cheque received by an investor was made out to ‘Google’. To cash it, they went ahead with the misspell, and the rest, as they say, is history!

Meanwhile, a majority of names are much mundane. For instance, Microsoft was named so, as the company was devoted to microcomputer software. HP was named after its co-founder Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard. EMC was named from the initials of the founders, Richard Egan and Roger Marino. Similarly, Infosys is ‘Information Systems’. Wipro is an acronym for Western India Palm Refined Oil Ltd. Intel stands for Integrated Electronics, while IBM stands for ‘International Business Machines’.

So, Shakespeare was indeed right; names are incidental to success and failure and there’s nothing much to them. In fact, back in the 70s, if a young Jobs named his company as ‘Orange’, we would have still loved him equally, if not more.

What if Apple was Orange?One can discern that most great company names are rather destiny, not design. Have a look.

SHASHWAT DCAssociate Editor, IT Next

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INSIGHT | CLOUD COMPUTING

BY G JOSLIN VETHAKUMAR

While security and regulatory concerns may still keep some skeptics away from the Cloud, fear ispaving way for euphoria

Euphoria

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FromFear to

It is now hard to imagine life without the convenience of online banking and trading, with the ‘Anytime and Anywhere Banking’ phenomenon having

weaved magic into the operations of financial institutions and wooed the investor community. Yet, security con-cerns have been a deterrent to net-based transactions for long, even threatening to hinder the growth of e-commerce that now holds great hope for business – both retail and wholesale.

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CLOUD COMPUTING | INSIGHT

However, things have changed for the better because foolproof encryption, firewall technologies and multi-layered security mechanisms have helped erase apprehensions and led to sustained growth in electronic trading and business. To add to it, financial markets, generally prone to cyclical recessionary storms, are now increasingly open to the idea of even embracing cloud-based services.

While security and regulatory concerns still inhibit the foray into cloud, particularly when it concerns transactional data, the fear is combined with ecstasy in trying out this model.

Buoyant Market Even NASDAQ uses the Cloud for data storage. Reports say that NASDAQ adds up to 80GB of data everyday to the cloud. Many of the world’s top exchanges, security firms and invest-ment managers have already thrown their weight behind managed infra-structure and have begun evaluating various cloud options.

Market data demonstrates that cloud computing has well gone past the realm of hype. Gartner report projects worldwide cloud services revenue to reach US $148.8 billion by 2014 from $58.6 billion in 2009. The report also points out that the financial services sector is among the largest early adopters of cloud services. Significantly, they are beginning to go beyond emails and archiving, as these alone cannot make a persuasive business case for cloud computing.

Tall projections are coming from Springboard Research, which has determined that 45% of organisations in Asia Pacific, Excluding Japan (APEJ) are either currently using or planning cloud initiatives, which is up from 22% in 2009.

Secure trading revolves around 3CsThe three Cs are Collaboration, Com-munication and Compliance platforms that facilitate secure trading.

When market players pitch themselves on a combined cloud-based communication, collaboration and compliance platform, they are in effect

enabling secure trading, immediacy and ubiquity.

These critical attributes demand and thrive on real-time data.

One area that holds the potential for rapid acceptance in financial markets involves collaboration services. This does not necessarily have to be viewed within the narrow confines of voice, video telephony and messaging. While communication and collaboration services in a cloud are increasingly gaining momentum, add the compliance layer to it and the result is a compelling and integrated delivery mechanism.

As the world has begun the shift from a capex environment to an opex model, with focus on a secure cloud, the value from converged collaboration,

communication and compliances services for the finance vertical is multi-dimensional, going beyond the cost factor. Collaboration, after all, is not just about software and technology; services also play a significant role in keeping businesses connected.

For telephony, the cloud may just be business as usual. In fact, it may well be described as one of the earliest cloud services, delivered through equipment located somewhere in operator networks. The range is a lot wider now than when it was just voice, having evolved into Communication as a Service (CaaS) mechanism – telephony, email, conferencing (web, audio video), instant messaging and so on.

As an outsourced model for business communications, CaaS includes telephony and associated services, such as VoIP, call centre applications and voice/video conferencing. In fact, institutions can go for bundled offerings with the Everything-as-a-Service (EaaS) model.

A vital advantage is the flexibility it affords them to go with a usage-based “pay-as-you-go” approach while simultaneously helping them avoid building a dedicated technology infrastructure that entail huge capital expenditures. With cloud technology delivering service elasticity, they can scale up and down with ease, depending on their requirements and the budget.

The dynamic changes even further the tradinng in an environment where voice-trading capabilities are in play. A unified suite will give market players a cost-effective and flexible option, even while offering enhanced collaboration through multiple channels of communication, while making sure

Financial markets brace up for collaboration cloud not just to cut costs, but for enhanced communications and trading services. Identity and trust management are key components for trading.

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TOP 10 STRATEGIC TECHNOLOGIES FOR 2011

Cloud Computing

Mobile Applications and Media Tablets

Social Communications and Col-laboration.

Video.

Next Generation Analytics

Social Analytics

Context-Aware Computing

Storage Class Memory

Ubiquitous Computing

Fabric-Based Infrastructure and Computers

INTERVIEW | MICHAEL SENTONAS

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“POTENTIAL THREATS ARE INCREASING”

How has the security landscape panned

over the past few years? What have been the defining factors?Specific to the threat landscape, we see a very sizable amount of growth of malicious software every year, which are hitting the internet and organisations glob-ally. At the moment, we typically analyse 1,00,000 malware sam-ples per day. And we catalogue 60,000 new threats every single day and that’s a significant num-ber if you look at what it means at an hourly level or even down to a per minute level. It’s around 41 threats per minute and that is significant because people at homes, larges enterprises and government networks use the internet every minute of the day. That means you’re not up- to- date as far as protection against the latest threats is concerned. Now some people might argue that out of 40 odd threats per minute, there might be few that

actually hit the network. Even if it’s 10 or 5, if you don’t update your anti – virus, that’s 5 threats that you have a risk to every sin-gle minute of the day. It is very hard for people to keep up with all the malware and vulnerabil-ity threats. If you look at the year 2010, we detected more threats in that one year than in the pre-vious 20 years combined; so that causes some significant stress, as to how can you protect yourself internally and keep up with the latest security threats. Another interesting trend that we have seen in the last 12- 18 months is that a real focus of the attack is to solidly compromise a firm’s net-work. In some cases, we have seen that people don’t know that these attacks are actually inside their network for more than 12 months. We released a report called “Night Dragon”. It was a specific attack that focused on oil & gas sector. In that particular example, there had been networks that had been compromised as early or as late

as 2007, and if you look at that as an example and compare it to the threats that we see today, in sev-eral cases, peoples’ networks has been compromised for more than 2 to 3 years and they were losing information all along. It’s quite a common technique or a common threat landscape that we are start-ing to see.

How can enterprises cope up with threats?Though a lot of people are taking a traditional approach by deploy-ing 12 – 15 products from differ-ent vendors, it has not worked. If you look at security courses, they always try the defence and death method. If one product gets it wrong or one vendor gets it wrong, the other product will catch up. But typically, what I saw was that a lot of organisations use the exact same technology to detect the threat that is bought from 5 different vendors, and that model has not worked. What it actually creates is a management

The security threat landscape has been changing quite drastically in the past few years. In an exclusive interaction with Shashwat DC, Michael Sentonas, VP, Chief Technology Offi cer - Asia Pacifi c, McAfee, spells out the challenge before the IT managers and the ways they can cope with it.

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Security and regulatory concerns may still keep some skeptics away from cloud? Pg 26

Small companies are proving to be an attractive destination for IT managers for growth Pg 34

Michael Sentonas, CTO, McAfee, spells out the security challenges Pg 38

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