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FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs.
FUTURE
JUNE 2020
OF WORKSPACES Let’s have a look at IT veteran’s take on the changing enterprise workplace dynamics amid lockdown. P/20
NO ABATEMENT IN RANSOMWARE ATTACKS
FEATURE P-26 STORY
EDITOR’S LETTER
CYBER ATTACKS ON THE NAME OF COVID-19
Hello Friends.
Apart from being attacked by the Covid-19 virus at the individual level, organizations as now facing a new challenge of COVID-19 cyberattack. These attacks are like locust swarm but in the case of locust attacks one can see the flying worms but in case of cyberattacks, it is not visible. There are multiple malwares making rounds in the dark world. People receive multiple emails by the name of Covid-19 protection. The attackers have not even spared UPI (Unified Payment Interface), text or SMS and Apps. Every such messages say to click the link to access new solution. The most vulnerable are the cloud applications and collaboration tools, which are prevalent these days in various schools as tools for their education and every enterprise to un-interrupt business. The mails are coming with multiple payloads of malwares and trojans. Once you click on these malicious links innocuously, the attackers penetrate the system immediately and sit idle inside the files and wait for ambushes. The CIOs and CISOs are experience enough to understand such types of activities but still then
COVER STORY
NEXT MONTH SPECIAL
BLOCKCHAIN
The next issue is dedicated to Blockchain. We would like to take feedback from the CIOs and Vendors and create our judgment on the same.
often attackers dodge the vigilance of the CISOs and manage to snick in, which later creates a big havoc for the organizations. So, the message is CISOs need to take extra measure to ward off the attackers by being able to monitor anomalies in the network and system on a regular basis. The fact of the matter is that on the ground level, situation has not changed much though the things are limping back to normal. Offices in many cities are opening, also the business organizations and operations; still employees are hesitant to attend their duty fearing being infected. Worldwide 5,698,416 people have been infected though recovery rate is just more than 2,443,803 so far. And death toll has gone up to touch 352,475. The infection tally in India has touched 151,876 and death toll has touched 4,346. Every day more than 5500 infection cases are surfacing though recovery rate is almost 50%. At the same time death tally in the country is not so high compared to many other countries. If reports to be believed, the migrant workers are becoming virus carriers. However, situation is not that good for the economy to bounce back all of a sudden and it is an opportunity for all bad things to happen. The role of the CIOs and CISOs are even more tougher as along with flat or negative growth of the organization, which leads to no incentivization, the pressures is mountain high to keep the network and datacentre working without being fazed by the external attackers.
S A N J AY M O H A PAT R A S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N F O M E D I A . C O M
SUPPLEMENT
QUOTES FROM TOP CIOS The supplement story of the magazine would have relevant quotes from the top CIOs in India.
PLUS
Interviews and Case Studies
Catch interviews, guest articles and case studies of recent applications from the Industry stakeholders, IT/ITES Vendors and IT leaders and CIOs from the Enterprise IT World CIO Community.
Send in your inputs to sanjay@accentinfomedia.com 4
ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
CONTENTS V O L U M E 0 5 | I S S U E 0 3 | JUNE 2020 | W W W . E N T E R P R I S E I T W O R L D . C O M
FOR THE CIOs. BY THE CIOs.
Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Chief Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Managing Editor: Anisha Nayar Dhawan Sub Editor: Pooja Jain, Nidhi Shail Designer: Ajay Arya Assistant Designer: Shadab Khan, Rahul Arya Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi, Sangeet Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Vaishali Shukla SALES CONTACTS
COVER STORY
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Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 E-mail: info@accentinfomedia.com
FUTURE OF WORKSPACES
Let’s have a look at IT veteran’s take on the changing enterprise workplace dynamics amid lockdown.
EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New Delhi-110016,
CIO TALK : /17
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BFSI Segments Drive the Colocation Business: Manish Israni
CIO TALK : /18 The CIO in the Digital era
Printed, Published and Owned by Sanjib Mohapatra Place of Publication: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016
MORE INSIDE Editorial~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 04 News~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 06
24 BEST PRACTICES AND NEED OF CLOUD STORAGE FOR PROTECTING CORPORATE AND PERSONAL DATA ADRIAN JOHNSON,
“Adrian Johnson shares his take on the changing nature of cloud storage practices in the face of Covid 19 Pandemic.”
25 CLOUD MANAGEMENT CONSISTENCY: A KEY TO IMPROVE TECHNICAL OUTCOMES SURAJIT SEN,
“Surajit Sen shares his views on cloud management consistency.”
30 WOULD YOU OR WOULD YOU NOT MOVE TO ‘WORK FROM HOME’? JAGANATHAN T
“Jaganathan T shares his perspective on Work from home being the new normal. ”
Phone: 91-11-46151993 / 41055458
Printed at Karan Printers, F-29/2, 1st floor, Okhla Industrial Area, Phase-2, New Delhi 110020, India. All rights reserved. No part of this publication can be reproduced without the prior written permission from the publisher. Subscription: Rs.200 (12 issues) All payments favouring: Accent Info Media Pvt. Ltd.
32 THE COLO DEMAND IS PRIMARILY FROM MID TO LARGE ENTERPRISES: JATINDER SINGH PABLA JATINDER SINGH PABLA
“From an interaction with Jatinder Singh Pabla, VP Sales& Marketing – STT GDC India.” JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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ITWORLD
ROUND UP
Dell EMC PowerStore Breaks Ground in Storage Infrastructure B Y S A N J AY @ A C C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M
Dell Technologies has announced Dell EMC PowerStore – a modern infrastructure platform built from the ground up with superior technology and expertise to address the challenges of the data era. Amit Luthra, Director & GM – Data Centre Solutions, Dell Technologies India said, “Our new PowerStore solution is our first product as a combined company which acts as a testimony of our unwavering commitment to support our storage portfolio. Dell EMC PowerStore’s unique features including datacentric design, intelligent automation and adaptable architecture will help customers address their storage challenges and help them deliver continued innovation.” 6
ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
“Capitalizing on digital transformation has become crucial for businesses. But, many learn that it is a complex and challenging process, simply because data has become more diverse and IT is unable to keep up. Hence, what these organizations need to look for, is a modern storage solution that not only eliminates these tradeoffs but also transforms and mobilizes both traditional and modern workloads with ease, ” said Anil Sethi, VP & GM- Channel, Dell Technologies India. “Dell EMC PowerStore is a uniquely adaptable infrastructure platform that will provide our partners with a massive opportunity to help customers easily consolidate their IT architecture across the data center, public cloud and the edge.”
D ATA BRIEFING
India’s Internet User Base Will Cross 900 Million by 2023
Source: Cisco
ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF
Check Point Software Extends Infinity Architecture, Delivering Uncompromised Enterprise Security
Check Point Software Technologies has announced the availability of its complete Quantum Security Gateways series, which deliver unprecedented protection, scalability, and ease of deployment and control for enterprises, from their branch offices to corporate data centers. Recent research by Check Point showed that 71% of enterprise IT and security professionals globally reported an increase in security threats and attacks since the pandemic started, as criminals seek to exploit the remote working explosion, and 95% of respondents said they are facing added IT security challenges related to these changes. Organizations are focused on three key network and security
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requirements: Preventing even advanced, zero-day cyber-attacks before they impact the organization; The ability to secure any type of network expansion or changes on demand; Unified solutions that speed up operations and automate protection. “Enterprises today require cybersecurity solutions that provide strong threat prevention to stop sophisticated multi-vector attacks, ondemand scalability to keep pace with changing network traffic requirements including an increase in remote workers, and centralized management to reduce complexity and improve efficiency,” said John Grady Analyst at Enterprise Strategy Group (ESG). ”
Quick Heal Invests in Networking & Wireless Technology Start-up
Quick Heal Technologies has strategically invested INR 2 Crores in Ray Pte. Ltd., a Singapore based start-up specializing in next generation networking and wireless technology. The investment reinforces a shared vision of ensuring a safe, secure and seamless digital experience for everyone. The development displays Quick Heal’s ongoing efforts to invest in disruptive technologies that will shape the future of cybersecurity while supporting innovative startups. The company had recently invested USD 300,000 in Israel based L7 Defense. The investment will enable Ray to tap into Quick Heal’s rich legacy and expertise in the technology landscape to develop an integrated solution designed to protect IoT devices in enterprise and consumer segments from the next wave of cyber-attacks. Kailash Katkar, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Quick Heal Technologies Limited said, “Through our investment in Ray, we want to bring the best of Quick Heal’s security technology and capabilities to a wide range of customers and partners with highly secure networking and wireless technology. As a company, we are always on the lookout for innovative companies with disruptive offerings that will help us shape the future of cybersecurity.”
EVENTS
02 JUNE 2020
01 JUNE 2020
02 JUNE 2020
Shifting Your Content & Creative to Align with Cultural Phenomena. As promised, you can access the recordings here.
Covering 10 trending topics, including AI, Fintech, digital transformation, smart manufacturing, smart mobility, smart healthcare, smart retail, and green technology.
Hosted by Issuu Marketing Manager, Meghan Cole and special guest Allié McGuire, Co-founder and owner at Awareness Ties.
REUTERS VIRTUAL BRAND MARKETING SUMMIT
MIC ANNOUNCING THE SPRING 2020 IT WEBINAR SESSIONS
CONNECTING IN TODAY’S DIGITAL WORLD” BY ISSUE.COM
ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD
IceWarp Launches Deep Castle Software Solution
S/HE SAID IT
BILL GATES
FOUNDER OF MICROSOFT
“Software innovation, like almost every other kind of innovation, requires the ability to collaborate and share ideas with other people, and to sit down and talk with customers and get their feedback and understand their needs.”
In the trying times when the pandemic has taken over the globe and social distancing is the only way out for survival. With a complete lockdown in action, most of the industries have migrated from the traditional mode of working to working from their respective homes, thus embracing technology in a fuller manner. While Work From Home has become a reality for the majority of the industries, it requires a comprehensive platform/solution to carry out the same. Adding to the misery, there’s news of Data-breach though numerous Video-conferencing solutions and has now turned into an everyday affair compromising the Data and Privacy Policy. In order to combat the same and to offer the best and the safest experiences, QUICK BYTE ON
IceWarp, a global messaging and collaboration solutions provider has launched Deep Castle, an end-to-end encrypted software solution that allows real-time collaborative editing and video calling in Beta. With Gen 1, Deep Castle is ushering in a new era for IceWarp. As the first step towards a deeply interconnected future, Deep Castle Gen 1 allows one to collaborate in real-time for documents, spreadsheets, and presentations with colleagues across the world. In addition, it enables all users to get access to a beta version of the new video calling feature. It further integrates video calls into Team Chats; adding WebFlow integrations with 3rd party services enhancing security capabilities.
“With a focus on steering the economy on a high growth trajectory, it is time for us to enable growth across key sectors like services, manufacturing, and agriculture; collaborate to give digital adoption a big push, and invest in the youth of today to spike innovation across industries” CP GURNANI MD & CEO, TECH MAHINDRA
SECURITY
Ransomware Increased by 2.6% From Last Year: Verizon Ransomware increased by 2.6% from last year, landing at number three in the most common malware breach variety, while also taking the number two spot for most common malware incident variety. What’s changed in that time is that ransomware isn’t solely devoted to encrypting files anymore.
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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF
Leveraging Geo-spatial technology to effectively map the spread of COVID-19
NETGEAR Orbi RBK50 Mesh System to Augment Your Home Wi-Fi Network for Improved Work Efficiency With the new norm, i.e., “work from home”, most professionals today are working from home during the pandemic; it has become a necessity to have a good and secure home networking solution. Weak Wi-Fi is the paramount concern when it comes to the topic of remote workers. The dead spots, unreliable connections, and slow speed hamper everyday productivity. To overcome these networking challenges NETGEAR offers its Orbi Mesh RBK50 to provide a seamless experience throughout the house. The new Orbi Systems all deliver
EXECUTIVE
industry-leading 802.11ac AC3000 Wi-Fi speeds up to 2.2Gbps*, so one can enjoy the seamless Wi-Fi experience everywhere in their home, without any dead zones from the attic to the basement, patio to the garage, front yard to back garden while streaming 4K HD video content. It also consists of a router and one or more satellites which is suitable to cover the surface area upto 200sqm. The RBk50 offers Wi-Fi coverage of up to 4,000 square feet and it also has an individual stand-alone router that covers up to 2,000 square feet.
The spread of Covid-19 and impended lockdown has impacted the SMBs and large corporations alike. A downward trend is on the showcase across sectors be it manufacturing, retail, e-commerce, and Travel & Tourism ever since. With businesses trying to get their operations back on track, technology-backed solutions can be of great help. ‘Transerve Technologies’ through its offering ‘Transerve Online Stack (TOS)’ has come up with a solution to map Covid19 density zones using geospatial technology. This advanced solution works on Predictive Analysis and uses layers of geospatial data to track, monitor, analyze, and visually represent them into data stacks. These data stacks will help in route optimization in COVID positive zones that can further assist businesses in making statistically driven decisions. Large and medium-sized retailers who are now eagerly waiting to re-open their stores are heavily dependent on geo-spatial datasets on deciding which outlets to open and which ones to not open. Similarly, large manufacturing companies are using geospatial data to analyze their suppliers’ catchment areas and effectively plan their sourcing strategies. Supply chain professionals across organizations and logistics companies are planning to extensively use geospatial data for the route optimization of their vehicles by avoiding the red zones.
MOVEMENT
EdTech live online tutoring pioneer Vedantu appoints Arvind Singhal as Chief Operating Officer
Anis Pankhania joins Capgemini as Senior Director – Security Operations & Compliance
Suhas Devaraju joins Amazon as Director, Operations Technology.
Thomas Hansen joins UiPath’s executive team as Chief Revenue Officer.
10 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD
BOOK
GLOBAL UPDATE
Axis Communications Expands Footprint in Kolkata with Innovative Products and Technologies
SHELF
5G Core Networks: Powering Digitalization BY
STEFAN ROMMER, PETER HEDMAN, MAGNUS OLSSON, LARS FRID, SHABNAM SULTANA AND CATHERINE MULLIGAN
PRICE
RS. 8,387.00
WHERE:
AMAZON.IN
About The Book Axis Communications has expanded its footprint in Kolkata and the eastern India region and shared the successful implementation details of their association with Kolkata Police for surveillance and traffic management on the streets of Kolkata. The event also showcased their integrated smart solutions in IP Audio, Radar Technology, Network Cameras, and Thermal cameras. Centered around their philosophy of Creating a Smarter & Safer Tomorrow, the event brought to fore Axis’ recent success stories and their key takeaways from prestigious surveillance
implementations across the country, including the implementation of surveillance systems in Vivekananda Stadium, Salt lake during FIFA U-17 World Cup, in 2017. The Government of West Bengal has been proactive in adopting a one-of-itskind smart surveillance implementation. As Kolkata Police has always been the forerunner of the agenda of making Kolkata the safest city for the residents, the partnership with Axis Communications has successfully helped them in setting up high-resolution cameras across the city.
The book provides an overview of the 5G Core network architecture, as well as giving descriptions of cloud technologies and the key concepts in the 3GPP rel-15/16 specifications.
Key Feature An overview of the 5G Core Architecture - The Stand-Alone and Non-Stand-Alone Architectures; detailed presentation of 5G Core key concepts; and an overview of 5G Radio and Cloud technologies.
Attackers using COVID-19 pandemic to Launch Attacks on Vulnerable Org Taking the opportunity of COVID-19 pandemic, cyber criminals are looking at exploiting less secured companies. As per NTT Ltd.’s 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) attack data indicates that 55% of all attacks in 2019 were a combination of web-application and application-specific attacks, up from 32% the year before, while 20% of attacks targeted CMS suites and more than 28% targeted technologies that support websites. For organizations that are relying more on their web presence during COVID-19, risk exposing themselves through systems and applications that cyber
criminals are already targeting heavily. Matthew Gyde, President and CEO of the Security division, NTT Ltd., says: “The current global crisis has shown us that cyber criminals will always take advantage of any situation and organizations must be ready for anything. We are already seeing an increased number of ransomware attacks on healthcare organizations and we expect this to get worse before it gets better. It’s critical to pay attention to the security that enables your business; making sure you are cyber-resilient and maximizing the effectiveness of secure-by-design initiatives.” JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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Legrand India to support healthcare infrastructure Legrand India has initiated supporting the local Govt. in the creation of quarantine centres and isolation wards in Kolkata, Odisha and Chattisgarh. They are working with various government stakeholders across the nation with electrical products to be used for creating isolation wards and quarantine centres. One of the key focus areas of Legrand India is healthcare when it comes to giving back to the society. Legrand is also supporting govt. hospitals & quarantine centres with disposable isolation beds as a proactive step to facilitate to accommodate the migrant returns in the respective districts’ quarantine facility. The team has enabled support through its electrical products such as protection devices, wiring devices and UPS for hospitals and healthcare facilities countrywide which will house over 2000 beds and intensive care facilities for COVID-19 patients. With Healthcare as focus, the company is providing PPE to doctors and medical staff in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi and Kerala to support the frontline workers in their fight against COVID-19.
WE HUB, Telangana Govt and VMware India to help Women returning to work in Telangana VMware India has signed MoU with the WE HUB, a Government of Telangana initiative for women entrepreneurs, to extend VMinclusion Taara’s upskilling and return to work program in the State. With this MoU, VMware and WE HUB aim to empower women with the skills they need to return to their dormant/ interrupted technology careers. The aim is also to provide a platform for better networking opportunities for women in technology to be a part of the economic workforce of the state. WE HUB aims at providing a platform by enabling skill upgradation, networking opportunities and the career options for Women returning to workforce in Telangana. WE HUB will be integrating modules on entrepreneurship as an addition to the curriculum so the various opportunities available for Women planning a return to the work force can utilize. Through VMinclusion Taara, VMware continues to work towards upskilling up to 15,000 women, by providing free technical education and certification courses on digital business transformation technology.
As evidenced in this year’s 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant, Google Cloud has quickly ascended as one of the top three hyperscale providers on the market. As the leading provider of Cloud Data Management (CDM), we see and know the value in providing our customers with a fully comprehensive solutions portfolio that addresses the three cloud service providers. Today, we are thrilled to announce an exciting new partnership with Google that delivers more options and value to our customers. Veeam is one of the founding partners 12 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
for Google Cloud VMware Engine, a fully native, first-party solution for customers to run applications on VMware Cloud Foundation in Google Cloud. The solution is a fully compliant and certified full-stack cloud infrastructure sold and supported by Google Cloud. Customers can deploy VMware vSphere-based workloads, natively, in a dedicated SDDC on Google Cloud and utilize the same applications, tools, processes and policies you use today with no changes. The new solution with GVE puts us in a unique position of providing the most simple, flexible and reliable data protection solution for protecting the workloads, whether they run on-premises, in the cloud or in the hybrid cloud.
DIGEST FORTIS HEALTHCARE TREATS PATIENTS VIRTUALLY Fortis Healthcare adopts virtual technology to continue providing care to the patents. “We never give up on our patients. That’s our mission. To save and enrich lives,” says Dr Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, managing director and CEO, Fortis Healthcare. Never has this mission been more pronounced in Fortis Healthcare’s twodecade history, than it is now. As the COVID-19 lockdowns impacted physical visits across the country, Fortis Healthcare began looking for ways to still care for its patients, without putting them at risk that a hospital visit entails. The COVID-19 outbreak posed an entirely new challenge to the institution. “It was very important for us that we continue to provide care to our patients,” says Ajay Vij, CIO, Fortis Healthcare. “At the same time, we did not want them to risk coming to the hospital unless in unavoidable circumstances. It not only puts the patients at risk but also the doctors and frontline staff who are working at the hospital.” Indian medical laws forbade hospitals to provide virtual consultations to patients, but they had to relax the rules due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To ensure continuity in serving their patients, Fortis Healthcare worked with Microsoft to deploy virtual visits on Teams. MATHWORKS DELIVERS ADDITIONAL AI CAPABILITIES TO ENGINEERS AND SCIENTISTS MMathWorks introduced Release 2020a with expanded AI capabilities for deep learning. Engineers can now train neural networks in the updated Deep Network Designer app, manage multiple deep learning experiments in a new Experiment Manager app, and choose from more network options to generate deep learning code. R2020a introduces new capabilities specifically for automotive and wireless engineers in addition to hundreds of new and updated features for all users of MATLAB and Simulink. “MathWorks provides a comprehensive platform for building AI-driven systems,” said David Rich, MATLAB marketing director. “We’ve taken three decades of product, consulting and support experiences and applied it to an AI workflow that empowers engineers and scientists to clean data, build models and deploy them in production IT or embedded systems.”
NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD
MANAGEMENT
MANTRA
“Leadership is about making others better as a result of your presence and making sure that impact lasts in your absence.” Sheryl Sanberg, COO, Facebook
VMware Intends to Acquire Octarine and Create Next-Gen SOC Alliance
IBM Systems Offers Stimulus Package for COVID:19 Pandemic
In response to the COVID:19 pandemic outbreak, IBM has enacted sizable stimulus measures to counteract the disruption caused to partners & clients. Viswanath Ramaswamy – Director, Systems I/SA, IBM, said, “As our business partners and clients work to come out of this situation, we have announced, “The IBM Systems Stimulus Package” for our Clients, Client Facing Partners and Distributors to help them wade through the overheads. “For our India clients, we will offer a zero percent or Interest free four quarterly instalment package for IBM Power and IBM Storage hardware purchases made
between April 1st and June 30th, 2020. This is a short-term package to address the immediate term where we are offering different payment models to our clients,” he added. “Furthermore, we are supporting our IBM Channel Partners with additional programs to enhance their profitability in these trying times as well.” After the Covid-19 outbreak, most of the companies are facing multiple challenges to run their business. We have reached a scenario where businesses are rethinking before committing to any additional expenses and are more focused on investing in business continuity.
VMware made two key announcements during Connect 2020, the company’s annual cybersecurity user and partner conference (hosted virtually by VMware Carbon Black): The intent to acquire Octarine, whose innovative security platform for Kubernetes applications helps simplify DevSecOps and enables cloud native environments to be intrinsically secure, from development through runtime; and The creation of a Next-Gen SOC Alliance along with Splunk, IBM Security, Google Cloud’s Chronicle, Exabeam, and Sumo Logic. The alliance empowers SOC teams with visibility, prevention, detection and response capabilities that can uniquely leverage the VMware fabric. “Acquiring Octarine will enable us to further expand VMware’s intrinsic security strategy to containers and Kubernetes environments by embedding the Octarine technology into the VMware Carbon Black Cloud,” said Patrick Morley, general manager and senior vice president, Security Business Unit, VMware. “This, combined with native integrations with Tanzu, vSphere, NSX and VMware Cloud Foundation, will create what we believe is a unique and compelling solution for intrinsically securing workloads.
Indians Will Adopt Digital Payments At Faster Clip Post Covid-19
Capgemini Research Institute has come up with a study on COVID-19 and the financial services consumer analysing on how this crisis changed consumer behaviour in the financial sector – from channel preference to investment choices?
How do people think the traditional banks and insurers have handled the crisis? Capgemini Research Institute spoke with more than 11,200 consumers in early April 2020 from 11 countries including India, USA, UK and China and found that pandemic has hastened the shift towards digital payments, increased digital channel adoption, spurred consumer interest in savings and safer investments, and driven customer loyalty towards those organizations that are handling this crisis well. 80% of the older consumers in India between
the age group of 56-60 years show the highest usage of digital payment channels in the next 6 months. This was followed by the age group of 36-45 years at 83%. The global average for increase in digital payment channels in next 6 months between the age group of 56-60 years and 36-45 years stood at 43 % and 48% respectively. Interestingly the report highlights that 80% of the Indian consumers who are older than 66 years and above mentioned that they will increasingly adopt digital payment channels in next 6 months compared to a global average of 35%. JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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Multi-Cloud Platforms Offer Up Key New Capabilities and Differentiation
Trend Micro Research Identifies Critical Industry 4.0 Attack Methods Trend Micro Incorporated has released research describing how advanced hackers could leverage unconventional, new attack vectors to sabotage smart manufacturing environments. For this report, Trend Micro Research worked with Politecnico di Milano in its Industry 4.0 lab, which houses real manufacturing equipment from industry leaders, to demonstrate how malicious threat actors can exploit existing features and security flaws in Industrial IoT (IIoT) environments for espionage of financial gain. “Past manufacturing cyber attacks
have used traditional malware that can be stopped by regular network and endpoint protection. However, advanced attackers are likely to develop Operational Technology (OT) specific attacks designed to fly under the radar,” said Bill Malik, vice president of infrastructure strategies for Trend Micro. “As our research shows, there are multiple vectors now exposed to such threats, which could result in major financial and reputational damage for Industry 4.0 businesses. The answer is IIoTspecific security designed to root out sophisticated, targeted threats.”
A new study from Forrester Consulting, commissioned by Oracle*, emphasises the essential role of multi-hybrid cloud platforms to collate the mass of information that enables analysis of insights and inform business-critical decisions. The study, entitled Moving the Needle: Data Management for the Multi-Hybrid Age of IT, explains that 82% of the 670 senior technology decision makers recognise that investing in the right data management strategy will lead to better business outcomes. But 73% admit that they have disparate and siloed data strategies that are stopping them from providing business stakeholders with the data they need. Chung Heng, Senior Vice President, Oracle Systems, JAPAC and EMEA said, “Organisations in Asia Pacific are making strong progress in terms of unifying data sources and getting on top of data security and governance requirements. But the study also reveals that their intense focus on these areas may be holding them back from realising some of the benefits of multi-hybrid cloud they need right now around providing access to unique capabilities and supporting diversification. In fact, only a third of companies in JAPAC appear focused on this aspect of data management as compared to over two thirds in Europe. They need to make sense of living in a multi hybrid cloud environment as soon as possible, or risk being left behind.”
ICMR to Leverage IBM Watson Assistant to Bolster Rapid Response Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, has collaborated with IBM to implement a Watson virtual agent (called Watson Assistant) on its portal to respond to specific queries of front line staff and data entry operators from various testing and diagnostic facilities across the country on COVID-19. The virtual agent has been deployed on protected pages of the ICMR website that can be accessed only by authorized personnel who are involved with sample collection and testing in hospitals and diagnostic labs. The queries could be related to nature and process of data to be captured by test labs, how to record inventory of test kits & reagents, process of reporting to 14 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
various Government agencies and references to the latest guidance, in addition to responding to queries on COVID19 in general. Professor Balram Bhargava, Director General, ICMR said, “While India has been able to manage COVID-19 to a certain extent, the challenge still continues to minimize further. It is critical to remain focused on testing, diagnosis and treatment in order to lower the growth curve. With the number of on-field testing teams expanding across the nation as part of India’s COVID-19 measures, this collaboration with IBM will help automate responses from the field & facilitate access to accurate & updated data on COVID-19 diagnostics & reporting.
NEWS BRIEF // IT WORLD
Hitachi Vantara Expands Digital Manufacturing Portfolio
Hitachi Vantara announced an expanded set of offerings to help manufacturers accelerate Manufacturing 4.0 initiatives and to assist with safely restarting production in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Dramatic variations in production capacity and demand illustrate the new stresses being placed on manufacturing supply chains and production planning: after the onset of COVID-19, industrial production in the United States experienced the steepest decline since 19461, yet
daily U.S. e-commerce sales jumped 49%2. “The COVID-19 pandemic is exposing a litany of challenges for manufacturers that highlight how important unlocking data and digital industrial innovation is to the industry’s future,” said James Destro, general manager, Manufacturing Practice, Hitachi Vantara. “With our powerful IT and OT experience, Hitachi Vantara can uniquely inspire, envision, architect and accelerate digital transformation that solves today’s challenges and prepares manufacturers for the challenges of tomorrow.”
Airtel Stake in Conversational AI focused Startup – Voicezen
As part of its strategy to deliver a highly differentiated service experience to its customers, Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) has acquired a strategic stake in Voicezen, an early stage startup focused on conversational AI technologies. The acquisition has been made by the company under its fast expanding Airtel Startup Accelerator Program. Gurgaon based Voicezen has been working on developing advanced solutions that leverage machine learning, AI, speech to text and voice technologies to offer real time analytics to help brands serve customers better. Adarsh Nair, Chief Product Officer – Bharti Airtel, said, “Voicezen has built some promising products that are very relevant for a market like India. We are delighted to welcome them to the Airtel Startup Accelerator Program and look forward to partnering them in scaling these innovative ‘Made in India, for India’ applications and implement them in the real world.”
DigitalOcean Receives $50 Million in New Funding DigitalOcean has closed a $50 million Series C funding round led by Access Industries, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z). The funding follows the $320 million debt financing in February and brings DigitalOcean’s equity valuation to $1.15 billion. “We are excited about this investment to support DigitalOcean as it enters its next phase of significant growth,” said Pueo Keffer, managing director at Access Industries. “We remain extremely impressed with the company and its management and believe that both are well positioned to transform the cloud space for
developers and SMBs in the years ahead.” “We are delighted to extend our partnership with Access and a16z and see this capital as adding strength to our balance sheet enabling us to better serve our customers’ demand for our platform, especially during COVID-19 where we are seeing an acceleration of businesses transitioning to the cloud,” said Yancey Spruill, CEO at DigitalOcean. “We are now freed up to focus on accelerating revenue growth, transitioning to free cash flow profitability in 2020 and positioning our company ultimately to be a public company.”
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ITWORLD // NEWS BRIEF
ESDS Helps Fight Covid -19: Launches Mobile X-Ray Testing Vans
UiPath Expands Support for Business Partners to Deliver on Hyperautomation UiPath enhances its Business Partner Program to enable organizations around the world to leverage the power of hyperautomation. UiPath is offering new training, certification, and marketing programs for business partners through the launch of its UiPath Services Network (USN). UiPath global and regional partners are ushering in the workplace of the future driven by hyperautomation for thousands of businesses around the world. UiPath Business Partner Program enhancements enable these partners to scale end-to-end automation for
their clients. UiPath has unveiled a lot of enhancements for its partners including, RPA Certification and Training, Turn-key Marketing Programs and Partner Locator and New Technology Integrations. Cheryln Chin, VP, Global Partners & Alliances, UiPath, said “Through our training, certification, and marketing programs, as well as our technology alliances, we’re making it easier for our business partners, who are on the front lines working with enterprises on their hyperautomation journeys, to plan for and build robots.”.
ESDS Software Solution has rolled out its mobile X-ray testing vans that can detect the possibility of COVID-19 in a patient in less than five minutes in the Nashik district and Malegaon to enable suspected patients and hospitals take a decision quickly without losing time which is critical to stop the spread of this virus. These vans will be moving around in the Nashik district and Malegaon across all three zones (Green, Orange and Red). The aim is to provide door-to-door services across the regions. AI powered anytime anywhere rapid testing solution AA+ COVID-19 indicates whether the patient is suffering from COVID-19 in less than 5 minutes. We have managed to detect more than 500 asymtomatic patients with 96% accuracy in last 8 days and over 1000 Symtomatic patients with 99% Accuracy. Our solution is a complete contactless testing procedure, where all the health officials have to collect the Chest X-ray reports, upload them on a web browser https://portal.aacovidtest.com and just click on the submit button. Post clicking on the submit button, it will quickly indicate whether the patient is suffering from COVID-19 or not. The other existing tests such as the SWAB test take between four to five days before the results are out which is very time consuming for everyone. SWAB test is recommended only after 5th day from the time of infection, while AA+ Software claims to read X-Ray of a person positively within 24 hours of infection.
Capgemini and Audi launch new Joint Venture: XL2
Capgemini and Audi launched their joint venture – XL2. Following regulatory approvals, the company was founded at the end of April. It will provide digital technology and consulting services, namely in the fields of SAP S/4HANA 16 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
and cloud services primarily for Audi and the entire Volkswagen Group. XL2 combines an agile start-up culture reinforced by two global industry-leaders. The company’s goal is to expand its project business gradually and achieve a powerful workforce within the next five years. XL2 was founded by Audi and Capgemini to support the automotive industry in digital transformation tasks. The joint venture that focuses on consulting and technology services for cloud and SAP S/4HANA® includes industry solutions such as SAP Leonardo®. XL2 is designed to enable end-to-end digital manufacturing, covering all central processes, including produc-
tion planning, logistics, finance, maintenance, quality and materials management. Projects of the legally independent entity are to be carried out for Audi. The first focus areas are SAP projects for production and master data management, as well as development in the context of cloud-based applications. Capgemini and Audi have a long-standing partnership in developing solutions for digital transformation and co-innovation. The formation of XL2 takes the partnership to a new level and continues the successful collaboration in developing solutions and co-innovations for digital transformation.
DATA CENTRE // CIO TALK
BFSI SEGMENTS DRIVE THE COLOCATION BUSINESS: MANISH ISRANI From an interaction with Manish Israni, Head of IT Operations & CIO, Yotta Infrastructure MANISH ISRANI
HEAD OF IT OPERATIONS & CIO, YOTTA INFRASTRUCTURE
“From compliance perspective, BFSI segments drive the colocation of business
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
as they require strong data protection, disaster recovery and have huge data for analysis. The manufacturing sector has realised the potential of the cloud. With an inclination towards IoT and Automation, AI, ML, the manufacturing sector is using hybrid cloud solutions as well as colocation services.”
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hich sectors or verticals do you see inclining more towards co-location DC? According to Markets and Markets, the global data center colocation size is expected to reach USD 62.30 billion by 2022 from USD 31.52 billion in 2017.Often, enterprises use multiple cloud service providers for various purposes. To ease the process of managing these service providers, they use colocation data center as a hub to access them instead of connecting through an onpremise data center. Colocation services ensure
secure data storage and further aids business scalability. Besides, data centers also offer better connectivity and uninterrupted power supply due to redundant networks, ensuring business-critical applications are running uninterrupted. From compliance perspective, BFSI segments drive the colocation business as they require strong data protection, disaster recovery and have huge data for analysis. The manufacturing sector has realised the potential of the cloud. With an inclination towards IoT and Automation, AI, ML, the manufacturing sector is using hybrid cloud solutions as well as colocation services. Is the demand for DC in India, spread evenly
throughout the industries? Or are there only large-scale takers comprising a large chunk of the DC demand? In India, large cloud players and enterprises take up most of the colocation services. The SMBs and mid-tier segment players are more inclined towards the cloud. With the voluminous amount of data, driven by the adoption of the internet and modern technology and government’s emphasis on digitisation, we are seeing an increase in demand for data centers from other verticals as well. Sectors like BFSI, telecom, retail, and media &entertainment have majorly contributed to the growth of data center market in India. Also, large scale global players like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft see India as a potential data center market and have made investments in the industry. What are the reasons for the burgeoning DC market in India? Increase in the number of internet users and start-ups, fast adoption of cloud computing, big data, AI by large enterprises, government’s focus on data localisation and data protection norms are some major factors that are driving India’s data generation and consumption. Explosion of data due to these drivers has raised the demand for data storage in the country. However, the cost to build and manage data centers remains high. Favourable market conditions in India like low internet tariff rates and data plans, rising demand and shortage in supply and limited data center players are some of the added reasons to boost growth potential for the industry. Cities like Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Chennai have been witnessing high investments from local and global companies. Recently the honourable Finance Minister also announced that the government will soon unveil policy on data centers which will incentivise private players to setup data center parks in India, which is again a move in the right direction. JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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CIO TALK // CIO IN THE DIGITAL ERA
THE CIO IN THE DIGITAL ERA
Being a CIO himself, Herbert Fuchs shares his opinion on what a CIO has to be like in order for him or her to contribute the utmost to the success of a business.
HERBERT FUCHS
“The CIO has to be an innovator, a creative mind that constantly evaluates opportunities on how to help the business to become more profitable, more productive, more cost effective, more competitive etc.”
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
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hat does it take for a CIO to become a true asset to its employer? How can a CIO help shaping the success of a business? What characteristics do we expect from a world class CIO? Do we expect a CIO to be more on the business side or shall he or she remain more on the tech side of things? What’s the right level for a CIO to tie into an organization? Of course, these and many more of similar questions and nuances of what the ideal CIO has to be like are being discussed in countless articles, on social media, in events and various forums. Being a CIO myself and being around the block for some years and so across various industries, I believe it’s fair to say that I’ve a strong opinion on what a CIO has to be like in order for him or her to contribute the utmost to the success of a business. 18 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
(Fig 2) Business Partner & Stakeholder Successful CIOs have to become “part of the business” – which means that they’ve to become a logical extension in any aspect of the business, work closely with the respective business stakeholder, become a natural asset, sparring partner but also a trusted source of input and opinion to the respective business stakeholder from the strategizing and planning stage to deployment, operations and continuous improvement. Executive Team Asset For any CEO, for any board and so in any industry, it has to be the goal and a natural choice of having the CIO as a member of the executive team. In this digital era where businesses transform, automate, digitize etc. a CIO on the executive team is an invaluable asset. However,
a CIO on the executive team has to earn his or her seat, has to prove its value and position by exposure and evidence of the core capabilities from above image. Innovator The CIO has to be an innovator, a creative mind that constantly evaluates opportunities on how to help the business to become more profitable, more productive, more cost effective, more competitive etc. By doing so however, the CIO must not just innovate from a technology perspective but also by considering the organizational as well as business process aspects and all of it in close collaboration with the respective business stakeholder = “buy-in”. Challenger A valuable, respected and successful CIO isn’t just a “yes man” (or women) or servant of the business. He or she has to listen, to understand, getting involved, assuming ownership but also openly, respectfully and transparently challenges the status quo, questions established routines or behaviors, challenges unrealistic expectations (eg. insufficient funding, budget, timelines), maintains eyesight with executive peers and the board. Creator & Doer The “proof is in the pudding” as they say – which means, the CIO (btw, not only the CIO!) is expected to deliver, to get things done, to justify its position, to justify the investments which were approved in response to the company budgets etc. Even the greatest accomplishments however are often overlooked or taken for granted by them not being communicated, promoted or celebrated sufficiently (refer to “communicator and collaborator”). Technology Authority Of course, one may think, who else but the CIO
CIO IN THE DIGITAL ERA // CIO TALK
has to be the technology authority or advisor? Let’s keep in mind however that many successful and high-caliber CIOs may not come from a technology background but out of a business function instead. Even though, the CIO has to be astute with business relevant technologies, emerging technologies, trends or opportunities etc. so that he or she can advise the executive team or board and to provide meaningful guidance for his team to dig deeper as and where appropriate. Customer & Client Advocate In this digital and transformative age, businesses need to be aware and to accept the fact that “digital” changes the way that we work, how we conduct business, how we operate, manufacture etc. As such, the CIO needs to be in the face of the customer (not just the “internal customer”) in order to first-hand understand customer / client expectations, needs, concerns etc. and to respond to them accordingly (in alignment with the business stakeholder!). At the same time, the CIO has an opportunity for brushing-up the company’s image, providing some competitive edge etc. in front of the customer / client by introducing them to eg. the “digital agenda” of the company. The Curious & Learner Ideally (in my mind!) a CIO not just moves from company to company within the same industry or segment but much rather comes from various industry backgrounds and insights. That’s an invaluable benefit (in my mind!) for any company as a CIO (and not just the CIO!) can be the incubator of new ideas, different best practices etc. However, at the same time, a CIO foreign to a certain industry has to make a severe effort to learn and to understand the business that he or she is in now. As such, the CIO has to be curious, has to be eager to learn, dig into some level of detail even (eg. business processes) and seek interaction across the various levels of a respective business function. Communicator & Collaborator Change and transformation is the “new normal” and with the CIO being a member of the executive team, a transformation advocate, a change agent etc., the CIO (and not just the CIO in the executive team!) assumes a very critical role when it comes to communication and collaboration across all business functions. Keep in mind that more than 50% of transformation initiatives fail or don’t deliver the desired results and more than 70% of the reasons for failure are related to
organization / culture / people etc. (all according to market data!). Communication, transparency, clear objectives, measurements, collaboration etc. etc. are of utmost importance, significance and a prerequisite for any change and transformation to become a success. The CIO has to put him or herself at the forefront of any effort in the benefit of communication and collaboration and, in many cases, even becoming the role model for nurturing a culture of communication, collaboration and transparency across the company. For the CIO to be more on the extroverted rather than the introverted scale of personality is certainly of benefit. Leader and Motivator With the CIO being expected to be a business enabler, a transformational leader, an open minded and innovative individual, a business minded executive etc., leadership and motivational proficiency are second to none in the successful CIO. Long and far gone shall be the days where CIOs had the luxury, the freedom and the desire for building inhouse IT teams of comfortable size, with lush budgets, casual delivery timelines, etc. The modern and transformative CIO is expected to run an agile organization, to promote
an “anything as a Service” culture complemented by a lean core competency organization, maximizing output, closely interacting across business functions, etc. This all puts high pressure, stress, stretch and often triggers concern and fear within the CIO’s organization (same applies of course to other functions in a company as well and thus challenges all executives alike). However, as a proficient and strong leader, the CIO is expected not to just build a strong team by hiring the best people (great leaders don’t hire second best – the go for the best and don’t shy away from being challenged!) but to compose a world class organization (internal + external resources) from the assets at hand. People will excel in their jobs when they receive clear stretch targets with defined objectives, when they’re being kept informed and abreast of changes, when they’re being motivated, appreciated and developed to best perform their jobs and to grow as individuals. A great CIO isn’t hiding him or herself in the office but is among his team and closely aligned and interacting with all the resources (internal + external) involved in the provisioning of a world class service to the organization.
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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COVER STORY // FUTURE OF WORKSPACES
FUTURE OF WORKSPACES
Let’s have a look at IT veteran’s take on the changing enterprise workplace dynamics amid lockdown.
E
BY POOJA JAIN POOJA@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
nterprises worldwide are redefining the work dynamics to better adapt to the status quo and ensure a sense of normalcy during this trying times. Let’s have a look at IT veteran’s take on the changing enterprise workplace dynamics amid lockdown. Rami Reddy. Puli, Head Technology, Dr. Reddys Foundation. Every humanitarian crisis disrupts the way
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certain things are carried out and sets precedence for a new order. The COVID-19 public health emergency has changed the way we greet each other, interact with others, learn and work. Working from Home has become the new order during the lockdown. Dining tables turned workstations and we are reinventing ways of managing teams, scheduling the work, using e-infrastructure, ensuring data privacy, etc. While there are some associated benefits, some challenges could mean that remote working will not be the future of
workspaces in India and when the activities return to normal. In a webinar snap poll conducted by Gartner, 91% of the attending HR leaders from the Asia/ Pacific have reported that lack of technology infrastructure and lack of comfort with new ways of working are the biggest challenges of working remotely. Based on some articles and research work I have come across recently and from my personal experience, I’m highlighting the key challenges to working from home:
FUTURE OF WORKSPACES // COVER STORY
The Infrastructure: It is true that majority of the young Indian employees have migrated to cities and live in hostels and other paying guest accommodations. These shared living spaces don’t provide a quiet workplace environment and the challenges pertaining to high-speed internet, availability of power-backup, etc. will hamper the productivity. Data Privacy: Several Indian IT companies deal with sensitive data of their clients varying from financials to health records. These operations are carried out in highly secure workplaces. Working remotely and having access to this data will only increase the data security risk. Productivity: As per results from the Gartner snap poll,top employee complaint was about their managers concern over the productivity. A research says that face-to-face work teams perform better than virtual ones on creative assignments. Moreover, as stated earlier, distractions and infrastructure challenges could reduce the productivity of many employees while working from home. Though working remotely has benefits like Lower commuting stress, reduced costs of maintaining office spaces, decreased pollution levels, and reduced travel, the challenges listed above might not let the future of workspaces change significantly for many of us.
The Human Nature: We are social beings. In a research titled “Does working from home work? Evidence from an experiment” 2/3rd of the control group, who had earlier opted for working from home, has decided to return to office citing concerns over the loneliness of working remotely. Workplaces are more than just working on the spreadsheets. It’s the entire culture and values of people we work together with. Zoom interactions cannot replace face-to-face conversations, complex team dynamics and collaboration which make work more exciting. Popular journalist Henry Grabar made a point about “Psychological Safety” in ‘The Future of Work’ webinar. He says that we feel more comfortable while expressing ideas to our co-workers and that the remote communication reduces the psychological safety. Building strong relationships, maintaining company culture and motivating employees are hard to achieve without physical presence. We are comfortable working from home only because we feel certain that it is only a temporary substitute.
How comfortable would you be even imagining working remotely forever? The Struggle With Unplugging: Working from home changes the daily schedules drastically among the majority.As per a survey conducted by Buffer, most remote workers struggle with unplugging from their work.Staying logged in way beyond routine work hours has become common. Working for considerably longer hours in isolation can affect the health of an individual. A research report titled “Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work” by the ILO (International Labour Organization) has data from 15 countries including India and sheds light on risks associated with working remotely. It lists longer working hours, higher work intensity and work-home interference as some of the major concerns. 41% of remote workers felt high stress levels while it was just 25% among those who work from offices. 42% of people who work remotely suffered from insomnia as compared to 29% of people who work from offices.
Prashanth G J, CEO, TechnoBind “The workplace has changed - not only for now but for the future as well. We at TechnoBind itself have realized that working remotely is a very viable option and has no significant effect on the efficacy of work delivery. In fact, we have realized we can actually be more productive with the new dynamics - travel time, stress related to being stuck in traffic, positive environment of being able to work in the comfort of home - all are adding up to increased productivity. Of course like all this comes with a caveat as well - which is the employee’s professionalism in terms of being committed to official tasks mostly during the 9 to 6 period - and not getting distracted. This remote working has been greatly enabled by a multitude of tools being available today. We ourselves are at the forefront of distributing the world’s leading technology platforms which are helping remote working - be it meeting room solutions, or remote access or secure access through the highest level of authentication! I personally see that what is being called the “New Normal” will soon become the NORMAL.” Satish Kumar V, CEO, EverestIMS Technologies “What we are observing during this lock-down
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
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COVER STORY // FUTURE OF WORKSPACES
PRASHANTH G J CEO, TECHNOBIND
“The workplace has changed - not only for now but for the future as well.”
RAMI REDDY PULI, HEAD TECHNOLOGY, DR. REDDYS FOUNDATION.
“While there are some associated benefits, some challenges could mean that remote working will not be the future of workspaces in India when the activities to normal.”
is a complete redefining of workplace dynamics and interactions. What used to be the domain of personnel congregation in a fixed location has now transformed into a hub and spoke or even a multi-spoke “hive” system with the company’s ethos and objectives focusing the core of this unique new work entity. Communications channels of different types - voice, data, and video support the system and team protocols drive efficiencies and outcomes. In the Software Sector, this new approach has been successful in repelling the effects of the lockdown as we have created our own “New Normal” in terms of keeping the show running. At EverestIMS Technologies, our products support the systems that keep communication, IT, and enterprises running so it is crucial that we do not ebb or fall back. Over the last few weeks, we have discovered a new approach that may rethink how we interact with spaces in the future”. Gurpreet Singh, Managing Director, Arrow PC Network Pvt Ltd “The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed us to modernize and harness the power of technology. Businesses are rapidly adjusting to the changing needs of their people, their customers, and suppliers. We see exacerbated use of hybrid cloud and hyper-converged platforms as people
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SUNAYANA HAZARIKA MARKETING MANAGER, ATEN
“This COVID -19 pandemic safety lockdown has hastened the
have realized the importance of cloud-based communication-enabled business processing. It has now become imperative for organizations to establish a secure borderless workspaces model to ensure business continuity. In the long term, work from home could cause huge challenges in terms of data security and effective collaboration. Utilizing online collaboration tools can help the workforce to stay connected and conduct virtual meetings without any disruption to the business. Keeping employees safe, informed, and prepared by providing proper guidance, training and open lines of communication has become the top priority of enterprises to ensure sustainability in
transition for workplace flexibility. Organizations are now forced to step out of their traditional comfort zone to build a collaborative and secure infrastructure that breaks down location barriers.” these unforeseen times.” Sunayana Hazarika, Marketing Manager, ATEN “This COVID -19 pandemic and safety lockdown has hastened the transition for workplace flexibility. Organizations are now forced to step out of their traditional comfort zone to build a col-
FUTURE OF WORKSPACES // COVER STORY
GURPREET SINGH MANAGING DIRECTOR, ARROW PC NETWORK PVT LTD
“The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed us to modernize and, SATISH KUMAR V CEO, EVERESTIMS TECHNOLOGIES
“What used to be the domain of personnel congregation in a fixed location
harness the power of technology. Businesses are rapidly adjusting to the changing needs of their people, their customers, and suppliers.”
has now transformed into a hub and spoke or even a multi-spoke ‘hive’ system with the company’s ethos and objectives focusing the core of this unique new work entity.”
laborative and secure infrastructure that breaks down location barriers. The organizations are upgrading IT systems, business processes and are participating in digital transformation to enable seamless functioning of business operations from anywhere. The majority of business processes across Sales, HR, R&D, Marketing, Customer Services, and IT are enabled by Technology tools such as productivity and collaboration applications and Mobility devices like laptops, smartphones. Changes and advancement in existing IT infrastructure is the need of the hour and we at ATEN are helping organizations in this hour with our advanced technology products for remote working solutions for secured data centers, control rooms, smart meeting rooms, or broadcasting.” Shibu Paul, Vice President, International Sales, Array Networks “COVID-19 pandemic has majorly impacted workplace dynamics and has forced leaders to reshape their businesses to align with evolving demand and find new growth pathways. Companies are relooking at new and secure ways for the majority of their employees working from home amidst lockdown. As WFH becomes the new normal, enterprises are turning towards SSL VPN to remotely access important network
SHIBU PAUL VICE PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL SALES, ARRAY NETWORKS
“COVID-19 pandemic has majorly impacted workplace dynamics and has
resources and connect remote users to web and internal applications. The business processes are being changed for enterprises to survive this crisis which would entail proactively incorporating several converging social and demographic trends into the workforce-planning activities. Employers are investing in robust business continuity infrastructure and allowing employees to continue work from home. Every organization will cost-effectively deploy resources considering the global economic slowdown, proactively making plans to get back to growth once the Covid-19 pandemic situation improves. Going forward, AI integrating into the work environment, increased
forced leaders to reshape their businesses to align with evolving demand and find new growth pathways. Companies are relooking at new and secure ways for the majority of their employees working from home amidst lockdown.”
per-person space requirement and workplace social distancing norms are few of the emerging trends that will deeply impact the enterprise workspace dynamics.”
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GUEST COLUMN // CLOUD STORAGE
BEST PRACTICES AND NEED OF CLOUD STORAGE FOR PROTECTING CORPORATE AND PERSONAL DATA Adrian Johnson shares his take on the changing nature of cloud storage practices in the face of Covid 19 Pandemic.
ADRIAN JOHNSON, Director Technology, TechnoBind
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
“Technology like the cloud is important for today’s businesses as it reduces operational cost, increases work efficiency and accuracy. Organizations should start migrating their applications to cloud to protect their users’ data during unexpected disasters such as what we have in hand right now due to COVID-19.”
The world is changing, taking its steps ahead in the world of technology. Technology has become a part of our life and it also plays a crucial role in our day to day life, which is an important element in today’s changing world and it seems like a good concept seeking to make the life of a citizen more convenient and easy. Many people have the misconception that data is only important for the government, big organizations, and businessmen. What is important for all is the data captured or generated. This data can give important numbers or metrics which can help in streamlining the business and projecting better business plans. Many companies may not offer their customers the expected level of service as they do not have centralized data for access which 24 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
shows bad customer service, sales loss, or team collaboration issues to an organization. Another important issue is the potential loss of financial benefits if the customer cannot wait for the data outage to be corrected. Since this data is of high importance it needs to be secure and accessible from anywhere, anytime. It can be stored and secured using various hardware and software technologies such as ‘Cloud computing’ which is all about storing and retrieving your personal (or corporate) data from your own little area on the Internet. “With so many advantages of cloud computing, there is still a long way for the people to go. A small number of enterprises and businesses are using cloud technology today. Technology like the cloud is important for today’s businesses as it reduces operational cost, increases work efficiency and accuracy. Organizations should start migrating their applications to cloud to protect their users’ data during unexpected disasters such as what we have in hand right now due to COVID-19. Apart from safety, the cloud offers innumerable benefits on the grounds of flexibility, safety, and reliability. It is not just a few servers strung together with Cat5 chords. Instead, it’s a system comprised of thousands of servers typically stored in a spaceship-sized warehouse-or several hundred spaceship-sized warehouses, which secure the data by way of implementing resiliency at scale unheard of at every level of the infrastructure.” said Adrian Johnson, Director Technology, TechnoBind. All files stored on secure cloud servers benefit from an enhanced level of security. One key advantage that cloud services offer is scalability. Cloud-based services are capable of rapidly scaling with
demand. The security credential most users are familiar with is the password. Cloud storage security vendors secure data using other means as well, such as Advanced Firewalls, Intrusion Detection, Event Logging, Internal Firewalls, Encryption, and physical security. At the same time information stored in Databanks is often protected by some form of security solutions, security breaches are rarely caused by poor cloud data protection. More than 40% of data security breaches occur due to employee error. Improve user security to make cloud storage more secure • Use multi-factor authentication across all devices and systems: The widespread use of multi-factor authentication can reduce the risk of someone gaining unauthorized access to a system or application and using it to unleash malware or gain a backdoor into other data. The use of multiple factors requires an attacker to acquire multiple, independent authentication elements, reducing the likelihood of compromise. • Back up data consistently: Make copies of data at regular intervals and keep them in a separate location in case of vulnerability. This can help protect your company against significant losses in the event of a breach. • Password weaknesses: One should use complex passwords and should change these passwords frequently. • Secure end-user devices: All devices that access the cloudbased resources should be subject to advanced endpoint security. • Encryption of data in transition must be end to end: All interactions with servers should happen over SSL transmission (TLS 1.2) to ensure the highest level of security. The SSL should terminate only within the cloud service provider network.
CLOUD MANAGEMENT // GUEST COLUMN
CLOUD MANAGEMENT CONSISTENCY: A KEY TO IMPROVE TECHNICAL OUTCOMES Surajit Sen shares his views on cloud management consistency.
Today, as organisations prepare to win the race to digital transformation, it has become imperative for businesses to move to the cloud, in order to remain one step ahead of the competition. Migrating to cloud offers competitive advantage, flexibility, and resiliency. However, getting the most out of your cloud journey involves a plan for managing complexity of multi-cloud environments—the complexity that comes with swift growth. The need of the hour is for organizations to unify and simplify the management of their sprawling multi-cloud environments to improve their technical outcomes.
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
Drive IT operations efficiency IT staff perform numerous tasks on their infrastructure including basic operational jobs. By providing staff with fewer tools aligned to their existing skills, organizations can reduce dollars and time tied up in training and consulting services. According to a study*, consistent cloud management will save organisations 70.5 person-hours/week. In fact, with management consistency, IT staff will be able to spend time strategizing hybrid cloud initiatives, collaborating with lines of business on digital transformation projects, or finding other ways to drive innovation and competitive differentiation for the company.
SURAJIT SEN, Chief of Staff, Modern Data Centre-APJ, Dell Technologies. “The need of the hour is for organizations to unify and simplify the management of their sprawling multi-cloud environments to improve their technical outcomes.”
Reduce Risk Exposure Toggling between different management tools contributes to risk that can lead to loss of critical data. To prevent exploits and data loss as well as reduce risk and enhance security, an organization must have greater management consistency. Respondents of the
study anticipated reduction in the number of security breaches, application outages, or other events affecting its public cloudresident data if their organization had more infrastructure management consistency. Enable Developer Efficiency By creating consistency between public cloud and private cloud infrastructure, organizations allow developers to code for a single environment. Globally, 97% of respondents believe that consistent cloud management will make it easier for developers to do their jobs. Consistency between public cloud and private cloud infrastructure gives organisations the flexibility to deploy code to either of the infrastructures based on the applications requirement and without needing to refactor an application if the desired location changes over time, hence making developers more efficient. Enable Workload Mobility Workload mobility is not about constrained migration of a static environment. It’s about complete services that can be provisioned quickly, without freezing or shutting down a workload. When dealing with migration to the cloud, transitional processes may become complex in a multicloud environment. Respondents broadly agree that increasing infrastructure and operations consistency across environments helps organizations achieve one of their most important technology priorities: workload placement flexibility. As noted, 83% of respondents globally, consider the freedom to deploy workloads wherever they want one of their top-five technology initiatives.
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 25
FEATURE STORY // RANSOMEWARE
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RANSOMEWARE // FEATURE STORY
No Abatement in Ransomware Attacks Before the victims report the incidents, the actors – be it Maze Group or Revil Group, etc. taking responsibility with impunity. BY SANJAY MOHAPATRA SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 27
FEATURE STORY // RANSOMEWARE
SANJAY MOHAPATRA
EDITOR, ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
The modus operandi seems to be to leak what you might call
a proof-of-concept sample first, as a way of convincing the victim that the data really did get exfiltrated… and then let more and more go as part of the “bargaining” process to persuade the victim into negotiating.
here has been no abatement in Ransomware Attacks. Despite best of the fortifications the fortresses are falling prey to the perpetrators. The CIOs and CISOs are left gasping and gnawing – ‘What’s Heck….?’ Now the situation is different. Before the companies come to the public about being attacked, the actors are creating a SWAGG by putting out their valour in a blogpost or in some other notification forms creating ripples in the market. It is almost like terrorist attacks and taking responsibility of the attack. It is very unclear about the whereabouts of groups; and their inception and parentage; though ethical cyber sleuths are after the actors. In recent times whatever happened to starting from Cognizant to Pitney Bowes to gsmlaw.com, the groups came out in the public forum and staked the claim on the act and ransom. First it started with Cognizant, when the company was hit by Maze, which as per the CFO of the company it could be a loss of $50 million to $70 million for the quarter. Yesterday it was ATM Giant Diebold Nixdorf. It is the largest ATM provider in the world. The company authorities admitted that the attack was on their network and their ATM machines are
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safe. However as per Diebold, the attack started on the evening of Saturday, April 25, to which the company’s security team reacted by disconnecting systems on that network to contain the spread of the malware. Which the attack was happening, the company discovered anomalous behaviour on its corporate network and suspecting a ransomware attack, the company started reacting immediately. It is a good case of cognizance and monitoring, which prevented their ATM from being attacks. Package and mail delivery company Pitney Bowes has suffered yet another jolt due to ransomware attack within seven months. Before the company admits the perpetrator group- Maze published a blog post claiming to have breached and encrypted the company’s network. They provided proof of access in the form of 11 screenshots portraying directory listings from inside the company’s computer network. To which the company also admitted having happened. Remember, in October 2019, Pitney Bowes had the first ransomware attack, when the company’s critical systems were infected and encrypted by the Ryuk ransomware gang. Today’s big ransomware story is a star-studded
affair, according to entertainment news website Variety.com. Variety says that the law firm Grubman Shire Meiselas & Sacks, or just gsmlaw.com for short, has experienced a ransomware attack that apparently involved the appropriately named REvil malware. Rather than simply knocking the law firm out of action temporarily, the ransomware crooks are said to have stolen personal data from a laundry list of celebrity clients, too – allegedly more than 750GB in total including contracts, contact information and “personal correspondence”. The gsmlaw.com website is as good as offline right now [2020-05-11T14:15Z], with just a logo on display and the main menu of the website commented out entirely (the green text below denotes HTML comments): (Insert fig 1) Variety’s headline drops the names Lady Gaga, Madonna, Bruce Springsteen as customers who were affected, but the article itself lists many more: Lady Gaga, Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Bruce Springsteen, Mary J. Blige, Ella Mai, Christina Aguilera, Mariah Carey, Cam Newton, Bette Midler, Jessica Simpson, Priyanka Chopra, Idina Menzel, HBO’s “Last Week Tonight With John
RANSOMEWARE // FEATURE STORY
Oliver,” and Run DMC. Facebook also is on the hackers’ hit list. REVil, also known as Sodin or Sodinokibi, isn’t just operating on the old-school ransomware model of “scramble your files and offer to sell you back the decryption key”. The latest trend in ransomware attacks is to use a double-barrelled weapon that gives victims two reasons to pay up. The original criminal plot behind ransomware was that if you didn’t have reliable backups that you could restore quickly, then you might have little choice but to pay up to decrypt all your scrambled files and get your business moving again. Indeed, by breaking into your network first and taking time to prepare an attack that scrambles most or all of your computers at the
same time, cybercriminals aim to cause the most significant disruption that they can. That has led to some eye-watering ransom amounts, with demands over $1,000,000 very common these days. In recent months, however, the crooks have doubled down on their leverage. Before scrambling all your files as a way of grabbing your attention, the crooks quietly upload huge troves of so-called “trophy data” that they use to blackmail anyone who is hesitant to pay up. In other words, the financial extortion is no longer just a “kidnap ransom” to get your files back, but also a blackmail demand to stop the crooks leaking your data – or, worse still, your customers’ data – to the world. The modus operandi seems to be to leak what you
might call a proof-of-concept sample first, as a way of convincing the victim that the data really did get exfiltrated… and then let more and more go as part of the “bargaining” process to persuade the victim into negotiating. Indeed, the REvil crew has already followed through on its threats to embarrass victims who don’t pay. Maze goes in for huge ransoms and threatens to expose stolen data, infamously demanding about $6,000,000 last year from cable and wire manufacturer Southwire. Southwire hit back by filing a so-called John Doe (the name used in the USA where defendants haven’t yet been identified) civil lawsuit against the as-yet- uknown unknown criminals behind Maze.
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 29
GUEST COLUMN // REMOTE WORKING
JAGANATHAN T EVP – IT & GRIC, AGSHEALTH
Success of the makeshift WFH strategy has disproved many myths
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
around WFH. Many IT & ITES companies are in the process of working out long term WFH strategy as a business differentiator.
‘Work From Home’ is the new normal. ‘Work From Home’ (WFH) has been the savior for many enterprises and helped them to stay float during LOCKDOWN. Those who were not prepared and not agile missed the bus to `Work From Home’ and lost out. This is more pronounced for IT & ITES companies (BPOs & Call Centers are known as IT Enabled Services a new categorization not known outside India). Success of the makeshift WFH strategy has disproved many myths around WFH. Many IT & ITES companies are in the process of working out long term WFH strategy as a business differentiator. TCS: New Normal
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India’s largest IT service provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is leading the pack and showing the way. TCS has made a bold statement that 75% of its global workforce will `Work From Home’ by 2025. As per their new model #25/25TCS, only 25% of its workforce will require to be in office at any point in time. This is expected to free up plenty of office space in the days to come. Working from home’ will be the ‘new normal’ for IT employees. `Work From Home’ is not new to IT employees in India. What is then the `New Normal’ TCS is talking about? What is considered as a privilege and consideration for employees who opt not to commute to office, so far, will now be pushed as a `strategic
differentiator’. ‘Old wine in a new bottle’? What About BPOs? Is it so easy to make such bold strategies? No. Lot of thinking and planning must have gone behind the strategy. Whilst it is not easy for IT companies, It is even more difficult for ITES sector (BPOs and Call Centers) because of restrictive clauses in OSP guidelines governed by DoT. IT sector is not subjected to these constraints. Biggest restraint for a BPO/Call Center from adopting the same `New Normal’ hypothesized by TCS is DoT regulation. What is this restricting covenant? This is known DoTOSPRegulation. As per DoT regulation, OSP companies (BPOs and Call Centers are called as Other Service Providers
REMOTE WORKING // GUEST COLUMN
WOULD YOU OR WOULD YOU NOT MOVE TO ‘WORK FROM HOME’? Jaganathan T shares his perspective on Work from home being the new normal. in DoT parlance) need to take prior approval from DoT before they can dream of `#25/25’. You might ask so what, Take the approval? Here is the catch. `Work From Home’ approval from DoT comes with the following riddles. Work From Home Puzzle For OSP Have to submit Bank Guarantee of Rs.1 crore per operating facility from which `Work From Home’ approval is required (I must state here that DoT has magnanimously agreed to reduce the burden from Rs.5 crores originally envisaged to Rs. 1 crore). Agent locations have to be connected using a `Providers Provisioned Secure VPN’ (called as PPVPN as per DoT terminology). Work From Home agents cannot be connected on Internet VPN connections. Connecting through PPVPN adds up to the cost and challenges of PPVPN service feasibility at all home locations. DoT originally had a provision that Agent positions (Homes) must be in same SSA (Secondary Switching Area generally limited to a telecom district as per DoT parlance) or adjoining SSA. This has luckily been removed in 2011. Hence the understanding is that the agent positions can be outside the city of presence as well. Agent home addresses with the name and connectivity details need to be submitted to DoT as part of the approval process. This would mean that DoT must be approached for every induction as well as resignation. I would imagine the number of letters and files to be maintained by DoT authorities if all the BPOs / Call Centers
decide to adopt 25/25 model taking the cue from TCS. DoT might have to book additional office spaces getting vacated by IT companies to keep the loads of files and letters seeking and giving approvals for adding / removing `Work From Home’ agent locations. All logs of all the activities carried out by Home Agent positions should be maintained for a period of 1 year. This is overarching. What would the term `all the activities include? Would every form, every chart need to be logged and retained for one year? Is OSP License Rationale? The rationale behind DoT applying so many restrictive conditions for BPOs / Call Centers is apparently the possibility of losing out on precious telecom revenue, by routing the telecom calls through Internet which could result in Telecom Service Companies losing revenue. India has still not enabled telecom calls to be routed through Internet. Fair enough. But why is this applied for all the OSPs. Possibility of revenue loss is there only when telephone calls are to be switched to the home locations. What is the fun in making nonvoice ITES companies also to suffer from this restriction? They don’t deal with telephone calls at all but clubbed together as a OSP. Unfortunately, a non-voice BPO company is similar to a IT company in business process but cannot do `Work From Home’ without taking specific approval from DoT following WFH restrictions applicable for the OSPs.
How is a BPO different from an IT company other having committed the crime of choosing an associated business line and hence had to add a tag `Enabled’ in the vertical. Why would a `legal outsourcing’ company be deprived of 25/25 vision? `Remote Infra Management Services’ company is also dreaming of 25/25 but OSP regulation does not make it easy. 20 Year Old Legacy “Our current operating model is a 20-year-old legacy. In some ways, this crisis actually leapfrogs us into a new model” commented CEO of TCS Mr. Rajesh Gopinathan. Actually, OSP licensing terms are more than 20 years old legacy (Framed late 1990s). We badly need to reform our ITES sector to `New Normals’ abolishing 20+ years old legacy called OSP. BPOs also want to leapfrog into the new model if given an opportunity. Is DOT listening? Can we expect honorable minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to correct the anomalies in DoT restrictions? Industry is waiting for the day OSP restrictions could be completely removed. If DoT is still not ready to throw out 20+ years legacy, can the `Work From Home’ restrictive clauses be removed for non-voice BPO processes the least leaving the restrictions apply only to voice processes? Can we hope `new normal’ will be enabled for BPOs partially at least, I am confident our progressive government will listen to saner voices and pave way for `New Normal’ for IT as well as ITES sectors.
JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD
31
INTERVIEW // DATA CENTRE
BY SANJAY@ACCENTINFOMEDIA.COM
What is the current size of your DC in India? Where are they located? What is the capacity of your DC? With over 33% revenue market share, STT GDC India manages the largest Pan-India data centre floor area and IT load delivering more than 100 MW of IT load via our 15 carrier neutral facilities. As part of our growth plan in the next two years we will offer more than 200MW IT load.We have 15 carrier neutral facilities spread across eight major cities namely Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Ahmedabad. With carrier-dense interconnections across eight key cities. STT GDC India is renowned for its adherence to best standards, rated power rack options, and global standards on security and compliance. We have always been strategic in our expansion by looking ahead to cities with the potential to deliver the greatest value. Doing so has helped us establish our unparalleled regional footprint and enabled us to deliver comprehensive solutions when and where our customers need them. Which sectors or verticals do you see inclining more towards co-location DC? The mass rollout of digital inclusion in India requires vast amounts of compute, data storage, networks and applications that will drive these services, making data one of the most valuable resources. By 2021 it is estimated that there will 600 million internet users in India, the second highest largest base in the world. The cultural shift towards a digitally connected India is creating a digital consumption boom, driving massive growth in the way data is generated, stored, managed and consumed while being disseminated to users universally via public and private clouds. The data centre business has witnessed high growth because of these factors,which will continue prevailing in the future too. The spotlight is now firmly on efficient, reliable and scalable data centres in India. For enterprise customers, content developers, cloud and OTT service providers, data centre colocation is the most common and, perhaps, the most efficient way of utilising data centre services. The adoption of AI and IoT along with the planned rollout of 5G, and increased machine-to-machine connections, will be the way for advanced connectivity. Soon, there will be millions of connected devices, requiring high-density computing and storage resources closer to both users and the devices. Rapid urbanization is one of the major forces shaping our global economic future.By FY24, it is estimated that India’s data centre and cloud outsourcing market will be valued at $5.1 billion. 32 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
J AT I N D E R
S I N G H
PA B L A
VP Sales& Marketing – STT GDC India
The mass rollout of digital inclusion in India requires vast amounts of compute, data storage, networks and applications that will drive these services, making data one of the most valuable resources.
What are the reasons for the burgeoning DC market in India? The demand is primarily driven by (1) Hyperscalers driven by cloud growth, (2) BFSI and Telco driven by regulatory framework, (3) new generation companies including e-commerce and IT/ITeS driven by digital transformation, (4) Network & content oriented companies including Carriers, OTT, CDN driven by network boom and , (5) other industries looking for outsourcing their IT infra. Is the demand for DC in India, spread evenly throughout the industries? Or are there only large scale
takers comprising a large chunk of the DC demand? The demand is from every sector and every category of customers. The demand is primarily driven by five industries/cluster. (1) Hyperscalers driven by cloud growth, (2) BFSI and Telco driven by regulatory framework, (3) new generation companies including e-commerce and IT/ITeS driven by digital transformation, (4) Network & content oriented companies including Carriers, OTT, CDN driven by network boom and , (5) other industries looking for outsourcing their IT infra. The colo demand is primarily from mid to large enteprises.
DATA CENTRE // INTERVIEW
THE COLO DEMAND IS PRIMARILY FROM MID TO LARGE ENTERPRISES: JATINDER SINGH PABLA From an interaction with Jatinder Singh Pabla, VP Sales& Marketing – STT GDC India. What challenges are you facing in running your DC? The primary challenges include infrastructure availability, lack of adequate policies and support from regulatory bodies and sourcing reliable, scalable power from utility service providers. Adding on, there is a demand-supply mismatch of highlyskilled professionals in specialized areas like cooling, power, security, network, civil, cabling, etc. Such expertise is garnered over a period of time and isn’t easy to replicate, being concentrated primarily in metro cities. However, the power infrastructure shortfall limits expansions in metro cities where realty is scarce and expensive thus inflating the CAPEX costs. Simountaniously, Tier 2 cities lack the well-developed civic infrastructure or an IT ecosystem to merit investments or support multi-megawatt structures. What are your expansion plans? We have a well-defined expansion plan to address customers’ current and future demands while maintaining our leadership position in the industry. Currently we are at 130 MW of IT capacity. We plan to double the capacity in 3 years. We also plan to expand 4-plus million sq. ft. of gross floor area within the next two-three years.
At the same time, we plan to continue investing in human resource productivity aptly in automation and AI, supporting our growth plans and daily operations. What are the compliance and regulatory challenges that you are facing? The industry is at a super growth phase and government is giving all the support it needs to grow. We believe that the industry can grow further if we make it easy for DC players to acquire land, green power, clearnances required to build and operate DCs. The regulatory framework can be designed to make the build and operations easier for the players which in turn will help the entire ecosystem. In addition a quick clarity around the data protection regime will help customers and providers plan their growth and help them comply to the regulations in a better way. What are you doing to minimize your carbon footprint? • In India, generally, an enterprise enters into long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for 10-25 years with Renewable Energy (RE) project developers for sourcing renewable energy.
STT GDC India was one of the first data centre operators in India that began procuring RE via the long-term Open Access route and has rapidly increased its green power portfolio year-on-year. • In addition to this, STT GDC India is also procuring power from Solar Plants implemented by Project Developers on site (both rooftop & land mounted) in some of their large campuses, offering clean & reliable power without any surges, sags or grid interference • During FY 18-19, STT GDC India reduced its carbon footprint by 1,05,000 tonnes through its green and clean energy practices and met 32% of its power requirement from resources. STT GDC India is the first data centre operator in the country to undertake the large-scale deployment of Li-Ion batteries for UPS System in one of its operating data centres. Li-Ion batteries can pack more energy into a smaller space, thus saves footprint. It hasa significantly longer life, so it does not need to be replaced as often. And, most can tolerate higher operating temperatures while also requiring slightly less maintenance • Via their well-designed air flow management systems (cold and hot aisle system), they have minimized hot and cold air mixing leading to lesser energy consumption. Standardized processes like eco-operation of UPS, enhanced chiller operation, installing LED lighting fixtures in all their data centres and offices leads to better energy efficiency and a significant reduction in their carbon footprint • India is a water stressed nation. However, while India suffers from water scarcity in most parts of the year, there is excess water during monsoon. STT GDC India has implemented rainwater harvesting in many of their facilities to save this excess water, rather than letting it run off. Further, by treating and re-using blow down water from chillers, they save over 336 Kilo Litres of water annually. They have also done pilot projects by using hybrid cooling technologies as well as peripheral techniques like adiabatic cooling to reduce water consumed by chiller plants • The company is in the process of deploying a new “air to water” generation plant that produces up to 1000 litres of water per day from moisture in the air on a beta basis. These are on-going efforts expected to save even higher amount of water • Green and sustainability is a corporate direction for STT GDC India. Even for their internal meetings and communications needs, they encourage the use of video conferencing and telepresence, and avoid air travel as much as possible, thereby reducing their carbon footprint. By increasing efficiency and driving the adoption of renewables, STT GDC India believes they are making a huge difference and demonstrating how green business is good business. JUNE 2020 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD 33
EDITOR’S TAKE
LAYOFF, FIRING AND FURLOUGH GALORE AMID COVID-19 B Y S A N JAY M O H A PAT R A S A N JAY @ AC C E N T I N FO M E D I A . C O M
Covid 19 has not only created physical and psychological scars in the whole wold directly infecting 5.5+ million and killing 348,223 human beings but also created a lot of financial damage too. US along has reported a staggering 38.6 million job loss. As per BBC India jobless numbers has crossed 120 million in April. Out of which 91.3 millions were small traders and labourers. But a significant number of salaried workers - 17.8 million - and self-employed people - 18.2 million - have also lost job. Amid eroding sales due to the COVID-19 pandemic, business technology giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise plans a major overhaul, including layoffs, that it says will save $1 billion by 2022. As per the UN agency – International Labour Organization, globally, there are some 3.3 billion workers. Out of which 2 billion have jobs in the informal economy and 1.6 billion of them have suffered to earn a living due to COVID-19 pandemic. In a report the agency expressed, more than 430 million enterprises in hard-hit sectors such as retail and manufacturing risk “serious disruption”. Large companies across the global who employee massive number of employees have already either announced layoff, firing and furlough or ponder34 ENTERPRISE IT WORLD JUNE 2020
ing over it to do so soon. As per the report, HPE’s revenue in the latest financial quarter fell 15% year over year to $6 billion. The company expects to save at least $1 billion by the end of its fiscal year. As per Antonio Neri, President and CEO, there is a massing pay reductions for all employees starting July 1 and running through Oct. 31. The global CEO and other executive team members along with the board members will see their base sales cut 25%, while other executives will have their pay reduced by 20%. Pay cuts for other employees will vary depending on their positions. The company is also believed to have other plans including layoffs and other cost-cutting initiatives to save $1 billion. At the same time, IBM has confirmed firing several thousand employees in United State. If the news to be believed, a few hundred jobs in India are also under scanner to be laid off. Uber announced it is cutting 3,700 jobs (14% of its workforce), CEO Dara Khosrowshahi announced on May 18 that he will cut 3,000 additional jobs and close 45 offices. Airbnb announced it is laying off about 25% of its workforce, or 1,900 employees, on May 5. Its severance package includes several months’ pay, a year of healthcare, and support finding a new job.
Boeing already announced that it would cut about 10% of its workforce — or about 16,000 jobs. The cuts are expected to be through a combination of buyouts, voluntary layoffs, and involuntary layoffs. Earlier in April, Hertz, the car rental company, which has India operations, too had expressed its intent to lay off 10,000 employees. As per the report, India’s food delivery company, Swiggy is cutting about 1,000 jobs, most from its cloud kitchen division. Online travel company, TripAdvisor announced that the company would be reducing its workforce due to COVID-19 pandemic, which has paralysed the travel industry. India Condition Although everything in India is limping back to normal but the restriction on social distancing would keep the employers under stress. Locked down for last two months, many sectors are opening now but the consumers are not seen to be so enthusiastic except for the travel industry where people stuck up in various cities would like to travel back to their destinations. At the same time, no sector is opened with 100 per cent capacity. So, the spiralling effect is inevitable as the situation of lockdown is far from being over with growth in Corona positive cases.
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