PLUS
Dell India Emerges Leader in the x86 Server Markets-Q3 /08 www.smechannels.com
india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 05 | ISSUE 11 | PAGES 48 | JANUARY 2015 | RS. 20/-
SME BIZ /40
SME CHAT /30
SME BIZ /44
Oracle: Oracle Charts Aggressive Growth Strategy
Dell: “UTM market will see a boom in the upcoming year”
Sophos : to Raise Focus on Indian MidMarket
INDIAN SMEs
POSITIVE ABOUT VIRTUALISATION This can bring growth to their business and ultimately growth to the economy of the country. /26
1
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Dell Reveals Best Portfolio of Consumer Devices /18 www.smechannels.com
india’s first IT magazine for sme business VOLUME 05 | ISSUE 11 | PAGES 48 | JANUARY 2015 | RS. 20/-
SME CHAT /39
SME CHAT /42
VIGILANT TECHNOLOGIES: “The next five years is very strategic in telecom”
WD “Storage is becoming bigger yet smaller”
MANUFACTURING /34 KR Naik: “A Man With Astute Attitude”
MY EXPERIENCE
EDITORIAL
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015! SANJAY MOHAPATRA editor@smechannels.com
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2015 to all our readers and well-wishers. 2015 is going to be very exciting year for all of us leaving in India reason being a huge thrust of government on the technology side. The Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman while addressing the ET Global Business Summit 2015, said “During the Great Depression, fast-growing US suffered far more than more stodgy Britain. Something like that played out after the financial crisis of 2008. China has shown the ability to grow faster than most nations, but when it comes to global turbulence, India has shown more resilience than China has been able to. China has too little consumption and too much investment. India has no such problem. “China scares me,” he said. India, on the other hand, shows promise. As per him India has had a problem with inflation, inability to press ahead fast enough on infrastructure or on reforms. But India has shown greater resilience than China. The fact that there is such a big deficit of infrastructure here is actually promising, there is so much to build, so much to drive growth. This is exactly where our present government is promising to work on. I do not know how the government will work on curbing inflation but I am sure their thrust on infrastructure building and creating 100 smart cities is going to be a reality. Prime Minister Modi has already expressed his vision of creating $2 trillion economy to a $20 trillion one. How would it happen? Each ministry has their role in contributing to it. There are very many projects in the country to be completed. Prime minister’s dream project of creating 100 smart cities is one of the examples which will involve a number of players including the vendors, distributors and partners. The government has already directed the ministry to show the progress and exhaust money allocated for it by March 2015 to receive the next quota. Similarly, project like digital India, which is of Rs.1.13 lakh crore and aims to offer government services to all Indians online and through smartphones by 2019 is one of the thrust areas for this year. Similarly, connecting 250,000 gram panchayats within three years through the National Fibre Optic Network will invite Rs 20,000-crore budget, which the government has already allocated. These three projects would have great impact on the Indian IT market and particular the year 2015 will see the market soaring suddenly. Prime Minister’s Make -in- India project will also see a lot of momentum in 2015. So from the execution and activity perspective, this year is going to be a great year. And I will say this year will really define the progress of India for next 10 years.
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SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
Lenovo ThinkPad Helix 2 THINKPAD HELIX 2 is a convertible Ultrabook that can be used as a laptop as well as a tablet. The ThinkCentre Tiny-in-One 23 is an outstanding business AIO with a brilliant 23-inch FHD display, which offers a compact solution for a clutter-free workspace. These products were recently unveiled at the 2014 IFA Consumer Electronics Unlimited Show in Berlin. To meet the needs of business customers wanting a tablet for when they’re on-the-go, and a laptop for an added dose of productivity when at the desk, Lenovo gives them the best of both worlds with the ThinkPad Helix, now even thinner and lighter and more fully-featured.
SPECIFICATIONS It weighs 2.98 pounds and 15 percent thinner than its predecessor. FINAL WORDING With Windows 8.1 Pro and a suite of add-on security, it is priced at INR 78,000 onwards. OVERALL RATING
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2015
JAN VOLUME 05 ISSUE 11
ER COV RY STO
india’s first IT magazine for sme business
Publisher: Sanjib Mohapatra Editor: Sanjay Mohapatra Associate Editor: Karma Negi Executive Editor: Smruti Chaudhury Copy Editor: Neil D’Souza Designer: Ajay Arya Web Designer: Vijay Bakshi Technical Writer: Manas Ranjan Satya Sagar Sinha Lead Visualizer: DPR Choudhary MARKETING Marketing Manager: Shivani Swaroop Marketing Executive: Rajat Kumar Circulation and Printing: Panchanan Bhoi SALES CONTACTS Delhi 6/102, Kaushalya Park, Hauz Khas New Delhi-110016 Phone: 91-11-41055458 E-mail: Shivani@smechannels.com Bangalore #28/1, 3rd Floor, Sri Lakshmi Krupa, Near Shamanna Park, Model House Street, Basavanagudi, Bangalore - 560004 Ph. No. +91 88618 21044 Mumbai Tahmeed Ansari 2, Ground Floor, Park Paradise, Kay-Bees CHS. Ltd.,Opp. Green Park, Oshiwara, Andheri (west), Mumbai - 400 053. Ph. +91 22 26338546, Fax +91 22 26395581 Mobile: +91 9967 232424 E-mail: Info@smechannels.com Kolkata S Subhendu BC-286, Laxmi Apartment, Kestopur Kolkata-700101 Phone: 9674804389 EDITORIAL OFFICE Delhi: 6/103, (GF) Kaushalya Park, New
Indian SMEs Positive about Virtualisation /26
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SME CHAT Dell SonicWALL /30
“UTM market will see a boom in the upcoming year”
SME TRENDS Oracle /40
Oracle Charts Aggressive Growth Strategy
WD /42
“Storage is becoming bigger yet smaller”
SME BIZ
Sophos /44
Sophos to Raise Focus on Indian Mid-Market
6
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Dell India Emerges Leader in the x86 Server Markets-Q3 Dell India was the No.1 x86 server vendor in India in revenue terms in Q3 2014 based on IDC’s Asia/ Pacific Quarterly x86 Server Strategist Tracker, Q3 2014 (July
– Sept 2014) December release. Dell cornered 38% revenue share of the India x86 server market in Q3 2014 which was more than 6 points higher than the #2 ranked vendor in
the market. With the advent of the forces of Big Data, Social, Mobility, Cloud and Software Defined Everything, enterprise computing needs are
changing and driving IT decision makers to evaluate fresh approaches to the datacenter. Dell’s server strategy has been centred on developing products and solutions that prepare customers for the demands placed by the upcoming IT trends. Dell’s future-ready product line of servers along with the new go to market strategy, enterprise stock-n-sell, enterprise solutions group expansion and channel focus have contributed to this important milestone. Dell’s x86 server revenues have grown Q/Q consistently in India for 4 consecutive quarters since Q4 2013. Manish Gupta, Director, Enterprise Solution Group, Dell India said: “Dell is in all aspects displaying its position as the world’s fastest-growing large integrated IT Company. We have successfully managed to elevate the market conversation from product led to solutions led. We are extremely happy with the response from the server market. Customers are seeing value in our ability to provide endto-end solutions and the results are a testament to this.”
Tally’s Bharat Goenka Awarded CSI Honorary Fellowship Co-founder & managing director of Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd Bharat Goenka has been recognized for the ‘CSI Honorary Fellowship Award – 2014’ by the Computer Society of India (CSI), one of the largest professionally managed associations of IT professionals in India.
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SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
Mr. Goenka was felicitated with the award at a ceremony, as part of CSI’s 49th Annual Convention & International Conference 2014, which was held from 12th - 14th Dec, 2014 in Hyderabad. Hon’ble Telangana State IT Minister, K.T. Rama Rao gave away the award to Shri Bharat Goenka,
Co-founder & Managing Director, Tally Solutions Pvt. Ltd., Prof. S V Raghavan, Chairman, Awards Committee, and Scientific Advisor to the Govt. of India read out the citation and Mr. Goenka’s contribution to the Indian IT industry. Mr. Goenka has contributed significantly, over the years, towards
creating a definitive identity for software product companies in India announced the press release. Under his direction, Tally Solutions has grown to be a market leader in business management software in India and has begun making significant inroads in global markets as well.
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F-Secure Names RAH Infotech as ND F-Secure has appointed RAH Infotech as national distributor to drive SMB market to represent their entire range of products for SMB segment. Amit Nath, Country Manager (India & SAARC), F-Secure, said, “At F-Secure, we have been significantly focusing on expanding our partner base across the country to uplift reach to the SMB and Mid-Enterprise segment. We are elated to have RAH Infotech on board and look forward to leverage their strong channel base & VAD capabilities.”
Ashok Kumar, MD & CEO, RAH Infotech Pvt. Ltd, said, “As one of the leading players in availing world class IT solutions in India and SAARC countries; we are delighted to associate with F-Secure. F-Secure is known for delivering best in class solutions which will further enable and empower our existing and prospective users. This association further strengthens our bouquet of offerings and gives us an opportunity to deliver the best security solutions for complete protection of what’s irreplaceable.”
Ricoh Brings New Ultra Short Throw projectors
Lenovo has launched the ThinkPad 8 Tablet for professionals in India. The Windows 8 tablet from the ThinkPad stable delivers a full PC experience with USB3.0 Dock announced the press release. The Tablet is equipped with a full-HD screen, Quick Photo Capture combined with 4x Faster Graphics, and priced at INR 39,999, is now available for pre-order exclusively on Lenovo’s online brand store- TheDoStore. Commenting on the debut of ThinkPad 8 Tablet in India, Rohit Midha, Director Tablet Business Unit, Lenovo India, said “The introduction of ThinkPad Tablet 8 makes our tablet range more diverse to cater to the business user for the first time. We are excited to extend the ThinkPad legacy to our tablets range.” This 8.3” tablet engineered for business users offers multimode features like full HD Display with 25% larger viewing area, a full Windows 8 ecosystem, 2MP front-facing webcam.
Ricoh India Ltd. has unveiled its new series of Interactive Ultra Short Throw Projector. With this new launch Ricoh expand its business portfolio to Visual Communication Devices which includes Projectors, Interactive White Boards and Portable VC Solutions. Ricoh’s Ultra Short Throw projectors are a new advancement in the projection category which allows a bright and colorful big screen without managing the cables announced the press release. In order to expand the projector sales, Ricoh India Limited, appointed Ceeco Technologies as their Projector Partner. Ceeco Technologies, started in 1986, is a prominent player in the AV & IT System Integration Industry, setting new benchmark in designing AV Solutions for Auditoriums, Conference, Seminar, Board Rooms, and in the field of Digital signage. Ceeco has also established self in the field of eLearning offering solutions pertaining to ICT.
neoteric holds Campus Buddies Season II in Mumbai
Trend Micro Signs OEM Agreement with HP
Lenovo India Debuts Thinkpad 8
neoteric conducted Campus Buddies Season II in Mumbai, in association with Intel, at K. J. Somaiya Institute of Management Studies & Research on 11th & 12th December, 2014. This initiative aims at offering cutting-edge technological products and services to students at best prices, right within the comfort of their own college campus. The neoteric team shortlisted few students and gave them an opportunity to conduct this activity all by themselves in their college-campus. This was a part of their live-project; they were accordingly trained by the neoteric Team and provided with the necessary resources to ensure effective execution. neoteric’s Sales Champ explained the product specifications to them and coached them on how to conduct the product demonstrations. The event showcased an array of products like Intel i5 & i7 processors-enabled notebooks & AIOs. The Team addressed the on-the-spot queries of the students who visited the event-kiosks. The live-product demonstrations provided them with a’ look-and-feel’ of the products.
MY POINT
“We also see tremendous business growth in our industry taking place in Tier 2/3 cities where the work styles of the customer are rapidly changing.” MANOJ KUMAR, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT & CEO, RICOH INDIA LTD.
10 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
Trend Micro has signed a strategic OEM agreement with HP to help enterprises combat advanced targeted threats and custom malware. The HP TippingPoint Advanced Threat Appliance (ATA) family of products leverages the power of Trend Micro Deep Discovery to provide customers with a single, integrated solution for detection and enforcement. The solution identifies malware through static, dynamic and behavioral techniques to block and neutralize threats before critical business data is compromised. “We are very pleased to have been selected by HP after its comprehensive and rigorous review of market-leading breach detection systems,” said Partha Panda, vice president of global channels and alliances, Trend Micro. “This agreement further validates the quality and effectiveness of our solution. It is a natural extension to our long-standing partnership with HP, and will help further accelerate the adoption of Trend Micro’s capabilities to combat next generation threats. Now, HP customers can detect, block and investigate targeted attacks with a comprehensive, integrated solution.”
SNIPPETS
Matrix VoIP Gateways gets Certified Matrix said its SETU range of VoIP Gateways have been tested successfully and certified for interoperability with BroadSoft services. BroadSoft interoperability of Matrix SETU VoIP Gateways offers service providers and enterprises to use IP-PBXs and Legacy Analog/Digital PBX systems with BroadWorks unified communications, Hosted PBX and SIP trunking services. Matrix SETU VoIP Gateways are field-proven, cost-effective and built on cutting-edge IP-TDM technology announced the press release. These Gateways offer POTS, T1/E1 PRI, ISDN BRI and GSM/3G connectivity for always-on availability and survivability during failure of IP networks and BroadSoft services. Rich feature set and speech processing of SETU VoIP Gateways deliver superior calling experience and maintains existing dialling habits of users such as dial plan, toll control, fax, message wait, call detail records etc.
EMERSON NETWORK BRINGS SCHEME Emerson Network Power has launched the ‘Avocent ACS Advantage Ascent’ scheme for its channel partners in India. This scheme is valid on sales of Emerson’s Avocent ACS console server series from October 1, 2014 to March 31, 2015. Through this scheme, Emerson’s Value Added Resellers (VARs) and Network Solution Partners (NSPs) can earn PAYBACK points worth up to INR.3, 25,000 on the sale of Avocent ACS Serial devices. Emerson Network Power’s partnership with PAYBACK provides partners with a wide range of gifts that may be exchanged for reward points for each sale under this scheme, including a bonus gift of an iPhone 6 (64 GB). The console servers enable CIO’s to effortlessly manage their IT assets such as servers (Unix/Linux/Solaris), routers, switches, public branch exchange (PXB), telecommunication equipment (DSU/CSU) and serial power devices. To redeem their points, partners need to login to www.PAYBACK.in with the PAYBACK number provided to them by Emerson after registering themselves at www.EmersonNetworkPower.co.in/Channels. The winner for the iPhone will be chosen by a lucky draw from amongst partners who have ordered more than twenty units of Avocent ACS Serial devices. Ankesh Kumar, Director - Marketing, Emerson Network Power in India said, “Our Avocent ACS Serial devices work in tandem with devices from other leading IT vendors including Cisco offering secure remote access and control to IT devices. With PAYBACK, our partners can now earn that extra incentive to identify and address needs of customers for Avocent ACS serial appliances in slabs between five to fifty units.”
Intel Unveils New Developer Tools, Future Technologies Intel Corporation CEO Brian Krzanich kicked off Intel’s annual technical conference with a broad set of computing initiatives and projects showing how the company is moving quickly to enable new market segments where everything is smart and connected. Krzanich and other executives announced new hardware and software developer tools, previewed upcoming Intel technologies and announced new products across several technology segments. “With our diverse product portfolio and developer tools that span key growth segments, operating systems and form factors, Intel offers hardware and software developers new ways to grow as well as design flexibility,” said Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO. “If it’s smart and connected, it is best with Intel.” During the keynote, Krzanich was joined on the keynote stage by several Intel executives, Michael Dell, chairman and CEO of Dell, and Greg McKelvey, executive vice president and chief strategy and marketing officer of the Fossil Group.
CII Announces National Mission on Digital India In sync with the Digital India Initiative of the Government, CII has launched the National Mission on Digital India at New Delhi. Addressing the First Steering Committee Meeting on Digital India, Aruna Sundararajan, Administrator, USOF and CMD, BBNL said that an apex industry body like CII should look at focused, time-bound and transformational initiatives that can become a game changer for the country. A N Rai, CMD, BSNL in his remarks said that it is critical for the industry to come up with viable and scalable business models for the success of Digital India. Kiran Karnik, Chairman of the CII National Mission on Digital India, in his opening remarks said that the Digital India initiative is opportune and presents exciting opportunities to the industry. The objective of the Mission is to bring in thought leadership to prioritize, plan and put in place demonstrable strategies and models to roll out the digital implementation plan.
12 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
RAH Infotech Inaugurates New Branch Office in Jaipur RAH Infotech Pvt Ltd has inaugurated its new office in Jaipur, India. The newly established Jaipur office will be offering the same services as Gurgaon based head office. Strategically located at the bustling area of Tonk Road the office will concentrate on channel expansion announced the press release. It further added that with the rapid growth of markets all over the country over the last several years, the creation of a permanent office in Jaipur was the right thing to do to support our partners in the north-western region. The new office will be better equipped to handle the needs of our Rajasthan based customers and partners. Ashok Kumar, MD and CEO, RAH Infotech Pvt Ltd., said, “The new office represents our commitment to growing our business and competing in the technology landscape introducing niche technology to the market in a bigger way and delivering the best of our products and services through channel expansion and training of our partners enabling them to provide an elevated customer experience.” “The new office will be managed by Arun Purie. Purie is a strong pre-sales resource with wide experience in channel development and recognizes the market thoroughly,” he added.
SNIPPETS
ISODA Tech Summit Season 5 at Colombo Infotech Software Dealers Association (ISODA) has announced ISODA Tech Summit Season 5 which will be held in the beautiful city of Colombo in Sri Lanka during 5th - 7th February 2015. ISODA Tech summit is a flagship technology event from ISODA and is a platform where Vendors and ISODA members panIndia renew their relationships and forge new alliances and create an invaluable network of information sharing in the industry. An entertaining and interactive space to meet new people, learn new technologies and lay foundation for new business relationships and everlasting friendship. The organization will also take pleasure and honour the prospective sponsor organizations to be part of this great event and get associated with a minimum of 100 plus captive ISODA members during this great, better and bigger Tech Summit season 5. The theme for this year is TRANSFORM AND EVOLVE. Transformation is a change that needs to happen, and evolution is an eternal continuum of change and development.
KASPERSKY LAB LAUNCHES ONLINE RADAR Kaspersky Lab is launching an online service that brings together all the information it holds on the most sophisticated cyber campaigns. The interactive Targeted cyberattacks logbook project displays the research and analysis of the company’s renowned Global Research and Analysis Team. Currently, the team’s portfolio contains several years’ worth of research into 29 major targeted attacks, including high-profile campaigns such as Regin, Darkhotel, Cloud Atlas, and more. Through the new service users can explore links between threats as well as their trends and impact, or investigate the behavior of specific threats. The service makes it possible to view links between different cyber campaigns and retrieve detailed information on each of them, including the geography of infections, the ways in which malware was spread, the cybercriminals’ targets and the special features of each attack. A convenient filter helps to sort the attacks by categories, making it possible to home in on those that, for example, only targeted information from private companies, in a specific country, and using certain techniques. “Four years ago we could regard targeted cyber campaigns as one-offs, but now we are investigating more and more of these incidents every year. They are no longer unique events; they have found a special niche in the world of cyberthreat and demand special attention. That’s why we are launching this new online service. We want to demonstrate the scale of sophisticated cyber campaigns and provide a means of evaluating their growth and reach. In 2014 alone, we recorded more than 4,400 victims of targeted attacks on the corporate sector,” said Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab.
EXECUTIVE MOVEMENT
GARTNER FORECASTS SLOWDOWN IN IT SPENDING WORLDWIDE IT SPENDING IS ON PACE TO TOTAL $3.8 TRILLION IN 2015, A 2.4 PERCENT INCREASE FROM 2014; HOWEVER, THIS GROWTH RATE IS DOWN FROM EARLIER PROJECTIONS OF 3.9 PERCENT, ACCORDING TO THE LATEST FORECAST BY GARTNER WORLDWIDE IT SPENDING FORECAST (BILLIONS OF U.S. DOLLARS) DEVICE TYPE
2014 SPENDING
2014 GROWTH (%)
2015 SPENDING
2015 GROWTH (%)
696
3.8
732
5.1
Data Center Systems
141
0.8
143
1.8
Enterprise Software
317
5.8
335
5.5
956
2.7
981
2.5
Telecom Services
1,626
-0.1
1,638
0.7
Overall IT
3,737
1.9
3,828
2.4
Devices
IT Services
Source: Gartner (January 2015)
14 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
Perpetuuiti Technosoft (PTE) has appointed Ashis Guha as Senior Vice President, Sales for Asia Pacific and Middle East regions. Ashis has joined Perpetuuiti from Sanovi Technologies, where he was the President of Sales. Manoj Kumar, Executive Vice President & CEO, Ricoh India Ltd., has been appointed as the Chairman of CII Office Automation & Imaging Industry Division. He takes over from Dr.AlokBharadwaj Executive Vice President, Canon India. Rajat Jain, Managing Director, Xerox India, becomes a non-executive Member of Xerox India Board of Directors. A new leader for Xerox India will announced in due course. Rodney Noonoo, CFO Xerox India, will lead the organisation in the interim.
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SNIPPETS
ZyXEL Launches its CSR Initiative in India ZyXEL has laid down the foundation stone of the grand ‘Veer Birsa Bhawan’ in the Binnaguri district of West Bengal, marking a robust launch of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) in India. The great building is dedicated to the tribals of the land. ZyXEL has planned to build up the Veer Birsa Bhawan in Telepara – Hatkola area which is the tribal heartland in northern West Bengal (Himalayan foothills). This grand Bhawan or the community centre will constitute a temple, a strong library – with vast section on tribal history and culture, an extensive office complex, one information center – kiosk to eradicate knowledge and information poverty announced the press release. The most remarkable feature will be the grand Community Hall. Along with this, the structure will also feature guest rooms on the ground floor, guest cottages and a lecture room. The foundation stone laying ceremony was attended by thousands of local tribals, political leaders, NGOs and social workers.
Tablet Sales to Remain Slow in 2015
ADCTA’S PHILANTHROPIC MOVE All Delhi Computer Traders Association (ADCTA), SARD and Save the Children is implementing an important programme to bring change in the lives of street children who were engaged in rag picking or living on street. The Programme is able to mainstream more than 150 children from neighbouring slums and orphans, including open shelters. Though Nehru Place is the largest IT market in India, it is also home to many homeless, neglected, orphan, substance and physically abused children who have migrated from various part of the country. In order to strengthen the protective mechanism and provide these marginalized and deprived children with a life of dignity and self-worth we have been engaged in guaranteeing their right to survival, right to protection, right to development and right to participation through various campaigns and activities. As per the organisers, they are committed to work with dedication on child rights and child protection, SARD has collaborated with Save the Children already on-going Aviva’s Street to School Campaign in the Nehru Place area of Delhi region with the aim to provide an overall development opportunity to street children and ensuring an enabling social and policy environment in India. The organisers have collaborated with South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) who has provided space for setting up child resource centres in two of its school that include Modi Mill and Kalkaji B Block.
After a troubled year in 2014, the global tablet market is not returning to the levels of growth seen in the last four years as demand for tablets will continue to be slow in 2015. Gartner, Inc. estimates that worldwide tablet sales will reach 233 million units in 2015, an 8 percent increase from 2014. “The collapse of the tablet market in 2014 was alarming,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner. “In the last two years global sales of tablets were growing in double-digits. The steep drop can be explained by several factors. One is that the lifetime of tablets is being extended - they are shared out amongst family members and software upgrades, especially for iOS devices, keep the tablets current. Another factor includes the lack of innovation in hardware which refrain consumers from upgrading.”
NETGEAR ProSAFE Premium Wireless Controller
Transcend Partners with Apple Premium Reseller, RSG
NETGEAR has extended its line of ProSAFE business-class wireless products. The NETGEAR ProSAFE WC7600 Premium Wireless Controller products designed specifically to offer easy-to-deploy access for mid-sized hospitality facilities, healthcare and educational institutes etc. The WC7600 is a scalable, secure mobile access solution that can support a small organization with dozens of users, with up to several thousand concurrent clients across 150 access points in a stacked arrangement. Further, NETGEAR ProSAFE WC7600 Premium Wireless Controller are available with the authorized distributors of NETGEAR in India at an MRP of Rs 1, 95,000/- and with Lifetime warranty.
Transcend said its Upgrade kit for Mac is now available with Apple premium reseller. Now, customers can buy Transcend Jetdrive Lite expansion cards for Mac in RSG Imagine stores. “Transcend is the world’s first brand to launch a total solution upgrade kit for Mac computers. We are proud of the excellent quality and stylish design of our products, but to satisfy more demanding Mac users, these are not enough,” Hugo Lee, Head of Transcend South Asia said.“Therefore, we decided to link a strategic partnership with India’s well-known Apple Premium Reseller, RSG. We believe that together we will offer better services for our customers and create better consumer experiences.
16 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
Advts.indd 5
18-11-2014 16:07:39
SNIPPETS
DataWind CEO Honored with Award
DIGEST
Recognising DataWind’s innovative approach and efforts aimed at addressing the chronic issues of connectivity for the forgotten billion in India with its low cost internet connectivity devices and bundled in free internet browsing services, the President & CEO of the company Suneet Singh Tuli received the Bharat Samman Award and Global Punjabi Society Achiever Award at the recently concluded NRI Divas celebrations. Suneet Singh Tuli received the Bharat Samman Award from Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State of Culture and Tourism (Independent Charge) & Civil Aviation and the GPS Achiever Award from Former Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh for Innovation in developing technology to help the digitally disenfranchised and underserved cross the digital divide and contribute to the Digital India Vision. Upon receiving the award, Suneet Singh Tuli, President & CEO, DataWind said, “I am deeplytouched and honoured for this recognition. My roots that connect me to India, fill me with pride and this recognition of our efforts further bolster our ambition to continue to act as a catalytic agents in the digital transformation and success of this great nation.
STRONTIUM LAUNCHES EXTERNAL STORAGE FOR IPHONE 6
Dell Reveals Best Portfolio of Consumer Devices Dell announced at CES 2015 an expanded portfolio of award-winning devices featuring premium materials, stylish finishes and the latest technologies from its XPS, Alienware, Venue, Inspiron and displays families. “The new products announced today raise the bar in every category, with style, substance and software solutions customers can only get from Dell,” said Sam Burd, vice president, Client Solutions Product Group, Dell. “Whether you are a gamer, always on the go or buying a laptop or desktop for everyday use, Dell is building in the features and functionality customers care about.” XPS 13 and 15: Elevate your computing experience. The XPS family of devices has always been designed to be the best balance between form and function.
K7 Computing Appoints Sakri IT as ND K7 Computing appoints Sakri IT solutions as its national distributor. Speaking on the occasion K Ravi Lakshman CEO of Sakri said that he is excited about the new partnership with K7 and is confident that they will be taking the product to the leadership position adding Sakri’s strength coupled with K7’s technical strengths. K7 Computing brings its best security technologies with K7 Total Security Pro and K7 Internet Security. K7 Launches award-winning multi-layer security products with several new advanced protection technologies to fight the most complex malicious programs targeting virtual assets and real-life money.
Matrix to showcase solutions at Convergence India Matrix Comsec is showcasing solution in the 23rd Edition of Convergence India Expo, New Delhi. Matrix being a consistent exhibitor at Convergence from last 5 years will showcase its complete range of Business Phone Systems, VoIP & GSM Gateways and Converged Voice & Data products. During Convergence, Matrix will showcase ETERNITY LE – IP-PBX for Large Enterprise up to 1344 analog ports and 1000 IP users. ETERNITY LE is a powerful communication solution designed for Corporate Offices, Manufacturing Houses, Education/Apartment Campuses and Hotels to transcend all technological, organizational and geographical boundaries. This thorough-breed solution offers advanced functionality backed by 45-party Conference, CTI, IP Telephony, Mobile Extensions, Email to SMS and Voice Mail features.
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Strontium Technology is the first company in India to introduce exclusive Strontium iDrive 3.0 (external storage for iPhone 6 and 6+). Strontium is first to unveil external storage drive for iPhones and iPads. Consumers can store and transfer data between iPhone, iPad and Mac/PC without needing any cable. Up to 960 minutes of HD video, 26,208 photos, or 16,000 MP3 songs can be stored in 64GB iDrive and played directly on iPhone or iPad. It can also backup and restore contacts, calendar, videos and pictures. It is available in 16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities and comes with 2 years Strontium Limited Warranty. Further, Strontium iDrive 3.0 is available at a price range of Rs. 5,145 to Rs.7, 245 respectively.
ZEBRONICS’ NEW MULTIMEDIA HEADPHONES Top Notch Infotronix has introduced five new headsets – the Zebronics Metal Head, Stunner, Fusion, Bolt and Colt-2 – expanding its wide range of multimedia headphones with a fantastic series that includes top-line features and stunning looks to suit a variety of consumer uses. Representing Zebronics’ dedication to quality at value prices, the headsets are priced affordably – Metal Head at Rs. 1069; Stunner at Rs. 699; Fusion at Rs. 469; Bolt at Rs. 399; and Colt-2 at Rs. 399. All prices include one-year warranty.
KINGSTON AUTOMATIC CLOUD BACKUP Kingston announced the additional feature of cloud backup to the DataTraveler Locker+ G3 (DTLPG3) USB 3.0 Flash drive for personal security. DTLPG3 offers hardware encryption, password protection and fast USB 3.0 transfer speeds to keep one’s personal data safe. Consumers now have the option of automatically backing up a DataTraveler Locker+ G3 to their preferred cloud storage provider such as Google Drive, OneDrive (Microsoft), Amazon S3, Dropbox or Box via included ClevX USBtoCLOUD software. Kingston and ClevX first worked together in 2012 on an encrypted USB drive with a built-in anti-malware scan engine for enterprise customers. With the DTLPG3, consumers can rest assured that if the DTLPG3 is lost or misplaced, photos, personal documents and other files are still safely stored and accessible in the cloud.
ASUS CELEBRATES 500 MILLION MOTHERBOARD SALES ASUS has sold over 500-million motherboards since the company’s inception in 1989. This significant milestone will be celebrated with a global competition. Announcing the milestone, ASUS Chairman Jonney Shih said: “I want to thank all of our customers for their support throughout the past 25 years. We share a common passion for technology and their inputs have enabled us to grow on this journey in search of incredible. We are committed to delivering more innovation to market and we aim to bring a seamless and joyful digital life for everyone to enjoy.”
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SNIPPETS
Verico Forays into the Indian market Verico Int’l, one of the world’s leading brands in Smartphones, Tablet PC’s, mobile accessories and a leader in memory products, today announced its foray into the booming Indian market. To mark its entry, the Taiwan based company would be launching it’s maiden product, the Uni SHAPE 5V3 smartphone, in an exclusive tie up with Snapdeal, India’s largest online marketplace. The Uni SHAPE 5V3 phone is a dual SIM, 5” inch QHD screen, Android 4.2, Jelly Bean based smartphone. The unique feature of the Uni SHAPE 5V3 is, the Back-Touch - that lets you make one handed use of the large screen of the phone, comfortable and easy. Powered by a Cortex A7, 1.3 GHz quad core processor, the phone provides a much faster and smoother experience, at all times. Sporting a 13MP rear and 5MP front camera with flash, the device comes with a 1GB RAM and a 4GB hard drive.
Tyco Security Products’ Dome Honoured by IFSEC Global Tyco Security Products, part of Tyco, said its Illustra 625 IP PTZ dome camera took top honours at the 2014 IFSEC Global Security Excellence Awards for best CCTV Camera Equipment of the Year. Designed for applications where locating, tracking and zooming in on subject details are critical, the winning Illustra PTZ dome is one of the fastest HD PTZ cameras in the industry today. The high performance camera delivers multiple, full-digital path 1080p/30ips video streams in H.264 and MJPEG resolution for crystal clear images. Based on latency testing standards used by the United States Air Force and the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Illustra camera delivers analogue-like precision with megapixel resolution, making it a standout in its class. “The speed and ultra-low latency of the Illustra 625 HD PTZ allow security personnel to accurately track subjects in mission-critical applications, which can mean the difference between an organization’s success or failure,” said Julian Inman, Product Marketing Manager, EMEA, Video, Tyco Security Products. “Tyco Security Products is honoured to be recognized as the leading camera provider by the IFSEC Global Security Industry Awards 2014.”
Global IT Spending to Grow 2.4 Percent Worldwide IT spending is on pace to total $3.8 trillion in 2015, a 2.4 percent increase from 2014; however, this growth rate is down from earlier projections of 3.9 percent, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. The slower outlook for 2015 is largely attributed to the rising U.S. dollar as well as a modest reduction in growth expectations for devices, IT services and telecom services. “The change in forecast is less dramatic than it might at first seem. The rising U.S. dollar is chiefly responsible for the change — in constant currency terms the downward revision is only 0.1 percent,” said John-David Lovelock, research vice president at Gartner. “Stripping out the impact of exchange rate movements, the corresponding constant-currency growth figure is 3.7 percent, which compares with 3.8 percent in the previous quarter’s forecast.” The Gartner Worldwide IT Spending Forecast is the leading indicator of major technology trends across the hardware, software, IT services and telecom markets. For more than a decade, global IT and business executives have been using these highly anticipated quarterly reports to recognize market opportunities and challenges, and base their critical business decisions on proven methodologies rather than guesswork.
Ace Overclocker, HiCookie, Makes New Indian CPU-Z OC Record in Mumbai Saturday, December 20, 2014, was a big day for India’s hardcore PC enthusiasts and power users who had gathered in Mumbai, as they were witness to a new Indian record being made in CPU-Z Overclocking (OC), by none other than HiCookie, holder and breaker of multiple OC world records. OC is the practice of pushing a PC component to function faster than the manufactured clock frequency. This calls for a lot of practice, upgraded skills, dedication, and of course, a deep passion for the activity. HiCookie demonstrating his fabled OC skills was the highlight of the PC enthusiasts’ meet, organised jointly by GIGABYTE Technology (India) Pvt. Ltd. (Motherboard Business Unit), CoolerMaster India, and Adata India – all Taiwan-based companies and world leaders in their respective spheres of PC hardware.
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Seagate Comes out with a Refreshed Look at CES Seagate ussed the 2015 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) to unveil a dramatic and contemporary rebranding of the company that reflects how its rapidly expanding solutions portfolio is helping consumers, businesses and partners create, preserve and share their most precious content and data. The new brand underscores how Seagate’s extensive product solution portfolio extends the company’s deep expertise in data storage components into flash, systems and solutions for an even broader set of customers and partners announced the press release. The focus of the new Seagate brand is the “Living Logo”, which will showcase data as a living, vibrant thing that powers human invention, culture and advances. The Living Logo itself represents new patent-pending software technology and will be the focus of a national awareness campaign backed by Seagate’s largest marketing investment ever. ”The new Seagate brand is a powerful representation of the total commitment that Seagate is making to help businesses and consumers realize the full potential of ‘living’ data,” said Steve Luczo, Seagate’s chairman and chief executive officer. Seagate’s new brand and “Living Logo” rollout will begin January 4, 2015 online.
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SNIPPETS
Epson Acquires K-sun Corporation Seiko Epson said it has acquired Somerset, Wisconsin-based K-Sun Corporation, a supplier of award-winning portable and desktop electronic label printers. The acquisition of K-Sun will provide Epson with broader access to labelling customers and influencers as well as expand the company’s presence in the industrial labelling market. After supplying K-Sun with label printers on an OEM basis for two decades, Epson believes that acquiring its partner will enable it to better serve industrial customers with the ever expanding line of Epson label printing solutions - from the desktop to the industrial press. Junichi Watanabe, director, and COO, Epson’s Visual Products Operations Division, commented, “The acquisition will not only give us access to K-Sun’s expertise in industrial label printing, but will help boost the brand and increase exposure of Epson’s label printers in this important strategic market.”
KONICA MINOLTA TIES-UP WITH ACP DISTRIBUTORS Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. has partnered with ACP Distributors to distribute its products in the A4 segment in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh market. Aimed at expanding its footprint in eastern UP, Konica Minolta announced this partnership. Expressing his views on the occasion Yogesh Aggarwal of ACP Distributors said, “There is a vast opportunity Konica Minolta official at the partner launch in the printer market and we look at the partnership as a prospect to gain a leadership position in the local market. We identify with Konica Minolta’s values of having a strong focus on customers and emphasis on technology.” “Konica Minolta has been appreciated at the global stage for its innovative and affordable products. Konica Minolta is going through an exciting period of growth and the partnership with ACP Distributers is strategically timed to address the market demand. We are committed to facilitate our partners with a technology that creates business avenues and positions itself strongly against the competition,” said Kuldeep Malhotra, EGM (Sales), Konica Minolta Business Solutions India Pvt. Ltd.
HCL Info Bolsters Big Data Offerings with MongoDB MongoDB and HCL Infosystems have announced a global partnership which will allow HCL Infosystems to further broaden its solution offerings in the emerging big data segment by developing services around MongoDB. Commenting on the partnership, Kamal Brar, Vice President APAC, MongoDB, said, “Big Data is more than just addressing increasing volume; organizations need solutions that can manage increasing data variety and velocity. Today, businesses need to quickly ingest, store, and access useful information from massive pools of multi-structured data.This is where MongoDB excels. HCL Infosystems will offer innovative solutions and services for organizations to gain value from their data and make smarter and faster business decisions. Partnering with HCL will further strengthen our footprint globally.” Since its inception MongoDB has collaborated with organizations worldwide and now has a thriving global community. Common MongoDB use cases include Single View, Internet of Things, Mobile, Personalization, Content Management, Real-Time Analytics and Catalog.
*astTECS at Convergence India 2015 *astTECS, a leading provider of enterprise telecom technology products and Asterisk based open source communication solution, said it would showcase its Open Source based, cutting-edge Telecom and IP PBX solution at Convergence India 2015. *astTECS will be demonstrating Asterisk based innovative communication products and engage with prospective buyers and system integrators to share a wide range of highly affordable business communication solutions. “Attracting global solution providers, the Convergence India expo offers an ideal platform for knowledge-experts to share technology insights, new-age technologies and merging business solutions,” said Levis Wilson, COO, *astTECS. With strong focus on customer needs, *astTECS solution serves users across the globe and the company continues to leverage its strong capabilities in product innovation, helping enterprises and SMEs capitalize on latest in technology and adapt to customer’s communications requirements and evolving market opportunities announced the press release.
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D-Link Strengthens Network Management Portfolio D-Link releases D-View 7, the latest version of its powerful network management software. D-View 7 is a web-based network management system designed to manage device configurations, performance, and troubleshooting. “The latest version of D-View brings D-View 6’s standalone software platform to the web, letting users access D-View 7 from anywhere with browsers without the need for installing software”, says Antony Lai, Vice President of Business Networking. “We’ve added several new features and enhancements that give users more flexibility, including a more comprehensive view of their network.” D-View 7 is a web-based, SNMP supported network management solution for D-Link business product lines. It can manage SNMP supported devices including switches, unified switches, unified APs, standalone APs, and third party SNMP devices. It can provide a centralized management platform to control, monitor, and configure multiple devices in different product lines. The new probe design can also support complex network environments like double/ triple NAT, separated lab networks, and branch offices.
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SECURITY
IXIA TURNS FOCUS ON NETWORK SECURITY Todays’ enterprises are fighting wars against the cyber-attackers and CFOs are concerned about their reputation more than any financial loss. India with old legacy networks, the networks are fragile from security point of view. Therefore, the CIOs should look at it or think about it as the hackers or ask for the services of the experts like Ixia. BY: SANJAY MOHAPATRA sanjay@smechannels.com
A
fter spending 10 years’ time in the space of Test & Measurement for service providers and network equipment manufacturers, Ixia India is now turning to cyber security and enterprise business. In order to garner the required capabilities, Ixia acquired two companies globally – BreakingPoint, which is for cyber security and the other one is Annui, which offers network vision tools. MuraliRamalingam, Country Manager and Senior Sales Director, Ixia, says, “We are a pure test & measurement company. Our value is that we generate traffic for real life scenarios where as others touch the traffics through probes or vision tools. But now we are looking at doing enterprise business in a big way in next couple of years; the reason being is that a lot of enterprises now have very large networks, which offers great opportunity to get the their networks ready to withstand major DDOS attacks.” BreakingPoint, which Ixia acquired two years back and the solution called now PerfectStorm, checks the networks to see how resilient it is for the DDOS attacks. It tests all the equipment connected to the network and gives a resilience score and gives a report that at a particular point the network will take certain amount of traffic and above that it will break. Size of a laptop, PerfectStorm is a power house. One just needs to plug it and start working. As per Murali this product has
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caught a lot of attention overseas and the company wants to push it in India aggressively. Murali added, “In Mumbai, some time back, I met the CXOs to understand the networks how it functions on the face of the attacks. One of the CFOs of a very large mutual fund said recently there was a cyber-attack and the server was down for four an half days. They could not repair it. He said, more than money they lost their reputation before the international customers.” Cyber-attack is like a war. What Ixia does is that it gets the networks ready for the cyber wars by testing the equipment and devices of the enterprises. Ixia provides ATI or in other words Application and Threat Intelligence. It’s in Ixia’s Austin facility, which hoses 10-15 security experts, monitors all sorts of cyber security activities across the networks in the world. This facility tests close to 35 thousand applications for virus and all sorts of security threats. This centre obviously gives solutions for known malicious programmes but for unknown programmes, it gets the networks ready. In addition to that the company also gets a lot of people trained to be cyber warriors through the programme called Cyber Ranges. In APAC, Singapore police has Cyber Ranges for arming and training Cyber Warriors. Ixia helps to teach people how to attack and how to defend. In a Cyber-Warfare, these warriors can understand how a particular malware behaves and how to kill it.
He adds, “I was in Singapore and there was an attack on a karaoke club and the entire contact list including the credit card numbers were taken away and sent it to a newspaper. It was done from Malaysia and the reason was the increased toll cost between Malaysia and Singapore and the attackers were very upset and wanted to show their power by upsettingsome Singapore networks. Recently, there was an attack on one of the retail stores in US too. Therefore, the nature of cyber-war is very uncertain these days. And today’s enterprises should be ready for uncertain and invisible warfare.” So the attackers are planahead of the time. They create Flood by hacking some computers’ data and make the traffic very heavy. The Flood comprises unwanted huge volume of voice & data traffic, which are not at all relevant to a single enterprise. So how do you differentiate the genuine data or voice from the garbage? This is where Ixia adds great valuable by getting the network filtered. When the Flood happens, the vision tool from Annui accepts the entire data and gives the network administers the refined voice and data. Today, the Telco’s receive a lot of garbage voice and data and they do not have any clue how to filter or check the inflow. From India perspective, the country is very vulnerable as there are huge age old legacy systems in many places and can be very easily attacked. Secondly, cyber security is so complicated and
SECURITY
MURALIRAMALINGAM, COUNTRY MANAGER AND SENIOR SALES DIRECTOR, IXIA
“SMES SHOULD THINK SERIOUSLY TO ALLOCATE SOME BUDGET FOR CYBER SECURITY. ENCRYPTION IS SOME PROTECTION, WHICH THEY ARE ADOPTING, BUT IF THE SERVER IS DOWN THEN EVERYTHING IS GONE.”
sophisticated that Indian enterprises are not ready for it. A report says that India is the third largest country for cyber-attacks. India has also the dubious distinction of 4th or 5thin the world ranking as the ideal launch pad for cyber-attacks. Particularly,the SMEs in India are very vulnerable. As per a report 60% of the attacks happen on the large enterprises where 6-7% attacks only happen on the SMEs. But this segment contributes to the 60% of Indian economy, which is really huge.SMEs very much data driven.So if they are attacked, their entire business can easily come to a standstill.The piety is that they do not have any resources to withstand the cyberattacks. They are highly open.So they should think seriously to allocate some budget for cyber security. Encryption is some protection, which they are adopting, but if the server is down then everything is gone. The other thing is that the competition can destroy the SME organizations using the hackers. In India, people do not share their data even though get hit by the attackers. It is a mind-set issue to be proactive rather than reactive as far as cyber-security is concerned. Even large companies unless until are hit are not investing on security. In India, there are a huge number of WiFi installations. These instruments have to be tested. Ixia does a very good job of validating the WiFi access points using its product VeryWay. Murali-
added, “We are a huge partner for Microsoft in the US for WiFi solutions. We are getting huge attention for our WiFi validation business in India too. In our Bangalore seminar,we had received 10-12 real good enquiries for WiFi validation.” This is a niche market for Ixia. Ixia WiFi validation offers the report as to which point or after how many users, the WiFi will start deteriorating. Ixia not only provides the vision tools and resilience scores but also supports the security solution vendors to make the enterprises ready for the attacks by creating right policies and parameters. In India for the first time Ixia has tied up with Fortinet. As far as its go to market strategy is concerned, Ixia has got three pronged strategies. It sells directly, though partners like Fortinet and throughIT channel too. Virtualization is a big area where Ixia is investing in India too. The second area where Ixia is investing is Network function tools (NFE). The third area of investment for Ixia in India is cyber security. “Ixia is evolving in India. We were in the test & measurement market in India and worked with equipment manufacturing companies and service providers for last ten years. Now that we have acquired companies in the space of cyber security, we want to traverse the same cycle. We want to get more market share in the enterprise market. The carrier and the vendors are buying our products but the enterprises are slow in buying reason
being there is very less awareness about the consequences of the attacks,” Murali maintained. To give an overview of Ixia in India, the company has been there for last 10 years having a development centre in Kolkata, which houses 150 workforces. This development centre is very strategic and relevant for Ixia global operations as it is at the forefront of all the latest developments. Secondly, Ixia has a Sales &Marketing office for India and a global support centre in Bangalore. Interestingly and importantly, in the test & measurement industry, normally companies engage channel partners for support, whereas Ixia has full-fledged global support centre with 30 people to provide 24/7 support. Recently,Ixia sold a lot of equipment to a large Telco in India as they are launching pan India 4G networks. They have to test their 4G network equipment at the pre-installation stage to make sure that they behave the same way as they should behave in the real life scenario.
Finally… Certainly Ixia is evolving in India and trying to tap the new market which is virgin. But since there is a very low awareness about the consequences of attacks, Murali and his team have to think out of the box. For Murali who came back to India after a long stint in the US with an aspiration of doing something different, innovating adaptivestrategy may not be of that difficult.
SME CHANNELS 25 JANUARY 2015
COVER STORY
INDIAN SMEs
POSITIVE ABOUT VIRTUALISATION
Virtualization of servers and data centre can reduce the investment of SMEs on over all technology drastically, which can not only enhance their productivity but also enable them to focus on their core business more seriously than before. This can bring growth to their business and ultimately growth to the economy of the country. BY KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
A
ccording to an IDC report commissioned by VMware titled “Empowering Organizations in a Software Defined World,” an estimated US$4 billion is expected to be avoided between 2014 and 2020 with a software defined approach to managing IT in India. An estimated US$1.5 billion in costs have been avoided to date. The potential economic impact of US$5.5 billion for India comprises savings in a few key areas: n US$2.8 billion in hardware spending savings due to servers avoided. Hardware spending refers to the customer revenue generated from the sale of physical hardware. n US$805 million in power and cooling savings due to servers avoided. This refers to cost of energy to power and cool a physical hardware in the datacenter. n US$65 million in real estate and maintenance fees avoided. This refers to the land or construction and maintenance cost associated in housing a physical hardware. n US$1.8 billion in hardware admin costs avoided. This refers to hardware admin costs avoided and includes IDC’s estimate of the cost of people and overheads needed to manage each physical hardware component.
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Going by this calculation, the impact on the SMEs can be substantial. There might be 2-3 million qualified SMEs which use proper server technology or data centre. For them things have already turned different as they have started embracing virtualization. They should reduce cost and hassles in managing and monitoring their data centre because if they devote that must of time in their core business, their contribution to the Indian economy is certainly grow out from current 60%. Manish Alshi - Partner Sales Head – India, VMware, says, “The SMB market has matured significantly in the past year. Customers have begun to see the benefits and advantages virtualization offers them. The need to consolidate data centers, save money on hardware, power and cooling are driving adoption of server virtualization.” “SMBs of all sizes are rapidly adopting virtualization and achieving significant benefits in a number of areas. In particular, with virtualization SMBs are reducing the time spent on routine IT administrative tasks, such as adding and managing new server workloads, adding new employees or developing and launching new applications; they are also becoming more responsive to business needs,” he added. MonaliHanda, Director Marketing, APAC at NComputing Inc. says, “Virtualization – more
specifically cloud adoption – is fast gaining prominence among the erstwhile traditionally rooted SMB sector and it is absolutely ready for the change. The reason for this widespread adoption of virtualization can be attributed to several key factors such as – cost savings, business continuity, and business agility and flexibility.” “The shared resources model inherent in desktop virtualization offers advantages over the traditional model, in which every computer operates as a completely self-contained unit with its own operating system, peripherals, and application programs. Overall hardware expenses may diminish as users can share resources allocated to them on an as-needed basis. Virtualization potentially improves the data integrity of user information because all data can be maintained and backed-up in the data centre,” she added. SMBs should consider desktop virtualization due to following reasons n Simpler provisioning of new desktops n Lower cost of deploying new applications n Desktop image-management capabilities n Increased data security n Longer refresh cycle for client desktop infrastructure n Secure remote access to an enterprise desktop environment
COVER STORY
SME CHANNELS 27 JANUARY 2015
COVER STORY
“THE NEXT GENERATION OF DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION TECHNOLOGY NEEDS TO BE BUILT AND INSPIRED BY THE BENEFITS OF MOBILITY AND THE CLOUD, WHERE ANY APPLICATION CAN BE RAPIDLY ACCESSED OR DELIVERED FROM ANY CLOUD.” MANISH ALSHI, SALES HEAD – INDIA, VMWARE
It is alright that virtualization has positive impact on the overall planning of an enterprise about technology implementation. But since it is a new and path breaking initiative, SMEs need to identify the business goals that virtualization will help them achieve in order to benefit from the technology. Whether it is consolidation of servers and applications, reducing hardware costs, accommodating future expansion, or improving disaster recovery, SMEs must undertake an infrastructure audit to ascertain the extent of virtualization that would benefit them the most. She added, “Understanding and implementing virtualization in tandem with business goals, setting the needs and expectations right, calculating Return on Investment (RoI) are the things they must do before embarking on the virtualization journey.”
As per Manish Alshi,virtualization is an evolutionary process; some are ahead of the others in adoption. Most customers start with the basic infrastructure virtualization and later virtualize mission critical applications, which is when security and data-related work come into picture. We have many instances of customers, large enterprises who have consolidated mission-critical applications such as SAP, Oracle and Microsoft Exchange. Manish, says, “We have cases wherein with the help of our solutions, customers have saved 50-80% in their IT budgets. By consolidating several physical servers and virtual server machines on fewer physical machines, the cost of managing the server infrastructure comes down drastically. Lower number of physical servers also means reduction in power and cooling consumption, therefore reduc-
tion in overall energy costs. Once customers start using virtualization more they start to see savings on OPEX and people costs as well.” But do the SMEs need virtualization? The answer is very much as they need to be available and accessible always. As per Monali, In today’s challenging times, while small and medium enterprises (SMEs) globally are keen to deploy the latest hardware and software technologies to stay competitive, limited IT budget and lack of resources act as key impediments in achieving this end. In addition, providing every employee with a PC; frequent technological changes and resulting hardware and software obsolescence; costs associated with upgrade, replacement and management of the IT infrastructure; and technical complexity associated with managing mixed IT set ups are some of the other challenges faced by most SMBs. Power shortage is another perennial issue that organizations have to deal with in most states in the country. Virtualizing desktops further reduces the need to invest upgrade desktop infrastructure frequently and the associated hardware refresh cycles. It not only reduces the hardware costs but, also the overall energy consumption by end-user desktop infrastructure thereby reducing OPEX. It further reduces desktop infrastructure management costs and the cost associated with investing in additional security resources to further secure end-user computing devices.Virtualization gives a lot more freedom and agility to do things in IT a lot faster. In fact for the SMEs more than the server vir-
VIRTUALISATION SOLUTIONS THAT ARE POPULAR AMONG SMEs SERVER CONSOLIDATION: Physical servers typically run at only 10-15 percent of capacity, resulting in wasted resources, unnecessary hardware investments and data center sprawl. VMware solutions consolidate applications on far fewer physical servers to optimize resource utilization and deliver up to 50 percent savings in capital and operating costs. With VMware server virtualization, smaller businesses achieve efficiency savings previously available only to very large companies. BUSINESS CONTINUITY PLAN: When critical applications grind to a halt, business does too. Business continuity solutions have traditionally been too expensive and hard to manage, putting them out of reach for smaller companies. But today, vendors like VMware help eliminate downtime with simple, affordable and accessible solutions -- so no company has to go without being protected. Whether a business continuity plan includes an on-premises solution, a cloud-based service, or a hybrid solution, VMware has the right solutions. SMALL BUSINESS DESKTOP VIRTUALIZATION AND MANAGEMENT: Mobility and bring your own device (BYOD) trends are changing the economics of traditional desktop computing and delivering increased agility to businesses. VMware today offers a comprehensive suite of BYOD, mobility and end user computing solutions that deliver virtualized or remote desktops and applications to end users through a single platform. These desktop and application services, including RDS hosted apps, packaged and SaaSapplications, support BYOD and can be accessed securely from one unified workspace across devices, locations, media and connections. If SMBs are looking for cloud-based mobility solutions, our Desktop as a Service (DaaS) solution simplifies the delivery of Windows desktops and applications to any device, anywhere with minimal investment and predictable costs. IT OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT: Managing a dynamic IT environment with traditional tools can be a challenge. VMware offers an integrated IT operations management platform that enables SMBs to confidently support their virtual and physical infrastructure with intelligent operations and app-to-storage visibility for structured and unstructured data in the most complex environments. VMware’s small business performance management solutions tackle complexity, control and IT visibility challenges through automation, unified management and a comprehensive, intelligent and proactive platform. SMBs gain visibility into their dynamic virtual, cloud and physical infrastructure and the insight to maximize the benefits and ROI of their virtual environment.
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COVER STORY
4 COMPELLING REASONS FOR SMBs TO VIRTUALIZE THEIR IT ENVIRONMENT To increase business continuity
Up to 60% of small businesses that suffer an IT disaster close forever. With virtualization, two thirds of IT professionals surveyed have seen improved business continuity.
“VIRTUALIZATION – MORE SPECIFICALLY CLOUD ADOPTION – IS FAST GAINING PROMINENCE AMONG THE ERSTWHILE TRADITIONALLY ROOTED SMB SECTOR AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY READY FOR THE CHANGE.” MONALIHANDA, DIRECTORMARKETING_APAC AT NCOMPUTING INC.
Simplify IT Management
IT teams in non-virtualized environments spend over 50% of their time on routine IT administration.
Achieve more with IT
Improve business responsiveness
Increasing IT productivity is the main driver of ROI in virtualized environments. 66% of IT managers reported operational improvements through more efficient support and management.
tualization or network virtualization, desktop virtualization is more important. Reason being their workstations is where their customer interacts. So far the desktop virtualisation solution is nonpersonal and thin client based. Whereas desktop needs to be personalized, which will encourage the users to work with? Manish says, “The next generation of desktop virtualization technology needs to be built and inspired by the benefits of mobility and the cloud, where any application can be rapidly accessed or delivered from any cloud.” There are three main technologies that must be part of every desktop virtualization solution: n Disaggregation of Desktop and OnDemand Personalization – Windows desktops need to be disaggregated and a device specific personalized experience needs to be created on-demand. Only then will customers be able to fundamentally change the cost of desktop management. n Hybrid Delivery – A solution that can enable customers to deliver different apps and desktops from their own datacenters or public cloud. Only hybrid environments can give customers the required flexibility, agility and utility based pricing. n Standards-Based Delivery – Next generation desktop virtualization delivery will use mobile friendly codecs and browser friendly protocols. VMware is delivering new innovations in desktop and application virtualization towards these three areas, all inspired by the mobile experience, built for software-defined data center and delivered from a hybrid cloud. Similarly, as per Monali, NComputing’s cost
Virtualization helps IT to scale rapidly to meet business demand and is the number 1 priority for funding by CIOs.
and energy-efficient Desktop Virtualization solution addresses these challenges in the most cost effective manner. Organizations can deploy a secure and cost-effective IT infrastructure by centralizing their IT infrastructure and save on hardware, electricity, space and manpower. This also helps them avoid the high cost and high complexity normally associated with virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) deployments.
Finally SMBs the world over are facing the challenge to expand the scope and reach of their IT infrastructure to enable employees, partners and other stakeholders to access not just their own desktop or applications, but also their workspace, from the device of their choice, anytime, from anywhere. This is increasingly driving organizations to desktop virtualization as a viable and secure alternative to traditional PC computing. Virtualization in 2015 will offer highly specialized, business-driven desktop and application virtualization solutions that cut the cost and complexity normally associated with deploying an enterprise-class desktop virtualization environment. The solutions provide a robust, secure and robust framework that enables organisations to centralize and virtualize your IT infrastructure and make the optimal use of resources while keeping the IT costs to the minimal. Through a unique combination of simplicity, performance and value, virtualization removes the cost and complexity barriers and makes its adoption convenient and affordable for today’s high priority IT initiatives, including mobility, BYOD and migration to new versions of Windows operating environments.
SME CHANNELS 29 JANUARY 2015
SME CHAT
AMIT SINGH MANAGER, DELL SONICWALL
“UTM MARKET WILL SEE A BOOM IN THE UPCOMING YEAR” As per IDC, the entire security market is set to grow to US$2.8 billion by 2015 in customer revenue at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6%. In a chat with SME Channels Amit Singh, Country Manager, Dell SonicWALL, talks about the burgeoning UTM market.
What are your Top Technology predictions for 2015? Year 2014 witnessed many new technologies that were adopted by organizations across sectors. When we look forward to 2015, below are few trends that are expected to drive business innovation and provide a strong platform for future growth to enterprises: Ubiquitous Computing – As BYOD continues to burgeon, there will be an upsurge in addressing the need of mobile users contrary to being focused on devices only. We are certain to see a continuous increase in the proliferation of BYOD. Internet of Things – Embracing of technology and services connected to IoT is expected to witness a significant rise in the upcoming year, especially in the SME segment and across enterprises who have not embraced IoT yet. Predictive Analytics will make Big Data easier – Big data will continue to impact the way we do business, but, with a twist. This year, predictive analytics will help C-suite make more sense of big data and leverage it for their business growth. Risk based security & protection – Security will always be one of the most important elements of our business dynamics. As organizations begin to understand the necessity of securing their
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assets, year 2015 will see an increase in the adoption of more sophisticated and stringent security solutions by enterprises. Software-defined everything – Softwaredefined everything will be tactical for most organizations next year. According to Gartner, SDx will have a significant impact on organizations that will include a high potential for disruption to IT or the business, the need for a major financial investment or the risk of being late to adopt. How do you see the technology influencing UTM market in 2015? Gartner has estimated that 2.9 billion connected things will be in use in the consumer sector in 2015 growing to some 13 billion in 2020. With Internet of Things and use of wireless devices at work and home growing at a stupendous speed, security threats in each of these segments have also augmented. This will further enlarge the UTM market in 2015 as enterprises will need to secure their business from various possible noxious threats. What are your forecasts for the UTM market? As per IDC, the entire security market is set to
grow to US$2.8 billion by 2015 in customer revenue at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15.6%, representing the quickest and fastest growing region. IDC expects the growth to be strong especially in emerging markets like India, China and ASEAN. It also predicts that the UTM function will lead the demand curve taking a share of 39% of the total security appliance market by 2015 as against 27% in 2010. With this, the security market is certain to enjoy a higher growth and adoption rate across various market segments like UTM, content management and IPS segments. What is your expectation in terms of overall market growth? The UTM market will see a boom in the upcoming year as enterprises that usually did not focus or invest in security are now realizing the insinuation of having a frail security and risk posture on their business. Vertical markets such as financial sector, education and healthcare have now began to prepare themselves for investing in technology approaches that will help them grow their business securely. UTM being a single platform for multiple security needs, will gain a huge market share in coming years.
SME CHAT
“UTM BEING A SINGLE PLATFORM FOR MULTIPLE SECURITY NEEDS, WILL GAIN A HUGE MARKET SHARE IN COMING YEARS.” What will be the key trends affecting channel partners? Channel partners will be affected by the fast changing dynamics in a positive way. Customers acknowledging the increased importance of securing their assets presents an opportunity to the channel partners to hone their skills and offerings around the new technology trends. Partners will be able to have more comprehensive discussions with their customers on security as point solutions will have lesser relevance. There will be accelerated demand for security trainings and audits and other specialized services that will help channel partners with deeper engagement and higher revenue scope.
SME CHANNELS 31 JANUARY 2015
GRIEVANCES
ISODA RECOMMENDS UNION BUDGET 2015 TO SUPPORT SOFTWARE BUSINESS ISODA strongly believes and advocates that there is an imperative need to create a new category of “Trading of Software Subscriptions & Services”
I
SODA, the voice of a very large community of Dealers/Resellers of Software who reach out to the SMB/SME Govt.& Enterprises at ground level, feels that the involvement of DIT/DeitY, as both a sounding board as well as an advisor would be beneficial to both the business community as well as the Revenue Authorities. They could play a crucial role in policy matters, the promotion of IT and bridging the digital divide. It
would be beneficial if their representatives are also made a party to these discussions. The many questions that keep coming to mind are; Is it time now to actually define Software Trading. Is it Trading of Goods? Is it Trading of Services? Is it Trading of Software Services? Is it Royalty? Has Software Service today evolved enough to become a tradable commodity? ISODA strongly believes and advocates that
there is an imperative need to create a new category of “Trading of Software Subscriptions & Services” and define comprehensively what it includes and how it is taxed in order to address the long pending issues of Dual Taxation, TDS/WHT and remove inherent ambiguities which have been creating confusion in the industry, within multiple revenue authorities, within judiciary and in front of customers.
DIRECT TAX ISSUES : WITH MINIMAL OR NO IMPACT ON THE REVENUE FOR THE GOVERNMENT. ISSUE
JUSTIFICATION
IMPACT
Filing of TDS Return for Software resellers post CBDT Notification 21/2012
Since the TDS is deducted and reported at the first level only then the industry compliance to file the TDS return can be done away with.
Reduction in fruitless compliance gives time to the community to do more business impacting increased revenues to the Government. The Revenue Machinery can be put to more productive use.
Multilevel TDS Exemption not available for many IT Services
Expansion of ambit of CBDT Notification 21/2012 for Multilevel TDS exemption is required to include software support service subscriptions, hardware support service subscriptions, Care Packs, Cloud & Internet based services, Internet domain name registrations, website hosting, Email services, Digital & SSL certificates and allied IT services.
Multilevel TDS leads to tremendous cash flow problems and unnecessary complex paperwork at every level, without any significant revenue generation for the Government since the typical margins in such resale is about 2 to 5%.
Withholding Tax (WHT) on Software Payments being considered as Royalty.
Recent amendment of WHT rate for payees without PE in India and without PAN in India has made importing software in India a nightmarish experience.
Direct bearing on Hon’ble PM’s Digital India. Monopoly of few established suppliers only who charge heavily now. Procurement of new yet cheaper technologies is costlier by at least 33% if not higher.
Withholding Tax (WHT) and/or TDS demanded on embedded software with retrospective effect from June 01st, 1976.
Revenue Authorities demand TDS on Software purchases post amendment in the definition of Royalty which is against all forms of natural justice.
“Retrospective tax has only brought bad name to India instead of garnering more taxes,” The Finance Minister ArunJaitley said in the LokSabha on 11th December, 2014 The Government is sensitive to the arm-twisting tactics of the past and must make amends now.
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GRIEVANCES
ISSUE
JUSTIFICATION
IMPACT
Resale or trading of software be exempted from Service Tax
Following the same spirit of CBDT notification No. 21/2012 the CBEC may exempt the resale of software from Service Tax since it is a mere activity with a nominal trading margin.
Reduction in fruitless compliance allows the community to do more business impacting increased revenues to the Government. The Revenue Machinery can be put to more productive use.
Resale or trading of software be exempted from Service Tax
Following the same spirit of CBDT notification No. 21/2012 the CBEC may exempt the resale of software from Service Tax since it is a mere activity with a nominal trading margin.
Reduction in fruitless compliance gives time to the community to do more business impacting increased revenues to the Government. The Revenue Machinery can be put to more productive use.
Simplify by charging Customs Duty/Excise Duty/ Service Tax at First Level of Sale
The software irrespective of type should be charged to a single type of tax - Viz. either Custom Duty/Excise Duty or Service tax at the first level. Subsequent sale may be made VATable only like any other tradable Commodity. Refer to our suggestion on creating “Trading of Software Subscriptions & Services�
Reduction in fruitless compliance gives time to the community to do more business impacting increased revenues to the Government. The Revenue Machinery can be put to more productive use.
CENVAT not allowed on sale to exempted customer/area
Disallowance of CENVAT credit for software services provided in SEZ, J & K, etc., where service tax is not applicable.
Direct impact on margins being reduced by the input Service Tax being disallowed as CENVAT credit. Some Customers manipulate the facility to avoid paying Service Tax.
Online Sales by MNC Vendors
Many MNC vendors are using the loop holes in the system and selling software from outside India, like Singapore, without payment of Customs Duty/Excise Duty/Service Tax.
This is a major area of Revenue leakage for the Government. We must learn from the Revenue Department of Kerala which crack downed the online shopping in Kerala on account of loss of revenue to the state exchequer.
SME CHANNELS 33 JANUARY 2015
MANUFACTURING
“A MAN WITH ASTUTE ATTITUDE”
Mr. KR Naik, Executive Chairman, Smartlink Network Systems Ltd. has never been bogged down by the internal or external pressure. He has exceptionally pursued his goal of manufacturing in India and utilizing the Indian talent to bring out world-class products.
M
r. KR Naik, Executive Chairman, Smartlink Network Systems Ltd. represents the typical Indian manufacturing. His struggles represent the struggle of most of the Indian IT manufactures’ struggle and his success also represents the success of the most of the Indian manufacturing sector. Mr.Naik, defied all the odds, when he started manufacturing strongly in his Goa facility, the global developments from his suppliers’ side pulled down the curtains on his enthusiasm. However he did not relent to the pressure but continued his passion of manufacturing but on a smaller scale. Starting his career in IBM during 1969, he has come all the way till now to be known as a man with exceptional business acumen with his man management skills. He said,” The Govt. of India’s diktat to IBM to design and manufacture products in India in 1974 gave me a very good exposure on the IT product engineering side.” “I was among one of the 100+ engineers who designed, and developed the first data processing cum fast speed printing machine in two years. The components got manufactured from 200+ vendors all over India, using lot of IBM US know how. The process of manufacturing for all of us was valuable and a real learning for me,” he added.
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It was his experience in manufacturing processes & the kind of processes used by engineers that helped him to setup Tool Room kind of setup and manufacture complicated parts for maintenance of old IBM peripherals after IBM left our country. As the import custom duty for spare parts was high he earned good money from maintenance companies such as CMC, CMS as many maintenance companies used to maintain Mainframe machines of IBM. Around 1984 personal computers started appearing in the market and as he was in touch with the IT industry main frame people, he entered in to personal computers manufacturing by setting up assembly line, importing soldering machine from USA under his brand “Virtual Computers”in Mumbai. But during the initial days of PCs, this market faced all kinds of problems such as high custom duty, License Raj to get license to manufacture PCs from Delhi, importing of hard disks, and floppy drives, key boards etc. as per the sanctioned numbers in import license and buying material in cash from smugglers and undervaluing importers who had a good understanding with custom authorities. He added, “People smuggled high cost, high custom duty CPU processors and ICs by hiding it inside TVs, or video recorders. Many Indian
MR. KR NAIK, EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN, SMARTLINK NETWORK SYSTEMS LTD.
“MR.NAIK IS HOPEFUL THAT POST THE PARLIAMENT ELECTIONS, THE NEW GOVERNMENT IS SUPPORTING LOCAL MANUFACTURING AND HE HOPES HE CAN AGAIN INCREASE THE MANUFACTURING BASE AND TARGET NEARBY COUNTRIES LIKE MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICAN COUNTRIES FOR EXPORTS.”
MANUFACTURING
SOME OF SMARTLINK TIE-UPS 1994/5: Smartlink had a joint venture and name changed to "D-Link India pvt. Ltd.
and grown business in Active range products and parted off in 2008 by giving away D-Link brand and changed name of the company back to "Smartlink Network Systems Ltd." continued with Factory & R& D setup etc& became an independent company. New D-Link formed as separate products trading company.
1995/6: Joint venture with "Sapphire UK Ltd." in Cabling (Passive) products line, but Sapphire UK closed down its operation in UK in 1998 due to losses, then in India new DIGILINK brand established in year 2004. In the year 2011 business transferred with setup to French Company.
2004: Collaborated with American Company ‘Foundry US' in high end active networking products line and introduced products in market as co-brand. After five years both parted off and Foundry became an independent company in India.
2001: Joint venture with GIGABYTE Taiwan and formed Gigabyte India Ltd. and parted off after five years. Gigabyte India Pvt. Ltd became an independent company.
brand computer companies were depending on wrong way importers with false invoices.” Till late 1980’s maximum business was done in cash. With the decrease in the custom duty on components compared to finished products many started assembling computer mother boards, add on cards, etc. All the computer manufacturers were buying products like hard disk, floppy drives, key boards, mother boards etc. from these people as price was much lower than importing by paying high custom duty. He added, “I was lucky to have started a new setup in Goa under name SmartlinkPvt. Ltd. with verbal assurance of joint venture by D-Link Taiwan in 1993 and didn’t have to deal with illegal practices. D-Link Corporation Taiwan delayed and signed up Joint Venture in Jan 1995 after 2 years of starting Goa operation. Due to 25% to 35% custom duty difference between finished products and components level we were able to grow in a big way and once we had 7 SMT lines, 900+ people working in Goa factory over and above other staff all over India in sales & marketing. It has been 20 years, since 1994 and we no longer have to deal with illegal importers.” With the custom duty difference between finished products and components becoming lower and lower every year due to WTO agreement ultimately reducing to zero percent in 2006, manufacturing became unviable. Slowly, he had reduced the manufacturing and scrapped many SMT lines. Goa Factory used to manufacture 600,000 mother boards and many types of networking products in thousands per year. Today, the company has only two SMT lines active and reduced factory employees. In 1995/6 we also took up distribution of Cisco manageable switches in India. After convincing D-Link Corporation Taiwan, in year 2000 Mr Naik started R&D unit in Bangalore. D-Link Taiwan used India’s R&D setup for four years and Mr Naik was happy as the local talent was getting developed.
But all of a sudden and bad luck for India that D-Link Corporation Taiwan split their operations. The factory and R&D were separated and formed a new company named ALFA NETWORK with Factory and R&D. The headquarters with outside Taiwan operations, formed as separate Brand company with sales & marketing of products with hardly 100+ people. Alfa Network became the OEM supplier and started supplying products to many companies including to D-Link Corporation all over world. This did not augur well for India operation as their R&D was made redundant as the Indian company was working only on D-Link Taiwan R&D projects. Mr Naik maintained, “Then we instead of closing started our own development of products including IP Phone, Video Phones, IPPBX, etc. and all these are working even today without any support. Our IP phones were one of the earliest and best but as Internet calling was not allowed in India we exported to many countries. Then we developed routers, dial-up modems and we continued with our R&D in Banglore. With increasing shift of Taiwanese companies to Schenzen, China after 1995 led to high volume manufacturing, drastically bringing down the products’ prices. China Govt. supported their exporters relentlessly, hence products were available at BOM cost. As India could not use its setup to manufacture products and go to market mainly due to high cost had to close down its Banglore R&D in 2008. On the other hand, local products’ price could not match with the imported Chinese products’ price. By then India had developed twelve different types of products in VOIP, routers, set of box,etc. which was of no use as there was absolutely no government support. He comments, “This didn’t dishearten me and as I had a good exposure in Cabling (Passive products) I ventured into this market by forming a joint venture with a UK-based company in 1996 - “Sapphire UK Ltd. however, the company
could not invest money and we parted ways but I stared manufacturing passive product, Later on as our business started growing we started our own R&D and created the DIGILINK brand. I patented my special contact design and started manufacturing one high volume required products in India at very low cost. With this, the business once again took off and D-Link (Active products) & DIGILINK (Passive products) have become 50:50 business. D-Link Taiwan Chairman felt having reached two brands D-Link (Taiwan) & DIGILINK (India) 50:50 business it’s better to form two separate companies to concentrate with holding individual majority in Active & Passive products as two separate businesses. Therefore the demerger of the company was inevitable, D-Link India Ltd. company name changed back to Smartlink Network System Ltd. by giving away D-Link brand business and retaining DIGILINK business. D-Link corporation Taiwan formed new D-Link India Ltd, and started Trading products in India. Both the companies swapped shares to hold majority individually, Naik in Smartlink Network System with DIGILINK brand Passive products manufacturing and marketing in India. Post demerger, Smartlink entered into active products’ business under DIGISOL brand using the setup made for manufacturing Active products along with DIGILINK passive products. DIGILINK was No.1 in India for three years and we had an opportunity to transfer DIGILINK business which was not growing to a French multinational company for USD 100 million in 2011. Today, Smartlink is an independent listed company having Active products line under DIGISOL brand. Mr.Naik is hopeful that post the parliament elections, the new government is supporting local manufacturing and he hopes he can again increase the manufacturing base and target nearby countries like Middle East and African countries for exports.
SME CHANNELS 35 JANUARY 2015
SECURITY IN 2015
36 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
SECURITY IN 2015
CYBEROAM MAKES 8 SECURITY PREDICTION FOR 2015 The 8 predictions made are based on the latest IT trends that closely impact all of us since they co-exist in our personal as well as professional spaces like the Internet of Things, Geo-political interferences, attacks on iOS, newer authentication methods replacing traditional passwords, and more.
T
he Security predictions have been prepared with insights from the Cyberoam Threat Research Labs (CTRL). Cyberoam has published its Security Predictions for 2015. These predictions give an overview of industry trends and security challenges businesses are likely to come across in 2015. The Security predictions have been prepared with insights from the Cyberoam Threat Research Labs (CTRL). The 8 predictions made are based on the latest IT trends that closely impact all of us since they co-exist in our personal
as well as professional spaces like the Internet of Things, Geo-political interferences, attacks on iOS, newer authentication methods replacing traditional passwords, and more. New threat trends like malvertising, exploitation of legacy protocols, et al, also share the spotlight among the predictions for 2015.
1
Dark clouds over Internet of Things (IOT)
This year IOT will gain wider visibility due to its advancements as well as vulnerabilities. As SCADA systems adopt
IOT, their exposure to cyber threats will increase. Remotely connected and automated building control systems also face a similar challenge. Around 2.2 million SCADA and BACnet devices are already exposed to potential cyber-threats as these are identifiable via SHODAN – a search engine for Internet-connected devices. Meanwhile, government safety requirements such as eCall (Internet assisted emergency reporting in vehicles in Europe) and consumer demand for seamless data connectivity have opened gates for Connected Car infrastructure,
SME CHANNELS 37 JANUARY 2015
SECURITY IN 2015
which is bringing automakers, telcos and the techgiants (Google, Samsung & Apple) to a common drawing board. This is a classic example of IoT at work in our day-to-day lives. Meanwhile, mobile apps have started featuring in the Connected Car infrastructure and it is just a matter of time before the vulnerabilities are discovered.
2
Geo-Political Interference
In 2014, the US Department of Homeland Security revealed a trojan named Black Energy affecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. Exploits of Syrian Electronic Army and Regin APT malware campaign also hit headlines. The Geopolitical landscape is changing dramatically around the world and Internet cannot remain insulated from its effects; in fact Internet has become a critical tool for government sponsored propagandas, espionage and cyber-attacks. APT malwares sometimes used in these campaigns grossly undermine legal boundaries. Such malwares were found waiting to be activated in networks of oil and gas pipelines, power transmission grids, water distribution and filtration systems, wind turbines and even some nuclear plants in the US. In such cases, large private businesses also come in the line of fire every now and then. If conditions deteriorate, which seems to be a decent probability in the coming year, there will be a larger impetus on cyber-attacks from the nations involved, some of which could be revealed during the year itself.
3
Legacy Protocols on target
POODLE, Shellshock and Heartbleed are examples of vulnerabilities in code which sit hidden for years before been discovered and exploited. The legacy protocols on which Internet seems to run all so well are far from perfect and cyber criminals will continue to exploit the loopholes to their advantage. Some of these protocols being open source face a larger threat. Moreover, as the Internet makes transition from IPv4 to IPv6, cybercriminals would hunt for latent security gaps. In addition to the vulnerabilities in web browsers, one can also expect client side attacks exploiting application vulnerabilities in widely used frameworks like Adobe, Java, thereby aggravating network security challenges for IT admins in 2015.
38 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
4
Healthcare Bleeds
5
Malvertising and Attacks on Email
Given that healthcare sector is making rapid strides globally in embracing technology and digitising patient care along with storing personally identifiable information, there is a need to strengthen information security. Securing Healthcare data is critical as it is at a higher risk given the fact that this data fetches much higher value in black market than credit card numbers, because it can provide access to bank accounts or help in obtaining prescriptions for controlled drugs. Healthcare sector needs significant improvements in its cyber-preparedness – a fact FBI made amply clear in 2014 when Community Health Systems faced a security breach leading to theft of 4.5 million patient records in the US. More such breaches are expected in 2015.
2014 saw ad networks on reputed websites like Yahoo, AOL and Google being compromised to distribute malvertisements. Malvertising (placing malware laden advertisements on reputed/popular webpages) is likely to become more of a nuisance in 2015. Ad networks are continually compromised and threat actors are relying on the fact that blocking every ad or testing every ad network is not a practical solution. Malvertisers are also at advantage as reputed websites (news and infotainment) are rarely blocked by office firewalls. Meanwhile, if reports are to be believed, Spam is on a decline. This is partly due to the fact that spammers have devised other advanced ways to land mail in the inbox, while others have moved on to sophisticated spear phishing attacks targeting individuals behind corporate firewalls. Nonetheless, the old tactics of crafting fraudulent mails around major global/local events is still profitable for Spammers. 2015 will not be any different in this regard, though one can expect to see some newer tricks for evading current email security solutions.
6
Demand for Context Aware Security
Networks these days generate huge amount of data. This data contains enough cues to offer patterns of human behaviour that can be used to predict and prevent cyber-attacks. However, comprehending and co-relating data out of various logs and reports to get meaningful infor-
mation requires time and skills. Besides, it carries the risk of human oversight. Enterprises need a security model to harness this information and interpret network traffic to identify suspicious patterns and events. In such a scenario, Big Data analytics tools can offer huge help in co-relating the data with a given user model to spot risky users and trends in a network. In fact, BFSI organisations have already started leveraging Big Data based security analytics for early fraud detection and prevention. Employing the advancements in Big Data analytics, Context Aware Security solutions such as Cyberoam’s User Threat Quotient (UTQ) can help IT admins in tasks akin to finding a needle in a haystack – identifying a user posing security risk in a network. In 2015, such solutions will prominently be employed by organisations seeking actionable security intelligence.
7
iOS on the radar of cyber-criminals; Android attacks to continue Mobile malwares will make a major impact in 2015, as more people are now using handheld devices to access critical business data from cloud apart from banking and payments. In this scenario, the new Android OS, Lollipop, will be put to test. At the same time, as enterprises embrace Apple apps and use of iOS-based devices grows, these are getting on the radar of cyber criminals. Recent trends suggest that in 2015, iOS will get hit by phishing attacks and malwares on a larger scale than ever before.
8
Solving the puzzle called ‘Password’
The quest for replacing ‘password’ as an authentication procedure will gain momentum. It is reported that an increasing number of millennials in the US prefer Apple’s Fingerprint Scan for authentication purpose. However, scaling up biometric authentication techniques like fingerprint scan is a big challenge. Moreover, standalone biometric authentication is not as full proof as thought earlier. Considering recent incidents of data breaches and credential thefts in mind, the FIDO Alliance recently released its long-awaited 1.0 specifications for passwordless and multifactor authentication systems. A major push to move away from passwords is likely to make hackers more than just shift in their seats.
SME CHAT
VINAY JADHAV DIRECTOR, VIGILANT TECHNOLOGIES, HYDERABAD, ANDHRA PRADESH
“THE NEXT FIVE YEARS IS VERY STRATEGIC IN TELECOM” After the announcement of 100% FDI in telecom segment Hyderabadbased Vigilant Technologies is expecting more competition in coming days. In a chat with SME Channels its director Vinay Jadhav talks about how this announcement will change things in the market.
Brief us about your company? VIGILANT is a leading IT & telecom service provider with an experience of ten years, having innovated in the field of IT/telecom & networking solutions. Our proficiency lies in blending knowledge, experience and innovations for delivering quality solutions at par, with global standards. A commitment we achieve with our dynamic team of engineers, working in unison with the research and marketing divisions. We have a strong foot hold in enterprise voice and data services with over 200 satisfied enterprise clients. What is your strength in terms of market reach and others? Our strength lies in our people, hence we believe in keeping both our direct sales team and indirect sales (Channel partners) updated on the technology, changing market dynamics. Besides this, we bring utmost synchronization with our backend sales and front sales team resulting in effective market penetration. What kind of solutions and products you are dealing in? We provide end-to-end telecom solution, design and deploy large telecom networks, telecom consultation etc. Our turn over is about Rs. 3 crore.
What kind of telecom solutions you have? We provide enterprise telecom services which include, basic PBX, IP-PBX large telecom networks like MPLS, converged solution, call centre solutions, international telephony etc. How do you find Matrix products in terms of its advantages vis-àvis other brands? Matrix is SUBSTANCE brand. Substance is in the DNA of Matrix solutions. Substance in the form of technology, depth, genuineness and going beyond the mere outer façade and offer more values in all the areas. This is what differentiates Matrix from the lot. Matrix solutions are packed with More. More productivity, more applications, more flexibility, more functions, more features, more cost saving, more reliability, and more support. Matrix positioning is based on offering more of these true inherent values which customers expect from infrastructure solutions. What is the potential and challenge for Matrix in the market? One of the main advantage of Matrix is its wide spread partner network. Besides this Matrix today offers wide range of products which very few companies offer. This combination of
“AS ALREADY MENTIONED OUR FOCUS IS TO PROVIDE END TO END ICT (INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY) SOLUTIONS.” products makes the killing propositions. The challenge is that the telecom industry is changing drastically with many competitions creating their base in India. Matrix has to stay ahead by introducing enterprise unified communication features. What the company needs to do to improve the market share? The company has a lesser presence in the IT industry, as this segment demands more collaborative, converge and unified communication solutions. Matrix today has collaborative and mobility solutions but require working on tighter integration of this solution; bring in integration with outlook, Lync etc. As a partner what kind of products you want to add this year? As already mentioned our focus is to provide end to end ICT (Information and communication technology) solutions. We are working in to introduce intelligent endpoints, also in a road map to provide one stop solution for enterprise Voice and Video.
SME CHANNELS 39 JANUARY 2015
SME TREND
ORACLE
ORACLE CHARTS AGGRESSIVE GROWTH STRATEGY Oracle which embraced Cloud three years back has posted good growth in the last quarter. Cloud will form one of the growth strategies for FY15 apart from Oracleon-Oracle and Platform innovation. BY: KARMA NEGI
karma@smechannels.com
E
ven though a late entrant in the cloud market, Oracle Corp. has made major strides and posted strong results for the second quarter of fiscal 2015 on December 17th. The major highlight was the revenue from Cloud business which grew 47% year over year up from $475 million in the previous quarter to reach total revenue of $590 million. While Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platformas-a-Service (PaaS), grew by 41% compared to the previous year to reach $364 million in revenues; Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) accelerated by 62% year over year to reach revenues of $155 million. Once a total atheist when it came to cloud Oracle has changed its thinking and is betting big on this technology. Cloud was among the major highlights at the recently concluded Oracle India Partner Forum 2015 at Bangkok the others being engineered system, Oracle on Oracle and mobility. The Forum also provided its partners with the
40 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
strategies, insights and resources they need to succeed and profit with Oracle. Namit Sinha, Senior Director, Alliances and Channels, Oracle India, started the session with an introduction on the Oracle India business. “Oracle India business has been growing very well in the last few years we have grown quarter on quarter… Our indirect business contributed to around 70% of the total revenue,” he revealed. He further announced Oracle India’s three major initiatives for FY15 which will revolve around Cloud, Oracle on Oracle and Platform innovation. Addressing the partners Mark Lewis, Senior Vice President, Alliances & Channels, Oracle APAC, says, “India is outperforming in Cloud market and partners have opportunities in terms of refer, resell, aggregate and orchestrate. You can specialize, deliver choices to customers, offer your solutions on Oracle’s public cloud and develop, market and sell complimentary cloud services.” He further referred to the engineered system
as a massive and untapped opportunity in India. Platform as a service which forms as another constituent of its cloud services is the fastest moving area of Oracle and will move very quickly, says Lewis, due to natural legacy. For the next 18 months Cloud integration will remain the most critical area for Oracle. Here it hopes to leverage its platform innovation and says “is a huge opportunity not to be missed by the partners”. During the panel discussions leaders of different business divisions spoke about how the market is full of opportunity. R Srinivasan, Senior Director, EPM & BI, Oracle APAC, talked about how the analytics market has witnessed double digit growth and how it helps organisations to grow forward. Amit Malhotra, Head of System Sales, Oracle India highlighted the rapid growth of the engineering system in double digit, more than hardware industry, and how they are hungry to work with partners and also in the process
ORACLE
of hiring people and their intention to do more hardware business in the public sector. Its apps business which is all about SaaS has witnessed a triple digit growth in cloud and Niraj kaushik, VP, Application sales, highlighted how they are now number 2 in the cloud. With 150 people in sales plans are to increase this to 300 in the next 18 months. With the renewed focus on public sector, which is currently contributing 20% of the business, Oracle India is now looking at taking this to 40-50%. “Q3 and Q4 are looking good and we want to go deeper into ministries and are investing in replicable solutions, in branches in top 10 states and see a lot of potential,” says Vineet Kshirsagar, Senior director, government business, Oracle India. Oracle India has five lines of business - technology, database, middleware, analytics, and systems division and applications - and three go-tomarket strategies for Key Accounts, Geo Expansion and Public Sector. With regards to geog
expansion it started to increase its footprints last year by opening offices in five cities: Ahmedabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Gujarat and Pune. And is further expanding into five more cities: Chandigarh which will cater to Punjab, Himachal, J&K and Uttaranchal; Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhopal and Kerala. Each branch size will consist of around 21 people and is in the process of hiring aggressively. With a headcount of 1800 people (excluding people in the development centers) plans are to make an addition of 10% in the next two months. Oracle India accounts for 1000 partners with 18 key accounts. Oracle India has three types of partners: SIs, ISVs and tier 2 and reseller partners. In the last category it brought on board some of SUN Microsystems partners, a company which Oracle acquired a couple of years back. To bring more partners into the fold it is also encouraging it partners who are selling either Oracle-on-Oracle or database to sell middleware too and giving them enticing rebates.
SME TREND
Oracle India has three accounts: Key accounts, named accounts and SMB or commercial. The key accounts number 18 and named accounts is 600. And each segment contributes in the ratio of 40:20:20 to the overall business. The SMB strategy has been product led and building product offerings that is suited to an SMB type deployment. Shailender Kumar, MD, Oracle India, comments, “Cloud is the best answer for SMEs whether its SaaS or PaaS.” People who wnnat on premise kind of solution we have we have a very big team which we call the commercial team and they are given all LOBs.” He further adds that Oracle has done 40 acquisitions in the last three years to ensure our cloud portfolio is very comprehensive and complete. “Our competitors are providing a cluster of services but who is going to integrate them? We provide a suite of apps so that you don’t have to do what we have done. We are going to invest more and more and are already number two in cloud.”
SME CHANNELS 41 JANUARY 2015
SME CHAT
A SAIFUDDIN SENIOR SALES DIRECTOR - SOUTH ASIA, MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA, WD
“STORAGE IS BECOMING BIGGER YET SMALLER” As per a NASSCOM report SMBs are expected to spend about US$18.5 billion (Rs.1.11 trillion) on information technology (IT) by FY18. In a chat with SME Channels Khwaja Saifuddin, Senior Sales Director - South Asia, Middle East and Africa, WD talks about the opportunities present in the storage market.
As a storage solutions provider how do you see technology shaping up the storage market in 2015? With improving internet connectivity, cheaper broadband subscriptions, and a plethora of feature-rich affordable devices inundating the market, personal cloud solutions are likely to become popular not just among consumers but among SMBs and SOHOs as well. Personal clouds give consumers the freedom to access their files from any location on any device without having to actually carry a physical storage drive with them as long as they are connected through an internet. Apart from single-bay My Cloud, WD also introduced My Cloud Mirror, a variant of My Cloud that besides providing the users the benefit of a personal cloud, also mirrors or takes a backup of their data on the second drive, therefore, ensuring that their precious data is safe. My Cloud EX2 and My Cloud EX4 systems belong to My Cloud family of personal cloud solutions and are designed to fulfil data storage needs of creative professionals, prosumers, workgroups and anyone looking for a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage massive amounts of digital data. Another segment is the NAS-enabled surveil-
42 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
lance systems where storage happens centrally and the recording can be accessed through a variety of devices. It is also picking up fast as more and more houses have started deploying surveillance cameras at a time where crimes are being reported at an unprecedented speed. Storage is becoming bigger yet smaller which basically means that more terabytes now come packed in a smaller area.
mean a lot of data. There would be huge demand for CCTV cameras and the accompanying surveillance drives in the smart cities and we have specialized WD Purple line of drives which are specifically meant for surveillance. The demand for digital storage is not just coming from the metros, but substantial demand is arising from Tier II and III cities as well and we are reaching out to those markets..
What are the predictions for storage for 2015? You can find storage everywhere that digital information and content is found: in the cloud, in your mobile digital lifestyle; in laptops and personal computers; in external storage devices; in the digital video recorder in your home; and in surveillance systems. Beyond consumers, SMBs and SOHOs, the government is likely to be a major user of digital storage solutions. Digital India initiative is one such initiative. More data centers will probably be developed as part of this initiative. Additionally, increased connectivity is expected to catalyse the adoption of gadgets such as smartphones, computers, laptops, tablets etc. With the enhanced usage of gadgets, the demand for digital storage will go up. Similarly, smart cities
From which segments is WD registering strong growth? WD desktop drives, laptop drives, My Passport range of products, our personal cloud— My Cloud—range of products are quite popular. There is a huge demand for the CCTV cameras and our specialized Purple surveillance drives are also moving fast. Our home entertainment products such as media player, WD TV Live have also seen good uptake among our consumers. What upcoming channel initiatives does WD plan to undertake in the coming months? We continue to build mutually beneficial relationships with our channel partners and ensure that we invest enough time and effort to listen to
SME CHAT
“THE SMB MARKET IS EFFICIENTLY ADDRESSED BY A STRONG DISTRIBUTOR NETWORK AND COMPRISES INDEPENDENT RESELLERS ACROSS INDIA. THESE PARTNERSHIPS ARE SUPPORTED BY PROGRAMS AIMED AT IMPARTING QUALITY TRAINING AND BENEFITS TO OUR DISTRIBUTION NETWORK.” educate them about our storage solutions and we will continue to have such engagements in future.
their concerns, provide solutions and train them on our products and after sales services so they can properly address the needs of our consumers. We also conduct channel partner meets and training continually across major cities in India as well as in smaller cities to engage with our partner community. ‘WD Master Blaster’ is a way of reaching out to our channel partners at their doorsteps and updating them on our solutions in a fun-filled manner. ‘WD Ki Paathshaala’ consists of regular training sessions with our channel partners to apprise them of our offerings. ‘WD Contact Program’ helps to initiate and grow relationships with relatively new channel partners in the upcountry markets and provide them direct access to the company. The myWD Partner Program is specifically created to help our resellers, solution providers and system integrators grow their business. The program offers a comprehensive line up of benefits including direct incentives, exciting member-only
promotions, exclusive access to a rich set of marketing tools and more, while maintaining established purchasing and fulfilment relationships with our distributors. WD University is a valuable resource that helps it easier for the partners to sell WD products by staying up-to-date with product information to build the knowledge and expertise. How are you targeting the SMB market? What is the GTM for this segment? The SMB market is efficiently addressed by a strong distributor network and comprises independent resellers across India. These partnerships are supported by programs aimed at imparting quality training and benefits to our distribution network. My Cloud EX2 and My Cloud EX4 are suitable storage solutions for SMBs and SOHOs. We have also done multicity campaigns where we directly engage with potential SMB customers to
Elaborate on the growth of the SMB market throughout the country and the products WD has to offer them, like WD My Cloud EX4 and My Cloud EX2. According to a Nasscom study conducted by research firm Frost and Sullivan, SMBs are expected to spend about US$18.5 billion (Rs.1.11 trillion) on information technology (IT) by FY18. This is likely to be driven by growing adoption of cloud and mobility solutions. We have personal cloud solutions for SMBs and SOHOs that offer a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage massive amounts of data. My Cloud EX2 and My Cloud EX4 devices are high-performance two-bay and four-bay network attached storage (NAS) solutions, respectively. They provide an easy and private way to store large quantities of business-related data, access it and manage it from anywhere in the world using any device. We also have WD Sentinel series of Windows storage servers. WD Sentinel DX4000 is easy to install and provides secure centralized storage, complete data protection and data access for employees, clients or vendors while in the office or working remotely from anywhere. It features hardware and software from industry leaders and delivers a reliable, cost effective and easy-to-manage storage server designed for small office environments.
SME CHANNELS 43 JANUARY 2015
SME BIZ
SOPHOS
SOPHOS TO RAISE FOCUS ON INDIAN MID-MARKET Cyberoam will remain as an independent brand until it becomes less prominent and Sophos in no rush to assimilate this brand.
S
ophos is all set to strengthen its market presence in Indian ‘Mid-Market & Pragmatic Enterprise’ segment to over 40% in next three to four years. This would enable Sophos to further consolidate its position in the Indian cyber security industry. As per Kris Hagerman, Chief Executive Officer, Sophos, the Indian mid-market is a massive under-served market and Sophos will adopt ‘Project Galileo Strategy’ whereby it will further consolidate its approach of shifting the security world from individual, stand-alone components to integrated end-user, server and network protection that compare notes, correlate, and proactively respond to threats. “We believe there is a massive opportunity to use new technologies like Cloud, big data, and the ability to connect different “silos” of IT security (like network, endpoint, and mobile) to deliver better security for Indian businesses. And there is also a chance to combine great technology with a focus on a simple and approachable user experience and design that has been largely missing from the IT security landscape”. Kris said that the single most factors, which sets Sophos apart from other security vendors in the world is its focus on mid-market and pragmatic enterprises – number of which is approximately 30 - 50 million around the world. As per him, most of the vendors in the competition focus either on the consumer or 2000 large customers in the world. Second differentiator of Sophos from others is that it is the only company which offers single cloud based management console that addresses
44 SME CHANNELS JANUARY 2015
normal security, server security, network security, encryption, email security and web security from management and monitoring stand point. Asked about what is the special purpose of his visit, Kris revealed that he would like to visit major offices around the world periodically and their Ahmedabad office, which houses over 500 workforce is certainly one of the reasons to visit India. Secondly, he could see significant new market opportunity for Sophos in India. Answer to the question about whether Cyberoam to remained as an independent brand, he said, “The integration of both the companies (Sophos and Cyberoam) is the most successful one and ever since the Sophos has acquired Cyberom, both the companies have achieved new growth records and new revenue records. Our priority is that both the company’s business keeps growing and keeps maintaining its momentum and over time, we expect the brands to come together. And over time as Sophos brand becomes more and more prominent and as Cyberoam brand becomes less prominent until a point when it would make sense to make both the brands a single brand. We are in no rush. We want to server Cyberoam customers really well and we will continue to server Cyberoam partners really.” He revealed that from the product side, the company will have similar strategy as 30-40 thousand customers use Cyberoam products and 50-60 thousand customers use Sophos UTM. As a parent company Sophos is going to maintain and innovate those going forward. At the same time, Sophos is trying to develop a new product using the best technologies of two brands. At the same
KRIS HAGERMAN CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, SOPHOS
“THE SINGLE MOST FACTORS, WHICH SETS SOPHOS APART FROM OTHER SECURITY VENDORS IN THE WORLD IS ITS FOCUS ON MID-MARKET.” time, he conforms that Sophos will never force its customers to choose. If they like Cyberoam products, the company will continue to innovate and advance that. If they like Sophos product, they can still continue that and Sophos will advance and innovate the products from time to time. Asked about why Sophos does not show much aggression in India compared to Middle East and Africa region, Kris answered, “We are working on this. This is a very nice attribute that Cyberoam and Sophos come together. We have now chance to raise our profile in India. We have 500 people working in India now, where we did not have any one up until 12 months back. So we will continue to expand our presence in terms of the team and in term of brand visibility.” “The most important part of our strategic approach is that we will continue to remain a 100 per cent channel company. This will further enhance our reach across the Indian midmarket & pragmatic enterprise”, concluded, KuldeepRaina, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Sophos.
REVIEW
PRODUCT
EPSON EB-1400 SERIES BUSINESS PROJECTORS
NETGEAR NIGHTHAWK R8000
Epson’s new range of business projectors -EB-1400 seriesare aimed at boosting efficiency and productivity in the office while providing true-to-life color projection. As a standard, all the projectors are
BY MANAS RANJAN
powered by Epson’s proprietary 3LCD
info@smechannels.com
technology, which produce images that are
NIGHTHAWK R8000 IS THE FIRST tri-band WiFi router available for purchase from Netgearincorporates the powerful new Broadcom 5G WiFiXStream platform. With six high-performance antennas and three network bands, one 2.4GHz and two 5GHz, R8000 delivers the industry’s fastest combined WiFi speed, up to 3.2 Gbps. It balances the network load to ensure the best WiFi performance for each device and deliver the maximum wireless range available today. Today’s homes that combine many new and old WiFi devices need tri-band routers such as the R8000 to optimize the speed of each device, whether it is an old laptop or the newest smartphone. R8000 intelligently segments slower and faster devices into the most appropriate WiFi band. This network load balancing and segmentation enables the R8000 to mitigate interference and more effectively support all WiFi devices. Powered by a 1GHz dual core processor with three additional offload processors, R8000 soars above the competition so you’ll enjoy a blazing-fast WiFi experience using the latest 802.11ac wireless technology, such as the innovative 5G WiFiXStream technology from Broadcom. By optimizing speeds for all your WiFi devices, you’ll be able to game on, stream away, and download mega-sized files without network lag from inside and outside your house, garage and yard.
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WARRANTY 2 years.
OVERALL RATING
which means meeting participants can play a more active role during discussions. The ultra-short throw projectors offer equally high white and colour brightness of 3300 lumens.
n Price: On Request Warranty: 3 Year Contact: Epson India,Phone: 080 3051 5000
SME CHANNELS 45 JANUARY 2015
PRODUCT
NEW ARRIVALS
WD
WD PERSONAL CLOUD STORAGE SOLUTIONS FOR SMBS WD My Cloud EX2 is designed to fulfil data storage needs of creative professionals, prosumers, workgroups and anyone looking for a reliable way to save, share, back up, stream and manage massive amounts of digital data. My Cloud EX2 is high-performance two-bay NAS solution, respectively. My Cloud EX series features WD Red hard drives for ultimate reliability in the unique 24x7 NAS operating environment. The highest capacity available in WD Red drives is 6 TB. WD Red drives are powered by NASware 3.0 technology, improving drive reliability and protecting customer data in the event of a power loss or disruption. The features that My Cloud EX2 offers include enhanced data control and protection, high capacity and reliability, anytime, anywhere access and advanced streaming and serving. Ideal for SMBs and SOHOs in India, it provides an easy and private way to store all their business-related data, access it and manage it from anywhere in the world using any device. In order to manage and monitor with ease the WD My Cloud mobile app is currently available for free download from the App Store and Google Play.
HYPERX Predator PCIe SSD is the highest-end SSD with the fastest speeds in the HyperX lineup. Offering large capacities (240GB and 480GB) and incredible speeds to take systems to the edge, HyperX Predator PCIe SSD is faster than SATA-based SSDs, the generation 2.0 x4 interface delivers speeds up to 1400MB/s read and 1000MB/s write for ultra-responsive multitasking and an overall faster system. It is powered by the Marvell 88SS9293 controller. The M.2 form factor ensures next-generation platform support with an M.2 PCIe slot. An optional half-height, half-length (HHHL) adapter is also available for many existing motherboards without an M.2 socket. The HHHL adapter comes with both standard and lowprofile brackets to fit in slim profile desktop builds. It is ideal for the enthusiast desktop users and datacenter customers who seek greater performance.
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HYPERX
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BROTHER
BROTHER INKJET MFC - MFC-J2320 INKBENEFIT BROTHER INTERNATIONAL’S new Inkjet Multi-Function Centre - MFC-J2320 InkBenefit with A3 print capability aimed at home offices (SOHO) and small businesses. MFC-J2320 InkBenefit offers multiple functionalities tailored for business usage while keeping the price affordable. It gives businesses both outstanding value and the benefit of work productivity. Developed with business users’ needs at the heart of the design, the new inkjet Multi-Function Centre packs a myriad of essential business features in small footprint. Its A3 print capability allows users to print detailed spreadsheet, precise blueprints and stunning photographs in impactful A3 format. In addition, the range boasts fast print speeds of up to 22 monochrome and 20 colour pages per minute (based on ISO/IEC 24734). It also enables users to print images directly from digital camera and USB memory stick without the need to turn on the PC, and it supports mobile and cloud printing. These features boost work productivity, and give users more time to get on with more important tasks at work. n Price: 17, 990, Warranty:On Request, Contact: 1-800-222-422 (For MTNL & BSNL users) Others : 1-800-209-8904 Email : customercare@brother.in
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Date of Publication: 20 of Every Month Date of Posting: 22 & 23 of Every Month