5 top technologies for 2012

S P I N E

Technology for Growth and Governance

CT

O

FO

RU

M

A QUESTION OF ANSWERS

Managing Big Data

PAGE 16

I BELIEVE

Don’t Fight, EmbraceMobility

PAGE 04

VIEWPOINT

UC and Videoin the Cloud

PAGE 64

TopTechnologies2012for

An in-depth look at five key trends that are here to stay, and take enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability Page 34 Volum

e 07 | Issue 09

December | 21 | 2011 | 50Volume 07 | Issue 09

DO

N’T

FIG

HT, E

MB

RA

CE

MO

BIL

ITY

| PC

I CO

MP

LIA

NC

E: W

HA

T IS

IN-S

CO

PE

? | INT

ER

NA

L A

UD

ITIN

G F

OR

IMP

RO

VE

D E

FF

ICIE

NC

Y

A 9.9 Media Publication

Learn more at trendmicro.com/cloud-security

WITH CLOUD SECURITY SOLUTIONS FROM TREND MICRO

NAVIGATE YOUR BUSINESS TO NEW HEIGHTS

Trend Micro allows you to fully capitalize on the operational benefits of virtualization and cloud computing with innovative solutions for security and compliance. These include the first and only

agentless antivirus, intrusion prevention and integrity monitoring solutions for virtualized datacenters and desktops. Additionally, our encryption and key management solution for public, private and hybrid clouds allows you to better manage and secure your data wherever it resides.

The result is a true business advantage.

TREND MICRO IS #1 INVIRTUALIZATION SECURITY*

*Sourced from: Worldwide Endpoint Security 2010-2014 Forecast and 2009 Vendor Shares, IDC

For more information, visit us at www.trendmicro.co.inCall: 1800 103 6778

Email: [email protected]: 91-11-42699000 Mumbai: 91-22-26573023 Bangalore: 91-80-40965068

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

IND_9DOT_CTO_210x280_15JAN_PLANE_FA.pdf 1 21-Oct-11 1:12:46 PM

1 21 december 2011 cto forumThe Chief

TeChnologyoffiCer forum

editorialyashvendra singh | [email protected]

editor’s pick

Anticipate and Prepare At the end of 2012,

we would have witnessed greater efficiencies and innovations than

we saw in our boom years.

34 Top 5 Tech Trends of 2012An in-depth look at five key trends that are here to stay, and take enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability

it is customary at the end of the year to take stock of the past 12

months and predict for the next 12. As we at CTo forum contem-plated the recent past and the vis-ible future, one thing was crystal clear -- with the economic uncer-tainty continuing, we will face an environment of constrained resources. But what is worth debating is the possible outcomes of this for the Cio’s office.

innovation experts have sug-gested for a long time that an environment of constraints is the

their overall spends and dispens-ing with non-essential activities to drive down costs. Wherever iT is viewed simply as a ‘cost centre’, it is likely to see budgets being pruned. in our view, the time is ripe for the Cio’s office to accelerate an already visible trend i.e. to develop into a ‘busi-ness unit’ and manage costs in the context of revenues or sub-stituted earnings. Against this overall challenging backdrop, what are some of the ‘top-of-mind’ themes for senior technol-ogy decision-makers? We, at the CTo forum, will do our part to help you stay prepared to meet 2012 head-on. our cover story examines five key trends that are here to stay and help you take your enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability.

Despite their prominence in 2011, cloud computing, social media, big data and business

best positioned to thrown up new solutions to problems. in fact, several management gurus pro-mote an artificially constrained environment to spur innovation. i am convinced that at the end of 2012, we would have witnessed greater efficiencies and innova-tions than we saw in our boom years. As a Cio, you will have the enviable opportunity of demon-strating an ability to do more for less – yet again!

more specifically, the new year could see enterprises reducing

analytics, in-memory comput-ing, and mobility will continue to gain Cio mind share in 2012 given their compelling impact o enterprises.

Some pioneering Cios are already harnessing these tech-nologies. Those tech leaders from amongst you who are yet to test them ‘tough to avoid’ much longer!

Business cycles are a reality. 2012 will fly by and make way for a higher growth environ-ment in the following year. But while it lasts, we have to brace ourselves and demonstrate our willingness and acumen to do ‘more with less’.

i wish you confidence and luck for the new year and look forward to walking the next 12 months in tandem with you.

2 21 December 2011 cto forum The Chief


DEcEmBEr 11

Cover Story

34 | Top Trends of 2012 An in-depth look at five key trends that are here to stay, and take enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability.

CopyrighT, All rights reserved: reproduction in whole or in part without written permission from Nine Dot Nine interactive pvt Ltd. is prohibited. printed and published by Kanak ghosh for Nine Dot Nine interactive pvt Ltd, C/o Kakson house, plot printed at Tara Art printers pvt ltd.A-46-47, Sector-5, NoiDA (U.p.) 201301

ColumnS04 | I belIeve: Don’t FIght, embrace mobIlIty for Cios, mobility can be interesting if they embrace it and a nightmare if they fight it. By G N NaGaraj

64 | vIew poInt: UnIFIeD commUnIcatIons anD vIDeo In the cloUDBye Bye Telco of yesterday. By Steve

DupleSSie

FeatureS24 | best oF breeDnew mInDset towarDs ItPractical ideas by which iT can improve its relationship with business.

Please Recycle This Magazine And Remove Inserts Before

Recycling

Co

ve

r D

eSi

gn

by

Pr

inc

E A

nto

ny

co ntE nt s theCtoForum.Com

34

Managing Director: Dr Pramath Raj SinhaPrinter & Publisher: Kanak Ghosh

Publishing Director: Anuradha Das Mathur

EditorialExecutive Editor: Yashvendra Singh

Assistant Editor: Varun AggarwalAssistant Editor: Ankush Sohoni

dEsignSr Creative Director: Jayan K Narayanan

Art Director: Anil VK Associate Art Director: PC Anoop

Visualisers: Prasanth TR, Anil T & Shokeen Saifi Sr Designers: Sristi Maurya, NV Baiju & Chander Dange

Designers: Suneesh K, Shigil N, Charu Dwivedi Raj Verma, Prince Antony, Binu MP & Peterson

Chief Photographer: Subhojit Paul Photographer: Jiten Gandhi

advisory PanElAnil Garg, CIO, Dabur

David Briskman, CIO, RanbaxyMani Mulki, CIO, Pidilite

Manish Gupta, Director, Enterprise Solutions AMEA, PepsiCo India Foods & Beverages, PepsiCo

Raghu Raman, CEO, National Intelligence Grid, Govt. of IndiaS R Mallela, Former CTO, AFL

Santrupt Misra, Director, Aditya Birla GroupSushil Prakash, Country Head, Emerging Technology-Business

Innovation Group, Tata TeleServicesVijay Sethi, VP-IS, Hero Honda Vishal Salvi, CSO, HDFC Bank

Deepak B Phatak, Subharao M Nilekani Chair Professor and Head, KReSIT, IIT - Bombay

Vijay Mehra, CIO, Cairns Energy

salEs & MarkEtingNational Manager-Events and Special Projects:

Mahantesh Godi (09880436623)Product Manager: Rachit Kinger (9818860797)

GM South: Vinodh K (09740714817)Senior Manager Sales (South):

Ashish Kumar SinghGM North: Lalit Arun (09582262959)

GM West: Sachin Mhashilkar (09920348755) Kolkata: Jayanta Bhattacharya (09331829284)

Production & logisticsSr. GM. Operations: Shivshankar M Hiremath

Manager Operations: Rakesh upadhyay Asst. Manager - Logistics: Vijay Menon Executive Logistics: Nilesh Shiravadekar

Production Executive: Vilas Mhatre Logistics: MP Singh & Mohd. Ansari

oFFicE addrEssPublished, Printed and Owned by Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt

Ltd. Published and printed on their behalf by Kanak Ghosh. Published at Bunglow No. 725, Sector - 1, Shirvane, NerulNavi Mumbai - 400706. Printed at Tara Art Printers Pvt ltd.

A-46-47, Sector-5, NOIDA (U.P.) 201301Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur

For any customer queries and assistance please contact [email protected]

This issue of CTO FORUM includes 12 pages of CSO Forum free with the magazine

www.thectoforum.com

48 | next horIzons: games can transForm bUsIness ‘gameification’ is reaching a tipping point. By DaNiel BurruS

regularS01 | eDItorIal06 | letters08 | enterprIse

roUnD-Upadvertisers’ index

Trend Micro IFCSchneider 5Ricoh 22,23Tata Communications 7Nullcon 13BlueCoat 11Fujitsu 18,19Novell 14,15,37Riverbed IBCIBM BCToshibha 8-ADell 16-A

This index is provided as an additional service.The publisher does not assume

any liabilities for errors or omissions.

56 | no holDs barreD: managIng bIg Data James markarian, eVP and CTo, informatica talks about the importance of managing Big Data.

56

a queStion oF anSwerS

16 |internal iT Vs External Vendors Chuck hollis, CTo, EMC Corp, talks about big data, social media, analytics and the service-driven model of iT.

48

16

I BelIeve

currentchallenge



The auThor has close to 20 years of IT experience in various positions. He has

worked in corporates such as Reliance Capital, Religare Enterprises and ICICI Bank.

By G N NaGaraj, former CIO

leveraging mobility to drive efficiency, collaboration in enterprises

eNTerprIse customer data is now available all across the cloud for all and sundry to access at will. As a liquor store owner, for instance, i would like to look at the data and make calls to people who live in the same neighbourhood with bundled offers perhaps. This example clearly showcases the dire need for enterprise control policies on mobile

devices. it may even call for enter-prises building custom apps and app stores local to their customers (or employees).

Soon these application vendors will be talking on deals directly with busi-ness function heads by-passing iT, exactly the same way SaaS vendors did some time ago. Don’t fight it, embrace it. To achieve this is, a Cio needs to create an app store within the enterprise with relevant apps. he needs to categorise the app store into different sections -- B2C (Apps aimed at enterprise’s customers), B2B (Apps aimed at business partners), B2e (Apps aimed at employees, and marketplace (Place for crowd sourc-ing apps from the eco-system).

The Cio will have to support the mobile apps with cloud storage capabilities. Distribute cloud storage through the app store to employees and partners to deliver collaboration on documents and data. This gives the Cio control.

mobile apps can be leveraged to drive collaboration in social network space through a controlled window.

The app store infrastructure needs to drive governance and ensure man-ageability. it makes sense for Cios to group together and approach device manufacturers for creating this eco-system for corporates. This will deliver two positive outcomes:

This will drive standardisation which will benefit app manufactur-ers and give them an environment of repeatability of sales without need for customisations. Devices will now be bundled with an white label app store and app store framework that reduc-es corporates effort to only branding the app store.

its time Cios start defining the new normal in the application land-scape. life will get interesting if you embrace and facilitate proliferation on your turf , on your terms; a night-mare to deal with if you fight it!

Don’t Fight, Embrace Mobility For cIOs, mobility can be interesting if they embrace it and a nightmare if they fight it

©2011 Schneider Electric. All Rights Reserved. Schneider Electric, InfraStruxure, StruxureWare, and APC are trademarks owned by Schneider Electric Industries SAS or its affiliated companies. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners. • 998-4108_IN-GB • Schneider Electric India Pvt Ltd, 9th Floor, DLF Building No. 10, Tower C, DLF Cyber City, Phase II, Gurgaon - 122 002, Haryana, India, Phone: +91 124 3940 400, Fax: +91 124 4222 036

Tap the business value of your data centre!Learn how in our management software white paper.Visit www.SEreply.com Key Code 11500p Toll Free 1800 4254 877/272

Tap into the health of your data centre As an IT or data centre manager, you know that doing your job well means saving your company both time and money. Today, there finally is a way for you to be completely tapped into the overall health of your data centre. StruxureWare™ for Data Centres gives you visibility across your entire data centre infrastructure so you can make informed decisions — not arbitrary ones — about your infrastructure. For example, you can plan proactively for needed capacity and streamline workflow management to improve your business agility and availability. In fact, now more than ever, infrastructure decisions are business decisions.

An always available, efficient data centre What’s more, StruxureWare for Data Centres communicates in real time with the leading virtualization platforms: VMware vSphere™ and Microsoft® System Centre Virtual Machine Manager. The software’s built-in automated response capabilities ensure that virtual loads always have healthy host environments. With your VMs on healthy hosts, you can focus on running your data centre more efficiently. The software also gives insight into PUE/DCiE trending over time, enabling you to make intelligent energy management decisions. With StruxureWare for Data Centres planning and reporting capabilities, who’s the company hero now? You are!

APC by Schneider Electric™ is the pioneer of modular data centre infrastructure and innovative cooling technology. Its products and solutions, including InfraStruxure™, are an integral part of the Schneider Electric™ IT portfolio.

The strategic bridge between your data centre and your business? You.

Now, make informed decisions about your infrastructure:

> Plan proactively for needed capacity.

> Blueprint data centre expansions and consolidations.

> Streamline workflow management of your IT physical infrastructure to improve your business agility and availability.

> Make changes knowing how they will affect your business.

> Visualize change/capacity scenarios to improve your bottom line.

> View your current and historic PUE/DCiE and energy costs of subsystems to make intelligent energy management decisions.

Only StruxureWare for Data Centres enables a healthy, business-driven data centre

> Executive summary

How Data Center InfrastructureManagement Software ImprovesPlanning and Cuts Operational Costs

White Paper 107

CTO_Forum_Magazine_1221_11500p.indd 1 11-11-18 下午2:35

LETTERS

WRITE TO US: The CTOForum values your feedback. We want to know what you think about the magazine and how

to make it a better read for you. Our endeavour continues to be work in progress and your comments will go a long way in making it the preferred publication of the CIO Community.

Send your comments, compliments, complaints or questions about the magazine to [email protected]

THE CTOS mORE InTERESTEd In SaTISfyIng THE CfO & BOaRd RaTHER THan THE COnSUmER?

I see CTO is aligned to the CFO and the Board in that order, the CTO will have to also be good at resume writing as he will not last too long. But then the question arises, is the CFO aligned to the Consumer? If he is not, then even he may be in hot water sooner or later.Arun GuptA, Group CIO, Shoppers' Stop

IT NIrvaNa for Top-LINe GrowTh

It is important for a CIO to successfully managed this paradox.To read the full story go to: http://www.thectoforum.com/content/it-nirvana-top-line-growth

CTOf Connect Storage has always been the backbone of information. In an interview with Ankush Sohoni, Roberto Basilio, VP, Storage Platforms & Product Management, Hitachi Data Systems talks about Hitachi’s plans for this market. http://www.thecto-forum.com/content/building-storage-lasts

OpiniOn

Randy SpRattEVp, CIO and CtO, MCKESSOn CORpORatIOn

CTOforum LinkedIn groupJoin over 900 CIOs on the CTO Forum LinkedIn group

for latest news and hot enterprise technology discussions.

Share your thoughts, participate in discussions and win

prizes for the most valuable contribution. You can join The

CTOForum group at:

www.linkedin.com/

groups?mostPopular=&gid=2580450

Some of the hot discussions on the group are:Open Source vs Proprietary SOfTWaRE

Practically how many of you feel OpenSource Free

software are best solutions than any proprietor software's?

I would rather mention that, you call should depends on

the criticality of the application to serve the enterprise

business requirement, as opensource application can

have security breaches and lack of support in worst

come senario

—Vishal Anand Gupta, Interim CIO & Joint Project Director HiMS at The Calcutta Medical Research Institute

for achieving IT nirvana, CIOs need to manage the two sources of value – growth and leverage oriented

S P I N E

Technology for Growth and Governance

CT

O

FO

RU

M

NEXT HORIZONTEXTING MORE EFFECTIVE IN A DISASTER PAGE 44

I BELIEVE IT NIRVANA FOR TOP-LINE GROWTH PAGE 04

CIOS NEED TO CHART OUT A CLEAR IT SECURITY STRATEGY FOR THE COMING DECADE | PAGE 28

A QUESTION OF ANSWERSEDUCATION IS KEY TO MITIGATE RISKS PAGE 16

Volume 07 | Issue 08

December | 07 | 2011 | 50Volume 07 | Issue 08

BU

ILD

ING

ST

OR

AG

E T

HA

T L

AS

TS

| BU

ILD

ING

AN

IT B

US

INE

SS

OF

FIC

E | IT

PR

OD

UC

TIV

ITY

DE

ST

RO

YE

RS

A 9.9 Media Publication

6 21 DECEmbEr 2011 cto forum The Chief


8 21 december 2011 cto forum The Chief


Enterprise

Round-up

FEATURE InsIdE

Time for CIOs to Assess Euro Crisis

Impact: Gartner Pg 10

Amount invested by Saudi prince in Twitter

Facebook to Use Clean Energy in its Data Centres Will also work towards persuading others to go green in energy usageGREEnpEacE and facebook are collaborating on the

promotion of renewable energy, encourage major utilities to develop renewable energy generation, and develop programmes that will enable facebook users to save energy and engage their communities in clean energy decisions.

The joint announcement comes two years after green-peace launched its global unfriend Coal Campaign, enlisting 700,000 online activists to call on facebook to power its data centres with clean energy instead of coal.

facebook has announced that its goal is to power its operations, including its data centres, using clean and

renewable energy. The company's open Compute Project will encourage other iT companies to power their operations with clean, renewable energy.

As part of the agreement, facebook will continue pursuing on-going research into energy efficiency and the open sharing of that technology through the open Compute Project which greenpeace will work to support.

greenpeace and facebook have also agreed to develop and promote experiences on facebook that help people and organisations connect with ways to save energy and engage their communities in clean energy issues.

$300dATA BRIEFInG

million

ILLU

ST

RA

TIO

N B

Y S

hIg

IL N

E nt E r pr i s E ro u n d - u p



Google replaced Microsoft as the software vendor with the greatest number of reported vulnerabilities for Q3, 2011 — 82. This is due to the increasing number of vulnerabilities found in Chrome, which continues to grow in popularity.

QUICk ByTE On sECURITy

Essar Group to Virtualise 40,000 Desktops Would save 40% in desktop computing costs

EssaR group, a multinational with business interests in steel, oil & gas, power, BPo and telecom, shipping, ports, and projects, plans to move over 90 percent of its workforce to the Citrix XenDesktop platform. The group aims to complete the implementation of virtual desktops for 40,000 users in the next one year.

The solution utilises a building-block approach which can then scale to thou-sands of virtual desktops delivering applications to any device in any workplace environment, supporting a rich user experience, and providing additional security and control to iT managers.

Virtual computing is rapidly becoming a foundational element of the security strategy for organisations of all kinds. With Citrix’s Desktop Virtualisation, essar aims to reap the benefits of application virtualisation and streaming features for enabling faster responses to business requirements for applications.

The implementation of Citrix XenDesktop is also aimed to strengthen essar’s governance and Compliance initiatives by giving the capability to monitor, manage and restrict the applications on the VDi. The group also plans to roll out the Citrix XenDesktop and Citrix netScaler solutions across the globe.

The last few quarters have been some of the most trying in the recent history of Research in Motion. In a recent earnings conference call, RIM announced 18 percent drop in sales in the current quarter and signalled a weak quarter ahead.

—Mike Lazaridis,Co-CEO, RIM

—Source: Trend Micro

“This is absolutely not business as usual at RIM. We are going to do what it takes to get the value for shareholders and the company, and we are totally redoubling our efforts on execution here.”

ThEy SAiD iT

MiKE LAZARiDiS

ILLU

ST

RA

TIO

N B

Y A

NIL

T




Time for CIOs to assess Euro Crisis Impact: Gartner The Euro crisis raises four broad challenges that CIOs must addressWith ExtREmE uncertainty plaguing all

enterprises operating in the eurozone, Cios must act immediately to protect their enter-prises, according to gartner, inc. Cios need to safeguard their enterprises from the risks of government/bank default, euro break-up, counterparty bankruptcy and employee/customer distress.

"uniquely positioned within their enter-prises, Cios are at the fulcrum of business and technology, and they are the only execu-tives with sufficient visibility and potential capability to address the challenges posed by today's eurozone crisis," said David furlon-

ger, vice president and gartner fellow. "unlike recent economic difficulties,

today's crisis has the potential to totally undermine the eurozone, the whole eu and beyond," said Andrea Di maio, vice presi-dent and distinguished analyst at gartner. gartner analysts said there are four broad challenges that the euro crisis raises, and they examined how the Cio is best posi-tioned to provide enterprise leadership on addressing those challenges. These chal-lenges include:Challenge 1: Market Volatilitymost enterprises and their iT departments

A total of 70% spam attacks were launched on — Yahoo (27%), Facebook (23%) and Gmail (19%)

are burdened with significant numbers of bureaucratic processes and latent decision-making mechanisms. Today's market con-ditions require business and government executives to radically restructure their busi-ness practices.Challenge 2: Capital CostsThe costs of and access to capital across europe will likely continue to worsen until there is a significant redress in structural imbalances between countries and organi-sations. unwillingness or inability to write off debt and restructure public- and private-sector balance sheets is a substantial barrier to market efficiency. lines of credit will likely become uncertain or removed, forcing corporations to reduce inventory.Challenge 3: Human Capital Managementmillions of people are out of work in europe. formal government austerity pack-ages and informal corporate restrictions on salaries, benefits and working conditions, combined with high costs of living, are stressing workforces. This situation is com-pounded by retirement funding shortfalls, extensions in the working age and loss of benefits.Challenge 4: Risk ManagementThe capital markets (and many corpora-tions) believe that the risk of government and counterparty default is substantial. receivables management is being stressed, and the likelihood of internal and external fraud rises. from an iT standpoint, opera-tional risk is heightened via issues such as changes in contractual obligations and busi-ness continuity. Added to this is the contin-ued increase in regulatory compliance ini-tiatives across industries, which exacerbate the pressure on audit and risk management assessments and workflows.

"Prior to the crisis, enterprises were already challenged to identify enterprisewide risks in a holistic fashion to link those risks to the performance of the business and to manage risk in a time-effective manner," furlonger said. "now, the Cio — and corporate trea-surer, head trader, Cfo and others — need to ask questions such as, 'Can existing risk models accommodate alternatives to the lack of historical data necessary for regression testing/yield curve analysis of hedges, and for stressing asset and liability portfolios in the event of a redenomination in all or part of their asset and liability portfolio?"

GlOBAl TRACkER

Global Spam Attacks

SO

UR

ce

: cY

Be

RO

Am

Every day, malware attacks, evolves and attacks again. It has to—because we keep stopping it. Blue Coat Web Security Solutions are powered by WebPulse,™ a community of over 75 million users strong taking a stand to shut down over 3.3 million threats a day. Proof, there’s safety in numbers. Learn more @ bluecoat.com/WebPulse

Our community is 75 million users strong. WebPulse,™ only by Blue Coat

© 2011 Blue Coat Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.




Apple ahead of intel in mobile chips: Analyst Moore’s law doesn’t apply to mobile

PCi-DSS

AVerizon study found 79 per-

cent of merchants fall out of

compliance with PcI standards

between audits. These five fac-

tors feed the problem.

Only 21 percent of businesses

that store credit and debit card

data maintain compliance with

Payment card Industry (PcI)

regulations in between their man-

datory annual audits. Those find-

ings are based on more than 100

PcI audits—60 percent of them

for U.S. businesses--conducted by

Verizon's PcI assessors in 2010.

"The majority of our clients

did end up achieving full PcI

compliance in the end," said

Jennifer mack, director of global

PcI services for Verizon, in an

interview. But surprisingly, 79

percent of businesses rated as

PcI-compliant fell out of compli-

ance over the course of the year.

In other words, their informa-

tion security and risk manage-

ment practices got worse.

PcI isn't exactly a new stan-

dard, or complying with it a new

requirement. Why aren't more

businesses taking it to heart?

"Well, it's hard to say, but one

common reason is that they have

not internalised the fact that PcI

DSS is to help them with security.

It is not to punish them for failing

an audit. PcI is seen by many as

an 'externality,' not something

they 'adopted for themselves,'"

said gartner analyst Anton chu-

vakin in an interview.

a REpoRt on News.com quotes

gus Richard as saying that in the

brave new world of tablets and

smartphones, chip competition isn't

so much about moore's Law but

rather how the "blocks" of circuits are

put together and the nexus with the

software that runs on those circuits.

Richard is a senior research analyst at

securities firm Piper Jaffray.

icici Prudential is automating its iT and busi-ness processes with BmC Software’s Control-m workload automation solution.

The BmC Control-m solution integrates the management of critical scheduling processes from a single point of control. Additionally, it eradicates errors in a simplified and automated fashion. This in turn results in significant time and cost saving for companies. The implementa-tion of BmC Control-m has reduced the scheduled workload processing time in the range of 10-15

iCiCi Pru Deploys Workload Automation 10-15% reduction in scheduled workload processing time

FACT TICkER

"more specifically, tablets and smart-

phones use silicon called system-on-

a-chip, or Soc, that doesn't always

use the latest and greatest chip manu-

facturing technology but gets the job

done," says the News.com article.

Of late, the focus in chip-making has

changed from plain-vanilla Pcs and

notebooks to the increasingly popular

tablets and smartphones - devices

that are still not up there in compute

power and office-related applications

but getting a lot of traction from

consumers and businesses alike.

however, Intel continues to be the

dominant player in desktops and

notebooks - which are either stagnat-

ing or growing sluggishly compared

to small form-factor devices.

"We believe that a general purpose

processor cannot compete with a

purpose-built Soc with dedicated IP

blocks like the A5," the News.com

report quotes Richard as saying.

Nevertheless, Intel is moving quickly

to close this gap.

percent for iCiCi Prudential life.BmC Control-m’s compatibility with diverse

systems enables significant increases in produc-tivity and cost savings, simultaneously mitigating risks and ensuring seamless service delivery in a heterogeneously distributed environment.

The solution provides lower total cost of owner-ship, with features such as instant notifications for delays and errors. BmC Control-m’s easy-to-use self-service interface enables clients to have a single view of services provided to their business users.

“our business depends on ‘on-time’ batch cycle completion,” said V.V. Balaji, executive vice presi-dent, Technology and Service Delivery at iCiCi Prudential life. “BmC Control-m is helping us optimize this process. it is aligned with our orga-nizational objectives of reducing total cost of own-ership and improving operational efficiency.”

The BmC Control-m solution is tightly inte-grated with the AS/400 systems for life-Asia, an online, real-time life administration system for insurance products, which makes it easier for the operations team to manage scheduled jobs-pro-cessing, without the need to log on to production systems. The BmC Control-m solution also elimi-nates incidences of human error by automating reporting on batch job timelines and providing easy access to production systems. it is also mak-ing it easy to meet security and audit compliance requirements for global standards, such as SoX and iSo/ieC 27001.

Key performance indicators for any operations depend on efficiency, effectiveness, value addition and control of those processes. BmC Control-m has enabled iCiCi Prudential life to achieve those objec-tives and is in line with their larger plan to automate virtually all processes over a period of time.

C TO F CU S TOM S E R I E S N OVE L L I N D I AP

HO

TO

S B

Y P

HO

TO

S.C

OM

OSS for Competitive Advantage Open Source Software (OSS) has characteristics such as agility, flexibility, and cost effectiveness. In a discussion with CTO Forum, Narayana Menon, Head- Strategy & Marketing Novell India/South Asia talks about how OSS is increasingly becoming a viable option for organizations

Q: Can open source software actually reduce cost without bringing in too many complexities?A: Open Source (OS) based software is agile, flexible and does not compromise on per-formance; all this while keeping the costs effective. This makes OS a viable option for organizations today. The numbers emerging from industry analysts certainly indicate that open source based technology procurement is increasingly becoming a key part of the IT

strategy. The relative cost advantages they provide also ensure more-for-less while main-taining performance criterion in a scenario where most companies are mindful of lower IT procurement budgets.I would put that the TCA benefits could be as much as 30-50% lower for open source based technologies vis-à-vis comparable proprietary solutions. Customers used to deploy open source based products for their non-mission critical

applications. Now we are seeing a paradigm shift wherein the core applications like ERP are being deployed on open source based technologies/platforms. Using open source software gives you more freedom and you can effectively address the Vendor Lock-in chal-lenges like lack of portability, expensive license fees and inability to customize software. Companies like SUSE follow a subscription model whereby there would be a nominal charge for patches & support. But this would yet be much more optimal from a TCA and/or a TCO as well as performance perspective when compared to most proprietary software alternatives which generally follow a license based model.As mentioned earlier, the numbers show a clear indication that customers are not just amenable to the idea of open source infra-structure but are also actively deploying the same in their production environments. This would not essentially mean a ‘rip & replace’ drive but a phased adoption model where both open source & proprietary products would co-exist in the IT environment to provide the optimal solution. I do think that over a period of time, as hosted, SaaS & cloud models of IT infrastructure solutions adoption take over, we should see a shift, where 80% of the inherent components would be open source based. This would form the core of IT solution purchase & usage while shifting from a product centric approach to a service centric model.For organizations with capital constraints fac-ing system refresh decisions, Linux can have a substantial bottom-line impact by supporting both small and large workloads on a range of hardware platforms. Some key aspects that SUSE Linux provides to contribute to lower TCO include reduced Initial capital expenditure costs, ongoing maintenance costs as per cus-tomer requirement and not a one size- fits-all model and a subscription based model instead of a licensing model. This serves to decrease the TCO by an average of 15 to 30 percent and accelerate the ROI by 6 months or more. Q: Shortage of skill sets is often a challenge for any organizations? Are there enough skilled engineers available in India to work on open source?A: The shortage of skilled manpower was a

N OVE L L I N D I A C TO F CU S TOM S E R I E S

The adoption of Linux in India is clocking a steady 20-30% growth year on year with Telco, BFSI & Govt./PSU sectors leading the way.

stumbling block to open source in the past, say 5 to 10 years back. However the situation is much different today. With increased rate of adoption of open source based technologies on the rise, engineers find that OS expertise provides for enhanced domain expertise as well as a strong career option within private sector corporations as well as Govt entities/Enterprises that have large deployments of open source based technologies. Key players in the Linux & open source market like SUSE offer industry-leading certifications and tests that are globally recognized.

Q: What are you doing in order to fill up the skill set gap in the industry?A: Novell provides plenty of training options to fill the skill set gaps in the open source based product space. Certification courses like the Novell certified Linux Professional (NCLP) & the Novell certified Linux Administrator (NCLA) & the Novell Certifies Linux engineer (NCLE) courses offer candidates the core skills required to handle the nitty-gritties of a Linux environment. These programs differentiate themselves from the others available in the market through in-depth modules like shell scripting etc which enables the certified to not just be restricted to peripheral admin roles but also opens up opportunities to work on R&D, product enhancements etc.. We also have Novell certified desktop Administrator & also instructor programs for prospective teachers. Achieving a Novell certification is simple and provides that extra edge to IT industry aspirants as well as opens up more lucrative opportunities to people already in the industry.

Q: How does open source compare against proprietary when it comes to security and manageability?A: IT chiefs are increasingly turning to open-source software to help create a competitive advantage for the business, according to new research from Gartner. It is clear that there seems to be ample demand for commercially supported open source software delivery models that present a viable alternative to pro-prietary applications in a variety of business cases. And the advantage usually associated with open source – lower licensing and sup-

port costs – is not always the only reason for its choice. The benefits of its adoption fit three distinct categories: cost, optimisation and flex-ibility. So this is very clear that from a manage-ability point of view open source is way ahead proprietary. Security is mission critical need-less to say. Open Source Software provides for options such as subscriptions for patches and support which is also cost effective when compared to proprietary software. Open source in its nascent form could be vul-nerable owing to the aces to the source code & that is where companies like SUSE step in. We customize the base kernel to make it enter-prise ready adhering to the security, compli-ance & manageability aspects that are critical for enterprise deployments. With the provision for maintenance, support & patch updates this becomes a robust platform for enterprises to deploy in their IT environments. The adoption of Linux in India is clocking a steady 20-30% growth year on year with Telco, BFSI & Govt./PSU sectors leading the way. Just this fact emphasizes that platforms like SUSE Linux is a secure & easily manageable option for criti-cal IT operations as if it wasn’t, we would not see growth & especially in deployment of mis-sion critical applications on these platforms.Open Source Software today provides a strong mix of inter-operable and hardware agnostic options that when included as part of the IT architecture, it complements proprietary soft-ware as well. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is built on the 3 key pillars of ubiquity, interoperability and mission-critical computing. It provides the ability to deploy a low-cost, high per-forming operating platform across the full range of hardware and computing models – from desktop to data center – and physical to virtual to cloud environments. It can also be easily deployed into existing IT environ-ment to leverage previous investments.

Q: What would be the key trends in open source over the next two years?A: Looking at the coming year for Linux, the

key areas to watch out for would be cloud computing, Platform as a Service (PaaS), the automobile industry. Linux continues to grow both in its reach and credibility among enter-prise IT users and customers, bringing com-petition, price and time-to-market pressure and options to such as cloud computing and mobile software.According to a Gartner study, open source software would be embedded in 80 percent of all commercial software by 2012. The report said that, “By 2012, 80 percent of all commercial software will include elements of open source technology. Many open source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase returns on investment”.Another study, 'Economic Impact of Free and Open Source software – A Study in India', undertaken by a team at IIM-Banga-lore (during 2010), highlights several inter-esting insights, that show how by replacing just 50 percent of proprietary software with open source in desktops and servers, India can save close to Rs 10,000 crore. Open source software will continue to dominate cloud computing (whether Infra-structure as a Service (IaaS), PaaS, public cloud or private cloud). According to anoth-er prediction, after mobile Linux, there are number of efforts underway to use Linux for cars. A number of automobile manufac-turers and parts makers, including BMW, Nissan and Toyota, are among the key play-ers this time, supporting automotive Linux. I believe that open source based solution adoption would continue to grow as experts have predicted, not just because of the flex-ibility & TCO benefits that it offers, but also as the trend towards moving to the cloud increases, aspects such as adaptability, portability & being hardware agnostic would take top priority, whereby pushing back the complex nuances that a propri-etary platform involves.

C TO F CU S TOM S E R I E S N OVE L L I N D I A

PH

OT

OS

BY

PH

OT

OS

.CO

M

OSS for Competitive Advantage Open Source Software (OSS) has characteristics such as agility, flexibility, and cost effectiveness. In a discussion with CTO Forum, Narayana Menon, Head- Strategy & Marketing Novell India/South Asia talks about how OSS is increasingly becoming a viable option for organizations

Q: Can open source software actually reduce cost without bringing in too many complexities?A: Open Source (OS) based software is agile, flexible and does not compromise on per-formance; all this while keeping the costs effective. This makes OS a viable option for organizations today. The numbers emerging from industry analysts certainly indicate that open source based technology procurement is increasingly becoming a key part of the IT

strategy. The relative cost advantages they provide also ensure more-for-less while main-taining performance criterion in a scenario where most companies are mindful of lower IT procurement budgets.I would put that the TCA benefits could be as much as 30-50% lower for open source based technologies vis-à-vis comparable proprietary solutions. Customers used to deploy open source based products for their non-mission critical

applications. Now we are seeing a paradigm shift wherein the core applications like ERP are being deployed on open source based technologies/platforms. Using open source software gives you more freedom and you can effectively address the Vendor Lock-in chal-lenges like lack of portability, expensive license fees and inability to customize software. Companies like SUSE follow a subscription model whereby there would be a nominal charge for patches & support. But this would yet be much more optimal from a TCA and/or a TCO as well as performance perspective when compared to most proprietary software alternatives which generally follow a license based model.As mentioned earlier, the numbers show a clear indication that customers are not just amenable to the idea of open source infra-structure but are also actively deploying the same in their production environments. This would not essentially mean a ‘rip & replace’ drive but a phased adoption model where both open source & proprietary products would co-exist in the IT environment to provide the optimal solution. I do think that over a period of time, as hosted, SaaS & cloud models of IT infrastructure solutions adoption take over, we should see a shift, where 80% of the inherent components would be open source based. This would form the core of IT solution purchase & usage while shifting from a product centric approach to a service centric model.For organizations with capital constraints fac-ing system refresh decisions, Linux can have a substantial bottom-line impact by supporting both small and large workloads on a range of hardware platforms. Some key aspects that SUSE Linux provides to contribute to lower TCO include reduced Initial capital expenditure costs, ongoing maintenance costs as per cus-tomer requirement and not a one size- fits-all model and a subscription based model instead of a licensing model. This serves to decrease the TCO by an average of 15 to 30 percent and accelerate the ROI by 6 months or more. Q: Shortage of skill sets is often a challenge for any organizations? Are there enough skilled engineers available in India to work on open source?A: The shortage of skilled manpower was a

N OVE L L I N D I A C TO F CU S TOM S E R I E S

The adoption of Linux in India is clocking a steady 20-30% growth year on year with Telco, BFSI & Govt./PSU sectors leading the way.

stumbling block to open source in the past, say 5 to 10 years back. However the situation is much different today. With increased rate of adoption of open source based technologies on the rise, engineers find that OS expertise provides for enhanced domain expertise as well as a strong career option within private sector corporations as well as Govt entities/Enterprises that have large deployments of open source based technologies. Key players in the Linux & open source market like SUSE offer industry-leading certifications and tests that are globally recognized.

Q: What are you doing in order to fill up the skill set gap in the industry?A: Novell provides plenty of training options to fill the skill set gaps in the open source based product space. Certification courses like the Novell certified Linux Professional (NCLP) & the Novell certified Linux Administrator (NCLA) & the Novell Certifies Linux engineer (NCLE) courses offer candidates the core skills required to handle the nitty-gritties of a Linux environment. These programs differentiate themselves from the others available in the market through in-depth modules like shell scripting etc which enables the certified to not just be restricted to peripheral admin roles but also opens up opportunities to work on R&D, product enhancements etc.. We also have Novell certified desktop Administrator & also instructor programs for prospective teachers. Achieving a Novell certification is simple and provides that extra edge to IT industry aspirants as well as opens up more lucrative opportunities to people already in the industry.

Q: How does open source compare against proprietary when it comes to security and manageability?A: IT chiefs are increasingly turning to open-source software to help create a competitive advantage for the business, according to new research from Gartner. It is clear that there seems to be ample demand for commercially supported open source software delivery models that present a viable alternative to pro-prietary applications in a variety of business cases. And the advantage usually associated with open source – lower licensing and sup-

port costs – is not always the only reason for its choice. The benefits of its adoption fit three distinct categories: cost, optimisation and flex-ibility. So this is very clear that from a manage-ability point of view open source is way ahead proprietary. Security is mission critical need-less to say. Open Source Software provides for options such as subscriptions for patches and support which is also cost effective when compared to proprietary software. Open source in its nascent form could be vul-nerable owing to the aces to the source code & that is where companies like SUSE step in. We customize the base kernel to make it enter-prise ready adhering to the security, compli-ance & manageability aspects that are critical for enterprise deployments. With the provision for maintenance, support & patch updates this becomes a robust platform for enterprises to deploy in their IT environments. The adoption of Linux in India is clocking a steady 20-30% growth year on year with Telco, BFSI & Govt./PSU sectors leading the way. Just this fact emphasizes that platforms like SUSE Linux is a secure & easily manageable option for criti-cal IT operations as if it wasn’t, we would not see growth & especially in deployment of mis-sion critical applications on these platforms.Open Source Software today provides a strong mix of inter-operable and hardware agnostic options that when included as part of the IT architecture, it complements proprietary soft-ware as well. SUSE Linux Enterprise Server is built on the 3 key pillars of ubiquity, interoperability and mission-critical computing. It provides the ability to deploy a low-cost, high per-forming operating platform across the full range of hardware and computing models – from desktop to data center – and physical to virtual to cloud environments. It can also be easily deployed into existing IT environ-ment to leverage previous investments.

Q: What would be the key trends in open source over the next two years?A: Looking at the coming year for Linux, the

key areas to watch out for would be cloud computing, Platform as a Service (PaaS), the automobile industry. Linux continues to grow both in its reach and credibility among enter-prise IT users and customers, bringing com-petition, price and time-to-market pressure and options to such as cloud computing and mobile software.According to a Gartner study, open source software would be embedded in 80 percent of all commercial software by 2012. The report said that, “By 2012, 80 percent of all commercial software will include elements of open source technology. Many open source technologies are mature, stable and well supported. They provide significant opportunities for vendors and users to lower their total cost of ownership (TCO) and increase returns on investment”.Another study, 'Economic Impact of Free and Open Source software – A Study in India', undertaken by a team at IIM-Banga-lore (during 2010), highlights several inter-esting insights, that show how by replacing just 50 percent of proprietary software with open source in desktops and servers, India can save close to Rs 10,000 crore. Open source software will continue to dominate cloud computing (whether Infra-structure as a Service (IaaS), PaaS, public cloud or private cloud). According to anoth-er prediction, after mobile Linux, there are number of efforts underway to use Linux for cars. A number of automobile manufac-turers and parts makers, including BMW, Nissan and Toyota, are among the key play-ers this time, supporting automotive Linux. I believe that open source based solution adoption would continue to grow as experts have predicted, not just because of the flex-ibility & TCO benefits that it offers, but also as the trend towards moving to the cloud increases, aspects such as adaptability, portability & being hardware agnostic would take top priority, whereby pushing back the complex nuances that a propri-etary platform involves.

A Q u e s t i o n o f An swe rs PE RSO N ' S N A M E



Enabling the Enterprise: Hollis talks about how IT can play a role in creating a platform for collaboration in a social model



Ch u Ck h O l l i S A Q u e s t i o n o f An swe rs

ChuCk hollis | EMC Corp

internal iT vs External Vendors

Chuck Hollis, VP & Global Marketing CTO, EMC Corp, is constantly looking for those IT leaders who can move the needle for business. Hollis spoke to Sanjay Gupta about big data, social media, analytics and the service-driven model of IT, which is paving way for new capabilities

How is the emergence of big data and social media

changing the role of IT leaders?first, iT leaders need to understand that this is not your father’s data warehouse – you are taking data from multiple sources, social feeds, etc, and you are mashing it up for insights. Today every industry – be it retail, telecom, or whatever – is pow-ered by business analytics.

The change should be seen as a partnership between the iT people who generate data and the business users who are actually going to

consume data. There is also a movement to socially enable the enterprise: the theory here is that there is a new way of working, so iT can play a role in creating a platform for collaboration in a social model. i know 30-40 iT managers who make there living from socially enabling their enterprises.

Have you seen any examples of this social enablement in

Indian companies?not so much in india. i think it is a cultural thing – sharing information.

Somehow, i do not see it that much in Asia.

let me give you our own example. At emC if you look at the history of our social media usage, there was strategy, there was platform and the skill sets. in addition, for every business process in the company – be it how products are created, how people serve customers and how problems are solved – social media appears. This is changing the way our company works, as it is about mobile enabling the workforce, socialis-ing proficiency, building collaboration...We are not just talking about putting



A Q u e s t i o n o f An swe rs Ch u Ck h O l l i S

Windows on the screen; we are talking about really mobilising our workforce.

Another important thing is custom-er engagement – new platforms, new media, new ways of pulling in custom-ers or talking to them and keeping them engaged. it could be a cool website or a downloadable app, but we are seeing more and more iT manag-ers getting interested in providing these interfaces between businesses and customers. in addition, none of this would have been possible without building a responsive iT organisation.

Therefore, my view is that it all depends on the competitiveness of the industry and the culture of the company.

How do you differentiate between IT leaders in small as

compared to large organisations?usually i find that the iT leaders in smaller organisations take quick deci-sions, while in large organisations decision-making is a long process. So it is a challenge for a company like ours as to how do we get them (large firm iT heads) to move faster. So one way we do this is by calling them agents of change and constantly ask-ing them how they are building new things on top of their legacy, how they are bringing in new processes and new efficiencies, and how they are doing things “the new way” as pro-cesses start to mature.

Typically, in a large iT organisation you find the classic perfect storm: new business strategy, change of leadership and new technology itself. So the question is, how do you get them to move very fast to adapt to those changes?

however, smart companies can move very fast. Some of the most innovative stuff comes out of mid-size companies.

Have you seen any back-migrations in outsourcing

– wherein companies that initially outsourced certain IT tasks want to bring them back in-house?oh, it happens all the time. more-

everything was a project, meetings, the works...and it used to take a whole lot of time. Then one day when busi-ness took some work outside, some of them complained: “you can’t do this!” And the response they got was: “Watch me!” (here, hollis takes out his credit card and flashes it trium-phantly for a while.) Therefore, over time, the iT organisation realised that the business mindset had changed and they were competing for iT projects. Business said, “i can give it to you or i can give it to somebody else – though i’d like to give it to you!” obviously, the internal iT guys have an advantage because they know the company’s business and they are trusted. however, for every external offer, the internal iT had to make it competitive and more valuable.

How has the user experience of corporate employees

changed in the new model of IT?in the old model, an iT user in an

over, usually it happens in a bad way. like the classic movie: big company, big project, iT people cannot move quickly enough. Therefore, business decides to take the project outside for some time. When that period is over, the iT organisation has to really scramble it to bring it back.

however, i would say, these are not ideal situations, as they represent the lack of competitiveness of the iT organisation in the first place.

The difference between the new, smart iT guys and the old guys is that the new guys know they must keep iT users as happy customers.

With regard to the new, IT guys, since they now

must demonstrate their value to business and be proactive about it, do you think the business users feel irked or threatened by their growing interference?i have seen both kinds of situations. four years ago, we had the ‘old iT’.

“i know 30-40 iT managers who make there living from socially enabling their enterprises”

Today every

industry – be it

retail, telecom,

or whatever

– is powered

by business

analytics

iT can play a

role in creating

a platform for

collaboration in a

social model

The old

paradigm of

static projects

and fixed way

of doing things

is no longer

to be found in

industries

THIngs I BelIeve In

Ch u Ck h O l l i S A Q u e s t i o n o f An swe rs

organisation had to track down the iT person for a particular service and it was up to them to get the needed service from that person. in the new model, the iT services are available to the users as some sort of catalogue from which they can choose what they want. What’s more, there could even be a pricing mechanism for those services.

Another thing that is happening is that the iT users are getting very lit-erate, very sophisticated in how they consume iT. Therefore, the need for the iT department to be competitive today is more than ever.

A major discussion topic these days when it comes

to information processing is big data. But how does big data impact an IT leader that works for a relatively smaller company, say, a 500-employee firm rather

than a 50,000-strong enterprise?There is a question before the answer: What can analytics do for your company? if you knew more about the customers, if you knew more about the economy, and if you knew how better knowledge about customers could change your business, would it benefit you? The answer, one hundred per cent, would be “yes”.

The key about big data is analyt-ics. it allows you to take data from multiple sources, apply a wide range of tools to analyse that data and say, “Whoa, we didn’t think about this!” or, “We could think of it that way.” Therefore, the key decision iT leaders need to make is whether they are going to build all that capability or are they going to take that as a service. for instance, Procter & gamble buys 80 per cent of its data analytics as a service.

There’s a 3V information model that Gartner uses –

Volume, Velocity and Variety. For companies that still want to do much of their IT in-house, how do you think they can cope with the three Vs?There is a change in mindset. iT is used to fixed projects. Suppose they build a ‘toy box’, i can’t say what its roi is going to be. i can’t tell where it will be useful. i can’t ask for a three-year forecast, right? Therefore, iT must keep going back and forth: you build something, you find what value it will give, you go back and change something, then you build further on it and so on and so forth. Therefore, the old paradigm of static projects and fixed way of doing things is no lon-ger to be found in industries that are largely driven by analytics such as banks, retail, oil & gas, etc.



Best of

Breed The Expanding ITIL Universe Pg 28

FEaTUrE InsIdE

The iT function exists to support the business in achieving competitive advantage. however, many business users often see iT merely as a barrier to their initiatives; a function that

over-spends and under-delivers. in order to foster a better relationship with the business, iT must strive to change the corporate mindset and dem-onstrate that it can be a reliable technology partner for the business.

in this article, we argue that a common engage-ment model can be valuable and we explore practi-cal ideas by which iT can improve its relationship with the business exploring different strategies that apply to different stages of a service lifecycle from strategy to implementation and delivery.

The iT function exists to support the business. Business and iT leaders recognise this and thus continue to make invest-ments in the iT organisa-tion and infrastructure. however, this view of iT as a strategic asset chang-es as you move down the organisation chart.

To most business users, iT is often a barrier rath-er than an enabler. iT is perceived as the organisa-tion that says “no” to innovative ideas -- the organi-sation that over-promises and under-delivers. much of this criticism is unfair and arises from a lack of appreciation of the complexity of technology imple-mentation and day-to-day management. however, there is also some truth to this criticism. in every organisation there are plenty of examples of delayed projects, unrealised benefits and technology that simply doesn’t address user needs.

New Mindset towards ItPractical ideas by which IT can improve its relationship with business

Illu

st

ra

tIo

n b

y s

hIg

Il n

To most business users, IT is often a barrier rather than an enabler

25 21 December 2011 cto forumThe Chief


m a n ag e m e n t B E S t o f Br E E D

if iT is to have an improved relationship with the business and it has to be perceived as a trusted technology partner to the busi-ness, iT leaders must work hard to address these concerns by fostering a consistent and intuitive engagement model between iT and the business with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, clearly agreed strategy and scope, and strict adherence to priorities and timelines. in the rest of this article, we apply some of these strategies to a standard service lifecycle.

strategy - Understand the business strat-egy and ensure IT is aligned to support it.in our experience, the high level details of a business strategy are well known in most organisations. however, iT often lacks a detailed understanding and appreciation of the business’ expectation from iT to support the execution of the strategy. This happens because iT is seldom engaged by the business during the development of the strategy. instead, the business groups develop a strategy and then hands it off for “implementation” to iT. As iT begins to implement solutions, the rationale behind the strategy is not well understood and thus incorrect assumptions are made. This undermines the very strategy that iT was asked to support.

learning point: engagement at the strat-egy level must include all relevant business and iT stakeholders

design - Involve the business during design decisions.This is much easier said than done since most business users assume that design is a technical activity where they have little to contribute. however, in our experience, the single biggest cause of failure of any iT ini-tiative is flawed design decisions.

one way to involve the business in design is by removing technical jargon from dis-

cussions and talking about design decisions from the business point of view. not only does this ensure that business stakehold-ers can contribute to the discussion, it also helps iT get a better understanding of the business they support.

getting the iT organisation and the busi-ness to talk a common language can help bridge the historical divide between busi-ness and iT and go a long way in changing the corporate mindset towards iT. Busi-ness users often have very clear ideas of the solutions and services they want, but do not appreciate the technical complex-ity involved or the costs of delivering their requirements. This causes numerous instances of “sticker-shock” as well as the common refrain “our iT organisation is so expensive, we could get external contrac-tors to come in for half the cost”, or “The solution vendor said this would only cost half of what iT is saying."

in both cases, the most common reason is a lack of understanding of the solution’s total cost of ownership (TCo). By closely involving the business in design deci-sions, iT can help them better understand the complexity of a technology and TCo associated with any solution or service. implementing a gated approach to projects can help ensure the right information is prepared and reviewed at the right time. This can avoid the common “throw it over the fence” approach whereby the operations team are left picking up the pieces in order to provide a sustainable service.

While iT needs to refrain from using complicated jargon when describing the solution and they also need to describe value in business terms and metrics, e.g., the out-put of a payroll service is number of payees/pay checks issued rather than 99.99% server availability. in contrast, the business needs to understand that iT should be consider-ing the availability, capacity, continuity and

security requirements of the solution as well as the utility or functionality required and these requirements can drive up TCo.

learning Point: Time and effort spent engaging at the design phase will pay dividends by reducing costly errors that may only be identified after solution build and test.

transition - IT has to educate the people who will be most affected before new solutions go "live."During the transition of any solution to live status, one of the biggest complaints from the business is that iT makes flawed assumptions and plans that result in the transition not being very smooth. for most end users in the business, the testing part of transition is their first contact with iT for a new implementation (whether of a product, platform or a service) and any problems in transition simply feed a negative impression that lingers for a long time afterwards.

iT can address potential issues in tran-sition by engaging in detailed transition planning involving business stakeholders. iT must ensure the plans are realistic and take into account business concerns with the aim of standardising on the approach, from small modifications through to large deployments, to ensure the correct level of due diligence is performed.

Throughout the whole transition period iT and the business need to work collab-oratively by providing initial pilot support through to end user training. A diligent approach to risk management is also very useful in this context, so that when risks turn into issues, there is a plan to mitigate that can be set into motion quickly.

learning Point: engagement to plan, prioritise and test changes requires sig-nificant effort and involvement from the business and iT

operations - Once solutions and ser-vices are live, a common problem faced by the business is inconsistent levels of service.iT can mitigate this by adopting a common engagement model that is based on service level agreements (SlA). iT needs to work closely with business leaders to understand the relative priority of services and define service level agreements to reflect the busi-ness priorities.

There needs to be a consistent and intuitive engagement model between IT and the business with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, clearly agreed strategy and scope, and strict adherence to priorities and timelines

EVENT BY POWERED BY

TECHNOLOGY AWARD PARTNERS

PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

EVENT BY POWERED BY

TECHNOLOGY AWARD PARTNERS

PRINCIPAL PARTNERS

SUPPORTING PARTNERS

Rajeev Agarwal, HAL | Manuhaar Agrawalla, The Oberoi Group | Sharat Airani, Forbes Marshall Group | Ajit Awasare, Larsen & Toubro | Joy Bagish, Apeejay

Surrendra Corporate Services | Manoj Bhat, 3DPLM Software Solutions | Pradeep Chaudhary, Shree Cement | Johnson Cherian, Varun Beverages | Vijay Choudhary, HRH Group of Hotels | G.P. Singh Chugh, Vodafone Essar | Kaustav Das, Highbar Technologies | Goutam Datta, ICICI Lombard GIC | Harin Dave, Cognizant Technology Solutions | Keyur Desai, ESSAR Information Technology | Sanjay Deshmukh, Mercedes-Benz India | Yogesh Dhandharia, Rashi Peripherals | Suresh E, Paterson Securities | SreekanthElkuri, Mindtree | Shiju George, Shoppersstop | Somasekhara Rao Gonuguntla, TESCO Hindustan Service Center | Deepak Gupta, JK Tyre & Industries | Dinesh Gupta, Godrej Consumer Products | Gyanendra Kumar Gupta, IFFCO | Kapil Gupta, MTS | Sandeep Gupta, TCS - Global Consulting Practice | Tarun Gupta, Lanco Solar | Ravindra H.S., Sasken Communication Technologies | Archie Jackson, Steria India Pvt | Sandeep Jha, Africare | Asad Joheb, Taj Group of Hotels | Makarand Joshi, Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corp | Hitender Kanwar, Tulip Telecom | Dipthi Karnad, HyperCITY Retail India | Aniket Kate, Mahindra & Mahindra | SureshKhadakbhavi, Bangalore International Airport | Farhan Khan, Radico Khaitan | Feroz Ahmad Khan, Godrej Consumer Products | Ashish Khanna, The Oberoi Group | Pradeep Khanna, Infosys | Shishir Khare, TCS | Manoj Kumar, Jai Suspension Systems | PrajwalKumar, ACG Worldwide | Prakash Kumar, Delta Power Solution (India) | Santosh Kurhade, IDFC Securities | Sushanta Kumar Lenka, Mitsubishi Electric Automotive India | Satish Mahajan, Consultant | Suchit Malhotra, Sapient | Umesh Malhotra, Hero MotoCorp | Kamal Matta, Sonic Biochem Ext | Kapil Mehrotra, iYOGI Technical Services | Ajit Mishra, Sistema Shyam Teleservices | AmitMishra, Mothers Pride Education Persona | Samad Mohammed, iSpace Global Services (India) | Ramkumar Mohan, Orbis Financial Corporation | Ranganathan N, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services | Satyen Naik, Surat District Co-operative Milk Producer’s Union | Rajkumar Nair, Kanakia Spaces | Alagar Raj Nallasamy, Perfsystems India | SDPL Narayana, Neuland Laboratories | Subhasis Nayak, Bata India | Beena Nayar, Forbes Marshall Group | Manish Pal, Mahindra & Mahindra | C.O. Parmar, IFFCO-Kandla | Nitin Parmar, Welspun | Naresh Pathak, Promed Group | Shyamanta Phukon, SIRO Group of Companies | Dinesh Pote, Mahindra & Mahindra | Puneet Prakash, Mahindra & Mahindra | Prasad Pudipeddi, Hamilton Housewares | Adarsh R, Kerala Financial Corporation | Gracekumar Rajendra, Cognizant Technology Solutions | Dharmaraj Ramakrishnan, ING Vysya Bank | Ajay Rana, Amity University | Manvendra Singh Rana, IBM India | Subha K. Rudra, Usha Martin | Anil Saini, Ricoh India | S. Saravanan, IBM Global Process Services | Makarand Sawant, Deepak Fertilisers & Petrochemicals Corporation | Rupendra Sharma, RJ Corp | Vivek Sharma, Reliance Power | Udupi Arunkumar Sheth, Gati Corporation | Shobha Shetty, Godrej Properties | Berjes Shroff, Tata Services | Avtar Singh, Bajaj Capital | Dinesh Singh, SJM Technologies | Jagdish Singh, Ramtech Software | Prashant Singh, Sistema Shyam Teleservices | Sanjay Pratap Singh, Medical Information Technologies | Sanjay Kumar Srivastava, Andritz Hydro | Anuroop Sundd, Siemens Industry Software (India) | Kanaka Durga Bhavani Prasad Suravarapu, Fifth Avenue Sourcing | Dinesh Tandel, Capgemini India | Balaranjith Thangakunam, Atul | Rajesh K. Thanua, Carzonrent India | Sanjay Tiwari, Star Union Dai-ichi Life Insurance | Mangal Verma, Eon Infotech | Sandeep Walia, HT Media | Rajnish K. Wangoo, Nokia Siemens Networks | Kishor Yadav, Adani Power | R.A. Yadav, Hero MotoCorp

2011 AWARD WINNERS

Zoeb Adenwala, CIO (Global), Essel Propack | Srinivas Kishan Anapu, CEO, Cloud Ready Solutions | S.P. Arya, Sr VP (Corporate IT), Amtek | Vandana Avantsa, CIO, Motherson Sumi Systems | Niranjan Bhalivade,

CIO, CEAT | David Briskman, VP & CIO, Ranbaxy Laboratories | Manish Choksi, Chief - Corporate Strategy & CIO, Asian Paints | Satish Das, CSO & AVP - ERM, Cognizant Technologies | Vikram Dhanda, Sr VP, AEGIS | T.G. Dhandapani, CIO, TVS Motor Company | Ajay K. Dhir, Executive Director & Group CIO, Lanco Infratech | Nandkishor Dhomne, CIO, Manipal Health Systems | U. C. Dubey, Executive Director (IT), Iffco-Tokio General Insurance Co | Vikas Gadre, VP - New Business Initiatives, Tata Chemicals | Rajesh Garg, VP & Head (ISS) & (NPP), Nucleaus Software Exports | Vishnu Gupta, GM - Operations, Aditya Birla Health Services | Kinshuk Hora, Head of IT- India Subcontinent, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare | Sachin Jain, Head - IT, Evalueserve | Shailesh Joshi, Head - IT, Godrej Industries | Asmita Junnarkar, CIO, Voltas | Sudhansu Karmokar, GM - IT, Meru Cab Company | Sumant Kelkar, Advisor, Essar Information Technology| Sanjeev Kumar, Group CIO & Group President - Business Excellence, Adhunik Group of Industries | Vinay Mehta, CIO, Escorts Construction Equipment | Suhas Mhaskar, Sr GM and Head - Business Consulting & Special Projects, Mahindra & Mahindra | S.C. Mittal, Group CTO, IFFCO | C. Mohan, Head of IT Shared Services, Reliance Capital Group | Rajesh Munjal, Head - IT & AVP - Operations, Carzonrent India | B. Muthukumaran, Head - Operations & IT Security (India), SecureIQ |John Nadar, Head - IT, Tata Chemicals | C.R. Narayanan, CIO, Tulip Telecom | Venkatesh Natarajan, Special Director - IT, Ashok Leyland | Ratnakar Nemani, CIO, Himatsingka Seide | Neena Pahuja, CIO, MaxHealthCare Institute | Prakash K. Paranjape, CIO, Idea Cellular | V.S. Parthasarathy, Group CIO, EVP - Finance & M&A, Member of G E B Mahindra & Mahindra | Daya Prakash, Head - IT, LG Electronics India | Girish Rao, Head - IT, Marico | Subhasish Saha, CTO, Apeejay Surrendra Group | Dhiren Savla, CIO, Kuoni Travel Group | Rajeev Seoni, CIO, Ernst & Young | Vijay Sethi, VP & CIO, Hero MotoCorp | Shiva Shankar, VP & Head - IT Infrastructure, Security - Ops & Engineering, Reliance Tech Services | Jagat Pal Singh, CTO, Cybage Software | Shantanu Singh, Director - New Intiatives, ValueFirst Messaging | Dheeraj Sinha, Head - Corporate Management Services, Apollo Tyres | Swaranjit S. Soni, Former Executive Director (IS), Indian Oil Corporation| Shivaram Tadepalli, Advisor - IT, GMR Group

JURY



B E S t o f Br E E D m a n ag e m e n t

once service levels are defined and agreed with the business, closely track adherence to these service levels and develop a highly visible plan to address any short-comings. maintenance activities are usually underval-ued by the business, yet this typically represents a high pro-portion of the workload for iT operations team. it is important for iT to clearly show the value these activities provide in contributing to sustained service levels.

learning Point: A formal engagement model will identify these service level requirements at the Design phase, so that they are well understood before the solution is delivering value , and operations can focus on managing the service. of course, the engagement model will also have regular ser-vice reviews between iT and the business

Governance - Having an effective governance framework that covers decision

making at all relevant layers within the organisation is abso-lutely critical to success.in our experience, governance models can become ineffective if either side lets them deteriorate into “food-fights” over budget and resources. in such cases, representatives from the busi-ness merely use the iT gover-nance forum to push for more resources and budget to support

their priority initiatives and iT loses control of how its scarce resources are allocated.

There may be circumstances where iT has to push out a project -- to close a security hole, for example -- and they must be able to use the governance forum to discuss this priority. in order to avoid such a fate, iT must engage the leadership of the organisa-tion within a formal governance structure and define clear rules for engagement as well as mechanisms for the prioritisation of requests and allocation of budget. This helps to ensure that the business represen-

tatives take a holistic view of the business, rather than a parochial view of their own constituency.

iT must also use its knowledge of the business strategy and technological innova-tions in the market to help define the agen-da for technology within the organisation. This does not mean pursuing technology for its own sake, nor does this imply wast-ing budget on a never-ending pursuit of the next, new thing. instead, iT leaders can take a practical view on ways to meet the strate-gic needs by leveraging the most effective technology and present these options to the senior leadership.

learning point: By defining clear rules for engagement and helping the business in setting a technology agenda that helps meet strategic needs. iT can help establish an effective governance mechanism to govern technology decisions in an organisation. —This article has been reprinted with prior

permission from CIO Update. For see more

articles regarding IT management best

practices, please visit www.cioupdate.com.

40%of devices

used to access

business apps

are personally

owned

the expanding ItIL UniverseThe ITIL framework promises to unleash “right-sourcing” innovation by enabling ITsM for increasingly distributed IT environments

industry standards transformed the hardware and soft-ware markets and unleashed tremendous innovation. Today, the evolution and increasing acceptance of iTil best practices promises to transform iT service manage-ment (iTSm) and facilitate the controlled expansion of iT

environments to include business services operation centers, and public and private clouds.

every Cio must contend with the same basic challenge of coping with a heterogeneous distributed iT environment -- run scores of applications in an environment with multiple oSes and an increas-

ingly distributed infrastructure, and you have to be able to monitor and manage how your iT services are getting along or risk a demon-stration of how quickly everything can go suddenly very wrong.

fortunately, Cios don’t all have to invent the same solution. The information Technology infrastructure library (iTil) is a collection of best practices that Cios can adapt to implement their own iTSm strategy in their environments.

While most Cios already know about iTil but what many of them don’t seem to know, however, is how to begin applying all those good ideas in their own iT environments.



m a n ag e m e n t B E S t o f Br E E D

Behind data center wallsAs a provider of managed services over the course of more than a dozen years, we have had a chance to see what really goes on behind data center walls in hundreds of large and small organisations across a broad range of vertical markets. it goes without saying that everyone is doing the best they can but, with the exception of the very large organisations that can afford sophisticated iTSm tool sets and processes, most iT departments are spending so much of their time trying to keep the lights on that they are flying blind when it comes to the quality of their services.

implementing iTil best practices and developing an iTSm strate-gy sounds like a great concept, but reacting to the latest crisis always seems to take precedence. unfortunately, not implementing iTil best practices creates a situation that makes periodic outbursts of mayhem inevitable. it’s a vicious circle that’s all too familiar:1 your costs get out of control.2 you aren’t able provide adequate services to your business.3 you don’t have the facts and figures to communicate effectively to your executive management what you need to do to stop going around in a circle.

Where push comes to shovePressure is mounting on the status quo in iT. The need to cut costs and shift expenses from the capital expense budget to the operational expense budget is driving iT departments to consider extending their infrastructure to third party service providers beyond their own data centers.

At the same time, Cios know that if they expand their current iT infrastructure to include private, public and hybrid clouds, managed services, and software as a service (SaaS) (all the options their Cfos have been pushing to save money) the chance of trig-gering iT mayhem escalates exponentially.

The lack of an effective iTSm strategy, as a result, has caught many iT departments at the point where push comes to shove. They can’t afford to stay where they are, but they can’t go forward without what looks like los-ing control.

iTSm based on iTil best practices makes it possible for iT departments to move for-ward and adopt right-sourcing options with-out taking a leap of faith. for one thing, it doesn’t all have to be done at once. The first step to implementing iTil best practices is developing a service catalog which defines the iT services in enough detail to outline the technology and processes that are required to provide them. This is admittedly not a small task. in some organisations the service catalog can include upwards of 100 distinct iT services.

But describing all the services iT provides

Not implementing ItIL best practices creates a situation that makes periodic outbursts of mayhem inevitable

an organisation in a service catalog not only creates an important reference for the iT department, it also has the distinct advantage of helping iT show executive management all the valuable services iT provides the rest of the organisation. it’s the right answer to the "What have you done for me lately?" question.

once the service catalog is developed, the next step is to begin to implement the processes that are outlined by iTil. The number of processes required will be determined by the complexity of your service offerings. These three processes provide a good foundation to start with:

incident management, including help desk best practices to cat-egorise issues and automate the workflow to resolve them.

Problem management, including processes for pattern analysis that will help you minimise the impact of problems.

Change management, to ensure that you have and can manage standards and procedures for making changes and supporting your end users.

once these processes are defined it is possible to develop a con-figuration management database (CmDB) which allows you to map every service to the technology you need to manage and track. you’ll be able to determine what each service is costing you and identify the services like service desk, select managed services, and cloud computing, that could be more efficiently handled by a qualified third party. implementing an effective iTSm strategy, is both a requirement and an enabler of out-tasking and cloud computing.

All the information a service provider needs to set up automation and orchestration parameters for a cloud solution, for example, is available in your service catalog.

B E S t o f Br E E D m a n ag e m e n t

It’s turn to automateAutomation is the key word here. By systematising and standardising your service offerings, you can begin to automate their management and delivery. We in iT have only to look at how automation has transformed the manufacturing industry in the last 30 years to get a glimpse into our own future. The iT industry has gotten away without widespread automation until now because it involved so many disparate components that were difficult to automate. Advances in automation technology and orchestration suites, however, are setting in motion the same kinds of changes in iT that transformed manufacturing.

instead of focusing on infrastructure, iT professionals are increasingly going to need to focus on services, applications and process. iT technicians, as a result, are going to need different skill sets. i used to hire network engineers. now i hire engineers who can manage an orchestration suite. Being a great unix admin or knowing how to patch Windows is not going to provide much job security going forward.

re-defining controlBy following iTil best practices and implementing effective iTSm it becomes possible to leverage all the advantages of hybrid clouds (public and private), managed services, and SaaS without losing

control. iTil best practices are, in fact redefining what control is in a truly distributed iT infrastructure. it’s impossible to anticipate all the innovations that will emerge as more organisations step up to the opportuni-ties that iTil-based iTSm is making possible.

We are on the threshold of the day when the iT infrastructure can respond dynamically to change according processes and parameters that we set in advance. our job in iT will be as overseers of those parameters. This transformation is going to require at least as much cultural change within iT departments as technical change in the iT infrastructure.

in the past, iT has been seen as a necessary cost of doing busi-ness. increasingly, iT has become the way businesses do business. in the near future, the measure of accomplishment for the iT department in an organisation that makes widgets isn’t going to be how many servers are in the data center or how many nodes on the network. The measure of accomplishment for iT in the widget industry is going to be how many widgets get sold and distributed around the world.

Business and technology really are one.

—This article has been reprinted with permission from CIO Update. To see

more articles regarding IT management best practices, please visit www.

cioupdate.com

90%organisations

predict a

stronger

2012 for their

business

B E S T O F BR E E D ca s e s t u dy

32 21 December 2011 cTO FORum The Chief


for a company handling customer iP, secur-ing the iP becomes a top priority. But then how do you ensure that the iP is secure when it resides on multiple desktops, which not only resides within the organisation

but also outside it. Then the challenge comes of allowing employees remote access to improve productivity. Anoth-er problem that arises is when you allow access using multiple mobile devices. how do you standardise, how do you manage and how do you secure them?

These were some of the challenges that geometric, a global engineering services and digital technology solu-tion provider for Product lifecycle management (Plm) was grappling with.

geometric was faced with issues pertaining to con-ventional desktop deployment. individual personalisa-tion done on PCs prevented standardisation, increased support requirements and software related errors. This affected security, and manual scrutiny was needed to ensure data protection. Timely software and antivirus patching demanded lot of time and effort from the iT support team causing significant downtime for end users. To overcome these issues, geometric decided to implement desktop virtualisation and was looking for a hardware platform to further those plans. however, the company's technical team had serious reservations regarding security, performance, cost and feasibility of implementing the technology.

given the apprehensions, geometric had to build a robust virtualised infrastructure and ensure cost reduc-tion - iT support, electrical and cooling costs; improve end user response/ resolution times, and reduce end-user downtime/lead-times for provisioning new computing resources. The solution had to be scalable, easily man-

VDI Improves Productivity

Case study | geometric

challenge: Geometric built a secure desktop environment that delivered 76 percent performance benefits for the company by deploying VDI

ageable, ensure business continuity, provision for secure remote working and support consumer iT devices. The entire project had to be completed within three months.

While looking for a solution, geometric had to bear in mind that acquisition costs for virtualisa-tion technology was significantly higher than that of individual PCs, the solution would be unsuitable or expensive for graphics intensive requirements and server or network failure in the data center could jeopardise work. While all of these could be mitigated, the bigger concern was that users who would no longer have physical PCs could initially be very discon-certing leading to a pushback.

network Solutionin their previous experience of a limited server virtualisa-tion deployment, geometric faced several issues related to VlAns and network separation besides server and network management challenges. The challenges would be far greater with desktop virtualisation. As a user of network technologies, geometric was clear that the imple-mentation needed to bind closely with the networking layer to be successful and manageable.

Based on their need and previous experience, geometric chose a Cisco solution. The solution was based on Cisco's Vir-tualisation experience infrastructure (VXi) architecture. VXi delivers collaboration and rich media user experience in a fully integrated, open and validated desktop virtualisation solution. it enables all categories of workers to access any application on any device in any workplace environment, liberated to be more connected, more collaborative and more productive.

The solution design was created by Cisco, Citrix, netapp and partner teams along with engineers from geomet-

By Varun aggarwal

33 21 December 2011 cTO FORumThe Chief


“This solution allows our employees to use the internet and be productive from anywhere, at any time, using any device of their choice, without affecting security or perfor-mance,” said Prashanta ghoshal, Director iTeS at geo-metric. “it also cuts the time that business is waiting on iT for com puting resources by 76 percent,” he indicated.

After completing the initial deployment of 250 desktops, geometric obtained significant benefits in TCo which will improve with scale.

Cost reduction - Around inr 12 lac in power costs anticipated in a years' time for 600 desktops.

Customer satisfaction - reduction in end user downtime and overall iT resolution times (nearly 76 percent), more opportunities for secure remote working, telecommuting and use of consumer computing devices.

improved staff productivity - reduction in iT effort (62 percent) required for tasks like installations restoration (oS and application). reduction in provisioning time for new computing resources and improvement in data security.About 350 additional virtual desktops are in the process of being deployed. The present deployment is over lAn, but has been successfully tested over WAn from other loca-tions. The next phase includes 50 seats to be deployed at other locations over WAn.

ric. The implementation included hardware from Cisco, netapp and Wyse along with Citrix software. Cisco pro-vided the entire uCS platform and network components which were installed at the geometric data center at Pune for a PoC. The entire Cisco platform was evaluated for almost three weeks in the geometric data center prior to the final decision.

After the PoC installation, where the internal applica-tion teams tested their applications, the satisfaction levels were very high. follow-up meetings helped to finalise the optimal architecture and reduce unnecessary components and costs.

The 10gBe/fCoe based solution reduced the overall cost of deployment by nearly inr 27 lacs as opposed to a pure fC based solution.

Since virtual machines can be standardised and cloned effectively in a short time, geometric has been able to reduce deployment time for new requirements and iT sup-port efforts. The company also observed a significant reduc-tion in iT, power and cooling costs.

implementation of the Cisco solution has helped geo-metric to reduce the number of networking components and their complexity—signified by a reduction in the number of cables to be managed.

COMPANY DASHBOARD

Company:Geometric

EstablishEd:1994

hEadquartErs:Mumbai

sErviCEs:Global Engineering

services and Digital

Technology solutions

for Product Lifecycle

Management (PLM)

Prashanta Ghoshal, director Ites at Geometric deployed desktop virtualisation solution to reduce the deployment time for new projects and It support efforts

cto forum34The Chief TeChnologyoffiCer forum 21 DECEMBER 2011

With tumultuous times comes the need for innovation. As part of our year end issue, we will look at identifying five key trends that are here to stay and take enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability. We explored these trends in detail and spoke to those who have

already taken the first step and benefited from these technologies. The industrial revolution saw the rise of machinery and production benefited. Today, the information revolution has brought with it intelligence, which allows enterprises to dissect facts and produce better products, and services to benefit consumers.

Today enterprises look at using social media to understand what consumers think of their brands; they apply analytics to complex sets of data to understand what consumers like or don’t. This issue explores these trends and the implications they can have on your enterprise.

An in-depth look at five key trends that are here to stay, and take enterprises to the next level of agility and profitability

InsideCLOUD COMPUTINGPage 36

HaNDLING MObILITyPage 38

SOCIaL MeDIaPage 40

IN-MeMOry COMPUTINGPage 42

bIG DaTaPage 44

TreNDS TO waTCH OUT fOrPage 46IL

LUS

TR

AT

ION

S B

Y P

RIN

ce

AN

TO

NY

By Ankush Sohoni

35 21 DECEMBER 2011 cto forumThe Chief


t e ch n o lo gy coVE r S torY

PH

OT

OS

BY

JIT

eN

GA

Nd

HI

he last two years have seen a lot of hype around cloud computing. Although this trend has been around, it is only now that we are seeing it

permeating into the enterprise. many Cios have had their apprehensions about this technology, and for due reason. issues ranging from security to ownership of data and SlAs, have in the past thwarted implementations of this technology within enterprises.

Today, however, more and more Cios are looking to the cloud and are either piloting or implementing it within their enterprises. The year 2011 has seen more mission

critical applications being put on the cloud as compared to any previous year.

“Although cloud computing as a concept started long back it is now understood well by all. The early adopters have gone through some experi-ence and all appear to be satisfied. As a first step typically organisations put non critical applications on the cloud. Portal applications, PmS etc were the targets. The cloud is now

beyond the initial hype as well as fears. The mis-sion critical applications however will stay away

from the cloud till a few more years,” says milind Joshi, Sr. VP - iT Services, essar information Technology.

“Through 2012 and beyond, usage of public cloud will certainly increase. We will see the models - infrastructure as a service, software as a service become more prevalent. We already see infrastructure providers dipping their toes into services like disaster recovery on demand. There are third party cloud based indian service providers who pro-vide payroll with all its complexities peculiar to the indian environment and other hr related functions. Crm as a service has been a staple for a while. erP as a service is already available,” says K mukesh, Cio, Tata Sky. Tata Sky has itself been an avid user of the cloud for the last few years and has left the organisation as a believer in the capabilities of the cloud.

According to mukesh, the setup cost of cloud based services tends to be very attractive. When it comes to flex-

Through 2012 and beyond, the usage of public cloud will certainly increase. Models such as IaaS, and SaaS will become more prevalent

ible capacity management with a very robust infrastructure, it would be hard to beat cloud providers. “over a period of time - from a cost standpoint it is not entirely obvious that cloud trumps in-house data cen-ters. Security concerns are unlikely to disappear any time soon. The single biggest reason for move to public or hybrid cloud is the pathetic state of available infrastructure - be it reli-able power supply - or simply a road wide enough to allow a fire engine to

—Milind Joshi, VP, Essar - IT services

“As a first step organisations put non critical applications on the cloud.....The cloud is now beyond the initial hype as well as fears.”

coVE r S torY t e ch n o lo gy

36 21 DECEMBER 2011 cto forum The Chief


PH

OT

OS

BY

S R

Ad

HA

kR

ISH

NA

approach the facility in case of fire. Second reason - cost and availability of real estate to build a robust data center is not easy. So there would be trade-offs involved,” says mukesh.

for large enterprise that have significant sunk cost in infrastructure and human resources that are comfortable managing infrastructure in-house - the adoption would be slow. They would more likely opt for pri-vate or hybrid cloud. As large enterprises run out of processing capacity or get to a point where they need to replace some of their systems - cloud will be an option that would be considered by many. The overall direction however would be increased adoption of the public and hybrid cloud.

Challenges in AdoptionAlthough cloud adoption has taken a healthy turn, there are still obstacles that cannot be ignored, which can come in the way

Going ForwardAlthough a lot of enterprises are implementing the cloud, there is still quite a long way to go in terms of making this a standard within most organisations. While Public Clouds will serve Smes and the non-critical business applications for larger enterprises, hybrid clouds will still be the dominant force in most large enterprises.

milind Joshi, leaves us with some recommendations to make sure smooth delivery when it comes to the cloud. "make sure that cloud services providers are chosen based on their maturity of processes and security of data. go through the fine print of the agreements very carefully especially for consequences for breach, termination pro-cedures and most importantly the ownership of the data on the cloud," he says.

"Be aware of the fact that Providers can attract with lower prices now but when you get in to their clutches, they can increase the pricing or make pricing model changes which are very costly in the long run. Cap the pricing for long term now in the agreements to avoid problems later. make sure that the data storage locations are safe and proper Dr is planned," he adds.

—K MukeshCIO, Tata Sky

“Through 2012 and beyond, usage of public cloud will

increase. We will see models like IaaS and SaaS become more

prevalent.”

of cloud adoption. According to Joshi, “There are still some obstacles that can occur when talking about cloud adoption. To begin with, the business case for moving applications to cloud environment can be quite unclear and requires solid business backing. Another issue is that of standards. Standards are not defined in terms of service levels and expectations are not set. Also, adding to this, processes in terms of taking data to cloud and more importantly taking the data out of cloud are undefined. The legal frameworks for security of data and owner-ship of the data are just getting formed and thus leave for a large scope for improvement. The funny thing here is that while the application and data are hosted in the cloud, Cios are in a very unique situation of not having a direct control, while being fully responsible for perfor-mance, security and uptime.”

“Cios should at a minimum dip their toes so that you do have the expertise to migrate on a larger scale should there be a compelling need. further, given that most Cios do have a challenge with upfront Capex, this would help in reducing lumpy cash outflows - always a good idea to be friends with the Cfo,” adds mukesh.

obility is definitely one of the biggest trends to hit indian enterprises since the advent of the mobile phone in

the country. more and more Cios today are exploring mobile technologies like tablets, smartphones and the likes. Smartphones today are capable of a certain amount of processing and commoditisation is bound to take place, which means this space will keep evolving exponentially.

in india itself, there is more mobile penetration as opposed to computer penetration. Some of the factors that contribute to this would be size of the device, cost and capability. The app ecosystem is also undergoing major growth considering today the developer ecosystem has matured, and so has the mobile operating system. rang-ing from ioS and Android to Java oS, and other linux derivatives, the app ecosystem is set to explode.

enterprises need to be careful about how they utilize applications within their iT frameworks. This is the tricky part. many organisations and Cios are in the process of figuring out how to exercise control over device prolifera-tion, and access control mechanism are being devised

within enterprises, will dictate how apps send and receive data on enterprise networks.

“The best thing that even happened to the indian civili-sation is the mobile phone. The mobile revolution has taken in its fold multiple cross sections of the society, both in economic and the cultural bracket. What we have seen unfold in the 5 to 8 years is both revolutionary and unprecedented. The Ceo-to-cab driver-to- panwalla-to- migrant labourer who carries bricks on his head-to-village farmer with one goat. if there is any entity that you could count with the cumulative being more than the total num-ber of cell phones in india, it’s india’s population,” says g n nagaraj, Tecnology Strategist and Consultant.

“With gPS enabled mobile devices, apps that can be deployed where some amount of data entry can be done, visual evidence using a camera phone or simply video call based quality control would go a long way in ensur-ing decent service. The platform would allow auditing mechanism to ensure service is delivered on time at the right place and if not, there is an escalation mechanism,” explains K mukesh, Cio, Tata Sky.

“The speed of cell phone proliferation has beaten the speed with which technology evolution around mobile apps, mobile app eco-system has happened and the speed of enterprise embracement of mobile as an effective busi-ness tool. This has led to employees bringing in, their own cell phones with data cards on them into the enter-

Mobility will continue to make inroads into enterprises in 2012. CIO will

continue to figure out how to exercise control over device proliferation

HandlingMobility



prise. ByoT is not a choice that enterprises can exercise these days especially when it comes to cell phones, it’s the default you cannot avoid. These cell phones are mini power houses of processing power and storage capacity. employees have started making productive use of these capabilities and have been getting around the governance strictures of controls and data security imposed by enter-prise iT teams,” explains nagaraj.

ChallengesAs more and more devices keep hitting the market and that too at lower price points, the enterprise is going to have its hands full when it comes to defining control poli-cies and enterprise governance.

“The challenge gets bigger with more and more devices hitting the market and at low price points. Today, anyone right from the peon to the Ceo can equip themselves with processing power, an app eco system and storage capacity. With the launch of devices like Akash, chal-lenges to enterprise governance and control structure have achieved a completely new dimension. everyone will soon acquire one. They will connect to free apps, storage

out to do proof of concept as a part of the internal selling exercise. overcoming inertia would take effort. This is no different from any iT driven initiative – always a bit more challenging than a user driven initiative. At Tata Sky, we do have a small team that is dedicated to identifying and doing a PoC on emerging platforms. The team has succeeded in moving ahead by demonstrating return on investment and usability of apps deployed on mobile. We are looking at apps for managing remote workforce, qual-ity assurance,” explains mukesh.

Adding to this, nagaraj mentions, “There are a few recom-mendations i would like to make. Before doing so, i want to set the context on the background against which these rec-ommendations make sense.”

As against an inertia fuelled structured organisation chart characteristic and people-process-system caged world of large business enterprises; the mobile device, mobile app eco-system and the associated players (developers, innovators and manu-facturers) is a highly energetic,

—G N Nagaraj Technology Strategist and Consultant

“This vibrant mobile ecosystem will

continually feed the end consumer with

some fantastic and simple to use applications.”

vibrant, and effervescent creed. This vibrant ecosystem will continually feed the end consumer with some fan-tastic simple to use applications. Some of these consum-ers would be employees of large corporates. They will now be armed with alternatives that can get the work done by beating the system that forms the essence of enterprise governance and controls frameworks. Cor-porate engines cannot match the speed and the depth of innovation that can happens outside the corporate arena. employees will all the more now compare these innovations with the Cio teams capabilities. “Why can't you guys think of something like this” is a phrase many iT folks have heard inside the enterprise corridors as business teams continue to marvel at small effective cool apps on their smart phones and tablets.

on the cloud and social networking sites. Knowing the indian affilia-tion for aggression and anger, the moment the PoS at the corner store malfunctions, the shopkeeper will tweet or post on facebook,” explains nagaraj.

mukesh adds on to mention, “The principle bottlenecks – the foot on street type personnel, tend to be lower down in the organi-sational hierarchy – so by default a corporate iT would have fewer resources dedicated for this seg-ment. Second – it is relatively easier to find iT resources who can work standard apps than mobile (complexity because of a wide variety of hardware is an added bottleneck in app develop-ment and deployment). Third – iT operations – be it secu-rity or be it backups for example – there is a transition and learning curve required when you do large scale automa-tion based on the mobile platform.”

According to mukesh, like all technology, eventually, the economics will trump and people, processes and systems will evolve. We can already see the trend in enterprises whose primary business is logistics and transportation. Spill over to the other sectors is a matter of time.

Key Takeaways“As always, to be ahead of the curve – the Cio would have to identify opportunities and sell it within the organisa-tion. She / he would need to have some resources carved




ocial media is emerging as a big trend today. more than anything else, this technology is breeding ground for ideas that enterprises can use to improve communication, collabora-

tion, innovation and productivity. Social media and tools can often be used by enterprises

in many innovative ways. Since there is still no assured of measuring success, social media has seen a lot of appre-hensions but in our view, the best is still to be seen in this space. Cios are just beginning to play around and under-stand this space.

“most Cios we’ve met and spoken to about social media seem somewhat lost. A commonly heard statement – We have deployed all the necessary technologies and built the framework, but don’t know what to do now – among Cios is a sign that they are currently missing out on certain aspects of social media and what it can do,” says mark mcDonald, gVP & gartner fellow, gartner.

now what exactly are these aspects? This is something we will cover a little depper in the feature. At the same time, g n nagaraj, Tecnology Strategist and Consultant tell us a little about the key difference between organisa-tional behavious and social behaviour. in his view, there is that although Social media is very important for organisa-tions, it is the lack of structure that causes issues when trying to understand the business value behind it.

“There is no second opinion about the fact that most corporations have taken a very serious note of the exis-tence of social networking sites and are keen to explore what it means to them and for their respective business-es. everyone agrees that it is a new ball game and no one really is an authority. everyone is learning,” says nagaraj.

According to him, while organised business is built on a hierarchy, where the various components of the organisa-tion are inclined to work towards the goals of the organi-sation as a whole. focus in this case is on core business, where everything is measured, KPis are set, and short term and long term goals are established.

”When you compare the above with the Social media universe, you have the other end of the spectrum, where information is unstructured, unorganised, and completely contextual to a certain opinion, topic or conversation. here, there is no end goal, or KPi so to speak. People are free to post on topics that excite them personally,” he added.

nagaraj further adds that the habitats of the corpo-rate world and the social enterprise, even though most people play in both worlds, exhibit behavior at extreme end of every spectrum in each of these worlds. in such a scenario, does the enterprise culture and way of life come in the way of an enterprise participating in the social networks? it should be noted that most corporate employees are voluntary participants in a social network too and behave in a completely different manner on these networks.

ChallengesThere are many challenges facing the Cio primarily in understanding how to utilise social media and strategise

In 2012, enterprises will increasingly leverage social media to improve communication, collaboration, innovation and productivity

SocialMedia




in the right way. “There needs to be a way in which enter-prises can utilise social media, by adding structure to it and build a funnel of information. Social media can be utilised to boost commerce and create immense brand value. from the commerce perspective, social media is a way where enterprises can interface with their consum-ers through social networks so as to have access to highly focused sets of information, guidelines perhaps of how to go about building their products for their customers; knowing their likes and dislikes,” mentions nagaraj.

There are primarily two ideologies that are currently floating about when it comes to social media. one as described above looks at social media and net-works as an opportunity to reach a focused set of people. The other looks at social media as a tool to achieve mass collaboration.

company more environmentally responsible. Cement companies are tremendous traders of carbon. in order to reduce its carbon footprint, Cemex decided to burn bio-fuel in their factories as opposed to oil or natural gas. The entire idea was to increase the use of alternative fuels. This is what Cemex did in five weeks -- They formed a community of 500 people that were from across the com-pany and defined what they meant by alternative fuels. The community came up with a definition. They took this definition and analysed 186 of their plants around the world against that definition. What they then did was define the top two performing plants and held webinars of how these two plants were working and documented these best practices on video while deploying that video across their company. As a result of this exercise, Cemex saw a five percent increase in the usage of alternative fuels in the company. now traditional processes which say i need to look at this in a top down approach esti-mated that it would have taken 18 months to do the same amount of work. That’s the power we are seeing people being able to achieve!

the social media technologies present, they don’t know what to do to get results,” explains mark.

This is the common mistake. According to mark, any kind of mass collaboration effort using social media needs to have purpose. one has to have a clearly defined goal which defines what the organisation wants to achieve with Social media. if this goal, or this basic structure is not added, the whole effort can flop.

“i always read so many articles that express that a lot of people don’t understand the business value of social media. But one of the things we learnt about social organ-isations is that you cant calculate the business value in this kind of effort. you cannot take this mass collaboration that is based on social media technology and actually drive it to business results,” explains mark.

Sometimes it becomes difficult to convince the top management about social media and a lot of it has to do with the lack of definition of the word ‘Structured’. leaders and managers will need to be shown a basic structure in terms of a purpose. once this purpose is in place, everything that one does naturally conforms to

this structure, and revolves around this purpose. When it comes to leaders of organisation the idea is to ensure the activity is managed so when progress is being moni-tored one has an idea of where it is going and what kind of results are shaping up.

Mass CollaborationAccording to mark, the thing that Cios need to be chas-ing is the purpose. To give an example, mark talks about how a company called Cemex utilised social media to see some pretty innovative results.

Cemex is a global company that makes cement. They decided to use social

media to deploy their strategy in 2010, through a campaign called Cemex Shift. The purpose was to make the

According to mark mcDonald, group VP & research fellow, gartner social media is a tool that can lead to mass collabora-tion. in this kind of ideol-ogy, the important thing is to use social media to drive a certain train of thought or derive useful information from aa a group of con-nected people.

“The common mistake that is made, and therefore a chal-lenge is that fact that most indian Cios we have met and spoken to have mentioned to us that although they have all

—Mark McDonald, GVP, Gartner

“Most Indian CIOs have all the social media technologies present, they don’t know what to do to get results.”




response time in analytical applications. As cost and availability of memory intensive hardware platforms reach tipping points in 2012 and 2013, the in-memory approach will enter the mainstream.

While in-memory Computing has not entirely hit the mainstream, there are a few early adopters who have gone live with this platform to witness improved transac-tion speeds and data warehouse response. Although this technology is not for everybody, it is definitely something to watch out for in 2012, considering the kind of impact it can have on the way enterprises process information.

The PremiseAs one of the first few users of the hAnA platform, essar CTo Jayantha Prabhu spoke to CTo forum about some of the intricacies of this platform and how it can help business process large data sets of information.

“With businesses demanding faster and easy access to information in order to make reliable and smart deci-sions, in-memory processing is an emerging technology that is gaining attention. it enables users to have immedi-ate access to the right information which results in more informed decisions.”

in addition to this Prabhu also explained that with the implementation of in memory systems, users can now query the data loaded into the system’s memory thereby

In-memory computing is something to watch out for in 2012, considering the kind of impact it can have on the way enterprises process information

In-memoryComputing

n-memory Computing is making headways into indian enterprises and is set to be one of the most disruptive high performance com-puting trends to have entered the market.

gartner sees huge use of flash memory in consumer devices, entertainment equipment and other embedded iT systems. in addition, it offers a new layer of the memory hierarchy in servers that has key advantages — space, heat, performance and ruggedness among them. Besides delivering a new storage tier, the availability of large amounts of memory is driving new application models. in-memory applications platforms include in-memory analytics, event processing platforms, in-memory application servers, in-memory data manage-ment and in-memory messaging, gartner says.

According to gartner, running existing applications in-memory or refactoring these applications to exploit in-memory approaches can result in improved transactional application performance and scalability, lower latency (less than one microsecond) application messaging, dramatically faster batch execution and faster




avoiding slower database access and performance bottlenecks. With in-memory tools, data available for analysis can be as large as data mart or small data warehouse which is entirely in the memory. This is accessed within seconds by multiple concurrent users at a detailed level and offers the potential for excellent analytics. he further mentions that it also minimises the need for performance tuning by iT staff and provides faster service for end users.

“As the data used by organisations grows, traditional data warehouses just cannot deliver a timely, accurate and real time data. The extract, transform, load (eTl) process that periodically updates data warehouses with operational data can take anywhere from a few hours to weeks to complete. So at any given point of time data is at least a day old. in-memory processing makes easy to have instant access to terabytes of data for real time reporting,” explains Prabhu.

Challenges“The in memory database systems in market today complement the existing operational data warehouse and the enterprise Data Warehouse. As a result of which, the implementation of the in memory Database systems is an additional investment and cost to the organisation over and above the existing investments. Again, in a diverse conglomerate like us, the impact of in-memory Database systems varies for different line of business and hence there is a lack of ownership from the businesses where the real time analytics makes a lesser impact,” says Prabhu.

one more challenge that he outlines is in having the business benefits scenarios models projected to the business end users to address the roi concerns. in-memory database systems help in providing timely, accurate and real time data for decision making. That in itself does not guarantee benefits. it is the utilisation of the information in the existing business processes of the organisation that creates value.

Practical Concerns“in-memory processing comes at a lower cost and can be easily deployed and maintained when compared to tradi-tional Bi tools. According to a gartner survey deploying traditional Bi tools can take as long as 17 months. many data warehouse vendors are choosing in-memory tech-nology over traditional Bi to speed up implementation times,” explains Prabhu.

he further explains that several in-memory vendors provide the ability to connect to existing data sources and access to visually rich interactive dashboards. This allows business analysts and end users to create custom reports and queries without much training or expertise. easy navigation and ability to modify queries on the fly is an appealing factor to many users. Since these dashboards

can be populated with fresh data, it allows users to have access to real time data and create reports within min-utes, which is a critical factor in any business intelligence application. This system is a blessing in disguise for operational workers who need instant and accurate data to make fast decisions.

The Futurein-memory database systems will expand their sphere of influence from the now restricted area of real time analytics to extend to the operation Data warehous-ing. We will also see the impact of the enterprise Data Warehouse solutions like Autonomy/Vertica from hP, exadata from oracle and Sybase iQ from SAP on the enterprise Data Warehouse implementations for organi-sations. These solutions will integrate the benefits of the in-memory database systems and the Columnar Data-base technologies to enhance the Business intelligence solutions to the next level.

—Jayantha Prabu, CTO, Essar

“With businesses demanding faster and easy access to information in order to make reliable and smart

decisions, in-memory processing is a technology gaining attention”



data about products that is received from social networks or rfiD tags and other such end points. most of this data is unstructured.

“Today what has happened is that people were either discovering unstructured data or doing analytics on structured data and using inferences from the unstruc-tured data to arrive at logical conclusions on results,” explains Sethi.

Today the amount of unstructured data is so high that if you look at how society had transformed over the last one or two years, consumers today rely a lot on social net-works to make purchasing decisions.

“As a result, the internet is full of usage patterns of these consumers, which is actually a very rich hub of information. if companies ignore this data and formulate strategies based purely on structured data, in today’s day and age, they will not see the desired results. This is the trend that is taking shape when it comes down to data,” further adds Sethi.

The consumer is not really behaving the way they were behaving two-three years ago. Companies cannot ignore these trends. According to Sethi, "organisations need to do a few things. They need to have your own structured data and bring in the unstructured ele-ment. one needs to map these two and perform analytics on a combination of structured and unstructured data. Today, this is actually possible.

The need is to map structured and unstructured data and perform

analytics on the combination

BigDatarganisations today have access to large sets of data a lot of which is unstruc-tured. unstructured data iss usually aggregated from

social systems, and multiple end points that store data. however, because of the lack of structure in this data, util-ising it becomes very difficult.

Today Cios have access to very useful information in the form of unstructured data. unlike structured data that primarily revolves around things like enterprise metrics, data generated in business systems and so on, unstruc-tured data holds a lot of contextual information, that can help make decision making better and faster.

“Close to one or two years ago, we used to speak about mining structured data and were using technologies like Data Warehouses, Busi-ness intelligence to derive useful results from them. We had data that ran into 100s of terabytes and felt that we were playing with big sets of data. how wrong we were!,” says Vijay Sethi, Cio, hero motorcorp.

According to Sethi, there is a lot of digi-tal and contextual data that aggregates over enterprise systems. So it could be

60%Estimated increase

in operational margin of a retailer using Big Data to

the maximum




PH

OT

O B

Y S

UB

HO

JIT

PA

ULnow, as far as tools go, there is definitely a good amount

of momentum that is there in the market. Data Ware-house vendors are tying up with Big Data providers, algo-rithms are being developed and explored; technologies like in-memory computing are hitting the mainstream, allowing enterprises to have unprecedented compute power at their fingertips. Data Warehouse vendor Tera-data recently acquired company Aster Data just to make provision for Big Data requirements of their customers. its advancements like these in the market that are eally leading to this trend causing major disruptions within the enterprise. however, today, Cios are still trying to understand the most optimum way for this ‘Big Data’ to be processed.

Best PracticesAccording to Sethi, there are a few things that Cios must understand before getting into Big Data & Analytics. he has outlined them below.

“in my view Cios need to have a very structured

analysing a frivolous trend, that becomes a waste of time for me. it is also very important to decide if the company wants to put in the effort to go all the way with Big Data. There willl definitely be providers who operate using the cloudd, who will offer flexibility and immense cost sav-ings if ustilised effectively,” he says.

"i would recommend starting with something like this, and eventually evolving to an internal Big analytics platform. Don’t just jump into the infrastructure upfront. none of this infrastructure will be cheap. These are high end and very expensive systems that cannot be used for normal transactional data,” Sethi says.

"Thirdly, in my view, this kind of deep, predictive and contextual analysis, will lead to some very rich results. it will help in predicting trends. So in this case, it is very important to note that this kind of tool can provide aa major competitive advantage if organisations figure out how to use it in the right way. early adopters will definitely see more accurate trends and results that can help differ-entiate them from their customers,” he adds.

—Vijay SethiHero Honda/ Hero Motorcorp

“The internet is full of usage patterns of these consumers, which is actually a very rich hub

of information. If companies ignore this data and formulate strategies based purely on structured data, in today’s day and age,

they will not see the desired results”

ChallengesToday, data volumes are rising exponentially, and this is definitely taking a toll on enterprise systems. if not already, Cios will need to find a way to scale up effectively.

“We need to get tools that can analyse Big Data. Cur-rently we possess tools that allow us to derive great information from structured data, but we are not too familiar with tools that can derive successful results from unstructured data. This is of course something that will be tackled very fast, considering the new advancements that are hitting the market when it comes to technologies. We have to get into predictive analysis, contextual analysis and expect a world of results from those analytical tools. We need to evolve,” explains Sethi.

approach to unstructured data. even when it comes down to the analysis of this data, i need to have a structured reporting format,” explains Sethi.

The first recommendation is that in Big Data, complex-ity and exponentially rising volumes of data are so high that i have to define what it is that i want to derive out of this data. for example, if i want to see trends of buy-ing patterns of population between the age of 25-40, in reference to red motorcycles, i need to first define this as my objective or goal. once this goal is set, i need to work back through that goal and develop a hypothesis. The real question here is what hypothesis do i want to test?

Secondly, any analysis should have an roi associated with it. if i spend a million dollars




What are some of the top technology trends that Gartner predicts for 2012?

Well of all the trends that we are seeing in the market, there are 5 that can have a serious impact on how organi-sations utilise their information and derive results from it. These trends are Cloud Computing, mobility, Social media, Big Data & Analytics, and Pattern based Strategy. now all of these trends have their own place in the enter-prise and are at different maturity levels at this point.

How do you see these trends making their way into enterprises today?

i think Could Computing, mobility and Social media are on their way to becoming mainstream within organisations, even in india. There are a lot of good use cases of these technologies being utilised in enterprises. it’s happening and accelerating. We have seen enterprises use the model of facebook and replicating it on their intranet. either that or these companies are using facebook as the social platform of choice. That evolution is already underway.

Big data and pattern based strategy are new age con-cepts to Cios, so they are still in the beginning stages of realisation, and evaluating how this will benefit them and how they can leverage it. if you look at big data and lever-aging it, the key part is the reality that most enterprises have more unstructred data than structured data. That’s

one of the fundamental tenets of big data and that tipping point has happened in enterprises.

Pattern based strategy is the recognition of the fact that most enterprises are sitting on massive amounts of data but they are sitting on that data without being able to see usage patterns and customer behavior. This leaves room to use pattern based strategy to gain a competitive edge.

in addition to this, we are also seeing an business trend in information Technology-operational Technology inte-gration (iT-oT integration). This basically means that if you are a manufacturer then the shop floor system gets integrated with the business system, then taking the data and downstream field level input and tying it to your man-agement decision making input. So there are strong case studies of this around the world, where people are doing this for business benefit. So i would say these last 3 trends are fairly nascent in india. The discovery has started but companies aren’t doing anything meaningful with it yet.

Could you comment on the changing enterprise landscape and how business is

keen to derive the most out of technology?

Partha Iyengar, VP and Regional Research Director, Gartner India spoke with Ankush Sohoni to discuss the trends that CIOs should watch out for in 2012

TrendstoWatch Outfor




Business is under increasing pressure from a number of different fronts – competitive pressures, customer expec-tation pressures, regulatory pressures in some industries, and increasing aspirations for global expansion. Any one of these issues is urgent enough to require a much better use of technology. All four combined is creating an unprecedented pressure for change in the internal iT landscape of most companies, and the expectations from the business.

Where does this leave the CIO? in a difficult position in most cases. They are

required to suddenly elevate themselves to be strong busi-ness leaders, WiThouT taking their eyes of the ‘run the business’ part of traditional iT responsibilities. They are also increasingly expected to deploy iT solutions outside the enterprise as well, in terms of reaching out to clients directly, interacting with stakeholders (dealers et al), extending the supply chain increasingly into some of the more difficult semi-urban and rural areas. This is coupled with the fact that, for the most part, other than a few com-panies, there has been a historical underinvestment in iT, which needs to be ‘made up’ to create the platform for the business value delivery that is now a strong expectation from the business. All of these are challenges that will require a fairly aggressive ‘retooling’ by the Cio both for him/herself as well as for the structure and functioning of the iT department.

In all your talks with CIOs across India and the globe, what are some of the key challenges

they are facing with regards to business today?

getting closer to the business, contributing to driving revenue directly, computing the ‘business value of iT’ and in some industries/enterprises, getting AheAD of the business to anticipate competitive pressures or mar-ket opportunities and leverage iT to help the business address these, before They see the need for it. establish-ing strong credibility with the Ceo and business peers is often the first step required as a pre-requisite to being able to achieve these things.

What are some of the technology intiatives that business is driving within their

orgaanisation?Very clearly the four clear disruptors will arise from the forces of cloud computing, social computing, mobile plat-forms and spotting future trends through ‘Pattern Based recognition’. Coupled with this is the need to leverage analytics to a much greater degree to provide high value business decision making inputs.

What, according to you, are some of the key best practices that CIOs can adopt to drive the

business agenda further? Could you leave us with key recommendations from Gartners perspective?make getting business knowledge/visibility and credibility the number one priority. if necessary look for a senior business mentor as well as possibly a dual business unit head role, in addition to the Cio role. Start looking for opportunities to contribute to the customer acquisition, revenue growth initiatives of the business, start talking about iT value in business terms, not arcane technology terms.

—Partha IyengarVP, Gartner India

“Could Computing, Mobility and Social Media are on their way to becoming mainstream

within organizations, even in India. There are a lot of good

use cases of these technologies being utilized in enterprises. It’s

happening and accelerating.”






NEXTHORIZONS Features InsIde

Cyber security Pg 53

top Predictions for It and users Pg 50

Illu

st

ra

tIo

n n

am

e &

De

taIl

s

Anyone who has children or who has been around them for a while knows that kids, as well as young adults, are attracted to video games like

flies are attracted to light. And, while older adults may think the kids are being lazy or using their time idly when they’re connected to their Wii or Xbox using a Kinect, in reality the kids are paving the way for business train-ing and iT’s role in tomorrow’s companies.

how? it’s part of a future trend i first identified back in the 1980s that we are now calling gameification. Today, that growing trend is reaching a tipping point.

if you think back, you’ll see that many of the greatest technological advances in busi-ness have come from the world of kids and games. Actually, here’s the exact flow of events: a concept or technology often begins with kids and the world of gaming. Some will start with the military, but it’s amazing how many start with kids’ games. from there it gains the attention of the adults in the busi-ness community as they learn how to adapt it to their needs, and finally it creeps into the education sector. So in many respects, the adults and the business world can learn much from the kids and their video games.

the trend of ‘gameification’ is reaching a tipping point paving the way for It’s role in tomorrow’s companies By Daniel Burrus

Games Can Transform Business



i n n ovat i o n N E X t H or I Zo N S

To see the migration of how a concept goes from kids and games to adults and business, just look at the evolution of social media. At first, young people were the pre-dominant ones on social media sites such as Twitter and facebook. Adults simply didn’t see the value of social media. After all, who really cared what you had for lunch or what outfit someone wore to the dance. As adults eventually took more and more interest in social media, many companies made formal policies forbidding employees from using Twitter and facebook at work. But now that the business world has seen the relevancy of social media and how it can be a brand management, marketing, and collaboration tool, they’re embracing it, some even going so far as creating their own internal versions of Twitter and facebook.

granted, video games and social media are different technologies, but the concept migration pattern is still the same. And with game controllers like the Wii and Xbox Kinect giving people new ways of interacting with technology, the business world is cur-rently on the threshold of being "gameified."

All this affects iT in a big way.

A new interfacein the past, gaming was all about sitting in front of a computer or television screen and using a game pad, joystick, or keyboard playing against the computer or online opponent while sitting down -- a passive activity. Thanks to the nintendo Wii’s inter-active nature, players stood up, got physi-cally involved, and actually became a part of the game. Then microsoft introduced the Kinect, which eliminates the need for a hand held controller entirely. Players use their hand motions and body movements to manipulate the game.

Thanks to microsoft releasing a software development kit for the Kinect that allows programmers to create new applications, university students started taking this gam-ing concept and writing software that allows users to control business software using just hand motions -- no keyboard or mouse. An early example would be if you want to go to the next page, you do a sweep of your hand across the screen without touching anything. you can sweep to the left, sweep to the right, scroll up, scroll down, and many other things.

But that’s just an early version of the

software. The future application is much more exciting. remember the movie minor-ity report where the police were able to maneuver data in the air without touching anything? Today, that’s rapidly becoming more fact than fiction.

in fact, we’re now seeing major manufac-turers using elements of this new interface model in their products. for example, Cadil-lac is experimenting with a variation of this software model that allows drivers to use hand gestures in front of the console to do common tasks. So if you want to raise or lower the volume of the radio, rather than take your eyes off the road and reach over to find the audio control knob, you would simply put your hand over to the right and lift it up or down. Just as kids are using their hand and body motions to control the

words, as this gameification trend contin-ues, which it will, iT’s role in company-wide, non-iT specific education and training will expand and converge.

Just like industries are converging, iT will converge with other departments.

for example, we can now see the world of telecommunications converging with the world of computers and the world of entertainment. Three industries that were once separate are now coming together and working together seamlessly. That’s just one example; there are many more. in that same way, we have functions within the organisa-tion that used to be very separate that are converging more and more because tech-nology is enabling them. So, in the future, iT will be an even bigger part of hr, and education and training will be a key focus, all enabled by gameification.

The core of gameificationThe heart of the gameification trend for iT is using interactive gaming as a tool to transform training company-wide. Based on 25 years of research, i’ve identified five core gaming elements that when applied together can dramatically accelerate learn-ing. When you implement these five ele-ments into training, people learn more in less time and have better results. So keep these elements in mind as you help develop and deploy training modules and initiatives. Interactivity - for centuries, education and training have been, for the most part, pas-sive experiences. Someone stands in front of a group and talks. The people being edu-cated or trained sit and listen, taking a few notes here and there. if there is a lab, they will have some hands-on application, but application labs are not the norm in every-day education and training.

As technology evolved, the trainer or teach-er showed a movie or two to keep people involved, but in the end, the people learning just sat and watched. regardless of some-one’s inherent learning style, learning is much more effective when you’re interacting with the material, not passively sitting there.

When you learn by gaming, you’re inter-acting with the information and concepts. you’re moving things around, you’re manip-ulating items, and you’re actually doing things. it’s no longer passive. now you are much more engaged and immersed.

game, drivers can use their hand and body motions to control features of their car.

if developers can apply this technology in automobiles, imagine where else it can go?

A convergence of rolesThere are 78,000,000 baby boomers head-ing for retirement. in addition, technology is changing at a rapidly increasing pace. The ability to rapidly train new workers, as well as retrain existing employees, is now more than ever providing a major competi-tive advantage. gameification will help all levels of your organisation train and learn faster, from general new hire orientations to department specific education. in other

With game controllers like the

Wii and Xbox Kinect giving people new ways of interacting

with technology, the business world is currently on the threshold of being

“gameified”



N E X t H or I Zo N S i n n ovat i o n

Competition - humans are naturally competi-tive beings. We want to sell more, be more productive, innovate faster, and be smarter than the next person. When you’re sitting in class learning, there’s little competitive value. you’re all there for the entire timeframe whether you’ve learned the materials in one

hour or three. no one advances until the class is over.

however, when you’re com-peting, as in a game, there’s an adrenaline rush that keeps you engaged and focused on the task at hand. in an effort to win, people master concepts faster so they can be first, not last.Self-diagnostic - in the world of gaming, as you accomplish new feats and as your charac-ter gets better, the game gives you greater challenges. When

you power down, the game remembers where you left off. When you return to the game, you still have your capabilities and all the things your character has previously learned. you don’t have to start over from ground zero.

in the case of business training, if you learn something, there’s no need for a train-er to re-teach it to you. But how many times

Immersion - We’ve seen 3D TVs where you have to wear special glasses to make the images pop out at you, but that’s because TVs have a lot of viewers sitting in a room spread out. When you’re playing a game on a small screen like a tablet or a smart phone, the viewing angle is such that you can have images appear 3D very easily without special glasses.

in the recent past and through to the present, video games use interspatial 3D, where you go into worlds. So instead of images popping out at you, you go inside to them. That’s how games on the Xbox 360 and others have been working for years, by using a regular television set or flat panel display. This sort of technology gives an immersed effect, which engages people more.

To apply this to business, if you’re training salespeople on a particular manufacturing tool they need to sell, why not have them see the tool in 3D and actually get to virtually manipulate the tool rather than have them read spec sheets about it? The former will give them more insight to the tool, which will make selling it easier.

have you sat through a training session where you already learned a majority of the concepts yet you stayed so you could gain knowledge on a few key items? how much time did you waste?

A better idea is for business training to have a self-diagnostic component. The interactive, competitive, and immersed module can know your skill or knowledge level and progress accordingly. it can know where you left off and give you next steps from that point when you log back in. This is the best way to allow for individual training and learning.Focus - When you’re playing a game, you’re forced to focus. you have to do A in order for B to occur. if you don’t do A, then you won’t get far in the game. focus is the result of interactivity, competition, immersion, and self-diagnosis. When you can focus, you can learn virtually anything fast.

—Daniel Burrus is the founder and CEO of Burrus

Research, a research and consulting firm that

monitors global advancements in technology driven

trends.

—This article has been reprinted with prior

permission from CIO Update. To see more articles

regarding IT management best practices, please

visit www.cioupdate.com.

$1 bnthe expected size

of southeast

asian online

game market by

2015

Top Predictions for IT and UsersPredictions show It Budgets are Moving Out of the Control of It departments

gartner, inc. has revealed its top predictions for iT organisations and users for 2012 and beyond. Ana-lysts said that the predictions herald changes in control for iT organisations as budgets, technolo-gies and costs become more fluid and distributed.

This year's selection process included evaluating several criteria that define a top prediction. The issues examined included relevance, impact and audience appeal. A list of this year's predicts

reports is available on the gartner Predicts website at www.gartner.com/predicts.

gartner's top predictions for 2012 and beyond showcase the trends and events that will change the nature of business today and in years to come. Selected from across gartner's research areas as the most compelling and critical predictions, the trends and topics they address underline the reduction of control that iT has over the forces that affect it.



t re n d s N E X t H or I Zo N S

"The continued trends toward con-sumerisation and cloud computing highlight the movement of certain former iT responsibilities into the hands of others," said Daryl Plummer, managing vice president and gart-ner fellow. "As users take more control of the devices they will use, business managers are taking more control of the budgets iT organisations have watched shift over the last few years. As the world of iT moves forward, Cios are finding that they must coor-dinate their activities in a much wider scope than they once controlled. While this might be a difficult prospect for iT departments, they must now adapt or be swept aside."

gartner analysts said that going into 2012 there is an increase in the amount of information available to organisations, but it's a challenge for them to understand it. given the shifts in control of systems that iT organisa-tions are facing, the loss of ability to guarantee consistency and effectiveness of data will leave many struggling to

Vendors in the consumer social network space are competing with each other at a rate and pace that are unusually aggressive, even in the technology market. The net result is a large crop of vendors with overlapping features competing for a finite audience. in the enter-prise market, many small independent social networking vendors are struggling to reach critical mass at a time when market consoli-dation is starting, and megavendors, such as microsoft, iBm, oracle, google and Vmware, have made substantial efforts to penetrate the enterprise social networking market. While substantial excitement will be raised by private firms going public, valuations of smaller independent vendors will diminish as recognition sets in that the opportunities for market differentiation and fast growth has eroded.

By 2016, at least 50 percent of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client instead of a desktop client. While the rise in popularity of mobile devices and the grow-ing comfort with browser use for enterprise applications preordains a richer mix of email clients and access mechanisms, the pace of change over the next four years will be breathtaking. email system vendors are also likely to build mobile clients for a diverse set of devices for the same reason. market opportunities for mobile device management platform vendors will soar. increased pressure will be on those suppliers to accommodate an increasing portfolio of col-laboration services, including instant messaging, Web conferencing, social networking and shared workspaces. By 2015, mobile applica-tion development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1.

Smartphones and tablets represent more than 90 percent of the new net growth in device adoption for the coming four years,

Illu

st

ra

tIo

n b

y P

rIn

ce

an

to

ny

prevent their organisations from missing key opportunities or from using questionable information for strategic decisions. no regula-tory help is on the near horizon, leaving each business to decide for itself how to handle the introduction of big data.

"Any organisation which wishes to accelerate in 2012 must establish in itself a significant discipline of coordinating distributed activities," Plummer said. "They must establish relationship management as a key skill and train their people accordingly. The reason for this is that the lack of control can only be combated through coordinative activi-ties. The iT organisation of the future must coordinate those who have the money, those who deliver the services, those who secure the data, and those consumers who demand to set their own pace for use of iT."

gartner's top predictions for 2012 include: By 2015, low-cost cloud services will cannibalise up to 15 percent of top outsourcing players' revenue.

industrialised low-cost iT services (ilCS) is an emerging market force that will alter the common perceptions of pricing and value of iT services. in the next three to five years, this new model will reset the value proposition of iT. low-cost cloud services will cause the cannibalisation of current and potential outsourcing revenue. Simi-lar to what happened with the adoption of offshore delivery, it will be incumbent upon vendors to invest in and adopt a new cloud-based, industrialised services strategy either directly or indirectly, internally or externally. The projected $1 trillion iT services market is at the beginning of a phase of further disruption, similar to the one the low-cost airlines have brought in the transportation industry.

in 2013, the investment bubble will burst for consumer social networks, and for enterprise social software companies in 2014.

Low-cost cloud services will cause the cannibalisation of outsourcing revenue



N E X t H or I Zo N S t re n d s

and increasing application platform capability across all classes of mobile phones is spurring a new frontier of innovation, particularly where mobile capabilities can be integrated with location, presence and social information to enhance the usefulness. innovation is moving to the edge for mobile devices; whereas, in 2011, gartner estimates that app development projects targeting PCs to be on par with mobile development. future adoption will triple from 4Q10 to 1Q14, and will result in the vast majority of client-side applications being mobile only or mobile first for these devices.

By 2016, 40 percent of enterprises will make proof of independent security testing a precondition for using any type of cloud service.

While enterprises are evaluating the potential cloud benefits in terms of management simplicity, economies of scale and work-force optimisation, it is equally critical that they care-fully evaluate cloud services for their ability to resist security threats and attacks. inspectors' certifications will eventually become a viable alternative or comple-ment to third-party testing. This means that instead of requesting that a third-party security vendor con-duct testing on the enterprise's behalf, the enterprise will be satisfied by a cloud provider's certificate stat-ing that a reputable third-party security vendor has already tested its applications.

At year-end 2016, more than 50 percent of global 1000 companies will have stored customer-sensitive data in the public cloud.

With the current global economy facing financial pressure, organisations are compelled to reduce operational costs and streamline their efficiency. responding to this imperative, it is estimated that more than 20 percent of organisations have already begun to selectively store their customer-sensitive data in a hybrid architecture that is a combined deployment of their on-premises solution with a private and/or public cloud provider in 2011.

By 2015, 35 percent of enterprise iT expenditures for most organi-sations will be managed outside the iT department's budget. next generation digital enterprises are being driven by a new wave of business managers and individual employees who no longer

need technology to be contextualised for them by an iT depart-ment. These people are demanding control over the iT expenditure required to evolve the organisation within the confines of their roles and responsibilities. Cios will see some of their current budget simply reallocated to other areas of the business. in other cases, iT projects will be redefined as business projects with line-of-business managers in control.

By 2014, 20 percent of Asia-sourced finished goods and assemblies consumed in the u.S. will shift to the Americas.

Political, environmental, economic and supply chain risks are causing many companies serving the u.S. market to shift sources of supply from Asia to the Americas, including latin America, Canada and the u.S. except in cases where there is a unique manufacturing process or product intellectual property, most products are candi-dates to be relocated. escalating oil prices globally and rising wages in many offshore markets, plus the hidden costs associated with offshore outsourcing, erode the cost savings that didn't account for critical supply chain factors, such as inventory carrying costs, lead times, demand variability and product quality. Through 2016, the financial impact of cybercrime will grow 10 per-cent per year, due to the continuing discovery of new vulnerabilities.

As iT delivery methods meet the demand for the use of cloud services and employee-owned devices, new software vulnerabilities will be introduced, and innovative attack paths will be developed by financially motivated attackers. The combination of new vulner-abilities and more targeted attacks will lead to continued growth in bottom-line financial impact because of successful cyber attacks.

By 2015, the prices for 80 percent of cloud services will include a global energy surcharge.

While cloud operators can make strategic decisions about loca-tions, tax subsidies are no long-term answer to managing costs, and

investments in renewable-energy sources remain cost-ly. Some cloud data center operators already include an energy surcharge in their pricing package, and gart-neranalysts believe this trend will rapidly escalate to include the majority of operators — driven by compet-itive pressures and a "me too" approach. Business and iT leaders and procurement specialists must expect to see energy costs isolated and included as a variable ele-ment in future cloud service contracts.

Through 2015, more than 85 percent of fortune 500 organisations will fail to effectively exploit big data for competitive advantage.

Current trends in smart devices and growing inter-net connectivity are creating significant increases in

the volume of data available, but the complexity, variety and velocity with which it is delivered combine to amplify the problem substan-tially beyond the simple issues of volume implied by the popular term "big data." Collecting and analysing the data is not enough — it must be presented in a timely fashion so that decisions are made as a direct consequence that have a material impact on the produc-tivity, profitability or efficiency of the organisation. most organisa-tions are ill prepared to address both the technical and management challenges posed by big data; as a direct result, few will be able to effectively exploit this trend for competitive advantage.

Next generation digital enterprises are being driven by a new wave of business managers and individual employees who no longer need technology to be contextualised for them by an IT department

85%of fortune 500

organisations

will fail to

effectively

exploit big data



s e cu r i t y N E X t H or I Zo N S

Cyber Securityare stricter regulations the answer?

on october 13, 2011 the Securities and exchange Commission (SeC) Divi-sion of Corporation finance released a guid-

ance document that outlines disclosure practices for public companies in light of the most recent spike in cyber security attacks and associated data breaches. The guidance document hints that companies have to be paying more attention to assess-ing the impact of cyber security attacks and its outcome; especially as it relates to weak-nesses in the security posture and preven-tive measures of the organisation.

While it will be interesting to see how this new guidance will influence the interaction between CiSos and their business peers as it relates to securing bigger budgets to address the risk associated with advanced persistent threats (APT), the overarching question is if the SeC guidance is a suf-ficient measure to overcome the chasm between compliance and security.

2011 has seen record numbers of cyber security attacks and associated breaches. These attacks are just the tip of the iceberg. has the SeC guidance fell short of its objec-tives and therefore stricter regulations are required to drive a risk-, security-driven approach to iT throughout public and pri-vate industry?

it’s well known that the majority of organisations puts compliance first, not security. unfortunately, being compliant does not equate to being secure since com-pliance lacks the correlation to risk and is conducted periodically, rather than continu-ously. Thus, only regulations that mandate prioritising security in the overall picture will really move the needle.

While the SeC guidance is a good step from

a government agency, regu-lations should be considered that put security in the spotlight, as organisations have to overcome the tick-box mentality of traditional compliance mandates. As a result, any consideration of stricter regulations to tackle cyber security threats should mandate the implementa-tion of a pro-active informa-tion security risk manage-ment system (iSrm) and related best practices.

The degradation of core security capabilities as described in the PwC sur-vey is illustrated by the fact that organisations’ vulner-ability measures are unable to keep up with the evolving exploits, including perim-eter intrusion detection, signature-based malware, and antivirus solutions. often, these security tools operate in a silo-based approach and are not integrated and interconnected to achieve a closed-loop process and continuous moni-toring. Another shortcoming lies in the fact that a majority of vulnerability programs lack a risk-based approach, whereby vulnerabili-ties and associated remediation actions are based on the risk to the business.

fortunately, the public, lawmakers, and regulators in Washington D.C. are becom-ing increasingly better informed as it relates to threats and vulnerabilities of the nation’s critical infrastructure so that further actions are expected in the near future. until then, private and public organisations should con-sider the SeC guidance as a wake-up call and

overhaul their approach to iSrm to counter cyber attacks and prevent data loss, unautho-rised disclosure, and data destruction.

At the same time, they should pursue close collaboration with the u.S. Department of homeland Security, which has set up a trial program to share cyber threat data with indus-try players in order to prevent intrusions. By implementing an iSrm program, an organisation can not only increase its security posture, but inevitably is prepared for stricter regulations related to the cyber security threats that are looming in the future. —This article has been reprinted with permission

from CIO Update. To see more articles regarding

IT management best practices, please visit www.

cioupdate.com.

Security Leadership Awards2011Recognising the best minds in Security Leadership & Innovation

In an attempt to recognise those individuals who have contributed and succeeded in pushing the boundaries when it comes to innovation in information security, CSO Forum, brings to you, the 1st Annual Security Leadership Awards.

Judged by our esteemed council, the Security Leadership Awards bring those individuals to the forefront who are constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of security within the enterprise.

In an attempt to recognise those individuals who have contributed and succeeded in pushing the boundaries when it comes to innovation in information security, CSO Forum, brings to you, the 1st Annual Security Leadership Awards.

Judged by our esteemed council, the Security Leadership Awards bring those individuals to the forefront who are constantly innovating and pushing the boundaries of security within the enterprise.

December 2, 2011 ∞ Pune, India For details log ontohttp://www.thectoforum.com/csosummit2011

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

Highlights• Six Award categories

• Eminent jury members

• Transparent nomination process

• Awards ceremony on 2nd December, during the 4th Annual CSO Summit, 2-3 December, 2011 at Pune

Why participate• Get recognised as a star by leaders of the industry

• Join an exclusive club of achievers

• Learn from successful peers in an exclusive knowledge forum

• Share your and your company’s success stories

Award Categories1. Security Practitioner of the year2. Security Innovator of the year3. Security Project of the year4. Security Organisation of the year5. Promising star6. Security Visionary of the year

Who can apply?• CSO's and CISO's

• Heads of Information Security / Information Risk & Compliance and their team members of companies operating in India.

About the Security Leadership Awards

Security management is now recognised as a key business enabler.

Forward-thinking security leaders have made tremendous progress in driving tighter linkages between business excellence goals and security actions.

Their contributions need regular industry driven; peer-acknowledged awards to highlight the best successes; recognise the function and provide encouragement for future innovations in Security Management

The Security Leadership Awards is a dedicated platform to recognise such security executives; their teams and organisations for outstanding achievement in the areas of risk management, data asset protection, compliance, privacy, physical and network security.

Nominations open!To nominate yourself or your CISO/CSO logon to http://www.thectoforum.com/csosummit2011 or contact Vinay Vashistha at+91 9910234345 or email at [email protected]

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K



James Markarian, EVP and CTO, Informatica talks about the

importance of managing Big Data, in an interaction with Varun Aggarwal

With the explosive growth of data, how can CIOs effectively help organisations exploit data and turn it into business results?

As we all know, the current explosive growth of data is unprecedented. Tra-ditional transaction data, in business applications continues to expand at a healthy pace. Amazingly, the rapidly increasing volume of interaction data, in social networking sites, dwarfs the growth of traditional transaction data. We now measure data volumes in Petabytes, exabytes, Zettabytes and soon yottabytes. We call this deluge of data the “big data” phenomenon.

it is not just about the volume of data, but also the variety and velocity. organisations are keen on monetising interaction data including that

Big DataManaging



Ja m e s m a rk a r i a n N o H o LDS BArr E D

from social networks, machine gen-erated data such as surveillance cam-eras and sensors, internet access in emerging countries, datacenters sup-porting cloud computing and geo-spatial data from smartphones and tablets. Cios are reimagining how they continue to deliver more value to business and are keen on turning data into opportunities. This is one of the major technology-enabled busi-ness imperatives for organisation of all sizes around the globe.

Traditionally, enterprise data was structured in relational databases, as well as in applications such as erP, Crm and analytics. Today data exists throughout organisations and resides in both structured and unstructured formats. Take, for example, Crm. for many businesses, information on social media is a part of their customer relationship management process. however, this information is not structured in a formal Crm database. Businesses are struggling to have a single, trustworthy view of this information, combining the transaction data from traditional applications with social media or other interaction data like call detail records (CDr), device-generated data and scientific data.

Big data processing platforms, including hadoop, are coming of age at a time when business execu-tives and knowledge workers have so much appetite for data-driven decision making and business opera-tions. Processing and analysing the combination of big transaction and interaction data is paramount.

in order to respond to the big data challenge, iT organisations are tak-ing a platform approach where they can start with the right foundation to unleash the full business poten-tial of big data. When i meet with executives to discuss their goals for harnessing big data and tacking their data integration challenges, they are cognizant of the risk-reward equa-tion over the technology roadmap. in many cases, they don’t want to make a final decision on the various data-

related investments at this juncture. rather, they need an array of options so that they can evolve with the plat-form along a three to five year hori-zon. This is why informatica’s open, neutral platform approach to process virtually all types of data, making it accessible, meaningful, and usable to the people and processes are appeal-ing to them. iT leaders can empower the business to get fast access to big data for business value progressively, starting with high priority, immedi-ate projects and extending them as the business needs evolve.

data parsing tasks of these unstruc-tured data which are error-prone and time-consuming. As organisations move to drive more efficiency and scale in extracting value from the heterogeneous environments from unstructured data, they would want to leverage both traditional data infra-structures and big data processing platforms like hadoop.

informatica has years of experi-ence and expertise in extracting value from complex, unstructured data with visual integrated develop-ment environments (iDe) based on a single engine covering a broad range of data formats, including sup-port for device-generated data. We recently released an offering called hParser that exploits parallelism in hadoop mapreduce. With hParser, developers can create an abstraction layer between the application logic in mapreduce and data sources. This enables projects to easily scale by allowing application logic to be written once and then applied across multiple data sources. using the same iDe, the design artifacts can be extended to the rest of the enterprise beyond hadoop projects.

How is cloud computing contributing to information

growth? How can information of various cloud and on-premise applications be managed?Cloud computing has changed the economics of computing by enabling even more transaction data to be cost effectively captured by Cloud service providers. Cloud computing has also made data storage cheaper and more scalable by reducing the capital expenditure required for on-premise storage hardware. When cost is no longer a consideration, data is growing as business require-ments increase. furthermore, Cloud computing is made possible by the ability of applications, information, software and platforms to be deliv-ered as a service over a network to devices and individuals, where and when they need it.

DoSSier

Company:Informatica

EstablishEd:

1993

hEadquartErs:

Redwood City,

California

produCts:

Informatica

PowerCenter,

PowerExchange,

Siperian

nEtwork:2500 employees

“We now measure data volumes in Petabytes, Exabytes, Zettabytes and soon Yottabytes. We call this deluge of data the “big data” phenomenon”

Managing unstructured data is often a bigger challenge.

How can organisations manage data residing in complex formats like XML, binary, machine generated, industry standards and documents like excel, PDF and Word?unstructured data has been largely under-exploited because businesses have been expecting the traditional business intelligence and analytics to produce results that are based on relational data. That is now chang-ing as platforms, like hadoop, are making it easier to process log data, event data and textual data. histori-cally, people relied on custom-coding



N o H o LDS BArr E D Ja m e s m a rk a r i a n

undoubtedly, the growth of transactions has been fueled by dramatic economies of innovation. now, cloud computing repre-sents the next wave of economies of scale. more business applications, along with the associated transaction data, are being outsourced to cloud service providers. By delivering the same service to thousands of customers, these cloud service providers further reduce the cost of computing. econ-omies of scale of cloud computing will fuel sustained growth of transaction data that previously would have been cost-prohibitive.

now your question of managing cloud and on-premise based applications is a very important one. A hybrid-iT organisation is empowered to take advantage of the best of cloud and on-premise worlds – public/pri-vate cloud applications, platform and infra-structure services that are tightly integrated with on-premise systems. We are definitely seeing our core iT customers who are revis-ing their plans and reference architectures because they are now tasked with rationalis-ing these cloud and on-premise offerings for better agility and business value. This is why informatica offers our enterprise data integration technology for on-premise and cloud environments.

Tell us more about Informatica’s vision for Hadoop. How is Hadoop

helping Informatica’s customers?informatica’s hadoop solution is geared toward helping organisations get more from their hadoop investments and lever-age their existing data integration skill sets. With informatica’s hadoop offerings, we

help achieve ease and reliability of pre- and post-processing of data into and out of hadoop and improve productivity for extracting greater value from unstructured data sources – images, text, binaries, indus-try standards, etc. We are focused on our hadoop solution because of the growing interest and questions so that informatica can assist organisations in rationalising hadoop-related offerings as part of their data infrastructure investments.

So our vision is to help organisations unleash the value of hadoop, allowing them to leverage the existing iT invest-ments including data integration skills and design environment. Just like we did this in rDBmS environment, hadoop is a rela-tively new technology that is largely manu-ally scripted at this point in time, which makes it error-prone and time-consuming, with poor auditability and manageabil-ity. These are the same problems that we started solving 15 years ago in the world of relational databases and SQl. leveraging that expertise and experience, informatica is now focused on solving these challenges in hadoop.

You are the Chief Technology Officer of Informatica, who is at

the center of this exciting journey of big data. Where do you want to take your company?As i mentioned earlier, it is an exciting time to be in the data integration space, because informatica is playing a leading role in shaping the direction of the data integra-tion market. Today our technology is able to

help organisations solve challenges that five years ago we only dreamed of. right now, i’m spending my time and energy focused on addressing the following questions: What would the continuation toward

mobile lifestyle of people mean from the data integration standpoint? how can we make it even easier for people

to collaborate and share information? What additional ways can we help

organisations harness social data across the enterprise? how can informatica help organisations

gain a better return on Data?Big data, like our overall industry, is being

reshaped by the nexus of three secular technology trends. Cloud computing, social computing and mobile computing are for the first time simultaneously redefining the “where,” “what” and “how” of the computer industry. The “where” is moving from on-premise computing to cloud computing, changing the economics of computing. The “what” is shifting from “transaction-processing” with business applications like SAP and oracle to “interaction-processing” with social media services like facebook, Twitter and linkedin, changing the role of computing. And, finally, the “how” of com-puting is adapting from desktop computers to mobile devices, changing the face of com-puting. As the Chief Technology officer of informatica, i am looking at these three dimensions, the “where,” “what” and “how” of the computing industry and continually seeking ways for organisations to do these things easier helping us all fulfill the prom-ise of the data-centric enterprise.

“Economies of scale of cloud computing will fuel sustained growth of transaction data that previously would have been cost-prohibitive”—jamEs markarianEVP and CTO, Informatica



The nuances in the implementation of technological solutions do not always allow a black and white answer

POINTS5

determine the extent of the

organisation’s

cardholder data

environment (CDE)

document the cardholder data flow

develop a network

diagram that

documents all of the

firewalls, routers,

switches, access

points, servers

and other network

devices and how

they are architected

scan the entire

network to confirm

that cardholder

data is not stored

anywhere outside

of the CDElaunched

service January

2000

if cardholder data is in the clear,

then that portion

of the network is

in-scope

What is in-scope?pci compliance:

t E cH f or G oVE r NAN cE com pl i a n ce



Defining The Cardholder Data EnvironmentThe first step in any PCi assessment is deter-mining the extent of an organisation’s card-holder data environment (CDe). however, it should come to no surprise to anyone that defining an organisation’s CDe can be diffi-cult even in the smallest of organisations.

The first question is who is responsible for defining the CDe? until the release of the PCi DSS v2.0, this was not clear, but had always been implicitly defined by the PCi SSC and the card brands as the responsibil-ity of the organisation, not the QSA. The QSA’s role is to take the CDe definition pro-vided by the organisation and confirm that the CDe definition is accurate based on the QSA’s assessment work.

The next question that inevitably comes up is how does an organisation prove that its CDe is its CDe? There are a variety of things an organisation can do to define their CDe.

The first thing to do is to document the cardholder data flow. This effort should define all of the applications involved as well as which applications actually store card-holder data. once the data flow is defined, then an organisation should develop a network diagram that documents all of the firewalls, routers, switches, access points, servers and other network devices and how they are architected.

The final step in proving the extent of the CDe is for the organisation to scan their entire network to confirm that cardholder data is not stored anywhere outside of the CDe. for organisations that have invested in data loss prevention (DlP) technology, it usually means setting their DlP solution to

look at all computers on their network and determine if any unencrypted cardholder data exists anywhere outside of the pro-posed CDe.

however, some DlP solutions have not capability to look at data stored in databases, so just because you have a DlP solution does not mean you have searched everything.

for those organisations that do not have a DlP solution, the process is the same but possibly a bit more complicated. for organi-sations that have a budget, they can license groundlabs’ enterprise recon utility to scan their network and databases.

for smaller organisations, groundlabs also has Card recon that it licenses on a number of PCs/servers basis. There are also free or open source utilities avail-able such asSpider from Cornell univer-sity, Senf from the university of Texas and CCSrCh from Sourceforge.

i personally prefer Spider from Cornell as i think it finds the fewest false positives of the three free utilities. however, none of

these utilities can scan a database and find cardholder data stored in a database. And just so we are clear, all of these utilities are no absolute guarantee that an organisation has truly found all cardholder data they may have stored on systems. But, it is better than have done nothing.

for organisations that are not using a utility that understands database scanning, there is a manual way to conduct your assessment. unload any credit card account number (PAn) fields as well as all comment fields into a CSV or similar file format and then use whatever utility you are using to scan those files for cardholder data.

Networks and Managed Service Providersnetworks that are used to transmit card-holder data in the clear are always in scope – no exceptions. Where things seem to get confusing for people is when encryption is brought into the mix. however, going back to the original definition, if cardholder data is in the clear, then that portion of the net-work is in-scope. But, believe it or not, this just creates more confusion and arguments.

The bottom line is that any network encryption endpoints are also always in-scope. That is a statement that i have almost come to blows over more than once with managed service providers (mSP) that thought their devices and network were totally out of scope because of encryption.

in a lot of these instances, the mSP is the one managing the encryption keys and since they managed those endpoints and the related encryption keys, those endpoints are in-scope for PCi compliance and so are the mSP’s policies, standards and procedures for managing those devices (requirements 1, 2 and 4) and keys (requirements 3.5 and 3.6).

“But the cardholder data is encrypted,” is the common refrain from the mSP. Agreed. But a QSA still needs to gauge com-pliance for the endpoints, not the connectiv-ity between the endpoints.

however, mSPs argue that the endpoints are also out of scope because of encryption. That would be right if someone other than the mSP managed the encryption keys. Another battle QSAs run across is about mPlS networks.

The bottom line is that a lot of mSPs do not agree with their activities being in-scope

You would think this question would be an easy question to answer when talking about the PCi standards because anything that processes, stores or transmits cardholder data is in-scope for PCi compliance. however, the nuances in the implementation of technological solutions do not always allow a black and white answer. here are some of the most common in-scope issues we seem to come across.

com pl i a n ce t E cH f or G oVE r NAN cE

NETworkS uSED To TraNSMiT CarDholDEr

DaTa iN ThE ClEar arE alwaYS iN SCoPE. whErE

ThiNgS SEEM To gET CoNfuSiNg for PEoPlE iS

whEN ENCrYPTioN iS broughT iNTo

ThE Mix

t E cH f or G oVE r NAN cE com pl i a n ce

and they refuse to allow an assessment of their environment where their activities are in-scope. in those instances, we have no choice but to mark the client as not having those requirements in place.

i have constantly asked mSPs that fight us to explain why the mSP is not responsible when the client cannot respond to the require-ment because the mSP performs that func-tion? more often than i would like to admit, we get the “trust us” response. in a few instances, i have been told that, “The PCi SSC and card brands never meant it to be treated that way.”

really? Because in QSA training the PCi SSC has been very consistent on the explanation of what is in-scope and mSPs are in-scope if they perform functions that are required to comply with the PCi stan-dards. While the majority of mSPs have come to this realisation, there are still hold-outs out there that still refuse to cooperate.

applicationsApplications that process, store or trans-mit cardholder data are always in-scope

– period. i think everyone understands that statement; however, it is the nuances within applications that create the problems.

in today’s integrated appli-cation environment, it is no wonder that determining what applications are in-scope is dif-ficult, if not impossible. most organisations have gotten out of the complete application devel-opment game and are now in the application package integration game.

As a result, organisations are relying more and more on the application package ven-dors to understand data flow, particularly cardholder data flow. While the PA-DSS pro-cess has greatly helped in getting data flow diagrams, there are still a lot of credit card processing applications where the data flow diagram is just not supplied.

Then we have “middleware” that further obscures things. middleware reformats information streams so that one application

package can communicate with another application pack-age. The biggest problem with middleware comes from the fact that a lot of application integration teams are not really sure as to whether the cardholder data is in cleartext or encrypted.

The other problem we have encountered with middleware is the lack of security sur-rounding the administration

consoles of the middleware. most middle-ware consoles are browser-based and can be accessed by anyone on the network. Worse yet, a lot of these consoles can have serious security issues that make then susceptible to compromise.

—This article is printed with prior permission from

www.infosecisland.com. For more features and

opinions on information security and risk manage-

ment, please refer to Infosec Island.

$1.3 bnexpected size

of india data

center Hosting

market by 2016

63 21 DECEmbEr 2011 cto forumThe Chief


Internal audit is no longer limited about transactional auditing and pro-cess level auditing. iT auditing has gained increasing significance in the scheme of audits.

The top five ways in which iT auditing adds value are:

Reduce risk: The planning and execution of an iT audit is by and large focused on identifying and assessing risks in an organisation’s iT environment. once the risks are identified and assessed, the next step is to start reducing or mitigat-ing the risks through controls, risk transfer (e.g. insurance) or risk acceptance (e.g. built into the busi-ness). it is critical to understand that iT risk is business risk. Threats and vulnerabilities in iT operations can unswervingly affect an entire organi-sation. risk mitigation best practices include iSACA CoBiT and risk iT frameworks and the iSo/ieC 27002 standard ‘Code of practice for infor-mation security management’.

Build up controls (and improve security): After risks are assessed as mentioned above, controls are identi-fied and assessed. This allows for fee-bly designed or ineffective controls to be redesigned and/or strengthened.

tive, technical and physical. it is vital for an organisation to have assurance that all these require-ments are met.

Assist communication between business and technology manage-ment: An audit promotes better com-munication between the business and technology management teams. The audit events of interviewing, observing and testing result in valu-able information in written reports and oral presentations. Senior man-agement is thus well-versed of how their organisation is functioning. The technology professionals in an organisation also need to make out what senior management think, what their objectives are and the directions that they are going. Auditors can com-mune some of this information and through participation in meetings with technology management.

Develop IT Governance: . iT audit-ing and overall iT management are focused on the value, risks and con-trols around an organisation’s tech-nology environment. Auditing helps review the value, risks and controls in all of the key components of tech-nology – applications, information, infrastructure and people.

The CoBiT framework of iT controls is above all valuable here. it consists of four high level domains that cover 32 control processes useful in reduc-ing risk. The CoBiT framework cov-ers all aspects of information security including control objectives, key per-formance indicators, key goal indica-tors and critical success factors.

Act in accordance with regula-tions: Wide ranging regulations at the federal and state levels include explicit requirements for information security. iT auditing serves a critical function in ensur-ing that specific requirements are met, risks are assessed and controls implemented. Sarbanes oxley Act (Corporate and Criminal fraud Accountability Act) includes specific requirements on all pub-lic companies. The act requires companies to ensure that internal controls are adequate as defined in the framework of the Committee of Sponsoring organisations of the Treadway Commission’s (CoSo). Auditing provides the assertion that such requirements are met. health insurance Portability and Account-ability Act (hiPAA) has three areas of iT requirements – administra-

“Internal audit is no longer about transactional auditing and process level auditing. It has gained significance in the scheme of audits”

ThoughTLeadersSandeep Gupta

sandeep gupTa MD - ITEC, Protivit

Internal auditing for improved efficiency CIOs need to transform internal audit into a valued strategic department and find the right balance among risk, cost and value

VIEWPOINT



AbOuT ThE AuThOr: Steve Duplessie

is the Founder of

and Senior Analyst

at the Enterprise

Strategy Group.

Recognised

worldwide as

the leading

independent

authority on

enterprise storage,

Steve has also

consistently been

ranked as one of

the most influential

IT analysts. You

can track Steve’s

blog at http://www.

thebiggertruth.com

FOr AbOuT a thousand years telecom-munications companies have relied on analog wires connected through the land to dominate and capitalise on humans’ desire to speak to each other. The fact that few rarely have anything worth hearing is not the point.

Since the dawn of the Cloud era, i’ve been trying to figure out how the monolith organisations such as Telcos were going to play in this transforma-tive era. At first they did what they always do — they put up infrastructure as a service and got stuffed with gear in the exact same way. now they are try-ing to find a means – any means – to get someone to use that capacity. Then they started offering some kind of ser-vices themselves – backup has been a popular one, though since Telcos don’t speak that language, they tend to lan-guish or focus on consumers.

But what is a Telco? A telco is a communications infrastructure provider – who happens to have the most important thing required in this transformation – a direct cus-tomer billing relationship.

now that all Telcos – and all enter-prises – have adopted iP-based tele-

bet on is Thinking Phone networks in Cambridge, mA. little, but they seem to have all the right parts, people, and are built for the cloud. They have very large, very global players cruising in and out of the peoples’ republic of Cambridge as of late, and i know of at least one multinational global con-glomerate oem deal about to happen. i don’t know enough about the others (yet) to be able to tell who has a legit chance or not. This is a new space for me, but one i do find fascinating.

my point isn’t to call the winner, my point is to call the next market in this space. Just like the big banks said “no one will ever buy stock online” or the Telcos said “no one will ever use an internet phone system”, both have evolved WAy beyond from what could be – to what should be.

my data of record is in the cloud on salesforce – connected/integrated seamlessly with my communications – and none of it sits on my site. i rent what i need when i need it.

it’s the reason i now run Apple everywhere in my life. it just works. And that’s how all this stuff is sup-posed to be.

phony, the stage has been set for the next wave — which will be complete cloud-based unified communications services. Telcos will have to adapt to providing these services in order to retain their value over the next 10 years, or they will be relegated to being bandwidth brokers alone.

enterprises will want to outsource All of their complex uC/Video needs the exact same way they out-sourced their complex Crm needs. As a matter of fact, this is exactly the kind of value added next generation service Salesforce should be provid-ing – since the whole point of “uni-fied” now means “integrated” and Salesforce is the integration platform of choice for most businesses.

iBm has the cloud, but not a play yet. Dell and hP aren’t doing anything that i can see. People like Polycom will be interesting to watch. Cisco made a big bet here long ago – and is doing quite well. The existing arms supplier to the Telcos for iP Telephony version 1.0 is Broadsoft, but Telcos are mum-bling that they don’t have the chops to be there for version 2.0. Thus far, while there are a few contenders, the one i’d

Unified Communications and

Video in the CloudBye Bye Telco of Yesterday

Steve DupleSSie | [email protected]

Illu

st

ra

tIo

n b

y p

rIn

ce

an

to

ny

Run applications up to 50x faster.

© 2011 Riverbed Technology. All rights reserved.

What IT performance can be.With WAN optimization solutions from Riverbed®, you can increase application performance up to 50 times faster over the WAN, delivering LAN-like performance just about anywhere — from remote offices to the data center to the cloud. Learn more at riverbed.com/50x

For any queries, please contact [email protected]

5 top technologies for 2012

Documents

key trends

level of agility

invirtualization security

tech trends

cto forum contem

innovative solutions

trend micronavigate

visible trend